Fast food chains love to push the envelope with weird menu items. From taco shells inspired by Doritos to sandwiches with no buns, the gimmicks sometimes turn out to be more than just eye-catching – they actually drive sales and keep customers coming back for more.
The gimmicks create buzz and draw in curious customers, and that could lead to a revenue boost, but that isn’t necessarily what chains are trying to do, said Lotte Reford, communications lead at branding platform Atom.com.
“They’re bringing customers in to try something they might hate and probably grab their favorite items as a backup,” Reford said.
What big food chains are hoping for is that they’ll stand out from their competitors and that customers will want to engage with the novel experiences — not to mention the gimmicks are also testing grounds for new ideas and create urgency, partly because they’re promoted as limited-time offers.
Baruch Labunski, founder of digital marketing firm Rank Secure, told Quartz that fast food chains do some strange marketing when the economy hits a downward trend.
“It tends to smack of desperation but the truth is that these weird food campaigns do work,” Labunski said. But only if they’re done in good taste.
He said chains should be careful about pushing gimmicks so far that they become gross and miss the mark. For instance, Burger King’s Halloween Whoppers, with black-dyed buns, faced backlash when customers reported their poop turning green, prompting it to be discounted. In contrast, Sonic’s Pickle Juice Slush, despite being discounted in 2018, has seen multiple re-releases, proving that some bizarre ideas can catch on if they’re executed well.
It’s witty brand promotion, Reford of Atom.com said, adding that there’s some high-low culture clash for items like Taco Bell’s “Baja Blast Gelato.”
“It makes the actual product so hard to picture, it’s intriguing, which would be bad for a full-time menu item, but its great for a gimmick, plus its wackiness is very Taco Bell,” she said.
Meanwhile, Arby’s “Meat Mountain” works for the opposite reason, partly because it boasts a memorable name that arguably ties in with its conventionally masculine branding. Plus, it conjures up the idea of a challenge – one in which customers have to consider if they can summit to the meat mountain.
To put it plainly, Labunski said, “men like these campaigns because they feel they have value.”
Speaking of value, Wendy’s Frosty Keychain campaign is a prime example of a successful promotion with meaningful philathropy, Atom.com’s Reford and Rank Secure’s Labunski, both said. For $3, customers buy a keychain that gets them Jr. Frosty with any purchase until the end of the following year. The money is donated to help with children’s adoptions.
In Big Food, Taco Bell has been zany in pushing culinary boundaries. Its Doritos Locos Tacos generated a staggering $2 billion in sales since their debut in 2012, as the brand keeps people primed for the next weird food item (which is Baja Blast Pie).
Ultimately, the success of any promotion boils down to “will it grab attention and deliver real, tangible value,” said Katie Devoe, chief executive officer at CBD Nationwide.