Bacardi Rum buckets began appearing at some Applebee’s franchisees’ restaurants a few years ago, and they’ve since found their way onto menus systemwide. Those buckets have also evolved beyond rum, as evidenced by the brand’s recent 32-ounce $10 Backyard Buckets and $10 NFL Bucket Cocktails promotions, with concoctions inspired by Long Island Iced Tea, watermelon Patrón Silver margarita, and Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea mixed with Absolut Citron.
The buckets themselves even feature new designs to support the expansion of spirits options. The new promotion, for instance, no longer features the Bacardi logo on the bucket, but rather NFL team logos.
During a recent interview at parent company Dine Brands’ headquarters in Pasadena, Calif., executive director of beverage Nate Grover, said the buckets are part of Applebee’s broader strategy of “going after abundant value.”
The buckets complement other successful beverage promotions, such as the Dollarita, “Mucho” drinks, and the “Perfect Margarita” platform, in which servers provide guests with the shaker tin at the table so “it’s experiential and it feels like they’re getting two or three drinks out of it,” Grover said.
“Our objective besides value is creating an experience. We love playing in different categories to do that and to build equity in. The Perfect Margarita is one of them. Mucho is another – it’s in our signature glass, we put cocktails in it that are fun and playful,” he said.
That includes perennially popular promotions like the Smoocho Valentine’s Day cocktail, the Shark Bowl, Sleigh Bell Sips, and Star Spangled Sips.
“As part of creating an experience, we want to make things visually appealing and Instagrammable. We want to create a buzz so people will want to share pictures before drinking it,” Grover said.
Because of these unique platforms, Applebee’s beverage program has been a strong differentiator for the brand in a crowded casual dining segment. Grover said one of the biggest benefits of the program is it tends to engage different guests than the brand’s core demographics – namely, more women and younger consumers, including Gen Z. Few platforms have created as much buzz for those younger consumers than Applebee’s popular Dollarita promotion, first introduced in 2017 on the heels of a macroeconomic slowdown. Chief marketing officer Joel Yashinsky called the launch “one of those rare, real silver bullets.”
“All of a sudden, it drove relevancy, traffic, new guests. We had more 21- to 25-year-olds coming in and we’ve been building on it from there,” he said.
The offering’s evolution now includes an ability for guests to add new flavors, like mango or strawberry, for an additional 50 cents, or to upgrade to Jose Cuervo Tequila for an additional $1. Grover said many franchisees have taken advantage of these upgrades to further drive their profitability.
Amid another restaurant consumer slowdown, the Dollarita has made its return a couple of times in the past year, and it has once again attracted new and younger consumers, while also generating a high food attachment rate.
Notably, the “Dollarita” name was conceived by a franchisee, just as Applebee’s bucket lineup was and, indeed, many other beverage ideas. The chain’s 31 franchisees often host bartender or cocktail contests and run their own local beverage programs, which sometimes get elevated systemwide. This process, Grover said, allows the chain to have a stronger pulse on consumer trends.
“Part of our job is to find innovative ideas we can scale and sometimes they come from the test bar, and sometimes they come from franchisees,” he said. “That’s what gives us a nice, healthy pipeline.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
