• February 10, 2012

Arby's will see a complete overhaul in 2012's third quarter, including redesigned restaurants, a new, simplified menu, a new logo and more than likely a new advertising approach/campaign, reports BusinessInsider.

Most important, the relaunch, timed to coincide with the Summer Olympics, will reflect a more focused target audience -- the 15% of "heavy users" who account for 54% of the chain's sales -- and identification of a new long-term brand positioning, new CMO Russ Klein told BI.

Klein, who joined Arby's shortly after it was spun off from Wendy's in January and taken private by Roark Capital Group, indicates he plans to stay with Arby's' current agency, BBDO, and that the current "Good Mood Food" campaign has performed solidly. (While Arby's sales performance has been suffering in recent years, it's seen five consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, he noted.)

However, the relaunch will call for a new brief for BBDO and is "quite likely" to result in a new campaign, he said.

Arby's has in the past spent up to $100 million annually on advertising. 

Klein, who was Burger King's CMO for nearly seven years (racking up six consecutive years of same-store sales growth at a CAGR of 5%), chose to take a sabbatical in 2009, but after a much-needed break, decided he needed to move on to new challenges, he says. 

In an observation bound to resonate with many, Klein notes: "It takes a human toll to be a CMO in any job," adding that that the average CMO industry tenure is 22 months, and BK's had probably been more like 14 months.