Menu Engineering Basics
Menu engineering looks at two dimensions: popularity and contribution margin. Crossing them gives stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs, each with a different action: promote, reprice or reduce cost, rework, or remove.
The four quadrants
High popularity and high margin are stars; high popularity and low margin are plowhorses; low popularity and high margin are puzzles; low both are dogs.
Use actual sales and margin data, not intuition.
What to do
Feature stars and keep them consistent; reprice or reduce cost on plowhorses; reposition or rewrite puzzles; remove or rework dogs.
Change one or two variables at a time and observe for two to four weeks.
FAQ
How do I define high popularity?
Use average or median sales as the cutoff; calculate within categories.
Must dogs be removed?
Not always; if it drives traffic or pairs well, keep it but rework or limit it.