- Sonic – Improved Customer Loyalty: An Everyday American Dream
THE CHALLENGE:
Sonic’s goal was modest, but its method of achieving that goal was nothing less than courageous.
Sonic had created a revolution in the quick serve restaurant (QSR) industry with its walk-up windows and picnic table or in-car eating. But when Sonic decided that it needed help to reach its goal of becoming “America’s most loved restaurant brand”, Sonic reached out to Synecticsworld.
“Service with the Speed of Sound” had long been Sonic’s moniker but it knew that although speed was important, service was key to success. The drive-in wanted to gain the flexibility to serve any of its fine products at any time of the day, and that included their great breakfasts.
THE PROCESS:
Synecticsworld worked collaboratively with Sonic’s franchisee community to:
- Develop a breakfast strategy and product line-up.
- Overcome concerns about competitive proliferation in breakfast and the resulting margin erosion.
- Build the franchisees’ understanding of what made customers connect with a brand and how that could be applied to Sonic.
The insights from the immersion process included hidden truths about the realities of their customer’s work and leisure schedules as well as previously unarticulated desires of customers related to the availability of not just breakfast, but other menu items for lunch and dinner.
THE RESULTS:
The change in strategy was embraced by the franchisees as a new and innovative opportunity to differentiate against other QSRs and improve their bottom line – the anytime breakfast strategy improved some store sales significantly.
Sonic also developed exciting and unique new breakfast products to differentiate it from their competitors. These new, signature products included Pancake on a Stick and Sunshine Smoothies that fit with their advertising message, “Sonic’s got it – others don’t”.
