|
Thought Leadership
Advertising: The Lines Are Blurred
The Leader in integrated Media Intelligence SolutionsAdvertising: The Lines Are Blurred
By:Leslie StubinSenior Vice President Advertising Sales and ServicesVMS
Historically.Quick Serve Restaurants sold burgers, fries and a soda. Fast food chicken chains o?ered 10 ways to orderyour chicken, and co?ee houses sold only co?ee and baked goods.
Currently.McDonalds is touting Filet-O-Fish and McCafés.Burger King is selling veggie burgers and garden salads.KFC is marketing Mac and Cheese.Wendy's hot items are Frosty-cino's, chili and ?sh.Starbucks expanded with selling CD's and Tazo teas.Dunkin Donuts is hawking Tropicana Coolatta's and ?atbread sandwiches.Chick Fil A's new breakfast o?ering is a sausage breakfast burrito.Papa Johns now has chicken wings on the menu.
Traditionally, product lines were clearly de?ned and the associated advertising was concise and usually predictable.Advertising re?ected the basics.quality of ingredients, the family experience, pricing, value, fast service, andsometimes promotional tie-ins (i.e. Star Wars, Spiderman, etc).
Over the past 20 years, an ad agency's research department compiled meaningful data for future ad campaigns. Theyneeded to understand the competitors marketing activities. They needed to know where competitors were focusingtheir creative, media expenditures, spend by message and product, geography, media mix and weight, and be ableto decipher speci?c messaging. The research was fairly straight forward since the playing ?eld was relatively narrow.While creatively ads have always been unique, the major Quick Service Restaurants had similar messages, productlines, price points and targets.that was then.
Fast forward to 2009, QSR companies that were generating the majority of their revenues from selling burgers havenow expanded into multiple product channels by adding products like burritos, pizza, ?avored co?ees and lattes.Some chains even sell frozen branded meals in supermarkets. Chick Fil A introduced three new breakfast meals thisyear and expanded into western markets.
The Leader in integrated Media Intelligence SolutionsBroadening the Menu Items like the new McCafe Co?ee lines (Co?ee QSR), Real Fruit Smoothies (Other FrozenBeverages QSR) and the Double Fish Filet (Seafood Items QSR) have extended McDonald's product line into 17di?erent product subcategories.
2007 2008 2009 ytd May TotalBrand SubCatergory $(000) $(000) $(000) $(000)
McDonald's Breakfast Items and Pastries QSR 91,841.6 6.8 94,586.7 6.3 34,823.5 4.6 221,251.8Burger Items QSR 59,565.6 4.4 57,058.0 3.8 65,690.5 8.6 182,251.8Chicken Items QSR 90,348.6 6.7 142,060.1 9.4 25,541.3 3.4 257,949.3Co?ee QSR 40,913.7 3.0 39,187.4 2.6 75,172.9 9.9 155,274.0Combo Meals QSR 6.7 0.0 .0 0.0 414.9 0.1 421.5Fountain Drinks QSR 8,831.4 0.7 21,894.1 1.4 7,176.1 0.9 37,901.5Fries QSR 258.3 0.0 26.6 0.0 718.4 0.1 1,003.2General Promotion QSR 173,756.7 12.8 138,012.1 9.1 66,618.6 8.7 378,387.5Ice Cream QSR 154.2 0.0 .0 0.0 70.9 0.0 225.1Kids Meals QSR 22,644.0 1.7 51,719.8 3.4 23,952.1 3.1 98,315.9Other Beverages QSR .0 0.0 .0 0.0 173.2 0.0 173.2Other Desserts QSR 1,764.3 0.1 650.6 0.0 268.8 0.0 2,683.7Other Frozen Beverages QSR .0 0.0 187.7 0.0 18.4 0.0 206.0Salads QSR 25,947.4 1.9 250.2 0.0 .0 0.0 26,197.6Sandwiches QSR 7,003.1 0.5 4,381.6 0.3 2,970.0 0.4 14,354.7Seafood Items QSR 6,484.0 0.5 7,793.7 0.5 10,146.9 1.3 24,424.6Shakes QSR 165.0 0.0 143.2 0.0 106.3 0.0 414.6Value Menues QSR 56,126.7 4.1 62,040.4 4.1 30,334.1 4.0 148,501.2
Total585,810.743.3619,992.041.0344,196.845.21,549,999.5
* Data from VMS' AdSight Max On-Demand Report Generator
QSRs previously known for no-frills and e?ciency have jumped on the improved service bandwagon. Chipotleemploys greeters and is marketing an "interactive experience"initially targeting upscale zip codes.
In some markets by law, QSRs need to display calorie counts. How can you e?ectively display a 1000 calorie mealwithout turning o? some customers?
Remember trans fat? In 2007, removing it from the menu was the hot topic for the industry. Two years later, is it stillimportant, is it part of current ad messaging?
The Leader in integrated Media Intelligence SolutionsComplicating matters more, marketers and advertisers today are faced with intense scrutiny and belt tightening. Theyare clamoring for better ways to measure Retu... [download for more]
|
