If you’ve been on social media at all lately in the past few months you’ve probably heard of Popeyes newly introduced chicken sandwich and the playful jibes the chain has taken at the all powerful Chick-fil-A. What some are calling “The Great Chicken Sandwich War of 2019” has blown up into an incredible viral spectacle as a direct result of Popeyes marketing tactics and tweets aimed at Chick-fil-A. Popeyes direct attacks are a testament to Chick-fil-A’s dominance in the chicken fast-food category. With many other players in the space, it is clear that they picked Chick-fil-A for a reason. Chick-fil-A known for their classic chicken sandwich, recently became the third largest restaurant chain in America. For context, we will analyze the factors that have contributed to Chick-fil-A’s success. Then, we will explore how this unique marketing campaign, The Great Chicken Sandwich War of 2019, played out for both Popeyes and Chick-fil-A.

If there are two things that define Chick-fil-A as a restaurant, it’s their Chicken Sandwich and being closed on Sundays. Therefore, Popeyes recent choice to reintroduce their chicken sandwich on Sunday, November 3rd was a direct assault on the core of Chick-fil-A’s brand. The restaurant’s long-time slogan has been “We didn’t Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich.” This somewhat questionable slogan is supported by a narrative of how Truett Cathy, the patriarch and founder of the restaurant chain, crafted and popularized the chicken sandwich in 1964. The truth of this narrative has been debated and challenged, nonetheless, Chick-fil-A and its iconic chicken sandwich have continued to dominate the market.

Due to the fact that Chick-fil-A is still a privately held company, there are not annual and quarterly reports quantifying this dominance. However, there are third party estimates and other data points that allow us to get a sense for the restaurant chain’s success. According to QSR report in 2015, the restaurant chain generates more revenue per restaurant than any other fast-food chain in the United States. In 2014, the restaurant generated 3.1 million dollars of sales per location. For comparison, KFC only generate 960,000 of sales per restaurant. Keep in mind that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays, while other restaurants are open 7 days a week. Seemingly unaffected by the lacking day in sales each week, the restaurant chain has skyrocketed to the third largest restaurant chain in America according to Nation’s Restaurant and News data. The chain is also responsible for 27.9% of the market share in “fast food establishments that specializes in chicken,” making them a clear leader in the space. Analyst also note, that the chain has incredible room to grow, as it expands nationwide adding to its existing locations. So what defining characteristics warrant the restaurant chain’s success? Besides the food itself, many speculators point to the great service, values, franchise rules and selection process the restaurant prides itself in. To open a Chick-fil-A it costs the franchisee just $10,000, as Chick-fil-A supports the franchisee financially with almost all of the associated startup costs. The company is known for having a rigorous application/selection process getting almost 20,000 applications annually and only granting 75 to 80 franchisees annually. The company ensures that franchisees are in line with the restaurants mission and values, requiring them to work actively at their respective locations.

Beginning in August 2019, Popeyes officially decided to challenge Chick-fil-A’s iconic chicken sandwich in efforts to take up a larger portion of the fast-food chicken restaurant market share. Popeyes’ marketing choices, although simple and trite, proved to be wildly effective. On August 12, 2019, Popeyes launched its version of the Chicken Sandwich. The sandwich was incredibly similar to Chick-Fil-A’s - two golden buns, a fried chicken breast, and a few dill pickle slices. Its striking similarity to the “original chicken sandwich” prompted a brief twitter exchange between the two restaurants. All of a sudden, news outlets and social media were buzzing. Apex Marketing Group estimates that Popeyes received 65 million dollars worth of equivalent media in the brief two week period after the initial August 12th release of the sandwich. This estimated figure refers to the exposure the brand received related to its chicken sandwich over digital, print, social, TV and radio free of any cost to the firm.

