Is Chick-fil-a Offering Free Chicken Sandwiches to Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Fans

Professional chefs bemoan chicken dishes. The late Anthony Bourdain famously classified chicken dishes as something that "…occupies its ubiquitous place on menus as an option for customers who can't decide what they want to eat." You can only do so much with chicken, and most of the time that involves slathering it in barbecue sauce or smothering it in cheese for people to eat.

You could say the same for fried chicken sandwiches. Put away your brand loyalty for a minute and look at the chicken sandwich– a fried chicken patty, some sauce to give it a bit of flavor, often a pickle slice or two, and a bun. There's only so many ways you can dress up a chicken sandwich to make it stand out. That's what makes Popeyes' chicken sandwich roll-out earlier this summer so impressive, as well as the follow-up release this past Sunday. Popeyes created a sandwich that is marginally different than the competition's, but it took no prisoners in its marketing approach, putting the sacred Chick-fil-a sandwich in the cross-hairs.

Now I first have to confess that I rarely eat fast food these days, it's one of the big reasons why I've lost about 40 pounds over the past 10-12 years. While I've made the decision to avoid fast food at pretty much all costs, not everyone else thinks the way I do. Americans love their fast food, and with America on the move in cars, fast food chains have had to revamp their business models over the past few years to accommodate an increasingly mobile population. And that last part is what makes Popeyes' late entry in to the fried chicken sandwich market so surprising.

Popeyes was founded by the rather eccentric (and barely law-abiding) Al Copeland in 1972. Looking to compete with the growing Kentucky Fried Chicken chain, the native Louisianan was looking for a Cajun twist to the bucket of chicken that became synonymous with Colonel Harland Sanders' product. By 1976, Popeyes was growing as a franchise, and I remember having one not too far from my home in Seffner, Florida, in the early 1980′s. Even though the Popeyes in nearby Brandon was further away than the other chicken restaurants, my dad loved Popeyes. I think he liked it more for the quirky sides like dirty rice and mashed potatoes with Cajun gravy than the chicken itself, but when you had to feed a family of five a bucket of chicken and sides went a long way. The Popeyes chain eventually bought out rival Church's, then quickly went bankrupt while operating both brands. By the summer of 2019, the chain had been under the control of Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the parent company of Burger King. While Popeyes had freshened up its brand as "fast Cajun", it was still outdated in serving buckets of chicken in a mobile hand-held society.

When he wasn't wrestling the law (or competitors), the late Al Copeland would have some fun with the "accidental" mascot of his fried chicken chain.

The history of Chick-fil-a is a little more well-known, and revered. First created in Hapeville, Georgia, as "The Dwarf Grill" by S. Truett Cathy in 1946, the familiar Chick-fil-a brand would debut in 1967. Unlike KFC, Church's, and later Popeyes, Chick-fil-a would avoid the chicken bucket and focus exclusively on the fried chicken sandwich. Cathy perfected an efficient cooking method of the sandwich, and for the next 50+ years a cult-like following to Chick-fil-a ensued as devoted fans would camp outside of store grand openings. But you can't get a sandwich on Sunday, as the devout Southern Baptist Cathy didn't open the doors to the business on the Sabbath. With only two recent exceptions, Chick-fil-a is still closed on Sundays.

As Chick-fil-a grew outside of its Southeastern influence, competitors such as McDonald's tried in vain to create a knockoff "Southern chicken sandwich" with mixed results. Other chains introduced or freshened up their fried chicken sandwiches to at least offer an alternative to Chick-fil-a. Popeyes mysteriously sat on the sidelines, but to their defense so has KFC for the most part. But a chicken sandwich was in the works, and Popeyes was ready to roll it out in the summer of 2019.

Now in the grand scheme of fast food restaurants, Popeyes is a little down the depth chart in popularity and sales nationwide. In the QSR Top 50 for 2018, Popeyes ranked #20, down from #19 in 2017. In the 2018 survey, KFC ranked #14, Chick-fil-a #5, and other operations with chicken sandwiches such as Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's ranked higher. So how does a chain that doesn't have much exposure nationally launch a new-to-them but standard menu item in the fast food world? Popeyes just needed to get under the skin of the competition… or the breading, if you will.

On the evening of August 12, 2019, Popeyes' advertising agency GSD&M tweeted out the warning shot:

Remarkably one week later, Chick-fil-a responded on Twitter:

Now why Chick-fil-a, the undisputed king of chicken sandwiches, needed to react to the scrappy Popeyes attempt at a chicken sandwich is unknown. But Popeyes got what it wanted– acknowledgement from the undisputed king of chicken sandwiches that there was a new chicken sandwich in town. Other chains such as Wendy's and McDonald's chimed in on Twitter too, but the tribalism of Chick-fil-a devotees vs. "everyone else" exploded on social media. Before you knew it, websites were reviewing the Popeyes sandwich, and cable news networks were having taste tests between the two sandwiches. Before Popeyes knew it, they were out of sandwiches in a matter of days.

