Where’s the Beef? Apparently It’s In Your Taco!

Yesterday, Alabama-based law firm, Beasley Allan, dropped its class action law suit, filed in behalf of a California woman, against Taco Bell.  The suit claimed that Taco Bell’s meat filling did not meet the federal standards required to be called “beef,” because it “only contained 36% meat.”

Taco Bell fought back aggressively, from the moment that the law-suit was announced, spending between $3 million and $4 million in advertizing to explain that its seasoned beef was 88 percent USDA-inspected meat, and the other 12% consists of water, spices and a mixture of oats, starch and other ingredients that contribute to what it calls the “quality of its product.”

Taco Bell CEO, Greg Creed, said that his company made no changes to its food or its advertizing and that no money was paid to the lawyers or plaintiffs.

Today, the chain ran the ads in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today as well as in publications in Chicago, Los Angeles and in Alabama, saying “Would it kill you to say you’re sorry?”

Some brand experts would say that the continuous barrage of defensive ads, from Taco Bell, since the suit was filed in January, may have caused customers to wonder about the product.  Most brand experts would disagree and would concur that waiting, until the suit was settled to address damage to the brand, would have been costly.  Here are several maxims for defending a brand:

• Deal with the challenge/problem head-on.  It is cheaper work to stop damage to the brand than to try to fix it later (remember our discussion about Tylenol.)
• DO NOT LET OUTSIDERS DEFINE/REDEFINE YOUR BRAND.
• Honesty in defining the brand is crucial

Taco Bell’s parent, Yum Brands Inc. said, today that Taco Bell, their most profitable U.S. chain, hasn’t recovered from the impact of the lawsuit.  But shares of the fast-food company, which also owns the KFC, Pizza Hut, A&W and Long John Silver chains, rose on the basis of an overall profit rise 10 percent for the quarter. 

Taco Bell executives believe that sales will recover as they have a loyal clientele.  Positive press as a result of their “win” in the lawsuit will draw back the occasional customers. 

 Where’s the beef you ask?  It’s in the honest representation of the product in defining the brand.