Instant gratificationInstant gratification

Mark Brandau

Lunch traffic and sales shot up for Thomas & King, a Lexington, Ky.-based Applebee’s franchisee, after the company began promoting its 14 Minute Lunchtime Guarantee with a TV commercial and a quick-response, or QR, code on marketing materials in its restaurants.

When guests scanned the QR code embedded on a table tent using a Web-enabled smartphone, the mobile browser pulled up the YouTube video of Thomas & King’s commercial, which senior vice president of marketing Christy Metcalfe described as “‘The Office’ meets ‘Glee.’”

QR codes are not yet mainstream, but operators experimenting with the technology say more phones are becoming capable of scanning the two-dimensional bar codes, enabling restaurants to communicate more with ...