In-N-Out burger is a chain of fast-food restaurants founded in 1948 in California. The brand became famous for its limited menu and simple strategy that remains in use today: “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” While scaling to 240 stores the company has stayed true to its vision – rejecting calls to franchise, leaving the simple menu unchanged and ensuring that it rewards its staff better than its competitors (it is one of the few fast food chains that pays more than state and federally-mandated minimum wage guidelines). And, to maintain freshness its locations are all within one day’s drive from its Baldwin Park distribution center. It’s great at what it does as evidenced by it consistently topping polls like this Zagat report. Given its rejection of growth through franchising and its inability to expand too far from its distribution center I have always thought its tiny menu might be its downfall. Surely its fans would become bored of the offer?
机 jī opportunity
My fears were allayed when traveling with a colleague recently. On a road trip we visited In-N-Out, after choosing and ordering (very quickly given the lack of choice) I noticed that he ordered ‘off-menu’. It turns out that In-N-Out has a ‘secret menu’ – this struck me as pretty smart because it allows its fans to make a wider choice and it drives word of mouth marketing. I looked it up on the web and it turns out it’s not even that secret: when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay appeared on The Hour, a Canadian TV talk show, he chose an animal style In-N-Out burger to be his “death-row” last meal.
How About…
- Stripping your offer to its simplest version?
- Developing a ‘secret’ offer for your best customers, making them feel privileged and deepening their affinity of your brand?
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and, just in case you’re interested (and out of the loop like me) here are some of the not-so-secret menu items:
