Operations

Wendy's design strategy: Mix it up to meet customers where they're at

Wendy's store design team has a new mantra: "Meet customers where they're at."

Wendy's NextGen store format is among at least a half-dozen store designs available to franchisees globally. (Photo provided)

May 13, 2021 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

While even Wendy's leadership would likely admit the brand cannot be all things to all people, the Ohio-based QSR is hoping its design strategy can put it solidly on track to be most things to current and future customers.

That was one of the main takeaways Wednesday from a virtual press conference with Wendy's Chief Development Officer and President of International Abigail Pringle. In her view, Wendy's remains unwavering in its brand-wide commitment to revolve all efforts firmly around its food, though she said the company has renewed its efforts to use design as a primary driver for that.

A Wendy's shipping container store in Guatemala. (Provided)

On the heels of its decidedly upbeat earnings results, released Wednesday morning, Wendy's leadership was clearly feeling the wind at their backs and anxious to tell the business press how the brand's design strategy would accelerate its success moving forward. Its plan for achieving those ends would, Pringle said, revolve around growing variety of store models, along with a widened playing field that, for instance, now extends Wendy's June re-entry into the U.K.-market after a 21-year absence.

Pringle's take on how all this forward-momentum was put in motion began more than a year ago when she said the pandemic-plagued restaurant landscape served to accelerate brand changes that had actually already begun. Chief amongst those changes was an industry- and brand-wide move to better meet the customer where ever he or she happens to be.

For Wendy's, Pringle said, that meant a systemwide shift to coalesce the physical stores with its digital presence.

"So COVID accelerated these changes that were already coming," she told reporters. "We're a restaurant business and it's all about the food so … how do we put the food at the heart of the experience. … We want to be where people are and then figure out how do we design for that. …

"Wendy's, historically, didn't do that. … But now that what's unlocked our growth."

Growing brand presence digitally, physically

As examples of how the brand is morphing itself to fit that kind of "any time, anywhere" mentality, she said Wendy's is much more focused on non-traditional business venues, including everything from city-based "Frosty carts" and outlets at military locations, to those inside zoos and school campuses.

"That's going to be a big part of our growth this year — around 30%," she said of the brand's non-traditional venue efforts.

A Wendy's "Frosty Cart."(Provided)

Pringle also told reporters that a lot of effort is being spent on ways the brand can merge its digital face with its physical spaces. Some of these initiatives focus on things that make life easier on the job for employees, like improved store "clean-ability" and easier modes of daily operation, all the way to improved store energy-use footprints and the inclusion of other store design elements that improve overall brand performance, like pickup zones. But she clarified that these efforts were not about workforce reduction, per se.

"We're definitely not planning on a reduction of labor through these designs, but how to reallocate and reuse our labor to enhance the customer's experience," she said, using as one example the presence of kiosks in stores to allow employees more opportunities to engage and assist diners, rather than simply processing their orders and payments.

In its earnings call Wednesday morning, Wendy's leadership stipulated the brand intends to grow to 8,000 stores (from 6,500) by 2025. Pringle said design will help achieve that end by acting as a "billboard" for brand growth both state-side and internationally.

As she put it, "Design is going to be an important enabler toward growth."

Wendy's "delivery only" store, dubbed a REEF Neighborhood Kitchen. (Provided)

Specifically, she said increased number of store design options ultimately meet the franchisee where he or she is at through venues like container stores, modular outlets, dark kitchens and even the drive-thru only stores being deployed now in the U.K., India and elsewhere. She said so-called "dark kitchens" or delivery-only stores — which actually look a little like food trucks — are also proving popular, particularly in larger cities where she said the QSR needs to be to meet demand.

All those franchise entry options, combined with incentive packages that encourage multi-unit deals, ensure there's success to be had for all parties in the Wendy's brand moving forward, Pringle said.

Or as she explained when asked about what most excites her about Wendy's future, "Bringing food to different access points conveniently, at an affordable price … and how design can play real role in expanding the brand."

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.