Unlocking the Secret to Ultimate Customer Loyalty: The Powerful Collaboration between Taco Bell and DoorDash

Discussions at this year's Advertising Week New York conference centered around marketers' efforts to establish consumer trust and loyalty for their brands. During a session on Thursday, DoorDash CMO Kofi Amoo-Gottfried emphasized the challenges of implementing such strategies, highlighting that people are not even loyal to their partners. Despite this, Amoo-Gottfried questioned how brands can continually earn a greater share of their customers' business.

The DoorDash executive's viewpoint was supported by Dane Mathews, the chief digital officer of Taco Bell, who acknowledged the challenge of maintaining consumer preference in a fiercely competitive QSR industry. Even though a brand like Taco Bell already enjoys strong consumer preference, Mathews emphasized the ongoing need for optimization and improvement in order to withstand competition and drive engagement.

Tapping ‘discrete audiences’

DoorDash and Taco Bell have leveraged subscription services, namely DashPass and Taco Lover’s Pass, as a means to boost user engagement. DashPass enables DoorDash to gain insights into the engagement patterns of its most devoted users, while Taco Lover’s Pass aims to increase the frequency of visits from an already loyal customer base.

Product innovation should be closely aligned with specific target audiences rather than a general audience in order to encourage specific desired behaviors, according to Mathews. The metrics provide valuable information on where and how to achieve this. DoorDash uses various methods to measure customer loyalty, with retention and frequency being important indicators. Taco Bell, on the other hand, places significant value on consumer behavior. As an illustration, Mathews highlighted the presence of dedicated supporters, known as "Purple Knights" internally, who assist in spreading awareness about new Taco Bell products through social media when they are launched.

"We go beyond mere purchases when examining brand loyalty," explained the executive. "It involves representing the brand and supporting other consumers who are interested in engaging with it."

Trust plays a crucial role in building brand loyalty. Amoo-Gottfried identified two aspects of trust: delivering the desired results for the consumer and being in sync with the business's purpose and operations. While the latter is of lesser importance to most consumers, the former takes precedence.

“Do I care about your highfalutin purpose? Turns out people don’t — they care about me doing the thing they hired me for,” the exec said.

Coming together for Taco Tuesday

Taco Bell and DoorDash solidified their partnership in November 2022, integrating delivery into the chain's rewards app. However, initially, the collaboration between the two companies was merely transactional. Amoo-Gottfried expressed the desire to elevate the relationship to a more meaningful level. The focus was on fostering greater engagement, trust, and mutual commitment to the growth of each other's businesses.

As part of Taco Bell's initiative earlier this year to free the phrase "Taco Tuesday" from a trademark owned by Cheyenne-based chain Taco John's, the companies had a significant opportunity. Taco Bell's campaign, including an online petition and LeBron James commercials, was inspired by the absurdity of the situation, where small taquerias would receive cease-and-desist letters for using the phrase. In July, Taco John's abandoned the trademark and launched its own marketing campaign. Taco Bell quickly followed suit and offered to cover the cost of taco orders made through DoorDash at participating Mexican food vendors. To commemorate this occasion, both companies combined $5 million to cover the expenses on September 12.

“We wanted to celebrate it in the most effective and efficient way, and that was through delivery. DoorDash was the ideal platform to help us reach the taqueros and truly showcase their talent for Taco Tuesday,” Mathews explained.

The collaboration was unique, as Taco Bell directed customers to support local taquerias through DoorDash. This required unconventional efforts behind the scenes. Taco Bell utilized its customer relationship management platform to drive the initiative, and a dedicated war room was set up to closely monitor consumer response and ensure that local taco spots were not overwhelmed. Both executives take pride in the impact the Taco Tuesday promotion has had on their respective brands.

“We see this as a means for preserving the vitality of the category and upholding the taco culture amidst a dominant burger landscape," expressed Mathews.

In the meantime, Amoo-Gottfried adopted the term "#TombstoneGoals" coined by Taco Bell's Global Chief Brand and Strategy Officer, Sean Tresvant, who will assume the role of CEO starting January 1st, to illustrate this collaboration.

“The things that we do together have to be the types of things that can go on our tombstones,” he said.