Trust brand endorsers . . . sure can?
I was fascinated to hear that fast food giant KFC has decided to reinvigorate its founder Colonel Harland Sanders, some 24 years after they retired his Kentucky Fried Chicken brand and 35 years after the good man passed away.
The first Kentucky Fried Chicken store in New Zealand opened in 1971 but it took six years to reach the mainland.
As an impressionable country boy I clearly remember going to the pyramid roofed store in Riccarton Road and experiencing the culinary future. Rope-guided customers queued for the hostess with the Barbarella inspired mascara.
She spoke your order into a chrome-plated microphone, then two minutes later a small sliding door opened and your order was pushed through from the walledoff kitchen, before it silently closed with electrical precision.
Truly this was gastronomic sophistication at its cutting edge.
There were different rumours behind the rebranding of Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC and the laying to rest of the Colonel in 1990.
One was that he had shot a man, another that he allowed racism in his original chicken huts and another that ‘‘fried’’ and ‘‘finger licking good’’ didn’t have a future in the health conscious 90s.
Whatever the reason, Colonel Sanders was put out to pasture. It wasn’t the first time the Colonel had suffered hard times.
Sanders thrived on adversity. He started cooking for his family aged 6 when his father died. He joined the army after failing to find a job and shovelled mule poop in Cuba.
He rescued people from burning houses as a fireman, and he was broke many times before buying a cafe and developing his secret recipe in 1935. But it took another 17 years before he got the franchise under way in Utah.
It went pretty well. Twelve years later he sold out for US$2 million. But the Colonel still felt strongly about the business he had built.
In the 1970s he climbed into KFC’s new owners calling them ‘‘the biggest bunch of sharpies you ever saw’’, ‘‘booze hounds’’ and describing the new gravy as ‘‘sludge with wallpaper taste’’.
But despite the Colonel’s colourful persona, KFC’s latest owners – Yum! Brands – decided he had enough magic and retro appeal that it made sense to reinvigorate him with the help of comedian Darrell Hammond and some slick new TV commercials.
While it’s early days yet, the initial reviews of the ads have been positive, and if McDonald’s reinvention of the hamburger and Burger King’s reawakening of their grinning monarch is anything to go by, the retro approach is likely to be a winner.
One of the advantages of having a deceased brand ambassador is that they are unlikely to do new stuff that will embarrass the brand.
Dulux Group New Zealand weren’t quite so lucky with Rolf Harris last year.
Last year the man who made music with a wobble board and sang about three legged-outcasts was convicted and jailed on 12 counts of indecent assault against girls aged between 8 and 19.
Dulux owns the British Paints brand in New Zealand and Harris’s likeable ‘‘Trust British Paints – sure can’’ catchline, along with his fingers drumming on the paint can, is indelibly imprinted in the minds of many Kiwis as the key brand manifestation.
Indeed Harris’ association was so powerful that the company was in the process of getting ready to roll out another Harris-fronted campaign for British Paints when he was arrested.
Unsurprisingly, they canned the campaign and publicly announced they were ending the relationship.
While Dulux undoubtedly did the right thing, the damage was done.
Even today I wouldn’t mind betting many walking the aisles at Bunnings or Mitre 10 still associate the British Paints product with Harris.
Marketers take a risk using any brand ambassador. Supermodel Kate Moss was picked up by perfumery Chanel and fashion houses Burberry and H&M, and they had a good thing going, right up until Moss was snapped snorting cocaine.
The resulting photographs of ‘‘cocaine Kate’’ were carried by the British tabloids, and all three firms pulled the pin soon after.
Likewise OJ Simpson and car rental firm Hertz, and Tiger Woods and Gillette.
Here in New Zealand KFC are on a roll.
In the last financial year they produced record annual sales of $265 million, an increase of $23.5m.
Their store transformation process picked up pace so that now 82 out of the company’s 91 stores are transformed.
The new brand campaign featuring the refreshed Sanders is likely to extend these positive results. There’s just one thing. It’s probably just my dodgy eyesight, but the graphic depiction of the reincarnated Colonel featured in the latest Super Rugby campaign, does seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain Australian entertainer.
Mike ‘‘MOD’’ O’Donnell is a growth manager and professional director. His Twitter handle is @modsta, and he reckons KFC coleslaw is their best product.