Chick-fil-a’s Free Breakfast Model

If you’ve checked out my blog roll, hopefully you’ve already come across Übereye Marketing’s Seinfeld on Marketing series which runs on Fridays. Two Fridays ago, just before the Super Bowl, Übereye brought up an excellent Seinfeld moment when Jerry tries to give away Super Bowl tickets to George. Read the entire dialogue on Übereye and come back; I’ll wait.

The idea of giving away something for very little or nothing at all is not new. Obviously, by signing up for a new two-year agreement Verizon can afford to give you a phone for free. You’re probably going to be spending $60 a month with them for 24 months before you try to jump ship to get your next free phone from T-mobile. Using loss leaders is known as the “razor and blades business model” because it’s the model the Gillette company’s founder used. Ever gotten a free razor in the mail? If Gillette spends $5 sending you a razor and a blade cartridge (and you love the product) you’ll buy the high margin blades and Gillette makes more money.

Like George, I would see free Super Bowl tickets as a bill for $1500. Sure I’d save a few hundred, but that doesn’t mean I have $1500 in disposable income. So, when visiting Chick-fil-a for breakfast this morning I had to love their current promotion. To fully set the stage, I have to go back a few weeks. I was on my way to work and for some reason saw a Chick-fil-a cow standing on the side of the road in his pajamas holding a sign. I assumed it was something like “eat mor chickin” and looked over as I drove past. The sign said, “free breakfast“.

Too bad for me I already drove past the cow; maybe next time he should stand before the turn into Chick-fil-a, not after it. Somehow I ended up finding out that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Apparently every Wednesday for a few weeks (at least here in Indianapolis), each vehicle that stops at Chick-fil-a during normal breakfast hours gets one free breakfast entrée. They say, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” and that’s what Chick-fil-a is counting on. Every Wednesday more and more people are lined up in the drive-thru at Chick-fil-a to save maybe 3 bucks and get some delicious Chick-fil-a breakfast. How many people do you think just get the free entrée and move on? Not many, I’m sure.

Maybe someone buys a drink; maybe they get a drink and hash browns to complete the meal; maybe they stop with a car full of kids and feed them all. So Chik-fil-a is giving away all this breakfast, but they’re also doing two things, 1) they’re creating a buzz between people telling others where to get free breakfast and by people seeing the crazy line at Chick-fil-a which means they must be doing something right, and 2) they’re racking up sales that add on top of the free entrée: sides, drinks, and additional entrées.

When doing a marketing campaign, don’t just give away a promotional product or coupon. Give people something of value. Give it to them without strings, but have more to offer them if they like the freebie. In another instance of Chick-fil-a marketing, just last night I got a coupon for free breakfast from submitting my info online. They’re always happy to send me coupons and I’m always happy to get them… but who can argue with across the board free breakfast? Black, white, rich, poor, smart, stupid, healthy, or sick just show up and chow down

…just be sure to wash that down with a beverage!