Marketing Strategy and SWOT Analysis of Chick-fil-A

It is important to enjoy food as you’re eating it. It has to be delicious and mouth-watering for you to be excited about it. With that being said, there is this awesome and huge American fast food restaurant, Chick-fil-A specialized in chicken sandwiches. It is a huge restaurant chain that has branches in not only 47 states in America, but also in other countries as well, such as the UK and Canada. Overall, this company owns about 2672 restaurants. Predictably, in this blog, we are going to discuss the marketing tricks that the mentioned company has used and continues to use that have brought it that much success.

Let’s start the discussion by introducing and analyzing the mission and vision statements of the company.

“To be America’s best quick-service restaurant at winning and keeping customers”.

This is the mission statement.

So, this tells us that there are a few goals that Chick-fil-A has in mind. It is not only to get more customers and receive income but to also make sure that the consumers are happy enough with the offered goods that they remain coming back.

Even though Chick-fil-A is a quick-service restaurant, the ingredients that it uses for its food are pretty healthy. This enables good care and attention towards clients, thus also customer loyalty.

Lastly, this company wishes to become America’s best, which is not only an honest approach but an admirable one. This has been the ultimate goal ever since the founding of the establishment.

“To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A”.

And that right there is the vision statement.

There is an incorporation of a religious aspect in the statement which is a bold move considering that different people have varied beliefs.

But as Christianity offers, it is always important to be fair and stay true to certain values. Chick-fil-A stays committed to those values with its astonishing service.

Also, this company wants to offer a good experience for anybody that has an encounter with it. This approach makes Chick-fil-A one of the most demanded organizations in America.

Now, let’s try to understand the positioning strategy that Chick-fil-A uses.

To make it possible, we suggest taking a look at the following Instagram post.

In the photo, we can see a Chick-fil-A employee with a big smile on her face. She is simply doing her job which is self-explanatory in the context of this picture. But then it is not until we read the caption when we are faced with a surprise.

The woman in the photo has been working at the company for fifteen years. That is one-fifth of a lifetime!

It’s also mentioned in the caption that for her it’s the little things that matter, such as a good workday filled with good emotions, and accompanied by great co-workers.

With this post, Chick-fil-A is trying to help people enter its world and look at it from a different perspective, a worker’s point of view. This is a way to create relatability and connection.

It is a way of treating everybody as part of one big community. That, and the whole empathetic and equal approach commonly used by the company, make it evident that the archetype that Chick-fil-A belongs to is the Everyman.

Into the bargain, let’s see what we know about the Everyman archetype.

Desire: connection with others.

Aim: to belong, fit in.

Strategy: develop ordinary solid virtues, the common touch, blend in.

The messaging levels of the archetype are the following.

Level one: loneliness, alienation.

Level two: the orphan, feeling abandoned and alone, seeking affiliation.

Level three: the joiner, learning to connect, fit in, accept help and friendship

Level four: the humanitarian, believing in the natural dignity of every person regardless of his or her abilities or circumstances

The Everyman archetype provides a good identity for brands:

• Whose use helps people belong or feel that they belong
• Whose function is something used commonly in everyday life
• With pricing that is moderate to low (or that is an upscale version of a product that would be ordinarily inexpensive)
• Produced or sold by a company with a down-home organizational culture
• That want to differentiate themselves positively from a higher-priced or more elitist brand

Next, let’s look into the SWOT analysis of Chick-fil-A.

Strengths

Service: When it comes to fast-food restaurants, they are usually self-served. However, for this company, it’s different. It has exceptional customer service which is different and uncommon for its specific category.

Sandwich and not burger: In the US, when you say burger, it is kind of the same understanding as beef. So, in Chick-fil-A, they don’t make any food items with beef, hence they don’t make burgers.

Instead, their specialty is chicken sandwiches which is pretty close to the general understanding of a burger.

However, instead of the beef filling, they do chicken. Especially now that there is a lot of controversy regarding red meat and its health factors, this food outlet benefits from this situation a whole bunch.

Restaurant ambiance: Most fast food places don’t spend a lot of effort trying to make their decor inviting. The reasoning behind that is that they don’t want their customers to spend more than the average amount of time eating.

However, this company made their outlets pretty hospitable and comfortable, with warm colors, writings on the walls, pictures and employees, and etc.

People savvy employer: Chick-fil-A employees are given a good opportunity for career development and fresher opportunities. This company has employee value, which is another exceptional factor about it.

Face-to-face ordering: Another side of this company that is different from other fast food outlets is the face-to-face ordering.

That is pretty appreciated by customers because they actually feel like they are talking to people while ordering, which they are. It creates a feeling of being appreciated and valued.

Weaknesses

Poor geographic coverage: It was already mentioned in the introduction that Chick-fil-A has branches only in the US, UK, and Canada. Therefore, in that aspect, the competitors have more advantages.

High prices: Though the high prices of this company are entirely rational because of good-quality food and great service, they have a disadvantage as well.

