It’s a very rare thing. Seldom do the restaurant gods that can make or break any of us actually get together around the same table and instantly decide “you know here’s a new idea that could really work.” But when it happens, watch out.

Over three years ago things fell in to place for Taco John’s®: the myriad of cogs and components between brand planning table and in-store counter lined up in synch with the introduction of an idea. The idea started as a brand position for marketing and ended up creating a whole new quick service category that is keeping the cash registers ringing at franchises today. We’re talking West -Mex®, a new concept in Mexican Quick Service.

While adding some items to your menu, tweaking the appetizers line up or even throwing in a limited-time consumer favorite may not really be that new to many quick service franchise brands, brand recalibration certainly is. And that’s essentially what Taco John’s did in the latter planning stages of 2004 when brand advertising and marketing teams got together to look at revamping the image, differentiating the menu offering from other quick service Mexican competitors and creating a distinct, new flavor of familiarity with Mexican food fans.

“There are a lot of Mexican chains around but none with such a unique meat and potatoes twist on the old standby menu items,” said Chris Preston, Executive Creative Director at Kerker and one of the team that engineered the West-Mex concept. “So it made sense to come up with the brand’s own nomenclature. West-Mex started as a new way to express the brand’s very particular menu selections but grew to become a rationale for new product introductions and a way to address some long held consumer perceptions about Taco John’s.”

Talking continually to consumers can be the key to keeping a restaurant fresh and the customer experience positive. Between 2004 and 2005, Taco John’s conducted several quantitative and qualitative studies that charted the customer’s pre-existing perceptions of the Taco John’s brand and solicited reaction to potential new positions that would eventually affect everything from the brand’s personality to the in-store, touch feel and taste experience of the customer.

One thing jumped out. The brand’s old position “A whole lot of Mexican” was associated with Taco John’s but wasn’t really doing anything for the customer. Did the brand positioning statement mean bigger portions or authentic Mexican flavor? What about those almost iconic Potato Oles®? Potatoes in Mexican food – that didn’t say authenticity.

Furthermore, data showed quick service customers crave Mexican food. That was unanimous, unsurprisingly. Who doesn’t get that itch at the office desk – or frankly just about anywhere? But more unusually, it turns out customers will crave items: tacos, burritos and the like without any strong pull to a chain or brand. So long as someone is serving and what they’re serving is good, customers will follow their noses and their instincts. The key to restaurant success is associating your offering with those cravings.

It became clear, we needed product differentiation and a true brand identity – that more often than not – elusive lubricant that helps greases the wheels of the marketing mix to make everything run more smoothly and the brand take on new life.

Enter finally, West-Mex, one of five different concepts for the Taco John’s brand presented in focus groups across the country and a quantitative study to get a both a quick gut check and a considered thoughtful review from customers. Verdict? Here’s that idea that works – on a number of fronts, like a favorite menu item whose spices, seasonings and overall flavor appeal in many ways.

Other concepts that spoke to the restaurant experience: bold flavors and bigger portions spiked reactions but sometimes mixed reviews. Customers had different takes on what constitutes bold flavor – is that simply flavor or does it mean spicy, and if it’s spicy does that rule out families with kids? But West-Mex created what few in the restaurant business have done: played to the brand’s and the menu’s successes, differentiators and explained away weaknesses in a positive manner.

“West Mex is about honesty,” says Chris Preston. “And that plays very well for Taco John’s restaurants which customers know and love as the independent, non-corporate place where they can get something a little different. It says we’re not pure Mexican and explains the place of meat and potatoes in a very positive, menu-innovation kind of way.”

Change on the scale of reinventing a menu and a brand can be daunting. It can jar and confuse the customer. If handled poorly it can infuriate and alienate loyalists. But when done right, the avenues for execution are limitless. Taco John’s is fortunate enough to have an internal brand team and a franchise system that knows how to engineer positive change.

West-Mex and the slogan: “The Fresh Taste of West-Mex” now exists everywhere, creating total brand immersion for the customer from in-store signage, menu boards, packaging, counter displays, employee uniforms, and external signage to a national advertising campaign featuring the face of West-Mex, Whiplash, the Capuchin monkey now entering his fourth year as campaign front man. Next on the list is the spread of refurbished store concepts known internally as Taco7, creating widespread consistency of in-store and out of store visual identity wherever the individual franchised stores may be.

So what should quick service restaurants do to keep the door swinging and the register ringing? Innovation is a word that’s overused but it’s still got some life left in it. When it is used, innovation needs to be big and bold and pervasive: it starts at the conceptual menu level, it’s in the mix of ingredients and it’s smiling at the customer from the walls, floors, windows and the faces of employees when they walk in the door.

Really, at the end of the day, when the plate is clean and we’re left with a taste in our mouths, it should be subtle, good and a little different. It should conjure a distinct image, make a customer connection and in the deeper recesses of the culinary unconsciousness, stir the beginnings of a new, soon-to-be-here craving for not just a food but a total brand experience.