Rigby Growth Strategy

The question

Rigby had a strong location but was not capturing the student and young-professional traffic around it. The owner wanted to know which customers to target, which events and promotions would bring them in, and whether moving customers from cash to card would help.

What I did

• Scoped the engagement around four client questions (target markets, events, payment mix, and booking), then split the analysts into workstreams and coordinated their research into one plan.
• Researched campus and downtown demand, including outreach to student organizations, recurring events such as speed dating, game-day and Winter Carnival tie-ins, and social, email, and flyer channels.
• Benchmarked Rigby’s Google and Yelp ratings against 27 nearby bars and analyzed card-payment effects on tabs and tipping before packaging recommendations into a client deck and written plan.

What it showed

The most useful recommendations were the ones the bar could run right away with its existing staff. Tying each idea to a specific customer group and a simple way to measure it kept the plan practical.

This was client project work through Badger Consulting for a local Madison business, where I served as a project manager. I enjoyed balancing the analytical work with team leadership and the practical constraints of a real client. It was an early experience in turning open-ended business questions into recommendations someone could actually use.