Marketing Strategy : Chick Fil

The company of restaurants started in 1946 when Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant in Georgia. They are credited with inventing the Chick-Fil-A’s boneless breast of chicken sandwich. In the 1960’s, he pioneered the opening of the restaurant in different malls in Atlanta. It has grown to become the largest quick service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on their domestic annual sales and with over 1900 branches countrywide. The restaurant is privately held and family owned and has been progressing in the delivery of exclusive services to all their customers. The mission of the restaurant is to give identity and value to their clients and the vision is to be America’s best service quick restaurant.

According to Chick-Fil-A’s website, they have no intention of going global at this time. There geographic segmentation is to expand with in the United States, primarily focusing on the Southeastern U.S. (Chickfila2, 2016). Chick-Fil-A holds 20% of the market share in chicken restaurants and has a target audience of females between the ages of 18-44 who live in a Southern region of the U.S (Meister et al., 2012). The women are mostly made up African American, Asian and 11% who have children more likely to eat at Chick-Fil-A over their competitors (Meister et al., 2012). Additionally, their new target market is families who enjoy spending time together

Several marketing strategies are in place that set Chick-fil-A apart from the competitors. One of their key marketing strategies which is their well-known slogan, “Eat Mor Chikin”, they first introduced this June 1995 their first billboard stood in Atlanta with the eat more chicken cows, (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2014, p. 591). It is one of the longest-running and one of the most successful advertising campaign in the United States (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2014, p. 591). This slogan was created to entice customers to move away from the typical hamburger fast-food restaurant, and attempt something different from a strictly chicken restaurant. Some of the aspects of marketing strategies that are used by Chick-fil-A are not incredibly different than any other fast food restaurant in America. However, what does separate them is their Christian based beliefs. Chick-fil-A’s approach as a faith based and a giving company that strives to support our communities through charity. Some of the impressive opportunities that Chick-fil-A offers are it assists thousands of employees with fostering children, has a scholarship foundation set up called the WinShape Foundation established in 1984 to “shape winners” quoted from the video “Eat Mor Chikin” (Except on Sunday).

I learned about the Chick-fil-A Franchise Opportunity through my own personal research. I began to research an opportunity with Chick-fil-A when I purchased my home in Elgin and found myself driving to Austin to enjoy Chick-fil-A with my children every Saturday.

Chick-fil-A is a restaurant that will have you coming back for seconds with the whole family. Here, customers are acted on with hospitality and are given the best service the workers can provide. Unlike many fast food restaurants around, the workers have to be kind and pleasant when it comes to the consumers.

1. Franchisees gain numerous advantage when they purchase a franchise. First, while a franchisee may be opening a new store, it is part of an already established business and system. This means a franchisee has access to turnkey operations, allowing an increased speed to establishing and growing the business. Franchisees also get support for management and training activities, as well as financial assistance. Going hand in hand with this, a franchise already has an established brand name, quality of goods and service which have been standardized across the franchisor’s larger company, and national advertising programs from franchisors. Franchises also have large-volume, centralized buying power. A franchise has proven products, and

Chick-Fil-A is an American food restaurant franchise having its head office in Georgia, USA. The company was established in 1946 and has gradually entrenched itself in the American food industry as a cultural icon in the Southern United States for its specialty in preparation of chicken sandwiches. Chick-Fil-A prides itself for the establishment of over1690 branches located within the United States alone as well as its economic contribution to the larger part of Western America and California. It realized sales of around $4.6 billion in 2012, which reflected a 14 percent increase over the overall performance experienced in the previous year by the chain while the same-store sales performance increased by 8 percent. In Houston, Texas, the greatest performer realized a 7.2 million total gross sales in 2012. Chick-Fil-A uses a significantly distinct model, notable in the retention of the ownership of each restaurant since its acquisition. Chick-Fil-A selects the most suitable restaurant location, undertakes its construction, then takes over its ownership. Chick-Fil-A requires a payment of only a $5,000 as capital to become an owner of their branch while its rival franchises pay almost $2 million. The company receives over 15, 000 submissions annually from interested franchise operators for the available 70 slots. Chick-Fil-A receives a bigger allocation of income in comparison to other chains amounting to $190,000 per year. Chick-Fil-A’s solid mission statement and its