Because of high prices, this company is not fully available or accessible for lower and middle-income groups in the area.

Customer retention: Maintaining loyal customers is becoming more and more challenging because the fast-food company category continuously grows. Thus, it is only understandable for customers to try new things or settle for lower-priced restaurants.

Low innovation: Companies are expected to not only introduce innovations in their menu but also their supply chain and marketing.

That is easily possible for brands that are large-scale and get profits from sales volumes. However, as Chick-fil-A is not a global company, it is a difficult achievement to earn.

Opportunities 

Healthy fast food: People are becoming more conscious about what they are putting in their bodies. Thus, they are also getting skeptical about fast food. It is no secret that fast food consumption is faced with health risks.

Thus, it would be a smart move to put more healthy fast food options out there. This may even contribute to the rise of the customer base.

Focus on fast-food restaurants: Disappointingly, most fast-food restaurants offer poor service.

But for restaurants like Chick-fil-A, which are known for good customer service and friendly environment, there is a big opportunity to bring more attention to this category.

Threats

Scandals about chicken: For some reason, the use of chicken in fast food places is perceived pretty questionably. Both the quantity and quality that go in their foods have created multiple scandals.

Understandably, new customers are doubtful about these outlets, so they sometimes choose to avoid them.

Time to get to discussing the segment that Chick-fil-A has chosen to target.

We suggest watching this short commercial to make the discussion more effective.

So, in the video, a family of three picks up food from Circus Burger, which is a made-up fast-food restaurant that Chick-fil-A uses in its commercials.

We see that the restaurant is surrounded by a farm, so when the child yells “cow”, the mom does not think much of it, but rather she thinks that he is getting to know his surroundings.

However, in reality, the cow was trying to steal the food, which is what ended up happening. The video ends with introducing Chick-fil-A’s Chicken Biscuits, and Breakfast Burritos that are delightful options for the first meal of the day.

The fact that the video’s characters are each other’s family members says a lot. The mother shows a very proud and caring behavior towards the child’s word.

Finally, the demonstration that a drive is a way of spending quality time with family, makes it obvious that the segment that Chick-fil-A has chosen to target is Actualizers.

What do we know about this segment?

Lifestyle and values:

This segment is known for having a perfectionist approach. They know how to work for their goals, and a good plan is how they contribute to it. 

Actualizers have deep care about pursuing a good career and always looking for new opportunities to shine through. Work-life is not only about earning money, thus Actualizers don’t measure their success with the amount of income they receive. 

After a productive workday, Actualizers enjoy going home and spending time with family. Nothing can come in between Actualizers and their loved ones. 

Actualizer parents are very good at raising kids. They make sure to participate in their children’s lives as early on as elementary school, and leading to later stages in life.  

Actualizers eat healthy and exercise regularly. This is something that they don’t save money on. But, actually, it’s the other way round. This segment chooses to spend extra money for good quality food and gym memberships.

Actualizers are also modern. Events regarding arts, science, and technology are an area of interest for them. And because technology keeps rapidly developing, they try to keep up. 

Actualizers are environmentally friendly and a good contribution to it is their lifestyle choices, such as the limited use of plastic, the transition to eco-friendly technology, and so on. 

Actualizers spend their money wisely, on things that they actually need. 

And lastly, the way they put together their outfits has to match no other pattern than their comfort so to say. 

Attitude to shopping:

As already mentioned, Actualizers prefer spending their money on products that they actually need. Thus, if it happens to be a pricy product but of good quality, they will surely purchase it. It is very rare for this segment to buy stuff that they don’t feel the necessity for.

Actualizers buy new products as soon as they come out.

This segment does not like wasting time. Thus they have a specific way of planning out their shopping trips. They like to do it in a way that they get most of the required products from the same store.  

Interesting facts about Actualizers:

They 

• Feel good at home with family and friends
• Like hanging out with family 
• Prefer a quiet evening at home or in the garden
• Enjoy having weekend dinners with family
• Care about the meaningfulness of their chosen activities
• Love reading books, watching movies, admiring arts
• Are drawn to films about nature and arts
• Feel like for their kids to be provided with interesting activities, they need to often go outside to places like theaters, cinemas, exhibitions, concerts, walks, and why not even restaurants 
• Do not typically go in for sports but watch them and read about them
• Read local and international news to stay informed about what is happening in their surroundings and the world 
• Are interested in politics, economics, environment, finance, business, and real estate 
• Really care about the development of their kids. And they will go out of their way to try fun ways of upbringing the children. 
• Are very comfortable with using the internet
• Watch TV only for rare occasions when looking for specific programs. 
• Are above-average radio listeners. 

To sum up, Chick-fil-A is a pretty well-known and highly requested American fast-food restaurant chain that is different from other fast-food restaurants in several ways. In this blog, we introduced and analyzed its mission and vision statements, the archetype that it belongs to, and the segment that it has chosen to target.

For more engaging blogs regarding other companies, make sure to check out our main website where we regularly come up with new stuff.