Burger Kings Over-Loaded Summer Menu Proves Magic

Consumers looking for ready-2-eat fresh prepared food found it at Burger King this summer.  When Flavia Faugeres Burger Kings Global Chief Marketing officer released the summer menu limited-time menu and said they had “something for everyone”, there was.  LTO’s work and when you batting aggressive competitors more items may just have worked.

Burger King introduced the large summer offering but still needed to get customers into the door.  Clearly integrating Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing leveraging price with the $0.50 ice cream cone.  One you have a driver, the ability to please was accomplished with the summer menu which had “something for everyone.”  This summer’s over-loaded limited-time-only menu included:

Turkey Burger ~ Satisfy your hunger with a fire-grilled Turkey Burger from the burger experts topped with fresh-cut lettuce,  sliced tomatoes, crisp red onions and mayo all served on a warm, artisan-style bun.   (Suggested retail price starts at $3.99) 

Veggie Burger ~ Not just for vegetarians, our great-tasting Veggie Burger is made with real vegetables and wholesome grains, beginning with a MorningStar Farms^® Garden Veggie Patty and topped with fresh-cut lettuce, juicy tomatoes, red onions, ketchup and mayo all served on a toasted sesame seed bun. (Suggested retail price starts at $2.99) 

Chipotle WHOPPER^® Sandwich ~ A twist on AMERICA’S FAVORITE BURGER™ packed with smoky sweet flavor; the new Chipotle WHOPPER^® Sandwich is made with USDA inspected fire-grilled ground beef, topped with thick-cut bacon, pepper jack cheese, spicy chipotle mayo, fresh-cut lettuce, ripe tomatoes and sweet Caramelized style onions, all on a toasted sesame seed bun.  Also available as a WHOPPER JR.^® Sandwich. (Suggested retail price starts at $4.29 and $2.49 respectively). 

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich & Chicken Wrap ~ BURGER KING^® invites you to sink your teeth into your choice of juicy, premium white meat TENDERGRILL^® or TENDERCRISP^® chicken generously topped with pepper jack cheese, thick-cut smoked bacon, spicy chipotle mayo, sweet Caramelized style onions, fresh-cut lettuce and ripe tomatoes all served on an warm, artisan-style bun. Also available as a wrap. (Suggested retail price starts at $4.79 and $2.99 respectively). 

Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Burger ~ Try our mouthwatering USDA Inspected fire-grilled ground beef patty stuffed with hardwood smoked bacon and savory cheddar cheese, topped with fresh-cut lettuce, juicy tomatoes, ketchup, mayo and crispy onion rings all on a warm, artisan-style bun. (Suggested retail price starts at $3.99) 

LOADED TATER TOTS™ Potatoes ~ Enjoy this bite-sized snack of warm fluffy potatoes filled with flavorful bacon and sweet onions, with a crispy crumb coating on the outside.  Available in eight, 10 or 12 piece servings, these LOADED TATER TOTS™ potatoes are great for sharing and are a savory complement to any meal. (Suggested retail price starts at $1.99)

Iced Tea ~ Brewed fresh daily, the new refreshing Iced Tea pairs seamlessly with many menu favorites.  Available in three varieties: sweet tea, unsweetened iced tea and peach iced tea. (Suggested retail price starts at $1.59)

Piña Colada Smoothie ~ Escape from the ordinary with the new Piña Colada Smoothie made with sweet pineapple and tropical coconut blended for a flavor that will transport you to your favorite island destination. Each smoothie provides a full serving of fruit.  (Suggested retail price starts at $2.29)

Donut Holes ~ Enjoy a sweet start to your morning with bite sized glazed donut holes from BURGER KING^®, the perfect complement to our delicious new coffee blend.  (Suggested retail price is $1.49)

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us www.FoodserviveSolutions.us ,via Email at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Fast Casual Restaurants The Rush for Sameness

Has the sun has set on golden era of the restaurant industry? Legacy restaurant operators and analyst continue to use outdated metrics and look at the industry from inside out.  They see the restaurant industry as it once was.  They do not see it as it will be five years from now.  They continue to see the glass 95% full, spinning stories to Wall-Street that remind even the most novice newbie analyst of a bygone era.

If you listen closely you might just harken back too an era when Quick Service Restaurants stood for Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value. There was a time when full-service restaurants featured Italian, Seafood, Steaks and Chop houses, or Chicken.

 
A time when Alice May Brock said: “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good”.

Today, seemingly every restaurant menu from every sector has Italian, French, Russian, Greek, and even a Chinese component. Today, the United States continues to be the home to all, the melting pot of nationalities. The restaurant industry on the other hand is fast becoming the melting pot of Fast Casual Sameness. 

Today only CEO’s and CMO’s can identify the brands nuance differentiation in any of the 5 P’s of food marketing.  Where research companies say that there is wide flexibility in pricing for new Fast Casual menu items. The consumer on the other hand has evolved as have other channels. Restaurant customer migration continues to expand accelerating growth within the fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat space all the while creating new channels of fresh food distribution.

