Broken Glass: Casual Dining

The reality is that casual dining must first deliver on the primary needs of their consumer: consistent execution with good quality. The segment will not get credit for innovation or for kale & quinoa before solving its consistency challenge. That's the entry for consideration.

We hear Ops argue that Marketing puts too much on their plate (which is typically true) and we hear Marketing argue that messaging has to compensate for declining traffic and inconsistent quality of execution (which is typically true). How did we get here?

The downturn of 2008 led the casual dining segment to invest their Marketing messaging into deals and to tighten their Operations budgets to survive. It worked for the brands that are still around. The unfortunate consequence was that a brand got linked to discounts, that the consumer was trained to look for coupons, and that the messaging was rotated between interchangeable promotions. We knew this was a likely outcome, but hard times required we break the glass in case of emergency. Now it's time to piece it back together.

Innovation will not deliver Guests to casual dining... not yet. The absolute reality is that the primary benefit of casual dining is consistent execution of quality menu items and service. Simple as that. Messaging must reinforce this fact and execution must regain that trust. It's time to get back to the basics.