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How Restaurants Can Use Big Data to Make Bigger Profits

May 21st, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Restaurant Analytics | Restaurant Trends - (Comments Off)

APT CEO Anthony Bruce discusses recent trends in Big Data analytics.

Improving NPV with a Smarter CapEx Strategy

May 17th, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Capital Expenditures - (Comments Off)

APT President Patrick O’Reilly discusses how restaurants are using Test & Learn to improve the return on their capital investments.

How Will Mobile Ordering Impact Your Profits?

May 3rd, 2013 | Posted by UShukla in Labor & Operations | Restaurant Trends - (Comments Off)

Quick service and fast casual restaurants are all about convenience. With easy-to-order menus and fast speed-of-service, many chains target the grab-and-go consumer. In recent years, an increasing number of  restaurants have begun experimenting with mobile ordering to make it more convenient for guests to order food from anywhere; for example, KFC has followed in the footsteps of sister brand Pizza Hut and experimented with mobile ordering.

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Is Your Limited Time Offer Profitable? Should it be Extended?

April 24th, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Menu Strategy | Promotions - (Comments Off)

A recent Businesweek article talks about some interesting menu items which have made their way onto select restaurant menus, often for a limited time. Though limited time offerings (LTOs), such as glazed donut sandwiches, pizza with a cheese pocket crust, or the famous McRib, often garner media attention, understanding whether they are truly profitable can be difficult. Using in-market testing to answer the following questions will help solve this challenge: (more…)

Should You Implement a Guest Loyalty Program?

April 11th, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Marketing & Media - (Comments Off)

FSR Magazine recently published an article by Jonathan Marek, APT SVP, about strategies to consider both before implementing a loyalty program and once one is in place. Here is the link to the article: http://www.fsrmagazine.com/service/should-you-implement-guest-loyalty-program

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Remodels: Shifting from “Yes or No” to “Where and How”

March 12th, 2013 | Posted by GVanderschueren in Capital Expenditures - (Comments Off)

Due to delayed spending on remodels during the “Great Recession,” some restaurant leaders today are confronted with how to address an aging fleet of restaurants. In general, capital programs are both a necessity to maintain brand standards across a restaurant network, and an opportunity to drive incremental cash flow. When executed correctly, with the appropriate emphasis on accurate and actionable measurements, remodels can drive significant shareholder value. (more…)

Nation’s Restaurant News: “Maximize profit, minimize risk with testing processes”

February 27th, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Restaurant Analytics - (Comments Off)

Check out a recent byline from APT SVP Jonathan Marek about moving beyond product testing: NRN_Maximize Profit with testing.

Why Move Beyond Traditional Product Mix Analysis

February 4th, 2013 | Posted by UShukla in Menu Strategy - (Comments Off)

Recently, Cosí Inc. launched a “Pop Up” location in Chicago with a new menu designed to reinvigorate a brand that has struggled in recent years. The trial menu includes only 35 items, down from 65 items in the fast casual chain’s traditional restaurants. Though it is great that Cosi is trying to test new menu options without exposing the network to substantial risk, this one-location trial will not yield sufficiently significant results to generate confident rollout recommendations because of the small sample size. Instead, restaurants such as Cosi should use advanced check-level analytics to generate hypotheses about the economic impact of each menu item, and then run scientifically robust tests to either validate or disprove these hypotheses. (more…)

QSR Magazine: 5 Things to Watch in 2013

January 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Restaurant Trends - (Comments Off)

APT SVP Jonathan Marek recently wrote a byline in QSR Magazine, which outlines the following five trends for restaurant executives to watch in 2013:

-QSRs taking steps to compete with Fast Casual

-Understanding how to optimize labor given recent legislation

-Determining optimal pricing given increasing commodity and labor costs coupled with continuing consumer pressures

-Using mobile more effectively

-Investing in in-restaurant technologies

Click here to read this article.

Taco Bell Tests New Value Menu

January 14th, 2013 | Posted by Casey Corman in Menu Strategy - (Comments Off)

Taco Bell has recently begun testing the “$1 Cravings Menu” to replace their “Why Pay More” value menu. According to USA Today, the new menu lists nine items and three new offerings. Despite the value message, the “Cravings” menu is actually a slight price increase over the current “Why Pay More” menu, which includes items at 89 and 99 cents. To measure success of the program, simply looking at order incidence of the new menu items will paint an incomplete picture. For example, it is possible that price-sensitive guests who generally ordered the 89 and 99 cent offerings may visit less frequently. However, existing guests could be trading down from higher-margin offerings, showing order incidence as either flat or even positive.

In order to understand the total restaurant incremental impact of this new menu relative to restaurants that have the “Why Pay More” menu, Taco Bell executives will need to isolate the impact to both total number of guest visits and average check size. Because of the small extent of the price change, it is possible that this new menu will have minimal impact. However, to be most profitable, Taco Bell’s new value menu will need to either have no impact on existing value menu guests (who will then be paying more) or attract incremental guests who will then be drawn to higher-margin purchases, thus increasing check size and guest visits. Alternatively, Taco Bell will find the program to be unprofitable if messaging surrounding the “$1 Cravings Menu” causes too many trade-downs.