By: David Cravotta
Can Taco Bell break into the breakfast market? Well, they have been developing a product with the hopes of doing so. Taco Bell has taken a generic waffle and has embarked on incorporating it with its signature look of a taco. This waffle will be put inside of a taco mold and deepfried, stuffed with the breakfast usuals, such as eggs, sausage and cheese. Taco Bell is hoping to attract 22% of all fast food breakfast customers when only 10% of the chain’s sales come from their breakfast menu. When you think of Taco Bell, “waffles and eggs” aren’t usually what comes to mind. You usually envision a stuffed taco with ingredients such as meats, sour cream, cheese, etc.
With that being said, it shows that Taco Bell isn’t exactly familiar with serving breakfast items. Competition, such as McDonald’s on the other hand, has held a breakfast menu for quite some time. Taco Bell has a different approach than these other food chains though. They rotate different items in and out of their menu constantly trying keep a fresh feeling to their menu. This approach will hopefully keep customers coming back again and again trying to search for the “next big thing.”
Rotating in the Waffle Breakfast Taco will hopefully be what revolutionizes the fast food breakfast market for Taco Bell. Seeing what other competition offers for breakfast, theirs seems to be the usual sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich trend. That, possibly, could leave Taco Bell’s offering only appealing to a niche market. Mornings are one of those things in which people have set routines and rituals, and it is hard to change them for some. There are teams of people who work for Taco Bell who try to unveil new ingredients and keep up with competition through social media. So by doing that it may help better meet what the consumer wants. These new products go through about 100 different changes before they find what really works. This particular product went through about 80 changes before it was “accepted” by the product development team. Taco Bell is taking the right steps in trying to get this new product on its way but it looks like a steep hill to climb. Other competition has solidified themselves as fast food breakfast spots, which leaves very little room for Taco Bell to make an impact. This brings me back to my point about this product being appealing to a niche market of people.
Fast food breakfast, in itself, is already a small market. So when you’re trying to break into an already small market, it’s a tough area to find an opportunity. There is always, however, that one hope of your product really blowing up. It is possible. There is just not much of a chance for Taco Bell solidifying themselves as the fast food breakfast place of choice. Their individual product may be, but the restaurant itself does not seem likely to achieve this position.
Marketing Discussions 
I don’t think Taco Bell is going to be able to break through the breakfast market, one main reason because it’s primarily a taco place as opposed to grabbing a breakfast sandwich. Not many people have time to even get breakfast in the morning whether it is at home or on their commute. If someone is commuting I think the last place they think of would be Taco Bell. It’s normal for people to grab a coffee in the morning and while doing so probably getting a bagel, muffin, or breakfast wrap from the same place. Around here there are not many Taco Bells so it may not be as popular in the north as it would be somewhere where Taco Bell is more well known. Personally I think Taco Bell should stick with what they know because the breakfast market is not a huge market to begin with so trying to break through it as a place people just think of as grabbing a taco makes it harder.
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I do not like this move by Taco Bell. First of all I am not a Taco Bell fan their food isn’t good. Trying to make an impact in the breakfast market is tough. They need a completely different menu. Their idea of changing the menu weekly will be difficult for workers and ordering the correct products will be difficult. It will take a lot of training and organization. Another thing is the beverage issue. Does Taco Bell even have coffee. People NEED their morning coffee more than anything. I just feel that it will be tough for a fast food company to implement a breakfast plan. Especially, because Taco Bell is big on tacos and doesn’t offer much more. We will have to see how this plays out for Taco Bell. If they offer customers a good breakfast that they can pick up quickly maybe this will be very successful. On a side note I think Chipotle should make an omelet bar. I see a lot of potential there.
