Noodles & Company comes in hot with Truff partnership

Seeking to spice up sales from its existing customers while gaining attention from new guests, the fast-casual restaurant chain Noodles & Company has cooked up a partnership with a red-hot digital hot sauce brand. Beginning today, Noodles’ 450 U.S. restaurants are offering their best-selling Wisconsin Mac & Cheese dish with a drizzle of Truff’s Signature Black Truffle Hot Sauce. The agreement represents the first national partnership for either brand, according to Stacey Pool, Noodles’ chief marketing officer, who says both the restaurant chain and its partner have something to gain through an introduction to one another’s audiences. “What was most important to us when we started to think about a partnership was a brand that is socially active and really crosses over to that audience we care about, which is that millennial family and the millennial that can be influenced by the Gen Z audience,” Pool said in an interview. “Truff is a very cool and up-and-coming brand. It’s very trendy in social, and the Gen Z and millennial audience is all over this new hot sauce. It's very hot. They have very loyal following.” There’s a geographic element as well, she said, as Noodles is strongest in the Midwest, “but we have a big opportunity to build awareness on the coasts. Truff has an amazing following on the coasts and is not as strong in the middle U.S., so we can both benefit and reach this Gen Z/Millennial audience across the whole nation. That made it a natural fit.” Noodles is offering up the dish as a digital menu item as it looks to leverage its loyalty program, which is a key driver of traffic and sales for the chain. Rewards members can redeem 750 points for a bowl—or half the point value required for other bowls. Noodles has nearly 4 million loyalty members. Digital accounted for approximately 52% of sales in the chain’s fiscal third quarter, even as in-restaurant ordering rebounded to 70% of pre-COVID levels, officials said. Rewards members “love to be treated differently,” said Pool, pointing to internal data indicating that its most frequent customers require fewer discount incentives to visit the chain then newer members, and respond enthusiastically to the opportunity to experience variety and innovation. Noodles’ Tortelloni, released earlier this year, was offered to loyalty club members first. “What they told us was that our more loyal audience felt like they were treated differently than everyone else, and they exhibited the behavior of coming back again more frequently.” Pool said Noodles reached out first to Truff, which has grown its brand behind sauce blends utilizing chili peppers, organic agave nectar and real black truffle. The brand has received attention from celebrity chefs while becoming the top-selling hot sauce at Amazon and at Whole Foods Markets; and has famously been listed on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list for two years in a row. The dishes will be served with a drizzle of the Truff sauce on top—just enough, Pool says, to liven up the familiar comfort food. In the food-at-home channel, Kraft Heinz has been undertaking a similar move, introducing a range of flavor boosters like pizza and tangy buffalo for its “Flavrs Club” members, who can sign up online for early access. Pool said the partnership underscores the importance of marketers taking risks while staying true to their brands. “We are committed to innovating and to providing more variety in our menu, and we care deeply about the taste of our food, so this is essential for our strategy,” she said. “You have to be intentional about finding the right partners to boost your brand.” Register for Ad Age Next: CMO at AdAge.com/NextCMO.

Noodles & Company comes in hot with Truff partnership

Featured Stories