Did anyone actually want a waffle taco?

No small degree of consumer research went into Taco Bell’s decision to roll out a line of breakfast menu items. Jumping into the fast food breakfast fracas last year, Taco Bell lobbed a spicy shot over the bows of more established competitors like McDonald’s, Sonic and Burger King.

So, yes, if you now so choose, you can order a Waffle Taco for breakfast. Or an A.M. Crunchwrap. Or even a Grande Scrambler Burrito.

The question is … should you? Or, more precisely, do you want to?

An easy mistake for a company to make is trying to be all things to all people. Rather than identifying a market niche (the thing you’re best at) and a target audience (the type of people you best serve) these misguided attempts try to be a little bit of something to everybody. The results are typically less than spectacular. Like salad flavored Jell-O, purple Ketchup and Coors water.

Taco Bell had a pretty good thing going in the minds of many consumers – cheap, fast, pseudo Mexican food. It was a mainstay of my college years (including way too many “make a run for the border” dormitory jokes). Grape flavored Jell-O, red Ketchup and Coors Beer were working just fine, too. Like those examples, jumping into the breakfast food arena is a potential blunder. Why try to be a breakfast food provider to a massive audience relatively happy with what you’ve already got?

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