Popeyes Revamps Brand

ATLANTA (Blue MauMau) - Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc. announced Monday that it is revamping its brand. The fast-food chicken servers want customers to think now of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. Its new logo, tag line, advertising campaign and menu items will focus on an upscale taste that brings to mind the marinating and slow cooking of Cajun cuisine.

The chain of some 1,900 quick service restaurants wants to build on the expectations of its customer-base. Cheryl Bachelder, CEO of Popeyes, declares of the bold move, "Our brand repositioning will cater to the ever-changing needs of our guest without wavering on the authentic flavor and recognizable look that Popeyes fans know and love.”

“Popeyes’ brand transformation reflects our bold new thinking about the way we develop, prepare, serve and market great food in today’s fast-paced, cost-conscious consumer marketplace,” explained Bachelder.

Alicia Thompson, vice president of communications and public relations for Popeyes, emphasizes that dropping chicken and biscuits from the Popeyes name does not mean that such menu items are not important. “We aren't distancing ourselves from our chicken,” she says. “People love our red beans and rice as much as they do our chicken. This move allows us to broaden our menu to include non-chicken-based items. But bona-fide chicken continues to be a key and central point of our business.”

Market Pushing to Differentiate

Popeyes merged with AFC Enterprises' Church's Chicken in 1989. AFC Enterprises retained Popeyes but sold competing brand, Church's Chicken, to Arcapita in 2004. The two brands have been pushing to differentiate themselves.

Darren Tristano, Executive Vice President for Technomic, a restaurant and vendor consultancy, sees larger marketplace trends at work in the Popeyes brand change. He thinks the dynamics of the marketplace are pushing quick service restaurants such as Popeyes to differentiate themselves between fried vs. grilled, parts vs sandwich and now the new trend of flavor differentiators. Tristano observes, “Just as KFC has become famous and successful based on their pressure frying techniques and original flavor blend, chains like Pollo Campero (Guatemalan Spice Blend), Bojangles and Popeyes (Cajun) have made it on their flavor profiles.”

“Popeyes appears to be moving more upscale with their new look and packaging, something many traditional quick service chains have been doing to raise the bar to compete with fast-casual chains,” states Tristano. He continues, “The shift puts them more heavily in the Cajun space as a Louisiana kitchen and more closely associated with New Orleans. Themed restaurants stand out in the consumers mind. Consumers tend to be more willing to pay more if a restaurants image and value equation is higher. A new look always gets attention and their positioning is a definite improvement.” 

CEO Bachelder seems to confirm such market trends. “As the quick service restaurant industry becomes more competitive, we’re constantly looking for ways to attract new customers and create an experience that encourages people to continually return to their neighborhood Popeyes,” she declares.

The Popeyes Name

Although headquartered in Atlanta, the chain has strong Louisiana roots. Founded in New Orleans in 1972, the chain is named after New York policeman “Popeye” Doyle, from the movie French Connection. Doyle is known for his drunken, maverick, violent and very driven character. The firm later moved to acquire the rights to the cartoon Popeye the Sailor to help it market the brand to families.

It is the cartoon character that many consumers associate when they think of Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits.

Susan Murphy, president of marketing firm Circle R Brands, a company that creates and markets new brand identities, understands the need to transform the brand. She observes, “It makes sense that Popeyes is trying to differentiate their brand from Church's Chicken and others by adding 'Louisiana'.” She interjects that the pop-culture reference of the name diminishes through time. “Outside of the organization, most of us of a certain age associate their name with the cartoon character. And those under thirty are less and less familiar with Popeye the Sailor,” observes Murphy.

The new logo has a "P" in the middle and the word Popeyes on the bottom, where possibly the Popeyes could eventually be dropped, leaving the "P" within the circle. That's something akin to Kentucky Fried Chicken years ago becoming KFC.

But such rationale creates a reaction from Popeyes spokesperson, Ms. Alicia Thompson. She emphasizes that the firm feels strongly about the brand's name and history. "No. We aren't associated with Popeye the Sailor,” she interjects. With regards to doing anything with the Popeyes name, Thompson states, “It is the brand name that our core consumers know and love.”

Murphy understands and agrees that the firm has spent considerable time building the equity of the brand.

There is no Popeye the Sailorman used in marketing the company now.

Popeyes opened three company-owned Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen concept restaurants in 2006 to use as labs for new menu items, signs, layout to ordering options. Ms. Thompson states, "We learned many things from it [the concept restaurants], including how appropriate the name Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is to our brand." She continues, "So we decided to keep them to use as the cornerstone of the brand transformation."

Brand Roll-Out Plan?

"We have no immediate plans to implement an external restaurant brand identity package,” says Thompson. She adds, “We have not even put into place or announced a roll-out plan for this to be anything external.” External is the word used for signs on the buildings, new paint schemes and the like.

Brand marketer Murphy thinks that not having a clear plan from A to Z for the revamp of a brand is a mistake. “A company needs to understand how a brand launch will affect both the interior and exterior layout,” she observes. Murphy thinks such branding initiatives can really impact Popeyes 1800 or so franchise owners. She adds, “Popeyes owes it to their franchisees to have all their ducks in a row before announcing such a definite move. Having no clear-cut answers on how the brand launch will affect the restaurants and franchisees' costs is a mistake.”

Thompson explains, “The new brand identity will first appear in restaurants on the packaging, POP [point-of-purchase displays] and advertising. The new brand identity will continue to roll out over the next few months.”

In regard to how the new brand will be rolled out to Popeyes 1,800 franchised units, Thompson declares, "We do not have an implementation time schedule to the franchise system.”

The head office is confident that Popeyes franchise owners are pleased with the name change though. “The feedback we have gotten is that they get the Louisiana Kitchen portion of it,” Thompson says. “It is one of the distinct characteristics of the brand. It is a reason franchisees get into this concept because we have such a distinct niche.” Thompson says emphatically, “They really have embraced the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen repositioning.”

Dick Lynch, Popeyes' chief marketing officer, explains, “Our new advertising is designed to resonate with our loyal customer base and appeal to a younger audience.”

The chain kicked off a new creative campaign August 25, introducing a fictional chef, “Ed.” In one spot, Ed tallies up the time and labor cost to prepare the new chicken wrap. He calculates that the 12-hour marinating process, combined with a six-dollar hourly rate, means that the guests are actually eating a “$72 Wrap.” Chef Ed and his zany tactics appear numerous times throughout the campaign, the first from GSD&M Idea City, Popeyes’ new creative agency-of-record.