In a presentation at the ICR XChange Conference in Miami on Jan. 16, Wendy’s announced that it has decided to discontinue breakfast in some of its markets.
This is the third time the chain has backed away from offering breakfast. Guess “third time isn’t the charm”?
While we know that more consumers are purchasing breakfast at QSR’s/fast-casuals, it doesn’t guarantee that, just because a restaurant offers it, they will come. It’s a very crowded space, with some chains like Subway making breakfast a key component of their strategy (and marketing spend), not just a “me, too” thing like many chains do.
And since there’s only so much a quick serve or fast-casual restaurant can do with a breakfast menu.
I’m guessing one of the following happened (possibly more than one):
- Wendy’s did not put adequate advertising dollars behind this initiative
- They failed to properly delineate the geographical competition in those markets or
- Their potential customer demographics were off.
That is, did Wendy’s really do all their homework prior to jumping in head first or were they so concerned with simply keeping up with the Joneses (e.g. “everyone else offers breakfast, so we should too”) that they hastily rushed into something that maybe should have never happened in the first place? Guess we’ll never know!
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