Restaurants and Institutions

Let's face it, business stinks.

The "Value Chain" forged by our customers and our enterprises has been broken.

When customers find value in a restaurant offering, they reward the establishment with their frequency and loyalty.  Basically they return more often and they spend more each time they visit.  Each time they visit, the two sides, consumer and operator build their "Value Chain" together.

My fifth and final piece of the "Five Compelling Worldwide Trends, 2008" is no longer a projection.  It is already fully in place and the shifting target of the value sensitive consumer has been moved beyond the reach of many well-intentioned managers.  This is...Read More

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Why, in a time of economic downturn, with the housing collapse and high gasoline prices mauling the restaurant business, would it matter for operators to be focused on the concepts of authenticity and wellness?

Why?  Because in times of stress and uncertainty, consumers seek products and services that will help them feel good about themselves and their place in the world.

So, here is Trend 4 of my promised 5 Trends for 2008:  "Customers are on a search for Wellness and Authenticity."  And here is why.

A restaurant is a place to be restored, to be renewed, to be refreshed.  In a complex and overwhelmingly material marketplace, it should be obvious that offering an authentic experience where guests can become both physically and psychologically "well"...Read More

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Today it’s tomatoes and salmonella. A while back it was spinach and E. coli. Add gasoline at $4 a gallon, and simply defining what “Going Green” means suddenly has taken on new significance. Green isn’t just about turning lights down and using recycled takeout containers; it’s about finding a way to open for business tomorrow morning.

Going green is the Zeitgeist of American society: Who in our industry doesn’t want to guarantee a steady supply of safe and affordable food for our guests? And who doesn’t secretly want to trade-in their gas guzzling SUV for a hybrid?

Anyone who refuses to see the connections between going green and the runaway prices for corn, wheat and rice (and, as a result, for beef, dairy and baked goods) and soaring energy costs simply isn’t paying attention to the world outside their res...Read More

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Since the 1950s, supermarkets have been selling groceries, meat, vegetables and other staples in a raw or semi-finished form at low prices.  To use these products, customers need to have both the knowledge to convert them into a cooked, edible form and the time to do it.  Doesn’t everyone know how to make Pasta Pomodoro (spaghetti with tomato sauce) from scratch?  Making dinner at home is neither convenient nor easy but it is generally cheap.

Likewise, since the 1960s, in a direct relationship with a majority of women entering the workforce, restaurants have been selling meat, vegetables and other staples as finished meals in easy-to-use formats at reasonable prices.  To use these products customers need to have both a knowledge o...Read More

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In my last posting I wrote that there are five compelling trends for the industry to learn, and that the Baby Boom Generation is becoming irrelevant as a market force.  Let me start with the first of the trends below, and see how the two suggestions fit together.

The Five Trends I believe are most compelling for our industry in 2008 are these:

1. Consumers' desire for “convenience”;
2. The expanding challenges of supermarket “made for you” foods;
3. Defining the meaning of “going green”;
4. Identifying the search for Wellness and authenticity;
5. Targeting the shifting “value-sensitive consumer.”

If you are of a “certain age” (meaning you were alive before 1980), your definition of “convenience” was associated with places such a...Read More

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I’m proud to have recently been invited to be a keynote speaker at the 75th anniversary meeting of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. FPI President John Burke assembled a world-class group of speakers and the conversations after each of the sessions were forward thinking and remarkably candid. Personally, I learned a lot by being with this group, always a great reason to attend such events.

Part of my presentation was “Five Compelling Worldwide Trends, 2008,” in which I identified the issues that are setting the agenda for the industry for the next few years. As a time frame, you might consider this: We are about as close to the events of 9/11/2001 as we are to those of April 2015; r...Read More

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In a remarkably balanced, yin-and-yang kind of way, two restaurant icons have addressed the issue of brand renewal over the past week.

Both can be described as mature concepts.

• They have fully developed business models in the U.S. where they are suffering unit sales declines.

  Chris Muller

• Meanwhile they show double-digit growth in international markets.
• Each has the dominant market share for their single product offering.
• The

...Read More

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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced his five-point plan for change in the Starbucks system on March 19. While he touched on similar areas, here are the five goals I think they should pursue:

1. Franchise
2. Reposition as a “Life Style Beverage” business
3. “Slim down” its menu with healthier, active drinks
4. Become edgier and younger
5. Change its Value Proposition by broadening its menu and lowering its prices

...Read More

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Chris Muller

I’ve been traveling to Europe for more than a decade, having the honor to work with some of the best young restaurant entrepreneurs and their developing companies. This past week (for the twelfth time) I had the pleasure to visit INTERNORGA in Hamburg, the largest restaurant trade show in Europe. It was a remarkably different experience than the original one I had in 1997.

On my first few vi...Read More

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Chris Muller

The study of demographics is like reading tomorrow’s newspaper today. Take a good hard look at population “cohorts”—statisticians’ term for segments such as age groups-- and you can see the future: future consumption needs, future trends, future markets. Demographics frames customer perspectives and gives market watchers insight into consumer behavior.

For a very current example, put aside any political-party affiliation a...Read More

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First, Starbucks reported the return of Howard Schultz (shown) to the helm after a senior-management shakeup followed by the announcement of a new pricing and menu strategy (lead by $1 plain coffee). Second, it was reported that Panera Bread is the object o...Read More

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In the last week or so, I've experienced two similar, but very different dining occasions. Together they made me realize how a restaurant's brand image is a very subtle and fragile thing.

There is a busy new Romano's Macaroni Grill in town [Orlando] and we decided to try the curbside take-out option. As we expected, after downloading the menu from the Web site, the ordering process was easy, the pickup service was friendly and convenient, and the food was still hot enough by the time we arrived home that we all simply poured the meals onto our plates and had a "family dinner" together at our kitchen table. The food was quite good, although it became a bit heavy as it ...Read More

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