TULSA, Okla. -- Who says there's no free lunch? For the past month, QuikTrip has been providing lunch to various businesses throughout the Tulsa area in an effort to introduce area consumers to the company's two-year-old QuikTrip Kitchens foodservice program.
We're doing things that are nontraditional in regards to advertising, at least in our eyes, company spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh told CSP Daily News. So maybe once, twice, perhaps three times a week, we partner up with a businessdoesn't matter what size it is, if it's 10 employees or 50 or 500and [image-nocss] we provide the QuikTrip Kitchens sandwiches and wraps and some of the pastries for lunch.
Through word of mouth and a little help from the Tulsa Metro Chamber website, enough local businesses are slowly hearing about the program and requesting they be added to QT's free-lunch schedule.
Typically a week in advance we get together with whatever company it is, and they'll send out a notice that QuikTrip will provide a free lunch [of sandwiches, wraps and pastries for their employees one day], he said. Then we show up and talk to them about our product and let them have a free lunch.
Depending on how many employees work for the selected companyso far there have been anywhere from 10 to 600QT will send one to three representatives to serve the lunches, offer a peek at the QT menu and explain how the convenience-store chain is able to serve fresh food through its Tulsa commissary.
The biggest thing that you have to work on ishow can you have such a great fresh product if you're a convenience store, Thornbrugh said. We talk about the commissary, how we prepare [the sandwiches] and everything else that goes into it.
Thus far, the marketing program has helped QT continue the strong growth the commissary has seen since in opened in 2005.
The production line for us has been increasing every week since we started and we're [still] going very strong, Thornbrugh said.
The made-fresh-daily line of sandwiches and wraps arrived in most of QT's Tulsa locations last year, according to a report in Tulsa World, and QuikTrip has been promoting its version of fast food through TV, print and radio advertisements.
We started off with employees giving free samples outside the various stores, Thornbrugh told the newspaper. "Now we're trying to get attention for QT Kitchens this way."
The giveaway campaign came from the Tulsa-based company's marketing team. Team member Alicia Dickens is the face behind the promotion at every free-lunch visit, Tulsa World reported. She brings the lunches in a classic 1934 Ford delivery truck and hands out a brochure to every recipient.
"We're working hard to overcome the expectation of simply having gas station or vending-machine quality food," Dickens told the newspaper. "By us buying their lunch for a day, showing what line of fresh-food products we offer and also giving them a coupon to come into our stores to get another free sandwich on us, we are doing that.
"It may just be one person at a time, but we know from the feedback we receive that people are loving it," Dickens said. "If people love it, they're talking about it, and that's what makes our campaign a success."
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