Wendy’s Culture Promotes Brand Loyalty

The culture at Wendy’s promotes brand loyalty, which, officials hold, is a key brand differentiator. Wendy’s finished 2015 with momentum that carried over to the first quarter of this fiscal year.

Same-restaurant sales improved 3.6% in the quarter, on top of a 3.2% rise one year ago.

“Our future growth will be driven by acceleration in same-restaurant sales, North America new restaurant development and, further down the line, international expansion,” Todd Penegor, President & Director for Wendy’s, said during the May 11 earnings call, according to Seeking Alpha. “We’re also expanding access to The Wendy’s brand through new restaurant development. And on international, we remain focused on our narrow and deep strategy and are confident this approach will deliver growth over the long term.”

Penegor said that the Wendy’s brand is grounded in its unique family culture, driven by the values of  founder Dave Thomas.

“Our culture is a differentiator, which we intend to leverage to connect with today’s consumers and drive our key growth initiatives,” Penegor explained. “In the first quarter, our Deliciously Different marketing campaign highlighted our core brand equities, where they relaunched Dave’s Single, Double, and Triple, and customers responded. Sales and customer counts increased, not just on the advertised Dave’s lineup, but across the entire hamburger line.”

What’s more, Penegor discussed what makes Wendy’s “deliciously different, including our fresh never frozen beef, produce prep daily in the restaurants, and sandwiches made-to-order. You will see this with investments focused on the quality of our core menu offerings as well as with LTOs that build on our brand equities, with innovative ingredients and on trend flavors as well as compelling value offerings.”

On the value front, Penegor noted momentum from Wendy’s 4 for $4 offering with the addition of the Crispy Chicken BLT.

“We believe 4 for $4 is meeting a consumer need for compelling value, combined with a high quality unique offering,” he said. “The customer count growth we are experiencing is encouraging and we anticipate continuing to use value bundles in concert with core and LTO messages to bring in more customers to experience our restaurants. Our ongoing challenge is to ensure we have the right balance of support across our core, price value, and LTO messages. With the pipeline of innovative new products, continued core product improvements, and compelling value offerings, we believe we are well-positioned to meet that challenge. We are building a stronger Wendy’s to focus on our core brand equities, high-low marketing strategy and the continued transformation of The Wendy’s brand is being noticed by consumers.”

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