Captain Dorego's, a fast-food franchise hugely popular amongst the commuter classes is embarking on a major rebranding exercise. We get the details for you from the marketing bigwigs responsible. You'll be forgiven for never having heard of the fast food franchise Captain Dorego's before. After all, the franchise has never embarked on aggressive advertising campaigns on TV or in mainstream print publications - so unless you frequent taxi ranks, you're likely to never have seen or heard of this outlet. All that is set to change though with the mammoth rebranding of this below-the-radar fast-food franchise.

 It's not that Captain Dorego's is a newcomer to the industry - certainly not. The franchise has been around for over 30 years and there are well over 50 stores in operation across seven provinces and even in some other southern African countries. The fact that most marketers might not be familiar with Captain Dorego's gives credence to the awkward and uncomfortable realisation that in South Africa, there may really be two distinct and separate economies.

We spoke to the Captain Dorego's marketing bigwigs behind the franchise's rebranding for some insight into the latest move (Graham Leigh - HKLM and Gerald Brown - Doregos).

What is the target market of Captain Dorego's?

LSM4-6. Mostly the black market, but with the rebranding and revamp we are hoping to achieve a bit of "brand stretch" and increase our customer base into the higher LSMs. The new store is designed as being scalable so that it is at home in both consumer nodes (Captain Dorego's is possibly the most entrenched brand at big and busy taxi ranks across the country) as well as major regional centres.

Dorego's has been a very 'quiet' franchise for many years. How will the rebranding change this?

Rebranding will increase the store's turnover by between 20-30% and will also allow us to stay current with the rest of the market and our competitors. We have reached a critical mass and are no longer a small player - hence the move to rebrand.

What prompted the rebranding?

We needed to upgrade our look and make the brand more relevant to our menu and current market. Also there needed to be more consistency in our stores that will make us easily recognisable and build brand loyalty. We also know that a retail look and feel only has a life of about five years - and needs to be refreshed thereafter.

Will the rebranding be accompanied by a new push to open more outlets or is this purely a brand-building exercise?

Yes, we will continue to open stores and while the economy may not be as robust as in the past, we believe we will maintain steady growth during this year.