Iconic Aussie retailer Barbeques Galore released its ‘Now you’re cooking’ TV campaign at the weekend. Australians were introduced to Ray, a regular guy at a work barbie anxiously trying to cook his boss the perfect steak in order to impress her and hopefully land a promotion. Little does he know, she’s actually a vegan.

The humorous take on barbecuing is part of a campaign that’s the result of a wider strategic review of the Barbeques Galore business.

In an interview with Inside Retail, CEO Angus McDonald said “For over 40 years, our brand has been part of Australia, so we’ve got some great heritage. But perhaps in recent years, we haven’t been as clear around what’s made our brand special and what our customer value proposition is.” 

1. Redefined brand proposition

The newly redefined brand proposition, leverages staff knowledge and expertise.

“If you care about barbequing well, then the expertise and the support of our team and range of our brands and the value we provide is the formula we can bring to deliver those expectations.”

The brand proposition underpins other parts of the business too.

2. Better engagement

The launch of an engagement platform makes it easier for teams to provide their feedback and insights with the wider business.

“I’ve heard it said before that you can’t expect to have an engaged customer if you don’t have engaged team members,” McDonald said. “That’s the centre of us recognising that we’ve got lots of experience and expertise and we want to do as much as we can to share it, both in terms of making sure we use the wisdom in how we craft our plans for the future, and making Barbeques Galore a better place to work.

“Then building on that is starting to re-investing in training and development for our team.” 

3. Streamlining processes

“Then the other piece we’re doing is focused on our backend systems and processes, making sure we’ve got the plumbing in place to deliver a seamless experience across all channels,” continued McDonald. 

“We’ve been looking at our supply chain in terms of how we can improve our fulfilment capability for online but also fulfilment through our stores and how we integrate that with delivery, assembly services and the post-purchase services we provide once you have the product in your own patio.

“We’ve put in place a new payroll system and a new marketing comms system for ticketing and POS material, again making sure we give our teams all the right information and resources to deliver the best possible experience they can to customers.”

4.  Boosting product range

“We’ve really been too slow to develop new product, so we’ve had to work to accelerate our development process and catch up or make up for lost time in terms of bringing in new ranges.

“We’ve got significant progress happening launching in market this year and updating key ranges, as well as making some significant changes to our furniture range.”

5. Store innovation

Earlier this month, Barbeques Galore also rolled out the first of its newly redesigned stores at Warringah Mall. In the centre of the new store is a large demonstration area set up like an outdoor kitchen known as “The Steakhouse”, where employees can fire up any barbeque and cook a meal for customers.

This is an edited extract from a full interview first published on Inside Retail, a sibling website to Inside Franchise Business.