Now trending: Why unique chicken wing flavors are hot

Americans love chicken wings, so much so that the shareable appetizer now has its own day.

Tomorrow, July 29, is National Chicken Wing Day, which means wing concepts all over the country will host special events to help customers get their hands on their favorite wing flavors. While hot wings and barbecue flavors are some of the most popular flavors, brands, such as Wing Zone and Naked Chicken, are getting more creative.

Wing Zone customers, for example, can order Cinnamon Maple, Mango Fire or Sweet Samurai wings, while Naked Chicken fans on Long Island can try Blueberry BBQ, Asian Ginger, Sriracha and Ghost Pepper.

"It’s about being innovative, unique and made in-house," said Gary Occhiogrosso, president and CDO of Trufoods, Naked Chicken's parent company. "We create flavors that range from 'one of a kind' to 're-purposing' flavors that may be traditionally used for other foods and developing it into a wing sauce."

Creating flavors

When it comes to launching new wing flavors, inspiration and the go-to-market process vary at Naked Chicken, Occhiogrosso explained.

"Sometimes, it's the traditional brainstorming session with one of the chefs we work with, where we talk about and test recipes that explore matching flavors or contrasting flavors and we taste and decide," he said, which is exactly how the team created the Blueberry BBQ Wing Sauce.

Other times, the process is serendipitous. Occhiogrosso created the maple bacon flavor after visiting his daughter in Denver, for example.

"I had this great doughnut that had a Maple/Bacon Glaze and thought, 'wow with a little tweaking this would make a great wing sauce.' So we're getting ready to roll that one out in the fall," he said.

Wing Zone, on the other hand, often crowd sources flavors via its social media competition called Flavor Face-Off, where fans submit new flavors and vote on favorites, said Dan Corrigan, Wing Zone's director of marketing.

"We will create and test the winning flavor to see what the reaction is and if it is sustainable as a permanent menu item," he said. "From this, we will also look to see if there are a number of similar submissions and take that into account."

Corrigan said the brand also asks franchisees and team members working in the stores what flavors they’re making for themselves.

"They eat Wing Zone every day, so they like to keep it fresh with new flavors or mixing flavors," he explained. "We also look into what are the trends within the foodservice industry and ask our vendors for help in that regard as well."

Getting customers to branch out

While some customers — especially millennials — are eager to try unique flavors, others need a bit of a push. When it comes to wings, many people usually have a go-to order, Corrigan said.

"We typically will make a point to push new flavors out to our current customers," he said. "Even the best flavors in the world need to have some trial before it is adopted by a customer on a regular basis. People generally will order the exact same thing they always order unless they're given an incentive or interested in the new flavors."

Occhiogrosso said there’s a similar split among flavor adventurists and those who get the same order each time they visit Naked Chicken.

"The foodies will try almost anything I'm happy to say, and the hardcore wing lovers are always looking for newer, unique and hotter," he said. "It's the ‘casual wing eater’ that becomes more of a challenge, so we do a lot of sampling in the restaurant. If you win over a guest who normally doesn't eat wings by serving them in a sauce they like, you've made a friend and new customer. They are also more likely to try the next new flavor as a result."

Both Occhiogrosso and Corrigan agree that providing unique flavor profiles has been an valuable way to keep customers happy and curious enough to come back for something new.

"Our guests love it, expect it, and see that as one of the major points of differentiation to Naked Chicken," Occhiogrosso said. "From our team's perspective, we want to be a leader in the wing space, we want to give our franchisees the best tools to do business and be set up for success. In addition, our mindset is to develop new flavors as wing sauces so we innovate vertically not horizontally. We don't want to copy, we want to create."

Cover photo: Submitted by Naked Chicken