In June, Carl’s Jr. took a shot at its fellow, longtime, California-centric burger chain Jack in the Box, with a campaign encouraging customers to show them proof that they passed a Jack in the Box on their way to a Carl’s location.
The campaign was part of a broader effort at Carl’s to get more attention.
“What we want from our advertising and media is breakthrough, is for our brand to stand out and be noticed for what it is doing best, which is to defy some conventions, push for that quality and differentiation,” Iwona Alter, president of Carl’s Jr., said in an upcoming episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive.
For a brand like Carl’s, such attention is crucial. Carl’s Jr. is one of the industry’s oldest burger chains. The brand was founded in Los Angeles in 1941, and it remains a California-centric business, with some 60% of its stores in the state, even as parent company CKE Restaurants operates out of Nashville.
The chain has struggled in recent years, including a 6% decline in system sales last year as the brand shuttered locations. Unit volumes, which peaked at $1.6 million in 2022, are down to $1.4 million as of the end of 2025. The brand has closed one out of every 10 of its locations since 2019.
Reversing that is not easy these days. Sales at fast-food burger chains have stagnated in the past couple of years, with growth below 2% annually, as consumers cut back on dining out.
Getting consumers in the door in an environment like this won’t just take marketing. The chain is looking to upgrade the way it prepares its burgers.
Carl’s has started cooking its burgers to order, which required a massive process change, but for which the brand has some high hopes.
“When you get your burger that is really prepared freshly cooked to order with crisp lettuce, with melty cheese, there’s really nothing like that pristine experience,” Alter said.
When the customer comes in, Alter said, workers immediately put a patty on the char grill to prepare the burger.
That is a big change from the previous model, in which patties would be prepared in advance.
“It’s basically transforming an operational system in the restaurant,” Alter said. Rather than have a predictive model determining how many customers come in, the company now prepares burgers to order. That has eliminated waste, and in the process makes customers happier.
“Carl’s has always been about quality and crazy great flavor,” Alter said. “That was the foundation. Then obviously our operations team worked through how the process would look like, and how that changes the flow in the restaurant.”
Carl's ran an ad campaign targeting Jack in the Box this summer. | Image courtesy of Carl's Jr.
But that is not the only way the company plans to improve its burgers. The company is planning to butter toast its buns and add seasoning to its burgers. “It’s a simple sandwich, but there is so much going on, in terms of temperature but also textures,” Alter said.
Carl’s is also planning advertising around its Angus Maximus, which features a third pound of Angus beef, two slices of cheese, onion, pickle, mayo, and special sauce on a brioche bun.
For Carl’s, the goal is to point out its quality. The brand has higher quality perceptions among consumers than most major burger chains outside of brands like In-N-Out, and Alter believes the company can improve those perceptions even further.
“The whole strategy is pointing out where Carl’s quality and value that we deliver is head-and-shoulders above the rest,” she said. “What we want from our advertising is breakthrough, is for our brand to stand out and be noticed for what it is doing best, which is defying some conventions, pushing for that quality and that differentiation.”
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