Brand comparison paper analyzing different touchpoints of each company.

1. Brand Comparison Paper
Hannah Slocum
Spring 2017
VS.

2. Table of contents
Executive Summary ......................................................................3
Company Background ……………………………………………………………….4
Community Involvement on Social Media………………………………….5-6
Social Media Presence ………………………………………………………………7
Breakdown of Social Mention Stats……………………………………………8
Facebook …………………………………………………………………………………..9-11
Instagram ………………………………………………………………………………….12-14
Twitter ………………………………………………………………………………………15-17
YouTube …………………………………………………………………………………….18-20
Mobile Accessibility …………………………………………………………………..21-23
Final Score …………………………………………………………………………………24
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………25

3. Executive summary
Many people may view Chick-fil-a and Zaxby’s as equals; when one is not accessible,
they will just go to the other-no big deal. It is not a secret that Chick-fil-a and Zaxby’s are both
known for their chicken. However, the two companies actually have many key differences. For
instance, Chick-fil-a serves during all three meals, while Zaxby’s focuses more on lunch and dinner.
Also, there is the fact that Chick-fil-a is closed on Sundays, but Zaxby’s keeps their doors open all
seven days of the week. However, aside from these surface-level, well known differences, there
are actually many under-the-surface differences that become through analyzing their Social
Media strategies. Throughout this paper, the two companies will be compared side by side across
their most successful social platforms.
It is not typical for one to associate chicken with social media, but after analyzing the
two companies across their various social media channels, one will find that Chick-fil-a does the
best job of integrating the two. Chick-fil-a does an excellent job of communicating their mission
across social media platforms. They also work hard to emphasize community and other values
they find important throughout their channels, such as their extreme focus on providing
excellence customer service. Chick-fil-a engages their audience across all of their social media
channels, and the benefits of doing so are obvious in their performance. Although their content
on YouTube is slightly underwhelming, they can easily overcome this shortfall. Overall, Chick-fil-a
definitely outperforms Zaxby’s when it comes to Social Media Marketing.

4. Established: 1946 in Hapeville, GA; originally named
”The Dwarf Grill”
Founders: Truett Cathy and brother Ben
Current CEO: Dan T. Cathy
Slogan: “Eat More Chikin”
Number of Employees: Has a corporate staff of more
than 1,000 employees
Sales: Upwards of $3 million per store ($6 billion
total in 2015)
Number of Restaurants: over 2100 in 46 states
Established: 1990 in Statesboro, GA; originally named
“Zax”
Founders: Zach McLeroy and Tony Townley
Current CEO: Zach McLeroy
Slogan: “Indescribably good”
Number of Employees: Not available
Sales: $1.3 billion in 2015
Number of Restaurants: over 800 in 18 states
(primarily found in southern states)
History:

5. Special Promotions to
Encourage Community
Involvement
One way Chick-fil-a encourages local
community involvement is through their ”Cow
Appreciation Day” in which anyone who comes
to their local Chick-fil-a dressed up as a cow
receives a free meal. Thousands take part in
this fun, creative promotion, and it is
estimated that this promotion alone generates
$8 million in foot traffic. Chick-fil-a encourages
those involved to take to their social media
accounts to share their photos from the
exciting day with the hashtag
#CowAppreciationDay.

6. Special Promotions to
Encourage Community
Involvement:
Zaxby’s calls itself the “official chicken of
college football”, and seeks to involve local
communities by hosting tailgates for football
games in various college towns. Colleges
featured on Zaxby’s social media accounts
include Auburn, TCU, FSU, and Arizona.
Zaxby’s shares photos of the tailgates they
host on their own social media accounts, and
they encourage those involved to tag them in
their posts of the events.

7. Strength:
88%
Sentiment:
6:1
Passion:
26%
Reach:
70%
Strength:
66%
Sentiment:
5:1
Passion:
20%
Reach:
60%
Social Media Presence
Data was collected over 5 various days chosen at random.
4 minutes avg. per mention
Last Mention 4 minutes ago
107 unique authors
47 retweets
1 minute avg. per mention
Last mention 1 minute ago
131 unique authors
55 retweets
Positive: 18
Neutral: 111
Negative: 4
Positive: 30
Neutral: 78
Negative: 3

