Selling Chickens

I used to tell my family that I eat chicken about 10 times a week, which was true. In the last few years, since becoming a married man again, I've cut down to about 6 or 7 times a week. However I'm not the reason places like KFC are stagnant, read this from Brandweek:

Big Chicken Chains Expand Their Range

March 30, 2008 By Eric Newman

It's getting hot in the chicken coop. Feeling the pressure from McDonald's and Burger King, which have successfully added poultry options to their menus, many of the leading fast food chicken chains have responded with new ads and products.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is leading the charge. Last week, it announced it is testing Kentucky Grilled Chicken in six cities with a national debut expected next year. Late last month, it scrapped a four-year-old ad campaign in favor of a new one, themed, "Life Tastes Better with KFC." The chain also launched a chicken wrap to compete with McD's successful Snack Wrap.

KFC's sales were down 1.2% last year, per Technomic, Chicago. KFC's share, $5.14 billion, represents about a third of the chicken category, which has been stagnant for the past three years.

"KFC's menu is evolving to meet the changing needs of customers who are looking for a wide variety of great tasting foods," said KFC rep Rick Maynard. "We're confident offering grilled chicken will help bring in new customers who are looking for nonfried options."

A TV campaign running in two of the test markets, via DraftFCB, Chicago, shows construction workers adding "& Grilled" to the KFC logo. KFC is owned by Yum! Brands, Louisville, Ky. KFC and others are suffering because of their limited menus and fried nature of the foods, said Ron Paul, Technomic's president. "If you look back over the past five years, you see so much more growth in other sectors, like breakfast, and they're stuck with a narrow product offering."

No. 2 Chick-fil-A has been battling back by pushing its breakfast menu. The company just wrapped a campaign, in which its spelling-challenged cow characters donned pajamas and carried placards with messages including: "Chikin 4 Brekfust Ever Dawn On U" and "Add Chikin 2 Yer Morning Rooteen." It's morning menu offers a chicken biscuit and a sausage biscuit, plus other items. "It's a great way to expand the business," said Mark Baldwin, a rep for the Atlanta-based chain. "We see a huge opportunity to gain even more additional customers." It appears to be helping, as sales grew 16% in 2007 to $2.64 billion, per Technomic.

This week, No. 3 Popeye's will roll out its "Bonafide" campaign, a reference to their hand-battered bone-in chicken. Ads from Blum Enterprises, New York, also stress its use of fresh products and seasonings. Tag: "Change your chicken. Get bonafide."

New CMO Dick Lynch wants its bone-in chicken to be viewed as the Popeye's equivalent of the Big Mac. "There's such sameness in the [chicken] chains and this was something different," he said. "Popeye's, while feeling overall pressures from other quick-service restaurants and burger chains, is emphasizing and building on its culinary distinctiveness." Lynch became CMO in March after serving as a consultant since November. Popeye's spent $37 million on media last year, excluding online, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. It saw a 3.8% lift in sales last year to $1.6 billion.

Meanwhile, No. 6 El Pollo Loco, a West Coast regional chain that primarily features grilled chicken options and Mexican food, has revamped its campaign. Departing from its "Grill Master" effort of the past four years, it launched its "May I Fool You?" initiative, per Krueger Communications, Venice, Calif., earlier this year. It features a generic fast food chain cashier attempting to trick consumers into thinking its products are healthy. Tag: "You can't fake taste."

"Chicken is clearly the protein of choice and it's where a lot of the growth for our burger competitors is coming from," said Karen Eadon, CMO of El Pollo Loco, Costa Mesa, Calif. "Our competitors were making claims [about their products] that were patently untrue. It made us feel the need to unmask the truth and highlight how our product is truly a healthy product without any tricks of language." El Pollo Loco sales grew 17% in 2007 to $618 million, per Technomic.

Despite these efforts, the chains may still face uphill battles from competitors that wield not only a larger number of locations, but also much larger advertising, said Jeff Davis, president of restaurant marketing consultancy Sandleman & Associates, San Clemente, Calif. "McDonald's improved their perception," he said. "They spend a ton of money, but they're also saying the right things." McD's, by the way, will soon debut a chicken sandwich on its breakfast menu.

Davis added that many of the "chicken chains are getting better at addressing the consumer." For example, KFC's current nationwide campaign for its toasted wraps is "really on target and hitting a younger consumer."

enewman@brandweek.com

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