Sonic, America’s Drive-In, was founded in 1954 and had grown dramatically. In the mid-nineties, Sonic invited customers, franchisees, suppliers and Drive-in managers to a series of "Dream Team meetings to discuss Sonic’s future. The result was Sonic 2000–a multi-layered strategy to further unify the company in terms of a consistent brand identity, menu, products, packaging and service.
“Redesign boosts Sonic Corp.’s bottom line as sales go rocketing.”
July 10, 2000
- Create a fun, high appeal restaurant prototype that revitalizes the customer experience at the point of sale
- Ensure the key elements of the program can be retro-fitted to existing drive-ins
- Enlist franchisees to embrace the program
- Created the new "retro future" positioning and articulated the image attributes that would drive all design development
- Designed the new atomically charged Sonic logo which serves as a bold beacon to welcome drivers
- Reinterpreted the "classic drive-in" restaurant for today’s marketplace – with a curved canopy, car stalls, central patio, dramatic neon and fiber optic lighting and open kitchen
- Added functional elements to accommodate today’s lifestyles including a drive-thru option and an outdoor family patio