How Taco Bell Crippled KFC & Pizza Hut
355,371
Published 2024-02-10
Taco Bell is an extraordinary outlier by every measure. It’s a fast food chain that boasts a deeply passionate fanbase, enjoys a reputation for reliability, speed, and accuracy, and when it comes to business - Taco Bell has grown at such a breakneck pace over the past 20 years that it outperforms giants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC in per-store earnings.
The Mexican chain is so popular that it’s one of the few companies whose per-store earnings have stayed ahead of inflation. Remarkably, Taco Bell boasts some of the highest ever profit margins ever reported in not just fast food, but also in the restaurant industry. Taco Bell’s renaissance is a miracle in an era where fast food chains all follow the same cookie-cutter playbook of cost-cutting and international expansion to cover up domestic decline like KFC, McDonald’s, and Starbucks.
Business is a zero-sum game where every decision is connected, every action has a cause and effect, and the rise of one brand contributes to the fall of another. In this episode, we’ll cover the rise of Taco Bell, their strategy that’s made them so successful, and why Taco Bell is the missing puzzle piece behind the downfall of KFC and Pizza Hut and how their struggles in fried chicken and pizza have molded Taco Bell to what it is today, for better and for worse.
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0:00 Think Outside the Bun
1:36 Sponsor Break (Factor Meals)
4:08 Geopolitical Liberation
20:25 Non-Replicable Blueprint
31:24 The Goose from Mexico
41:18 Sponsor Break (Moomoo
All Comments (21)
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Use code MODERNMBA50 to get 50% OFF First Box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at bit.ly/3QtRqdt! 0:00 Think Outside the Bun 1:36 Sponsor Break (Factor Meals) 4:08 Geopolitical Liberation 20:25 Non-Replicable Blueprint 31:24 The Goose from Mexico 41:18 Sponsor Break (Moomoo)
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Yesterday, Taco Bell decided to pretend to be a tech company and did like an hour-long presentation in the style of Apple and Sony. Considering this video basically said that Taco Bell is carrying both KFC and Pizza Hut, it just feels perfect.
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I need to know how this dude gets a hold of every 1980s commercial made by every major business in the the Western Hemisphere.
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Sooooo, Taco Bell is winning the franchise wars? Demolition Man was right!
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I love the logic: "This brand is our golden goose, we can't risk screwing it up, so we are going to stop doing what we have been doing and instead penny pinch!"
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I never ever understand when product managers get replaced with accountants. This keeps happening with multiple franchises and brands but others never learn ACCOUNTANTS DO THE BOOKS, never do things adventurous, innovative, etc. It’s just about cutting costs and raising profits. No vision.
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The whiplash of watching a video about Taco Bell's success and within 10 minutes being introduced to Deng Xiaoping is wild.
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Gotta love the Yakuza intro references
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I worked for taco bell in 06-08. After I left that job, I hadnt ate at tacobell for just about 20 years. Ended up at it again a few months ago. I was utterly shocked to find that the food was just the same as it was when I was a teenager. Thats genuinely impressive, honestly. The quality and taste of BK, MCDs, and just about every franchise has changed over the years. Taco bell feels like it's core menu is frozen in time and I adore that.
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One thing I can say about Taco Bell is that the quality of their food has surprisingly not dropped over the years. A Cheesy Gordita Taco now tastes pretty much the same as back five years ago. Yes, their food was at a low place already but a reliability in the familiar really helps keep people coming back. In comparison, Burger King barely resembles itself of three years ago let alone five.
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Not discounting core products as a concept blew my mind and made me realize their unique position in the market of fast food. I find this stuff fascinating. Thank you for sharing! Excellent video as always.
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We used to go to Pizza Hut a lot when I was a kid. They lost their soul when they stopped serving the pizzas to the table in the actual pans. I'm not a big fan of Taco Bell's "temporarily bring back items to drum up hype" strategy. Yeah, I swing by when they have nacho fries. I'd swing by more often if they always had nacho fries.
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That Spanish-speaking Chihuahua is literally the reason I have my dog, Chalupa, today lmfao I just wanted to get a Chihuahua & name it after somethin' from Taco Bell XD
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Man the comment at 16:15 hit me hard, once McDonalds changed their value menu, I found myself going there less and less often because the higher price point items just hurt when you're use to getting a bag of mcchickens for $5.
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Love how you used the old Taco Bell fonts for the early charts, nice attention to detail.
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Next video: "why factor and other meal services are scams"
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If you have never had Taco Bell, Pizza Hut or Kentucky Fried Chicken back in the 1970's and 1980's then you have no idea how much better their food used to be. Their ingredients have been reengineered so many times it would make your head spin. Profits over quality is the name of the game. Presented in a pretty package gets everyone hooked!
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My mom is a marketing consultant who has worked with McDonald's in the past. Back in 2012, she was doing market research with young millennial males on what fast food chain they thought was the healthiest. Across the board they said Taco Bell - "because it has lettuce and tomato and stuff." McDonald's burgers have those ingredients too, but Taco Bell was their favorite, so of course it was the healthiest :P
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Taco Bell would crumble if stoners and drunk people at 2:30am stopped existing
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I saw that all restaurants in the future become Taco Bell in a documentary that Sly Stallone and Wesley Snipes narrated.
