Two weeks Clive Schlee, CEO of Pret A Manger, wrote a blog about the growing level of sales of vegetarian products within Pret and invited readers to vote on how Pret should respond. The level and quality of the resulting response clearly demonstrates the value of this exercise – as well as the effectiveness of social media in generating it.
After almost ten thousand responses, Clive Schlee has reported back on the feedback and results, commenting:
“ …as seems typical of recent referendums, the result was clear but close: 52% voted in favour of a special vegetarian fridge, versus 44% in favour of an exclusively vegetarian Pret and just 4% for the status quo.
Good sense
“People were stimulated by the idea and the fact that a large high street retailer should put it out there. Their responses were full of good sense and a touching affection for Pret. Several themes came through clearly. Voters against a single vegetarian shop argued that it wouldn’t help the vast majority of our customers. They warned us that it might not make commercial sense. Many people commented that isolating vegetarians did not feel right. There was a strong call to arms from vegans, a movement that is clearly growing in popularity.
Pret learned a lot
“We learned that our labelling could be clearer, that our shops sometimes run out of vegetarian products and that we need to bring back old favourites. We got a number of very useful recipe suggestions, several of them skilfully converting a vegetarian product to a vegan product with a minor tweak.
Here’s the response
“I have been talking to our food and marketing teams about what to do and here’s our response:
- We will increase the number of vegetarian and vegan products in our shops
- We will improve labelling to call out vegetarian and vegan dishes more clearly
- We will run a “call to arms” marketing campaign for veggie food next year
- We will test a vegetarian fridge in one of our shops
- We will explore converting an existing Pret into a vegetarian Pret for a few weeks next Summer to test the water
In conclusion
Clive Schlee thanks the thousands of people who voted and sent views, adding:
“Consulting our customers via social media is a new experience for us and I have found it very positive (so far!)
“The Pret Chefs will be extremely busy devising exciting new veggie and vegan recipes. If you’ve got any great ideas for our menu, we’d love to know.”
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Marcus Wareing, Mark Poynton and Angela Hartnet