KFC’s attitude during a PR Crisis

 KFC’s attitude during a PR Crisis

KFC Public Relations effort will focus on earning positive media coverage for their advertising placement and its advocacy to support peace, through social media and offline marketing campaigns. 

KFC experienced an eccentric crisis in the UK where it ran out of chicken. The issue came after functional issues with a new delivery provider, DHL, which implied that the chicken couldn’t be handed over to the stores. Being a fast-food chain whose whole proposition relies on selling fried chicken, KFC was compelled to shut down most of the 870 stores, leaving disappointed customers to find their chicken somewhere else. Some customers were so infuriated that they brought a judicial custodian into the scene..

While the terrifically-publicized catastrophe could undoubtedly have turned into a PR disaster, KFC’s team managed to potentially strengthen the brand image. Here are the ways KFC marvelously handled the situation.

Conducting Dialogue with Customers

KFC upgraded their customers via their social media channels, writing light-hearted posts to get their words across. They even built a new web page for customers to discover their nearest open store and an online chatbot for Twitter users to find their nearest store. Instead of concealing and circulating a 1970s style crisis management message, KFC kept their style as one with their consumers and not separate from them. KFC showed kindness for the affected customers and elucidated how the situation is being resolved and how it will be prevented in the future.

Apologizing as and when required

The biggest hit of brilliance from the marketing team came with a full-page apology that was published in the newspapers. Images of these, needless to say, instantly went viral on social media.

KFC received appraisal from fans, competitors and sages alike for the performance on their brand name and how they came up with their apology. Again, their style was as if KFC was one of the disgruntled customers too. Appealingly, they made this apology offline but it outreached more people online through people sharing images of the apology across social media.

Keeping up on-brand

Whether it was KFC or their competitors, the crisis gave all of them the chance to showcase their brand’s identity and develop relationships with prospective customers. Competing fast-food chains were quick to charge in on KFC’s mishap and lower their prices of chicken dishes in an attempt to conquer new customers. KFC retorted back with the only thing they could provide at the time: humor. As a consequence, the brand continued to be more congenial and less corporate; not rigid business firms.