FAT Brands' Multisite Suite

As a multi-brand operator, FAT Brands touts a suite of restaurants under its umbrella. However, acquisition after acquisition created a chaotic system of multiple software platforms and providers making the task of updating website cumbersome and frustrating.
Touting over 14 restaurant brands that span nearly every service style, the task of creating a unified platform seemed impossible. However, with Rapturous’ expertise, we were able to lead FAT Brands on a pathway to realizing a foundational step in unifying their brands while allowing them to continue to have their own brand identity in full display.
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TL;DR
Established a multisite content management system foundation to house all brands on one platform
Created a roadmap with client team to design and develop each of the company’s brands on the new platform
Established a path for expanding features across the suite of sites with each new build
Created shared integrations with partner software providers to create a turnkey solution for importing location and menu data
Each site was build mobile-first with site speed optimizations baked in
Collaboratively Building a Digital Experience Foundation
When multiple brands are in a portfolio, and each one is notably different, finding baseline parity can be challenging. Therefore, it was paramount that cross-functional teams were involved from the very beginning to identify the common content that would be shared. Despite the commonality, we needed to keep the door open for each brand’s identity, both visual and verbal, to shine through authentically.
Additionally, we couldn’t replatform every single brand all at once. Instead, we had to create a roadmap based on which brands were in dire need of updating with a mix of which get the most traffic based on the time of year. For instance, replatforming Great American Cookie’s would be a bad move during the month February because of the Valentine’s Day rush.
Together with the FAT Brands team, we created a data-driven roadmap then begun interfacing with the internal design team to equip them with the UX necessary to design the core components of a brand site. Those components would then be passed off to our team for collaborative iteration and a fleshing out the rest of the site’s pages. This approach allowed for rapid collaboration and adjustments while ensuring the development team would have everything they needed, exactly as they needed it.
This process was repeated for each of the FAT Brands brand sites with much success, but that wasn’t the end of the journey.
Simultaneous Iterative Improvements
One of the brilliant factors of the unified system was the ability to iterative update the entire brand suite with new features as they were developed for the current site design and build. When a site called for new functionality, rather than having to go back to each site and build it in, we were able to proliferate across the suite simultaneously. This created a collective uplift in brand experience every time.
In that same category was the ability to create shared integrations with partner platforms. All menu data was fueled by Olo’s engine. Even though full frictionless development wasn’t part of this foundational push, light integration in the form of data pulls could happen. The integration helped reduce hours spent changing menu information and imagery by having to controlled in one place. The sites automatically pulled in the changes immediately.
Location data followed suit with the integration Uberall’s technology. This ensured the brands could effectively leverage that tech without a lot of code base to edit and fix.
Finally, each site was built from the same core making lightning fast build times, but also lightning fast load times. The site speed for each of the sites on the platform was optimized to realize rapid loading which results in a better experience for the guest, and not to mention the search engines love it, too.
Results
FAT Brands’ new multi-site platform has equipped the team with a unified foundation that allows for collective growth and easy access. Now the team has full control with a single sign-on point giving them the ability to update any brand site from the same epicenter. Not only has this seen a reduction in time spent tracking down login credentials, it has empowered the team to update the sites more frequently since the barriers to access have been significantly reduced.
In having this foundation, internal team can now focus on which brands are primed for realizing full online ordering and loyalty integrations which the Rapturous team will help bring to life.