Rashida
The online ordering and delivery industry has grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014, indicating an obvious trend toward ordering food online. 60% of Americans order delivery or take out at least once a week, and both of these trends started before the pandemic.
The food and beverage industry was hit especially hard by COVID-19, and many businesses pivoted to offering more takeout and delivery in hopes of keeping their businesses alive. Stuck in their homes, 53% of 18-29 year-olds have ordered from a local restaurant online. While many restaurants were experimenting with online delivery before the pandemic, it has certainly motivated some to try now.
So, imagine you want to order some pizza online. Let’s say you saw Chuck E. Cheese.
Chuck E. Cheese pizza seems
- For children
- Low quality
- More about the experience of being there, not something you would order to enjoy at home.
Okay, now consider Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings. Now that sounds:
- Artisan
- Local
- Premium
- Delicious
Well, I hate to break it to you, but Pasqually’s IS Chuck E. Cheese!
What is Pasqually’s?
Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings is a delivery-only premium pizza brand that is owned and operated by Chuck E. Cheese. That’s right, Pasqually’s shares a kitchen with Chuck E. Cheese. According to a Chuck E. Cheese representative, Pasqually’s uses “fresh homemade pizza dough with a thicker crust, extra sauce, and new blends of cheeses and seasonings, giving consumers a more flavorful, more premium pizza experience.”
So basically, they are claiming that Pasqually’s pizza is actually different and presumably better than Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Why Did Chuck E. Cheese Create Pasqually’s?
While it is easy to see why some consumers feel a bit cheated by Pasqually’s, it is actually common practice for a restaurant to create a delivery-only brand and share a kitchen with it. For example, Applebee’s also delivers food under the subbrand Neighborhood Wings.
Restaurants create these secondary brands to reach a wider audience. For one, restaurants can only select a few categories when selling on third-party delivery platforms, so they may create subbrands so that they can gain visibility in different categories. Some restaurants also use this method as a way to test out new menu items.
The second reason has to do with branding. Branding matters, a lot. Brands build up an identity and a niche audience. Chuck E. Cheese is undoubtedly geared toward families with young children and presented as more of an experience than a restaurant. Dave & Busters, on the other hand, is positioned as a great restaurant and arcade center for people of all ages. Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Busters have extremely similar offerings, but incredibly different branding.
Because of their reputation, Chuck E. Cheese knows that it would be very very hard to sell their food on delivery apps, regardless of the actual quality. To appeal more to adults, they created Pasqually’s, which has totally different branding.
The Takeaway
Big chain restaurants are taking a hard hit from the pandemic. To survive, businesses of all kinds need to find ways to maintain their services and increase their virtual presence. Right now, delivery is essential for a restaurant’s survival. Unfortunately, being available online is just not enough for every brand. Chuck E. Cheese and others are finding a way to reinvent themselves through delivery-only subbrands.
