Checkers & Rally’s had a slow-moving and low-output workflow for product development and product testing.
We completely restructured the process to not just get more products out faster, but better informed, more relevant products.
Filling the pipeline.
Checkers & Rally’s had previously been ideating within the confines of QSR. We started building our innovation sessions from flavor and food trend reports that we co-developed with a speciality culinary research team.
We started looking outside of QSR and explored food from casual to fine dining for inputs and inspiration into how we could bring those ingredients and methods to a drive-thru customer. Soon, everyone was thinking beyond just burgers and fries.
Better product positioning. Better testing.
Now with so much going on in the test kitchen, Checkers & Rally’s needed a better way to test products. Previously, new items were tested in isolation; often with just a worded description and companion imagine. By naming and positioning products in ways that connected them to Fast Foodie culture, testing became more insightful and products that were hard to grasp at a face value were given a fair shake.
Burgers got bigger, tripled, loaded, and smothered.
But one particular burger, born of this new process, outsold every menu item for 3 months and drove an 18% bump in YoY traffic.
Beyond burgers.
But maybe more importantly, it got Checkers & Rally’s innovating outside of burgers.
Instead of developing new menu items, we helped them develop new menu platforms like hot subs; a first for the drive-thru and a line of sandwiches that drove incremental visits and revenue across all 900 stores.
More than a test kitchen.
Checkers & Rally’s started posting some of the more outlandish innovations to their Instagram stories with step-by-step process videos. Not only did it provide great feedback on menu concepts, it remains some of the most watched and engaged with content across all their social platforms.
