Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A

Robinson was Chick-fil-A's chief marketing officer for thirty-four years and this is his account of the brand's development, centred on the Eat Mor Chikin cow campaign that ran from 1995.

The marketing content covers the campaign's origin, which was a billboard concept from the Richards Group agency in Dallas, and its development into a long-running platform across media. Robinson's argument about why it worked is that it was a single idea maintained for decades rather than replaced each year, that the humour created affection rather than merely awareness, and that the campaign accomplished the specific strategic task of positioning chicken against beef, which was the category question the company needed answered.

The business material covers the operating decisions: the closure on Sundays, which Truett Cathy imposed for religious reasons and which Robinson argues also functioned commercially by giving operators and staff a guaranteed day and by making the closure itself a communicated value; the franchise structure in which operators run one store with a low initial fee and cannot own multiple locations, which produces owner-operators rather than investors; and the emphasis on service standards enforced through operator selection.

The book is a company insider's account and is devotional in places, particularly about Truett Cathy and the company's religious basis. It does not address the controversies over the Cathy family's political donations or the criticisms of the franchise model's constraints on operators. The marketing analysis of campaign longevity is the transferable part.