Vol. IV, No 5, May 2004
In this issue
- Editor's Corner
- Baby Boom on the Horizon & Changing Values
- Apology to the Horses
- Want to Be a Success in the LBE Business?
- Getting Wiser to Teens
- I Did My Homework, I Know My Market Area
- Summer Foundations Announced
- Mom-preneuer Speaks
- Cloning Dinosaurs
- Kid-Friendly Dining
- Carbohydrates Take a Toll
- New Projects
[ Index of Previous eNewsletters ]
Kid-Friendly Dining
 Last
month we discussed family dining out in our article Kids Like Going Out [to Eat] with their Families. Because dining is such an
essential ingredient of a successful community LBE, (see preceding story Want to Be In the LBE Business?), family- and kid-friendly food
service are critical to making an LBE a family dining destination. And as
important as parents are to the where-to-eat decision-making process, the
children must be won over during the experience or a return visit will be
quickly vetoed. Research shows that 79% of family dining-out decisions are
influenced by children, and households with kids account for 56% of away-from-home
spending on food. Most LBEs target families, which means kid-friendly dining
(here defined as, "Mommy, let's go back there!") gets to
be a very serious matter when it comes to bottom-line profit.
For years, children were mostly afterthoughts at best in American dining
destinations, with the exception of fast food restaurants that catered to
kids with soft-modular play areas and kids' meals with prizes. When
it came to casual dining, the most families could expect was a box of crayons
and a simple children's menu. There is now a growing emphasis on family
and children in America, which is reflecting itself in an increasing emphasis
in the restaurant industry on the family market, and more specifically on
capturing the mindshare of children. The restaurant industry is raising the
bar on capturing the family market, and with it, raising the expectations
of both children and parents. This results in making the food offerings of
many LBEs no longer appealing to families.
So what makes a restaurant or food service kid-friendly at an LBE? That varies,
based upon the children's ages. Here, we will discuss kid-friendly for
the market of 2- to 8-year-old children.
One thing all children want is to gain control over their lives. They spend
the large majority of their day directed by adults, being told what to do
and when to do it. A chance to be in charge turns kids on. The first way to
give them control is to give them choices, and to communicate the choices
to them in a way they can understand. Remember, children don't really
start to become competent readers until they are around age 7. Rather than
just listing the children's menu choices on the standard menu, nothing
is better than a separate children's menu that uses both words and photos
to communicate the choices. Having their own menu also makes children feel
special and that your facility values them as guests -- and not just as little
people who tag along with the real customers.
Many restaurants are now going beyond the traditional five standard children's
meals. They are offering children options not only for the main dish, but
the side dishes, as well. And restaurants are responding to an increased sophistication
in children's tastes. The standard choices of hamburger, chicken fingers,
hot dogs, macaroni and cheese or pizza are becoming passé to some younger
diners. "Young people today have increasingly sophisticated palates,"
Red Lobster executive chef Keith Keogh said when the chain unveiled
its new kids menu. The young diners at Red Lobster now get a free appetizer
of applesauce or fresh carrot sticks and cucumbers with ranch dipping sauce.
The new entrees include snow crab legs, grilled mahi-mahi and grilled chicken,
all with steamed vegetables (a parent-pleasing nutritional plus). However,
Red Lobster has not deleted traditional children's favorites
like fried popcorn shrimp, breaded chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese
from its kids' menu. Keogh says it makes good sense to mix the familiar
with the trendy. "It gives children a chance to self-select food just
like adults do, choosing what they crave at that particular meal."
 Chili's
recently introduced its new children's Pepper Pals menu in its
900 restaurants, which allows kids to select from 11 entrees, seven side vegetables
and eight drinks. This gives children a chance to feel a bit more grown-up
by making their own meal choices and then allowing them to customize it. "With
the abundant entree, side item and beverage options, there are hundreds of
different ways to order a kids meal at Chili's," said Wilson Craft,
president of Chili's.
Even the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain, typically thought of as an adult rather
than a family haunt, has revamped its children's menu. The chefs at
the 57 Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts around the world have introduced
"Healthy Taste" Ritz Kids Menus. Menus differ by location
and include such items as steamed fish with rice and vegetables in Cancun,
Mexico, and a chicken-and-veggie kabob in Marina del Rey, California.
