Naked Breakfast Taco - Detail - © 2017 Taco Bell

Menu Madness: Or Is It Desperation?

We’ve had this discussion before, and it appears the time has come to reiterate the point: Fast Food sector players seem to have come to the point where they’ve given up trying to create truly innovative menu items and are simply recombining existing ingredients to produce downright silly new dishes…

Maple Double Down 2018 - © KFC CanadaThe ‘new’ KFC Maple Waffle Double Down. Same old ingredients, new ‘look’.

We’ve recently reported on some crazy new developments – plus the return of some older ones – in the Fast Food sphere. It seems that players, in their desperation to prop up their marketing profiles above the competition, are now announcing new menu items almost weekly. And that’s putting a great strain on their brain trusts’ capacities to innovate.

For example, the love-it-or-hate it KFC Double Down is back in Canada this spring. That’s a pair of crispy breaded Chicken Breasts bracketing a Waffle with Maple Aioli dressing. The Maple is the Canadian part. This particular ‘inside-out Sandwich’ with the meat on the outside, drew a lot of attention when it first appeared last year (or was it the year before?) both for its decadence and its unhealthfulness: that’s a lot of Calories, Fat, Carbs and Salt! Can’t find any stats on the new Waffle DD, but FC says the original DD had 540 Calories and more than 1,300 mg of Salt.

Arby’s is offering ‘new versions’ of its Miami Cuban, Texas Brisket and New York Reuben sandwiches this month.

Taco Bell is bringing back its quirky Naked Breakfast Taco, the one with a firm Fried Egg ‘shell’.

The Olive Garden has launched Pasta ‘Nachos’ and a Bread Bowl menu item featuring Pizza Crust cradling Meatballs, Marinara Sauce and Cheese.

Those are just some highlights.

So… What can we expect next?

In short: More of the same. The same old ingredients presented in different ways. And that means the same old flavours underneath it all.

In addition, in the wake of that movement, a pattern has developed in which the players bring back fan favourites and way-out promo items ‘for a limited time’ on a more or less regular rotation. Their creative wells have run dry, so they rely on regular ‘Coming Back Soon’ announcements to vault their marketing profiles to the top of the heap – at least until some competitor announces their own ‘Coming Back’ special.

One reason for this repetitive, cyclical rotation of the same old menu items is the need to keep things simple for franchisees who must serve the foods. It takes a fair amount of time to phase in totally new ingredients in franchise inventories and, of course, it costs more. That’s unpopular with franchisees whose profits are being squeezed tighter and tighter by their head offices and rising prices. And, of course, every time a new menu item is decreed by the head office, employees must be trained how too make it. It all costs the franchisee time, trouble and money. And that makes it a really tough hurdle for menu designers to clear.

And that’s why there’s rarely anything new under the sun in Fast Food country. How long this tactic of bringing back fan favourites can continue to sustain the Fast Food chains remains to be seen.

~ Maggie J.