A new Olive Garden report published by a research firm shows that the casual dining chain's latest publicity stunt, the Never Ending Pasta Pass, actually hurt the restaurant's perception numbers. The Olive Garden report also explained that the public perception of the restaurant was that it had lost its edge, altogether.
At the beginning of last September, Olive Garden released a promo that allowed diners to eat as much of the restaurant's pasta as they wanted, for 7 straight weeks - every day, every meal. The passes cost $100 each, were only sold in the restaurant's website and were limited to 1,000. Within an hour, they'd been sold out and users were even reselling them on eBay. However, the new Olive Garden report reveals that the strategy may have hurt the company more than help it.
The Olive Garden report features 294 slides and was made by Starboard Value LP, which is an investment firm. Besides making a point in studying the public perception surrounding the restaurant (although then they took writings from another study, from BrandIndex, which researches consumer brand perception in weekday interviews), Starboard's Olive Garden report seemed keen on tearing up the company with criticism: it was said that there were too many breadsticks, too much salad dressing, not enough alcohol and the pasta was flavorless, along with many other points of interest.
An earlier Olive Garden report by BrandIndex said that the restaurant chain had worked its way up from 40 percent to 48% in consumer perception, as casual diners said they'd definitely consider visiting the restaurants the next time they'd go out dining. After the promotion was released on September 8, the public perception quickly went back down to 40 percent.
This has been due to disappointment in how the promotion has been marketed - like, for example, the fact that it was later said that the Never Ending Pasta Passes were non-transferrable.
Of course, Starboard Value's report is biased, as it is one of the largest investors in the food chain and has been in an ongoing branding haul with Olive Garden for a while now.
