CMO Roundtable with Chicken Salad Chick's Chief Marketing Officer, Tom Carr

What marketing tools and strategies do you use to attract your ideal multi-unit operators to your brand?

Our team strives to put the Chicken Salad Chick brand in front of the right audience, highlighting our mission to spread joy, enrich lives, and serve others. This is the cornerstone of our growth strategy, and we employ a multifaceted approach to achieve it.

We believe one of our most powerful tools for attracting franchisees is our franchise development website. Our website is highly optimized and includes digital marketing that drives new leads. One of our unique website features is our current owner testimonials, a collection of personal stories told through videos, offering a glimpse into the lives of our franchise owners. These visuals have proven to be a great tool for catching the attention of potential multi-unit franchisees and single-unit owners alike. By putting the successful stories of our very own franchisees forward in a modern way, new franchisees see themselves mirrored in the experiences of other family-owned businesses within our franchise network when watching these videos. 

As one of the fastest growing chicken brands in the country, we are opening in new territories every month. We are consistently maintaining our presence in the press with announcements of our signings and new territories. We also use national and local media to target regions where we are looking to develop. One of the primary ways we accomplish this is through our active participation in franchise trade shows and multi-unit conferences. These events provide us with a unique platform to introduce our brand to new audiences and engage in meaningful, face-to-face conversations about the values that define our company. 

On a corporate level, we maintain a strong media presence, which signifies the support we give to each franchisee to set them up for success throughout their franchising journey. Garnering high-quality media coverage allows us to further demonstrate our corporate values to prospective owners. Furthermore, we maintain our presence within social media via LinkedIn and Meta posts.

We also clearly communicate our differentiators to prospective franchisees. We’re America’s only chicken salad concept, and we close on Sundays. Additionally, we have identified our audience as female focused, which assists in targeting our overall marketing efforts.