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Chick-fil-A stakes its web presence on glories of brand journalism

Chick-fil-A this week launched a new website that stakes the chain's all-important online future on the potential promotional benefits of content marketing, or what is sometimes referred to as brand journalism.

November 18, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Chick-fil-A this week launched a new website that pins the chain's online future on the promotional benefits of content marketing, or what is sometimes referred to as brand journalism. The new site, still stationed under the chick-fil-a.com address, revolves around the glory of the brand-enhancing story, according to a company press release.

Chick-fil-A's consumer research led it it down the increasingly well-trodden brand journalism path, where customer-related content and localized information for each visitor is key to the overall marketing approach.  This form of story-based, meta-marketing with a message first emerged in earnest at the start of this century and has grown ever more popular as presence of digital communication has grown in our lives. 

Chick-fil-A emphasizes that this new site is about the individual experience, and that focus begins on the landing page where a "multi-scroll" function allows site visitors to choose their path through the site and to select their local location. The site is also loaded with nutrition and allergen information, as well as "news you can use" items, including recipes customers can make using ingredients at home. Perhaps most revealing, though, is the site's focus on an embedded chain publication, The Chicken Wire, which a news release calls a first for the industry.

The well-branded publication offers the kind of features that work to build customer connections and a warm "we're-more-than-just-a-food-store" feeling and perhaps even a sense of brand ownership in customers. It features beautiful photography and feature stories about everything from the chain's employees and customers to those popular "behind-the-curtain" views at how the company and its individual sites operate. 

"From the beginning our team envisioned the new website as a digital extension of our restaurants where food and customer service are at the forefront of the experience," said Digital Communications and Content Strategy Manager Ashley Callahan. "That’s why the menu reflects what’s being served in restaurants at the time of day the user hits the site, as well the incorporation of rich textures and red accents recognizable from the architecture and design of our heritage locations. Our goal is to share stories and create meaningful moments with existing and potential customers.

"Our restaurants are often the setting for serendipitous moments where acts of human kindness inspire conversation," Callahan said. "So, while we use the site to give guests the information they need about our menu, ingredients and restaurants, we also want to offer them something a little unexpected, like access to acclaimed chefs, seasonal recipes they can make at home, and stories that inspire, like the documentary-style film of a high school student who bonds with a dementia patient through their love of art."  

Of course, as a national fast food chain, Chick-fil-A has has used its voice to talk to the world about issues that go well beyond eating chicken sandwiches. And its new website echoes that with sprinkling quootes from the company's well-known and often controversial founder,  S. Truett Cathy. Indeed, regarding the website and its operation on Sundays, the company said that like its stores the site will close on Sundays. It's not clear precisely what that means since the company also said it is planning special content for Sundays. 

"We found that while our online traffic dips on Sundays, the people who come to spend time with us on Sunday stay longer than those who visit during the hours we’re open," said Callahan. "Sunday stories are developed through the lens of 'providing a service,' meaning the pieces serve the reader’s time well by making them laugh at (the) new Sunday comic, Chicken Strips, inspire them to create a meal at home with friends and family, or dive into a long-format feature.” 

Future additions for the website include: 

• A meal nutrition calculator by year's end.
• More surprise appearances of the brand's cows. 
• An integrated e-commerce experience next year. 
• Localized content in certain markets at launch.

"This site is a hub for all things Chick-fil-A, and we’re not done," said the brand's project lead for the website relaunch, Kelsey Moore. "The site is a sophisticated platform that is both responsive and adaptive to create a premiere mobile experience, much like the new Chick-fil-A One app."
 

About S.A. Whitehead

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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.