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Radiology: Diagnostic Practices - Sonic Clinical... sonichealthcare.com |
Sonic Drive-In is an American fast-food restaurant chain based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that recreates the drive-in-diner feel of the 1950s, complete with carhops who sometimes wear roller skates. As of September 9, 2009, there were 3,500 restaurants in forty-one U.S. states.[2][3]
[edit] History[edit] 1950sAfter Troy N. Smith, Sr., Sonic's founder, returned to his hometown of Shawnee, Oklahoma, after World War II, he became a milkman. He then decided to work delivering bread because bread was not as heavy. He soon purchased the Cottage Cafe, a little café in Shawnee. Before long he sold it and opened a restaurant, Troy's Pan Full of Chicken, on the edge of Shawnee. In 1953, he added a small root-beer stand, the Top Hat Drive-In, to the property. After realizing that the stand was averaging US$700 a week in the sale of root beer, hamburgers and hot dogs, Smith decided to focus on the more-profitable drive-in and scrapped plans to expand the restaurant into a fancier steakhouse. Originally, Top Hat customers would park their automobiles anywhere on the gravel parking lot and walk up to place their orders. However, on a trip to Louisiana, Smith saw a drive-in that used speakers for ordering. He realized that he could increase his sales if he could control the parking and have the customers order from speakers at their cars. Carhops would then deliver the food to the customers. Smith borrowed several automobiles from a friend who owned a used-car lot to establish a layout for controlled parking. He also had some so-called "jukebox boys" come in and wire an intercom system in the parking lot. Sales tripled immediately and his little root-beer stand was a huge success. Charles Woodrow Pappe, an entrepreneur, stopped — by chance — at the Shawnee drive-in and was very impressed. He got out of his car and began to take measurements of the stalls, trying to determine why they were not all the same size, assuming that it was an essential ingredient of the business plan. Smith came out and introduced himself and explained that the stalls were different sizes simply because different-sized automobiles had been used when he laid out everything. The two men hit it off and, in 1956, negotiated the first franchise location in Woodward, Oklahoma. By 1958, two more drive-ins were built in Enid and Stillwater, Oklahoma. Upon learning that the Top Hat name was already trademarked, Smith and Pappe changed the name to Sonic. The new name worked with their existing slogan "Service with the Speed of Sound". After the name change, the first Sonic sign was installed at the former Top-Hat Drive-In Stillwater. Because the first Sonic sign was installed there, the Stillwater location has been considered to be the first Sonic Drive-In; the original sign can still be seen in Stillwater. Although Smith and Pappe were being asked to help open new franchise locations, there was, however, no royalty plan in place. The pair decided to have their paper company charge an extra penny for each Sonic-label hamburger bag it sold. The proceeds were to split fifty-fifty between Smith and Pappe. The first franchise contracts under this plan were drawn up by Smith's landlord, O.K. Winterringer, who was also a lawyer. At the time, there was no joint marketing plan or standardized menu and few operating requirements. [edit] 1960s and 1970s Sonic's founders formed Sonic Supply as a supply-and-distribution division in the 1960s. Under Smith, Marvin Jirous and Matt Kinslow (longtime franchise holders) were hired to run the division. In 1973, Sonic Supply was restructured as a franchise company that was briefly named Sonic Systems of America which sold franchisees equipment, building plans and provided some basic operational instruction.[4] As the company grew into a regionally known operation during the 1960s and 1970s, the drive-ins were located mainly in small towns in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Missouri and Arkansas. In 1967, the year Pappe died, there were forty-one drive-in locations.[4] The number continued to grow, and by 1972 there were 165 locations. By 1978 Sonic had opened 1,000 locations. In 1977, the Sonic School for manager training was established under Winterringer's guidance. Most of the drive-ins were operated by franchisees who often made the store manager a business partner which is still often the case today.[5][6] During the 1960s and 1970s, Sonic had no strict standardized procedures or recipes for their franchisees.[citation needed] Franchisees or franchise groups often developed their own recipes for different menu items or regional specialties. These variations hampered Sonic's growth during this period, which sometimes led to disagreements between franchise groups over menus, pricing, coupons and advertising.[citation needed] As a franchiser, Sonic did not inspect or monitor its franchisees' operations. Customers never knew what to expect in terms of menu, quality or service. Sonic's future growth was in doubt, and by the 1980s the company was losing money.[7] [edit] 1980s In 1983, Smith and Sonic's board of directors saw the need for a change. C. Stephen Lynn was hired as president, and, in 1984, Lynn hired J. Clifford Hudson, an attorney, to head the legal department. Under Lynn, Sonic and its major franchisees began to encourage the development of local-advertising cooperatives, and the marketing director, Keith Sutterfield, developed field marketing representatives to work with the franchisees.[citation needed] Joint advertising brought significant sales growth, and this growth helped franchisees see the benefits of cooperation. Sonic Industries developed a new franchise agreement that required higher royalties and marketing expenditures.