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I also agree that Taco Bell will not be able to solidify themselves as an option for fast food breakfast, because their reputation relies heavily on the Mexican roots which is mostly food with tacos meat cheese and sour cream, I don’t think that they product will be a big hit either just for the simple fact that people do not associate Taco Bell with breakfast, let alone waffles. I myself have seen the commercial from taco bell where they try to promote their product but to me as a customer its sounds no where near appealing. I think that if they really want to incorporate themselves in the fast food breakfast market and succeed they should try doing omelettes where they can incorporate most of their usually ingredients such as the steak they can have cheese and diced tomatoes and even sour cream if the consumer so desires. I think people will be more open to the idea of Taco Bell selling breakfast because it’ll have ingredients that people are most familiar with at Taco Bell. This way they will also save more money because they will just keep investing on ingredients they already have rather than getting new ingredients for their new product.
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This venture by Taco bell is a risk that most likely won’t work. However it is good to see Taco Bell is not afraid to take risks. They aren’t afraid of changing things around on their menu to gain a better result. Meanwhile other fast food chains, like McDonald’s, are hesitant in making changes. McDonald’s has offered for the most part the same menu for years now. Even if Taco Bell can’t reach the breakfast target market, eventually if they keep trying new ideas they will hit on something special. And they will get great results from this new special item.
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Many fast food chains have begun to try to expand their horizons. Everyone who has ever seen Adam Sandler’s movie “Big Daddy” remembers the seen when Sandler arrives at McDonalds what he believes to be five minutes late for breakfast when inreality he is 30 minutes late. WEll that seen may no longer be true. More and more chains are starting to move in the direction of breakfast ideas and serving the meal even longer. I feel that for taco bell to try to get a hold of this market will be difficult for them. Many peple think of Taco Bell as a lunch and dinner type of food and not breakfast. While I feel that there may be some room for them in the breakfast market I think that they will have a difficult time trying to find their place here.
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I have come to notice the push for fast food places to offer breakfast as a male. This is something Burger King has also done in the past to try to compete with McDonalds even further. Fast food chains are always competing and also trying to top one another in different ways and the Taco bell breakfast push is nothing new. This is something that can possibly work as we’ve seen McDonald’s have a tremendous amount of success during the years offering breakfast. But my feeling is Taco bell will not be able to compete or out compete a fast food chain such as McDonalds due to the brand equity that McDonalds restaurant has when it comes to their breakfast.
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There is so much competition in the fast food chain industry today that it is tough to keep up with. I feel as if fast food chains can even be categorized into subchains. For example, i would compare a McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King together, but maybe place a Taco bell, Popeyes, or Chick fil in another category possibly below the other chains, but that is just my opinion. With that being said, i think that Taco bell tries very hard to be successful with their breakfast offerings but cannot compete with the McDonalds or BK chains who have offered breakfast menus for a much longer time.
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I do not believe that taco bell will be able to break through this industry. As the main breakfast food chain is Mcdonalds or Dunks when you come to think about breakfast food. When i think of the fast food industry Taco Bell sounds unappetizing when thinking about the food that they could produce.The food is unappetizing during dinner hours i can’t imagine the food will be good.
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I think this might be a good idea but it might not just because places like mcdonalds have been doing breakfast for a longer amount of time and they have more recognition. Although Taco Bell has been advertising their breakfast really we’ll with a tom of ads and food that looks pretty good. Personally i would say its 50/50 on them succeeding or not. I don’t think it was a bad idea on their part but they do need to keep up the advertising and maybe do things like stay open later for breakfast than mcdonalds does because I know they stop serving at 10 or so. It’s going to be interesting to see if this new venture of theirs kicks off or not.
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I don’t think that this campaign will be successful. like you said, fast food breakfast is a small market and trying to sway that already small market to try YOUR new breakfast is a tough challenge. Typically for me i prefer my own breakfast because I’m lazy to drive and get breakfast when I’m already on a time crunch. Now mcdonalds has already entered the breakfast market and that has been sort of steady so id be interested to see how taco bell does.
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I personally feel as though the push for breakfast foods made by Taco Bell is not the most wise decision made by the franchise. Although many other restaurant franchises are trying to push the breakfast menu, such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Burger King- I do not think Taco Bell is the right type of restaurant to offer breakfast foods. I personally do not like Taco Bell food, and don’t think I would ever eat the breakfast from there. This is a risky business decision to make and Taco Bell should think about some contingency planning in case the initials objectives are not met.
