McDonald’s Fights Taco Bell’s Breakfast Menu With Free Coffee

McDonald’s is initiating a counter-attack in their war against Taco Bell’s breakfast menu. On Friday, March 28, 2014, McDonald’s announced they’ll be offering breakfast customers a free cup of McCafe coffee.

According to Fox, the largest fast-food chain in the world said the campaign will start this coming Monday, and will give breakfast customers, at participating locations, a free 12-ounce small coffee. The promotion will last two weeks, and it is up to locations to decide if customers get refills or just one cup of free coffee. The gimmick was made to follow after Taco Bell introduced their highly-anticipated breakfast menu, which became available at participating restaurants on March 27th.

Reason why the Taco Bell breakfast is such a viable competitor to McDonald’s, and in actuality all the fast-food chains that serve breakfast, is because of the uniqueness of their menu. Either it be McDonald’s or Burger King, usually the breakfast menu is similar. They all have their version of breakfast sandwiches, hash browns, breakfast burrito, and such. Taco Bell is utilizing their core menu designs into a breakfast format, such as the waffle taco or the A.M. crunchwrap.

This writer actually had the chance to try out EVERYTHING on the menu, mostly as a sample tasting. Though the formula isn’t perfect, Taco Bell’s breakfast menu has a high possibility of becoming a competitor in the breakfast market. Some of the menu items took some getting used to such as the waffle taco, which is a conglomerate of carbohydrates smothered in syrup. Something about bacon, eggs, cheese, waffle, and syrup all together is both unique and unfamiliar. However, it worked with KFC when they introduced their famous bowls, ergo, the waffle taco may work in the long run. Personally, I would have preferred some salsa with them.

Back on subject, though McDonald’s now has a new competitor, they are still a force in the breakfast category. According to MSN Money, McDonald’s accounts for 31% of the category, which still makes them number one, according to market researcher, Technomic.

Being number one, however, means nothing on sales as McDonald’s recognizes their sales slump over the years. To counter this, they are considering on expanding their breakfast hours, which usually ends in the late morning around 10:30 a.m. For some of their customers, this can be very aggravating, as they said:

“We know that breakfast on the weekend cut off at 10:30 doesn’t go very well.”

The free coffee gimmick may sway more breakfast patrons to eat at McDonald’s, but after the two weeks are up, those very patrons will recognize it is the “same thing”. If McDonald’s wants to stay on top of breakfast, they are going to have to innovate, more so now that Burger King is testing a new chicken and waffle sandwich.

[Images via Bing]