Boston Chicken was founded in1989 to sell rotisserie-cooked chicken, vegetables, and other side dishes in line with traditional home cooked meals. Boston Chicken is said to have, “… developed the secret for delivering generous quantities of home cooking at affordable prices, and for transforming the mom-and-pop business into a new category called take-out home-cooked food.”
Boston Chicken’s business strategy
Success factors
Boston Chicken’s strategy is to be a leader in the home meal replacement market. Customers in this market are families looking for an affordable alternative to cooking at home. They also want high quality meal replacements that are healthy and convenient. Boston Chicken meets this demand by conveniently offering fresh, flavorful, meals with a taste of traditional home cooking such as macaroni and cheese, baked chicken, and mashed potatoes.
A key success factor in conveniently offering meal replacements is to locate stores in large metropolitan markets. Boston Chicken used a different franchising strategy than that used by other successful franchisers. Its focus was on franchising to regional developers rather than selling franchises to many small franchisees.
Its franchising strategy led to a network of 22 regional franchises targeting the 60 largest U.S. metropolitan markets. Each franchisee had to open 50 to 100 new stores in the franchise region owned. A second component of the franchise strategy involved selling franchises to owners with 15-20 years of relevant management experience and strong financial resources.
Another goal of Boston Chicken’s was to keep pace with changing consumer tastes. This coincided with its strategy of offering meals that customers view as convenient since offering meals tha ...