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How Mooyah, Which Wich use freebies to drive traffic, attract customers, grow sales

Offering limited-time freebies will nearly always increase traffic in the short term, but restaurant brands failing to transform those extra bodies into higher sales will lose a lot more than they gain.

Mooyah's Double Cheeseburger Day resulted in a 27 percent increase in net sales over the previous Wednesday.

December 6, 2018 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com

Restaurants have always relied on marketing discounted and free products as a way to increase traffic and with good reason; it works. Brands that can't translate those extra bodies into higher sales, however, are doing more harm than good to their brand's reputation and bottom line. And although it may seem counterproductive, offering freebies is less risky than offering deep discounts.

"Marketers should be aware that promotions with low, discounted prices devalue products more than free offers," according to a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Free offers may not devalue products at all, as consumers use the price of the focal product to estimate the value of the supplementary product. ... Marketers would be better served to use a free promotion in terms of short-term incentives but also to avoid unintended long-term consequences."

Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes did just that on Oct. 10 when it gave away 34,000 double cheeseburgers to customers who bought a drink or an order of small fries. The one-day promo — Double Cheeseburger Day — resulted in a 27 percent increase in sales over the previous Wednesday, a 227 percent increase in traffic over the previous Wednesday and a 112 percent increase in new guests over the previous week, said Natalie Anderson-Liu, the chain's VP of Brand and mastermind behind the campaign. 

"We expected gross sales to be huge for the day, but we were pleasantly surprised that net sales were up 27 percent over the previous Wednesday," Anderson-Liu said in an interview with FastCasual.

The brand also reported a 903 percent increase in website visits over a normal Wednesday, a 487 percent increase in Rewards app scans, 241 percent increase in new Rewards app signups and a 516 percent increase in new local Facebook page likes over the previous week.

Mooyah got the word out with radio ads in all its markets, social media ads, loyalty emails, texts and in-restaurant POP.

"On the day of the event, we geofenced all our restaurants, and we're remarketing to those guests with mobile ads for six weeks post-event to stay top-of-mind," Anderson-Liu said.

While the initial numbers look great, Anderson-Liu won't know just exactly how well the promotion did for another month or so.

"The key in judging the success of this event will be in capturing incremental future visits," she said. "We use a great analytics tool called MarketingVitals to show the return rate 30, 60 and 90 days post-event. The program will actually tell us the sales impact that can be attributed to the giveaway by tracking the behavior of participating guests well after the event."

The tool also revealed the percent of guests that were new to Mooyah on Cheeseburger Day, which is important because reaching new guests was one of the main objectives of such an aggressive giveaway.

"We're now 50 days out from the event and the results are very positive so far," Anderson-Liu said."

Let them eat 'free' cake
Dallas-based Which Wich is hoping to have similar results from its free cake promo launching Dec. 15, on the brand's 15th anniversary.

"With millions of people in our Vibe Club, we can project a healthy five figures of complimentary cakes," Which Wich Co-Founder and EVP Courtney Sinelli said in an interview with FastCasual. (Only members of the Which Wich rewards program receive the freebie.)

The goal is to spread the word about Which Wich's two emerging retail lines: Courtney's Cookies and Courtney's Cakes. Although the treats are now available in all Which Wich stores, the brand is exploring options to sell them in grocery and other retail outlets within the Dallas market. Other possible avenues include partnering with restaurant chains to offer them brand-specific flavors and getting into the off-premise dining and delivery markets.

The first step, however, is getting customers to try the product, Sinelli said.

"When we first decided to introduce Courtney's Cakes at Which Wich, we realized that many brands have brownies or cookies," Sinelli said. "When you're having cake, it's an event - you're celebrating something and we wanted our guests to have that same feeling. With our 15th anniversary coming up, giving out birthday cake just makes sense.

"We want to provide free Courtney's Cakes to thank our loyal customers for being with us over the last decade and a half, and we want to give new guests an incentive to try Which Wich and become part of the vibe as we head into the next 15 years."

Measuring success
Since the only customers receiving free cake are those who sign up for the loyalty app, Sineli said the most obvious way to measure the campaign's success is to see a bump in registration.

"We are also going to be monitoring our social media and expect an increase in engagement from our fans," she said. "Obviously, we are anticipating a strong sales day on Saturday, (Dec. 15)  but we also just truly want to allow our guests to be a part of the celebration of turning 15 years old."

Photos provided by Mooyah
 

About Cherryh Cansler

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Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Networld Media Group and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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