Marketing & Growth Articles
95 PIECES · UPDATED DAILY
Starbucks Rewards Backlash: The Loyalty Restructuring Every QSR Operator Should Study
Starbucks cut earning rates for base-tier members by at least 25% on March 10, 2026, and the backlash was immediate. With 34 million U.S. members watching, every QSR chain running a loyalty program just got a live case study in what not to do.
Burger King's 7.4% Traffic Surge: How Tom Curtis Turned Executive Authenticity Into a Marketing Weapon
Burger King's brand president gave out his personal work phone, fielded 30,000 customer messages, and aired a 90-second Oscars spot to nearly 20 million viewers. The result: restaurant visits up 7.4% year-over-year. Here's how the campaign worked and what other operators can learn from it.
Applebee's Ditches TV-First Marketing for Digital and Social. The Numbers Explain Why.
For the first time in its history, Applebee's is spending more on digital and social marketing than television. TikTok reach is up 760%. The casual dining chain is rewriting the restaurant marketing playbook.
Yum Brands Releases First-Ever Food Trends Report: What 59,000 Restaurants See Coming
Yum Brands published its first Food Trends Report, pulling data from Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger Grill across 59,000 locations. The report spotlights craveable drinks and sauce customization as the next traffic drivers, offering operators a data-backed lens on where consumer demand is heading.
Chick-fil-A's Spring 2026 Menu Offensive: Seven New Items and the Jalapeño Ranch Gambit
Chick-fil-A launched seven new menu items on March 9, 2026, capping a period in which the chain quietly rolled out six additional sandwiches earlier in the year. The headline move is a Jalapeño Ranch Club sandwich lineup that signals something more than a seasonal refresh.
McDonald's CosMc's Failed. The Drinks Didn't.
McDonald's shuttered its CosMc's spinoff in May 2025 after 18 months, but the beverages that concept tested are now heading to 500-plus McDonald's locations and a planned national McCafe rollout. The story of how a failed brand became a beverage growth engine.
What the NRA's 28 FABI Award Winners Tell Us About Where QSR Menus Are Headed
The 2026 FABI Award winners signal a decisive turn in foodservice product innovation: protein is king, global flavors are moving mainstream, and plant-based has lost its grip on the industry's attention.
Taco Bell's 2026 Menu Innovation Blitz: 20+ New Items and the Strategy Behind the Speed
Taco Bell unveiled more than 20 new menu items at its Live Más LIVE event in March 2026, a deliberate acceleration of its LTO engine. Behind the spectacle is a disciplined growth strategy targeting $3 million AUV per location and a $5 billion beverage business by 2030.
The Plant-Based Pivot: Why QSR Chains Are Quietly Replacing Impossible Burgers with Hybrid Menus
The first wave of plant-based QSR items over-promised and under-delivered. A quieter, more pragmatic second wave is emerging, built on hybrid proteins, vegetable-forward formats, and the economics operators actually need.
Gen Z Has Overtaken Millennials as QSR's Most Frequent Customer: What Operators Must Know
Gen Z now visits restaurants more often than any other generation, and their spending power is projected to reach $12 trillion by 2030. Here's what the data means for QSR operators.
Tipflation Backlash: How Digital Tipping Prompts Are Eroding QSR Customer Trust in 2026
Digital tipping prompts have become a flashpoint for consumer frustration, with 65% of customers reporting weariness from constant tip requests. Here's what QSR operators need to know about tipflation and what to do about it.
March Madness 2026: How QSR Brands Turned College Basketball Into a $200M Marketing Battleground
From Pizza Hut's Space Jam box to Shake Shack's free sandwich code, QSR brands deployed precision promotional campaigns during the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Here's what operators can learn from the most competitive marketing window of the year.
Taco Bell's $5 Billion Beverage Bet: Dirty Sips, Baja Blast, and Why Drinks Are the Smartest Play in QSR
Taco Bell launched Dirty Sips as a permanent customizable beverage platform in March 2026, targeting $5 billion in drink sales by 2030. For operators and investors, the math behind the move is more compelling than the menu.
The Premium Menu Arms Race: How QSR Chains Are Using Upscale LTOs to Fight the Traffic Slump of 2026
With traffic flat to negative across most QSR segments, major chains have pivoted to premium limited-time offerings to drive average check and generate headlines. McDonald's Big Arch, Burger King's Steakhouse Whopper, and a string of elevated seasonal items signal a new strategic playbook for a consumer base that won't give up restaurant visits but increasingly expects more.
The Lenten Fish Wars of 2026: How Fast Food Chains Turn 40 Days Into a Billion-Dollar Seasonal Battleground
From Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, the QSR industry fights an annual battle for fish sandwich supremacy. In 2026, rising pollock prices, aggressive promotions, and shrinking margins are reshaping how chains approach the season.
Chick-fil-A at 80: Inside the Biggest Marketing Push in the Chain's History
Chick-fil-A is marking its 80th anniversary with a yearlong campaign the company calls the biggest promotional push in its history. Behind the retro cups and Golden Fan Cups lies a calculated strategy to defend its position as McDonald's most dangerous competitor while addressing its first growth deceleration in over a decade.
The CEO Burger War: How a Viral Video Turned Into Fast Food's Biggest Marketing Moment
McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a promotional video for the new Big Arch that promptly went viral for all the wrong reasons. What happened next became a masterclass in competitive marketing opportunism, and somehow the burger still beat sales expectations.