Popeyes Isn't Your Typical Fast-Food Chain

When you’re in the food business, a secret recipe can mean the difference between fortune and bankruptcy. At KFC headquarters in Louisville, Ky., for example, Colonel Sanders’ original recipe sits on a shelf inside the chain’s legal department. For its part, Coca-Cola tucked its formula into a vault in Atlanta's World of Cola-Cola. (Fans can visit the vault, but they can’t look at the recipe.) And then there’s Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, the chicken chain about to take the wraps off its first Super Bowl ad this year. Popeyes has a secret recipe, too—a spice blend that packs the menu’s signature Cajun punch. But you won’t find it in a bank safe or lawyer’s office. It's in the head of corporate chef Amy Alarcon. “I certainly don’t have access to that ingredient deck,” CMO Jeff Klein told Adweek. “Amy’s the only one.” This sort of secrecy is more than just stagecraft. Chicken chains are a $59 billion business in America, and since there’s only so much you can do to make a piece of poultry enticing, a few herbs and spices turn out to be major differentiators. That was the lesson learned by founder Al Copeland in 1971. When his first restaurant—a place called Chicken on the Run—flopped, the 27-year-old realized it wasn’t speed that mattered to people, but flavor. A high school dropout raised on a diet of Spam and Vienna sausages, Copeland had no culinary training. But as a New Orleans native, he didn’t need any. Perfecting his recipes through trial and error, Copeland opened Popeyes the following year. He began franchising in 1977 and, a decade later, his 700 locations had made him a rich man. Though Copeland would lose control of his empire in 1992, Popeyes still retains “a little bit of a founder feel,” Klein said. “There’s something about Popeyes that allows it to permeate pop culture. We’re a brand that has to punch above its weight to be successful.” And it has. The Popeyes fried chicken sandwich launch of 2019—touched off by a memorable spar with Chick-fil-A on Twitter—saw Popeyes' foot traffic triple and generated an estimated $65 million in earned media coverage. This year, it hopes to repeat at least part of that achievement with chicken wings, starting with a promise of free fare if a football team in the playoffs with wings in its name, logo or on its mascot wins the Super Bowl. (That would be the Baltimore Ravens, the Buffalo Bills or the Philadelphia Eagles.) Promotions aside, however, Klein believes Popeyes distinguishes itself daily in the back of the house. Every Popeyes store buys its chicken fresh, marinates it overnight, then tosses it in flour 20 times before frying it. “The things we do to prepare the chicken make absolutely no sense for fast-food restaurants,” he said. Hen house Popeyes debuted in 1972 with a red roof reminiscent of Pizza Hut (1) and a malleable name: Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken later became Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and is today Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. While the so-called bone-in offerings (2) would eventually change to include chicken sandwiches, the chain has always embraced its New Orleans roots (3) and kindred spicy recipes. Two words worth $87M https://twitter.com/Popeyes/status/1163510538959069184?lang=en Famous (and lucrative) as the Popeyes chicken sandwich is, it made marketing history, too. When the item debuted on Aug. 12, 2019, archrival Chick-fil-A had already been selling chicken sandwiches for 55 years. In an apparent jab over how similar Popeyes’ sandwich looked to its own, Chick-fil-A tweeted: “Bun, Chicken + Pickles = Love.” Confident and cheeky, Popeyes responded with two words: “Y’all good?” The public delighted in this kind of feather ruffling: The tweet earned an estimated 8 billion impressions valued at $87 million. “In my marketing career, I have not seen a brand activate the internet [like that],” Klein said. “Somewhat by accident and somewhat on purpose,” he added. The Spice Trade Just how much is Popeyes’ secret spice mix worth? Let’s call it $56 million. Here’s why. In 1989, Al Copeland (above) decided to acquire Church’s Chicken but, overborrowing to get it, he wound up losing Popeyes in bankruptcy court. However, Copeland was able to hold onto his proprietary recipes and was happy to charge Popeyes $3.1 million a year to use them. Copeland died in 2008 and, six years later, the chain bought the formulas back for a cool $43 million. Adjusted for inflation, the tab comes to $56 million in 2024 dollars.

Perspective

Popeyes Isn't Your Typical Fast-Food Chain

How a spicy Louisiana chicken chain got the whole country crowing

Robert Klara

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