2. Popeyes Chicken replied to
Chick-fil-A’s subtweet about
their ‘original’ chicken
sandwich.
This post started the
entertaining feud between the
chicken sandwich companies.
3. Popeye’s tweeted about their new chicken
sandwich on August 12, 2019 which created a
major buzz from the general public as well as
competitors since the Popeyes chicken sandwich
is a lot like Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwich (bun,
chicken, and pickles).
Chick-fil-A sub-tweeted Popeyes Chicken’s
tweet by responding on their own page with the
tweet above to subtly imply Popeyes copied
their “original” sandwich and that their sandwich
is better.
4. In response, Popeyes replied to their competitors with witty
remarks like, “…y’all good?” to Chick-fil-A.
The general Twitter public began to reply and pay attention to the
feud between the chicken sandwich brands.
5. I selected this example because it was the first one that I though of and the most recent I remember.
Popeyes Chicken’s post received both positive and negative attention from the public.
In the positive aspect;
Popeyes’ sales of chicken sandwiches
was abundant the launch of the
chicken sandwich was successful
Popeyes’ social media received a lot
of attention
In the negative aspect;
The demand for their chicken sandwich
was greater than they could keep up
with (employees & resources)
The wait times for the sandwich were
long and the customer service was
terrible
Impact
Overall, the post had negative impact because of the issues and events that followed it. The
public rushed to try the new chicken sandwich which created a shortage, long lines, overworked
employees, poor customer service, and even death.
In Maryland, a customer died when he was stabbed by another customer over an argument over
cutting in line for the chicken sandwich. Popeyes Chicken received a lot of attention but at the
cost of, mostly, negative media.
6. This post had impact because it was a simple humorous jab at Chick-fil-A. They used the right timing- posting 2
hours after Chick-fil-A’s subtweet. They also knew to choose the right words-- “…y’all good?” – this form of
dialogue, which ‘translates’ to “ Are you ok?” relates to the most active Twitter users (millennials/Generation Z)
who are also influential/trendy.
Jonah Berger talked about the six steps to make your post more talked about and I think that Popeyes’ post
effectively used the public and story to make their post viral. They used public since they in a way mimicked
Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwich- creating a way to draw people to try their burger and compare it to Chikc-fil-A’s.
They also used story to generate attention to their post- their original post was about their new sandwich, but
they took the opportunity to reply to Chick-fil-A’s tweet and instigate a ‘feud’ for whose chicken sandwich was
better.
Initially the response to Popeyes was positive, but as customers customers experienced long wait lines and
terrible customers sevrive they began to have negative sentiments.
I think what marketers can take from Popeyes’ post is that they must consider who a brand is competing with
and make sure they can keep up to those standards.
7. Overall, Popeyes started off great- they received a lot of social media traffic and their
chicken sandwiches sold out, but their negative attention overshadowed the success of
the campaign.
Popeyes was impacted in a negative way because they could not keep up with the
demand for the chicken sandwich, they were understaffed, and lacked resources.
I think Popeyes needs to revaluate their competitors and invest in their human capital
(workforce/training) to make sure they can compete on the same page as their
competitors.
