Fast feeders usher in Lent with seafood specials

Nation's Restaurant News, March 8, 1993 by Robin Lee Allen

Mardi Gras may be over, but at least two fast feeders will continue the celebration with promotions that capitalize on Lent, the period of penitence and fasting for some religious faiths.

Both Popeyes and Captain D's Seafood have unveiled seafood specials to run from Ash Wednesday through Easter to capture business from individuals who do not eat red meat on Fridays during Lent as well as those who simply love seafood.

Popeyes' Seafood Celebration specials will vary by market but include fried pollack, popcorn shrimp, Cajun-battered fries, coleslaw and seafood gumbo. Captain D's has rolled out a Shrimp Celebration featuring four shrimp specials.

"In the whole fast-food arena, you'll traditionally see people coming out and promoting seafood, if not through Lent, at least for Holy Week," said Joe Scafido, Popeye's vice president for marketing. Holy Week is the week before Easter.

"Even outside of fast food, you see more dinner-house promotions," he added. "It's a natural tendency this time of year."

Popeyes, an 805-unit, New Orleans-based chicken chain, this year expanded its Lenten promotion to include not only platters of seafood but takeout specials, too.

In addition to a Fish Platter and a Shrimp/Fish Platter, Popeyes is also offering a Seafood Box with 20 pieces of fish, Cajun-battered fries and coleslaw. Prices for the Seafood Box vary by market but fall between $8.99 and $9.99. Seafood gumbo and a Fish/Shrimp Combination Box are also available as in-store trade-ups.

"This year we decided to develop both ends of the market," Scafido said. "There's a platter for the single user for the lunch daypart and an option for families to get whatever seafood product we're promoting to take home for the evening daypart."

To get the word out, Popeyes developed television, radio and print advertising, along with point-of-purchase pieces and colorful packaging for the takeout meals.

"This gets us into competition with Long John Silver's and Captain D's and dovetails with our New Orleans heritage," Scafido noted. "Popeyes will still sell a tremendous amount of chicken during Lent, but the seafood gives us incremental business. They can eat chicken one night and come and eat seafood the next."

Scafido expects the promotion to make up about 25 percent of sales and to increase incremental sales by 6 percent to 8 percent. Seafood, where it is offered during other times of the year, is usually about 4 percent of sales, he said.

To the north in Nashville, Tenn., Captain D's is looking to profit on shrimp's popularity by means of its shrimp specials.

"Shrimp is one of the most popular items with Captain D's customers," said Gregg Kaplan, the company's vice president of marketing. "We offer Shrimp Celebration because our customers want variety at a time of year when they traditionally tend to eat more seafood."

This variety includes a plate of popcorn shrimp for $2.99, a 10-piece shrimp dinner for $3.99, peel-and-eat shrimp for $4.99 and a 10-piece shrimp scampi dinner for $4.49. Each meal comes with fries, coleslaw and hush puppies.

"This is the first time the Shrimp Celebration has been offered with these four items on it," said Heather MacDonald, a company spokeswoman. "Basically, it's a new and innovative way to present seafood, and Captain D's is always looking for innovative ways to present it."

Captain D's, a 645-unit division of Nashville-based Shoney's Inc., is promoting the special through television, radio and freestanding inserts in newspapers, mailings and magazines.

Midwestern units, like those in Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky and Indiana, have shown the biggest boost in sales from past Lenten promotions, MacDonald said.