Lately, there’s no telling how long consumers could eat for free off of quick-serve giveaways. In February, Denny’s gave customers its Grand Slam Breakfast on the house. Cinnabon offered free Classic Bites to consumers on April 15. In honor of its 39th anniversary, Seattle’s Best Coffee offered free coffee to anyone 39 years old during the month of April. In May, Panera Bread handed out samples of its asiago roast beef sandwich, forest mushroom soup, and some of its frozen beverages. And these are just a few of the free food promotions popping up around the country. But in a down economy, is free really the way to bring in business? It appears the answer may be yes.

Within the last year, McDonald’s franchises have participated in a number of food giveaways, including samplings of coffee, the Southern-style chicken sandwich, and french fries. John Tamasi, president of the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association and owner of several locations, says these promotions serve two purposes for McDonald’s franchisees. First, they are an ideal way to introduce a new product to the marketplace. “If you’re sampling a great product, the customers will continue to come back to buy it,” he says.

Second, they drive business to the restaurants. “In today’s environment, consumers are shopping for everyday value,” Tamasi says. “Who’s running the best deal?”

Research from the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast supports this mindset. According to the report, 69 percent of customers said they would visit a quick-service restaurant more frequently if it offered discounts for frequent dining, while 66 percent said they would visit a quick-service restaurant more frequently if it offered discounts for dining on less busy days of the week. Furthermore, 53 percent said they would visit a quick-service restaurant more frequently if it let kids eat free.

Given that repeat customers account for 75 percent of quick-serve restaurant sales (per the NRA’s quick-service operator survey), it’s not surprising that operators are doing whatever is necessary to keep customers coming back again.

For Denny’s, that meant investing about $3 million for a Super Bowl commercial advertising the free Grand Slam Breakfast plus about $2 million in additional costs for the program. According to Denny’s CEO Nelson Marchioli, the benefits far outweighed the cost. “Our objective was to create a disruptive, high-trial event to attract customers to experience the new Denny’s, resulting in ongoing increased frequency of visitation,” he says. “Along that line, our first quarter guest comp performance reflected an encouraging improvement in trend relative to the last six months of 2008.”

Based on exit polling conducted by the company, the campaign attracted more than 1.9 million customers, with about 60 percent of the participants in the company’s target group of light and lapsed consumers. Also, 95 percent said they would either “definitely” or “probably” come back within three months.

Financially speaking, Marchioli estimates that because of the vast amount of media coverage the program received, including 50 million hits on the Denny’s Web site, media coverage by almost every major TV and cable network, and articles in more than 500 newspapers, it received more than $50 million of public relations coverage.

Denny’s followed up the free Grand Slam Breakfast campaign with another giveaway in April, this time offering a free Grand Slamwich to those purchasing a Grand Slam Breakfast. “This event drove a positive 20 percent guest-count growth that day and helped produce the brand’s strongest comp traffic trends during Easter week in at least the past four years,” Marchioli says.

Although today’s economic climate is forcing some quick-serve operators to be more aggressive in their promotions, many are just following through on previously planned marketing plans. That was the case with Seattle’s Best Coffee and its 39th anniversary activities, which included a complimentary cup of coffee to customers on April 6 as well as a complimentary cup of coffee to 39-year-olds throughout the month. “It was our way to say thank you and invite current customers to celebrate with us with a free cup of coffee, and hopefully invite some new customers to try our coffee,” says Kevin Carothers, senior field marketing manager for Seattle’s Best Coffee.

However, there are quick-serves, such as Firehouse Subs, that have refrained from jumping into the discount battle being waged by competitors. “We feel it would de-value our product quality,” says Don Fox, chief operating officer for Firehouse Subs. “We feel it’s important to stay the course.”

Instead, the company is taking a different approach to drive business: Increase brand awareness in its markets. In July 2008, the company told franchisees to keep the usual 2 percent advertising revenue that normally is contributed to a co-op for marketing and to use the money to market and promote their businesses in and around their market area. As a result of this initiative, Fox says, many locations have seen increased traffic plus many have more than doubled their catering sales. “Traffic has increased commensurate with the franchisee’s efforts to market the business,” Fox says.

Despite such strong results for Firehouse Subs, most quick-serves will weather the economic storm by offering food giveaways and discount programs. “Anything we can do to discount product to drive traffic, now is the time to do it,” Tamasi says.

Regardless of what happens with the state of the economy, expect to see such sampling and discount promotions continue for the foreseeable future. After all, these promotion-related visits supported all commercial foodservice gains for the annual period ending November 2008, according to NPD Group, a market research company.

In NPD’s Consumer Reports on Eating Share Trends, which tracks consumer usage of commercial foodservice, deal visits increased 6 percent while nondeal visits decreased by 1 percent. Additionally, 23 percent of all traffic involved some type of consumer-recognized deal, with 90 percent of those in the quick-service industry, the report stated.

So far it appears the trend will hold true for 2009. “We’re seeing more discounts and coupons now than two to three years ago,” Tamasi says. The key is finding out what works best for your particular restaurant and client base.