ATLANTA — Visits to Chick-fil-A restaurants increased by 2.2 percent in the third quarter, apparently driven by those supporting the restaurant in the face of criticism over the issue of gay “marriage.”
Research specialist Sandelman & Associates reports that across the board — from consumer use to market share to ad awareness — Chick-fil-A’s numbers were up in the July–September period, a span that includes Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day in which hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the restaurant Aug. 1. USA Today and several other national outlets reported the data.
The appreciation day was a way for Chick-fil-A’s supporters to speak out in light of the criticism the restaurant was receiving after its president, Dan Cathy, defended the biblical definition of marriage.
Jeff Davis, president of Sandelman & Associates, said the controversy was “something that brought Chick-fil-A to the forefront of peoples’ minds.”
Sandelman surveyed more than 30,000 fast-food customers and found that Chick-fil-A’s market share was up .6 percent and its ad awareness up 6.5 percent.
It is an “unusual situation,” Davis told ABCNews.com, for a company to struggle in the public relations realm and to come out ahead in support.
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