Taco Bell has come up with a creative new angle on the ‘Value Wars’. And it doesn’t involve cutting their menu prices, profits or costs. It’s as easy as letting your customers choose what they can afford – and helping them find it…
It was so simple, so obvious that everybody else overlooked it. But now, Taco Bel has recognised the opportunity and pounced on it. And amid all kinds of fan-confusing menu and price fluidity, the Bell is giving faithful followers something solid an reassuring to hang onto…
Reverse engineering
In fact, you could say Taco Bell reverse-engineered the Value Wars scenario. And attacked from the other flank. From out of Left Field. Blind-sided the competition.
The objective of the War has always been to offer consumers more bang for their buck. Over the past year, Fast Food fans have been clamouring for a feeling that they’re getting their money’s worth. Giving them Bigger Burgers, Better-Value Deals and indulging in ultra-competitive limited-time promotions has only demonstrated the Better Value principle. Nothing really new has shown up in the overall Fast Food business model that will sustain a ‘Value Model’ over the long term.
The Resto of the Future?
The much-hyped ‘Restaurant of the Future’ (ROTF) concept, with which Fast Food players have been teasing us with since the end of the COVID Era, was supposed to achieve such a sea change. But it has yet to deliver on its initial promises.
Part of the problem has been the failure of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence to perform up to the requirements of the ROTF scenario. Other issues holding it back include continuing high food prices unchecked general inflation. And higher Fast Food worker wages in many jurisdictions.
In many ways, it’s been ‘one step forward, two steps back’.
But Taco Bell has – unexpectedly, I’ll admit – tied several ROTF threads and the concept of customer value into a single new idea.
Choose your price
A new feature of the Taco Bell online app lets you tell it how much you have to spend. Then it helps you explore meal/combo options you can afford at that price point.
The ‘Name Your Price Tool’ asks you to select a dollar amount between $5 and $25 then helps you navigate the applicable range of the regular TB menu. It sounds simple, but it’s not. In fact I found the idea great, but the current state of its execution maze-like and confusing.
You get a list of the menu items you can afford, but without the taxes, fees, tips, and extras. They’re added later. That makes the cost of your meal seem lower than it actually is – a great way to entice you to order more and worry about the addons later. If at all.
Seems to me TB is actually counting on you forgetting about the extras. You’re paying with your credit or debit card, after all. It’s not like you have a finite amount of cash in your pocket to hold you to an actual limit.
My take
If I’m right about the true, underlying nature of the Taco Bell ‘Name Your Price Tool’ NYPT promo, it’s a crass, deceptive machination designed to make fans feel they’re getting value they may not actually be getting. They may feel better about the transaction, but they’re probably getting less to eat.
And TB is not suffering as much, financially, as it might if it actually offered true ‘Better Value’ prices and/or Bigger Burgers for the regular price.
On balance, TB stands to break even on the NYPT scheme – or even draw customers away from the competition.
The more I think about it, the more I realize the concept of ‘Value’ is more a feeling than a real, tang-ible phenomenon. As long as consumers believe they are getting ‘value’, they’ll feel good about their Fast Food transactions – no matter how much they’re actually paying…
~ Maggie J.