You like the flavor of the time, not fast food
Pizza, Mcdonald’s, Taco Bell… What really makes them all great is a matter of time, let´s find out why…
If I started off by asking you about your favorite fast food place? Mine is pizza, Pizza Hut especially, and I’m also fond of McDonald’s, but let’s cut to the chase.
Honestly, who doesn’t like fast food? When you clicked the title, maybe you thought that if it’s not the taste, you like it because of how fast it is, and how convenient it is. You can have it almost instantly and it’s not that bad. Those are precisely the keys to this article. In the flavor, there’s also the reward of having saved some time, maybe using it for something productive, or just relaxing instead of stressing about cooking.
Obviously, we all enjoy eating certain foods, but there’s something about fast-food that attracts almost everyone, regardless of age, national origin, and purchasing power. Knowing that most of the products from fast-food chains aren’t really of the best quality and are probably not the healthiest choice, why do we keep eating them, perhaps even as a regular habit?
You love the flavor of time
How many times have you got together with friends and decided to order something or get take out because you were too lazy to get organized and cook something, without mentioning the cleaning up afterward? Were you really craving sushi because you hadn’t had it in a long time or was it a decision based on laziness?
How many times have you had to put in the extra hours at work and to create some time you decided to just order a pizza? Or even better, how many times did you get home completely wiped out and wanting to just lay on the couch and wait for the delivery guy? These situations are probably familiar to you.
In reality, the times where we order pizza because we haven’t had it for too long, or because we absolutely want to eat that, are pretty rare. Most of the time, and especially if you’re not a teenager, you eat pizza or fast food because of the necessity to save time and stress. That’s why we could say that what we really like is the flavor of time.
But are brands aware of this? Do they use this in their strategy? The answer is yes because they’ve basically created this situation. They are more than conscious of having created a nearly-automatic sales cycle, since even when we crave pizza we prefer to order one instead of doing it ourselves. The idea of conveniently having it delivered to your home or getting it fast is now completely tied to the product itself.
So, how does a brand manage to embed this idea and sell it to everyone? How have brands managed to create the assumption that pizza means near-instant comfort at home? And especially, how do they get everyone to love it?
Brands and the call to action
We know that kids love fast food just as much as the rest of us, and they’re definitely not as conscious of time. This is in part due to the flavors that brands spend so much time developing and the toys that some of them offer with the kid’s meal. Also, due to the vivid colors they use and the play areas and kid-friendly characters.
You know that there are restaurants for formal and informal dinners or places where you can take your kids and others where you can’t. But even though fast food places aren’t precisely the place where you would celebrate a wedding, they’re increasingly popular for casual encounters with friends and spontaneous celebrations. This is achieved by having a call to action specific for each target customer.
Targeting your mind
Brands spend a good part of their time looking for the specific target, but also for the specific market. Each product is directly related to a type of audience, just think of the advent of veggie burgers. The same goes for the kid’s menu, mega discounts, 1 euro hamburgers, and 5 dollar pizzas.
An adult’s needs are harder to address, but since brands sometimes know us better than ourselves, they find the problems that we share and provide the solution on a plastic tray. Naturally, a problem that plagues all adults is the seeming lack of time. It is not a coincidence that many pizza places do dynamic offers according to the hour of the day and program ads at the same time. It’s all designed to make it appear as a more viable option than cooking for yourself. Press a button on Uber Eats? Or spend an hour cooking?
And let’s not forget the emotional side of things, which is without a doubt a big reason for the massive popularity of certain chains. From 2x1 to family days, heart-shaped pizzas in Valentine’s Day, and Christmas-themed packaging, and the prevailing idea that their food represents comfort; a reward for how hard we work.
Dinner is served, or more like, your reward awaits
Have you noticed that from Friday to Sunday there are usually no discounts? That’s why fast food places understand that people go out to eat much more often, because of social engagements, and they don’t have to push that hard.
But take notice of the offers in a given Tuesday or Thursday. This is summed up by the mentality of adapting to what customers do. They figure that Mondays are too close to the weekend and people just spent more than they usually do and probably just ate out. Thursday has an “almost-Friday” feel to it and the attitude lends itself to seizing offers.
These offers emphasize the idea of fast food as a reward. All of us have at some point rewarded ourselves with comfort food instead of other commodities. Why is it that after a hard day at work greasy food is a more desirable reward than going out for a walk? Or why is it that the food that we could’ve made before — if we go with the time and convenience reasoning — isn’t going to feel like a reward at all?
It’s simply because nearly no one sees food as something purely nutritional and as a tool for survival. We’ve practically turned it into a problem. In some parts of the world, it’s obesity. In other parts, it’s famine. Food has become a social act; a prize. It’s a solution to make the most of our time in a world that places hyper productivity as one of its greatest values, without realizing the dangers in this.
