Bold menu items can be a game-changer for McDonald's

 

Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks it’s time that McDonald’s begin to think outside the box to garner new customer while edifying existing customers.   That said, here are some new menu ideations.   Bold menu items can be a game-changer for McDonald's, helping to drive sales and attract new customers. Here are three innovative suggestions:

1. Plant-Based Lobster Roll

Why It Would Work:

·         Trend Alignment: The popularity of plant-based diets continues to soar. A plant-based lobster roll taps into the growing market of vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians looking for sustainable and ethical dining options.

·         Unique Offering: While many fast-food chains offer plant-based burgers, a plant-based lobster roll would stand out as a unique and premium offering, attracting curious foodies and health-conscious consumers.

·         Coastal Appeal: By offering a plant-based version of a classic coastal dish, McDonald's could appeal to regions known for seafood and to customers who crave a taste of the coast without the environmental impact of traditional seafood.

2. Korean Fried Chicken Burger

Why It Would Work:

·         Global Flavor Trend: Korean cuisine, particularly Korean fried chicken, has seen a surge in popularity worldwide. Introducing a Korean Fried Chicken Burger could leverage this trend, drawing in fans of bold, spicy, and flavorful food.

·         Cultural Fusion: McDonald's has a history of successfully introducing culturally inspired menu items. A Korean Fried Chicken Burger would cater to the growing demand for fusion cuisine, offering a new and exciting taste experience.

·         Social Media Appeal: The visual appeal of Korean fried chicken, often coated in a glossy, spicy sauce, would make this burger highly shareable on social media platforms, driving organic marketing and buzz.

3. Personalized Nutrition Bowls

Why It Would Work:

·         Customization Craze: Consumers increasingly seek personalized dining experiences. Offering bowls that customers can customize with a variety of proteins, grains, and vegetables would cater to this demand.

·         Health Consciousness: As more people prioritize health and wellness, having a menu option that allows for balanced, nutrient-rich meals would attract health-conscious customers who might otherwise avoid fast food.

·         Tech Integration: By integrating this offering with an app or kiosk that provides nutritional information and customization options, McDonald's could enhance the customer experience and attract tech-savvy, health-minded individuals.

Implementation and Marketing Strategy:

·         Seasonal Launches: Introducing these items as limited-time offers initially can gauge customer interest and create a sense of urgency.

·         Celebrity Endorsements and Influencer Partnerships: Collaborating with popular food influencers and celebrities can amplify the launch and attract diverse customer demographics.

·         Sustainability Angle: Emphasizing the sustainability aspects, especially for the Plant-Based Lobster Roll, could attract environmentally conscious consumers and enhance the brand's image.

By tapping into current food trends and customer preferences, these bold new menu items could help McDonald's not only drive sales but also redefine its image as an innovator in the fast-food industry.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Restaurants Lose Edge on Innovation

 

Restaurants that are just trying to survive, are finding that is not enough in a world that is evolving so fast your 12 percent pay raise will not keep up with the rising price of food.   According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® who stated, “Millennials and Gen Z consumers are in constant search for something different, fresh, and flavorful.  They seek food discovery and if you are not evolving your customers will move on.”

Now I want you think about this; American consumers frequent convenience stores at least once a week and use their visits as a way to discover new products and brands, according to a new survey commissioned by NCSolutions (NCS).

This online survey of 2,216 respondents, ages 18 and older, fielded from Oct. 7–10, found that more than seven in 10 (71 percent) adult consumers say they discover new products and brands at c-stores.

If that was not insightful enough, nearly four in 10 (38 percent) respondents shop at c-stores two or more times a week. Overall, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) visit c-stores at least once a week.

Alan Miles, CEO of NCSolutions, stated, "These new consumer insights accentuate the considerable role convenience stores play in America today. At the c-store, the shopping moment is low risk for the consumer and high opportunity for brands,"... "With mostly single-serve portions, consumers are looking for products on the go. It is a perfect place to engage and secure new brand buyers and identify the viability of new products."

Let’s see what lese the survey reveal:

C-stores provide a good shopping experience and value.

