How Chili’s marketing works

How Chili’s marketing works — and why Mexican QSRs are its next target

CMO George Felix dug into the casual dining chain’s past successes and pathway for future growth at Brinker International’s recent investor day.

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Chili’s continues to defy the odds — and persistent economic pressures — notching its 21st consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth in its fiscal 2026 Q4 ended June 24. At parent company Brinker International’s investor day last week, executives detailed how Chili’s drives sustained success and where it still sees white space for future growth.

A major factor behind Chili’s growth has been a marketing machine led by Brinker CMO George Felix, who joined Chili’s in 2022 and was promoted earlier this year to oversee marketing for the entire company, which also includes Maggiano’s Little Italy. 

Under Felix, Chili’s has adopted the Relevance, Ease, Distinctiveness, or R.E.D., framework that was pioneered by former Yum Brands executives Greg Creed and Ken Muench. Before joining Chili’s, Felix spent nearly six years in various marketing roles for KFC and Pizza Hut when both were part of Yum.

While “ease” is mostly the purview of Chili’s operations function, marketing looks to build relevance and distinctiveness in a variety of ways. Over the last few years, Chili’s has returned to relevance by using brand purpose as its North Star; driving buzz through a steady cadence of what the brand calls “culture pop” marketing activations; and developing and deploying insight-driven advertising.

Value runway leads to Mexican food

Central to Chili’s marketing and advertising is a focus on value. Over the last three years, the chain’s value perception amid the general population has increased by 50%, per YouGov data cited by Felix, making it the leader amid a competitive set that includes both casual dining and fast casual restaurants. 

In addition, Chili’s value perception among consumers who have seen its advertising is even further ahead of its competitors, Felix added. While its ad awareness has grown by about 40% in the last three years, Chili’s still lags competitors in the space; awareness of its advertising is eight points behind Chipotle, for example. 

“There are still probably large pieces of the population that have not seen or been exposed to the ‘Better Than Fast Food’ campaign,” Felix said during the presentation. “We think there’s still a lot of runway to go.”

Since 2024, the “Better Than Fast Food” campaign has seen Chili’s take on competitors’ offerings, including the Big Mac, the quarter pounder with cheese and the chicken sandwich, with efforts that turned social media chatter about the high cost of fast food into gains in new categories. 

The next iteration of the campaign could see Chili’s take on Mexican QSR offerings — a category the chain believes it has a right to win, considering it already offers quesadillas and fajitas. While such a move could be two years away per Felix, the possibility demonstrates how Chili’s plans to repeat the playbook of previous campaign successes.

Growing with Gen Z

Beyond its value-driven menu and marketing plays, Chili’s has used “culture pops” as a lever to grow sales and traffic. Such plays have included a Lifetime movie, a Halloween costume and a Lizzo remake of its iconic baby back ribs jingle. The chain has seen high correlation between the buzz these activations generate among Gen Z consumers and its monthly sales results, per YouGov data cited by the brand.

“The difference between when most brands have a viral moment and what we’ve done at Chili’s is that ours [have] sustained,” Felix said. “Most brands have a viral moment and their sales spike for one to three weeks, then their business normalizes again.”

Felix attributed the success of such cultural plays to a best-in-class social media capability at Chili’s. For example, TikTok Market Scope data cited by the brand shows Chili’s far surpasses the casual dining competition in earned views on TikTok, a metric that the chain uses as a proxy for relevance on the platform..

Overall, Chili’s uses a bifurcated media approach, running on linear TV and streaming, especially during sports broadcasts, and using social media to break through with younger, digitally native consumers. Over the last two years, Chili’s has grown total guests across age cohorts, with Gen Z now making up 25% of the chain’s total guest mix, per the investor day presentation.

“We are not alienating the core audience. We are continuing to keep those big fans of Chili’s engaged while we’re introducing Chili’s to an entirely new generation of guests, and so we will continue to take this balanced approach as we grow,” Felix said.

Chili’s has had remarkable success recently, doubling sales of its five key menu items in the last three years. But it also has a pipeline of innovation that it plans to roll out as it looks for a greater share of a $116 billion casual dining market, of which it currently has about a 5% share, per the investor presentation.

“Chili’s marketing success is a result of disciplined execution of our strategy, not luck,” Felix said. “We have a proven marketing model that is going to continue to drive new guests into our restaurants.” 

Filed Under:Social Media,CMO Corner,Brand Strategy