History of Wendy’s: Analysis of the Dave’s Single Advertisement

Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. The company moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio. on January 29, 2006.

The chain is known for its square hamburgers, sea salt fries, and their signature Frosty, a form of soft serve ice cream mixed with frozen starches. Wendy's menu consists primarily of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries, and beverages like the Frosty. Since the slow abandonment of their famous 'Big Classic', the company does not have a signature sandwich, such as the Burger king Whopper or the McDonald’s Big Mac.

However, the 'signature sandwich' seems now to be filled by the Dave's Single (introduced in 2011 as Dave's Hot 'N Juicy as a reworking of the longstanding Wendy's Single, shortened to simply Dave's in 2016), a burger featuring a squared patty, made with fresh ground beef rather than round frozen patties. Wendy's uses square hamburger patties – which sticks out of the bun – as its signature item.

The idea for Wendy's 'old fashioned' hamburgers was inspired by the ones from Kewpee Hamburgers in Dave Thomas’ hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Kewpee sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, like in the restaurant Thomas founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. Square patties had corners that stuck out so that customers could easily see the quality of the meat.

Thomas named the restaurant after his fourth child Melinda Lou “Wendy” Thomas. Photographs of her were on display at the original Wendy's restaurant until it closed.

In August 1972, Levi Shelton Hartzog, signed an agreement to open a Wendy’s restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana, as a franchise. Also, in 1972, Wendy's broadcast its first TV commercials that were only visible locally in Ohio. This series of commercials was titled 'C'mon to Wendy's', to stress Wendy's superiority through the 'Quality Is Our Recipe' slogan and featured an animated Wendy, along with dancing hamburgers.

Wendy's founded the fried chicken chain Sisters Chicken in 1978 and sold it to its biggest franchisor in 1987. In 1986, as the chain was knowing a slowdown, Wendy's restructured its cleanliness standards, menu, and other details to ensure that stores met the goals and standards of the parent company so that its franchises were competitive on the market. Garden Sensations salads were added in 2002.

Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of chicken sandwiches, fried and grilled. The spicy chicken sandwich was released as a promotional sandwich. It was later put permanently on the menu in 1996 because of its popularity and the fact that, compared to most promotional sandwiches, it was much more simple to make (it used the same condiments as the standard breaded chicken sandwich).

The Frescata line of sandwiches also went from being promotional items to main menu items. After several revisions, the Turkey and Swiss and the Ham and Swiss were put on the menu permanently. However, the Frescata sandwiches were removed from the menu in mid-December 2007. From times to times, some Wendy's restaurants offer a fried fish sandwich for some of its customers who desire fish instead of beef or chicken, like for instance conservative Christian communities, who do not eat meat on Fridays, and are a significant part of Wendy’s customers in America.

The Dave’s Single line came out in 2012 after a reworking of the Single, Double and Triple burgers, which had been in the menu nearly since the beginning of the chain. These burgers were then part of the Dave’s Hot ’n Juicy line, proposing burgers with a thicker patty, and whose edges where slightly rounded off. The storage temperature of cheese was increased, so that it could be melted completely over the patty. White onions were replaced by red onions, and mustard was removed from the recipe, letting only ketchup and mayonnaise as condiments. In 2016, the bun used was altered, making it more traditional.

This new line was introduced in early 2011 with an advertisement featuring the daughter of Dave Thomas, Melinda Lou “Wendy” Thomas-Morse. This advertisement was criticized by people finding Wendy Thomas too fat, in contradiction to the image of the little girl that inspired the logo of the chain.

This ad aimed to promote the Dave’s Single. The name is at the bottom. The picture of the burger is at the middle. The slogan, “Delicious because it’s different”, is at the top middle. On the left side, there is text explaining the qualities of the new bun, of the ingredients used. On the right, the quality of the meat is emphasized, and especially the fact that the meat used in Wendy’s burgers are 100% pure, North American, that the animals are raised on ranches near the restaurants and that the meat is never frozen. The poster mentions the “star”, the shape of the patty, a square. The text ends with “that’s how Dave did it”. On the right of the burger, there is a light bulb with the date “1969” written. The font used is white and the background is red, a color frequently used by fast food chains. Some drawings were added to illustrate what is written, like a truck transporting vegetables or a beef.

Analysis

The Dave’s Single is the signature burger of Wendy’s (McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Burger King has the Whopper…). Also this is not an advertisement for a new product, but for the new bun introduced by Wendy’s in early 2016. Dave Thomas was the founder of Wendy’s. 1969 date in the lamp: the year of foundation of the first Wendy’s restaurant, to underline the legacy of Dave Thomas. The company gives a great importance to maintaining the way Dave Thomas led his company and made his burgers.

