El
Pollo Loco, is
the latest company joining Burger King, McDonalds, Starbucks, and many more in
understand the importance of edifying consumer
relevant touchpoints, driving new electricity into the brand. The Me to We
movement was identified as the restaurant sectors 2021 call to arms the “from
me to we” is where restaurants will focus on sustainability driving the message
that we are here and we are getting better for you.”
According
to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based
Foodservice Solutions®, “brands that are getting ‘better for you’ are bettering
themselves as well.”
Now El
Pollo Loco, is eliminating its use of Styrofoam and continuing its
improvements to customers’ off-premises dining experience with a system-wide
rollout of clear, eco-conscious Thermo-To-Go packaging that keeps food hotter
for a fresh-from-the-grill taste in every bite. This will drive new electricity
into customer relevance and its brand according to Johnson.
El
Pollo Loco President and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Acoca,
stated, “El Pollo Loco is committed to enhancing the convenience and overall
experience of off-premises dining, which continues to grow exponentially and
currently comprises the bulk of our business,” “Not only is our new
Thermo-To-Go packaging better for the environment, but it’s also sturdier and
has an appealing aesthetic that showcases our delicious food while preserving
heat and quality.”
So, the transition to the Thermo-To-Go
containers, which are made from partially recycled materials, will remove 1.9
million cubic feet of Styrofoam — the equivalent of 21 Olympic-size swimming
pools — from the national waste stream annually.
Get this, El Pollo Loco’s off-premises
business has grown since 2019, with delivery sales jumping by 250 percent and
its already robust drive-thru business growing by 43 percent. In the last
year, El Pollo Loco has introduced GPS-enabled curbside pickup,
drive-thru enhancements and other improvements to its off-premises offerings as
part of its ongoing digital transformation strategy; however, the
pandemic-induced growth in off-premises business served as further incentive to
accelerate the rollout of additional upgrades, including the move to better
packaging. Regular readers of this blog know consumers ‘love’ the halo around
all things ‘better-4-you’.
El Pollo Loco’s Tostadas switched to
Thermo-To-Go packaging in late April and the restaurant’s famous Fire-grilled
Chicken will be sold in the new containers system-wide by the end of May. How is your brand building new electricity?
According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is
in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with
new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new
electricity.”
Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the
new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things
as fresh foods, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing,
grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery,
cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held
marketing.
All retailers to survive the next
generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution
while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with
differentiation that is familiar not different. How
is your brand building new electricity?
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
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