Sodapalooza - And, The Untapped Fast Food `Drink’ Positioning
Sodapalooza is what the billboard sign screams in East Cobb, Georgia - it’s the new 49cents drink promotion at Race Trac http://www.racetrac.com/AwesomeDeals.aspx - a southeastern convenience store chain. Indeed, the competitors price is all of 59cents this summer (Quik Trip) I believe. And, as we all know McDonald’s has had 1.00 any sweet tea (occasionally all drinks too) of any size.
Unbelievably, to me, the reluctance to challenge McDonald’s great positioning continues with few exceptions. In Atlanta - Sonic, Steak and Shake and Chick Fil A - all have a dayparted two for one in the afternoon (do you ride around with others in the afternoon?) non-meal hours. While a reaction, it is somewhat whimpy. And, no other FF’s even seem to `get it’.
Hence, the huge rise in `drinkless’ FF orders (those so-called value combos eventually saved the average consumer nothing or perhaps a quarter and users knew that it had become more of an ordering and operations way of pigeonholeing consumers) — which has even given way to `sandwich only’ orders in the New Normal.
Consumers remember the days when Iced Tea was just coming onto FF menus — and IT WAS ALWAYS CHEAPER — much cheaper. What ever happened to that? Are FF outlets really going to lose money IF they `re-position’ drink prices? What if `any size drink’ was 79cents with a full priced sandwich? Wouldn’t that be easy? Certainly better ideas exist to return the drink to the orders than what is currently being marketed by nearly all FF brands.
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