Chuck E Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese CEC Entertainment, founded in 1977, thrives off the slogan “Where a kid can be a kid.”. Throughout it’s life time CEC has strived to offer an experience for kids, one where they’ll want to come back repeatedly. With a 40-year tenure in the restaurant business, the decision to expand their market into the Latin American demographic follows the trend of restaurant chains attempting to go global. While expanding one’s market is often used to revitalize their brand, the prevalent issues of the United States chains will easily follow into Latin America if not properly addressed. Last year CEC reported a loss of 11.8 million dollars in revenue in the third quarter alone (CEC Entertainment, 2017) , something that drastic maybe the

In upgrading the technology Chuck E Cheese will further push their marketability, while also appealing to families with a cleaner look. While they have started the process of updating their look in some of the restaurants (Whitten, 2017) , they’ve taken it in the opposite direction of appealing to children, and are trying to appeal to their parents more, a reversal in the demographic they’re aiming towards. As they go into the Latin Market, the image differentiation of the establishment may draw in the parents, but without updated games, the children are ultimately going to get bored. Kids nowadays just aren’t interested in things like skee-ball and the tubes, they’re interested in things like mobile games and learning. In the Latin American market, the expected use of mobile games is going to be 48% of total gaming revenue in Latin America. (Dring, 2016) With the use of mobile technology amongst children climbing every year, consequently if Chuck E Cheese doesn’t upgrade their technology within the next few years, it’s ultimately going to lose to things like tablets and phones, such as arcades did when home console devices became popular. While updating their look is imperative, I believe that leaning back into muted colors was a misstep. “Where a kid can be a kid” is the slogan, not “where parents want to bring their kids”. The bright flamboyant colors of Chuck E

Though it is a temporary solution, it’s one that can increase variety and draw in more children. Partnering with a popular brand may not help the brand over the long haul, but for entering a new geographic demographic, it can help bolster new sales and draw in new, hopefully long-term customers. Partnering with franchises like Five Nights at Freddy’s, which has amassed an incredible following in the past few years amongst children, could bring about special events and marketing to bring in those kids that think they’re “too old” for Chuck E Cheese. Chuck E Cheese already plans on getting rid of the animatronics, rather than scrap thousands of dollars, repurposing them for the partnership could increase service differentiation, and give a competitive advantage to Chuck E Cheese, giving them a unique experience when compared to the competition. The events could be once a month or saved towards October, but by proper viral marketing and social media marketing, could draw a huge buzz to the restaurants. Partnering with industry giants like Nintendo or Sony, Chuck E Cheese could get unique products placed in their restaurants, which would increase perceived value in their product, and could justify the fifty-dollar price tag on their most popular package. But such a solution would cost a lot of money and limit the freedom that Chuck E Cheese has with the IPs. With branching into a new