For a long time, fast food meant burgers. But a couple of years back, that began to change in earnest with the start of the Chicken Wars. And this year, attention turned to the water with the introduction of some popular fish sandwich players. But hasn't something been overlooked? That's right, let's talk turkey.
While turkeys are not known for their flight prowess in the wild, some believe they could really fly with QSR customers today. (Photo: iStock)
Popularity-wise, it's rough being an edible non-bovine animal in the land of quick-service restaurant consumers. After all, cows have pretty much nailed the win for the most popular protein really since QSRs first sprang up in the U.S. about a century ago.
Granted, of late, beef is getting some pretty hefty competition in the fast food face-off from all those fried chicken sandwiches, while fried fish sandwiches have also hooked their share of attention recently.
But amid all these meets of the "meats" — as Arby's puts it — one pretty prominent protein player has gotten all but overlooked: turkey.
In fact, at QSRweb, we had no reality-based idea just how severely turkey has been overlooked as a fast food protein possibility until we got the data-based scoop on the subject, via an interview, from those restaurant industry info gurus at Black Box Intelligence.
Black Box Vice President, Insights and Knowledge Victor Fernandez agreed to run the numbers and see just how each of the main proteins of the American palate stack up, popularity-wise, on the restaurant landscape. What he found might trigger a few raised eyebrows among even the most jaded players on the restaurant landscape.
"The fried chicken sandwich has certainly gotten a lot of buzz over the last few years and it's louder again recently. As with the burger wars of the 1980s and 1990s, it will eventually be replaced by another 'hot' item. It's just the nature of the business."
-Richie Jenkins/Butterball
"The relative popularity of fish or turkey based on mentions by guests in their online reviews compared to the proteins that typically dominate in restaurants (beef and chicken) remains low and did not see much improvement over the last year," he said after analyzing the numbers.
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| The Bojangler is Bojangles' fish sandwich entry.(Bojangles/File) |
To collect its data, Black Box Intelligence uses direct data feeds of online reviews from all the major players, including Yelp. Currently, it's tracking more than 600 restaurant brands and found that for all restaurant categories an analysis of guest reviews and comments show that for every 100 mentions that involved beef, there were only 18 mentions that involved fish in 2019, and even fewer — 15 — in 2020. When the company stacked mentions of fish up against that recent rising star of the restaurant world — chicken — it found that for every 100 mentions of chicken "fish-related" terms got 34 mentions in 2019 and 30 in 2020.
But again, those numbers are from mentions across all restaurant service categories. When the company looked at the popularity of fish across limited-service brands, the fish mentions sank like they had swallowed a belly-full of lead.
"And (fish's) relative popularity dropped in 2020," Fernandez said. "For every 100 mentions of beef-related terms, fish was mentioned only six times in 2019 and three times in 2020. For every 100 mentions of chicken, fish was mentioned six times in 2019 and four times in 2020."
Turkey's fast food flight so far ...
Okay, so you may be asking what all that fast food fish and chicken data has to do with turkey anyway, right? Well, just this: Turkey fared even more poorly than all that bottom-feeding fast food fish in those same rankings, including a mere six mentions in 2019 of turkey for every 100 mentions of beef, and just five in 2020. It did do slightly better than its face-off with the cows, when compared to chicken, with every 100 QSR customer mentions of chicken equating to seven mentions of turkey in 2019 and six in 2020. But still, not much to gobble about.
So why is this? Why is this lovable — and we have to admit, highly excitable bird (if you've ever been on a turkey farm, you understand) — not exciting American fast food consumers as they drive thru, eat in or even receive their fast food favorites via delivery? For enlightenment we immediately thought of that company who — at least in the U.S. — has become synonymous with all things of the turkey — Butterball.
Now, we should point out first that the gentle folk at this Southeastern U.S. company were hesitant to even talk to QSRweb about the topic of their bird's popularity in the fast food ring. No, there's not some kind of conspiracy afoot in the turkey world, rather the company's leaders were worried their words might be misconstrued as bashing other edible animals in the barnyard, like chicken or beef. But fortunately, Butterball leadership finally did agree to take some questions about the popularity of the wattle-wearing bird, perhaps seeing that fast food operators needed a little enlightenment about the bird's potential gobble-able-goodness.
Plus, Butterball is, after all, the largest U.S. producer of turkey products, which the company said all come from birds raised on family-owned farms that are mostly situated in the states around its Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina headquarters. And that's is also where Richie Jenkins, Butterball Foodservice's director of Business Development/Marketing, responded to our fast food-focused inquiries about the potential of turkey in the quick-service realm.
Q: As a turkey-centered business, how does Butterball see all the quick-service restaurant industry's overall infatuation with chicken and particularly the chicken sandwich?
A:The fried chicken sandwich has certainly gotten a lot of buzz over the last few years and it's louder again recently. As with the burger wars of the 1980s and 1990s, it will eventually be replaced by another "hot" item. It's just the nature of the business.
