Storyboard: Don't Say a Word

Regional Bojangles’ quietly hatches a new branding message.

By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 12/1/2003

The six new television spots for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits are short on dialogue. Several have no discussion of the chain’s products at all. The ads simply show customers enjoying a typical Bojangles’ meal, including emptying a bag of leftover crumbs into one’s mouth, throwing the chicken on the grill and pretending it is homemade, and biting on one’s lower lip until it bleeds to curb cravings.

With new management in place, a freshened look for the stores and a balance sheet in the black for the first time in years (Chain Leader, August 2003), Bojangles’ hired PriceMcNabb, a Charlotte ad firm, to develop a new ad campaign. Executive Creative Director and Senior Vice President Alon Shoval, a transplanted Brit, was unfamiliar with the popular Southern chain when his agency won the account early this year. But he soon learned how strongly locals felt about Bojangles’ Cajun-style fried chicken, biscuits and dirty rice. Everyone, he says, had a Bojangles’ story to tell, even his own wife.

Food to Grow On
“Our unaided awareness had dropped slightly, and part of the shift we wanted to make was not to create another character, but to make the food the star by putting the food in real-life situations,” says Tom Lewison, Bojangles’ president and COO.

Shoval thought there was no better way than to toss out the hand puppet and other assorted devices that had been used in the past to promote the brand and instead tap into those real-life, albeit odd, experiences of Bojangles’ devoted.

“The more I learned about Bojangles’, the more I thought that this was really a sleeping brand that has massive potential. When you work on giants like McDonald’s or Burger King, everybody knows what you’re going to do; you’re just basically continuing the same thing,” Shoval says. “Those players are more frightened of losing share than gaining it. A smaller brand can be more entrepreneurial because there is not so much to lose.”

With 315 restaurants in 10 states, Bojangles’ is not a tiny chain, but its growth has been nonexistent in recent years. It shuttered underperforming units and shelved expansion in favor of solidifying its base. Now, Lewison says, the chain has a good growth rate in front of it, with 15 new company-owned units in the pipeline and 40 new franchised stores planned for 2004. Shoval expects those units will be well received, going so far as to call Bojangles’ “a Krispy Kreme in the making. In this society, these smaller brands that do not adopt the more sophisticated tactics seem to be championed.”

The Long and Winding Tagline
What PriceMcNabb created for Bojangles’ certainly can’t be considered “sophisticated.” But since first airing in October, the six spots have become memorable based on early anecdoctal feedback from customers and franchisees. The largely wordless Bojangles’ eating experiences are followed by a voice-over of one very long word: “GottawannaneedagettahavaBojangles’.”

The tagline is featured in the new TV and radio spots, in point-of-purchase materials, on billboards and even in the football stadium during Carolina Panther games. The $380 million concept has a wide target demographic: 18- to 54-year-olds, with more male diners at breakfast and more women at dinner. The diverse media buy is intended to help reach all segments of that group.

Moving Forward
Bojangles’ spent $3 million on the development of the creative, and $6.5 million on TV and radio buys through 2003. A portion of that is paid by franchisees’ contributions to an ad fund. Lewison expects similar spending in 2004, with new spots using the GottawannaneedagettahavaBojangles’ tagline launching in the first quarter of next year.

As is the case with all branding campaigns, Lewison doesn’t expect overnight changes for Bojangles’. Over time he hopes the chain’s $4.50 average check will increase 5 to 10 cents. Print and limited-time offers currently emphasize Bojangles’ value pricing, such as $11 tailgate meals, but Lewison would like to back off price-point advertising in the long term.

“Shifting to brand image rather than price point takes a while,” he says.

Not a problem for a chain that has been making its biscuits the same way for the last 25 years.