SAN DIEGO – Jack in the Box, Inc. has overhauled its offerings as part of its “Declaration of Delicious” campaign. The menu makeover involved renovating 29 core components of its Jack in the Box restaurant menu.
Lenny Comma, chairman and c.e.o. of Jack in the Box, Inc. |
“What we've done is something that I don't think we had done in our entire history, and that was to revamp 29 products all in one fell swoop,” said Lenny Comma, chairman and chief executive officer of Jack in the Box, Inc., during a March 16 presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Consumer & Retail Tech Conference. “Those 29 items were driven by a need to improve our hamburgers primarily. But once we got into the testing phase, we realized that we can also improve many other sandwiches in chicken and also breakfast.”
The changes include serving all sandwiches on new buttered split-top buns, switching from an onion-mayonnaise sauce to real mayonnaise, tweaking the chain’s tomatoes and lettuce, and switching all but the Buttery Jack’s hamburger formula from seasoned patties to unseasoned 100% beef patties. So far, Mr. Comma said, consumers are responding favorably.
“Those items all tested better than the previous forms of themselves,” Mr. Comma said. “So the consumer not only told us that they like these items twice as much as the previous items, but the likelihood to repurchase these items was significantly higher.”
As another part of the “Declaration of Delicious” campaign, Jack in the Box introduced the Double Jack to highlight the list of new ingredient changes. Served on the chain’s new butter-toasted bun, the burger features two ¼-lb patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions. Debuting the new burger was an indicator of the chain’s future focus, Mr. Comma said.
“Innovation will continue to be one of the No. 1 drivers of our menu going forward,” he said. “So the headline for the Jack in the Box brand will be: continue to innovate. We need to bring new L.T.O.s and permanent items to the menu that are going to bring excitement.”
Jack in the Box’s “Declaration of Delicious” has moved the company forward in its improvement plans, Mr. Comma said, but this is just the start.
“We know the consumer wants better food than what we were giving them in the past,” he said. “And we had said that, going into 2015, we were going to feature craveable products that really foreshadow what we're going to be doing with the menu. The improvement of the 29 items across our menu was essentially bringing that to life, all of the improvements in quality. Now, there's more to do.”