It is a real challenge for school marketers to benchmark and track the growth of menu items. Usually this task gets assigned to a junior staffer who then does a quick snapshot of 50 or so school menus available on the web. A simple count might reveal that half of school districts serve spaghetti. This is good information and probably worth the effort. Foodservice manufacturers making more than one product, however, may wish to be a bit more thorough and systematic.
Measuring category growth is very valuable. It is important to trend on a “same store” basis. It helps to be able to group menu items by uniform characteristics. Spaghetti menu items overall may be advancing, but Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce may be growing even faster. FlavorTrak groups K-12 menu items by Menu Item Type based on exact menu descriptions set up by school districts. For Spaghetti, there are at least 10 item types and these include spaghetti with meat sauce, spaghetti and meatballs, simply “spaghetti” and others. As shown on the table below for spaghetti, the grouping process starts with an assortment of menu item names as found on school menus.
Spaghetti on Menu
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Foodservice Research Institute, Inc.
