A Lesson from the Airport Food Court

Yesterday I was heading to Green Bay for a client meeting. Since we're in the middle of the holiday season, I arrived at the airport 2 hours early. However, the fine folks at the TSA were really on their game so I found myself with plenty of time to get breakfast.

As I headed over to the food court I was surprised to see a long line at McDonald's at 7:00 am. Additionally I was surprised to not see single soul in line at Chik-fil-A. Both restaraunts offer breakfast food, both are competitively priced, they were located next to each other. Obviously, they were seeking to serve the same audience: travelers.

I had to ask myself, why the long line at one place and no one at the other, and what can I, as a marketer, learn from this?

• First, think about the product name. McDonald's can easily be positioned to offer food other than hamburgers. The same cannot be said about Chik-fil-A. You just don't think about breakfast when you hear about chicken.
• Second, the menu in the McDonald's had been completely changed so that all the items listed were breakfast items with large accompanying images. On the other hand, the Chik-fil-A had a standard menu that included one small panel of breakfast items. It only had one picture of a breakfast item, and it was a chicken biscuit, not a traditionally breakfast food.
• Third, McDonald's advertises their breakfast offerings. This is so obvious to me, but, I am a bit mystified that Chik-fil-A hasn't, as far as I know, promoted their breakfast food.

Here's what I learned: unless your brand has clarity, your communication is simple and your advertising is overt you're going to get your butt handed to you. In my airport experience, Mickey D's was clearly associated with what the consumer was looking for, breakfast, the menu supported that decision in a simple, straight-forward way, and the advertising overtly says, you can get breakfast here.