Looks Like Fast Food Is Taking On A New Avatar. But Why?

Maybe it’s the new trend, or maybe it’s a way to bring in more people. But either way, fast food joints are now starting to changing up their menu and offerings and it’s a little strange.

We’ve always known of fast food joints to have the same or similar things on offer. Visit a McDonald’s and you’re guaranteed a delicious Big Mac or stop by Burger King and treat yourself to a Whopper and you know that anywhere in the world, that this is what you will get if you visit these outlets. But now, these fast food restaurants are switching up the game. They’re introducing interesting new dishes on the menu and calling them things that are not related to the main brand and they’re doing well.

Recently we wrote about a new McCafe outlet that opened in Paris that wasn’t serving any of the usual fare. Instead, they have club sandwiches, freshly ground coffee and even macarons. It’s becoming quite a popular place too! Most food lovers don’t really find anything exciting about fast food restaurants, but offer them something other than burger and fries and they’ll definitely walk into the restaurant. Obviously this is something that is working for the McCafe, so why not try something more?

CNBC reported earlier today that McDonald’s conducted a regional test of a Pesto Mozzarella Melt in Southern California which did not have the usual McName and was completely different from their usual burgers and sandwiches. McDonald’s has already been trying different and interesting new variety of things including garlic fries, fresh, never frozen beef, and alternative sizes of its Big Mac.

But Why?

In the same CNBC report, they mentioned Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski who did some research into these fast food joints introducing more interesting and ‘upscale’ items and he said that it probably has something to do with the millenial generation being more interested in exploring food options and trying something new as often as possible.

It could be that, or just that the brand wants to try something different. Expanding and changing menus is always something that works really well for restaurants. Customers are more interested and inclined to try something new and different if it means they get to go back to a place they enjoy. While a lot of customers at these fast food restaurants aren’t exactly the kinds that would care what’s on the menu, it can be guaranteed that if something new shows up, they will try it simply because it’s new and it’s being promoted well.

Bringing in new customers is always an important thing as well. Changing the face of the game and switching up the usual menu will bring in people who usually don’t care about fast food restaurants. There are lots of people who don’t like or even care for fast food or junk food and in a way to bring those people into the restaurant, a great marketing strategy is to obviously introduce healthier options, different food they can choose from, dishes that sound like they belong in a fancier restaurant and offer coffee or juices that aren’t canned or coming out of a fountain machine.

It’s no longer enough to serve salads and merge two brands together to get the attention of food lovers everywhere. What works best and what will always work really well is giving the public something new and maybe that works by changing the brand as much as possible.