Taco Bell wants a slice of the competitive chicken sandwich category

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

MCD
and the national launches of KFC, which are escalating an already intense competition for market share.

And a later and somewhat surprising entry into the category could shake things up a bit.

Taco Bell announced today that it will be testing a new “crispy chicken sandwich taco” in markets in Nashville, Tennessee and Charlotte, North Carolina, starting March 11th.

Taco Bell’s offerings include crispy, pure white meat chicken marinated in jalapeño buttermilk, seasoned with Mexican spices, and rolled in a crispy tortilla chip coating. According to the company, the chicken is served in a puffy bread in the shape of a taco and topped with its signature creamy chipotle sauce. Like any chicken sandwich competitor, Taco Bell offers both a regular and a spicy version, the latter of which features crispy jalapeño slices.

There has long been debate about whether a Taco is considered a sandwich, so Taco Bell’s interpretation may not come as a big surprise. The focus shouldn’t be on chicken either.

In August, Heather Mottershaw, vice president of product development at Taco Bell, said the chain was focused on chicken and would benefit from meteoric growth in the category. Has chicken consumption grown by 70% since 1990compared to beef, which is relatively stagnant.

“When we think about the acceleration of new trends, it’s really clear to us that it’s chicken, and that means chicken as a whole category,” she said during the August interview. “We are very much focused on this area right now, so expect many to come here.”

What might come as a surprise, however, is the introduction of a new platform as Taco Bell focuses on simplified operations. At the start of the pandemic, Taco Bell slimmed down its menu, resulting in a service of 30 million more cars and a 17 second faster transit in Q3 compared to Q3 2019.

However, there is a lot of motivation to make this menu addition work. This launch – all these chicken sandwich launches – is about more than just consumer demand. Operators long for the Popeyes-captured lightning-in-a-bottle effect that is created $ 400,000 more in average quantities since its introduction to sandwiches.

A new challenge, however, is that almost every quick service chain, large or small, focuses heavily on this area. For example, consider the top 50 QSRs for sale (measured by QSR magazine). At least 18 chains have added or improved a chicken sandwich since Popeyes launched in 2019. That doesn’t even apply to the smaller chains entering the category and taking market share.

In other words, Taco Bell has everything it takes to become a legitimate chicken sandwich player, including the challenge of not being a “sandwich player” at all. Taco Bell probably won’t rank first among the throngs of consumers looking for a chicken sandwich now, at least not when 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 expects disruptions. It differs in that it is not just another chicken sandwich in the mix, but more of a sandwich and a taco, as mentioned in his press release.

The approach can work very well as consumers are sure to want different choices from time to time and chicken sandwich options are becoming ubiquitous, yet fairly homogeneous.

This is the same approach Taco Bell took when it launched breakfast in 2014 – not just breakfast options, but also differentiated options like the cheesy toasted breakfast burrito and the breakfast crunchwrap. Some analysts pointed this out Taco Bell’s foray into the morning part of the day as a reason, McDonald’s lost a portion at breakfast.

Taco Bell also has the benefit of a large floor space – around 7,000 US units – for those craving chicken sandwiches (compared to around 2,500 for Popeyes and around 4,000 for KFC) and a veto-friendly menu of beef and vegetarian options.

Taco Bell can also have a price advantage. The sandwich taco sells in test markets for $ 2.49. In context, Popeyes’ Chicken Sandwich is $ 3.99, comparable to similar options on the market.

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