Triarc's purchase of Wendy's, America’s 3rd largest fast-food hamburger chain, was completed two weeks ago, and blather about the brand was noticeably absent from the new owner's comments about future plans.

That was good news.

It would have been far easier to talk about branding, as most of its competitors do, as if it's a given that hamburger chains are all but identical save for their outbound marketing nonsense:

• Burger King has spent unconscionably vast amounts of money on promoting awareness of its creepy mascot, and has had the audacity to lecture the otherwise discerning experts at the Harvard Business Review about it "participating in the conversation" and "giving up the brand"
• McDonald's has forsaken a focus on its eponymous clown to instead give consumers a litany of forgettable phrases -- the latest being "I'm Lovin' It," unless I'm forgetting one -- and waste millions on trying to overcome the legitimate perceptual gap between its food and its suitability for the diets of Olympic athletes
• Jack-in-the-Box gave us the talking car antenna ornament years ago, while Taco Bell (OK, not literally a burger joint) presumed that the best thing it could do with its branding dollars was to make its name synonymous with a nervous chichuahua

Even Wendy's was, until recently, guilty of the same addiction, giving the world those incomprehensible spots with the guy in red pigtails wig.

While consumers were certainly aware of this noise -- it is often hard to avoid, considering how much money is spent on it -- I'm not sure it had anything to do with driving brand preference...as measured by the only real measure that's, well, measurable (or meaningful): sales.

Instead, what drivers preference are all the less-sexy things that never get heralded in stock analyst reports or trade magazine stories: menu, pricing, food taste, quality of restaurant, employee service, hours of operation, availability of a clean bathroom, whatever.  It is from these qualities that consumers brand the chains.

The good news is that Wendy's isn't taking the easy way out, which would have been to hire some brand strategy firm to come up with a new look-and-feel image campaign.  Since that approach is irrelevant, at best, and doomed, more likely, it's particularly good news for its shareholders and employees.

Wendy's says that it will target 24-49 year-olds, and develop an offering and experience to meet the needs of that demographic.  The branding campaign can and should follow that development, less as the strategy itself and more of a tactic to deliver it... along with the operations standards, shipping requirements, staff training, etc.

I'm curious to see what they come up with, as I just barely squeeze into their target market.  May their good news taste as good as it sounds.