8. Breakdown of Social Mention Statistics
• Strength: Chick-fil-a’s average strength is 88%, while Zaxby’s is 66%. From this,
one can tell that Chick-fil-a is mentioned more on social media than Zaxby’s, and
therefore more likely to be mentioned in the future.
• Sentiment: Chick-fil-a and Zaxby’s sentiment ratios are relatively close, but Chick-
fil-a’s is just slightly higher. This ratio means that Chick-fil-a on average receives 1
negative comment for every 6 positive comments on social media. Zaxby’s on the
other hand receives 1 negative comment for every 5 positive comments about
them on social media.
• Passion: Chick-fil-a’s passion is 26% on average, while Zaxby’s is 20%. This means
that 26% of people who talk about Chick-fil-a on social media will do so
continuously, and 20% of people who talk about Zaxby’s on social media will do
so continuously.
• Reach: Chick-fil-a’s average reach is 70%, while Zaxby’s is slightly lower at 60%.
From this number, one can conclude that Chick-fil-a is more easily able to connect
with those that have mentioned them on various social networks.

9. on

10. on

11. Facebook Comparison
Chick-fil-a Zaxby’s
Likes 7,658,229 1,314,300
Avg. Response
Time
Within a few
hours
Within one
hour
Check-ins 5,531,481 1,093,269
People Talking
About Them
70,120 46,906
Although both restaurants are efficient in different ways on
their Facebook page, Chick-fil-a outdoes Zaxby’s on this social
media channel. Chick-fil-a reaches a much larger audience, and
they have many more (almost 5 times as many) people
engaging with them through the platform than Zaxby’s does.
Chick-fil-a, despite their slightly slower response time, uses
Facebook efficiently when it comes to engaging with their
customers. Whether it is a simple reply back to a comment, or
a video for Q & A, Chick-fil-a’s high regard for customer service
is extremely apparent through their Facebook page. They
provide fun, interactive videos and articles on their timeline to
encourage engagement, along with the expected pictures of
menu items. Zaxby’s focuses their page on sharing pictures of
their food, but not as much about engaging their followers with
their brand. This is an area that they could improve in order to
be more effective on Facebook.

12. on
Chick-fil-a’s Instagram Account is not only made up of food, as one would suspect from a restaurant.
Of course, they do include pictures of their food looking as delicious as ever, but they also do
something very unique. Chick-fil-a does a good job of creating variety among their posts. For
instance, every so often, Chick-fil-a will post a video of some sort of recipe into which you can
incorporate their menu items. For instance, around New Year’s Eve, Chick-fil-a posted a recipe that
incorporated their famous lemonade, and it included a charming presentation that individuals could
use for their celebrations. Also, Chick-fil-a attempts to add humor into their posts with goofy
captions such as “Seize the day, or a sausage egg and cheese biscuit. Same thing.” This not only grabs
the viewers’ attention, but it also represents their brand’s light-hearted, not too serious image.
There is also a great focus on Chick-fil-a’s catering options that are featured on their Instagram
account to encourage viewers to keep them in mind when hosting large get togethers. Finally, Chick-
fil-a is also very efficient when it comes to announcing various promotions in interesting ways. They
treat promotions, such as free breakfast on a Saturday last September, as a monumental event. This
builds the anticipation and excitement, and makes the promotion more successful. However, Chick-
fil-a could really use an increase in the frequency of posts on Instagram. Currently, they are posting
between 4-6 times per month, and it would be more efficient if they would implement a slight
increase.

13. on
Zaxby’s utilizes Instagram in a very unique manner. They obviously focus on the presentation of
their food, but they also try to incorporate their food into different settings, such as picnics,
birthday “cakes” made of their famous fried pickles, summer at the pool, etc. The only common
theme throughout their posts is the focus on their food. Although they don’t have a unique
theme, they use pictures of their food that physically make their followers’ mouths water. The
presentation is impeccable. They incorporate bright, vibrant colors that are aesthetically
pleasing to their viewers. Most photos include some sort of unique background or landscape,
which evokes viewers’ interest. Zaxby’s also does a good job of accompanying their Instagram
posts with some sort of witty or humorous caption. For example, on a picture of their famous
French fries, the accompanying caption is “Crinkle fries are a food group too, right?” Also, on a
picture of one of their more recently released menu items, the buffalo chicken dip, the caption
jokes as they compare eating the dip to a workout through using a play on words: “getting buff:
eat, dip, repeat.” Next, Zaxby’s regularly incorporates their customers into their Instagram
posts, and they try to incorporate holidays/seasons with their posts to be more relevant. One
thing Zaxby’s could improve, however, it their frequency in posting. Their posts are rather
sparse right now, with an average of only 6 posts a month.

14. Instagram Comparison
Both of these companies use their Instagram accounts
creatively, so it was relatively difficult to choose a winner.
However, overall, Chick-fil-a wins the Instagram competition.
Although they are lacking in frequency of posts, they engage
their followers more efficiently than Zaxby’s does. Not only do
they have more followers, they also receive more likes
(almost 10 times as many) and comments than Zaxby’s. Chick-
fil-a also does an incredible job of getting followers excited
and involved with new promotions and products, which is an
area Zaxby’s needs to improve in. Chick-fil-a does a great job
with creating fresh content to keep their followers
entertained and engaged, so Chick-fil-a wins this channel.
Chick-fil-a Zaxby’s
Posts 695 470
Followers 644k 34.6k
Following 50 194
Number of posts
using
#chickfila/#zaxbys
677,940 90,911

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17. Twitter Comparison
Chick-fil-a Zaxby’s
Tweets 77.7k 16k
Followers 797k 91.7k
Following 7,997 1,231
Likes 7,072 12.9k
Lists 2 1
Chick-fil-a also strides ahead of Zaxby’s throughout the use of
their Twitter Account. Chick-fil-a tries, successfully, to relate
to their followers by posting humorous tweets consistently.
Zaxby’s, on the other hand, includes some witty tweets, but a
large portion of their twitter account is posting new
restaurant openings. Although it is good to inform customers
of new things happening, unless the follower reading that
tweet is from the specific area of the new store, the tweet is
essentially irrelevant. Although Zaxby’s does a good job
replying to unsatisfied customers, they could definitely
become more frequent with their posts, and they could add
content that would be more enjoyable to followers. Chick-fil-a
has an astounding number of followers because of their light-
hearted twitter content, along with their frequency in posts.
This is something Zaxby’s should take into consideration to
become more successful on Twitter. Thus, Chick-fil-a wins
again.

18. on

19. on

20. YouTube Comparison
Although Chick-fil-a has nearly 16 times the number of
subscribers that Zaxby’s does, Zaxby’s does a better job of
posting content that will appeal to and entertain their
subscribers. Zaxby’s created a short video series, the “Fried Pickle
Patch”, which is humorous, and it highlights their limited-time
menu item. Chick-fil-a, on the other hand, focuses on new
promotions (such as Cows VR and their mobile app), that are not
quite as entertaining, more-so than anything else. Some of their
best content is uploaded by fans, rather than Chick-fil-a
themselves, while Zaxby’s creates their own content all around.
With Chick-fil-a’s massive audience, they should be producing
content to keep their subscribers entertained and wanting more.
For this channel, Zaxby’s takes the prize.
Chick-fil-a Zaxby’s
Subscribers 21,447 1,341
Videos 175 112

21. Bypass the line
Customize
your order
Order in the
App
Pay in the
App
Track your
progress and
receive free
treats
Save your
favorite meals
to make
ordering
easier
Mobile Accessibility

22. Mobile accessibility
Place orders
Find various
locations
Pay in App
Save orders
on account

23. Mobile Accessibility
comparison
Overall, Chick-fil-a’s mobile app has much more to offer
than Zaxby’s. Chick-fil-a’s mobile app is definitely one of
the brand’s main focuses, as they advertise it both in store
(on table pieces and at registers) and on their social media
channels. Zaxby’s mobile app, on the other hand, is not
mentioned at all on their social media channels, nor in
store (they do mention online ordering, but not the app
specifically). Chick-fil-a’s app is much more developed and
efficient, and it offers special rewards and prizes for
customer loyalty. Zaxby’s app is simply a way to pre-order
your food before you get to the restaurant. Chick-fil-a
definitely takes the prize when it comes to Mobile
Accessibility due to the extra features it provides to users.

24. So who has a better social media presence?
Mobile
1 1 1
1
1

25. Conclusions
Overall, Chick-fil-a does a better job in regards to digital marketing, and they
seamlessly integrate an unlikely combination of chicken and social media.
Although they fell behind Zaxby’s in regards to their YouTube channels,
refocusing their efforts could easily improve their presence on this site. For
instance, they could come up with more creative content that is funny and
entertaining in order to follow the trends of their various other social media
accounts. They also could increase their frequency of posting videos in order to
attract more viewers, and they should use more of their own content. Because
all of their other social media channels are doing so well, they can put extra
effort into improving their YouTube channel. The subtle way Chick-fil-a
showcases their value of providing the best possible customer experience
through their social media channels pushes them ahead of Zaxby’s without a
doubt. Zaxby’s should learn to follow Chick-fil-a in this regard, and they would
notice a huge difference in the success of their channels.