In addition to improving the offer with craveable items, Drenon said branding also is critical.
What makes McDonald’s successful is it has branded menu items, he said. “What’s a Big Mac? It’s two patties on a bun, and it has some other things that make it unique, but it’s a hamburger.”
Naming value meals makes them memorable, like the $10.99 Chili’s 3 for Me, which is a main course, starter and beverage, Drenon said.
Spinx named an afternoon offering Wraps and Apps to promote food purchases between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m., Hagans said. It offers mozzarella bites, corn dogs and snacks beyond bags of chips, he said.
Once a foodservice program or new offering is in place, promotion must follow. Drenon said he had great success with Nouria, last year running a TikTok and YouTube campaign.
“We ran campaigns with beautiful pictures and videos of their food, and we were able to double their foodservice sales on a monthly basis with a campaign on those short-form vertical videos,” he said. “TikTok and Reels and YouTube is more like TV than the TV that we knew growing up, and advertising on that is very, very inexpensive for people, and it’s just as influential as TV.”
Drenon said to spend a “little bit of money on getting good video assets to make your food look delicious and then get it out there to the masses just like the restaurants do.”
Getting that food message out can be done in many ways. With more than 2.3 million loyalty members, GPM promotes its offers on its app, via email, on social media, in store and on the forecourt.
At Spinx, front windows have been dedicated to foodservice graphics for the past few years, Hagans said. It also uses pump toppers and billboards.
“[Spinx has] a lot of fun with the billboards; they’ll put the big old chicken tender on a billboard, and it’ll say, ‘actual size.’” he said.