In the past year, fast-food breakfast sales totaled an incredible $34.5 billion. That’s a lot. Approximately 33 percent of that was from McDonald’s alone. As fast-food brands are struggling to keep consumers intrigued with their lunch and dinner options, many are rebranding themselves as breakfast kings.
Breakfast consumers have been on the eye of some fast-food chains for quite some time, such as McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Consumers who eat breakfast tend to do so in a routinized way; they buy the same breakfast from the same place. Considering some of the creatives at our Chicago graphic design studio, plenty of people walk in with cups from the same place every day. However, since 2011, and especially since March 2014, more fast-food chains have been trying to get their share of the pie.
Burger King has had a breakfast menu for some time but it has never pulled ahead of McDonald’s; when Subway launched their breakfast menu, things began to take off. Enter in chains like White Castle, Taco Bell, Hardees/Carls’ Jr, and Starbucks. It was in March 2014 that Taco Bell launched their breakfast menu: Waffle Taco, breakfast burritos, biscuit tacos, and AM Crunchwraps. The brand has launched a heavy attack on McDonald’s and hopes to create “Breakfast Defectors“. White Castle has recently launched Breakfast Sliders, and Starbucks is offering more breakfast sandwiches (which greatly helped their Q2 earnings). Dunkin’ has always been seen as a breakfast option but their push is in full drive as they release breakfast sandwiches and other hot options.
These first marketing shots being fired are the initial set in a long war for the breakfast consumer. What do you think? Will someone come out on top? Will these brands succeed at winning breakfast consumers? Let us know in the comments, email or call.
Tags: branding, chicago branding agency, fast food, mcdonalds breakfast, taco bell breakfast