Villemarie

for them and more cost effective for us.” The total number of employees is close to 200, fluctuating with the seasons. Payroll declines significantly during the quiet winter months, and expands in the summer when outdoor terraces are up and everyone’s outside enjoying the great weather. A high-traffic location is crucial in the quick service market. For the oth- er restaurants, location is important, too, but if you have a great brand and a great product at a fair price, people don’t mind travelling out of the city center; the quick service market is all about convenience. Director of Marketing, Adam Axler, addresses the strategy for marketing Ville-Marie’s more upscale brands. “It’s a VILLE-MARIE COLLECTION mix of traditional and digital marketing. But the lion’s share is digital. In addition to so- cial media, we have a strong SEO strategy, as well as an ad word strategy.We keep the content on our websites and blogs fresh to build links and keep our stats high on Goo- gle.We also work with travel and review sites and tourism organizations that help bring awareness. And we take part in local community marketing. From a franchising perspective, it’s really digital – e-blasts and some e-zine advertorials, along with membership sites such as the Canadian Franchise Association and other e-based generators.We continue on to a public rela- tion stage, both local and global, to bring a complete 360-degree campaign together.” Elefant adds, “The brands we operate are all market leaders in their segment. They offer intriguing menus you won’t find any- where else in terms of items and prepara-