Session 5 - Wendys

Summary

• Netflix: Classic Disruption
• Mobile Wallet: Platform Disruption
• Google Car: Multi-sided Platforms
• Open Banking: Architectural Disruption
• Wendy’s: Leveraging Platforms

Wendy’s Case Study

Def: Multihoming

Maintaining an active presence on multiple platforms at the same time.

There is often no clean casual link on whether or not Wendy’s Twitter strategy increased sales or profits.

Valuing Marketing Strategies

1. Conservative Assumptions:
   1. Audience Growth
   2. Conversion: only a small fraction of new follers become customers ~5%
   3. Spending: New customers make limited, infrequent purchases
   4. Retention: some customers return in subsequent years
   5. Costs: Account for COGS and ongoing social media costs
2. Implication: Even under conservative assumptions, social media activity can generate meaningful incremental revenue and profit
3. Plausible estimates based on case facts (2017-2020):
   1. Incremental sales: 4-5 Million / year
   2. Incremental profit: 2-3 million / year

Definitions

• Multihoming
• Emergent Digital Strategy

Archive

Capitalizing on Social Media

Social media platforms have become a central arena for brand interaction, attention, and competition. Rather than building its own digital platform, Wendy’s chose to actively participate in existing social media platforms and leverage their affordances in unconventional ways. Its distinctive, humorous, and highly interactive social media presence generated significant attention and brand visibility—but raised important questions about value creation, measurement, and sustainability.

In this session, we examine how Wendy’s leveraged social media platforms, what it gained from this strategy, and whether such an approach can remain effective as platforms and technologies evolve.

Case: Wendy’s: Capitalizing on Emerging Social Media TrendsDownload Wendy’s: Capitalizing on Emerging Social Media Trends

Now that you have read the case, consider the following case questions and bring your answers to class.

Case Preparation Questions:   1. How did Wendy’s use social media differently from most other fast-food brands? 2. What types of value did Wendy’s generate through its social media strategy? 3. Did Wendy’s Twitter campaign increase the company’s sales and profits? 4. Did Wendy’s social media strategy emerge organically over time, or was it deliberately planned from the outset? 5. How can Wendy’s improve its social media strategy in the future?