IHOP Focusing on Customer Relevance

 

Hand Held Food for Immediate Consumption has made hamburgers and pizza mainstays on just about every menu in the U.S. according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions. Here let’s look at some facts:

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.8 %don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM.

2.       Roughly 63.7% of consumers purchase prepared food items from a retail location at least three times a month.

3.       79.6% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 66.6% have two meal components per day.

4.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.3 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.4% chose meal components.

5.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

6.       88.2 % of consumers prefer hand held food over sit down meals with a knife and fork

IHOP is now addressing customer relevance with menu items that complement the way consumers like to eat and are most comfortable.  Consumers today prefer to consume meals with their hands more often than with a knife, fork and spoon.  So, just how is IHOP doing that?  Simple they introduced Pancake Tacos to the menu Wednesday, turning a breakfast favorite into a handheld option geared to both dine-in and to-go guests.

The limited-time item, which runs through July 30, is available in four variations—two sweet and two savory providing choices that span the dayparts. The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes these items will work well and drive customer relevance while elevating takeout options for office and home delivery.

The former category includes the Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake Pancake Taco, filled with sliced berries and creamy cheesecake mousse, and the Caramel Banana Pancake Taco, featuring the same cheesecake mousse drizzled with vanilla sauce and dulce de leche caramel sauce. Chocolate chips are available as an extra indulgence on both.

On the savory side, there’s the Breakfast Pancake Taco, filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, a cheddar-Jack cheese blend and white cheese sauce with optional salsa. The Country Chicken and Gravy Pancake Taco with crispy chicken, shredded hashbrowns and country gravy topped with pickles rounds out the options.

An order of three tacos of the same flavor is $6, served in a metal taco holder. Tables can also share orders to sample all the variations.

This isn’t the first time IHOP has offered a pancake-taco mashup. Last summer, a franchisee in Texas created an homage to Klondike’s discontinued Choco Taco ice cream treat with a limited-time but wildly popular Choco-Pancake. A buttermilk pancake was pressed in a waffle iron, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce, whipped topping and chocolate chips.   

“I saw this as an opportunity to create more depth and taco iterations using our original pancake,” said Arthur Carl II, VP of culinary at IHOP, adding that he made the pancake smaller—more like a street taco size. “The Breakfast Pancake Taco really speaks to our guests, while the chicken taco is a little more adventurous and designed to be more of a lunch or dinner entree. The goal was to leverage our breakfast equity to expand into other dayparts.”  

The two sweet variations can fit into a breakfast or dessert occasion.

IHOP is partnering with TikTok creators to weigh in on the debate around whether the new menu item is a pancake or a taco. The plan is for creators to ask their followers to spark the discussion and encourage others to join in by sharing #PancakeorTaco.

Pancake Tacos were tested in Texas and Arizona units, receiving good feedback prior to their national launch Wednesday. “I’m hoping the Pancake Tacos hit well with guests through all the dayparts,” said Carl, adding that he’s exploring other ideas for menu extensions and limited-time offers but not sharing any specifics.  

Carl, who joined the Glendale, Calif.-based chain at the end of last year, has hit the ground running. In March, he elevated IHOP's menu with a new lineup of Benedicts, crepes, steakburgers, salads and beverages, all featuring upgraded ingredients, innovative flavors and chef-driven components.

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

Restaurant Chains, Buying Growth Works

 

When a restaurant chain had been in a specific sector as a leader for 50+ years you understand the sector, the competition, the customer, and compliancy. The consumer is dynamic and chain restaurants need to be as dynamic as consumers according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

There can be no doubt that Denny’s recent acquisition of a complementary daypart restaurant concept is a great move, and will provide incremental top line growth and bottom-line profits, while edifying Denny’s knowledge of the daypart insights even more according to Johnson.

Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade, stated, “The A.M. Eatery segment is fast-growing and Keke’s is a brand with attractive unit economics and strong potential,” In short it is a platform for growth!

So, average unit volumes at Keke’s 44 franchised and eight company-owned restaurants are about $1.9 million, and the chain’s price points are about 20% higher than Denny’s. The company appeals to high-income Gen Z and millennial consumers and families with kids.  Enough said!

In case you did not know, Keke’s recorded same-store sales increases of 18% during 2021 versus 2019, Denny’s executives said during a May earnings call. As of May, same-store sales were up 12% year-to-date versus 2021. Adjusted EBITDA contribution is expected to be between $6.5 million and $7 million, executives said. 

The breakfast concepts have done well in recent quarters. First Watch, for example, posted similarly robust same-store sales growth during Q1 2022, with same-restaurant sales increasing 27.2% and same-restaurant traffic increasing 21.9%, according to an earnings release. First Watch, which went public last year, aims to grow from over 420 units to 2,200.

