Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking to see how Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) is navigating the current cost pressures, and honestly, their late 2025 marketing mix tells a clear story of adaptation. We're seeing a tightrope walk between their full-service Bad Daddy's and quick-service Good Times concepts, evidenced by Q1 2025 menu price increases of 3.9% and 4.5% respectively, necessary to offset commodity costs. Plus, with a new Senior Director of Marketing hired in Q3 2025, the promotion spend is actively shifting to digital channels to support their 70 total units. Dive in below to see the precise breakdown of their Product, Place, Promotion, and Price strategy right now.

Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) - Marketing Mix: Product

The product element for Good Times Restaurants Inc. is defined by its dual-brand strategy, offering distinct experiences under the Bad Daddy\'s Burger Bar and Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard banners.

• - Dual-brand model: Bad Daddy\'s (full-service) and Good Times (quick-service).

As of the Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter, Good Times Restaurants Inc. operated or licensed 40 Bad Daddy\'s Burger Bar restaurants across 7 states, with 10 units in Colorado and 14 in North Carolina. The Good Times segment operated or franchised 30 restaurants, with 28 primarily in Colorado. The Bad Daddy\'s segment generates the maximum revenue for the Company. For the Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter, Bad Daddy\'s total restaurant sales were $26.5 million. For the Fiscal 2025 Second Quarter, company-owned Good Times restaurant sales were $9.3 million.

The core product commitment across the concepts centers on high-quality beef.

• - Core focus on 100% all-natural beef and chicken across both concepts.

The Good Times quick-service concept specifically features hamburgers made with Meyer All-Natural, All-Angus beef. Bad Daddy\'s Burger Bar features chef-driven gourmet burgers, with the platform being giant, never-frozen 7-oz. patties seasoned to perfection.

Bad Daddy\'s Burger Bar drives interest through culinary innovation and Limited Time Offers (LTOs).

• - Bad Daddy\'s leverages LTOs like the Birria Burger to drive traffic.

The Birria Burger LTO, popular in 2024, returned for a summertime run in 2025. A recent menu adaptation, the Smash N\' Stack Burger, debuted in April 2025 and quickly became the No. 3 top seller since its introduction. To counter value-seeking customers, Bad Daddy\'s has experimented with smaller sizes. The average menu price at Bad Daddy\'s in Q3 2025 was 3.8% higher than in Q3 2024.

The Good Times quick-service menu highlights specific signature items.

• - Good Times offers signature Wild Fries, breakfast burritos, and fresh frozen custard.

The Good Times menu includes green chili breakfast burritos and fresh frozen custard desserts. The brand is also rolling out summer frozen custard upgrades and a fried ice cream LTO in 2025. Furthermore, Good Times offers Pawbenders, a frozen treat for dogs containing vanilla Frozen Custard, three Milk Bones, and a Peanut Butter Drizzle.

The value positioning at the quick-service level is supported by specific price points on certain items, though the specific Bambino slider data is not explicitly detailed in the latest reports.

The Good Times brand is modernizing its prototype, with 10 units slated for remodels in 2025, aiming for completion by 2026.

Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) - Marketing Mix: Place

The Place strategy for Good Times Restaurants Inc. centers on targeted regional saturation for the Good Times brand and a multi-state, full-service presence for Bad Daddy's Burger Bar. Distribution is purely physical, relying on the strategic placement of brick-and-mortar locations to serve their respective consumer bases.

As of the latest reporting period for fiscal 2025, the total physical footprint stands at 70 units across both concepts.

• Total restaurant count is 70 units, split between 40 Bad Daddy's and 30 Good Times.
• Good Times is a regional concept, with most locations concentrated in Colorado.
• Bad Daddy's operates in a broader seven-state footprint as a full-service small box.
• 10 Good Times units are slated for modernized prototype remodels during fiscal 2025.

The Bad Daddy's Burger Bar concept utilizes its broader reach across seven states to distribute its full-service offering. The distribution of these 40 units is detailed below:

The Good Times brand maintains a tight geographic focus, which is key to its regional distribution strategy. Of the 30 Good Times restaurants, 28 are located in Colorado, with the remaining 2 units operating as dual-brand concepts in Wyoming. This concentration allows for localized supply chain management and marketing efforts. Furthermore, the company is actively investing in the physical assets of this concept; 10 Good Times units are scheduled for modernized prototype remodels in fiscal 2025 as part of a systemwide redesign expected to conclude by 2026. This refresh is designed to modernize the customer experience while preserving the brand's heritage.

Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

You're looking at the promotional pivot Good Times Restaurants Inc. is making right now, especially after seeing some sales pressure in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The company is definitely adjusting its communication strategy to fight back against larger competitors who are discounting heavily. This isn't just about running ads; it's a strategic realignment following disappointing sales results.

The first concrete action was organizational. In Q3 2025, Good Times Restaurants hired Jason Murphy as the new Senior Director of Marketing, previously with Buffalo Wild Wings, to take charge of all advertising and promotion for both the Bad Daddy's Burger Bar and Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard concepts. This move directly addresses the sales declines experienced across the portfolio. For instance, Q3 2025 same-store sales dropped 9.0% at Good Times and 1.4% at Bad Daddy's, making this leadership change critical for driving traffic.

The promotional focus is shifting digitally. The plan involves moving away from older channels, like radio, toward more targeted digital placements. The new brand campaign at Good Times, entitled 'Colorado Native Burgers,' is set to launch in late August 2025, with subsequent elements rolling out in September. This campaign is designed to lean into the company's local heritage and will feature a mix of advertising components:

• Outdoor advertising components.
• Social media advertising.
• Streaming video advertising components.
• A fresh website and matching mobile app redesign.

Testing connected TV and video streaming is a key part of this digital push, aiming to drive traffic for both brands. This is a direct response to the competitive environment where large players like McDonald's and Wendy's are spending heavily on marketing and discounting. Good Times Restaurants is trying to preserve margins, noting that their combined General & Administrative expenses were $2.2 million in Q3 2025, or 5.9% of total revenues, which was down 120 basis points year-over-year, showing a focus on overhead control alongside marketing investment.

For Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, the promotion is leaning into high-value, limited-time offers (LTOs) on beverages to boost check averages and traffic, while maintaining cost discipline elsewhere. The $8 Bad Ass Margarita LTO has performed well throughout the summer, following an initial $4 price point on May 5th. This strategy contrasts with deep discounting across the board; management noted they are taking a different approach to preserve margins, even as Bad Daddy's Food and Beverage costs were 30.6% in the quarter, a 60 basis point year-over-year decrease. The company is trying to balance value perception with profitability, as evidenced by the fact that they increased menu pricing by approximately 1% in a subset of Good Times stores on August 1st.

Here's a quick look at the Q3 2025 financial context that informs these promotional decisions:

The focus on brand-specific campaigns, like the 'Colorado Native Burgers' push, and targeted beverage promotions, like the $8 margarita, shows a segmented promotional approach. This is necessary because the brand performance diverged: Bad Daddy's restaurant-level operating profit margin was 14.4%, while Good Times margins compressed to 11.2% of sales in the quarter. Finance is focused on cash accumulation, with the company ending the quarter with $3.1 million in cash and $2.3 million in long-term debt, meaning promotional spending must deliver measurable traffic improvements.

Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) - Marketing Mix: Price

You're looking at how Good Times Restaurants Inc. (GTIM) manages the money customers hand over for their burgers and salads. The core approach here is definitely steering clear of deep, margin-eroding discounting, aiming instead for what management calls everyday value for the value-oriented customer. Still, competitive discounting has been a factor, especially hitting the Good Times brand, which historically has seen its margins suffer when it relied on promotions.

To keep pace with rising input costs, GTIM has been making calculated menu adjustments. For instance, in the first fiscal quarter of 2025, Good Times implemented an average menu price increase of approximately 3.9% over the same prior year quarter. Bad Daddy's Burger Bar saw a slightly higher average menu price increase for the same period, coming in at 4.5% higher than the first quarter of 2024.

These pricing increases are a direct response to the need to offset elevated commodity costs, with ground beef being a primary concern. Management has flagged that ground beef costs were significantly elevated over the prior year and expected to continue increasing throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2025 due to tightening supply. To give you a clearer picture of the cost pressure, here's how the food and packaging/beverage costs looked across the brands during the first half of 2025:

The pressure is real; for Good Times in the second fiscal quarter of 2025, food and packaging costs stood at 30.7% of sales. It's a balancing act; for example, at Bad Daddy's in Q1 2025, the 4.5% menu price increase, combined with a favorable mix shift into the Smash Patty Burgers, was necessary to offset higher purchase prices in the commodity basket. By Q3 2025, management noted they had not taken significant overall blended menu price increases at Bad Daddy's, sitting on less than 2% year-over-year food price increases, which were mostly negated by promotional discounting.

You should also note the historical context: Good Times management has acknowledged that historically, discounting preserved sales but did so at the expense of restaurant-level margins, a history that guides their current pricing and menu strategy. In Q3 2025, after not taking broad price since January 2024, the company was roughly in parity with competitors outside of discounts, compared to a historical premium of up to 10%. They began measuring the traffic impact after selectively implementing an approximately 1% price increase in a subset of stores on August 1, 2025.