Taco Bell Fresh Fast Innovation Success

Success does leave clues and Taco Bell continues to edify its fresh food offerings with innovative new menu ideations that complement consumer expectations of affordable fresh flavorful food.  The new product research and marketing team at Taco Bell understand that menu brand differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Facts first Taco Bell sold 53 million of the fries, starting at $1, over the first five weeks of the promotion, making it one of the most popular product introductions in the chain’s history. In fact one out of every four orders during that period included the fries according to a Taco Bell spokesperson.

Leadership matters and the ‘man’ at the top of Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed stated “Consumers frequently added the fries to existing orders, driving incremental sales. ..The $1 fries helped the business,”. .. “The good news is a 25% incidence is great.” Regular readers of this blog know that price is a key driver within all sector of food retail.  There is little doubt that this was the right product at the right price for Taco Bell according to Johnson.

We must note that Taco Bell heavily advertised the $1 Nacho Fries during the quarter, and aggressively marketed its $1 items this year amid a tough, competitive fast food where consumers have been focused on value. Take note that all of that advertising did not take place online.

What’s next $1 Triple Melt Burritos and $1 Triple Melt Nachos at all 6,400 of its locations. The company is also testing new $1 products, including a Crispy Chicken Taco and a Beefy Crunch Burrito. The chain has vowed to introduce 20 new $1 menu items this year.

Creed continued “We’re not a one-trick pony when it comes to value,”…“We’ve got a lot of really smart plays around value. We continue to do very well in a tough marketplace.”

Without doubt the retail foodservice price, value, service equilibrium is once aging resetting.  There is a battle for share of stomach underway and customer frequency is top of mind with consumers and pricing marketing tool that has been taken out the food marketing tool kit to garner incremental customers, product trial, and customer migration.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

McDonald’s is Winning the Price, Value, Service Equilibrium

Gas prices at the pump continue to rise just as consumer’s paychecks carry home a little more cash from the tax rebate.  Unfortunately once again the line between foodservice sectors continues to get thinner and thinner as consumers have become ‘meal price transactional’ according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Back in 2002 in an early effort to combat customer migration from the restaurant sector to grocery stores and C-stores McDonald’s introduced its popular Dollar Menu and gave the restaurant sector a success platform to regain customer traffic and drive top line sales and bottom line profits. The simple fact is the food Price, Value, Service Equilibrium continues to evolve and reset.

Grocery store deli operations continue finding incremental day-part meal sales success as do convenience stores according to recent Grocerant ScoreCards. The success within both of those sectors has put pressure on the restaurant sector according to Johnson. 

Food industry research icon Bonnie Riggs of the NPD Group stated “Value menu traffic was up 10 percent for the first three months of 2018, while value menu sales chalked up a 13 percent gain”. ..The results lifted value menu traffic 1 percent for the fiscal year ended March 2018, reversing three consecutive years of declines, according to NPD.”

“It’s clear that major restaurant chain operators are pulling out all of the stops to get consumers to visit this year,” said Riggs, author of a new report titled “Value Wars 2.0: The Value Menu Strikes Back.”

Taco Bell, known for its low-priced food and “Dollar Cravings” value menu, appears to have an edge in the latest price war. It sold a record 53 million orders of its new $1 Nacho Fries in five weeks during the first quarter, contributing to outsized value menu sales gains, NPD said.

There is a battle for share of stomach underway within the foodservice sector according to Johnson and new non-traditional companies the ilk of IKEA, CostCo continue to garner customers with fresh prepared meals, meal components that are Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat offering with price points that are disruptive for most restaurant operators.

Are your customers becoming ‘meal price transactional’?  Do you know how to elevate your branded menu without capitulating on Price?  Does your current business model look more like yesterday than tomorrow? The team at www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can help. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us