Chick-Fil-A Case Study

Chick-Fil-A Case Study

Team B

QNT/351

March 3, 2015

Suresh Kannan

Chick-Fil-A Case Study

Chick-Fil-A was founded in 1967, and was primarily located inside indoor shopping malls. The original location was in Atlanta, Georgia. The mall concept helped build a strong underground following, but limited the restaurant’s exposure to other areas of the population. A case study was developed to determine if better advertisement could increase sells and improve Chick-Fil-A’s brand exposure.

Purpose of Case Study

        Chick-Fil-A had a unique situation to deal with when they had analyzed the amount of exposure received by their advertising. The company is credited for creating the concept of a boneless breast sandwich. Even with such an accomplishment, they have to compete with a customer base that prefers eating beef hamburgers to an all-chicken establishment. They turned that fact into opportunity by creating a cow character to represent their company. They understood that the key to growing their business was to make more people aware of their existence. They had a great feat ahead of them; they are “significantly outspent within the quick-service restaurant (QSR) category. Its biggest competitor spends more in a week than we do in a year” (Lamar Advertising, 2014). One of the company’s other major hurdles is they are closed on Sunday. People typically eat out more so on the weekend than during the week. The company had to device a plan to bring its popularity out of obscurity. The purpose is the study was to determine if better advertisement placement could improve their sales and brand awareness.

Instrument Used for Data Collection

        The instrument used for data collection sales statistics of better performing restaurants.

They used exploratory research to obtain the location of key markets where their restaurants did well or could benefit from further growth. This type of research allowed them to study patterns of success and determine if factors such as restaurant placement or distance from competitors affected their sales.  They also conducted performance evaluations to link the location of their most successful stores to the adjacent highway to identify a potential advertisement location. These locations were used for placement of billboards with cow statues and Chick-Fil-A water towers.

Types of Data Used in the Study

The study used mostly quantitative data. This was achieved by seeking out the roadways that are frequently busy and take up the largest space for advertising. By doing this at different locations across the country, the logo will become more memorable and recognized; people will become naturally curious about Chick-Fil-A. The company’s sales percentage has increased as a result of possessing the most memorable advertising. In the state of Atlanta, they have seen the percent change for the better since having the advertising of the 3D cows hanging from the water tower.

Level of Measurement for Variables Used

        The level of measurement for this case study was an ordinal level.  Since this study was dealing with percentiles and was ordered through the surveys conducted in the Atlanta area. The results of this study shows a sixty percent increase in the amount of people recalling these advertisements and thinking about Chick-Fil-A when recalling which fast-food restaurant advertisement they had seen in the past thirty days. This study also shows a response variable, which would be the outcome the outcome of a study and is a variable you would be interested in predicting or forecasting.  This variable often called a dependent variable or predicted variable, was used in this case by securing spectacular units and a number of high profile permanent locations were added to help blanket the city with unique, impactful support.  Ensuring that this advertisement would captivate their targeted audience, people stuck in traffic placing these high-profile permanent units on major connector freeways.

Coded Data (Vanessa’s Part)

Data Clearing

                One of the considerations to make when reviewing the data is understanding if there were any biases found in the type of data collection being done. The original data collection was collected in Atlanta by asking people “Which quick-service restaurant have you seen or heard any type of advertisement for in the past 30 days?”. The problem with this question is that Georgia contains 212 Chick-fil-A locations, making it the second largest state containing the cow friendly restaurant behind Texas which contains 306 locations ("Chick-Fil-A - Restaurant Locations", 2014). Based on 2014 state population statistics, there is a ratio of 32,371 residents per location in the state of Georgia ("United State Census Bureau", 2014). In Illinois however, there are only 32 locations which results in a ratio of 402,500 residents per location. This skewed data may result in more survey takers being aware of the brand due to the fact that there are more locations per resident. In order for the data to be more relative, the survey should have been conducted in more locations across the United States to test how visible the Chick-fil-A brand is compared to its other QSR competitors.