Burger Trends & Menu Ideation

As you may already be aware, every year we release our Burger Trends Report, which details the trends in Burgers at food service as well as best practices for marketing your restaurant. One of the goals of the Burger Trends Report is to identify the Most Popular Burger in America based on consumer demand. If you haven’t already, download your free copy of the 2017 Burger Trends Report here.

The Most Popular Burger In America

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t read this year’s Burger Trends Report yet, read it now because there’s no turning back after this. Ready? Here goes. The Most Popular Burger In America is…a Bacon Cheeseburger. A bit anti-climactic, right? Of course the most consistently order Burger build is a Bacon Cheeseburger. What else could it be? But that tells us something about consumers. In most cases, they know what they want, and they stick with their favorite thing, through and through.

That said, this year did see some movement in certain categories. Pulled pork and egg saw a huge leap in popularity from last year. They’ve been trending upward for two years running, and don’t show signs of slowing down. The average price of a Burger went up too (from $10.00-$10.99 to $12.00-$12.99). Aiolis saw a drop in popularity along with Signature Sauces, but BBQ Sauce and Yellow Mustard saw an increase.

Updating Your Menu To Meet Demands

When updating your menu with Burger trends in mind, it’s important to make sure you’re still maintaining a complimentary flavor profile when assembling your trendy new Burger. The key lies in subtlety of flavor, not just a stack of trendy new toppings. Find the flavors that are both on trend and complement your brand identity, then go from there. And remember, once consumers find something they like, they usually stick with it.

How Schweid & Sons Can Help

If by now you still haven’t downloaded this year’s Burger Trends Report, click here to get yourself a copy. With those trends in hand, you can create unique Burger builds that will entice your customers to experiment with your entire menu. But if you find the process of menu ideation a little daunting, Schweid & Sons is here to help. As a member of our family, you have access to the menu ideation wing of our food service marketing team, who can help you come up with new Burger offerings for you menu.