A little over a year ago, Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos hit the market. There was no way to predict that the new menu item would become a phenomenon of sorts—selling one million per day last year. Neither Taco Bell or FritoLay, Doritos' parent company, could let the potential of massive sales slip from their fingers, so they did it again, launching a Cool Ranch version earlier this month to much fanfare. 

The launch created a nationwide spectacle as ravenous consumers scoured local Taco Bell locations for the updated version, which the company teased with an 'early release' (which ended up backfiring). Unaffected, the actual launch went off without a hitch, with millions of customers walking away finger-licking happy. "Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos have been one of the most anticipated new menu items we've launched, and will be the biggest in our company history," says Rob Poetsch, a Taco Bell spokesman, in an email to MSN. "We're pleased with the overwhelmingly positive reaction from our fans, in fact, we've seen twice as many social media conversations in the first few days we launched."Continue reading...

Fried chicken lovers in China took a brief break from visiting KFC’s there after news broke in December of last year that the fast-food chain was using chicken suppliers that had violated drug rules in order to fatten up their birds. 

That wasn’t good news for consumers or for a brand that had more than 4,000 outlets in the company and brought in more than 40 percent of its overall revenue from the country. In anticipation of a hefty backlash, Yum! Brands, the owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, readjusted its yearly expectations downward. However, it appears that Chinese chicken consumers have short memories.Continue reading...

KFC has more than 4,000 outlets in China and it counts on them to come up with more than 40 percent of its overall revenue. That overreliance on cash-flow from the world’s most populated nation took a massive hit back in December when Chinese state television let the world know that “some suppliers violated rules on the use of drugs to fatten chickens,” which led to January sales dropping a customer-estimated 37 percent, according to the Associated Press.

The word from the Shanghai Times was that Chinese authorities were investigating the business practices of “Doyoo Group, a poultry company that reportedly bought sick and dead chicken from farms, then resold the sick ones to fast food restaurants such as KFC and McDonald's and processed the dead ones into animal feed."

Though the company was never fined by China food safety authorities for the incident, it caused KFC owner Yum! Brands to reconsider its overall 2013 profit outlook and now has it attempting to show the people of China that nothing quite like what happened last year will ever happen again. It t is promising “to test meat for banned drugs, strengthen oversight of farmers and encourage them to improve their technology,” the AP notes. Plus, KFC is saying that more than 1,000 small producers that its 25 poultry suppliers use have been axed. It is still planning to add 700 new locations in China this year. Continue reading...

Murmurs were afoot early on the street and on the tweet, thanks to Taco Bell's Facebook hint that fans should head to a pop-up store at New York City's Ariston Flowers in the Chelsea neighborhood, setting the Twitterverse aflutter.

The product: new Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos. The password: ask for the blue bouquet.

But just when things began to heat up at the flower shop, Taco Bell also was letting the whole country know about what likely will be its biggest new-product announcement of 2013. The Yum! Brands chain is hoping to tap into the same fervor for Cool Ranch as it did a year ago for the original Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos Locos Tacos, which kicked off a frenzy new Doritos-based-shell franchise.

And if the blue nail polish on today's Facebook announcement wasn't hint enough, Taco Bell is wooing the cool kids to Cool Ranch by appealing to hipsters — judging by its Super Bowl commercial, as a mindset and not necessarily just millennials.Continue reading...

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The Super Bowl is either an excuse for a phantasmagoria of purposeless eating, or the stage for a veritable symphony of snacking. Either way, QSR and CPG brands have been gearing up for Sunday for months — and not just in the game-day advertisements that are being run at great expense by Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, Coke, Doritos, Wonderful Pistachios and other kings of Super Bowl consumption.

Take Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, for example, both owned by Yum! Brands. This week, Pizza Hut expanded its "Hut. Hut. Hut" Super Bowl campaign it's been promoting on Facebook by offering all Americans a free sample of its latest "product innovation" on Tuesday afternoon at any of its 6,200 U.S. locations. The chain wouldn't reveal the nature of this innovation but said it'll become apparent by being integrated into the content of CBS's pregame show. All that is necessary to activate this promotion is for one of the quarterbacks to yell "Hut!" during the game — which seems very likely.

On the Taco Bell side of the company, the brand plans to introduce the new Cantina Bell Steak Burrito in a pregame ad and, of course, already has released its Super Bowl ad featuring young-at-heart seniors. Copy at the end of the ad  points viewers to Taco Bell's Facebook page, where consumers can participate in a "Live Mas Monday" on Feb. 4, during which a free churro willl be given away with any purchase during regular storehours at U.S. locations.Continue reading...

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Boeing tries to defuse fears about Dreamliner.

Yum! Brands apologizes for KFC chicken probe in China.

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