Can free fried chicken save KFC? The brand is giving it a shot.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based (at least for now) chicken chain on Monday said that it is giving away buckets of chicken through its digital channels when customers spend at least $15.
The company wants customers to tell it what they think of the chicken, to “co-create” what it is now dubbing the “Kentucky fried comeback.”
It is also bringing back Colonel Sanders, the chain’s legendary founder, for a series of ads also featuring the chef and actor Matty Matheson.
KFC says that its restaurants have made strides in operations, leading to improving customer satisfaction scores, which should make its restaurants prepared for the campaign.
“We’re well aware of the latest fried chicken rankings and I’m fired up to launch a bold Kentucky fried comeback and remind America exactly who we are,” Catherine Tan-Gillespie, president of KFC U.S., said in a statement. “If people can give their ex a million second chances, I hope our fans can give us one.”
To accentuate the seriousness of the campaign, the company has even changed Colonel Sanders' typical cheerful expression to one that's more serious.
“The Colonel would not be happy about our market share,” Tan-Gillespie said. “We’re serious about reminding America who we are: The game-changer with a relentless pursuit of the best fried chicken.”
KFC at one point was the country’s largest restaurant chain but even after it was supplanted by McDonald’s it was still the dominant chicken brand for years.
In 2005, for instance, KFC generated $5.21 billion and was the nation’s sixth-largest restaurant chain, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. At the time it was nearly $3 billion bigger than Chick-fil-A, a gap many thought virtually insurmountable.
But consumer changes and the company’s own challenges, such as an ill-conceived cobranding strategy in the early 2000s, ultimately were its undoing.
KFC is smaller today than it was in 2005: System sales were just $4.91 billion, down 5.7%. Unit count over that period is down by more than a third. It is now less than a quarter of the size of Chick-fil-A. It is now smaller than another bone-in chicken chain, Popeyes, and will likely be surpassed in the next year or two by the chicken fingers chain Raising Cane’s.
If KFC had simply kept pace with inflation, it would have generated another $3.4 billion in system sales last year.
This has come even as the brand’s international unit has thrived. KFC has added nearly 21,000 locations outside the U.S. over that period and, along with Taco Bell, is considered one of parent company Yum Brands’ “twin growth engines.”
By dusting off Colonel Sanders-backed marketing, KFC is going back to a strategy that has worked well in the past.
For a time, in fact, KFC appeared to be doing a lot of things right, even amid store closures. As of the second quarter of 2023, KFC’s U.S. unit had only three negative same-store sales quarters out of 36 reporting periods dating back to 2014.
Much of that period was marked by the chain’s use of a revolving set of actors playing Sanders in advertisements, including people ranging from the late Norm Macdonald to the country musician Reba McIntyre. KFC also used attention-getting, social media-driven marketing, featuring items like the chicken-scented firelog, to gain brand buzz.
In 2021, KFC introduced a successful chicken sandwich after decades of failed efforts, and that same year the chain generated new store growth for the first time in 17 years.
The next year, KFC’s U.S. president, Kevin Hochman, left for Brinker International.
Same-store sales turned flat by 2023 and they’ve been flat or down for the past seven straight quarters. KFC is also back to closing restaurants: It has shuttered nearly 300 U.S. locations, or 7% of the system, since 2021. By last year, KFC U.S. barely earned a mention on parent company Yum Brands’ earnings calls.
The company has undergone numerous changes all year. In January, former Taco Bell executive Scott Mezvinsky was named CEO of KFC globally, and was tasked with improving the U.S. market. Tan-Gillespie, who served dual roles as chief marketing officer and chief development officer, was named U.S. president.
KFC also opened a secondary concept based on tenders and sauces, called Saucy, and it is moving its domestic operations to Plano, Texas, where sister chain Pizza Hut is based.
The chain has been working to improve operations. It is adding new products such as fried pickles and a new “Comeback Sauce.” It also brought back its $7 Fill Ups boxes last month to cater to value consumers. Now it is using free chicken and more ads to get customers back, all while acknowledging its sales struggles.
"We won't smile until our customers do," Tan-Gillespie said.
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