And that’s the journey that we’re on. And if you look at the guest metrics and they continue to improve, we feel like every quarter we’re making progress. So we’re talking about things like intent to return, food grade scores, guests with a problem GWAP, which I talked about earlier, server attendance, they’re all continue to head in the right direction. And so we believe that over time, if we continue to do that, that we’re going to get even better returns from our advertising because when guests come to try us for the first time, or if they haven’t been in a long time, they get an improved experience versus the last time they were there, or versus a competitors, right? So it’s very hard to tease out that we use your word, David, untangle the benefits of the advertising versus the experience, but the reality is they’re going to travel together going forward as long as we continue to make improvements on the guest experience.
Joe Taylor: And then David, I think as it relates to the traffic piece of the question, yes, we definitely are going to get outsized traffic performance from the marketing windows we go in. That’s one of the reasons we’re adding a marketing window into January, because of the benefits we’re seeing not only from traffic, but just from the entire business model. The work we have to do is how do we create the improved traffic connectivity between our marketing windows. It’s not to say that October’s results will replicate themselves as you kind of go forward the rest of the quarter, because obviously you won’t be on air during that period of time. But we’re going to be continuing to look to improve traffic again, our first goalpost here is to move steadily above the industry and remain above the industry from a traffic perception.
And then we’ll work on how do you get consistently back above positive traffic going forward. I think all the different initiatives will start to come together to move us in that direction. No promising for the current fiscal year from an absolute level of traffic, but we will look to continue to improve our traffic situation on a quarterly basis as we move forward.
David Palmer: Okay. Just looking back at the last quarter, the September quarter, if the same-store sales growth gap to the industry narrowed a bit, I think it narrowed by a couple points in the quarter sequentially. Why do you think that was? Is there any insight to be gained from that as we look forward?
Joe Taylor: David, again, I think you’re going to have ebbs and flows depending on what people are doing from a marketing standpoint at any given time. The databases can give you some different results too, depending on which database you’re looking at. We’ve seen in one broad database, it continued to remain stable and actually got a little bit better as we move towards the end. So I think there’s some different results coming depending on what the database is that you’re looking at. But again, we’re trying to do this for the long haul over multiple quarters. And as we said, we’ve now seen four straight quarters of Chili’s exceed the industry, so we’re going to keep building that streak as we kind of go forward.
David Palmer: Thanks.
Operator: Your next question is coming from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.
John Ivankoe: Hi, thank you. The question is also on advertising and historically presidential election years of which obviously we should have a doozy next year, really can and oftentimes do crowd out attention and media and actually, in some cases can actually pull customers out of restaurants. So I wonder if there is a change or a pivot as we kind of think about the success that you’ve had so far in fiscal 2024, largely calendar 2023 as we think about, calendar 2024 just – even if it’s tactically, how your approach to getting mind share might change in an increasingly crowded type of intention environment.
Kevin Hochman: Yes. John, you’re a lot closer to the marketing, I think most are, because you’re right, an electric year tends to get more competitive for TRPs. TRP costs can go up. I think there’s a lot of different ways that we can go to market and to get those TRPs. So I’m going to leave it up to the marketers to figure out how to best deploy the dollars. Things will probably change during an election year in terms of rates and we got to be a little bit smarter about that. But like, I don’t see like an election year changing our commercial strategy in any way. So that’s just the candid answer.
John Ivankoe: Okay. All right. Candid is good. And secondly, the Core Four that you’re focusing on, do you think that the – I mean, I understand that the four are kind of right, but do you think the amount of customization variety that you currently have is kind of appropriate for the customer? I understand that you basically are kind of rebuilding the Chili’s brand of what you’re kind of focused on. But do the operations of the brand maybe allow a little bit more complexity to come in that just give consumers more options to dine, excuse me, more often?
Kevin Hochman: Well, the answer is yes. I mean, I think we need to make sure we have the variety that to meet the modern customers’ needs. And the first thing that we’re doing on the Core Four is just making sure that the core of the business is strong. So we’ve done margaritas, we’ve done crispers. Hopefully, I’ll have some news to share with you at the next quarter on burgers, which I think could take us to a whole another level there. And then the last one will be in the beginning of 2025 – fiscal 2025 is the relaunch of the Fajita business, which is improvement in protein, improvement in tortilla, improvement in sides. And I think once we get there, then its like, where do we want to go next? And the teams are already working through the stage gate process on ideation for what’s next in Burgers, what’s next in Crispers, what’s next in Fajitas?
Because, ultimately, we got to continue to innovate so that we stay relevant to today’s guests, right? So just because we talk about Core Four doesn’t mean you can’t innovate in the new spaces with the Core Four. But the first job is to make sure that each of those, number one, are as good at products as they can possibly be and that we’re really competitive in the marketplace. And two, that we have our barbell strategy covered within those four, right, which is good, better, best, making sure that we have the lower price tiers figured out, as well as allow guests to trade up and have premium. So we’re probably about 12 to 15 months away from really completing that. And then I think you’ll see more of the variety that I think that you’re hinting at that will innovate off of the Core Four.
John Ivankoe: That’s perfect. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question for today is coming from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.
Brian Vaccaro: Hi, thanks and good morning. I was hoping we could circle back on Chili’s relative traffic performance. And could you be a little more specific on how that gap trended through the fiscal first quarter? And then I think you said traffic was positive year-on-year in October. Just curious what that gap looks like in October.
Mika Ware: Hi, Brian. It’s Mika. So our traffic gap has continued to narrow and actually is positive in October versus industry.
Brian Vaccaro: Okay, so your traffic was positive year-on-year, and it was also a positive gap versus the industry in October?
Mika Ware: Yes. It was.
Brian Vaccaro: Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then just on brand awareness, Kevin, I think back at the June Analyst Day, you showed a noticeable gap versus large chain competitors. I think it might have been Applebee’s and Olive Garden, if memory serves. But I’m not sure how often you get those type of metrics or statistics. But do you have any update on if and by how much that awareness gap has narrowed in recent months?
