LOW CARBS, PLEASE:
dvertising Shops Help Fast-Food Chains Tinker With Menus
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
There’s no escaping low-carb mania. And that’s been good for Orange County advertising shops.
Log on to Carl’s Jr.’s Web site and a giant-sized “Low Carb Six Dollar Burger” flies onto the screen. The hamburger, wrapped with lettuce and oozing veggies, noticeably is missing the carbohydrate-laden bun.
Irvine-based In-N-Out Burger also is in on the action.
The hamburger chain offers its burgers sans bread, though it doesn’t say so on its menu. Privately held In-N-Out is very hush-hush about its marketing.
Then there’s Subway, which has been pushing its new low-carb, tortilla-wrapped sandwiches that are “Atkins-friendly,” according to the chain. And McDonald’s recently announced plans to phase out its extra fries and giant “super-size” soda options. It’s adding low-carb versions of its burgers and sandwiches.
Name a restaurant chain and chances are it has tweaked its menu to tap into America’s growing fascination with low-carb, high-protein diets,or at least thought about doing so.
“The Atkins diet has changed the way consumers view food,” said Dean Haskell, restaurant analyst at San Francisco-based JMP Securities.
New York doctor Robert Atkins created the low-carb, high-fat diet more than 30 years ago.
“Any time a customer expresses a preference, restaurants quickly change and adapt,” Haskell said. “One of the ways they’ve done it initially is listing carbs and protein grams on a Web site or menu. They’ve also made more options or offerings available.”
A number of OC advertising shops have been working with clients on how to tap into the growing trend. Even if it just means adding nutrition information to a company Web site.
“I think it would be a great opportunity for our food clients to cash in on the latest craze,” said Joe Ryan, vice president of business development at Tustin-based Insync Media of Orange County. “It looks like this type of diet is going to be around for a while.”
The OC shop has “produced brochures with replacement items to substitute for carbs and/or fat if the consumer elects to do so,” Ryan said.
Low-carb diets, which push high-protein and low-sugar foods, continue to build speed.
“When you have 30 million consumers that claim to have in some way tried the Atkins diet, it has gone from a fad to a trend,” said Mandi Dossin, agency partner at Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising. “Many brands are indeed jumping into the fray.”
The evidence: Months ago, pickings at fast-food restaurants and grocery stores were slim when it came to low-carb alternatives, said Paul Otis, cofounder and chief executive of Foothill Ranch-based MOB Media Inc.
“Before late last year you couldn’t find any damn good chocolate,” Otis said. “Now there’s a ton of ‘mockolate.'”
Otis said he “took the plunge in mid-November” and started on the Atkins diet. He has lost 35 pounds so far.
“As I began, it was evident that the grocery stores and fast-food restaurants were behind the times,” Otis said. “Now all of a sudden everyone is touting the low-carb alternatives.”
The fad has sounded a feeding bell for food marketers.
“It’s the nature of our industry and our goal as marketers and advertisers to recommend that our clients do all they can to capitalize on the newest market trends and crazes,” said William Johnson, president and creative director at Newport Beach-based Johnson Gray Advertising Inc.
Hal Brice, president of Newport Beach-based Heil-Brice Retail Advertising Inc., said an East Coast grocery client has come up with a novel low-carb strategy.
“They developed a program called Shelf Talker,a sign on a grocery shelf that points out items that are low-carb friendly,” he said.
Restaurants that add alternatives to their menus may keep repeat customers and nab new ones “who still want that burger and grease but feel better about getting it on lettuce,” Johnson said.
But there are risks.
Marketers have to be careful not to mislead consumers with messaging that promotes a “fad” but is not “based in fact,” Johnson said.
“Fried chicken is fried chicken regardless of the carb count,” he said.
Plus, there are other challenges.
As brands jump on the bandwagon and flood the airwaves with me-too ads, it becomes hard to stand out.
“Low-carb is everywhere, making it difficult to break through the clutter of low-carb, carb-free, Atkins noise,” Dossin said.
Dossin said it’s unclear if any company has seen a sales jolt solely from catering to the low-carb fad.
“To our knowledge no one has yet announced sales increases as a result of the Atkins craze,” she said.
Instead, she said her clients are taking a broader look at nutrition and offering “healthy options” so consumers “can make smart choices.”
Pat & Oscar’s, for instance, is revamping its salad line and Wienerschnitzel, which is owned by Newport Beach’s Galardi Group Inc., recently reintroduced the Healthy Choice low-fat hot dog, Dossin said.
Irvine-based Taco Bell Inc. also is thinking wider.
The Mexican fast-food chain, whose advertising is handled by Irvine-based Foote, Cone & Belding Southern California, recently added a healthy alternative to its menu, called “Fresco Style.”
Consumers can swap cheese and sauce for daily-prepared salsa. The result: 15 menu items have less than 10 grams of fat, according to Taco Bell, which is part of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc.
“From our perspective, providing (healthy) options within the context of our clients’ core brand DNA makes a lot more sense than jumping on any bandwagons,” DGWB’s Dossin said.