But chalk up the exhaustion of product as a "good problem" for Popeyes. The social media fervor created a surprising over-the-top demand for the sandwich, a sandwich that was received well on merits of taste, but honestly it's just another chicken sandwich. But the market for a chicken sandwich has dramatically changed because of the tribalism of the Chick-fil-a fans, and the newly-created Popeyes chicken sandwich devotees. With the social media chicken sandwich wars and coverage on TV, radio, and the internet, Popeyes ended up getting an estimated $65 MILLION in FREE advertising during the weeks the sandwich was in stock. This also makes Popeyes extremely powerful– until they make the sandwich a regular menu item (which they reportedly will in the future), they CONTROL the chicken sandwich narrative. What took Chick-fil-a decades to create with their sandwich, or McDonald's with the McRib sandwich, Popeyes took over in a mere 2 ½ months.

So it should come to no surprise that Popeyes is feeling their… ahem… nuggets right about now. With the second roll-out of the sandwich, Popeyes decided to reintroduce it on November 3rd. November 3rd happened to be a Sunday, when Chick-fil-a isn't open. The gif of Popeyes sharing the news that you could get a fried chicken sandwich on a Sunday was seen by over 1 million viewers, retweeted nearly 9,000 times, with more than 35,000 likes. At certain locations, people waited upwards of 2 hours for a Popeyes chicken sandwich on a Sunday morning in November. Not too shabby for an otherwise ordinary sandwich.

As opposed to the August launch, the competition remained extremely silent. Chick-fil-a's Saturday post on Twitter was focused on chocolate chip cookies. The usually proactive Wendy's account hadn't tweeted anything out since October 26th. For Popeyes, that's how you know you've quickly conquered the landscape. What was first seen as an "oh that's cute, you've made a sandwich" stance has now become serious business.

Chick-fil-a was noticeably less inviting to Popeyes reintroducing their chicken sandwich on a Sunday.

Whether you eat the chicken sandwiches or not, I hope you've noticed you're living in a live lesson of how to (or not to) get involved in the PR fight. If you're a broadcaster or content creator, here are some of the things that stood out to me about the chicken sandwich battle that you can use in your strategy.

Have faith in your product: While I dismiss the Popeyes sandwich as just an ordinary sandwich because I rarely eat fast food, the people at Popeyes are extremely proud of their sandwich, and it shows. And they should be proud– four years of research and development went in to the sandwich, and even before all the hype started they knew they had something good. They didn't know it would be sellout-in-two-weeks good, but they felt it would be a hit. Despite Popeyes not being as big as Chick-fil-a or KFC, they believed this product was going to be big for them, and it exceeded their expectations as it became a game-changer for the chain as well as the chicken sandwich market. No matter what market you're in, or what level of the minor leagues you're working for, believe in what you're putting out there for the masses. Having faith in your material makes the surprise successes even sweeter.

Don't be afraid to take on the big boys: My first Brass Tacts column was all about having chutzpah, and there's no chutzpah like tweaking the big boys. I recall in my college radio days, we openly ripped the commercial stations in town because we thought we were better than them, and honestly in many ways we were. I experienced the same feeling when I started out at (then) 1250 WDAE. The station didn't have the broadcast rights to the NFL's Buccaneers, and the team was in its Super Bowl heyday, but the station staff worked hard to inform everyone we were "the home of the Buccaneers fans". We may not have had the broadcasts like the competition did, but we had the fans, and the quarterly ratings showed that. If you have faith in your content, and enjoy thumbing your nose at the competition, don't be afraid to throw that rock at Goliath.

For the big boys– don't acknowledge David: Again, Popeyes generated the equivalent of $65 MILLION  in free advertising. Had Chick-fil-a just ignored Popeyes on Twitter, there's a good chance the Popeyes sandwich would have had a moderately successful introduction. What's certain is there wouldn't be a "Popeyes side" in the chicken sandwich tribes, and Popeyes wouldn't control the narrative. While Chick-fil-a will likely be the undisputed king of the chicken sandwich, in fandom and sales, Popeyes controls the narrative. That's a lot of free space Popeyes is leasing in Chick-fil-a's head. The lesson learned for content creators is to make the adjustments you need to make to rebuff the competition, but never go head-to-head unless you're losing significant market share.

Don't be chicken! Visit SammonSez.com to see how we can work with you on crafting your individual broadcasting or content creation messages for the masses.

Is Chick-fil-a Offering Free Chicken Sandwiches to Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Fans

Source: https://mattsammonsez.tumblr.com/post/188835263899/brass-tacts-taking-on-sacred-cows

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