Non-traditional avenues of fresh prepared food distribution continue to grow year over year same store sales.  Retail Chain Drug Stores the ilk of Walgreens are garnering new loyal fresh food customers. Chain liquor stores the ilk of Pinkies are finding success with fresh prepared Food To-Go. Convenience stores the ilk of Sheetz and Wawa continue to drive top line sales with fresh prepared food all the while expanding in new regions of the country even classifying themselves as restaurants that sell gas or offering Fast Casual Food To-Go.  Forty Five percent of Wal-Mart customers report buying fresh prepared food at Wal-Mart within the last 30 days.  Trader Joe’s has the highest sales per square foot for retail space of any food retailer. Whole Foods fresh prepared food sales are now passing 25% with even greater margins. 

When the rush to the middle aka Fast Casual takes on a life of its own and legacy restaurants ignore the undercurrents of sameness. Then differentiation takes a back seat to success.  It’s at the intersection of food sameness and lack of brand differentiation that consumer migration escalates. Is your brand there? Are your year over year same store comps down? Omni-channel retail is here.

Success does leave clues and integrating Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing may just the differentiation driver you need to replace nuance with consumers.  In an Omni-channel retail world consumers are empowered with choice.  Will your brand be one of the choices five years from now?

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Convenience Stores Fresh Prepared Food Momentum Growing

 

Quick Service Restaurants and many Quick Casual Restaurant are reporting flat sales.  There are a few exceptions.  However, one retail food sector is standing out. In The 2013 Convenience Store News Foodservice Study found seventy five percent of chain operated convenience stores expect to see their foodservice sales increase by the end of this year.  Ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food continues to drive profitability.  When consumers like the new fresh food products (which purchase validate) and the new fresh food items drive profitability this sector will continue to garner share from restaurants, grocery stores, and others entering the fray.

CSNews report found that “profitability is up for operators, as 60.3 percent expect to find an increased bottom-line foodservice profit this year, compared to 54.7 percent in 2012. Nearly 30 percent expect to match last year’s profit numbers.”

The same report found, “foodservice accounts for 14.3 percent of in-store sales and 24.2 percent of in-store gross margin dollar contribution industry wide. Overall, foodservice sales grew 7.6 percent in 2012, with prepared food leading the way.” Are your sales up by 7.6%? Is your market share growing?

They are winning in traditional day parts “The lunch daypart, which falls between 11 a.m. and 1:59 p.m., is still bringing in the majority of foodservice sales in the c-store industry (32.5 percent), followed by breakfast from 6 a.m. through 8:59 a.m. (23.7 percent). Dinner also remains a popular daypart, capturing 15.7 percent of sales. In addition to bringing in the most sales, the lunch daypart also saw the most sales growth.” How is your lunch business? 

Bundling mix and match dinner items is the next focus for this sector.  How long will you wait and see what are happens next before you edify your brand, menu and position?

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Chef’s Find a Fist Full of Cash in Grocerant Start-Ups.

What’s for dinner tonight?  Who’s cooking Dinner tonight? Most likely you are not cooking tonight. Time starved and cooking skill-set deprived around the world consumers are looking for solutions to the age old question Who’s cooking dinner?

Consumers never take a step back in food quality.  Yet that does not mean they want to eat out at a restaurant every night. Nor does it mean they want to or have the skill-set to cook the multi-ethnic full flavored food that they have become accustom too. Here is just some of what we found in Australia’s  The Advertiser :

Many chef’s today are migrating to grocery stores for employment and are in high demand as Austria’s Woolworths reports fresh prepared food in the “ready to cook”  category is up 30% in just the past year alone. Today’s food quality of ready-2-eat and heat-n-eat fresh prepared food from grocery stores is deemed by most customers as “restaurant quality” and even more as “better than I can prepare”.

Opportunity knocks for others in the ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared grocerant niche. “ In 2011, with both her sister and sister-in-law struggling with newborn babies, Ashleigh Martin decided the best help she could offer was to make meals at home, pack them up and take them over to the new mums.

They were so popular, Ms Martin, 30, started Mashfood, a web-based home-cooked meals business, which quickly moved from her home kitchen to a church hall and now supplies 20 Adelaide families with $60-$100 weekly orders of main meals and side dishes.

"I'm creating meals they would do at home, had they the time," said the 30-year-old whose most popular dishes are chicken and leak pie and lasagne which have no nasty numbers or brackets in the ingredients list.

"It's usually for young families, or single males but I have been getting inquiries more and more about elderly people who want to continue to be independent but don't like Meals on Wheels or other options.

"Its usually a push by family members," said Ms Martin.

Then there is Sidney’s Dinner Ladies, “The Dinner Ladies started after friends Katherine Westwood, 46, and Sophie Gilliatt, 45, needed to offer a decent feed to time-poor friends plus their own families after finishing netball or football, or returning home late from school or work.

While some may see the category as a cheat, Ms Gilliatt said it was equally important for people to eat well at the family dinner table. "Its a special moment of the day for people, and they shouldn't be eating crap," she said.

