Feathers May Fly Over Wings

(Thursday, July 06, 2006) - A new TV commercial by the Wingstop chicken wing chain is likely to ruffle the feathers of more than a few pizza operators.

The 30-second spot, titled "Stick to Pizza," is largely a tongue-in-cheek effort featuring former Dallas Cowboys quarterback-turned-spokesman Troy Aikman. The Super Bowl champion tells customers that if they want wings from the experts, they should fly to Wingstop, not pizza operations. The script runs like this:

"You know, it seems there are a lot of places out there trying to sell you on some kind of chicken wing," Aikman says.

The scene—which, interestingly, changes to black and white—cuts to a pizzeria kitchen where a cook is confused over what to do with the pile of chicken wings before him. When he notices the pizza maker next to him tossing dough in the air, the cook takes the wings and clumsily does the same. When the wings fall in a heap onto the counter, the cook says to the pizza maker, "Maybe we should stick to pizza."

The scene
La Nova Pizza, one of the busiests pizza companies in the world, says half its sales come from fried chicken wings. Photo courtesy of La Nova Pizza.

switches back to color, when Aikman adds, "But nobody does wings quite like Wingstop. Best I've ever eaten. You're gonna love ‘em. Next time you want wings, leave it to the experts. "

Andy Howard, executive vice president of marketing for Dallas-based Wingstop, said the ad is the first "directly competitive" marketing move made by the 300-unit chain. He said Wingstop didn't set out to insult pizza operations, but it did want to make the claim that its wings are the best.

"We look around the market and ask ourselves, ‘Who are our competitors?' Well, the answer to that is, ‘Anybody selling wings,'" said Howard. Seventy-five percent of Wingstop's business is carryout, he added, and that makes pizza companies an even keener competitor. "We've obviously noticed pizza guys continuing to ad wings to their menus, so we know our headline has to be that we're the wing experts, that we're focused on wings more than anyone in country."

That pizza companies don't do wings well is a tough claim to accept, said Michael Dentico, vice president of sales for La Nova Wings in Buffalo, N.Y. The company, which is one of the largest suppliers of wings to the pizza industry, grew out of La Nova Pizza, one of the busiest independent pizza operations in the world. The company's two stores generate annual sales of $8.5 million, nearly half of which come from deep-fried wings.

"Being one of the major impetuses behind bringing wings to the pizza industry, I have to disagree with Wingstop's philosophy that wings aren't a pizzeria item," said Dentico. Wings produced by La Nova Wings are fully cooked for reheating in pizza ovens. "Pizzerias are really responsible for wings restaurants sprouting. It was the success of pizza and wings that gave wing concepts the ability to stand on their own."

For decades, wings have been a staple side item in Northeastern pizzerias and bars for decades. (A Google search of the term "pizza and wings" netted 7.8 million links.)

Figuring the rest of the nation would like them as well, the Todaro family, which owns La Nova, founded the wing company in 1994. Near that same time, Domino's Pizza launched wings on its menu nationwide, and fewer pizzerias than not have done the same.

"We literally sell several million chicken wings per week to the pizza trade, and we're obviously not the only company doing that," said Dentico. "So you can only imagine how many billions of wings per week are sold into the pizza trade overall."

All advertising is good

Marketing consultant Kamron Karington said Wingstop's tactics are the same he teaches to his pizzeria clients: establish a clear point of difference from the competition.

View all Wingstop Press Releases

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