- Timothy Fields

As rising costs of commodities and fuel hamper restaurant industries, Qdoba Mexican Grill hopes to lessen the effects by targeting repeat customers.

Qdoba, Wheat Ridge, Colo., this week launched its "Love Ya Back" promotion. Using a registered Qdoba Card, customers can now purchase five entrées to receive one free entrée. The promotion cuts in half the original 10 entrées to receive one deal. The new promotion will run until Labor Day.

Qdoba's in-store table displays, e-mail, radio and print advertising refer to the promotion as a "burrito stimulus."

"We are having cost pressures as a business and handling those is a difficult challenge," said David Craven, Qdoba's director of marketing. "We are looking for ways to bring value to guests."

As many restaurants are resorting to lower price deals to attract customers such as Subway's "Five-dollar Foot-long," Craven feels that this method would devalue their brand. "We have very good frequency [of returning customers]," he said. The new promotion will enable customers to "come in more often and see value."

More importantly, in tough economic times, rewarding customers will be very appealing, Craven said. "This summer, the cost of food, gas and everything else keeps climbing. In order to say 'thank you' to our loyal customers for continuing to eat at Qdoba, we wanted to give them a little something back that hopefully spices up their day." 

By picking up a Qdoba Card from a cashier, a customer can register the card at www.iloveqdoba.com. During the promotion, Qdoba Card holders will earn 200 points for every entrée purchased rather than the previous 100 points. Once a customer reaches 1,000 points on the card, they will receive a free entrée.

Qdoba spent $2.3 million on advertising last year and $900,000 through April of this year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.