"They are watching Jamie Oliver, they are watching Heston Blumenthal, they are aware of exciting flavours but it doesn't mean they can be bothered cooking at the end of the day."The Dinner Ladies offer everything from salad in a bag with a separate dressing to chicken with 100 almonds made from Ms Gilliatts mothers original recipe.

Success does leave clues and when any niche is growing as fast as the ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food aka the grocerant niche is growing opportunity will abound. Grocery stores are seeing 30% growth year over year in many parts of the world in ready-2-eat fresh food. All legacy food retails must be understand the consumer is dynamic not static. Chef’s, cooks, and entrepreneurs, are all entering the retail food space creating new points of fresh food distribution while elevating restaurant consumer discontinuity.

Steven Johnson is Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions, with extensive experience as a global  multi-unit operator, consultant and brand/product positioning. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche.

 www.FoodserviveSolutions.us ,via Email at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

One Grocery Store Wants to Cook Your Dinner: Jack’s Pak-It

One grocery store in Texas has evolved with consumers and after 50 years continues to drive top line revenue and bottom line profits fending off the likes of HEB, Kroger, and Wal-Mart. Jack’s Pak-It is more than a legacy Mom and Pop grocery store.  Today Jack’s Pak-It wants to cook your Lunch and Dinner.

Jack’s Pak-It is a forward looking company that understand the consumer has changed and the key to success is changing with the consumer.  Jack’s Pak-It may have been the first Texas Grocerant.  Today Jack’s leverages fresh local products, time tested family recipes, and family style service that can’t be duplicated. 

Bundling mix and match meal component options that are prepared fresh in the store TO-GO including entrée’s, side orders, and deserts Jack’s is on target, pleasing an increasing number of customers  weekly.

With weekly lunch specials that include one meat and two sides for $ 6.49 with generous portions. Here is a sample of this weeks offerings:

Monday: Beef Tip or Roast Tenderloin with rice and gravy with a choice of white beans or navy beans, steamed broccoli, or squash casserole

Tuesday: Meatloaf or Italian Sausage w/Onion and Peppers with a choice of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, or backed zucchini with crusted bread crumbs.

Consumers are not eating less, shopping less they simply want to buy food that is prepared for them most of the time and assemble a customized meal at home.  Jack’s Pak-It understands the evolving consumer and is finding success evolving with them. For more on Jack’s visit: http://www.jackspakit.com/

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us www.FoodserviveSolutions.us ,via Email at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Betty Crocker Branding Beyond the Box and CookBook

Quality never takes a step back. Consumers evolve even as that age.  General Mills is very good at understanding that consumers are dynamic not static. In an effort to elevate brand relevance with legacy brand loyal consumers General Mills is experimenting with a new play for the “Betty Crocker Generation”.

General Mills is now producing a new product line of frozen full meals to be sold via delivery service.  Yes, just like the pizza man but consumers favorites. Here is the idea market the meals to seniors, and the children of seniors worried that their parents are cooking or eating properly. In fact they are considering offering a packaged plan for hospitals too offer seniors living alone or not capable of cooking for a while after returning home.

The new line of products can be found under the moniker Betty Crocker Kitchens.  The  food-delivery service, is partnering with supermarket operator Coborn’s and focusing on the senior demographic at first.

The service is a pilot, but if it works in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, General Mills could take it to other markets

It would likely need new distribution partners if it goes that route, of course, because Coborn's only has delivery service in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud areas other grocery chains may welcome the service.

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

Steven Johnson is Grocerant Guru at: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

Foodservice Solutions® is working at the intersection of competitive intelligence and successful retail food industry business development.  At that intersection you find the leading grocerant consultancy Foodservice Solutions® based in Tacoma, Washington with Grocerant Guru, Steven Johnson a leading food industry thought leader. Specializing in the Grocerant niche filled with ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh and fresh prepared food served in both traditional and non-traditional avenues of distribution many times creating new avenues of fresh food distribution.

Differentiation in marketing builds strong brands. Understanding differentiation in market positioning and retail leads to industry leadership. Tired of simply following the leaders or utilizing copy-cat marketing techniques? Are you ready to garner new customers via consumer relevant unique brand and or product positioning? During the past 21 years we have developed over 6.5 billion Dollars in avenues of new business revenue for clients and companies.

Foodservice Solutions® can help you break out of the malaise of mediocrity while building top line revenue and bottom line profits from new consumer relevant positioning too new points of distribution. Find your brand in “footprint malaise? Foodservice Solutions® can help.

Success leaves clues; consumers provide insights into preferred differentiation. Transformational times require focus and experience with a qualitative edge. If you’re looking for that outstanding balance of IQ & EQ which combined with vast industry knowledge and proven success you have found it at Foodservice Solutions®.

Specialties: Developing, ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh and prepared food sales. Integrating the 5 P’s of Food Marketing with branded products and quick meal assembly. Foodservice Solutions® Excels at identifying, qualifying, and quantifying niche opportunity within the retail food space for ready-2-eat, heat-N-eat fresh prepared food, and technology applications. 

For Success Clues Contact Website: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us Blog: www.Grocerants.blogspot.com

 For corporate presentations, confidential engagements, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions at: grocerant@q.com .  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will contribute to your success. Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant