Case Studies on Best Practice in

External Marketing Communication

Lėkštė.lt

http://lekste.1000receptu.lt/

https://www.facebook.com/www.lekste.lt

Lėkštė.lt (direct translation: plate.lt) is a startup company providing food delivery services to home

or offices. The company offers a variety of over 90 restaurants in 3 main cities of Lithuania:

Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda. The company offers simple and fast 3 - step way of ordering food –

select a restaurant, choose from menu, place an order and pay by credit card / e-banking.

The presentation of this business was made with help of lekste.lt Chief marketing officer (CMO)

Eimantas Miksys. The respondent was also interviewed and provided answers to most of the

questions. The other information was found in the internet.

Success story

The early beginning of the company starts in Denmark, where 3 university friends from Lithuania

noticed a convenient and innovative way of ordering delivery food not only from “pizza hut” type

chain restaurants, but also from unique and extraordinary ones. The idea was brought back to

Lithuania with support of investors, where it gained a second place in entrepreneurship competition

in 2012, enabling access for start – up capital. Few months later the idea was completed and became

a business.

Entering the market

As told by one of company’s shareholder, the hardest thing starting the business was to negotiate

with suppliers. For most of them the offered service was new and unknown, therefore restaurant

owners did not want to make contracts for 2 reasons: reputational risk and profit – sharing issues.

Even though it was difficult, the company managed to negotiate with main restaurants within few

months.

The second challenge company faced was internet platform. Lekste.lt used a platform provided by

shareholders from Denmark, but there was a need to tailor it to Lithuanian customers’ needs. This

means IT development expenses. Despite the obstacles company has started the business

successfully and can now enjoy wide restaurant network and smoothly working website.

Income and costs

According to company’s chief marketing officer (CMO), company finished the financial year 2014

having over 400.000 Euros in sales turnovers. Nevertheless, company expects double growth in

2015. As told by Mr. Eimantas, company usually works with 8-15% margins from sales income.

The average sales order is 23 Euros and this is above the average among Lithuanian food delivery

companies.

Reasons of success

The respondent answered promptly – the attitude towards customers. Company introduced a whole

new and higher standard into the food delivery market. According to respondent, some of the

restaurants even today allow themselves being late at food delivery. Sometimes the delivered food

is cold, the client is not warmed of changes in delivery schedule or interact impolitely. As being

small, we could not allow this to ourselves, therefore in meantime we gained higher customer

loyalty. The respondent also noted that currently it is clearly visible that after public failures of

competitors, more people are recommending services of lekste.lt

Internal strength of company

The respondent claims that his team is flexible and strong individually, as well as having strong

team spirit. The management of the company values their employees and it is reflected on superior

quality of client service.

Wins / fails against competitors

The respondent claims that lekste.lt has a strong competitive advantage in offered quality of both

food and service. The company is collaborating with one of the best restaurants in cities they

operate. In addition to this, a wide range of meal options is also offered. Respondent also claims

that hard devotion on what they are doing also helps to gain a competitive edge by being market

pioneers. Even though it is hard to compete with two biggest competitors due to relatively small

marketing budget, company finds creative and cost – effective ways to attract attention of current

and potential customers. The main competitors of lekste.lt are:

• Foodout.lt – a food delivery offered by one of the biggest restaurant chains in Lithuania.

• Maistasinamus.lt – a follower of lekste.lt, yet in early stage of development, therefore not

considered as deadly enemy.

Customer profile

Lekste.lt representative states that according to recent research, their average customers are 25 – 44

years old, middle and middle – high income receiving people – personalities who do care what they

are eating. They care about the link between product and customer, and also they expect the

exceptional service which could exceed their expectations continuously.

Brand

In early beginning the brand was one of the hardest thing to invent. Founders have received offers

to buy company name for up to 18.000 Euros. But founders have decided to invest this money in

company development, and brand name was chosen simply lekste.lt. The logo was criticized for

looking like soviet – style, but recent survey shows that logo is easily recognized and appreciated.

