Kluck’s Krispy Chicken

Kluck’s Krispy Chicken Brand & Go-to-Market Strategy

Overview

I initiated a three-month pro bono consulting engagement with Kluck’s Krispy Chicken as the business was expanding from its original restaurant to a second location and a ghost kitchen in Salt Lake City. I worked directly with the primary owner and several partner owners as the project’s marketing and creative consultant, leading research, strategy, brand development, and hands-on creative execution.

Challenge

Expansion exposed two connected problems: awareness of the newer locations was low, and the brand was being presented inconsistently across the business. The company also lacked clearly documented ownership, approval processes, and operating procedures across important business and marketing channels, making it difficult to execute decisions consistently as the organization grew.

Rather than treating the engagement as a logo or campaign refresh, I approached it as a broader brand and go-to-market problem. Alongside the marketing work, I recommended establishing clearer documentation for responsibilities, approvals, and channel ownership so future initiatives could be executed more consistently.

Research & Strategy

I conducted competitive research and reviewed available POS data, including order frequency, customer spend, and menu-item behavior, to better understand how customers were using the restaurant.

That analysis helped me define distinct customer segments and develop a strategic plan for reaching them with more relevant messaging, offers, and channel tactics. The goal was to move beyond broad restaurant advertising toward communications informed by actual purchasing behavior.

I developed a marketing strategy connecting brand messaging, social content, email, paid search, local awareness, and retention. The messaging emphasized product truths that could differentiate Kluck’s, including fresh, never-frozen chicken, made-from-scratch meals, homemade sauces, generous portions, and the chicken sandwich as a central product story.

Creative Direction & Execution

I personally developed and executed the creative work for the engagement, including brand identity exploration, campaign concepts, presentations, social assets, video, mockups, email creative, and supporting marketing materials.

For photography, I worked with existing food imagery supplied by one of the partner owners rather than producing a new photo shoot.

I also developed a recurring social content plan and proposed separate local and search advertising approaches by location so targeting could reflect the different awareness needs of each restaurant. A broader segment-based campaign strategy was developed from the POS research, although the engagement ended before those campaigns could be fully built and launched.

Implementation & Outcome

Only portions of the proposed brand direction were adopted. While I was exploring a broader identity and marketing system for the growing business, the primary owner ultimately favored a more product-first approach centered on the strength of the chicken sandwich itself.

The engagement concluded before the complete marketing strategy could be implemented. Because I no longer have reliable performance records from the project, I am not attributing sales, conversion, foot traffic, engagement, or customer lifetime value gains to this work.

Instead, this project demonstrates how I approached a growing business with an interconnected set of brand, marketing, audience, and operational challenges. I diagnosed the underlying problems, used customer and competitive data to shape strategy, developed a scalable creative direction, executed the work hands-on, and identified organizational constraints that could limit successful implementation.