Chili-Cheesify Your Life!

Ok, I've just dug out of meetings and work and can't believe its already Wednesday. So accept my apologies for not blogging in a few days. In honor of our current promotion of Pups and especially one of my favorite items (Besides Krystals) which is Chili Cheese Pups and Chili Cheese fries. I've decided to bring back a favorite which is the Chili Cheesification Site that the Krystal Marketing department created as an homage to our Chili Cheesification event last year. The site is still up at www.chilicheesification.com. I think its hilarious and gross all at the same time. If you haven't seen it check it out. I might also give out our secret to Chili Cheesification if you give some love of the Chili Cheese variety.

Krystal Lover Clue #2

Ok since I'm the only Coordinator who seems to be here on a Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend (Hello? Bueller???? - {sound of crickets in the background}) I will make sure that the Krystal Lover fans I care about get another update. Well actually its Krystal Lover Clue #2 and you won't find it anywhere else but here my wonderful Krystal folks. This is a small snapshot of a Krystal project we are working on currently. It will be the source of tons more Krystal fun so stay tuned! I promise your curiousity will be satified in the next couple of weeks. I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend! And remember! Krystals are the perfect picnic item for summer (I had to say that, its my job ok?)

Krystal Lover?????

Kenny (He says hi by the way) and I are sitting in a training class today learning some fun new things to make us more efficient marketers of Krystal burgers, Pups and Chili Cheese fries ... (When do we get out of here again???) Therefore, we decided to give you a little teaser for the new addition to our website. If anyone can guess what it is then Krystals are on me.

Krystal Has That Sweet Onion Flavor!

One of the coolest perks about working at Krystal is NOT that we get free food or a discount when we go to the Krystal of our choice. (Actually we don't, we love Krystals so much we don't care about measly discounts) However, when you work at the Krystal Headquarters you DO get treated to free samplings from the test kitchen whenever they are trying out new things. My latest favorite that I'm sure will sweep the Southeast is Krystal Onion Petals. They aren't your garden variety onion ring. No sir! These little gems will be offered starting in July and run through the summer. So if you don't get enough sweet onion flavor from those steamed little Krystal burgers get a side of Onion Petals to polish off your meal. Coming soon....

A Krystal Lover Story and a Seatbelt Ticket

To work in the Krystal Marketing Department is to know what its like to hear hundreds (if not thousands) of stories from people who have a story about their first Krystal experience. Or for that matter, an experience of how Krystal changed their life. Now we don't even neccessarily ask for these stories. On the contrary, people can't wait to tell them to us. Example: today I was running late for a meeting in downtown Chattanooga. Now that is approximately 8 blocks from the Krystal Building. So, I decided to drive. I was but .1 miles away from my destination (sitting at a stop light) when I was pulled over by a bicycle officer for not having my seatbelt on. (Blank stare...Are you freakin kidding me?) However, in a random twist he asked where I worked and once I told him, his first response was, "You market those small square Krystal burgers?!" (Another Blank Stare...) I could barely respond "Yes" before he launched in a story of how his mother worked at the original Krystal that was located on Cherry Street. That is how his parents met. His Dad came in and saw his mother and then came more frequently and the rest we say, is Krystal Lover history. (Pun Intended) And of course how he loves Krystals. Now you think, "Wow that is neat!" And it is-but not uncommon. We Krystal Marketers wear these great stickers because we ourselves are excited about the brand. (Pictured above) Now we wear these all the time and we love it. Why you ask? Because you wouldn't believe how many people will come up to us and tell us their Krystal Lovers stories. Not only that but we carry extra stickers with us because people beg us for them as if they were an actual free Krystal Burger. Whether we are walking through airports, on the street, grocery shopping-people love to tell us their stories. And we love to hear them. Its why we do what we do. Ummmm, so I'm wondering and I guess I'm directing this question to my boss. "Is this seatbelt ticket possibly deductible in the name of research?"

Pat Boone, Kid Rock, and Krystal

American music legend Pat Boone was in town last night for a charity auction and golf tournament. At the auction I learned that Pat has been a Krystal Lover for years. That got me thinking about all the celebrities that love Krystal, just like you and me, so I decided to start a list of these folks.

In addition to Pat Boone, here is the list.


Kid Rock; Rapper/ Country Singer/ Rock Star
Bo Bice; American Idol Runner-Up
Chris Young; Winner of Nashville Star
Mickey Jones; Actor best known for his roles in Sling Blade, Vacation, and Saved By the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas
Uncle Kracker; Rocker/ Rapper/ Country-Blues Artist
Alavar Hanso; CEO & Founder of the Hanso Foundation
Jeff Carlisi; Founding member and former lead guitarist for 38 Special
George Jones; Country music legend
Samuel L. Jackson; Star of Snakes on a Plane; had his professional acting debut on a Krystal commercial
Takeru Kobayashi; The Greatest Eater to Ever Live

And in the "no longer eating at Krystal, but they would if they could" category...
President Ronald Reagan; The 40th President of the United States dined on Krystals aboard Air Force One after speaking in Chattanooga.
Elvis Presley; the King of Rock and Roll
Bear Bryant; Legendary college football coach

Without a doubt, this is only a partial list of Celebrity Krystal Lovers. If you know of anyone else to add to this list, or if you happen to have a picture of someone famous eating a Krystal we would love to know about it.

