The RB Big Interview series brings you in-depth conversations with the industry’s most influential leaders, innovators, and visionaries who are shaping the future of Australia’s restaurant and hospitality landscape.
Rachel Korbel has spent more than 25 years in marketing, with 11 of those dedicated to the QSR sector. Now serving as CMO of Pappa Flock, she’s helping to drive one of Australia’s most exciting new fried chicken concepts. The latest opening (this week) sees Pappa Flock Mt Gravatt join Chermside in Queensland, alongside Sydney locations at Parramatta, Westfield Miranda, Frenchs Forest, Casula, Westfield Eastgardens, Macquarie Centre, Rouse Hill, Westfield Bondi Junction, and Marrickville.
We spoke to Rachel about the brand’s meteoric rise, its approach to social media marketing, and how it’s differentiating itself in an increasingly crowded market.
Tell us about your journey to Pappa Flock and how your background prepared you for this role.
I’ve been in marketing for more than 25 years. I have worked in many different industries over the years, but 11 of those have actually been in the QSR sector. I like to say QSR is in my blood, so Pappa Flock was just a natural evolution for me, just because I know the industry and the challenges so well.
I’ve worked at the big corporates where I’ve really been able to get a whole combination of different learnings, and I think I’ve definitely been able to apply the best parts of each brand, because with every brand comes learning.
What keeps you passionate about the QSR industry?
I think it’s just the breadth of marketing, of the marketing mix, really. With QSR and fast food, there is every element of the customer experience that you’re impacting, whether it’s from store design right through to socials and advertising. It really is a very broad brush, and really being able to experience every single aspect of that customer experience. And it’s just such a fast-moving and fun space – very competitive, very challenging, but just always moving. So I love that.
Tell us about Pappa Flock’s origins and what gap you identified in the market.
We started Pappa Flock really from our love of American-style fried chicken, and we do serve American-style fried chicken, but we’re very much an Australian-born brand. We have a very strong Australian personality. We started the Pappa Flock brand in Parramatta back in January 2023, and we’ve expanded quite quickly. We have actually been blown away by the support that we’ve been given.
From an industry point of view, where we actually saw the gap was in that green space between QSR and the fast-casual space. So we sit very neatly between that. We have the fundamentals of a QSR – super speedy service, sharp price points, value items, generous portion sizes that you get from the more established QSRs – but we also offer that very elevated experience that you would expect from a fast casual. So you walk into our store and you see art installations, we offer free still and sparkling water fountains, and then, of course, we’ve got premium products. Our product, unlike any other fried chicken QSR, we only serve 100% real chicken tenderloins, not tender breast strips. So that’s where we’ve really found our niche.
Why was Parramatta chosen as your first location?
It was a test market first and foremost. We definitely wanted to start off with a High Street store. For us, it was really important that customers could actually come in, experience the brand, dine in – that was really important to us. So we found a really great location on Eat Street, which, of course, is the heart of Parramatta. And as you probably know, Parramatta is amazing – it’s got such a diverse audience. So it just means that we could start connecting with such a diverse customer set and really introduce the brand to get a sense of where we were resonating.
What was the early response from the local community?
Overwhelming. We were actually blown away by how quickly we were getting support from the community. First and foremost, we don’t have the ridiculously large marketing budget of the established QSRs, so we were absolutely obsessed with, and we still obviously are obsessed with, providing or serving the juiciest, crispiest, crunchiest chicken tenders. It’s all about the details for us. From day one, it was about making sure that we always served 100% real chicken tenderloins that would just really pack a punch and really appeal to fried chicken lovers, and it did. From day one, our Google reviews were incredibly positive, and they still remain above 4.7.
How do you see Pappa Flock fitting into the current economic climate where families are being more selective about dining out?
Despite the cost of living pressures, what we’re seeing is exactly that – our customers are still prepared to spend on flavour, on quality, on brand connection, on experience. And I think for us as a brand, we definitely can connect to our community through dynamic ways and creative ways, and that’s bringing them to the brand. That’s how we’re continually engaging with them and really keeping that loyalty. We see ourselves more as a place to experience rather than just a place to eat.
How do you balance rapid expansion with maintaining quality and consistency?
We have always had a very single-minded obsession about making sure that we’re always providing the juiciest, crispiest, crunchiest chicken tenders in town. It’s always been our guiding light. So with that, we don’t want to be everything to everyone. If you look at our menu, it’s a very curated, disciplined menu, which is definitely more about quality over quantity. In doing that, we’re really being able to focus on consistency. We are obsessed with the details. We make sure everything from our custom packaging design, portion control, right through to our best-in-class kitchen equipment – we are absolutely fine-tuning every little element to make sure that there’s optimal quality, consistency and speed. So even though we’re expanding, we are keeping it relatively simple.
You’ve seen significant success on social media. What’s driving that?
