Taco Bell’s Insincere Subscription Service

 

There are times that old industry insiders pontificate on things that they just don’t understand.  This may not be the case this time for our own Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson, based in Tacoma, WA with Foodservice Solutions®. 

Johnson stated, “consumers are attracted to restaurant brands for a plethora of reasons most are tired to the price, value, service, equilibrium. While technology is driving new loyalty at chain restaurants seeming daily, all just slightly different Johnson believes that most are to contrived.  He reminds us that the consumer is not stupid.  They will set limits on how they far the are willing to be manipulated.

That’s right, food marketers, consumer know you are trying to manipulate them, you are not out smarting them.  They will let you abuse them only up to a point, then they will turn away.  Most new digital app loyalty programs are not a brand invitation they are bribe to stay with the brand.  That according to Johnson is not a brand growth strategy it is a documented, set of data points that quantify how long you can keep a customer before you turn them away.

The price, value, service, equilibrium combined with full flavored craveable food with consistence service will do far more to drive top line sales and bottom-line profits than data points on yesterday’s actions according to Johnson.  For that reason, Johnson believes that Taco Bell’s trial subscription service is simply an insincere effort at a brand invitation in need of a major redo.  That said let’s look at it:

So, the Taco Lover’s Pass, currently launching only at units in Tucson, Ariz., is available via the chain’s app and allows the user to redeem one taco per day for 30 days.

Taco Bell is testing a 30-day taco subscription service that can only be purchased via the chain’s app, the quick-service brand announced Monday.

The Taco Lover’s Pass, which sells for between $5 and $10 depending on location, allows users to redeem one Taco Bell original taco per day for a month. It is currently being tested for a limited time at 17 units in Tucson, Ariz., the company said.

Free taco choices include the Crunchy Taco, Spicy Potato Soft Taco, Crunchy Supreme Taco, Soft Supreme Taco, Doritos Locos Tacos and the Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme. The pass is available under the Online Exclusives section of the Taco Bell app.

The Irvine, Calif.-based chain called the subscription “a digitally exclusive offering that gives fans the chance to satisfy their taco cravings every day for 30 days.”

Even at $10 for the month, the subscription is quite a good deal for diners: One Crunchy Taco Supreme, for example, is listed at $1.99 and a Crunchy Taco is $1.49 on the website of one of Taco Bell’s Tucson, Ariz., stores.

In addition to incentivizing use of the taco chain’s app, it is likely Taco Bell is hoping diners will order more than just their one free taco each day. Such has been the case with other restaurant chains that have recently implemented subscription programs.

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

Sheetz Anything Restaurants can We Can Do for Better

Restaurants concern over the increase competition from Convenience Stores is well founded according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Convenience stores expanded fresh grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food is restaurant quality and often priced for less than chain restaurants can or do offer.

If chain restaurants test something that works, according to Johnson convenience stores follow with the added benefit of incremental meal component mix and match meal bundling offers that drive additional customer migrations.

So, when Sheetz partnered with Beyond Meat to become the first continental U.S. convenience store chain to introduce the Beyond Burger at its 587 Sheetz stores once again the competitive forces have created a platform for disruption.

Since the Beyond Burger ‘features a protein-heavy’, 100-percent plant-based meat alternative with the same taste and texture of a traditional beef burger that millennials have been shown affection for. Sheetz offers customers the ability to customize their Beyond Burgers with more than 47 options than most chain restaurants, including seven different bread choices, seven different cheese choices, 20 different toppings and 13 different spreads.

Mix and Match bunding is a hallmark of successful grocerant niche offering and even our Grocerant Guru® believes that Sheetz may have reached the tipping point on options.  However, those options are driving incremental customer migrations according to recent grocerant scorecards.

Dan Coffin, lead chef and assistant vice president of culinary development at Sheetz stated "Sheetz is constantly innovating and adding new menu items to give our customers what they want, when they want it, 24/7," … "As demand for healthier, diverse protein options increases, we are excited to add the Beyond Burger to our menu in our continual mission to be the ultimate one-stop-shop."

The fast-casual restaurant sector is uniquely vulnerable as the price of the Beyond Burger at Sheetz starts at $6.99 and varies by customization and toppings. Sheetz ability to elevate a product with incremental mix and match meal components is a clear advantage.

So, we ask, why do chain restaurants look more like yesterday’s food retailers than todays or tomorrows? Why are chain restaurants so slow to evolve? Is it that they have lost track of what is relevant to customers today? 

