Taco Bell Wants A Piece Of The Competitive Chicken Sandwich Category

This week is as big as it gets for the chicken sandwich category, with heavyweights McDonald’s

MCD
and KFC’s national rollouts escalating an already intense market share competition.

And, a late and somewhat surprising entry into the category could further shake things up a bit.

Taco Bell today announced it is testing a new “crispy chicken sandwich taco” in the Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, markets beginning March 11.

Taco Bell’s offering features all-white-meat crispy chicken, marinated in jalapeño buttermilk, seasoned with Mexican spices and rolled in a crunchy tortilla chip coating. According to the company, the chicken is served in puffy bread shaped like a taco and is topped with its signature creamy chipotle sauce. Like every chicken sandwich competitor out there, Taco Bell is offering both a regular and spicy version, the latter of which includes crunchy jalapeño slices.

There have long been debates about whether a taco qualifies as a sandwich, so Taco Bell’s interpretation may not be much of a surprise. Its focus on chicken shouldn’t be, either.

In August, Heather Mottershaw, Taco Bell’s vice president of product development, said the chain was focused on chicken and would tap into the category’s meteoric growth. Chicken consumption has grown by 70% since 1990, compared to beef, which has remained relatively stagnant.

“When we think about the acceleration of new trends, it’s really clear for us that it’s chicken, and that means chicken as a whole category,” she said during that August interview. “We’re focused heavily in this area at the moment, so expect lots to come here.”

What could be surprising, however, is the addition of a new platform as Taco Bell focuses on simplified operations. Early in the pandemic, Taco Bell slimmed down its menu, resulting in the service of 30 million more cars and a 17-second faster drive-thru in Q3 compared to Q3 2019.

There is plenty of motivation to make this menu addition work, however. This launch– all of these chicken sandwich launches, in fact–are about more than just consumer demand. Operators are pining for that lightning-in-a-bottle effect captured by Popeyes, which is generating $400,000 more in average unit volumes since its sandwich launch.

A new-ish challenge now, however, is that nearly every quick-service chain, big and small, is focused heavily on this area. For example, consider the top 50 QSRs for sales (as measured by QSR Magazine). At least 18 chains have added or enhanced a chicken sandwich since Popeyes’ 2019 launch. That doesn’t even count the smaller chains jumping into the category and taking up market share space.

In other words, Taco Bell has its work cut out for it to become a legitimate chicken sandwich player, including the challenge of not being a “sandwich player” in the first place. Taco Bell won’t likely be top-of-mind for the droves of consumers now seeking a chicken sandwich, at least not compared to its sister chain KFC, or Popeyes, or Chick-fil-A, or even burger giants McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King.

But Taco Bell is counting on disruption. It’s differentiating by not being just another chicken sandwich in the mix, but rather being a sandwich and a taco, as noted in its press release.

The approach may very well work as consumers most certainly want different choices every now, and as chicken sandwich options become ubiquitous, yet somewhat homogenous. 

This is the same approach Taco Bell took with its breakfast launch back in 2014–not just offering breakfast options, but offering differentiated options like the cheesy toasted breakfast burrito and the Breakfast Crunchwrap. Some analysts pointed to Taco Bell’s foray into the morning daypart as a reason McDonald’s lost some share at breakfast.

Taco Bell also has the advantage of a large footprint–about 7,000 U.S. units–for those craving chicken sandwiches (compared to about 2,500 for Popeyes and about 4,000 for KFC), and a veto vote-friendly menu with beef and vegetarian options.

Taco Bell may also have an advantage on pricing. The sandwich taco will be sold for $2.49 in test markets. For context, Popeyes’ chicken sandwich is $3.99, comparable to similar options on the market.

Taco Bell notes a nationwide launch of its crispy chicken sandwich taco will come later this year, and also promises more crispy chicken innovations are on the way.