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I think fast food restaurants today are pushing for more and more. They are each trying to out compete each other and are beginning to enter into different branches such as breakfast to offer as much as competitors such as McDonalds.Taco Bell does indeed have a different look on breakfast, combining breakfast items with some kind of Taco Bell spin.I think people who like Taco Bell or just people who even like fast food will give it a try. I believe if they think it will only add to their success, that they should continue doing it.
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Taco Bell trying to break into the breakfast branch honestly sounds disgusting to me. I do not mean that in a rude way, it just does not sound appetizing. I for one have never had Taco Bell so I can’t really say how good or bad their food is, but this new breakfast idea does not seem as if it will attract morning customers. Taco Bell should definitely stick to just Mexican food for lunch and dinner.
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Of course this will attract some customers but I do not think Taco Bell is going to be as success as it hopes to be. First, Taco Bell is “Mexican” food, not really traditional American breakfast type food. Secondly, the idea of a deep fried taco waffle filled with eggs sausage and cheese does not sound appealing to me at all. I know that I will not be one to try it but with America’s diet patterns, people might be willing to try it. I suppose a waffle taco does sound interesting but I really am not thinking that it is going to be as successful as the company hopes it will be.
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The thought of Taco Bell and breakfast leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I would never view Taco Bell as a place to get breakfast because all I associate the company with is Mexican-styled fast food. I know what that this product is not a standard taco with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, etc. However, why go to Taco Bell for breakfast when there are so many other places to go to with higher quality food? I don’t think Taco Bell will be very successful in this attempt. Perhaps if they push this idea persuasively it will work. Clearly McDonald’s did not always have a breakfast menu but it has been working out well enough for them! However, as others have stated, there is much competition amongst fast food companies and they are all essentially competing in the same ways. With this crowded market, Taco Bell may face difficulties in drawing in consumers.
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For the franchise of Taco bell to start offering breakfast I feel is pushing it way to far. Taco bell is known for cheap Mexican fast food that is unhealthy for you. I don’t think they should start making mexican burritos. I know as a consumer that my friends and I would not be buying their breakfast products. Although, i feel as if they market this campaign to the right people and in the right locations they might have some success but if they market this at a wide scale then they will have failure.
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I don’t believe taco Bell will become a player in the breakfast market. People tend to have very set ways on what they eat and where, they have a routine and stick with it. Taco Bell is well known for it Mexican style lunch or diner food and it just doesn’t relate to a breakfast style menu. I believe that at first taco bell will see some rise in sales due to people trying their new product but I don’t believe they’ll stick do to lack of a sufficient amount of breakfast varieties and options other than breakfast ingredients inside a Mexican style tortilla type bread. Overall, I think the breakfast option at taco bell will not last long and eventually be ruled out.
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I personally think Taco Bell could or could not pull off breakfast. I would consider it because other places such as Mcdonalds has breakfast, but as Patrick said above I do not think it is something that will last. Usually Mexican style breakfast does not appeal to everyone everyday. McDonalds has their set market where people go their everyday for breakfast because the know what they are getting and it is traditional. Taco Bell does not have that market yet, so they would have to establish their set and loyal market which will be hard, because no one want a taco waffle every morning.
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Even though Taco Bell isn’t seen as a company to serve fast food, did anyone ever think that they would be buying breakfast from McDonald’s way back when. Serving breakfast is something that something that all fast food chains are starting to do, and being successful with it would be something that would really help their company. Imagine being a teenager who is still up at dusk after having a long night of partying. Buying Taco Bell has been known as a go to midnight snack, and I think it could turn into a little breakfast snack as well.
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Taco Bell is dependable for their delicious limited-time offers for a delicious on-the-go meal for lunch or dinner, and I think that breaking into the breakfast market will develop skepticism for some individuals. However, Taco Bell contacted James Harden of the Houston Rockets as an endorsement to endorse Taco Bell’s new breakfast approach. With such an icon like James Harden, many people will for sure resort to trying out the waffle taco to be like their favorite NBA player.
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