Fast food multibranding offers more selection

By Douglas Sams
doug.sams@gwinnettdailypost.com

Gwinnett Daily Post/Jason Braverman
Patrick Mulkey, owner of eight Taco Bell restaurants, four in Gwinnett County, recently opened a fifth store, a Taco Bell/KFC on Ga. Highway 20 in Lawrenceville.

LAWRENCEVILLE — Fried chicken and tacos are an odd combination on any menu, but it works for Patrick Mulkey.
The 43-year-old food industry veteran recently opened a Kentucky Fried Chicken-Taco Bell restaurant on Ga. Highway 20 in Lawrenceville. He already ran a Taco Bell and Pizza Hut under one roof in Norcross. And soon he will launch a Kentucky Fried Chicken and A&W All American Food at Old Norcross Road and Sugarloaf Parkway.
“We get customers coming back two or three times a week, sometimes buying KFC, sometimes Taco Bell,” Mulkey said. “Rather than having to go to two or three different restaurants, they can come to one place.”
The concept, known as cobranding, is nothing new and can been seen in other sectors of the food industry. For instance, consumers have found KC Masterpiece barbecue teaming up with Lay’s Potato Chips on the supermarket shelves.
But, in the extremely competitive fast-food business, multibranding is meant to add more choices to the menu, eliminating what is known as the “veto vote.”

AT A GLANCE
-- Name: Yum! Brands Inc.
-- What they do: Fast-food restaurant company that operates Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W All-American Food and Long John Silver’s.
-- Headquarters: Louisville, Ky.
-- Trend setting: Launched first multibrand restaurant in 1992. Now has more than 2,200 of the stores.

“The one guy in the group that didn’t want Mexican can now go to the same restaurant as the rest of his friends and yet find something completely different on the menu to suit his tastes,” Mulkey said. “Consumers are more on the go, they want more choices, so it makes sense.”
Lately, Louisville, Ky.—based Yum! Brands Inc. has taken the lead among restaurant chains in multibranding. The company, whose brands include KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W and Long John Silver’s, first tested the concept 12 years ago. Now, it has slightly more than 2,200 multibrand restaurants in the United States, or about 12 percent of its system.
Virginia Ferguson, Yum! Brands spokeswoman, said multibranding in the fast-food business is “the most important development ... since the drive-through window.” She added that research showed customers preferred the choice and convenience of multibrand restaurants 6-to-1.
Maybe multibranding is the wave of the future in the fast-food niche, but the big hamburger chains will probably not get into the act, at least not yet, experts said.
Jim Nelems, chief executive officer of The Marketing Workshop Inc. in Norcross, said even though Yum! Brands does well with the concept, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s will probably shy away from it.
“They already have very strong brand names all by themselves, and adding another brand to the mix could make things too crowded and confusing for their customers,” Nelums said. He also said multibranding isn’t easy to pull off. For example, Arby’s tried cobranding with Green Burrito, but the experiment didn’t work.
While entrepreneurs such as Mulkey like multibranding, it presents challenges. First, having two different brands under one roof requires more employees to manage. It also calls for two different sets of equipment, one for Taco Bell, the other for KFC.
Mulkey’s strength is in operations, having overseen 30 Taco Bell restaurants as a regional manager before he shed the suit and tie and jumped back into the fray. With eight stores of his own and more on the way, Mulkey said he is satisfied with his decision. “I really missed interacting with the customers,” he said. “And I like to know exactly what’s going on in a restaurant.” <-->