4. Just don’t get out too far ahead of the consumer
While every speaker at the conference had a forward-looking view of the foodservice industry—and some were way out there with discussions of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and facial recognition for payments—several also noted a need not to get out too far ahead of the guest.
“Smart brands play in multiple spaces,” said Lucie Greene, worldwide director for J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, during the session, “Culinary Innovation: Tracking the Trends.” Nike has NikeLab, a line of cutting-edge exercise clothing, but it still sells black leggings, she noted. “You want to have your pantry, but still want to have some fun things in there.”
During a session on payments in the fast lane, McDonald’s U.S. Vice President of Digital Julia Vander Ploeg outlined the future of mobile and cashless payments with representatives from both Visa and Square, which provides technology to allow vendors, such as food trucks, to accept payments on their smartphones or tablets. But “Adoption rates are still relatively low across most industries, and we’re no different than that,” acknowledged Vander Ploeg. There are still approximately 20 million merchants that aren’t able to accept credit cards, and cash is still king, the speakers noted. “At the end of the day, it’s all about removing as many points of friction to allow customer to do what they want to do,” said Vander Ploeg.