Taco Bell is establishing a long-term youth panel to help the fast-food marketer tap into youth culture and solicit advice on its impending Canadian expansion.
The panel, which is being organized and run by the chain’s Toronto-based advertising agency, TBWA Chiat/Day, will comprise about a dozen young people. The group will advise the Mexican-food restaurant chain, best known for its chattering chihuahua spokesdog, which music and movies are considered cool as well as how best to market new food products here in Canada, says Shelagh Stoneham, Taco Bell’s director of marketing.
This is the first such panel for Taco Bell in either the U.S. or Canada. A similar panel is run by Pizza Hut in the U.S., she says.
‘We are rapidly expanding here and we want to hear what our core customers think,’ says Stoneham.
Tricon Global Restaurants (Canada), which owns and markets Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell, plans to open between 300 and 400 Taco Bell locations in the next five years.
Panelists were chosen by a recruiter last month for their outspoken nature and ability to keep up with trends. By keeping the panel small, informal and consistent, Taco Bell is hoping to avoid the pitfalls and canned answers that come out of typical focus groups, says Stoneham. The group will meet once a month and talk informally about what is happening in youth culture and their lives. The group will also be asked their opinion of new Taco Bell products and marketing.
The panel will not replace quantitative research done by the company, but is expected to help ‘fill in the blanks’ and capture the unique voice of the company’s core young consumers, she says.
Youth culture is typically difficult to understand and fraught with danger for the average marketer, says Jennifer Ralston, Taco Bell account director at Chiat/Day. With the establishment of the youth panel, the agency is hoping to help its client get a leg up on its competition.
‘There is not a lot of solid information out there on youth marketing and there is a very thin line between what is hip and what is definitely not hip,’ she says.
In the future, Chiat/Day is hoping to take any lessons learned and possibly create a permanent youth panel that could provide intelligence for the agency’s other clients.
Taco Bell has been left behind somewhat in the recent expansion of the fast food market in Canada. According to NPD Foodservice Information Group, the quick service restaurant (QSR) sector has grown by 24% over the past five years, and now accounts for 62% of all restaurant traffic. At the same time, however, the popularity of Mexican fare has waned in Canada, accounting for only 13% of all meals ordered in 1999 – a 7% drop from the previous year.
