Taco Bells New a Breakfast Menu In The Morning

Taco Bells New a Breakfast Menu In The Morning

Fast food is much preferred, and McDonald's saw the opportunity. McDonald's has long been the fast-food leader in the mornings, with its popular Sausage Biscuits, Hotcakes and other items pulling in roughly 20 percent of the company's U.S. sales. But the chain has been facing stiffer competition in recent years, with competitors such as Starbucks and Subway rolling out breakfast sandwiches as well.

McDonald's, which has more than 14,000 U.S. locations, has also said it plans to step up its marketing of breakfast this year as it faces intensifying competition. The president of McDonald's USA, Jeff Stratton, also told the Associated Press that the chain is in the early stages of looking at whether it can extend its breakfast hours.

Taco Bell and parent company Yum! Brands have made no secret of the fact that the breakfast launch is a direct attempt to eat into McDonald’s domination of the fast food morning market. But a new ad campaign released Thursday stops just short of declaring it an all-out breakfast war.

Taco Bell's announcement comes just hours after McDonald's executives revealed that they were considering offering extended hours for their own breakfast menu. However, Chipotle, Taco Bell's main competitor in the Mexican fast food space, maintains that it has no plans to launch a national breakfast menu, even though it recently started serving coffee at a handful of locations.

The campaign was created by corporate marketing group Interpublic's Deutsch Los Angeles ad agency, and Taco Bell president Brian Niccol told Ad Age that it would be among the chain’s biggest marketing efforts ever, even surpassing the campaign for the successful Doritos Locos taco a few years ago. He wouldn’t say how much it would cost, however.

Taco Bell has been serving breakfast items like egg-and-sausage burritos and hash browns in 850 restaurants, mostly on the West Coast, since January 2012. But it wasn't until last August that the chain began testing the menu now set to roll out nationally. The pilot run for the breakfast menu took place at 100 locations in the areas around Fresno, Calif., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Omaha, Neb.

Breakfast is the fastest growing day part in QSR, and after years of the same old thing, we’re confident our breakfast will wake up customers’ morning routine,” said Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Brandt. “Taco Bell will bring them a classic breakfast experience, leading with the Waffle Taco and A.M. Crunchwrap, but also offer a menu of breakfast burritos, tacos and value offerings plus a pipeline of new products to continue waking up breakfast options and connecting with our fans.