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With value positioning the dominant marketing strategy of the moment and snack occasions a top target, Arby’s is planning to revive the value-priced mini sandwich. Next month the chain will make a new three-item line of Mighty Minis sandwiches a local-option LTO for operators in select markets around the country, the company confirmed. The line [...]

A month after Jack in the Box dropped Mini Sirloin Burgers from its menu, seemingly signaling the passing of the mini-burger fad, Burger King has brought back the tiny treats that began the trend. Now if only BK could decide on a name for them.  First introduced in 1987 as Burger Bundles, they resurfaced in 1990 as [...]

Say goodbye to Jack’s little friends: Mini Sirloin Burgers are history.  In a May 19 conference call with analysts to discuss fiscal Q2 earnings, Jack in the Box Chairman-President-CEO Linda Lang said the chain would install new menu boards in June. The goal is to make room on the menu for “showcasing our variety, highlighting average check [...]

Burger King swings from excess to dainty with the upcoming introduction of mini burgers in Japan. Following its April limited-time offer— the 1,100+ calorie Meat Monster—the chain will be offering 2.4-inch minis called BK Bites, including one with Spam luncheon meat. The promotion begins June 20. These mini burgers appear to be like the BK [...]

Jack in the Box says that it will roll out new menu boards, in conjunction with which it intends to trim a few menu items. The new boards will be less cluttered, providing better visual appeal and more space to spotlight signature items and LTOs. Sonic recently announced a similar plan to cull its menu.  [...]

Continuing its global push to localize not just menus but also ingredient sourcing, McDonald’s next month will introduce a new mini burger in France made for the first time with French Charolais beef. Priced at €2 (about US$2.59), the mini burger LTO will be added to the “P’tits Plaisirs” (Little Pleasures) snack line on Feb. [...]

Challenge McDonald’s and it will hit back hard. That seems to be what’s happening in Germany, where Big Mac is protecting strong sales and marketplace leadership with a protein parade of inventive menu items. Burger King’s latest monologue  promotes Grilled Chicken Classic and Grilled Chicken Barbecue sandwiches, so McDonald’s has responded with something completely new [...]

After re-engineering the burger into the Mac Snack Wrap last year, McDonald’s Canada is back with another twist. This time it’s taking on the chicken sandwich, which it has scaled down into the McMini, a two-item line joining its menu in Canada on March 30, a company spokesperson confirmed. Just as the Mac Snack Wrap includes [...]

If I made a list of casual-dining menu mistakes best left behind in the past decade, it would include reliance on cutesy, made-up words; disguising same-old foods with new names; inauthentic ethnic/global prepartations; and ruining fresh/healthful preparations with a mudslide of cheese or sauce. In other words, it would contain the sorts of things that distinguish Bennigan’s latest [...]

Many good 2010 menu/business forecasts have been compiled and released, so we’ll take a look back instead. It’s not just contrarianism; 2009 has been a remarkably robust year for burger news, providing sustenance for this and the many other burger blogs. Let’s review some of the year’s highs and lows. BurgerBusiness.com’s 2009 Burger of the [...]

Projecting same-store sales in the current quarter to be as much as 10% below year-earlier levels, Jack in the Box Chairman-CEO Linda Lang boldly outlined significant strategic changes in menu product mix, advertising message, media buys and more in the months ahead. In the chain’s 2009 fiscal fourth quarter earnings call with securities analysts on [...]

[Nov. 9 update: Ruby Tuesday announced a rollout of the "new menu" described below as the test menu. ] Samuel E. “Sandy” Beall is excited. The chairman of the board, president and CEO of casual-dining chain Ruby Tuesday told Wall Street securities analysts during the chain’s October 7 earnings call that it has an important [...]

So much attention has been given recently to chain marketing that we’ve strayed from our core idea of celebrating burgers and the restaurants and people that serve them. To remedy that, think of this post as a culinary “Mythbusters” episode: If you took two very hot trends—burgers and restaurants with numbers as names—and sent them hurtling at each other, what [...]

 Fourth quarter has begun, ladies and gentlemen. Last call for bold, new menu and marketing ideas. Wendy’s “You know when it’s real” has charms, but is it head-turning charm? Or will it be simply another update of the 1985 commercial here that sings “That’s fresh. That’s class. That’s Wendys”? For this Monday, a fourth-quarter Menu Slideshow [...]

McDonald’s gets not just nostalgic but downright poetic in a new campaign marking its 35 years in the United Kingdom. Beginning Oct. 10, the advertising uses the tagline “There’s a McDonald’s for everyone” in tandem with the global “I’m lovin’ it” logo.  Dubbed the ”Favourites” campaign, work from Leo Burnett/London emphasizes core menu items the chain has [...]