Kansas City Food Blog

Flickr: Kit Kath

Wendy's misses Dave. The chain's sales have stayed as flat as its square burgers since the lovable founder died in 2002. Since then, Wendy's advertising campaigns have been -- to put it lightly-- less than memorable.

Wendy's was the first fast-good chain to do a dollar menu and the first to have a healthy menu, but for some reason it couldn't keep up the innovation. As this Time article from 2005 explains:

Over the past two years, its competitors wised up and realized that they too could goose up sales by adding some variety to the menu. In some cases they copied many of Wendy's most successful products. "That never happened before," says Janice Meyer, a fast-food-industry analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston... The situation got so bad that Wendy's had to launch its latest innovation, an entrée-size fruit salad, in February -- not exactly when most people are yearning for a slice of cantaloupe -- because it knew that McDonald's was launching an apple-and-walnut salad in May."

But now Wendy's is getting smart again. It's spent the past seven years exactly where most Americans are now -- in a recession. As a result, it's prepared to offer desperate people what they want: free things!
Hence the Wendy's Bid for Value, an online auction site where bidding starts at an item's retail price and then every bid knocks the price down. The person who bids down to 99 cents wins the item. The prizes have ranged from irreverent (Chuck Norris' jacket) to high-end electronics like plasma televisions. Today is the last day for the auctions, and Wendy's is bidding off televisions and game consoles from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. 

While companies constantly run contests giving away free things, Wendy's wisely avoided the "one winner chosen randomly" style and have made consumers feel a part of the auction. The response on the Internet has been so positive that Wendy's will for sure try it again; and if it doesn't, its competitors will.