Since its founding in 1999 in Columbus, Ohio, City Barbeque has grown into a fast-casual staple with 75+ locations across 10 states, earning a reputation for handcrafted BBQ, generous portions, and an unfailing commitment to quality.

Amidst industry-wide headwinds—marked by softer new guest traffic and greater consumer price sensitivity—City Barbeque’s Chief Brand Officer Annica Conrad and her team saw an opportunity to strengthen loyalty and engagement with their core guests.

But instead of following the industry trend towards discounting and value offers, they’ve doubled down on personalization and relevance—growing engagement through marketing that actually reflects guests’ individual preferences. Powered by insights from Bikky, City Barbeque is rewriting the playbook on how marketing and offers can drive frequency in a challenging environment, without discounting prices or brand values. 

Like many restaurants, City Barbeque faced macroeconomic pressures in the last few years. Customers dine out less frequently and demand more value when they do. Competitors have leaned into aggressive promotions to keep traffic up without compromising brand standards.

City Barbeque tried this approach, testing price-point promotions and value meals. But the strategy didn’t resonate with the brand’s customers; they wanted a meal that delivered the brand’s usual high standard of portion size and quality, even if it wasn’t the cheapest option. 

“We tested playing in the value space earlier this year, but it didn’t resonate with our guests. We realized they’re not looking to us to be the cheapest—they want quality.”  — Annica Conrad 

This response aligned with a broader shift in how both guests and operators define “value” in today’s environment. While competition for guests’ spending is tougher than ever, "value" goes far beyond just pricing and discounts. It includes the quality of the food, portion sizes, the overall experience, and whether the price paid feels fair for all of those elements. In that context, shrinking portions—even at a lower price—runs counter to what City Barbeque’s guests actually value. The brand’s leadership realized that chasing traffic with discounts or smaller portions would dilute their brand promise, rather than strengthen it. 

The challenge was clear: develop a marketing strategy that effectively drove repeat visits in a saturated market, while maintaining the premium positioning that the brand’s loyal guests expected.

City Barbeque looked to Bikky to power their new marketing strategy, rooted in data-driven personalization. Instead of sending uniform messages to their entire database, they used Bikky to build segments based on guests’ actual behavior, such as their order history. Through Bikky’s integration with marketing automation provider Attentive, City Barbeque then sent out unique marketing communications tailored to each segment’s behavior and preferences. After a message or offer went out, the City Barbeque team returned to Bikky to measure how guests’ frequency, AOV, and order history changed before and after the send. 

“The product propensity and purchase history segmentation that Bikky has unlocked for us has really helped us back off discounts, which was one of our biggest goals for the year.”  — Annica Conrad

City Barbeque used several segmentation approaches to personalize its marketing campaigns. First, they leaned into product propensity targeting. Guests who had previously ordered pastrami, pork, or brisket received messaging tailored to those proteins. When an LTO returned, guests who had previously ordered it were the first to know. Email campaigns featured different product imagery based on the guests’ past orders. 

A related strategy involved seasonal and event-based segmentation, designed to grow sales for the brand’s take-home holiday meals. Guests who had previously ordered meals on Easter or Thanksgiving were notified when those options returned and encouraged to pre-order this year’s meal. These touchpoints were both timely and relevant, making guests more likely to engage. 

Finally, they implemented behavioral targeting based on the dayparts when guests typically ordered. Guests who frequently visited during lunch hours would receive marketing messages promoting dinner options, and vice versa. 

These simple segmentation strategies quickly drove major revenue growth for City Barbeque’s SMS campaigns. One send promoting Easter pre-orders saw a 7x increase in revenue per message—their primary KPI for SMS campaigns. They saw similar results with a pastrami LTO campaign and others that used product propensity segmentation. 

This approach wasn’t just more effective at driving revenue—it also helped City Barbeque make the most of their marketing budget. Since the cost of running an SMS campaign was proportional to the number of recipients, targeting smaller audiences made it possible to run more campaigns and drive better performance without increasing marketing outlays. 

Access to Bikky’s real-time reporting has ushered in a broader shift in the team’s strategy. After each campaign, they use Bikky to track impact on recipients’ frequency, AOV, order history, and more. They use these insights to form hypotheses about how to further improve results in future sends, which they then test and measure again. Over time, this process has powered a shift—from decisions based on instinct to those grounded in concrete insights. 

Looking ahead, City Barbeque plans to apply its “test and learn” approach to grow catering, take-home sales, and more. The team is also ramping up email marketing using the same product propensity targeting that’s proven so effective for SMS. 

With Bikky, City Barbeque turned simple guest insights into a personalization engine that delivered powerful results, despite the difficult economic environment. More than just growing ROI, this strategy allowed City Barbeque to stay true to their brand values and offer a better experience to guests, from their inbox to their plates. 

“At City Barbeque, we believe our product is what delivers value. It’s handcrafted, and we haven’t participated in shrinkflation, so it’s a generous portion. That’s what our customers expect from our brand. By segmenting based on product propensity, we’re focusing our marketing on what really matters to them—why they’re part of our loyalty program in the first place—which is the product.” – Annica Conrad