We know diners want to see variety on menus. They want to see emerging flavors and they want to see them in new and unique applications. As a turkey-centric business, we think about how turkey aligns to those demands and we bring those solutions forward.
"Fifty percent of millennials want to see more turkey burgers on menus."
Q: How does turkey stand up as a competing option to chicken, particularly as a fried sandwich protein? In fact, do you know of a traditional fast food outlet that is serving a fried turkey sandwich?
A: We're confident that anything you can do with chicken, you can do with turkey. But in all honesty, we feel that way about other proteins, as well.
Turkey is an exceptionally versatile ingredient, which I think sometimes gets overlooked. If you were to visit our website, you'd see we feature a lot of recipes with turkey where you'd typically see other proteins used. Turkey in unexpected places as we call it.
Bringing recipes like these forward is meant to inspire operators and help them ideate interesting ways to use turkey instead of beef, pork or even chicken on their menu. But is there a deep-fried turkey sandwich out there right now? Not sure. Should there be, and could there be? Absolutely.
Q: What kind of interest has Butterball foodservice had from traditional value-based fast food brands about really getting some turkey entrée players in the fast food mix?
A: We currently provide many QSR chains with high-quality turkey products, but as a matter of practice or due to confidentiality reasons, we don't disclose specific customers or the details of our partnerships.
Q: What kind of use of turkey does Butterball and its experts feel might be the biggest area of missed opportunities for today's fast food brands?
A:According to the most recent Technomic Poultry Report, 40% of consumers say they would order turkey more often if it were available, and 42% strongly agree that restaurants should offer more turkey-centric dishes outside of the holidays. So simply not menuing turkey is a missed opportunity.
Another area would be around the health-halo that turkey brings to the table. Technomic indicates that 78% believe turkey is healthy or very healthy, which is tied with chicken at No. 1. Turkey is considered healthier than beef, pork, and even vegetarian and vegan substitutes. When asked why they purchase turkey instead of another item when away from home, the top reasons consumers give are quality/taste and the fact that it's a healthy option.
Our own research shows a strong connection between healthy eating and turkey in that the more focused a consumer is on health and wellness, the more likely they are to order turkey at restaurants. It's because among these diners, turkey is seen as a protein that delivers on the variety of health benefits they find important in proteins.
That suggests there is an opportunity for chains to add (real or perceived) better-for-you items featuring turkey to their menu in order to strengthen their nutritional image and potentially avoid the veto vote by those that may consider fast food locations less healthy than others.
Q: Can you tell us about some ideas of turkey offerings Butterball has developed that might work in the very fast, very demanding QSR environment?
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| Butterball's fast food culinary creation suggestions include the Buffalo Turkey Burger.(Butterball) |
A: We believe turkey works in virtually every application a chef can envision. To do that, we offer an extensive portfolio of products, from raw roast, cooked breast and a plethora of sliced options to ground turkey, turkey bacon, turkey sausage and turkey burgers. We can also collaborate with chains to create custom products or applications depending on their business objectives.
Are they looking for ways to differentiate from competitors, increase traffic or increase check averages? Turkey can help with all three.
For specific examples, you can't think of QSR without thinking burgers. Consumers want burger variety: 63% say they enjoy turkey burgers as well as other proteins and 50% of millennials want to see more turkey burgers on menus. Twenty percent of consumers say they always prefer turkey burgers, and that goes up to 32% for those aged 18-34. So offering a turkey option would be appealing to them. Chains could make burgers from scratch with ground turkey if preferred, or they can take advantage of a pre-made patty for operational efficiency and greater consistency.
Another really relevant QSR area would be breakfast, as 67% (of consumers) see themselves eating a turkey product for breakfast — with millennials over-indexing at 72%. Using turkey bacon or turkey sausage would be an easy swap and attractive to millennials who want to see more turkey bacon on menus and are said to be the drivers of the breakfast sandwich trend.
Q: What do you honestly see as the biggest challenges to incorporating more turkey into the fast food landscape of customer offerings?
A: The biggest challenge is getting that first turkey item on the menu. We all know the name of the game is cross-utilization, especially when it comes to protein. Once a chain has an established menu, they maximize efficiencies by using those same ingredients over and over again, even when creating LTOs. It makes sense for a lot of reasons, particularly because bringing in a new code means a lot of work and coordination by countless departments and disciplines within a chain organization.
For those that don't currently have turkey on the menu, our message is that it's worth the effort. We know that when eating out 70% of Americans are already ordering turkey at least occasionally. In fact, less than one in 10 say they never order turkey.
Within this group of foodservice turkey consumers, if you look at the highly in-demand millennial diner, 40% say they are ordering turkey regularly away from home, 50% say they would order turkey items more often, if prepared with innovative flavors, and 63% want to see more turkey sandwiches on menus.
That last number goes up for Gen X and Boomers. So the demand is there and our message to QSR operators is once you get a turkey item on your menu, you will realize the potential it has both from a patron demand and a usage/culinary perspective.
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