So how did this viral buzz play out for the restaurant chain? The week of the launch, customers swarmed the 3,102 Popeyes locations worldwide according to the company’s 10k. At certain locations customers could be seen waiting in lines nearly an hour long to try the sandwich. According to Keybanc analyst Eric Gonzalez, on average Popeyes restaurant store traffic doubled. Gonzalez also concluded that the Sandwich was responsible for 30% of company sales during the 2 weeks following the sandwich’s launch. The amount of buzz and demand for the chicken sandwich exceeded management’s expectations. Supplies that were supposed to last the chain 7 weeks were completely expended within 2 weeks. On August 27, Popeyes locations around the country were no longer able to sell sandwiches, telling customers that the sandwich would “Be back soon.” CEO Jose Cil explained that the company “did not expect to break the internet.”

On October 28th, 2019 Popeyes hinted at the reintroduction of the sandwich through a humorous video posted company social media accounts . This video, which has accumulated millions of views, showcases a man placing an “open Sunday” under the Popeyes logo on a highway food sign. Right next to the logo on the same sign is Chick-fil-A’s logo which says “closed Sunday.” The sandwich was to be reintroduced at locations November 3rd, a Sunday nonetheless! This provided me with an opportunity to experience first hand, the Popeyes chicken sandwich craze.

On Sunday November 3rd, 2019 I took the 10 mile and 22 minute trek to my nearest Popeyes to see first hand if Chick fil-A had anything to worry about. After having tasted the sandwich myself, there is no doubt that Popeyes has produced a great product that certainly is deserving of praise. The Popeyes sandwich is priced at $3.99, the same as Chick-fil-A’s sandwich, but is noticeably meatier than its competition. As to which sandwich is “better,” well, I’ll leave you to be the judge. All in all, I don’t think Chick-fil-A has much to be worried about. But then again, Popeyes probably wasn’t even concerned with competing directly with Chick-fil-A in the first place. Through their tweets and marketing campaign they manufactured an unprecedented viral storm over a simple chicken sandwich.

Popeye’s new sandwich was not just a sandwich, but a representation of a fresh and new marketing movement. In my opinion, the wild success of this marketing campaign centered around simple Twitter banter will serve as a gold standard for modern marketing. Many companies have been scaling back more traditional advertising such as TV and Radio and investing more into digital marketing avenues for years. Although traditional forms of advertising still work, digital marketing avenues have proven to reach a wider audience more efficiently.There is nothing unique about the firm using social media to advertise. However, what makes this Popeyes campaign so unique is the personality and humorous narrative the company has built through its tweets. In a world where consumers are constantly digesting content, this playful and informal twitter banter built a narrative that stands out. This more raw, seemingly less procured, and unabashedly unapologetic advertising is more relatable and impressionable on a modern audience. “The Great Chicken War of 2019” showed us that a little bit of character and personality goes a long way. I expect that over time we will be seeing more of this relatable, informal, and humanizing social media marketing, enabling brands to better connect with the ever changing modern consumer.

Sources

Hendrix, Bernard. “Creating a Masterpiece.” Chick. Accessed November 5, 2019. https://thechickenwire.chick-fil-a.com/Inside-Chick-fil-A/Practice-MakesPerfect-Creating-the-Original-Chick-fil-A-Chicken-Sandwich. 1 2 3

Maynard, Micheline. “Popeyes Chicken Sandwich, Now A Sell-Out, Is A $65 Million Marketing Win.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, August 28,2019.https:// www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2019/08/28/the-popeyes-chicken-sandwich-now-sold-out-is-a-65-million-marketing-win/#1ab82c3379d6.

Foimbert. “Popeyes Sold an Estimated 1,000 Chicken Sandwiches a Day, Doubling Store Traffic.” CNBC. CNBC, September 9, 2019. https://www.cnbc. com/2019/09/09/popeyes-sold-an-estimated-1000-chicken-sandwiches-a-day-doubling-store-traffic.html.

Lucas, Amelia. “Popeyes Sells out of Its Chicken Sandwich in Less than a Month.” CNBC. CNBC, August 28, 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/27/popeyes-has-sold-out-of-its-chicken-sandwich-in-less-than-a-month.html.

YouTube. YouTube. Accessed November 5, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWkNyAQIPE.