Food & Beverage
How the rise of the chicken sandwich lifts all QSRs
While QSR customers dearly love chicken sandwiches, QSRs themselves have reason to dearly love the little poultry packages, too.
May 27, 2021 by Jana Zschieschang — CMO, RMS
As a data analytics consultancy for the restaurant industry, we've carefully watched the launch of new chicken sandwiches over the past year in what has been dubbed the chicken sandwich wars and fought between brands seeking to benefit from the pandemic chicken craze. While sales of the chicken sandwich are a good metric of success, we also wanted to capture consumers' reactions. That's why we developed a survey that measured "chicken sentiment" — a combination of awareness, crave-ability and self-reported average spend.
We set a baseline, surveying 1,020 U.S. consumers in February (wave 1 in the figures below), asking questions such as, "When you are craving a hot chicken sandwich, which quick-service restaurant is your go-to?" The results showed that 90% of those surveyed visited a QSR at least once a month, and the majority visited multiple times per week.
We then asked the same questions in two surveys of 800 respondents each, first in March (wave 2) and then again in April (wave 3) to gain greater clarity around the entire subject over time.
So who is winning the chicken wars, according to consumer perception? Well, you could say all QSR brands or as we like to say, a "rising coop raises all chickens."
Our surveys showed that overall QSR frequency increased, especially among younger generations, throughout the three waves. In wave 1, 53% of Gen Z respondents reported visiting a QSR at least once a week, while in wave 3, that increased to 65%. And, the same trend occurred among millennials, with 63% visiting QSRs at least once a week in wave 1 and 72% in wave 3.
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In fact, the average frequency of chicken sandwich purchases also went up substantially for the Gen Z and millennial generations, according to survey results. For instance, the share of Gen Z respondents who reported at least one purchase a week jumped from 26% in wave 1 to 35% in wave 3. For millennials in wave 1, 35% reported a weekly chicken sandwich purchase; that percentage rose to 41% in wave 3.
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The hype seemed to improve overall awareness of chicken sandwiches, as well. For example, when those surveyed were asked, "Which of the following brands, to your knowledge, currently offer hot chicken sandwiches?" overall awareness of most major QSRs increased by as much as 8 percentage points.
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And with that "rising coop," some brands landed on top
You could also argue that there was a clear winner in all this passion for poultry in Chick-fil-A. For example, the brand's awareness rose from 75% in wave 1 to 82% in wave 3. Likewise, Chick-fil-A managed to maintain its spot as the most crave-able chicken sandwich in all three waves, even without an expensive product launch.
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But McDonald's might also get a nod in this respect. The brand has enjoyed a steady increase in crave-ability since it launched three new chicken sandwiches in February. (LINK) When examining the data by region, it took the top spot from Chick-fil-A in the Midwest, although Chick-fil-A did maintain its top ranking in the South, West and Northeast. But it's worth noting that McDonald's did manage to increase its overall crave-ability percentages in each of those regions in the surveys -- coming second in the Northeast and West, and third in the South after Popeyes.
As feathers fly, 1 question remains …
So the war continues, but on that topic, it's worth asking whether it really is a "war" or in fact, just a battle. And as such, we should also ask whether all this hype around the chicken sandwiches will really end up having much effect long term.
Take the fact, for instance, that overall, respondents said they spent the same on chicken sandwich meals from Waves 1 to 3, even though the market was offering an increasing number of premium chicken sandwich offerings. In fact, two-thirds reported they spent less than $6 on average for a QSR chicken sandwich meal. The average spent on a chicken sandwich meal also remained less than what respondents recalled paying for a burger meal.
Yet 2021 QSR sales remain up 4% in Q1 compared to the same period in 2019 and stood at 5% by the end of March 2021. Now, as restrictions ease and even more options become available to consumers, one has to ask whether diners will stay with their ol' tried-and-true chicken sandwiches, or if, instead, they might start replacing them with other long-missed-out-on menu items? At this point, you might say, that's a chicken and egg dilemma.
Note: All graphs provided
About Jana Zschieschang
