“Improving their food quality was the first leg of a three-legged stool to reinvent their brand, involving quality food, more contemporary restaurants and better service.” That’s how restaurant analyst Larry Miller of RBC Capital Markets describes changes by officials of Jack in the Box Inc., who are engaged in an ongoing campaign to update and upgrade the company’s namesake quick-service chain.
Calling the chain a leader in product innovation, Miller says that the brand’s ciabatta sandwich line is an example of how Jack in the Box is turning out high-quality, premium products.
The Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta sandwich, winner of the 2007 MenuMasters Award for Best Menu/Line Extension, was developed to give consumers more choices within the chain’s popular ciabatta line, which was introduced in 2005, said Margaret Barretto, director of new product development for Jack in the Box.
Teka O’Rourke, director of menu marketing and promotions for Jack in the Box and a key player in the development of the Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta sandwich, says the new item also fits into the company’s reimaging plans.
“Part of our brand reinvention strategy is to elevate the menu and take it to that level beyond fast food as it’s known today,” O’Rourke says. “The ciabatta sandwich platform is all about high quality and freshness, so that certainly took the menu to the next level.”
A key to the sandwich is the bread, which is more than just a holder for the filling, Barretto says.
“It’s a wonderful, artisanal ciabatta bread,” she says. “It’s got a crispy exterior, and it has a tender bite on the interior. It has a little bit of a pull, almost like that crust that you get on a nice French roll, where it just has a little bit of tug on the top. When it’s toasted it has a really nice, crisp bite to it.”
After considering many possible flavor combinations, Barretto and her team ultimately decided on the chipotle chicken combination as it helped to “differentiate” the product line while still fitting into the ciabatta category that consumers already loved. It also added a flavor profile unlike those of the other sandwiches, she says.
“One of the thoughts behind the Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta was that consumers like bold flavors and more authentic flavors,” Barretto says. “As far as ethnic flavors go, I think chipotle is a nice authentic flavor that can add some smoky and spicy notes. It’s a well-rounded flavor, and it’s definitely becoming more familiar. You find it more and more in restaurants and QSRs so it’s not that far out there, and yet it’s different from the everyday flavors that you typically get.”
The Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta is made with either grilled chicken or “spicy crispy” deep-fried chicken on a ciabatta roll with sliced Cheddar cheese, green leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, bacon and chipotle sauce.
Item: Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta sandwichRollout: April 2006Company: Jack in the Box Inc.Headquarters: San DiegoUnits: 2,088Region: 17 states, mostly on the West Coast and in the Southwest with some locations in the Southeast and St. LouisDescription: a choice of grilled chicken or spicy crispy, deep-fried chicken fillet on artisanal-style ciabatta bread with Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon and smoky chipotle sauceWeight (with grilled chicken): 312 gramsWeight (with spicy crispy chicken): 297 gramsStandard price: $4.39Dish developers: Margaret Barretto, director of new product development; Cheryl Fogarty, director of consumer insights; Stephanie Henson, consumer insights; Teka O’Rourke, director of menu marketing and promotions; and Jamie Vanderwal, associate marketing manager
Offering the same basic sandwich with two types of chicken posed a challenge in making sure the sauce would complement both versions. Barretto says the sauce was the sandwich element that took the longest to “tweak and really refine.”
“We wanted something that was not too acidic,” she says of the sauce. “We wanted it to round out the flavors; we wanted it to go well with both the grilled fillet as well as our spicy chicken fillet. We didn’t want it too spicy to overpower the spicy chicken fillet and yet we wanted it strong enough to give a little kick to our grilled fillet.”
Rather than develop products like the chipotle sauce in-house and then seek a vendor that can replicate it, Barretto says that Jack in the Box officials go “to several vendors and describe the sauces we want.”
Barretto and her team choose the vendor they deem to have the product closest to what they have in mind and then work with the vendor to customize it—for example, adding more smoky flavor, or making it spicier or a different consistency.
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Working on development with the vendor that will actually produce the component helps jump-start the process and shortens the time between ideation and rollout, says Barretto, who adds that Jack in the Box typically rolls out about six new products each year.
The development of the Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta sandwich took about a year, she says.