Most interesting marketing / sales promotion campaign

According to respondent, probably the most unexpected marketing strategy was as integrated

product advertisement, which was shown on popular Lithuanian YouTube TV show “serialas”. In

this show, the actors have ordered meals using lekste.lt services, and after food was delivered, one

of the actors shout out loud that lekste.lt is “freaking awesome”. This marketing campaign allowed

entrepreneurs to reach wide audience with relatively low costs – the episode of show was reviewed

more than half million times and gained awareness of lekste.lt.

Marketing budget

According to respondent, company mainly focuses on using areas of restaurants – partners due to

fact that restaurant visitors are key potential customers of lekste.lt. Company has stickers of lekste.lt

logo on tables or informational poster close to the bar. If customers like the restaurant, it is high

probability that they might want to order food from this restaurant for lunch at office, at home or for

office / house parties. In addition to this, company invests into banner advertisement on the most

popular Lithuanian news web page delfi.lt. Company has signed the agreement stating that sales

made through delfi.lt are charged in benefit of delfi.lt, therefore the news page is interested in

maintaining advertisement on top articles. Lekste.lt also highly advertises on social media

(facebook, twitter) providing news feed, special sales promotions or daily superior deals. In addition

to this, google adwords is also used to become visible on first page when searched topic is “food

delivery”, “restaurant food delivery”, etc.

Sales increase and marketing support

The respondent claims that two digit sales growth in terms of percentage is expected. Company’s

management is planning to implement this plan by integrating into news / media projects,

increasing communication / partner network. The most important target is to reach widest possible

target audience.

Guerilla marketing

According to Mr. Eimantas, most people have wrong perception that guerilla marketing is

something that allows becoming known having tight resources. This is made by trying to oppose the

opinion that everyone can beat ass even for the biggest corporations. Usually this is not completely

true, because successful guerrilla marketing campaign, as well as virus ad, must be well organized

and strategized, and early stage of such campaigns requires relatively lot of efforts, both tangible

and intangible. The respondent claims that in particular the participation in internet show might be

considered as guerilla marketing campaign, but the main outcome is reached due to traditional

digital marketing communication.

Innovative marketing strategy

The representative of company assesses innovativeness via 2 main aspects. 1st – if strategy gave

outstanding results, if campaign paid attention to very specific groups of community or issue. 2nd

–

if the measures used allowed to gain extraordinary results.

10. What your marketing department colleagues have in common?

Mr. Eimantas claims that the only way to compete with Lithuania’s marketing giants is to love

clients more than others. Being enthusiastic and believing of being able to change the world is the

key of gaining competitive edge.

Wishes to competitors and partners

To competitors – fair game. The most important thing in services field is to acknowledge the fact

that the actions made have direct impact on community welfare.

To partners – smile. Because clients can only be happy when service is provided both with quality

and smile.

Social responsibility

The company uses various actions of social responsibility. For example, prior to Christmas lekste.lt

team has visited over 20 families suffering in poverty. Company has made a small celebration for

those families by personally delivering pizzas and beverages to those families. In addition, company

is also planning to organize birthdays for children from poor families, by participating in non –

profit organization “help children”.

Marketing measures used for various groups of interest

First group of interest – employees – always get discount in partner restaurants.

Partners and investors are always remembered and greeted during on important holidays, and

special attention is paid to them.

What makes lekste.lt an entrepreneurial company? How innovative are they?

Lekste.lt might be considered as entrepreneurial due to fact that with relatively low buget it

managed to develop a fast – growing and stable business with well – recognizrd brand.the

innovativeness in field of marketing can be described as being pioneers with their business model in

Lithuania.

What makes lekste.lt an example of best practice with regards to external marketing

communication? – How are these practices implemented?

Use of new sales channeles (e.g. direct sales through news website, owned car park for food

delivery without owned restaurant, etc.). in addition to this, company’s representatives are keen to

participate in various projects, interviews, being written in articles, therefore a high level of public

relations is developed.

How is lekste.lt utilizing the new communications features?

Company uses wide range of new communications features, e.g. social media for daily deals,

participation in various events and other useful news feed, news media as traditional

communication channel, and various public events are used for public relations.