QSRs Generate Buzz With Secret Menu Items

Chains offering items that are not posted on menus are creating passionate consumer followings.

March 12, 2013

MCLEAN, VA - Appealing to consumers who like to be "in the know," QSRs are creating loyal followings by offering items not posted on their menu boards, USA Today reports.

The "secret menu" trend has been linked to In-N-Out Burger, Taco Bell, Panera Bread and even McDonald??s.

Panera has begun selling bread-less Power Bowls during breakfast, lunch and dinner, which are filled with things like chicken, spinach and hummus. The bread chain spreads the word of these secret bowls via social media.
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"Secret menus allow us to speak to one audience without the investment and infrastructure of putting an item on the menu," said Ron Shaich, founder of Panera, adding the secret menus are "very cool."

And therein lies the appeal of the secret menu item. "It's there to build an elevated level of affinity to a select few," said restaurant PR guru Derek Farley. But, he says, there can be a downside. "You may build buzz about your brand," he says, "but I'd rather sell something that appeals to a lot than a few."

Among other secret menu offerings:

  • "Protein Burger" at In-N-Out: According to Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development at the burger chain, while the company does not have a "secret menu," the protein burger is only posted on the chain??s web site. It includes two cheeseburgers wrapped in lettuce, sans bun. "We never set out to create or pioneer a secret menu," Van Fleet said.
  • "Mc10:35" at McDonald's: While McDonald??s insists that it does not have a secret menu, social mediaites insist otherwise, who visit the burger chain at 10:35 a.m., the approximate time of the breakfast-lunch transition, and order a McDouble burger, minus the bun (lunch item) but inserted instead inside an Egg McMuffin (breakfast). "Customers have come up with their own McDonald's items," said spokeswoman Danya Proud, adding that whether restaurants will sell the item is "decided on a restaurant by restaurant basis."
  • "Shell Game" at Taco Bell: Consumers taken with the new Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos are requesting the Doritos shells in place of regular taco shells inside the Cheesey Gordita Crunch, said spokesperson Rob Poetsch.
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