Marketing done right!

Well, I cringe a little at the fact that a chain establishment is what is making me write my first post in a very long time, but so be it.

I am a fan of rewards programs, but I try to be selective in the ones I join, because my wallet only has so much space and I only want to sell my soul shopping habit details to so many corporations in exchange for perceived free items.

One such program that I belong to is Qdoba, as fake Mexican food is probably my favourite kind of food*

Now, at heart I'm a Burrito Del Rio sorta gal, their chipotle sauce is ridiculously good. However, I don't often find myself near either of their locations when I tend to get hungry, probably because there are not any thrift stores near there... I of course also like the idea of supporting a local establishment.

One day I tried Qdoba at the recommendation of a friend. I didn't really like it and I thought the portions were chintzy. He let me in on a secret... you can basically have as much of everything but meat for no extra charge! Now, I find their portions to be more on par with BDR and I'm a fan (well, except when they get judgy about my extras, listen lady, I know that's a lot of cheese sauce I asked for, but when I say three scoops, I mean three FULL scoops).

Anyway, the point of this post...
So today in my emails, because I have the Ellice location set to my "home" location, I got this incredibly clever offer telling me I deserve a deal for "braving the elements". That's right, they took the knowledge they had of the snowstorm and how it was likely going to bring traffic to a halt and they turned it into a marketing opportunity. They also didn't do it half-assed, they're doing a full on BOGO. Bravo Qdoba, bravo. You have won my respect for what you will do with my email address.

On a side note, just in case the people who own Burrito Del Rio read this... I might make more of an effort to stop in if your take out "Naked Burrito" was as good a deal as your eat in version. You eat in and you get a nice heaping bowl of tasty goodness; take out you get a teeny little clamshell. I know you have bigger clamshells, why not offer it in two sizes like you do the wrapped burritos? Also, how about a self serve water station for when folks do eat in? Oh! and good grief, I realize it's delicate balance between keeping your staff vs your customers comfortable, but your a/c that blows right onto people (River location) is too cold. Always. Like so cold. Which is why I have to do take out so often.


*which is interesting because I used to be one of the cilantro-tastes-like-soap people, but I grew out of it and now I can't get enough.