American consumers find shopping at c-stores offers numerous benefits. Seventy-nine percent of shoppers say c-stores offer a lot of product variety, while 77 percent say they provide a good shopping experience. Sixty-three percent see c-stores as delivering good value for their budgets.

It's all about the experience and delivery for Generation Z.

CPG brands looking to engage Gen Z can tap into this generation's favorable view of convenience stores. Ninety-one percent of Gen Zers say c-stores provide a good shopping experience.

They're also more likely to use a delivery service for c-store items, with almost half (49 percent) reporting they have used a service such as 7-Eleven Inc.'s 7-NOW, Instacart, DoorDash, Uber and other delivery services. This is 96 percent higher than all Americans who reported using a delivery service (25 percent) for c-store shopping.

Location, Location, Location

Americans visit convenience stores for various reasons, but location is the number one reason, cited by 65 percent of consumers. Fifty-nine percent say c-stores meet their immediate needs, while 54 percent like that they can conduct transactions quickly and be on their way.

Nearly one-third (30 percent) say price brings them into the store, while 28 percent enjoy the variety of products c-stores have to offer. Thirty-four percent also shop at c-stores because they are less crowded.

NCSolutions Chief Revenue Officer Dan Malmed, stated, "The c-store channel offers a compelling potential for CPG brands to motivate new buyers to try their products. It's an especially attractive channel to reach the Gen Z consumer, who is very loyal to c-stores," ... "Appealing to Gen Z c-store enthusiasts enables advertisers to build and drive loyalty as well as improve the return on ad spend of their campaigns."

Satisfying Their Sweet Tooth & Quenching Their Thirsts

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans feed their sweet tooth with candy purchases from convenience stores, and many rely on c-stores as a place to quench their thirst. Fifty-seven percent of consumers said they purchase on-the-go drinks like coffee, tea or fountain beverages at c-stores, while 40 percent buy milk, juice and other staples. In addition, 32 percent pick up packaged beverages and 23 percent buy beer.

Beyond beverages, almost one third (30 percent) pick up prepared foods while in the store and 37 percent purchase lottery tickets.

Getting Social

Consumer purchase behaviors are also influenced by what they see on social media. Seventy percent of c-store shoppers say they’re more likely to purchase products they see promoted on c-store social media channels.

The grocerant niche is filled with Ready-2--Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Consumers continue migrating to the grocerant niche for simple time saving solutions that are full flavored and that save them time according to Johnson.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

White Castle @ 100 Still Innovating with Technology

 

First our team just wants to say unanimously that we like White Castle. That said White Castle has been around over 100 years and is still driving top-line growth and bottom-line profits the old fashion way, adapting and driving innovation. 

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® often reminds regular readers of this blog that if success does leave clues, and it does that White Castle is a great company to follow if your either looking to grow your same store sales or if you want your brand to be around 100 years from now.

With 350+ outlets White Castle is doubling down on Miso Robotics' Flippy machines after more than a year of tests yielded better operations and staff productivity. It could be the largest adoption of such technology by a U.S. restaurant chain because White Castle knows how to adapt to changing times according to Johnson who stated “The family leading White Castle looks a customer, a employee ahead, they do not get stuck doing what they have always done.”

White Castle COO Jeff Carper, stated, “Our partnership with Miso continues to lead the way on what’s next for back-of-house restaurant operations looking to empower team members with technology to better satisfy customers.”

In case you did not know, or read about it on this blog when we had our first ‘flippy story”. So, Flippy is a robotic arm mounted on a rail and powered by AI software. White Castle will be using the second-generation model known as Flippy 2 to work the fry station. The bot will take orders, fill baskets, fry the food and dump it off to be packaged and handed to the customer by human workers.

You have to understand that this system takes some less-desirable work off of employees' plates and allows them to focus on other things, particularly helping customers, White Castle said. It also improves food consistency.

Leader’s lead, White Castle became the first big restaurant chain to embrace Miso's robot when it began testing it in a single restaurant in September 2020. The pilot was not without its bumps, but Miso used feedback from White Castle to develop Flippy 2, which handles more tasks than its predecessor, including filling the fryer baskets itself. White Castle installed Flippy at 10 more restaurants in November.

