Marketer joins Little Chef board

This article originally appeared on mad.co.uk, the website which delivers business insight to professionals in marketing, media, new media, advertising and design.

Little Chef head of marketing Joanne Blake has been promoted to marketing director and appointed to the board under the roadside diner chain's new owners.

She will also oversee the marketing launch for a new "food on the move" concept from an as-yet-unnamed sister company to serve busy road users. This will have a separate name, identity and logo to Little Chef and begins a trial in January

She joined Little Chef in June 2004 as head of marketing and is a former brand manager for Harvester Restaurants.

The chain currently works with Sheffield-based integrated agency Dig For Fire and Starcom Motive. There is no news on whether an agency review is planned.

Blake's remit is to focus marketing on "relevance, transparency and value" based on a new pricing strategy and menu. The company plans to ditch direct response voucher driven discounting and local campaigns.

Regarding the new concept, she said: "My challenge will focus on how we address our competitors in the "food to go" sector on both price and choice. We are trialling the new brand in two locations towards the end of January, which will include implementing a trial corporate identity, door drop, ad campaign and PR campaign."

The 235 Little Chef sites were bought from Permira by The People's Restaurant Group in October for £52 million.

Source: mad.co.uk

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