Stronger Messaging Would have led to a Stronger launch
There’s a new restaurant in town that has EVERYONE talking. It’s called Jus by Julie. It’s a product line that has a cult following in other parts of the tri-state area and they recently opened up a restaurant in Teaneck, NJ. What i find so interesting is that Jus by Julie started out as a slew of products that were meant for the health conscious consume- things like juices and cleanses and all that type of “jazz”.
Once their following started picking up, they expanded into a couple of store fronts located in Brooklyn, NY. During the pandemic, there was a craze in the kosher food industry that unique eateries started doing mass deliveries to places outside of their usual network. So for example, a kosher indian restaurant would deliver to teaneck for a one time thing, take hundred of orders, deliver them to a designated location, and people would come and pick up their food. It was a way for people to do something a little bit “different” during the pandemic, pretend like they were “getting out” a bit, and also support a kosher restaurant that during non-pandemic times they could have gone to in person.
In order to open up a new store front restaurant, there were of course many questions that they needed to seek answers to, and many challenges they would encounter along the way. First and foremost, their main client base was people who ordered their juices and cleanses online, so would these people start to buy enough in store that it made it worth it for them? Second of all, their only store fronts that existed prior to the Teaneck location were in Brooklyn. Those stores had a cult following, a core group of people that really came time and time again and were obsessed with their brand. Would that be the same of Teaneck residents? A big part of me thinks not. A big part of their brand following was the diet culture that exists in the Brooklyn Kosher scene, that I do not think is as much of a big deal in Teaneck. A lot of their marketing and brand appeal was all directed towards the want for diet and clean foods, something that I do not think appeals to the Teaneck crowd.
I think that their launch was pretty successful. At the beginning I saw many people there on a daily basis. I have noticed though that as the months go by and the cold days get colder, there are less and less people in the store. I think part of that is due to the fact that they are no longer as “new” as they were a few months ago when everyone wanted to check out what they were all about. Additionally, I think that they overestimated how strong their fan base would be based on where it is elsewhere. If I were consulting for them, I would recommend that they switch up parts of their menu and their marketing campaign to fit the Teaneck crowd- more wholesome messaging, and less about diet culture would be preferable.
In general, Jus by Julie has done a great job and their food is excellent. The struggles they face are mostly to do with their messaging and brand recognition.
