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Sarah Desilets
PRS300
Competitive Brand Analysis
October 16, 2019

Wendy’s Vs. Chick Fil A

Fast food is one of the biggest industries across the world and is constantly growing. The

quick service restaurant industry generates a revenue of a little under six hundred billion dollars

annually. Some of the top competitors in this industry include places such as, McDonalds,

Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, KFC, and Chick Fil A, just to name a few. McDonalds tends

to hold the main monopoly over all other fast food companies, but establishments such as

Wendy’s and Chick Fil A are starting to gain more and more influence in the market.

Wendy’s is a fast food restaurant whose main food is hamburgers, but they also offer an

array of other options. Wendy’s slogan is “Always Fresh, Never Frozen” as they want their

customers to know that what they are eating has not been sitting in a freezer for months waiting

to be heated up. As outlined on their website, Wendy’s main values are food, family, and

community. As a brand Wendy’s shows these values through their social media presence, as well

as in person at their locations.

Chick Fil A is another fast food restaurant but their main food market is chicken. Most of

what they offer involves chicken, although they do offer options that are vegetarian. Chick Fil

A’s slogan is “Eat More Chicken” and is more often than not on a sign held by a cow, indicating

that they do not offer or support beef products. According to their website, Chick Fil A’s values

are customer first, personal excellence, continuous improvement, working together, and
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stewardship. Chick Fil A’s core values are very prominent in their brand, and can easily be seen

at their locations as well as on their social media preference.

Chick Fil A is known for their customer service. Their brand revolves around how good

their customer service is both in store and online. Their social media presence revolves primarily

around their customers. Chick Fil A’s Facebook is filled with pictures of customers either at their

restaurants, or eating their products, each with a caption about the customer, and the social media

they got it from, which is mainly from Instagram. Their Instagram is also full of these types of

pictures, as well as the occasional add for a new product they are promoting. Chick Fil A is very

good about responding to their customers, whether it is just replying to a customer’s comment on

one of their posts or responding to a customer’s concern. This can also be seen on their Twitter.

Any customer that tweets with Chick Fil A mentioned in them will get a response from them.

Unlike most companies their responses are very personalized, instead of just thanking them or

responding with their customer service number. This really helps to show one of their core

values as a brand which is that the customer is first. They want to make sure their customers’

needs are always met to the highest standard and are able to monitor any problems people have

through social media.

Wendy’s takes a different approach to their social media presence than Chick Fil A.

Although they also value their customer service, and make sure to respond to their customers

problems as well as compliments on their social media pages, this is not their main focus. They

cater their social media platforms to the customers that are using it. Facebook has become a

social media that is primarily used by people over the age of 25, so Wendy’s caters their posts to

them. Many of their current posts surround football, and that they now offer delivery through

food delivery apps, encouraging people to have it delivered on game day. They also have other
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posts, which are mainly based around meals that they are trying to advertise. They take a

different approach when it comes to Twitter. Twitter is used by a much younger crowd of people

and Wendy’s uses that to their advantage. Wendy’s uses twitters to respond to their customer’s

complaints as well as any general tweets that include Wendy’s. The Wendy’s Twitter account is

known for their funny responses to their customers as well as to their competitors. They have

established an online persona for their brand through this Twitter account that makes people

want to interact with them more, helping promote their business. One of Wendy’s biggest

Twitter moments was telling customers that if they got a certain tweet to 2 million likes that they

would bring back their cult favorite spicy nuggets. The tweet was quickly retweeted and liked by

fans who wanted the spicy nuggets back in the restaurant. To Celebrate having them back

Wendy’s also promoted that their new delivery option but offering a free 6 piece spicy nugget to

anyone who ordered through the delivery app DoorDash. By Doing all this, Wendy helped

establish that their brand was centered on giving their customers what they want.

Both companies put customer service at the forefront of their brand. One of the social

media best practices is having a content strategy. This can be seen through Wendy’s social

media, as they make their content specific to the platform they are using. Whereas, Chick Fil A

has the same posts on all their social media platforms. Another best practice that can be seen in

both Wendy’s and Chick Fil A’s social media is consistency. They both use their social media to

respond to customers as fast as possible with any concerns or problems they have as well as

responding to positive posts. They are also consistent with their brand by keeping their profile

pictures and handle the same throughout all their platforms. Another important practice is

establishing your brands tone. Chick Fil A established their tone as happy, caring and always
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willing to help by posting pictures of their customers. Whereas Wendy’s established their tone as

funny and outgoing by making jokes, and funny interactions on Twitter.

In the past, when Wendy’s introduced their 4 for $4 meal, Burger King tweeted about

their 5 for $4 deal, saying that 4 is better than 5. They did not directly address Wendy’s but

everyone knew that that is what it was referencing. Burger King could have been seen as news

jacking, but Wendy’s did respond to their tweet quickly with a funny response that used a meme

from twitter, taking back the narrative about their deal. This was one of the major tweets that

helped developed their persona on twitter.

Wendy’s use of social media definitely gives them more of a competitive edge than

Chick Fil A. Although Chick Fil A has a well-established social media presence, they do not

generate the same amount of customer interaction as Wendy’s. Wendy’s has had a large Twitter

following for the past few years which has given them a lot of edge of their competition, not just

Chick Fil A, but places like McDonalds and Burger King as well. Many Twitter uses will try to

get a response out of Wendy’s because they think it is funny, which gets more people talking

about Wendy’s, which in turn helps them get more business.

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References

Sena, Matt. “Fast Food Industry Analysis 2019 - Cost & Trends.” Fast Food Industry Analysis
2019 - Cost & Trends, Franchise Help, 2019, www.franchisehelp.com/industry-
reports/fast-food-industry-analysis-2018-cost-trends/.

Tuchscherer, Rebekah. “Wendy's Spicy Chicken Nuggets Return and the Chain Is Giving Away
2 Million Free Nuggets.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Aug.
2019, www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/25/wendys-spicy-chicken-nuggets-back-
thanks-chance-rapper/1561083001/.

Wendys.com

ChickFilA.com

Facebook.com/Wendys

Facebook.com/ChickFilA

Twitter.com/Wendys

Twitter.com/Chickfila