As technologies continue to advance, outdoor digital menu boards have turned out to be far less expensive to deploy and maintain over time.

They are more economical than ever before and quite attractive for Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) to commit to larger roll-outs in their drive-thrus. If QSRs are willing to make the leap (small or giant) to digital both indoors and out, the result could make for a more profitable bottom line.

Realizing a considerable profit is every company’s pricing strategy. With the use of static menu boards, the idea of quickly switching images or prices -- beyond promoting value meals and limited time offers -- is quite rare. Constantly printing new or revised menus, removing and replacing menu board sheets, changing various prices, and adding new decals is very time consuming and extremely expensive for any QSR. This is especially true for large United States chains with more than 10,000(!) stores, like Subway, McDonald’s, and Starbucks. The costs for devising the perfect pricing strategy will add up quickly with static signage. 

When exploring digital menu boards, most QSRs only consider the initial purchase price and not the long term cost of ownership.

Consider these scenarios:

• How many times per month/year will a company make changes to a menu?
• How easily can the changes be made?
• How much manpower will it take to make changes?
• How much will it cost the company?
• What is the return on investment?

Although the initial investment of digital is more expensive than static, consider the overall cost of ownership for the static menu board. Static presents a considerable hurdle when it is time to make changes to pricing.

Making the choice to install digital menu boards greatly simplifies the price changing process for QSRs. With vast geographic areas in the United States, QSRs can explore promoting LTO’s based on the climate – ice cold milkshakes for hot areas and piping hot soup for colder locations. An operator has a great deal of flexibility researching and devising the latest technology and finding the best strategy to increase profits. As Fast Casual describes, “From digital and flexible menu boards to incredible fabrications of branded décor, lighted signs and other fixtures, the marketing landscape in fast casual is unique. Traditional menus are gone, replaced by new styles and designs of menu boards…”

Also, the QSR has the opportunity to bundle or upsell menu items they may have an excess of and need to sell by the end of the day, week, or month. One of the most famous example of this: McDonald’s Mighty Wings. According to Venessa Wong, Bloomberg Business, “Disappointing sales left the Golden Arches with roughly 10 million pounds of frozen wings—about 20 percent of what the chain purchased—at the end of 2013.” This meant that McDonald’s had to discount the wings (60¢ per wing, compared with the original price of $1) and hopefully make a small profit or break even. With digital, McDonald’s could have made the price change on all of their menus with the simple click of a button. Like magic, the menu systems are seamlessly updated.

Plus, combining a digital menu board system with the POS system will eliminate the need for a standalone order confirmation board. A portion of the menu board can be allocated for the confirmation board, thus eliminating one more unnecessary cost in the drive-thru. An article from QSR Magazine expounds on how digital and POS systems are a win-win for QSRs and customers, “For success and growth to find any quick serve, technology must be a part of the equation, particularly given consumers’ increasingly tech-dominated world; the drive thru cannot escape that reality. According to QSR’s Drive-Thru Experience Study, price confirmation and order verification stand as the most popular improvements restaurants can make with consumers, an improvement often tied to POS-connected digital signage.”

Outdoor digital menu boards, when used effectively, will provide an unlimited amount of customer data.  From consumer patterns to influencing certain menu items, QSRs can use this information to build a strong pricing strategy that far exceeds what competing chains have to offer their customers.

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