KFC’s Missed Opportunity
💡 Summary
As the pioneer and leader of fast food market China, KFC has more cultural and emotional equity than any of its competitors.
As a result, they are well positioned to build their brand by leveraging and strengthening the emotional connections with its customers.
But rather than use a strategy built on 'Fan Truths' like rival McDonald's in the US, KFC communications in China continues to focus on product promotion and shallow KOL endorsement tactics.
A smouldering Lu Han decorates this product promotion KV for KFC. One of hundreds.
KFC came to China in 1987 and has only grown from strength to strength since then.
In fact, that's putting it lightly.
When KFC entered the China market, they created the nation's fast food industry.
With its footprint of over 5000 stores across more than 1000 cities, they remain the comfortable leader in QSR (quick service restaurants) in China.
And that's saying something. China is the world's second largest fast food market and home to some of the world's biggest brands.
But while McDonald's dominates its home market in the US (and much of the world), it is KFC who takes the proverbial bucket in China.
And that leads me to the point of this post.
While KFC continues to lead the market in China, I can't help think that it is not building the brand to its full potential.
McDonald's Fan Truths
The McDonald's work that W+K New York has produced with Travis Scott has grabbed headlines for its great creative and use of celebrity collaboration. And while that is deservedly so, I was interested to learn about the thinking that led to the strategy behind the work.
🤓Side bar: For those interested in nerding out on brand strategy and learning more about this case and others, check out the ON Strategy Showcase podcast, hosted by Fergus O'Carroll. It's brilliant. The McDonald's case episode features Planning Director Tass Tsitsopoulos.
Essentially, the strategic thought that won W+K the pitch came from tapping into what the brand meant to culture and its customers.
It's as simple as that.
The team on the project took a road trip to uncover, in their words, 'Fan Truths': the emotional benefits at the heart of the brand.
And for a brand as synonymous with its category as McDonald's, these truths are diverse and meaningful.
“Fan truths are the truths at the heart of the brand: moments, occasions, product truths, memories, or rituals. They can be something you did as a child or they can be about being with friends and family.”
Here are just some of the Fan Truths they picked up along the way:
A stepfather and daughter whose weekly bonding time happens in a McDonald’s
Pickle lovers and pickle haters can still be friends
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t eat the bits of cheese stuck on the wrapper?
That feeling when your happy meal toy is better than your brother's
Ordering at the drive thru with a car full of people will always descend into chaos
The Superbowl spot that took the work to new heights, based on the truth: Everyone has their own personal order at McDonald’s.
Wonderful thinking combined with a creative approach to the research. And it's clear to see from the work that it paid off.
Not only does the strategy guide every piece of work ("Every brief starts with a fan truth"), but it also works across their three core comms pillars: brand relevance, food, and affordability/value.
What's wonderful is just how suitable this approach was for McDonald's, the fast food juggernaut that practically invented the category. While Burger King and others can 'challenge', McDonald's is able to exploit its dominance by owning the emotional currency of the category and its culture.
“What looks like an expression of generic benefit from McDonald’s forgets that McDonald’s created that entire market; simply because there are other restaurants that sell burgers doesn’t mean they have the same shared memory or shared audience.“ - Charlie Ebdy
Which brings us to chicken...
KFC’s Brand Meaning
Now, I didn't grow up in China. But ever since I first came here, I have seen KFC in every city I visited. And seeing as its been in this market for 3 years longer than I have been alive, I can only imagine that this brand means a lot to a lot of people.
When KFC first got to China, they created an allure around its restaurants; this was a premium American brand, created for special occasions. First dates, birthday parties, celebrations.
When I asked my colleague about KFC, he told me that when he was a kid, the only thing anyone wanted to do was to have their birthday party at KFC.
KFC = bragging rights on the school playground.
That is culture that you can't buy.
And while the meaning of the brand has moved on since then, as the whole category has evolved, their position as market leader allows them to 'own' a sizeable chunk of the category culture.
Whatever KFC means to people now - the reliable meal at the end of a long work trip or the weekend treat for the kids on their best behaviour - the brand is entitled to explore and celebrate that in its marketing.
Which is all the more reason why I am disappointed by the state of their brand communications.
Lu Han and a Chicken Wing
Some caveats: I don't work on KFC, I've never worked on the brand. I don't have a full overview of all the work they are putting out into the market.
But based on a cursory scan of their main social media channels and my experience as a consumer of food in Shanghai and a casual observer of fast food brands, KFC's comms inevitably falls a lot shorter than its potential.
Between the seasonal new product launches, the sales announcements, and the endless stream of fresh-faced heart-throbs, nothing there attempts to build brand resonance or connect with customers emotionally.
Even if I was cherry-picking (I'm not, promise), suffice it to say that nothing here even vaguely resembles a strategy that unlocks the emotional benefits at the heart of the brand.
As the competition in the fast food market continues to heat up, I can't imagine KFC deviating from the script that has seemingly brought them success for the last decade or so. But I hold out for a moment when someone in charge at Yum! stops to think about what the KFC brand, its food, and its restaurants means to the millions of people in this country. Maybe then we will get something special.
Until then, it's smouldering twenty-somethings for the time being.
