KFC, Dominos, M&S – Apologies Part I

It’s not often that you have three universally recognized brand names all screw up in the same month. KFC has been dragged waist deep through bad press as their grilled chicken “experiment” with Oprah Winfrey backfired. Dominos Pizza has been the basis for hours of late night television comedy after a video of two store employees putting food in their nose before serving surfaced on the internet. UK retailer Marks & Spencer faced a large bosomed revolt when it increased the price on larger sized women’s bras to cover the additional costs of production. All three of these corporate disasters had one thing in common; they all were waged on the internet and apologized for on the internet.

Today we are starting with the worst apology, KFC. What spawn of Einstein thought that giving away free food in a recession would not cause a problem? Clearly the same corporate miscreant that said, “Free food sounds enticing, but it’s just not enough. What if we got Oprah to endorse it?” Maybe they weren’t so dumb after all. Creating hype that becomes almost more prominent than the war in Iraq on the nightly news is a progressive strategy that has its roots in the New Coke Campaign in the 1980s. The idea, when executed properly, is to heighten the level of perceived demand by sensationalizing a shortage. In other words, KFC was intending to run out of chicken, make the nightly news, and have the name Kentucky Grilled Chicken repeated over and over again until you said to yourself, “I will have to see what all of the fuss is about.” The sit-ins and riots were just an added bonus to this marketing stunt.

Generally, this strategy is effective. The video game makers are famous for their “shortage” of systems during the holidays. Intentionally suppressing the supply of a non-necessity is often a way to increase demand over longer periods of time. It creates an urgency to purchase as soon as the product is available. This is why you will always hear on infomercials, “if you are one of the first 100 callers…” So why is KFC the worst? This apology…

Forget the fact that it is KENTUCKY fried chicken and the CEO with the Australian accent (though it is actually South African) decided to be the one to make the public apology. Just look at it! It looks rehearsed, insincere, and overall pathetic. And clearly no one coached him on how to pronounce PEPSI (I had to play it back three times to find out what I was getting for my troubles.) Compare that with the apology from Dominos CEO, Patrick Doyle, who looked visibly distraught. The problem is that KFC President, Rodger Eaton, looks thrilled to have this problem. He’s practically bursting at the seams. For the success of this campaign, let’s hope that the news focuses on the chicken and not the apology.

That said, I do think that this stunt will fare well for KFC/KGC. AirCheese has been measuring an expediential increase in the amount of mentions of KGC with the majority of them now turning positive. Let’s just hope that the apology doesn’t get distributed too well because no one is buying it.