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Dollar Store Sector Garners a Larger Share of Stomach

Battle for Share of Stomach

Just in case you were not paying attention Dollar General with 15,597 stores has one of the largest store footprints in the US. Restaurants, Convenience stores, need to pay attention, to the fact that rival discount chains Dollar General and Dollar Tree each reported quarterly results that indicate improving sales trends due in part to stores evolving to meet a larger percentage of their customer’s shopping needs through food. 

Clearly, the grocery store sector has been the hurt the most from the growth of the Dollar store sector but now as regular readers of this blog know Dollar Stores are selling more and more grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food as Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has been reporting.

Here you go just look at this numbers; Dollar General said sales during its fiscal quarter ending May 3 increased by a robust 8.3%, paced by new store openings and same-store sales gains of 3.8%. Officials said remodeled stores—including an increasing number that have added fresh produce offerings in addition to more cold and frozen items—were outpacing the comp growth overall, with fresh produce offerings at its DGTP models experiencing comps near 15%.

Not to be left out Dollar Tree, which operates the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners, said sales in its first quarter ending May 4 increased by 4.6% to $5.8 billion and that comps improved by 2.2% overall.

Looking for a reason to worry? At Dollar General, the addition of food at stores continues to be the chain’s “most impactful merchandising initiative,” CEO Todd Vasos said in a conference call.  The chain’s steady increase in cooler doors since 2013 is also providing the sales volume for the company’s announced move to self-distribution. “In addition to being a great traffic and ticket driver, our success in expanding our cooler footprint has provided the scale necessary to initiate DG Fresh.” The chain added 12,000 cooler doors in the first quarter alone.  Is your restaurant, C-store, or grocery store prepared for this success?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Nestle Interactive Customer Food Marketing with Relevance

Once again a global leading food company with a legacy of ‘better-for-you’ food products is leveraging it’s legacy with customer relevance not only to drive sales but to edify its relationship with families according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  How, simple with water.

Nestlé said only 22% of a child’s daily fluid intake comes from water and the rest is often topped up by sugary soft drinks.  So, this new interactive kid focused positioning will drive top line growth while edifying families to Nestle according to Johnson.

Nestlé Waters’ out-of-home shopper marketing manager Severine Hemms said: “Water is the healthiest way to hydrate, and encouraging these positive habits at a young age is crucial for developing life long, healthy behaviors, and we hope that this latest launch will help set children up for a successful and healthy future.”

Is it time that you look for a new partnership to drive sales? Partnerships can drive new electricity into your brand and your customer base.  In this case the Nestle offers is available in 24x330ml cases retailing at 65p per bottle and features designs of the characters from the film, which the brand said will “appeal to families and inspire children to drink water”. It said the new is ideal for family days out, lunch boxes, road trips and picnics. Now they offer a full range of POS tools, including shelf barkers, FSDUs and posters, is also available

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us 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:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Yesterday you were Shopping, Cooking, Doing Dishes Today Grocerant Fresh Food is for Dinner

What’s for Dinner? You know that question your kids ask you to many times a day and you ask yourself more times than you ever dreamed possible.  Well, at the intersection of daily task and the family dinner is a set of tasks including shopping, cooking and doing dishes that most consumers believe consumes way too much time according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today, 82.3% of family dinners service at home included at least one fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh meal component according to the latest Grocerant ScoreCard conducted by the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  Consumer migration from legacy chain restaurants for dinner, grocery stores, is painfully clear in the decline of 51.3% reduction in the number of legacy grocery stores over the past 12 years and the prolonged year over year decline in restaurant sector customer counts.

Saving time continues to be the number one key driver of retail foodservice customer migration from one platform to another according to Johnson.  Second, is the lack of cooking skill-set to prepared the multi-ethnic full-flavored foods consumers have been introduced to and enjoy.

While technology innovations, media innovations, and consumer behavior continue to evolve our eating habits specifically where we eat and when we eat have continued to evolve and 73.6% of consumers now report they prefer eating dinner at home in front of the TV. 

Watching live sporting events, playing games, even watching the news has gain momentum as a driver in what consumers want to watch while eating dinner.  While employee commuting times continue to grow in length, so do options for children’s activities after school shrinking the time available for preparing dinner.

The undercurrent commonality within the retail food sector migration from all age groups is discovery.  The pure joy of finding a Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meal or meal component in a new avenue of distribution the ilk of Ikea, Costco, Macy’s or from a full-service chain restaurant.

There is a solution to the age or question that is asked all to often ‘What’s for Dinner’.  That solutions is fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meals or meal components that can be bundled into a Mix & Match prefect family meal.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869