This announcement comes as restaurants are looking to automate more tasks reducing cost as labor cost are sky rocking. The simple fast is robots can help ease challenges in hiring and retaining human workers as well as keep costs down amid skyrocketing inflation. Who will step up next?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Modern Market Eatery Consumers are Dynamic so is Modern Market Eatery

The mantra for most CEO’s is ‘do no harm’.  In most cases that means doing very little, calling minuscule incrementalism, action. Well, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® they can’t say that about Modern Market Eatery co-founder and co-CEO, Anthony Pigliacampo.

The fact is, Modern Market Eatery (MME) has always been an innovative brand accustomed to adapting quickly. Understanding that forced to change means doing something not doing nothing. Thus, the decision to offer grocery items to guests amid one of the world’s largest health and economic crises was an easy one.

Modern Market is making its high-quality supply chain accessible to guests given many consumers don’t want to go into overcrowded out of stock legacy grocery stores. MME has easy access to produce and proteins, and competitive prices that rival most grocery stores for the quantity and quality of items, Modern Market is trying to fill a need in the community.

Last week the eatery rolled out grocery boxes and a la carte grocery and prepared food items for online ordering to all of its currently open markets, including Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Initially tested in the company’s Colorado restaurants, groceries have proven to be extremely popular.

“Our boxes not only give guests what they need, same day delivery, they allow guests to take advantage of the high-quality food in our supply chain that may be hard to find at grocery stores right now,” says co-founder and co-CEO, Anthony Pigliacampo. “We want to give guests access to fresh produce and high-quality meats and prepared foods at reasonable prices that, at the moment, our local grocers may be out of.” The current grocery offerings include the following:

re-Fresh Box: 1 head romaine, 1lb broccoli, 2 bunches asparagus, 1lb cauliflower, 2lb carrots, 2 cucumbers, 3 sweet potatoes, 1lb fingerling potatoes, 1lb mushrooms, 3 avocado, 3 apples, 1lb strawberries, and fresh herb seasoning. (8-10 Meals / $60.00)

Petite re-Fresh Box: A smaller version of the re-Fresh Box. 1 head romaine, 1lb broccoli, 2lb carrots, 1lb potatoes, 3 apples and 1lb additional fresh fruit. (4-5 Meals / $25.00)

Grill Box: 3lbs 100% grass fed steak, 10 servings pasta and mac & cheese sauce, 2 bunches asparagus, 1 large loaf sourdough bread, full soup container fresh chimichurri sauce, and 1 gallon classic lemonade. (8-10 Meals / $80.00)

Basic Box: 2 raw chicken breasts, 1 loaf sourdough bread, 1 dozen eggs, 1 gallon milk, 1lb carrots, 1lb broccoli, 12oz bag local coffee and toilet paper. (4-6 Meals / $50.00)

A la Carte Items: 12oz salad dressings, 12oz sauces, quarts of soup, quarts of sides, bakery items, bulk raw and cooked proteins.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

From Restaurant Reservations to Great Groceries Technology for Foodies

Can’t wait for your for your favorite restaurant to reopen so you can book a special night out? Open Table has been a favorite of foodies for 15+ years enabling online reservations at hard to book restaurants all around the county. 

When life give you a lemon, it’s time to make lemon aid.  Open Table the once leading restaurant reservation app, has evolved to bring you fresh fast groceries.  Yes, Open Table has rolled out a reservation system for grocery shopping at specialty grocers and businesses such as restaurants that have started selling groceries during the pandemic.

On the Open Table website they state: "As we all work to stop the spread of COVID-19, OpenTable has teamed up with participating grocery stores and markets to help limit the number of people who enter at a time and reduce crowds and wait times for shoppers. Just as people can make a restaurant reservation or join a waitlist, they will now be able to reserve shopping times or join a virtual line in the OpenTable app," says a statement on the company website. OpenTable's new technology works in two ways:

1.       Reserved shopping times: Just like reserving a table at a restaurant, consumers can reserve a time to enter a store. 

