Compromising position?

Moving to higher ground is a sound strategy if you’re running for president or trying to escape a flood. But what if you’re a broad-market restaurant chain that wants to out-class the sector? Consider what the heads of Ruby Tuesday and Applebee’s have to say on the matter. Then climb a mountain and ponder how such similar assessments could prompt them to move in such opposite directions.

Both have acknowledged to investors that management pushed the concepts beyond the comfort zones of longtime customers when they drove the chains up-market. ““We often overshot the brand in the pursuit of a more upscale customer while frankly failing to deliver on the expectations of our core users,” said Julia Stewart, CEO of DineEquity and the proclaimed chief strategist for Applebee’s, which the IHOP parent acquired in November.

Sandy Beall, founder and CEO of Ruby Tuesday, had similar things to say when he addressed analysts last week in a conference call. The past year was a tough one for the casual-dining chain in part because of the environment—“as difficult as I’ve ever seen it,” remarked Beall, who started the company in 1972. But, he admitted, “We also probably hurt ourselves.”

The company remodeled 650 restaurants in less than a year, which may have distracted the team, Beall explained. And some patrons may have been driven off by the new look—“lower-end guests who maybe felt less comfortable in our reimaged restaurants,” he observed.

Stewart has indicated that Applebee’s will shed its highfalutin ways and refocus on the brand’s traditional strength of offering reasonably priced finger foods and a centerpiece bar. In short, it’ll shift back to the concept’s longstanding position as an everyday dining choice—a true neighborhood option.

Contrast that direction with Beall’s pronouncement on Ruby Tuesday’s upscale push. “We now have a completely integrated high quality brand with consistency among its key elements of food service and the restaurant’s look and feel,” he told investors. “This is very, very important.”

He didn’t reconcile that enthusiasm over the chain’s new positioning with his earlier comment about alienating some customers. But he did add, “The soundness of our strategy is also indicated by the fact that our customer base is changing…For example, it is becoming a little more affluent, which is what we wanted, with 44 percent of our customers having income greater than $75,000 compared with 38 percent three years ago.”

Clearly he wants the brand to be more of an Acura, while Applebee’s is betting that a Honda is really what the market appreciates.

Both, of course, could be correct. Meanwhile, the industry as a whole seems to favor the third option of claiming the middle ground, whether that means sliding up or down the spectrum. Fast-feeders ranging from Burger King (with its Whopper Bar, a high-end diversification featuring cocktails) and Subway (with its Subway Café) are nudging their brands further up the pricing scale. At the other extreme are fine-dining chefs like Bobby Flay and their launch of burger concepts, like his just-opened fast-casual concept, Bobby’s Burger Palace. Like many a presidential candidate, restaurant operators seem prone at the moment to drifting toward the center.

Unless, that is, they’re already there, like the family dining specialists. Denny’s, for instance, is edging into quick-service turf with its scaled-down Express concept and B-FST 2GO program. And IHOP has aired intentions to diversify into the fast-service arena of airports.

It sounds like a mess, but it’s really a much-needed shake-up of the status quo. Brands are reconsidering what they are and what they want to be. Unfortunately, many are likely to discover that those are two extremely different things.