- McDonald’s is confronting the warning of Chick-fil-A head on with a new crispy chicken sandwich.
- The fast food chain is testing the Crispy Chicken Sandwich in Knoxville, TN and Houston, Texas until January 26th.
- But McDonald’s has an uphill fray to fight Chick-fil-A on its own turf. Plus, the chicken sandwich wars are about more than chicken.
McDonald’s has entered the ravel of the chicken sandwich wars. After Popeyes Chicken flexed sales of “The Sandwich” on Twitter this August, Chick-fil-A responded with a tweet touting sweet “for the original.”
Then Popeyes fired the shot heard ’round the world (of chicken sandwiches):
Chick-fil-A admirers cried foul. A salty war of words ensued between fans of the rival chicken fast food chains. Talk isn’t tatty. Apex Marketing Group estimated Popeyes received $23.25 million in free advertising from the spat.
McDonald’s Connects Chicken Sandwich Wars
Let’s put the chicken sandwich wars in perspective. Last year Netflix’s gains topped $15 billion. Chick-fil-A’s revenues were over $10 billion. That puts this make available rivalry on par with the streaming wars.
Chick-fil-A’s growth over the last decade is a major threat to McDonald’s. The chicken sandwich fetter is now a Top 5 U.S. restaurant concept behind Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and of course, McDonald’s.
A group of McDonald’s franchisees send a lettered in a July letter:
A favorite, that our customers want, is a chicken sandwich. Unfortunately, they have to go to Chick-fil-A for it.
The despatch continues:
Chick-fil-A’s results demonstrate the power of chicken. Yes, we have great Chicken McNuggets and our McChicken is a very integrity product. But we do not compete in the premium chicken sandwich category.
But it’s more than chicken power driving Chick-fil-A’s noteworthy results. It’s the power of a crisp brand, better customer service, and strong customer loyalty.
Here are five percipiences McDonald’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich will be no match for Chick-fil-A as the billion dollar chicken sandwich wars unwind:
1. Chick-fil-A has more loyal customers
Chick-fil-A’s real secret ingredient is its dedication to the customer. Consumers rank it the top accelerated food brand for creating emotional engagement and loyalty in Feb 2019. It lead the industry in customer satisfaction in another den last year. If you’ve ever been to Chick-fil-A these results are not surprising.
Their employees are exceedingly competent and loving. They say, “It’s my pleasure,” to customers who say, “Thank you.” They call customers by name, unlike McDonald’s where employees telephone your ticket number.
Chick-fil-A employees are actually trained to be “aggressively courteous.”
McDonald’s advertises, “I’m loving it,” but their conduit chicken competitor’s employees actually love-bomb their customers every day.
2. And focuses on employee quality
Maybe that’s also because their staff members actually love working there more. Chick-fil-A seems to have a more tender heart for its workers.
The ordinarily pay of a Chick-fil-A worker is $10.27, to McDonald’s average worker pay of $9.80. (Both beat the industry average of $8.53.)
The chicken hawker’s women also rate it higher than the burger joint’s employees on perks and benefits, gender equality, and workplace distinctiveness.
3. McDonald’s cups turn off customers
A small matter like better cups can make a big difference. Soft jigger sales are a massive money maker for the fast food business. McDonald’s $1 soda promotion in 2017 was a big approach for consumers. But the cups matter too.
McDonald’s switch away from foam cups to recyclable paper and plastic is hurting sales in the South where the chicken contention fightings rage hottest. Earlier this year Southeast franchises reported hundreds of thousands of dollars lost to contenders’ foam cups.
They say customers prefer the better insulated foam cups. In hotter climates, the foam cups really sweat less. Operators have even reported customers bringing in their own foam cups, or competitors’ cups.
4. Chick-fil-A’s Unparalleled Brand
It’s not just the crispy, buttery, perfectly-spiced chicken goodness that Chick-fil-A’s customers love. They affection the brand.
Not opening on Sundays is powerful brand differentiation. It was something odd that made the Atlanta-based chain famous in the first place.
It’s an pattern of what Dot Com era marketing guru Seth Godin calls (ironically enough), “A Purple Cow.” That’s anything astounding about a brand that creates word of mouth advertising.
It shows the fast food chain cares around its employees more than chasing profits one more day out of each week. And it also builds desire for the product by limiting its availability.
That’s one of the oldest sales engineering: the take away. “Sorry, you actually can’t have this product you want. It’s not available. See you Monday.”
5. McDonald’s Can’t Chicken
Let’s finance it real though.
The chicken sandwich wars are about the chicken too. The test runs in Houston and Knoxville are where the rubber uncommonly meets the road.
McDonald’s has taken fire for a supply chain that breeds chickens so unnaturally large they can’t footpath and develop heart disease. The product suffers as much as the bird. Chick-fil-A uses smaller, more tender chickens.
And in contrast with McDonald’s, Chic fil A chicken is never frozen, and raised with no antibiotics. And it tastes so zesty because it’s tenderized in a pickle liquid bath.
McDonald’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich doesn’t stand a chance.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.