2.       Online waitlists: If a consumer hasn't pre-reserved, instead of standing in a physical line to get into a store, he or she can simply enter a code on a cellphone to join an online waitlist. Then wait for the notification in a car or down the block away from any crowds.

"OpenTable’s new grocery product leverages our reservation software so that grocery stores, major retailers and restaurants can display available shopping times for customers to book in advance or join a waitlist at the door. Not only does this help control crowds in a simple and contactless way, but it also provides a safer option for shoppers, especially those at high risk, to get their groceries without waiting in a crowded line," the company says.

Currently, the app feature is mostly available at specialty grocery stores and shops in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The COVID-19 pandemic has sent everyone scrambling to update their business models. Food retailers have been scrambling to keep up with demand for grocery delivery and pickup, and foodservice operators and other businesses have been scrambling to come up with alternative revenue streams, such as selling groceries.

Regular readers of this blog know that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has been explain the how’s and why’s food retailers need to evolve their business model since 1991. Its simple consumers are dynamic not static. Does your business model look more line yesterday than tomorrow?

Open table is not alone in trying to help both consumers and retailers. Apps the ilk of  Resy, DoorDash, GrubHub, and others have quickly adapted their business models to meet surging demand for touchless grocery and takeout.

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, local educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869

Foodie Finds a new Tool to Drive Restaurant Sales with a Qualitative Point of Differentiation

The battle for share of stomach continues to intensify between food retailers we everyone taking aim at the restaurant sector seeing opportunity while they are shut down or limited in their ability to provide meals the way they did just weeks ago. The Foodie Finds App / tool helps restaurant branding and messaging look more like tomorrows restaurant and less like yesterday’s restaurant.  

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® says that “help is on the way”.  That help is in the from of a new App called Foodie Finds.  This new App / tool signals what could become a significant competitive differentiator for restaurants trying to regain share of stomach.

So, Foodie Finds uses augmented reality and AI to help restaurants and bars reach customers, secure takeout orders and drive revenue during COVID-19 and after COVID-19. Millennials drive for food discover has not dampened according to Johnson.  Foodie Finds is the tool Millennials will use to share there new discovery.  Foodie Finds empowers the discovery of delicious food at nearby restaurants and bars.

Jennifer Ganther, Co-founder and CEO of SugarTrek the ‘parent’ of Foodie Finds stated "We have deep compassion for the restaurant, bar owners and staff hit so hard by this pandemic," says. "We wanted to create an app that works better than any other restaurant app on the market today. We know that we will get through this virus together and we want restaurant owners to continue to attract customers and drive revenue even during this very difficult economic time. Therefore, during the quarantine, we are offering our services without charge. We encourage restaurants using Foodie Finds to announce their participation on our app through their social channels to let their customers know where to find the latest deals they have to offer."

So, using augmented reality and sophisticated behavioral economics, Foodie Finds tempts people with images of delicious dishes. Through artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the app gets better at guessing what customers want to eat. With Foodie Finds, customers find out what they want to eat in mere seconds and can place an order. Foodie Finds has over a million restaurants in the U.S. listed and is also available internationally.

"People love it because it offers them food and drinks like nothing they have ever seen before — right before their very eyes! A person can also see food in faraway places, plus he or she can see what their friends are eating," says Myles Leighton, Co-founder and CIO of the app.

"This app will help restaurant owners get ahead of the curve by reaching customers in a fun and effortless way. It has free options and unlockable superpowers, plus crowdsourced content management. Foodie Finds brings in more customers than any other form of marketing because it places food right in front of people, like a dessert cart. With our app, restaurant owners can attract real customers instantly, reduce food waste and offer instant promotions during slow times."

Here is how it works: Restaurant owners can sign up to Foodie Finds in seconds. To start, business owners can simply claim their listed restaurant(s) in the Foodie Finds app to get their business and restaurant dishes shown to customers for free. Foodie Finds helps restaurants attract customers during COVID-19, secure delivery orders and drive revenue during this difficult economic period.  You can simply Email: foodiefinds@sugartrek.com  or (646) 450-8881 tell the Grocerant Guru® sent you!

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter