DQ’s Waffle Treats selling like hotcakes

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MediaPost reports Dairy Queen's new waffle bowl product line is shaping up to be the most successful product launch for the chain since the Blizzard, a near billion-dollar brand that made its debut in 1985. The first month's rollout of the waffle bowls and cones has generated the highest per-store sales in more than three-and-a-half years, said Chief Brand Officer Michael Keller. The launch is on track to become a 100- to-150-million brand this season, the story said.


"We've been watching waffle bowls for a couple of years now, and decided it was time," Keller told MediaPost. "We have a value advantage and with gas prices what they are and the economy where it is, we think this can be very attractive to consumers."

Dairy Queen has put 25 million in marketing support behind the launch. It's "Made for Each Other" national TV spots via Grey Worldwide are being supported with social media including a MySpace page. The digital initiatives are being promoted on in-store displays, through the 1.3-million member Blizzard Fan Club, on TV and radio spots.

Editor's note: We recently interviewed Keller, who told us DQ was "a pretty sleepy brand for a very long time and for a couple of decades was doing very little in the marketplace.  In the last three or four we have been working very hard to grow this brand, both through same store sales as well as new store development.  One of the areas we felt like we had a large number of opportunities in was on the new product front. Whether those were flavor and size extensions off of our current product platforms or they were new product platforms, we felt like we had opportunities to grow our sales through new product introductions."