Can “Delicious Weirdness” Beat Familiar Fast Food?


A product wins when it feels familiar enough to try and strange enough to remember. About a year ago, a colleague raved to me about the “delicious weirdness” of Jollibee. I smiled, filed it away, and moved on. Then I realized my small Canadian city already has four locations. The entire United States has around eighty. That is not an accident. The Atlantic recently captured what makes Jollibee work. On the surface it looks like American fast food. Bright lights. Big menus. Fried chicken and...