[citation needed] There was reluctance to accept these changes by some franchisees, however, the leadership and support of major franchisees had a major impact.[citation needed] In 1985, the Sonic Management School was re-established with classes taught, for the next ten years, by Doyle Paden, Dona Grigsby and Carl Rose. The school stressed the importance of standardized procedures, sanitation and employee training. Drive-ins were inspected and "mystery-shopped". New franchises began to expand the company into new areas and redevelop markets that had been unsuccessful in the past. Wallace Hite developed a speed-of-service system which reduced the standard order time from seven minutes to under three minutes.[citation needed] These developments, combined with the advertising campaign featuring Frankie Avalon, the singer and actor, led to significant growth and a new image that would make Sonic a nationally recognized name. The exterior of a fairly typical Sonic from this period (the one located in Marfa, Texas), can be seen briefly in the film Fandango (1985) starring Kevin Costner. In 1986, Lynn, with a group of investors, completed a $10-million leveraged buyout and took the company private. In 1987, Sonic moved its offices to leased space at 120 Robert S. Kerr Avenue in downtown Oklahoma City and began to assume a higher profile in the community. Sonic moved again to better facilities at 101 Park Avenue in a project led by Ray Fain, Sonic's chief financial officer. Pattye Moore became the new vice president of marketing. [edit] 1990sin 1991, Sonic became a publicly traded company again and, in 1994, the corporation finished renegoiating the franchise agreements with its franchisees.[8] In 1995 Hudson[9] became president and chief executive officer, and Sonic Industries became Sonic Corporation. During the mid-1990s, Sonic opened 100-150 new restaurants a year. Beginning in 1998, Sonic began a retrofit program, called "Sonic 2000", to redesign and update all 1,750 stores in its chain with, what was called, a "retro-future" look.[6]  [edit] 2000sHudson was named chairman of Sonic Corporation in January 2000.[10] The company moved into its new headquarters building in the Bricktown district of Oklahoma City. In 2007, the company opened its first restaurants in the Northeastern U.S. in New Jersey [1] Expansion into Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts followed in 2008 and 2009, with Sonic's first location in Connecticut scheduled to open in Spring 2010. [2]. Despite this growth into new markets outside the brand's traditional footprint, the brand was hit hard by the recession of 2008-2009. In 2009, the brand saw multiple quarters of declines in same-store sales for the first time in recent memory.[11] [edit] Menu items[edit] FoodSonic items such as hand-made onion rings, deep fried pickles as well as such drive-in staples as hamburgers, Coneys (hot dogs with chili con carne and shredded cheese) and corn dogs. During its early years, some Sonic franchise locations also featured regional items on their menu. Other notable menu items include Ched 'R' Peppers (a form of jalapeño popper) and Tater Tots. The company features a mix-in frozen dessert called "____ Blasts", with the prefix being the item blended into the product. The drive-ins also offer jalapeño Tater Tots as an option for a side with a combination meal. [edit] DrinksIn addition to tradition soft drinks, different flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, cherry, strawberry, cranberry, apple, etc. are available and can be added to the soft drink. Popular drinks include Ocean Water (the soft drink Sprite, with blue-colored coconut flavoring added) or limeades (Sprite with lime added.) Ades can also be made with flavor combinations. The company uses the slogan of "Your Ultimate Drink Stop" because of the 168,894 possible drink combinations. Its advertising also states that "You could have a new drink every day for the next 462 years". The true number of possible combinations is higher.[12] [edit] Advertising[edit] 1970sIn 1977, the company ran its first television advertisement.[13] [edit] 1980 sIn the 1980s, many of the company's drive-ins displayed signs with the slogan Happy Eating. Also, during the early 1980s, Tom Bosley, the actor, was featured in the company's television advertisements.[14] One of the company's most-memorable television advertising campaigns, which ran fom 1987 to 1993, featured Avalon.[15] [edit] 1990sIn May 1999, the company began a new advertising campaign featuring the character, Katie the Carhop.[16] [edit] 2000sThe company is also involved with the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The company contracted with Richard Childress Racing in late 2000 to be an associate sponsor for Dale Earnhardt, Sr. during the 2001 NASCAR race season. Earnhardt was killed in the first race of the 2001 season, the Daytona 500 in Daytona, Florida. The company continued its sponsorship for Kevin Harvick, Childress's new driver of Earnhardt's car, through the end of the 2003 season. In 2004, the company became more widely known by advertising in markets hundreds of miles from its nearest franchise. It has also used the slogan "Sonic's got it... others don't", as well as "It's not just good... it's Sonic good", implying a higher standard of quality than normal fast-food fare. Improvisational actors T. J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz are known to American television viewers from their series of "Two Guys" advertisements for the drive-ins. Similar series of commercials have also run featuring other duos of improvisational performers (Molly Erdman and Brian Huskey, and Katie Rich and Sayjal Joshi). [edit] References
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