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Chick-fil-A/Popeyes chicken war yanked August business away from other QSRs

With the feathers settled on August's Chick-fil-A/Popeyes chicken sandwich face-off, the data has started to come in and it doesn't look great for other QSR brands.

Photos: iStock.

September 17, 2019

The feathers have flown in August's QSR chicken sandwich war between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A and new data shows the losers may have been the innocent bystanders in this particular battle in that other QSRs showed a corresponding drop in traffic amidst the beak-to-beak face-off between the two chicken-centered brands. 

Gravy Analytics studied location data generated by consumer mobile devices to measure the effects that might have occurred during the social media standoff between Chick-fil-A and Popeyes that started about a week after Popeyes launched its wildly popular spicy chicken sandwich on Aug. 12. The following week, a Chick-fil-A tweeted about its own chicken sandwich offering triggered a reply from Popeyes that said simply, "Y'all okay?" 

From that the madness ensued, as the tweet went viral and set off a consumer social media debate over whether Popeyes or Chick-fil-A really had the better chicken sandwich. As a result, Gravy Analytics found that Chick-fil-A foot traffic soared 16.5% higher from Aug. 12-31 over the previous two weeks of July 22-Aug. 11, Gravy Analytics reported. 

For that same period — coinciding with the introduction of its spicy chicken sandwich — Popeyes traffic grew 14.2%, peaking at 73% above average on Aug. 24. But Gravy noted in its report that Popeyes lift didn't really start in earnest until after their viral "Y'all okay?" tweet on Aug. 19. But, as we all know now, Popeyes sold out of the popular LTO and foot traffic showed a corresponding drop-off. 

"Who knew that chicken sandwiches would create such a firestorm on social media this summer?" asked Gravy Analytics CEO Jeff White in an email.

The battle's collateral QSR damage

The hubbub between the two chicken QSRs, however, left the remaining players in the chicken category with little to squawk about. Across the category foot traffic overall was down 1%, even with all the online chicken chatter which seems to have done little to inspire visits to brands offering their own renditions of the favored poultry item. In short, Gravy Analytics said that the increased Chick-fil-A and Popeyes foot traffic came at the expense of other restaurants in the space.

In fact, during the same period KFC saw its foot traffic plummet 12% from Aug. 12-31, compared to the prior 20 days. And across the chicken category — after removing Chick-fil-A, KFC, and Popeyes foot traffic — Gravy Analytics found foot traffic fell 11%.

Gravy Analytics CEO Jeff White offered this advice for brands hoping to get a piece of the action when a similar tete-a-tete arises between brands in the same category:

"To other QSR brands looking to get in on the action: Join in the game instead of watching from the sidelines," he said in an email. "Use social to stress that you are open, have plenty of chicken sandwiches, and happy servers at the ready. Then leverage location data to determine which people are prime for conquest marketing and watch sales take off."

Or better yet, be one of the brand's involved in the show. Gravy found that overall in August, Chick-fil-A's share of restaurant chicken category fast food visits in August grew to 31%, up from 28% the month prior. Popeyes saw its share of visits grow about half, the company said.