In this episode of Forktales, we replay QSR Uncut’s second episode. QSR Uncut is the newest podcast from the folks at QSR Magazine. Hosts Danny Klein and Ben Colley cover the week’s trends and headlines. In this episode, Joseph Szala, managing director of Vigor chimes in with his expertise.
- Caribou coffee is starting a subscription program
- Taco Bell is testing a subscription service in Arizona
- Clean Juice and Urban Plates are testing out subscription services as well
- Wendy’s is launching a Friday Freebies in October – every Friday, with the purchase of a medium fry, you unlock a free deal. There’s also a $0 delivery fee in the month of October.
- Internal Branding & Marketing to employees
- Understanding what your brand means
- Why does it matter?
- Follow up and deliver on your promises as a brand
- Dutch Bros. Coffee lives this
- Yellow Pages is an example of a company that failed to recognize a cultural shift
- Tater tots are not fries!
QUOTES
- “The McRib is one of those sandwiches that we all remember where were when we first ate it whether or not it a was a good or bad experience” -Danny
- “You can get customers onto loyalty, but how do you keep them?” -Danny
- “Now more than ever it’s become very clear how important marketing internally is” -Joseph
- “The restaurant industry has long been one of those industries where you can enter the workforce no matter what your background is and yet you can also still climb the ladder” -Danny
- “Great service is a by-product of a strong, real, authentic culture that people have bought into” -Joseph
- “It cannot be understated the importance of brick and mortar and having a sign out there that consumers can see” -Ben
- “Dine in is returning and the value of being able to sit in a restaurant is returning” -Ben
- “I think there’s going to be a lot of these virtual brands that burst at the seams and then fall off when people realize that they’re not really much more beyond what the gimmick may be” -Danny
- “It definitely does feel like you’re narrowing your customer reach when you develop a Cheetos flavored wing” -Ben
- Why do brands fail? “I think it’s because they fail to recognize a cultural shift that is beyond trend” -Joseph
- “Are people going to want to eat at buffets post COVID?” -Ben
- “A lot of these restaurants need to have that in their back pocket to reactivate who they were and why they matter to people” -Danny
- “Do not become too much of somebody else in a world that already has too many options” -Danny
