After 56 years of relying a lot on the intuition of corporate staff and local franchise owners to shape its menu and promotions, Wyoming-born Taco John's is turning to big data to understand its customers better — and specifically to cut into rival Taco Bell's youth market share.
The Cheyenne-founded quick service restaurant chain — don’t call it “fast food” — recently announced a partnership with Bikky, a New York City-based data analysis firm that's making a name for itself among chain restaurants.
The move comes as the company, which began as a small taco stand in the late-1960s before two local businessmen bought the franchise rights in 1969, seeks to blend its uniquely spiced institutional knowledge with modern analytics.
"We have franchisees that have been with us for 50 years and they know the brand extremely well," said Kevin Flaherty, chief marketing officer at Taco John's, who joined the company in October 2024 after eight years at MOD Pizza. "But as times change, we have to evolve alongside our guests."
While the Bikky partnership offers the latest in customer data analytics, Taco John's has long been focused on understanding its customers, according to Renée Middleton, a former head of marketing for the company who now serves as executive director of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Foundation.
"We employed companies that did the same thing. We did research," Middleton said. "We hired people to do research in specific communities sometimes to get some ideas about what was going on. Even the marketing people in the office went and did some customer intercepts and our own research, too."
Those customer intercepts involved posting up in parking lots with clipboards or approaching diners mid-meal.
"I've gone around into the dining room and talked with customers while they were eating," Middleton recalled.
Not all that research led to success. Middleton remembers the failed launch of the Super Taco Bravo, which automatically included sour cream in the chain's popular Taco Bravo product.
"Customers were telling us in research that they really truly liked the idea of having specifically a Super Taco Bravo, which included sour cream without them having to order it," Middleton said. But the company hadn't done its research with franchisees, who "just were not happy about it because they liked being able to upsell."
The product created a split between franchisees who pushed add-on sales and those who didn't, and loyal Taco Bravo customers were divided on the change. The situation escalated from there.
"We ended up pulling the Super Taco Bravo as a product that we advertised," Middleton told Cowboy State Daily. "Live and learn."
Data Vs. Old Assumptions
The partnership with Bikky aims to transform how Taco John's makes strategic decisions, according to recent press statements.
"The biggest thing we're doing with Bikky is removing the emotion from discussions about the brand," Flaherty said.
Bikky's data has already challenged some long-held assumptions. The analytics revealed that many locations serve far more new guests than operators expected, flipping conventional wisdom and helping the brand reorient its acquisition strategy, according to Bikky.
The data also saved a fish taco promotion from getting tossed overboard prematurely.
Remember the Alaska Flounder Fish Tacos? The flounder came, “dusted with a crispy, seasoned batter, drizzled with their new Fiesta Sauce, then topped with shredded lettuce and Pico de Gallo, all wrapped in a warm flour tortilla.”
As the marketing materials insisted, “There may be other fish in the sea, but nothing compares to Taco John’s Alaska Flounder Fish Tacos — and they’re back.”
When the limited-time offer for flounder tacos was being considered for removal, Bikky's analytics revealed it was actually a strong driver of new guests, leading the brand to continue the promotion.
"We're trying to reinvent our menu from a quality equation," Flaherty explained. "Now we have visibility into which items don't bring guests back and which do."
Taco Bell Factor
When asked about competing with Taco Bell, Middleton said: "Yes, we always looked at Taco Bell and how they did business and yes, they did attract a younger consumer. Part of it was because they had a lower price point than we did. But we also felt that we had a quality product."
Lindsay Stilwell, whose family has long operated Taco John’s franchises across Wyoming, won’t call out Taco Bell by name, but she did acknowledge this national chain as a key competitor.
In 2026, Stilwell said her family will celebrate 50 years of operating Taco John's franchises.
“Market research has shown that our demographic has always been a little older than the younger crowd,” Stilwell told Cowboy State Daily.
As for the new Bikky partnership, Stilwell said, “I would hope that would give us a better insight into how to reach people — maybe in a way that we haven't been able to in the past.”
Innovation from Unexpected Places
Data wizards in New York City are now helping Taco John’s better understand customer behavior and preferences, but local franchise owners in Wyoming also work with high school students studying the culinary arts.
Stilwell recalled a culinary program in Glenrock where high school students would come into the local Taco John's to create and test new products.
"I want to say the stuffed grilled taco came from that program. One of the kids from the Glenrock High School was kind of the one that came up with that stuffed grilled taco idea," Stilwell said.
Middleton confirmed the story: "I'm pretty sure that the idea started there. Lindsay and her mom, Lori probably gave it to Taco John's and then we put it in our test kitchen and we did a more formal development of it."
Local Knowledge Meets Big Data
For the Stilwell family, the data-driven approach represents an evolution rather than a revolution in understanding customers.
"Having the businesses in small communities like we have has given us probably a leg up in that sense that we have more of an intimate relationship with our customers," Stilwell explained. "Learning what they like and what they don't like, having so many regular customers all the time that come and see us.”
Bikky's customer data platform, according to marketing materials, has driven success for other chains.
According to Bikky, MOD Pizza saw its “customer visibility” increase eight-fold, with the chain gaining insights into ordering patterns and promotion effectiveness that the 540-location chain previously lacked.
Mellow Mushroom, despite having thousands of customers on franchisee email lists, discovered they knew almost nothing about these guests until Bikky helped them correlate location performance with factors like employee turnover and customer feedback, while also identifying price-sensitive segments for targeted promotions, reported Bikky.
Another success story comes from Tiki Taco, which achieved a 15 percent year-over-year same-store sales increase after using Bikky to identify their highest-frequency guests and the menu items driving retention. "Every restaurant brand succeeding in today's digital-first world understands that an investment in their technology is the same as an investment in their customers," said Bikky CEO Abhinav Kapur.
What exactly will Bikky do for Taco John’s? The Stilwell family will be watching as they open a new Taco John’s in Casper.
Lindsay Stilwell said she and her husband bought the Fort Saloon N' Eatery on F Street in Casper, demolished it, and are building a new Taco John's on the site, set to start serving in spring 2026.
Will younger, perhaps Taco Bell-leaning customers show up to the new TJ’s in Casper?
“The future of all business and everything in our country are these generations to come,” Stilwell told Cowboy State Daily. “I think we would want to find a better way to reach into a demographic that hasn't been our strong suit in the past.”
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
