Oprah – KFC Didn't Honor The Coupons You Promoted On Your TV Show: A Marketing Lesson

If Oprah was angry when an author lied to her about his credentials, imagine how she'll feel when a major company promises to feed people for FREE and then turns down the coupons it distributed

Do you remember "New Coke" and the marketing fiasco it created.

Welcome to KFC's attempt at retraining our taste buds to like GRILLED Chicken instead of deep fried.

There's a marketing lesson here, so please pay attention!

Lesson 1. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Lesson 2. The way to get a man angry is to promise him food, let him smell it, and then tell him it's not for him!

Lesson 3. It's much more difficult to recover AFTER a problem than it is to CAUSE the problem.

KFC Blows It – Simply Put: They Weren't Ready For This

I never saw the Oprah show when KFC offered its coupons for a free GRILLED chicken meal. I did see, however, that you had a short window to download the coupon and then about 10 days to redeem them. (Mothers Day was clearly marked as NOT one of these days.)

But when I went today to a suburban Philadelphia, PA USA KFC (the Friday BEFORE Mothers Day), I waited in line with lots of people. Sure looked like the marketing campaign worked! Lots of people were standing there, printed coupon in hand.

Wow! Very successful, it seemed.

The chatter was hushed (I guess people were hungry by 1:12 PM) though I did hear a bit of grumbling that it always takes so long to be served.

Looking behind the counter I saw why: one person cooking, one person at the service counter, and one person at the drive-through window serving the 11 cars in line.

Oh… and one person sitting out front on the sidewalk (I guess that was for a break, even though the line was long) and another slowly clearing off tables in the restaurant. (Bad enough when people take a break when the crush of the business's traffic arrives, but then don't do it so all of us can SEE that you are present but not waiting on us.)

Why is the sign so small when the news isn't good?

After waiting in line for 27 minutes and finally working my way up close to the counter, I happened to see a note that said something like:

We can't honor your coupons – please turn them in for a rain check.

WHAT?

They HAVE to know that a large number of people in the restaurant came to use the coupons. Oprah had hawked them and the Internet was jumping (I know Twitter was jumping) with the news.

The best they can do is a sign that is taped to the flat horizontal surface of the counter?

Did they think we'd just proceed to the front of the line and order something else and pay them for it?

Did they think that we didn't make a special trip just to try their new product (which was slowing becoming that "evil product" because of the way this was handled)?

I just left and drove to a KFC / Taco Bell near my home. THEY would serve me.

Trouble strikes again at a different KFC

Several of us standing in line at this KFC / Taco Bell were talking about how poorly KFC had handled this situation. I mostly listened because I was studying the marketing effort and wasn't getting angry the way some of these folks were.

Business people; teachers; mothers with small children; blue collar workers on a break: all wanting to try the new product in what was one of the largest and most successful "get out the news" marketing efforts I have ever seen.

"Excuse me," I asked the young man cleaning up in the restaurant – asking him because the line was too long for me to ask the woman at the counter, "are you taking these coupons here?"

"Yes, sir… just step up to the counter."

Except they weren't.

Two minutes later a woman in a loud voice became quite agitated. The woman right in front of me had been turned away from a KFC yesterday. And I had come from one only a few minutes earlier.

The woman behind the counter at THIS store (and it's not HER fault – seems like this is what is happening nationally) started to tell one person what to do… but someone spoke up and said, "We're all here for this, you might as well tell all of us."

It seems that KFC, in a stroke of marketing suicide, decided to tell everyone to fill out ANOTHER piece of paper and either WE could mail it in for a rain-check coupon or the STORE would mail it in for us.

"Can we eat here today, try the Grilled Chicken, and not pay for it?" someone asked.

"No, you must fill this in, send it in, and they'll send you a coupon."

Three of us left, and the other two were really squabbling about KFC, Oprah, anyone connected to this promotion.

How could such a Web 2.0 way of marketing go so wrong for KFC?

How could KFC blow this so badly?

• You KNOW they had marketing meetings about this.
• You KNOW that they took the idea to Oprah and got her to wave her magic wand.
• And you KNOW that SOMEONE must have thought about the consequences of giving out hundreds of thousands of coupons.

Did they think they were only in the coupon-distribution business and would never actually have to fulfill the meals?

Last I checked, they were in the restaurant business… a business that has been lack-luster at best.

They had everything going for them: Twitter, emails, Oprah, news reports telling about Twitter, emails, and Oprah. It was the "perfect storm" of marketing genius and it was magnetically attracting thousands into their restaurants.

Especially during this economic meltdown when people are stretching their budgets as far as they can: this was a perfect message (come eat free at our restaurants) to market (people having a tough economic time) match.

Now will people go back to try the Grilled Chicken? KFC better home so – this has already cost them millions is negative publicity.

And now it all came crashing down on them.

They'll wonder what hit them when all these hungry people bare their fangs and get nasty.

Kind of makes you long for the good ol' New Coke Days!

Marketing Lesson To Learn

Could this ever happen to you?

Perhaps not on this SCALE, but if you have ever placed an ad in a newspaper and NOT told the people working in your store, sent out an email and not have the website ready, or used Twitter to send a notice but your sales page hadn't been updated, then YOU have committed the same marketing suicide as KFC.

Communication. Left Hand knowing and Right Hand knowing.

And then follow what the Boy Scouts have taught for years: Be Prepared.

Clearly KFC wasn't prepared for the crush of people. And it may take them a long time to recover.

How am I feeling after today's experiences?

I sure don't see a reason to rush back to a KFC, and still I think of it as fried chicken, honey-barbecue wings (hey, love them!), and sides.

Wonder if I'll ever get back to try the Grilled Chicken.

Hey, give me credit: I tried twice today!

Good luck to KFC. You'll need it to recover from these blunders.

Oh, and Oprah: thanks for helping with the marketing. KFC sure let you (and us) down.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad, succeeding in this economy

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