During one of the previous burger wars, a QSR corporate head (I think he was from Burger King) coined the phrase "Barbell Menu." The term was used to describe pricing that brought customers into the restaurant with the hope they'd forego the discount and move up to more profitable menu items.
Today, we have a different "barbell menu" this one is more of a corporate strategy. The only "new" idea the corporate guys can come up with is discounting. But they can't admit to investors that price-off is their only idea, so they'll try to deflect attention to new product promotions. This works well because analysts and reporters are always expecting new product news. And, if there is no new product news, they'll criticize management for not having a "healthy product innovation pipeline".
If the discounting works, management will credit the new products. If sales haven't improved, they’ll blame the American consumer.
And everyone else in the system will be left asking, “How did our menu get so big and complicated?”
2 comments:
If the discounting works, management will credit the new products. If sales haven't improved, they’ll blame the American consumer."
That's right, but also:
If the discounting works, corporate will claim that their marketing genius was the reason, and claim awards from their peers. If it doesn't, they will blame the operators' operations.
If you havent figured it out by now, the PARTNERSHIP IS DEAD, replaced by a cabal of greedy self serving corporate senior execs whose only concern is the stockholders stock price and their own golden parachutes and exorbitant salaries and bonuses.
Post a Comment