The squared patty (the piece of meat) is also a signature from Wendy’s. According to the brand director of the chain, Frank Vamos, this was an idea from Dave Thomas to “make sure that the patty sticks out of the bun so that everybody can see it, see the juiciness”. Still according to him, this was a symbolic way to say that the fast food chain doesn’t cut corners (meaning: for a company, always opt for easy, quick and cheap decisions, omitting important things or ignoring rules). This philosophy of never “cutting corners” is said to come from Dave Thomas’ grandmother, Grandma Minnie. However, these square-shaped patties are not as squared as they used to be. In 2008, when Wendy’s merged with the Arby’s restaurant chain, tasting sessions were carried out and the company found out that the squared shape of the meat made people think the meat was over-processed (came from a factory, etc.).

So, in 2011, the company released a rounder, more natural-shaped new patty. But today’s Wendy’s burgers also have changed in their composition. As Dave Thomas wrote in his memoir (1991), “it takes a certain percentage of meat to make a good burger… instead, McDonald’s impressed me with their real estate and their potatoes”. Dave Thomas criticized McDonald’s for not putting enough meat in their burgers, but according to Tim Carman, in an article from the Washington Post, the patty in the Dave’s Single only makes up 35% to 32% of the burger. He says: “Dave’s Single has become the kind of burger that its founder once despised”.

Wendy’s chain has always ensured its customers that the meat used in its burgers was never frozen, which has always been a specificity of Wendy’s over its competitors. On the website of Wendy’s, we can read: “it may be easier and more cost-effective to use frozen beef like our competition, but cutting corners is not what we’re about”. But things are changing: in 2018, McDonald’s announced that it was switching Quarter Pounders’ meat to fresh meat in 3,500 of its restaurants in the USA.

This announcement was mocked by Wendy’s through Twitter, especially with pictures of poorly made burgers, that will still be made with frozen meat (Big Mac…). Wendy’s is indeed very aggressive towards its competitors (National Roast Day, January 4th). However, Wendy’s acknowledges using frozen meat in two American states, for obvious reasons: Alaska and Hawaii.

Here is the explanation for the slogan: “Delicious because it’s different”. At Wendy’s, they do nothing like their competitors: the meat is never frozen, beefs were raised in North America and the bun is bakery-style, made as Dave Thomas used to make it in his original recipe.

The color red is widely used by fast food chains. This can be explained by the color psychology. Red is exciting, stimulating and associated with activity. This color increases our heart rate which is the reason why you might get hungry when you pass by a Wendy’s restaurant (or a McDonald’s/Burger King in France). Yellow is another color used by fast-food chains, and the association of those both colors even led experts to the creation of the “Ketchup and Mustard theory”, in which these two colors are supposed to make you hungry, remind the taste of perfectly golden French fries with ketchup, and push you into consuming more food in these restaurants. This is why red color was used in this advertisement.

Finally, the font used reminds menu chalkboards used by street restaurants, to add a feeling of proximity for the consumers, and the drawings remind the fact that the products used are local and prepared just before being served

“Deliciously different'

We can consider that this new way to represent tradition and innovation is having success especially in North America because, as the advertisement explains it, the people are becoming aware about where they meals come from and not just the “quality”, so knowing that it comes from not far away comforts and reassures the people because is a local product. But the interesting thing is the loyalty of the consumers because as the company’s chief concept and marketing officer Mr. Kurt Kane said: 'With this new effort, we're more overtly celebrating the many delicious differences that customers tell us make Wendy's a cut above.' Meaning that they are focusing on customers’ desires more than the original recipe but conserving their “Dave’s single spirit”.

Unlike other fast-food restaurants, Wendy’s doesn't freeze meat. People are reacting in a positive way, but not just about this new “change”, also because wendy’s is focusing on health and that’s why they have been proposing salads since 2002 (that becomes even more popular than the sandwiches). And as we know, Wendy’s offers a different menu that consumers prefer.

Thanks to all this differences and innovations Wendy's Company is the world's third largest quick-service hamburger company. The Wendy's system includes more than 6,500 franchise and Company restaurants in the United States and 28 countries and U.S. territories worldwide, according to Forbes magazine.

To conclude, this ad promotes a burger that was already well-known among Wendy’s customers, the Dave’s Single. The ad boasts the qualities of the ingredients used and especially the bun and the meat, and uses an appealing picture on a red background, as it is usual for fast food advertisements. This ad is true to Wendy’s usual advertising, as it reminds the high quality of the meat and the fact that it was never frozen.

This type of advertising that focuses on the origin of the ingredients and on the history of the chain (1969 lamp, legacy of Dave’s Thomas) seems to be what people are looking for at the moment, after the numerous food scandals in recent American history (horse meat in Burger King burgers, Taco Bell meat that was actually only 88% beef, McDonald’s putting meat in the oil used to make fries...). In our opinion, the main goal of this ad is to obtain customers’ trust, and we think it does it well.