A Kentucky Fried Fiasco - Grilled Chicken Giveaway Turns Ugly

[QueenOfCalifornia]

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- KFC's grilled-chicken launch was to be the biggest in the chain's history. Now it might also go down as a marketing case study in what not to do.

The story starts with a marketer testing the elasticity of its brand. After all, we all know what the 'F' stands for in KFC, so suddenly insisting the consumer associate the fast feeder with grilled chicken, rather than the Colonel's fried version, was always going to be a stretch.

KFC thought the way to meet the challenge was to spend millions on a TV ad campaign from DraftFCB, Chicago. TV is a marketing channel that's worked well for other fast-food introductions, but the creative was simultaneously underwhelming and yet, by telling consumers to "Unthink KFC," seemed to undermine the chain's main game, fried chicken.
Whether it was working or not we may never know, because this was the point at which the marketer brought in the big gun, Oprah Winfrey, and the trouble really started. The company's offer on the daytime diva's talk show May 4 of two free pieces of grilled chicken, two sides and a biscuit to anyone who downloaded a coupon within a two-day period should have been a huge promotional coup. Instead, it turned into an unmitigated disaster when the company was unable to execute and actually had to rescind the offer.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=136551



The article goes on:
KFC's offer sent the chain skyrocketing to the No. 1 topic on Twitter. By Wednesday, blogs began reporting "riots" at New York City KFCs. On Thursday, local news crews interviewed fuming customers getting turned away in other markets, including Chicago. Consumers complained about rude service, and media complained about a PR team that seemed asleep at the wheel. By Friday, the day after KFC pulled the promotion, NPR was calling KFC "the James Frey of fast food," referring to the author of a memoir praised by Ms. Winfrey that was later exposed as fiction.

In the end, KFC managed to strain relationships with three core constituents: consumers, the media and franchisees that swallowed the cost of the free food themselves. "This is going to damage their brand," said Gene Grabowski, senior VP, Levick Strategic Communications.

[rcrush]

1. "This is going to damage their brand,"

Right. How is this going to change people from thinking KFC when they want greasy MSG rich fried shit that gives you stomach cramps?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

3. Mmmmmm

now you're making me hungry.

[peekaloo]

4. you get those cramps, too?

I've seen people gobble that shit down with nary a break to breathe and suffer no ill effects, yet I get a whiff of the stuff and my stomach tightens.

[rcrush]

7. I can eat maybe one chicken breast or leg

But once I start to get full I just want to kill myself.

[HelenWheels]

8. Stomach cramps for me too

And I like the stuff but can't eat it.

[Bankhead_ATL]

2. I like the new Grill chicken but...

they did mess up a little with rescinding the free 2 piece meal deal...for real

[HopeHoops]

5. I couldn't stomach that shit even when I DID eat meat!

And I quit meat 20 years ago!

I'm sure it is worse now. Oh, and apparently those "grill marks" are fake.

Even before I went vegetarian, I knew a manager from a McDonalds who had visited a "McNuggets Production Facility". He described it this way: "The chickens go into the machine, beaks, feathers, bones and feet go one way, and everything else goes the other." Gross stuff, that.

[rocktivity]

6. When I learned Coke was making themselves taste more like Pepsi back in '85

I predicted that it would be the "worst marketing fiasco this side of the Edsel."

P.S. Is KFC still making their Rotissiere Gold recipie?
P.P.S. Since the subject is food, I don't think that "elasticity of the brand" is the best choice of words.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[Sequoia]

9. So did I, and now it doesn't even taste like it did before that.

I remember as a kid how Coca-Cola would make your head on fire for a bit as you drank it from the green bottle. Pour Coke on ice and it's more fizzy than Pepsi. Fizz is good !

[rcrush]

10. Was that when they used to put Cocaine in it? nt