Marketing in the News

 

    In December of 2022, KBP Brands, a major franchisee or KFC, launched an experimental SMS program at over one hundred restaurants. The program allowed an operator to text promotions and deal to its customers. These text messages are targeted to customers based on local audience menu preferences, pricing tier, demographics and other competitive factors. During the four-month experiment, which ended March 31st, the program saw 30% monthly subscriber growth, based primarily on word of mouth. This program created greater digital engagement for the company, and boosted sales in the five states it was tested in. KFC’s, sales, which were unremarkable during the fourth quarter of last year, look to be trending upward since the launch of this program.

I was interested in this article for a few reasons. The first being that I love food, and KFC is a go to restaurant when I want fast food or chicken. Secondly, I thought it was a new and inventive idea. When reading through the article I could not help but think about applications for similar systems for franchises in non-restaurant industries. While the system has overall been successful for KFC, there are some potential problems with it.

I think that while the implementation of the program within the tested areas, was good, I think an opportunity was missed when they relied mostly on word of mouth to get new subscribers. There are many other ways of advertising this kind of system that should have gotten more people to participate. Also, because KFC is a franchise, if they want to expand the program in the future, they may face significant difficulty. Because all of the experimental restaurants operated under the same franchisee, the program can operate under a single unit. But other restaurants all over the country are under separate ownership and would be more difficult to collaborate and communicate with in order to establish the system in new locations.

In a time when most advertising is built around interrupting people, this program does something unique. Instead of an interruption, it gives participants a normal notification on their phone, that will wait until it is convenient for the participant, whether that is as the end of the school day or the end of work. Instead of trying to shove people towards the restaurant, these messages give a gentle nudge and reminded people that Colonel Sander’s food is “finger lickin’ good.”



Original Article

KFC Website

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