Why Foodservice Family Promotions Separate Growing Brands from Dying Ones

 

Are your restaurants, grocery stores, or convenience stores behaving like Kodak Cameras—or like Disney Movies” That’s the question Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® asked his team recently.  Here is some of what he thinks.

Kodak was once untouchable. In the 1960s and 1970s, nearly every American household owned a Kodak camera. The yellow boxes were everywhere. Kodachrome film was a rite of passage. Paul Simon even wrote a song about it.

Then the consumer changed.

As digital cameras emerged, Kodak dismissed them. The quality was inferior, executives argued. Americans would never abandon glossy photo albums for low-resolution digital files. Kodak was correct—technically. Professionally developed photos did look better.

Today, most photos are taken on phones, rarely printed, and instantly shared. Kodak, while “right,” became irrelevant.

Being dead and correct is not a winning strategy.

That same Kodak-style thinking is now visible across legacy foodservice and retail food brands—especially when it comes to promotions like “Kids Eat Free.”

 

Kids Eat Free: Promotion or Strategic Signal?

“Kids Eat Free” is not about free food. It never was.

It is a market signal—a reflection of whether a brand understands:

·       How families make food decisions today

·       How convenience, digital access, and value intersect

·       How promotions must evolve alongside consumer behavior

Brands that treat “Kids Eat Free” as a static tactic are already behind. Brands that treat it as a dynamic customer-acquisition and data strategy are gaining traffic, frequency, and relevance.

 

The Kodak Trap in Chain Restaurants

Many of the statements heard today from struggling legacy restaurant operators sound eerily familiar:

·       “Our executives have 30 years of experience—we know what works.”

·       “We don’t use coupons or promotions.”

·       “We don’t deliver.”

·       “We protect our brand; we don’t let it wander.”

·       “We don’t use online or mobile ordering.”

·       “We don’t advertise on Google, Facebook, or social media.”

·       “We don’t open for breakfast.”

·       “Video menus are gimmicks.”

·       “We don’t measure ingredients—our teams just know.”

·       “We can’t raise prices.”

Kodak said the same thing—just in different words.

The result?
Restaurant brands such as Claim Jumper, Friendly’s, Chevy’s, Sbarro, Perkins, and others did not fail because food disappeared. They failed because consumer behavior changed faster than leadership assumptions.

 

Kids Eat Free as a Test of Market Awareness

There is little about today’s food marketplace that was predictable even three years ago. The next three years will move faster still.

That makes Kids Eat Free a perfect litmus test.

What Kodak-Thinking Looks Like

·       Kids Eat Free every day, forever, with no data capture

·       No digital tie-in, no loyalty requirement

·       No adult spend threshold

·       No measurement of incremental traffic or margin impact

This trains customers to devalue the kids menu—and eventually the brand.

What Growth-Thinking Looks Like

·       Kids Eat Free tied to app ordering, loyalty enrollment, or email capture

·       Limited-time offers tied to off-peak dayparts

·       Required adult entrée or basket threshold

·       Integrated into family meal bundles, takeout, and delivery

·       Measured, adjusted, optimized

One approach preserves nostalgia.
The other builds relevance.

 

Restaurants: Kodak or Disney?

Disney reinvents stories for every generation. Kodak protected the past.

Winning restaurant chains now use Kids Eat Free to:

·       Drive midweek traffic

·       Increase digital ordering adoption

·       Grow family takeout and bundle sales

·       Capture first-party customer data

Kids Eat Free is no longer a dine-in-only gimmick. It is a digital funnel, a family acquisition tool, and a frequency driver.

If your food “doesn’t carry well,” the market will still carry your customer—straight to a competitor who made it easier.

 

Grocery Stores: Stealing Share with Kids Value

Grocery retailers have quietly redefined the concept.

Instead of “free meals,” grocers offer:

·       Free fruit for kids

·       Kids-focused fresh meal bundles

·       Family meal deals anchored in deli and heat-and-eat

These programs:

·       Increase trip frequency

·       Grow basket size across multiple departments

·       Position the store as a family solution, not just a pantry

Grocers are not protecting old definitions of value. They are creating new ones.

 

Convenience Stores: Small Kids, Big Impact

C-stores understand something restaurants often miss: convenience is the product.

Smart operators adapt Kids Eat Free into:

·       Free kids snacks with adult meal combos

·       Family-friendly bundles tied to loyalty apps

·       Speed-driven solutions for parents on the go

It is not about feeding kids for free.
It is about winning the parent’s next visit.

 

The Real Lesson from Kodak

Kodak’s leadership was smart, experienced, and hardworking. They simply failed to challenge their assumptions.

Foodservice operators today face the same risk.

If you are blaming:

·       Labor costs

·       Minimum wage increases

·       Healthcare costs

·       Food inflation

While competitors are growing units, traffic, and margins, the problem is not the economy.

It is strategy.

 

Final Insight from the Grocerant Guru®

Kids Eat Free is not a promotion.
It is a choice.

A choice between:

·       Protecting what worked

·       Or adapting to how families actually eat today

Change is not optional. It is necessary.

Kodak was right—and disappeared.
Disney changes—and thrives.

The market will decide which one your brand becomes.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter