The Benefits of Digital Menu Boards in Today's Fast Food Environment
The Benefits of Digital Menu Boards in Today's Fast Food Environment
How to Win with Digital Menu Boards in Today’s Economy
If you are in the fast food business sooner or later, you are going to be presented with the concept of Digital Menu Boards. If you do not have a solution already there are a few important points that your team should consider.
Over the years, menu boards in restaurants and fast-food outlets have assumed many different forms. Some have used chalkboards to write up their daily specials, while others favoured plastic letters slid into place or the well know backlit panels.
Although static menu boards have served their purpose well. We are moving into a modern phase where bright colours and High Definition Video are far more eye catching and connect with today’s consumer.
Digital menu boards are helping restaurant operators keep up with or stay ahead of their competition. The technology allows restaurateurs to incorporate full-motion video into their menu displays and instantly update content to account for on demand product and price changes for a single location or multiple locations from a single point.
With digital menu boards comes the opportunity to raise sales by maximizing the opportunity of daily promotions and specials as well as time the specials by using day-parting scheduling techniques.
Digital signage technology has fully integrated with the fast food environment. More companies are using this technology to replace their current menu boards and promotional materials inside and outside of their stores. Operators are realizing how effective digital menu boards are when it comes to improving the bottom line while increasing their overall market share.
With previous menu solutions, restaurant operators struggled with getting the right information into the right place as well as making sure that the manual updates were done in a timely basis. This typically put brand consistency and revenue at risk.
With a growing focus on different breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, the restaurant would need to either increase the size of the menu board or use two-sided flip boards, both of which possibilities required additional manual labour and print cost. Display technologies have moved forward in recent years, offering the restaurant industry a modern alternative to old-school modes of communicating products, pricing and promotions. This advancement has come in the form of digital signs. The benefits are numerous and include:
The ability to use automatic scheduling of menu boards.
The ability to remotely update menus and make instant, pre-programmed changes.
Centralized control of marketing, promotions and menu board content.
The ability to link inventory levels and point of sale (POS) to change marketing and pricing on the fly.
Digital menu boards and promotional boards allow messages to be dynamic, clear and interactive, as well as switching between static or motion content. This allows the operator to incorporate cross promotions with vendors, partners and suppliers.
Ready or not, digital menu boards are already a major part of the quick-service and fast casual restaurant environments. Digital menu boards can help restaurant operators:
Promote products that are in high inventory
Add new items to the menu with ease
Run special promotions
Reduce costs, including printing and shipping menu board inserts
Maintain brand consistency throughout multiple restaurants
Display required nutritional information
Communicate corporate messaging and training material to staff
Incorporate Social Media, News and RSS Feeds
Prompt call to actions with SMS, QR codes and App Downloads
Because digital menu boards can be updated at a moment’s notice, certain menu items can be promoted if the restaurant is overstocked, while others can be removed from the menu if stock is too low. Centralized control means that brand messaging remains consistent from store to store.
Other important factors to consider are the actual content that is running on the screens.
Animated High Definition content is a winning factor to grab customer attention.
When it comes to choosing hardware and software it is important to do your research and make sure that you have the right partners. As a business owner or manager, you should look for quality 24/7 displays that are engineered for the fast food environment.
Brendan Cooney - Avitor