Disclaimer: my blogs record history as I remember it. They may or may not be historically accurate but the recollections will be consistent with the sentiment of my topic.
Collegiate legend has it that a Philosophy professor asked a single one word question as his final exam. The question was, “Why?” It goes on to say that he only gave one A for the course and that went to the student who responded, “Why not?” In business and life both of these questions are crucial and we should never stop asking either.
A recent article in Ad Age highlighted Taco Bell’s new innovative breakfast program. They began carving out a share of the breakfast daypart for themselves last week; only time will tell how they do. Today breakfast accounts for 1 out of every 5 restaurant visits with 8 out of 10 visits going to fast food. The Bell is taking on Mickey D, the current breakfast dominator, with a clever ad campaign that has gone viral featuring a host of real Ronald McDonalds endorsing Taco Bell’s new breakfast. This kind of innovation and boldness reminds me of a similar situation early in my career with Hardee’s.
In the late 70’s the only fast food breakfast player was McDonald’s. Their menu consisted of pancake and scrambled egg platters and the Egg McMuffin. The rest of the fast food industry opened at eleven serving lunch and dinner; they basically surrendered the breakfast daypart to McDonald’s until Hardee’s leadership committed themselves to break the code and become a major breakfast player. Where there is a will there also needs to be a way; Hardee’s had the will, they now needed to discover the way.
During my internship with Jim Walsh, the VP of New Product Development & Research, he invited me to join an early morning meeting where they were going to brainstorm ideas for a new breakfast program. I volunteered to stop by a local mom and pops BBQ place and get a bag of country ham biscuits and some bottles of Coke for everyone. Jim said he’d reimburse me.
The meeting got off to a great start as the group began listing product ideas on a flip chart while enjoying their biscuits and Coke. Get the picture? A group of men and women sitting around the conference table, eating country ham biscuits and drinking Coke from bottles asking questions like, “Would people drink soft drinks with breakfast? What can we make to compete with McDonald’s?” I wish I could say it was me, I honestly don’t remember, but somebody said, “Look at what we are drinking. Look at what we are eating.” Light bulbs began going on throughout the room. “Can we make biscuits?” someone asked. “Why not?”
Hardee’s “made from scratch every day” biscuit program wrote fast food history in 1978 and is still the best biscuit breakfast money can buy. Who knows? Taco Bell’s Waffle Taco and A.M. Crunchwrap might just be fast food breakfast history in the making. I’ve got my eye set on a bacon,egg and cheese Waffle Taco!
Now I’m craving a Hardee’s biscuit. Thanks a lot BRIAN. My favorite part of the story of Taco Bell’s aggressive marketing campaign is McD’s response. Free coffee, no strings attached timed during the launch of the new Taco Bell breakfast menu. Lesson learned, if you poke the giant, it may step on you.
I tried to get a client to do Free Coffee a few years ago as they were attempting to establish their new coffee line as a legitimate morning choice. They were hesitant and did not do it. Now they can watch McDonald’s and see what they missed.