"Let's Take A Krystal Roadtrip"

Since summer is practically upon us I wanted to feature one of the new Krystal website enhancements we've added to our website at www.krystal.com. For those of you who have visited our website, (that should be everyone-right?) you know that we have a store locator that will help our Krystal customers or future Krystal customers find locations closest to them. Recently, we did a major enhancement (however there are huge things about to be unveiled so stay tuned!) by using Yahoo Maps technology. It now allows anybody to find a store closest to a certain area by either City or State or (this is the best part) you can access a trip planner by entering in a start address and an ending address and chart all the Krystals along your Roadtrip! So before you finish making plans for your vacation don't forget to chart your Krystals so it will be full of good eats. Happy Trails Krystal Lovers! (And have a Krystal burger for me)

What a Krystal Mess!

(Ok I'm laying off Kenny after this post-no really I mean it)Well there is one thing that is legendary in the Marketing department at Krystal - Kenny's desk. Pictured above, you would never know that he can get ANYTHING accomplished, however, in actuality he is one of the busiest people in Marketing. Many times I have contemplated hiding all of Kenny's papers. But as Kenny says it,"Then you would ruin my organization system!" System indeed....

What happens at Krystal Commercial Shoots...

Hello! This is Tiffany, one of the Super Krystal Coordinators! I thought I would review some of my past Krystal exploits to break up all the Krystal Lover Hall of Fame banter. (Just kidding Kenny, Hall of Fame is life!) This past April I helped at our most recent commercial shoot for our upcoming Cheese Flavors Promotion. For those of you who don't know, Krystal commericals feature real Krystal Lover stories. And the best part of the commercial shoot is listening to all of these stories - especially the ones that people make up so they can try to be on the commercials. Needless to say I called "BS" many times. Nontheless, my hats off to someone who has enough passion for Krystal that they would make up a tall tale just to be in our commercials. We did find some great stories that I know people are going to love to see. Most of these pictures are of the crew, some of us Krystalites from Brand Marketing and new "Krystal Starlets" that will be featured in our upcoming commercials. The last picture is my favorite - my boss helping in a reenactment scene. After letting this leak who knows if I'll be here tommorrow to blog some more....

A True Krystal Lover

At this risk of stating the obvious, the number one criteria for getting in the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame is being a lover of Krystal. When we read Jason Jennette's story it was obvious he loves Krystal. He celebrates "Krystal Day" every Thursday with a meal at his favorite restaurant. Since Krystal is closed on Thanksgiving (a Thursday) he buys them Wednesday night to have for lunch on Turkey Day. He has also been known to make a "Krystal Stuffing" for his family's Thanksgiving turkey.

After reading his story, we knew Jason was a Krystal Lover, but we had no idea. We didn't know that Jason's nickname is "The Krystal Kid." We didn't know Jason would plan a trip around a visit to Krystal's world headquarters and the original Krystal in downtown Chattanooga. We didn't know that one of Jason's heros is Hall of Fame Inductee #0015, Johnny Solomon III, a resident of Jason's hometown of Macon, GA. And we definitely didn't know that Jason would start a blog, The Adventures of the Krystal Kid, documenting his experience being inducted into the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame. You should check it out. It will give you a glimpse of the high life lived by members of the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame. You'll read about media interviews, his induction ceremony, a Krystal game he invented, and the monumental moment when Jason Jennette met Johnny Solomon.

The Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame

Everybody has a Krystal Story, and a lot of people tell them to us. And by a lot, I mean thousands of people tell their stories to us. We get stories submitted to the website, e-mailed to us, mailed to us, faxed to us, hand-written and submitted by employees, and sent by carrier pigeon. Actually, we haven't received any carrier pigeons, but it would be really cool if we did.

We wanted to formally recognize our favorite stories, so we created the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame. The first 20 members were inducted in the fall of 2005, and we just wrapped up induction ceremonies for numbers 21 through 40. These folks get their face on well over a million Krystal boxes, are permanently enshrined in the Hall of Fame section of Krystal.com, and get lots of cool Krystal stuff. They also have an official Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at their favorite Krystal. It's pretty cool, and oh the stories we can tell about those ceremonies. Check back & we might just tell some of those stories.

My Favorite Krystal T-Shirt

Something coming soon....