The target market will include residents living in the Grovetown/Harlem area and also the army base, Ft. Gordon located approximately 2 miles from the Gate 2 Grovetown entrance. Military personnel make up the vast majority of residents living in the Grovetown area. Ft. Gordon also serves as a training base for new soldiers coming into service so there is a large market segment being targeted. Ft. Gordon only has a Blimpe’s, Popeye’s, Burger King, Godfather’s pizza, Chinese, and Huddle House. Based on the current market, Chik-fil-a will have a huge competitive advantage. With sickness rapidly attacking the bodies of young and older adults healthier alternatives are taken into consideration. Exercise with a combination of healthier diets is now a priority of much of America. Chik-fil-a will be one of the healthier alternatives that Grovetown will welcome hole-heartedly. What’s better than to start your morning with a custom cup of coffee and a low calorie breakfast sandwich? Adding the franchise here will attract morning employees heading to work, 3rd shift workers heading home from work, and many customers in between are most likely to choose Chick-fil-A over McDonald’s and Subway on any given day.

Chick-fil-A competitive advantage is their religious belief that they implement in their business decisions such as being closed on Sunday’s. Many religions see Sunday as the Sabbath. Sabbath meaning resting day. The Bible states, “The Sabbath is commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as God rested from creation” (Exodus 20:8 The Old Testament). Even though Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday’s they make more being opened 6 days a week then their competitor KFC make being open 7 days a week (Peterson, 2015).

Today, Chick-fil-A is a family owned business and has over 1900 branches all over the United States and compose a net worth of $7 billion. According to Speigiel (2014), “In 2013, Chick-fil-A made over $5 billion in revenue, up from 4.6 billion in 2012.” In 2014, sales for the company had reached over $6 billion, creating a fast-food restaurant that is completely different amongst its competitors. In fact, its closest competitor is the Yum Brands, Inc the owner of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. An article in Business Insider entitled, “ The 15 Fastest-Growing Retailers in America” had the company ranked at number 10 with a 13 percent sales growth since 2011 (2012). The rapid success of the popular southern restaurant has led to company opening its first store in New York City. According to Kuafman (2015), the restaurant will be located at New York University at 1000 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan’s Herald Square. The new

The major competitor to be outlined is Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A provides customer delight and satisfaction which is the company’s competitive advantage. Chick-Fil-A has created innovative dining experiences focused on building meaningful relationships with their consumers. Implementation of new services such as “Moms Valet’ has had positive impacts on the customer experience.

Chick-fil-A is one of the most recognizable fast food chains in America. Operating over 1,250 locations in 37 states and Washington, D.C., Chick-fil-A was founded in 1967 in an Atlanta, Georgia shopping center. The company is widely known for their famous “Eat Mor Chikin” advertising campaign which feature cows attempting to convince restaurant goers to switch to eating more chicken, ideally at Chick-fil-A restaurants. This theme has also introduced different marketing material such as clothing, merchandise, and calendars containing coupon offers. It has even won a national silver EFFIE award for its creativity and effectiveness in advertising. These advertisements have helped to drive Chick-fil-A in becoming a national brand. The company is a unique in many. What sets it apart from its competition is the way it surpasses industry norms through its balance between financial performance and ethical values.

It has its advantages and disadvantages to franchise the business. It is a careful decision to make for anyone to invest a lot of money into a franchise and everyone should be comparing pros and cons.

However, although in the established franchise context this statement may be true, it is not always the case. Start-up, less established and more innovative franchises are

♦ Reliance on franchising "associate" stores and opening a few new company-owned stores as a means of expanding nationally and internationally. However, franchise licenses were granted only to candidates who have experience in multi-unit food establishments and who possess adequate capital to finance the opening of new stores in their assigned territory.