Dive Brief:
- Just Salad is adding a menu category crafted specifically to crack into the dinner daypart, called Market Plates, the brand announced Thursday.
- Each Market Plate combines a premium protein, grains and a seasonal side, according to the press release.
- Such additions follow competitor Sweetgreen’s long-running effort to build up its dinner traffic, which included the launch of protein plates and steak.
Dive Insight:
Flush with capital following a $200 million funding round, Just Salad is looking to grow market share at dinner, particularly by targeting “health-conscious consumers,” according to the press release.
The majority of the brand’s sales occur during the lunch daypart, and the healthy dinner emphasis builds on its established brand strategy, which relies on selling plant-centric offerings within urban and suburban communities, the company said.
“This launch reflects our understanding that today's consumers seek quick and convenient options that deliver healthful, protein forward meals, whether that's for lunch or dinner,” Just Salad founder and CEO Nick Kenner said in the press release.
The dinner daypart is key strategically for fast casual salad brands that were once pigeonholed as office worker lunch spots. Both Sweetgreen and Just Salad are looking to suburban markets and drive-thrus as tools to wean off their dependence on mid-day, central business district consumers.
The competitive pressure to change menus and woo consumers applies to restaurants outside the fast casual sector, as well. Restaurants have reacted to increasing consumer price sensitivity with one of two strategies. The one employed by Sweetgreen and Just Salad is to expand the menu, put more dayparts in play and try to gain share in previously peripheral categories. McDonald’s and Wendy’s, both focusing on chicken and drinks, are major QSR brands to embrace this strategy.
Others have taken the opposite tack: menu reduction and a focus on core competencies as a way to play to brand strengths. Starbucks is shifting its whole menu strategy and marketing focus to a coffee-forward branding with a smaller menu. Papa Johns is looking to make more of its core pizzas, too.
