Dave's Hot Chicken

It moved quick.

So we're looking over the menu, reminding me of Dave's Hot Chicken.

Obviously, Hattie B's is way before Dave's Hot Chicken, but we have Dave's Hot Chicken by us, so that's kind of what we base these things off of.

So a lot more of an expanded menu at Hattie B's.

Looked like a good clientele, looked like a pretty good vibe in there, very busy.

Mm-hmm.

And they said, "Yeah, that's no problem." So you do that...

I do that at Dave's Hot Chicken too.

Because these newer brands have found an operational model that is perfectly insulated from the friction of a traditional scratch kitchen.

Look at Dave's Hot Chicken.

They just hit their 500th unit.

And if you dig into that source, the craziest part is they added 100 of those locations just since April.

Keep it simple.

Exactly.

Dave's Hot Chicken basically requires chicken tenders, bread, fries, and varying spice levels.

That means their global supply chain is incredibly simple to source.

So we'll keep an eye on that as well for when that will be opening next year.

We've also talked about Dave's Hot Chicken.

I think it's any day now that there will be opening.

So Jack, one of our coworkers, he said that last week he was like at the window.

Again, not at all for fun.

This was all business.

Just to really understand what's going on at Dave's Hot Chicken.

So what did you order? I ordered, like— I guess they're kind of like chicken nuggets, like chicken smaller pieces and then a couple dipping sauces.

Chicken and barbecue.

We've got Dave's Hot Chicken.

Hard not to love.

Yeah.

Church's chicken, Sonny's barbecue.

Yeah.

No, and Dave's hot chicken.

Holy cow.

I mean, look at like the fast food game.

Look in the last handful of years how popular Chick-fil-A has become or Dave's Hot Nashville or all the, you know, kind of these, I'm not going to say Johnny come lately, these In-N-Outs are now popping up more and more.

And that's, you know, that's killing the traditional powers.

So the four restaurant chains most likely to close in 2026, according to Finance Buzz, are Long John Silver's.

Or they're just...

Isn't McDonald's just kind of winning out in that space?

I think it's more like the Chick-fil-A's and the In-N-Out's and the Dave's in Nashville.

But McDonald's is doing fine.

What's the new channel? What's the new tactic? What's working somewhere else that they should be doing? But I sat down with a CMO who has built two of the most culturally relevant brand voices in restaurant marketing, and he said chasing is actually the problem.

Brandon Rhoten, CMO at Dave's Hot Chicken, explains why the most impactful marketing happens when the brand knows exactly what it stands for.

Simple in theory, hard in practice.

We also get into the product launch process, the real one, with ops testing, marketing testing, and building a calendar a year in advance, and why that discipline changes everything.

Let's get into it.

Today's episode of Franchise Marketing Spotlight is with Brandon Rhoten, who is CMO at Dave's Hot Chicken.

I'm excited to get into today's topic with Brandon.

We're going to be talking about product launches and how to go to market and influencer management, marketing, and all of that jazz.