Restaurant Marketing Blog

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Denny’s restaurant chain hopes to score another home run with customers by offering free Grand Slam breakfasts after next month’s Super Bowl. This article is written by Wayne Price of Florida Today.

The 24-hour-restaurant chain will give away its signature breakfasts from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 9 at its outlets across the country. That’s the Tuesday following Super Bowl XLIV.

Last year, Denny’s, with 1,500 locations nationwide, including seven in Brevard, served about 2 million Grand Slams after announcing the offer during the Super Bowl match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.

“Our motto for this year is that we’re going for 3 million,” said Dennis Brady, owner of Denny’s restaurants in Palm Bay and Viera.

A number of marketing experts tend to agree that Denny’s landed a hit with customers with its offer, which they suggest also had the benefit of putting competitors on the defense. The offer came just as people started to feel the real impacts of the recession then gripping the country.

There are several plusses for a company like Denny’s continuing with the free-breakfast promotion, said Richard Lutz, JC Penney professor of marketing at the University of Florida.

Denny’s earns good will among its existing customers, he said. And it’s also a good way for customers who have never dined at Denny’s to try the restaurant, akin to getting a free product sample in the mail.

“Now obviously this isn’t a little tube of toothpaste and there is considerable more expense to the company,” Lutz said. “You weigh that against the extra publicity value from it.”

The chain’s signature breakfast features two each of pancakes, eggs, bacon strips and sausage links.

“It was great,” said Linda Cowart of Cocoa, who took her three children to the free breakfast last year at the Merritt Island Denny’s. “The kids loved it. I’ll have to mark it on my calendar.”

There are no strings attached to the offer. Customers don’t have to purchase a beverage or any other item. They can, however, add certain items for 99 cents.

The offer is good for dine-in only, and customers can’t make substitutions. Those who can’t wait in what is expected to be long lines can get rain checks for the free meal.

From a public relations standpoint, the Denny’s chain earned a lot of good will with customers.

“They thought it was great that during a tough economic period that we gave back something free to the public,” Brady said.

Many students and teachers stopped by the Denny’s prior to morning classes last year and Brady expects that to happen again.

He took an early look at the Denny’s Super Bowl spot that will formally announce the breakfast.

It goes something along the lines of, “It’s a great day to be an American. It’s a bad day to be a chicken,” Brady said.

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