Fast Food Pricing

Data provided on request prior to driving the case (prior to the framework or after):

• The market is essentially flat in terms of the guest count. We don't have specific margin data on competitors yet, but we believe pricing is not an issue for other players.
• The client is generally viewed as the leader in Value products (i.e., products priced around $1)
• Our client has a combination of value, core, and premium products at different price points
• We sell between 2-3x more Value products than core products (depending on the item)
• Our client has essentially created an "anchor" of the Value products and cannot raise the price. We've had to increase prices on the rest of the menu to accommodate

• Competitive position: Are they the low price option? Do they compete in premium products?
• Product mix and product offering: Do we make different margins on different product tiers?
• Product evolution: Has there been in a shift in the ratio of one product to another?

• Despite increasing costs as I move up the product chain, I actually make a higher margin (both $ and %) on premium products
• There is no discount for the core meal vs. a la carte ordering. We are not incentivizing customers to trade-up
• There is no incentive curve on the nuggets –i.e., the cost/nugget actually increases as customers order more
• The gap between value sandwiches and core/ premium sandwiches seems to be too large. Customers can actually create their own "value combo meal" for cheaper than the cost of a core entree

[Exceptional candidates would calculate margins proactively]

• Pre-price items to new gross margin % threshold
• Pre-price items to competitor prices
• Conduct pricing sensitivity analysis for each product in each market
• Cross-price elasticity analyses for each product in each market (understand how the change in price A will impact price B demand)

• Candidate will utilize the volume and price data to calculate total profit expectations:
  • Cheeseburger: $0.75 price/$0 margin; $1 price/$250 margin; $1.25 price/$450 margin; $1.50 price/$375 margin
  • Bacon cheeseburger: $2 price/$1,000 margin; $2.50 price/$1,200 margin; $3 price/$1,000 margin; $3.50 price/$500 margin
  • Best price is $1.25 for cheeseburger, $2.50 for bacon cheeseburger

Lost guest count from raising the bottom of the menu

• How do we ensure the trade-up happens? Marketing will be key in the roll-out
• Competitor response – what if someone makes strong investments to attract our Value customers?
• New price structure alters company's brand –formerly viewed as Value leader, but pricing is attempting to move customers up in product quality
• Will require significant awareness of new pricing to drive guest count/transactions –need investment in ad dollars
• Most fast-food restaurants operate as franchisees –how do we get owner/operator buy-in?
• The client needs to think about how to pass through cost increases across the menu over time. It will be critical to keeping the established architecture
• Does the price structure vary by market (i.e., depending on the cost of living, competitive density, etc.)? Does it make sense for us to roll out the solution to all restaurants or a subset?

• Our client has been very anchored on Value products, which have low profitability, and there is a large gap between Value and Core/Premium pricing
• I would recommend adjusting Value items upwards and Core/Premium downwards to lower the gap and drive increased gross margins. At a price point of $1.25 for the value cheeseburger and $2.50 for the core cheeseburger, we can increase our gross margins from $1,250 to $1,650
• However, there are a number of risks our client will need to manage through in order to successfully bring this change to the market, such as managing communication of changes to customers, potential competitor response, etc.
• Key next steps will include internal and external communication, including developing messaging to owners/franchisees and an external marketing campaign