Fast food companies are trying every which way to get people to directly order from their mobile apps instead of other delivery services or directly.
From exclusives and giving early access to new menu items to flat-out handing out free food.
And for the most part, this works: Apptopia research found that, after launching the Taco Lovers' Pass, the Yum! Brands (YUM)-owned Taco Bell saw its subscriptions soar to 1.4 million in January.
Wendy's (WEN), for its part, has largely taken the food-for-downloads strategy.
Throughout February, it gave away free fries or 10-piece Spicy Chicken Nuggets to those who ordered anything else on its app.
"The growth in our mobile ordering business was supported by successful acquisition campaigns, which increased our total loyalty program members by approximately 10% compared to the second quarter, reaching almost 19 million," Wendy's CEO Todd A. Penegor said during the company's third-quarter earnings call.
Image source: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
What Do I Have To Download To Get A Free Breakfast Sandwich?
Now that we're almost to summer, Wendy's is using the app to promote another area in which it has been trying to carve out a following: breakfast.
Chewboom first reported that, on Friday, June 3, those who use the app to make another purchase will be able to claim a free breakfast sandwich.
As Wendy's has been trying to grow the sales it gets from breakfast with a more expansive menu, there are quite a few choices.
The Breakfast Baconator, the Classic Sausage, Egg & Cheese Sandwich and the Classic Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwich among others.
June 3 is National Egg Day and so the promotion is only valid for that one day.
But the promotion is both a way to get customers to the menu and promote the breakfast menu that the chain has expanded significantly in the last year.
By the end of 2021, Wendy's saw sales derived from breakfast go from 8.5% to over 10%.
"This growth was primarily driven by successful promotions, which not only drove significant trial of our breakfast day part, as evidenced by a meaningful increase in buyer penetration in the quarter but also increased overall breakfast awareness to record levels," Penegor said of reaching 10% of its sales come from breakfast.
"This culminated in another quarter of morning meal traffic share growth in the QSR burger category."
App Use Is Not Always The Obvious Choice
Despite chains that say a lot of things about how downloading the app is the easiest and most obvious choice, many people just aren't buying it.
Canadian regulators recently accused Tim Hortons, the country's beloved donut and coffee chain owned by Restaurants Brands International (QSR), of collecting "vast amounts of location data" from the app that customers used to order food.
Some of the information gleaned included everything from how often customers went to competitors to how often they left the office to get a snack.
This type of news understandably puts many ill at ease over ordering apps but, for other and more frequent visitors, the deals and convenience are too hard to resist.
When it comes to app use, McDonald's (MCD) is currently the clear front runner due to the sheer size of the chain.
Apptopia research found that 2.2 million people downloaded its app in February while Starbucks SBUX, Domino's DPZ and Taco Bell were behind at a respective 910,000, 784,00 and 683,000 downloads.
