Marketing
Wendy's breakfast at 1 year: A QSR contortionist's story
All QSRs have had to do some maneuvering to adjust the realities of restaurant life during a pandemic. But the brand acrobatics have been particularly impressive at Wendy's over the last year, where the brand launched its breakfast re-entry just as COVID-19 slammed into the U.S. around this time last year.
January 28, 2021 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
When Wendy's was readying to launch its 2020 return to the breakfast daypart at the start of last March, most of leadership's concerns revolved around possible complications with weather in the wintery month and how the brand would attract customers' attention away from other fast food breakfast competitors. But then COVID-19 slammed into the U.S. and it became a whole different ballgame, according to Wendy's CMO Carl Loredo.
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| Wendy's Breakfast Baconator.(Wendy's) |
"Then in our messaging, it became less about not going to competitors, but (became) more of … 'Are you tired of what you have at home' for breakfast," Loredo said during a virtual Meet-and-Eat (a.k.a. press conference) Wednesday morning with reporters.
The dawn of the pandemic in America had taken would-be QSR breakfast consumers off the streets and — for a time at least — out of the drive-thrus. At that juncture, the brand's marketing team catapulted itself into quick-service contortionist mode, first listening to find out where customers were mentally amid the first days of the pandemic.
Then, (here's the contortionist part), flipping everything the team had planned on its head to speak specifically to those customers. What they learned is breakfast customers and potential customers all grew pretty weary pretty fast of that bowl of soggy cereal at home. It was a chance for the brand to capture customers in the morning daypart to engage with Wendy's through its drive-thrus and delivery as the sun rose daily.
Loredo said the acrobatics performed by teams across the organization to deliver on that promise of providing something worth leaving home for or at least ordering from home for, were truly impressive. Across Wendy's system, more resources were shifted to the drive-thru to meet demand. The timing of peak demand was moved from a previously anticipated 6:30 a.m. peak time period to a little later, to serve customers who were increasingly working from their residences.
The company ramped up its delivery partnerships from just one third-party provider in the beginning of last March to four providers today. Then, according to Wendy's Vice President of Culinary Innovation John Li, it became all about delivering on what customers were saying they wanted in their breakfast at a time of unforeseeable change nationally.
"They were looking for comfort," Li told reporters.
Butter + honey + maple syrup = comfort
In Wendy's lingo, "comfort" translated to things like real maple syrup, honey and butter, as well as croissants with the kind of lamination that authentic French croissants have. It also meant lots of thick-sliced Applewood-smoked bacon, fresh-cracked eggs, and, oh yeah, Hollandaise sauce. You know — that buttery-lemony delight you put on so many epic Saturday and Sunday brunch dish combinations.
"Why wait 'til Saturday or Sunday for a wonderful breakfast experience? …" Li asked reporters. "We wanted to have customers look (to Wendy's) to provide a better breakfast. … We are delivering comfort and better than the current (competing QSRs') offerings."
Comfort Wendy's-style was embodied in menu offerings like the QSR's Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit Combo Breakfast Baconator Sausage, Egg & Swiss Croissant and, of course, that early morning Frosty sibling, the Frosty-ccino.
Loredo said the brand also shifted its marketing to meet comfort-seeking homebound customers where they were by increasing customer engagement through gaming partnerships with Animal Crossing, MarioKart and Twitch, as well as via music through concert events, and, of course, lots and lots of morning-daypart digital offers.
The end-result, according to Loredo, was great success, though he refused to quantify that in terms of sales numbers, citing Wendy's upcoming quarterly earnings report on Feb. 24. Li did say, however, in response to a question from QSRweb, that the popularity of the brand's breakfast depends in some parts on the age and gender of the customer.
For instance, interestingly, Li said that the hands-down favorite for the 18 to 24 age group was that kicky caffeinated morning offering, the Frosty-ccino. For Gen X — which Li said he counts himself as one of — it was that honey butter chicken biscuit, which also happened to be his favorite breakfast offering.
For 18- to 35-year-old men, the Breakfast Baconator holds a special place in their hearts, while Baby Boomers prefer things with those down-home flavors, like the Maple Bacon Chicken croissant.
As for upcoming offerings on the breakfast menu at Wendy's, Loredo generally avoided providing any real specifics. He did, however, drop a hint that there may be some more spicy offerings enroute in the not-too-distant future. Vive the heat.
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
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