The most popular item on the new Red Lobster kids' menu is the
snow crab legs. Chef Keogh said, "There are several reasons this tested
off the charts. They're unique, fun and you can eat them with your fingers,
something kids are really into."
Dipping is a great way to make kids feel in control of their food. Dipping
has multiple dimensions of control, including choosing what to dip, mixing
flavors, volume and shape. And having their personal dipping cups in front
of them gives kids a sense of ownership. Dipping is becoming very hip. McDonald's
has joined the bandwagon with its recently introduced Apple Dippers,
peeled apple slices with a caramel dip that can be substituted for fries in
Happy Meals at no charge (another parent-pleaser since the dip has
only 1 gram of fat.) It was McDonald's that first introduced
fast food dipping to the world in 1983 with Chicken McNuggets. McDonald's
currently sells 4.8 million individual McNuggets per year. That's
a lot of dipping!
Children are also showing a growing appetite for bold flavors. When the 365-unit
chain Panda Express tested "middle-of-the-road" flavor
profiles for children, the company found that kids prefer bold flavors. The
favorite entrée for the children's meal was orange-flavored chicken,
which the chain describes as "crispy chicken pieces cooked with ginger,
garlic and chili peppers...and served with a tangy flavored sauce."
"Kids have a more cosmopolitan palate because [adults] have a more
cosmopolitan palate," says Vicki Gelberg, vice president of marketing
for the parent company, Panda Restaurant Group. "Like us, they
want to try new things... Focusing on the menu to entice children and their
parents is a smart move. We see more and more kids interested in bold flavors.
Children are discerning customers."
"We don't have any hard data, but the spicy trend is pretty broad
across age groups," says Jeffrey Davis, executive vice president of
Sandelman & Associates, a food research and marketing company based
in Villa Park, California. "It makes sense that younger people are adventuresome
eaters and into spicy food."
Panda Express' research also counters the myth that children
are averse to almost any vegetable. "Noodles with wok-fried vegetables
is very popular," Gelberg says. "Children will pick out cabbage
but they eat all the broccoli. Kids' palates are more experimental,
but they still want to have it the way they want it."
Besides choice and control, kids also love fun. This is an area where LBEs
could take the lead, and we aren't referring to the entertainment attractions.
Fun food means many things to kids. It can be a strange color, i.e., Heinz's
purple and green ketchups. It can be something that grosses out adults, like
worms in pudding. It can be colorful, like multi-colored cubes of Jell-O.
It can be a happy face made with vegetables on a pizza. It can be a kid flavor
like bubblegum. It can be animal shaped, like fish-shaped ravioli (to kids,
it's just a kid-friendly variation on spaghetti with a little sophistication.)
It can be special funky-looking dishes for children's food. The options
are unlimited and very easy to execute.
Troy Thompson, executive chef at Jer-ne in The Ritz-Carlton,
Marina del Rey, says, "Sometimes with kids it's not what they eat, but
how it looks, that can make them more willing to try something different,"
he explained. Thompson's new "Healthy Taste" Kids Menu items
include entree choices of either "ants on a log" (celery stuffed
with peanut butter and studded with raisins) or a chicken and veggie kabob,
served with air-popped popcorn, fresh fruit, and low-fat yogurt.
Other things that create kid-friendly dining destinations include:
- Décor that keeps kids attention.
- Immediately serving a snack or appetizer (young children don't
want to wait for the main meal to satisfy their hunger.)
- Giving kids something to do, and not just crayons, which has become passé
with kids.
- Not dumbing down the children's menu with silly names.
- Training staff how to interact with children and not talk down to them
or defer to their parents.
- Making children feel competent and in control with ergonomically and anthropometrically
child-correct furniture, self-serving areas, trays, dishes, straws, etc.
Yes, children have clout went it comes to where their families dine out.
And it takes some special effort to please these youngest diners. But doing
so can win their hearts, and along with it, return visits and dollars from
their parents.
|
White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group
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