Sunday, October 26, 2014

McDonald’s, Domino’s, Dunkin Donuts, Fighting Back


Market share capitulation can only last so lone.  So we ask is the equilibrium about to shift from non-traditional fresh food market share gainers back to legacy fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat retailers?  According to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™ you won’t have to wait long to find out. 
Complacency, Copy-Cat Menu’s, and Customer Counts declines inevitably lead to change.   Will change lead to innovation or simply more of the same?  Who are the likely winners and losers? Is your restaurant still playing the wait and see don’t act game? How’s that working?  Are Customer Counts and Sales up?
Companies the ilk of Casey’s General Stores with 1842 units has a three year fresh prepared food  growth that exceeds 38.5% driven in large part by fresh prepared Pizza sales.  Wawa is investing in excess of $550 Million Dollars in the Central Florida market driven in large part by sales of it’s now famous Hoagies.
All of this will likely make for an exciting time for the industry in 2015 putting additional pressure on legacy QSR’s to up increase innovation, or capitulate more market share.  Let’s first look at Domino’s Pizza clearly the innovation leader within the QSR sector.  Domino’s is the only company to completely dump, abandon, and replace its hallmark product it pizza.  Since they boldly replaced the crust, sauce evolving its brand identity from yesterday’s staple to today’s flavor profiles. Which in turn drove customer relevance, sales, profits, store counts and customer counts have posted sector leading numbers.
The once delivery company Domino’s Pizza is now selling fresh Ready-2-Eat slices at some units, remodeling others with high definition digital flat screen TV’s, digital menu boards, seating all creating a platform for what Domino’s CEO J. Patrick Doyle has suggested is “smart slice” positioning.  We might suggest that a gradual progression into a family friendly Pizza QSR with inside seating featuring ‘better for you” pizza and more.
While Yum Brands utilized new products the ilk of the waffle taco to attract customers.  The results have fallen short. No matter how much a company spends on marketing the new product must resonate with consumer.   While Yum’s target customers are millennials.  Millennials are digitally informed, seeking discovery, not gimmickry.  They require integrated branded marketing messaging and products that proactively edify the brand.

McDonalds is empowering franchisee choice allowing the franchisee the option this year to run the McRib LTO which plays better in some parts of the country than the other.  Today’s decentralization in chain restaurant messaging is playing a leading role and McDonalds understand it.  Leaders lead and McDonalds is once again providing industry leadership.  

Dunkin Donuts is building customer loyalty one sip at a time.  Dunkin Donuts' "DD Perks" now has a total of 1.5 million members and is adding close to 70,000 new members a month. Integrating food and beverage loyalty programs into evolving brand messaging is a signal that Dunkin “DD Perks” has customer relevance.
When asking the Foodservice Solutions® team if you could only pick company today that most likely would become the 2015 innovative fast food leader which would you select?  The unanimous consensus is Domino's Pizza  who will be entering the 2015 with  "Dom," a virtual voice-ordering assistant for its mobile app and ‘smart slice.  Yes, we know Domino’s is getting better for you!
Since 1991 retail food consultancy Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Foodservice Solutions® or for a Grocerant Scorecard visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  Email: Steve@FoodserviceSoltuions.us


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