Sonic Goes After the After-School Crowd

While most chains battle it out for the breakfast, lunch and dinner crowd, Sonic Drive-In wants to corner the “happy hour” crowd.

June 03, 2013

NEW YORK – When Sonic Drive-In took its Happy Hour program nationwide in November 2007, offering half-priced drinks from 2 pm to 4 pm daily, it did so during a time when most restaurants weren’t matching the offer.

Drinks served during this two-hour window, which are all non-alcoholic, attracted a lot of high schoolers, “as well as stay-at-home moms popping by for a limeade before picking up the kids,” writes Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Most of these patrons, in fact, have become the ritualistic afternoon customers, according to Todd Smith, Sonic’s vice president of marketing. 

The news source writes that sales from 2 pm to 5 pm now represent about 23% of Sonic’s revenue, which is “well above the fast-food industry average” of about 10%. Before Sonic launched its Happy Hour program, the afternoon daypart made up 18% of sales (Bloomberg notes that Sonic’s total revenue was higher before the recession —$543.7 million in 2012 vs. $770.5 million in 2007). This year Sonic increased its happy hour offer to include 99-cent snack items such as onion rings, tots, mozzarella sticks and corn dogs. 

Smith says that the chain isn’t afraid of eating into the dinnertime daypart: “This is a day part we’ll continue to focus on building,” he told the newspaper. 

And not surprisingly, other chains have taken notice of the happy hour potential. Taco Bell launched a “Happier Hour” this year from 2 pm to 5 pm, with $1 food and drinks. “As consumers’ eating patterns shift to include more frequent, smaller snacking occasions, we launched Happier Hour earlier this year to establish Taco Bell as the afternoon destination” for snacks and beverages, Chris Brandt, Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer, told the news source. 

Some McCafés by McDonald’s have happy hour offers, and Dairy Queen boosted its sales with a happy hour program that launched in 2009.

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