Starbird LTO's
LTO Strategy / Sales & PMIX Analysis / Recipe & Product Development
How does a brand continue to innovate long after making its initial market splash?
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ltos converteD
to core menu2
core menus
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sales due to
nashville hot lto“The opportunity for food innovation.”
The Opportunity.
After establishing itself in the crispy chicken marketplace as a model of innovation, chef-driven flavor, and fast, reliable service, Starbird sought to develop a compelling LTO program. Our goal was to continue driving innovation into the brand, hone our culinary identity, and create new and exciting reasons for guests to visit, all while remaining operationally streamlined.
Our Insights.
Our original offering of tenders, sandwiches, tacos and salads thoughtfully blended updated takes on classic American flavors alongside Latin and Asian flavors. Sales proved that our guests responded well to Starbird pushing boundaries in form and flavor when it came to crispy chicken. But, even more than that, guests truly saw us as chicken experts. Combined, these two insights provided the unlock for a successful LTO program. Today, our LTOs focus on bringing bold flavor trends that are chicken-centric to life in the Starbird way - with fresh vegetables, fresh-baked bread, and house-made sauces.
Our Activities.
The TCE team collaborates with Starbird throughout the year to develop LTOs. It begins with extensive marketplace research to ideate new menu concepts. We explore newly launched chicken restaurants, track chicken-centric trends through their lifecycle, read food blogs and cookbooks from every corner of the globe, and evaluate hundreds of menus. When we find a trend we need to dig deeper into, we hit the marketplace in person. For example, in 2019, TCE led the Starbird team in an exploration of the Los Angeles marketplace to do detailed research on Nashville Hot Chicken.
With a handful of compelling ideas in mind, we follow the TCE process, moving those ideas from paper into the kitchen to prototype each item, taste with the Starbird team, and work through operations. From there, we select the most delicious, winning idea.
Our Results.
In the last three years, TCE has helped Starbird launch a number of blockbuster LTOs -- including the Big Star™, Nashville HotBird™, Charbird™, Tokyo Chicken Katsu, and Mike’s Hot Honeybird. In addition to recipe development, for each menu item TCE has developed compelling naming constructs (which are oftentimes trademarked so Starbird can continue to grow its defensible suite of offerings), taglines, and POP in order to create truly memorable LTOs.
“One third of Starbird’s core entrees exist as items that originated as LTOs”
To date, one third of Starbird’s core entrees exist as items that originated as LTOs and converted to core due to their popularity with guests.
Starbird’s LTO program has been and will continue to be a key driver of Starbird’s massive same-store sales trends.