I think, really, from day one, we’ve always done things differently. There is definitely that sense of the unexpected with the Pappa Flock brand, and I think that’s really resonating with our customers and keeping them engaged and keeping them loyal. Don’t underestimate the power of TikTok is what I would recommend. We’re at an interesting time in the QSR space where the viral nature of a lot of those American cultures is having a huge impact, and we’re definitely seeing that.
Even though we do serve American-style fried chicken, we are very much an Australian-born brand. We have a very authentic Australian personality, and that really comes out very clearly in all our socials, and that is what’s resonating with the community. If you have a look at our socials, they’re really playful, they’re really fun, they’re very authentic. We obviously love jumping on trends, and that’s really connecting well with the community. We just have a lot of fun with our customer crew on socials, and that’s really worked well for us.
How do you integrate your restaurant teams into your social media strategy?
As we expand into New South Wales and Queensland, we’re not just opening new stores. We’re always thinking, how do we embed ourselves into the local community so we can really offer our customers the most authentic experience? That’s why we’ve really leaned heavily into using crew – generally local crew – in our socials, because they’re the face of our brand. They bring so much life and so much vibrancy to the in-store experience, and we want to try and reflect that onto our socials. We’re just so lucky that we have such an amazing crew.
And also it means that we can get the best out of our crew – when they feel part of something big, then they’re just happier, they work harder, and they also give a better experience to customers. So it’s a win-win for everyone.
What advice would you give to operators looking to engage with social media and marketing?
I’ve had experience with both in-house and external approaches, and I actually don’t think there’s a carte blanche solution for anyone in particular – it really depends on the circumstances. For us, we have very rock-solid partnerships, and we have amazing agency partners that always ensure we get the most amazing creative and out-of-the-box thinking, but equally, they’re just as engaged and integrated into our internal teams.
For us, what works is that we have that very symbiotic relationship with agency partners and internal teams. For me, I think that is the critical piece, because you always want to have someone who understands a brand, and it feels very authentic.
What feedback are you getting about your food quality and menu?
First and foremost, we do serve American-style fried chicken, but we have definitely developed a menu that suits the Australian palate – that’s been really important to us. We know that Australian customers are looking for quality and freshness, and I think we deliver that in spades. We’re 100% committed to delivering that 100% real chicken tenderloins, and we also hand-bread these every morning in store.
I think customers are absolutely noticing that, because it’s not the big marketing budgets that’s really been getting us out there. It’s the fact that our product is just uniquely different and uniquely high quality and flavourful. We are obsessed with the details. We’re always looking at customer feedback, and our chef, Eddie Cofie, is always fine tuning the menu to make sure that we’re responding to customer feedback and that we’re always improving little details that the customer probably wouldn’t even see
There’s also our cult favourite lemonade, which is freshly squeezed lemons in store every day. Our tomato salsa is fresh, so yes, we’re very fastidious about achieving that freshness and that quality.
What operational challenges are you facing as you scale the business?
That really comes back to the point about not just expanding through opening stores – it’s about embedding ourselves into that local community, really creating those authentic customer experiences. And that takes a lot of operational synchronicity and fine tuning. For us, it’s having an obsession with delivering the best quality we can possibly deliver with the consistency and the speed that you would get from a traditional QSR, but making sure that we’re always elevating that experience that you would expect from a fast casual.
And probably one of the biggest challenges that everyone in the business faces is training – because our crew are always front facing we have very stringent training programs backed by a learning management system to ensure that our crew is really well trained.
What do you think some international QSR brands have misunderstood about the Australian market?
I think we have the advantage of being an Australian brand – we have a very strong Australian ethos. We understand what Australian consumers need, and that’s different from other markets. Some of the international brands obviously struggle with that, and for us, it’s definitely something that we believe differentiates us from these new entrants.
We’re so committed to making sure that we embed ourselves in the local community and that we really offer our customers those memorable moments that really matter to Australians. Little things like you walk into our new store design – they’re so fun, they’re so vibrant, they have such a vibe. You’re just not going to get that with an established QSR coming into the market – it just feels very different.
We offer other things that differentiate us. We offer those free still and sparkling water fountains. We have in-store hand basins. We offer extra-large napkins. It’s those little details that set us apart. And then, of course, the big one is definitely the quality of our chicken. A lot of these new entrants, because of their volume requirements, will struggle, but we are absolutely committed to always providing the juiciest, crispiest, crunchiest tenders in town. It’s always about that 100% real chicken tenderloin, not your tender breast strip.
Looking ahead, what are your hopes for Pappa Flock over the next year?
The thing that would warm the cockles of my heart is really seeing the brand expand into New South Wales and Queensland. But it’s not so much about new stores. It’s really, have we really been able to connect with local communities? Do our customers feel that we’re consistently offering that authentic experience and the best tenders in town? That’s why customer feedback and reviews will always be important to us. We’ll always make sure that we will never settle for not delivering something exceptional.
