According to the National Restaurant Association, restaurant-industry sales are expected to reach a record high of $537 billion in 2007, with children and teens playing a big role in that 5 percent increase from 2006 sales figures.
“Households with children feel a need to reduce stress much more than households without kids,” said Hudson Riehle, the NRA’s senior vice president of research.
The stakes aren’t lost on Jeff Cannon, president of The Cannon Group, an integrated marketing and public relations firm that helped launch Energy Kitchen in New York. “The interesting thing about young children today versus five or 10 years ago is that they have a lot more input into what they’re eating than they did before,” he said. “They also have some discretionary income that allows them to actually start making those decisions.”
Toy incentives and french fry temptations have worked like a charm for QSRs, with the fast-casual culture, in many instances, looking to that segment for effective children’s-marketing guidance.
But critics abound and there seems to be an international assualt on how much or how little, QSR advertising is impacting youth.
No comments yet.