 

1. Denny’s completed its $82.5 million acquisition of Keke’s Breakfast Cafe, which has 52 units across Florida, the company announced Wednesday. 

2. Denny’s used cash on hand as well as funds from a revolving credit facility to purchase the chain. 

3. Keke’s will operate independently from Denny’s and maintain its own leadership, strategies, products, marketing, operations and development initiatives.

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. 

Building a Larger Share of Stomach

Can Virtual Restaurants Save Legacy Chain Restaurants?

 

If you are running a legacy chain restaurant today you need to ask yourself, how can I add customer relevance to a brand that has been around longer than most Millennials have been alive. According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® virtual restaurants just might be the next big thing and a legacy chain restaurants savior.

Ok, remember that last October, Cracker Barrel opened a virtual restaurant brand and now it is getting ready to double its investment in its virtual brand The Pancake Kitchen by expanding to 200 locations by the end of 2022, roughly doubling the count from the start of the year.  Guess what?  It is proving the lift that Cracker Barrel needed while drawing in new customers during new dayparts.

The Pancake Kitchen is a delivery-only concept cooked in Cracker Barrel kitchens is meant to make eating breakfast all day easier for guests of the family-dining chain.

Matthew Schaefer, Cracker Barrel’s senior director of strategy and innovation, stated, “The expansion of The Pancake Kitchen by Cracker Barrel is part of our plan to make it as easy and convenient as possible for guests to enjoy one of our most popular homestyle breakfast favorites — whether they want pancakes at breakfast, lunch or dinner time!” ... “As the trend in online ordering and partnership with on-demand delivery platforms continues, we are excited to evolve our strategy and offerings to ensure our guests are able to satisfy their cravings for ‘pancakes all flippin’ day.’”

So, the menu consists of classic Buttermilk Pancakes with flavors like Pecan, Blueberry, Confetti (fruity cereal) and Chocolate Chip, with the option to add famous Cracker Barrel sides like Loaded Hashbrown Casserole or Fried Apples.

CEO Sandy Cochran, discussed The Pancake Kitchen, saying, “we remain confident that we can retain at least 60% of the growth in off-premises sales that we experienced during the pandemic.” 60% is a very good number.

Thus, The Pancake Kitchen expansion includes multiple phases. The brand is in 150 locations as of this week, with 50 of those being new, and plans to expand to 200 locations throughout this year. But that’s not all, Cracker Barrel also has a virtual brand called Chicken ‘n Biscuits, which is currently in around 500 of its 660 brick-and-mortar locations, and ghost kitchen outposts that opened in October.

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

Hy-Vee Focusing on Restaurant Meals

 

Consumers are dynamic not static and Hy-Vee has realized that if you want to keep consumers buying meals and meal components from you, you have to sell customer what they want.  This month Hy-Vee is focusing on it’s in-store restaurant breakfast menu and doing a good job according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Giving consumers what they want and how they want it works. So, this month Hy-Vee has unveiled a new “Best Breakfast in America” breakfast menu—complete with breakfast cocktails in select locations—that focuses on fresh, high-quality ingredients.

So, the made-to-order menu features skillets, with eggs and homestyle potatoes as a base and various meat and veggie ingredient options; pancakes, including apple pie pancakes with caramel, cinnamon and whipped cream; waffles in Nutella Banana or Sweat Cream; omelets, with four varieties available as well as an option for customers to create their own; French toast, including a Berry Bliss Stuffed French Toast; and sandwiches and platters.

Not up to all of that? Well, that’s ok, the menu also includes “classics,” such as eggs served with sausage or bacon, toast or pancakes and potatoes or fruit; biscuits and gravy; oatmeal; a breakfast burrito; and a gourmet cinnamon roll.

Get this, in addition to fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee, milk, tea and soft drinks, some Hy-Vee locations will offer a menu of breakfast cocktails, featuring mimosas, including a flight that includes four varieties; sangrias and margaritas; bloody marys; spiked coffees; and more. Breakfast hours will vary by store, Hy-Vee said on its website. All of this from a mid-west grocery store.  Hey, restaurants does this menu sound better than yours for breakfast?

Now there was even more fun than food during June, as in celebration of its “Best Breakfast in America” menu, Hy-Vee held an event June 24 at its Blue Springs, Mo., store to break the Guinness World Record for largest serving of pancakes. An adjudicator was on-site and declared the record officially broken when Hy-Vee chefs and employees flipped the 12,717th pancake. The team, however, continued to cook and ended the event with 13,000 pancakes at 12:16 p.m. The previous record was 12,716 pancakes set in 2017 in Moscow, Russia. Who’s ready for breakfast?  Hy-Vee anyone.

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com 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.