One global restaurant chain Taco Bell apparently
thinks that it can profit off bulling-marketing/PR. According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru®
at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions® that is Bull Shit! Johnson stated, “with school yard bulling at
near all-time highs, Taco Bells attempt to garner new customers is a professional
miss-step, completely unprofessional, and an insult to their customers.” Bulling is looking back Taco Bell needs to stop bulling PR and
Marketing and start looking a customer ahead.
First let’s define bullying, as the use
of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate
or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential
prerequisite is the perception of an imbalance of physical or social power.
This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying is a subcategory
of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and
repetition over a period of time. Bullying is the activity of repeated,
aggressive behavior intended to hurt another individual, physically, mentally
or emotionally. Given Taco Bell’s
marketing budget and global reach there can be no doubt that there is an imbalance
of power and social clout that is once again at work.
So,
currently Taco John’s owns the Taco Tuesday registration in 49 states, while “a
small business” called Gregory’s owns the registration in New Jersey. Taco Bell
is seeking to cancel those registrations. Now Taco John’s is a much smaller
growing company and Gregory’s is even smaller.
Let’s give credit to Taco John’s for doing all of the right things,
applying for registration in 49 states while respecting Gregory’s registration.
Then there is the global
Taco Bell with higher unit volumes and thousands more stores that when Taco John’s
applied for registration was given plenty of time to challenge and did not. Even
more disappointing is the fact that Taco Bell is owned by the behemoth Yum!
Brands. Clearly Yum! Brand’s oversite
must have been missed-sight according to Johnson.
When many of your primairy and sedonalry targeted customers
are still in school it counter intuitive that you would use bulling marketing
to will over your customers especially when schools, school districts, states
and the National Education Association are working so hard to stop bulling. So,
Taco Bell here are some facts bulling you might want to review:
1. One out of every five (20.2%) students report being bullied. (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019 )
2. A higher
percentage of male than of female student’s report being physically bullied (6%
vs. 4%), whereas a higher percentage of female than of male students reported
being the subjects of rumors (18% vs. 9%) and being excluded from activities on
purpose (7% vs. 4%). (National Center for
Educational Statistics, 2019)
3. 41% of students
who reported being bullied at school indicated that they think the bullying
would happen again. (National Center for
Educational Statistics, 2019 )
4. Of those students
who reported being bullied, 13% were made fun of, called names, or insulted;
13% were the subject of rumors; 5% were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on;
and 5% were excluded from activities on purpose. (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019)
5. A slightly higher
portion of female than of male students report being bullied at school (24% vs.
17%). (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019)
6. Bullied students
reported that bullying occurred in the following places: the hallway or
stairwell at school (43%), inside the classroom (42%), in the cafeteria (27%),
outside on school grounds (22%), online or by text (15%), in the bathroom or
locker room (12%), and on the school bus (8%). (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019)
7. 46% of bullied
students report notifying an adult at school about the incident. (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019)
8. School-based
bullying prevention programs decrease bullying by up to 25%. (McCallion & Feder, 2013)
9. The reasons for
being bullied reported most often by students include physical appearance,
race/ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation. (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019)
10. The federal
government began collecting data on school bullying in 2005, when the
prevalence of bullying was around 28 percent. (U.S. Department of
Education, 2015 )
11. Rates of
bullying vary across studies (from 9% to 98%). A meta-analysis of 80 studies
analyzing bullying involvement rates (for both bullying others and being
bullied) for 12-18 year old students reported a mean prevalence rate of 35% for
traditional bullying involvement and 15% for cyberbullying involvement. (Modecki, Minchin,
Harbaugh, Guerra, & Runions, 2014 )
12. One in five
(20.9%) tweens (9 to 12 years old) has been cyberbullied, cyberbullied others,
or seen cyberbullying. (Patchin & Hinduja,
2020)
13. 49.8% of tweens
(9 to 12 years old) said they experienced bullying at school and 14.5% of
tweens shared they experienced bullying online. (Patchin & Hinduja,
2020)
14. 13% of tweens (9
to 12 years old) reported experiencing bullying at school and online, while
only 1% reported being bullied solely online. (Patchin & Hinduja,
2020)
In
case you have not read about it; Taco Bell's petition to cancel Taco Tuesday
trademarks in the minds-eye of our Grocerant Guru® are inappropriate and unprofessional
at best.
Yes,
Taco Bell is fighting to “liberate” Taco Tuesday. The company announced this
week that it has filed legal petitions to cancel the federal trademark
registrations for “Taco Tuesday” via the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal
Board. The company says it believes “Taco Tuesday” should belong to “all who
make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos.”
“In fact, the very essence of ‘Taco Tuesday’ is to
celebrate the commonality amongst people of all walks of life who come together
every week to celebrate something as simple, yet culturally phenomenal, as the
taco. How can anyone Live Más if they’re not allowed to freely say ‘Taco
Tuesday?’ It’s pure chaos,” the company wrote
in a statement.
Here
is just one example that Taco Bell is using bulling PR to capitalize on others pain
steaking hard work. Taco Bell is not
seeking damages or trademark rights, but rather the ability for usage of a
common term via the cancelation of trademark registrations; meaning no one
restaurant will be able to claim exclusive rights to Taco Tuesday. Taco Bell
said it wants “Taco Tuesday” to be free for all restaurants and vendors to
use the term without fear of a cease-and-desist letter or lawsuit. In our minds-eye
that is bulling PR to demish the value of the trademark of Taco John’s and Gregory’s.
Once
again, the fact is, Taco John’s owns the Taco Tuesday registration in 49
states, while “a small business” called Gregory’s owns the Taco Tuesday
registration in New Jersey. Taco Bell is seeking to cancel Taco John’s
registration and has also filed a petition to cancel Gregory’s registration
covering New Jersey.
“This
is the only way to achieve liberation in all 50 states, which is Taco Bell’s
sole objective behind this effort,” the company said. Marketing and PR stunts
that are simple bulling are unprofessional and Yum! Brands know better.
Once
processed, Taco Bell’s petitions will be available on the USPTO Trademark Trial
and Appeal Board’s website. An excerpt from the company’s legal petitions can also be
found online.
Bulling
is not Looking a Customer Ahead!
Foodservice Solutions® team is here to
help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking
a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue
you need to propel your continued success.
Do you Want to Build a Larger
Share of Stomach
Respect Others
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