He’s Still An Old Dead White Guy
Snaps to Nick Rice for bringing this to my attention. KFC has a new Colonel image! Whoopee! Uh, and the difference is??? Oh, he’s supposed to look younger, more hip, appeal more to the young and fun people. Granted, I’m not their target, being sorta old and boring. But, to me he just looks a bit thinner. And, is anybody even going to notice when they’re whipping into the drive-thru for a bucket after a night of partying? Sigh. This is the sort of thing that gives branding and creative agencies a bad name.
Excerpt from the article, in case you don’t want to read the whole thing:
“They want to tap into the emotional connect, but they want to do it in a very sort of now and into-the-future way,” Fischer said. “When there’s so much choice (in fast food) the value of the brand icon really stands out.”
But Frankel is skeptical.
“What have we really done here to advance the brand strategy?” he asked. “The value of a brand is whether it enjoys a sustained period of success without a constant propping up with a media budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Gee, ya think?
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November 15th, 2006 at 7:48 am
[…] I’ve previously written about KFC’s slimmer, trimmer “hip” logo But that’s not all! The KFC marketing juggernaut just keeps roling along! You can now see the dead white guy from space. And, this sells more chicken how? Is E.T. coming to visit? Do aliens like chicken? […]
November 15th, 2006 at 10:10 am
[…] Mary Schmidt takes KFC to task on their new logo. And it’s also the first logo visible from space! I’ve previously written about KFC’s slimmer, trimmer “hip†logo But that’s not all! The KFC marketing juggernaut just keeps rolling along! You can now see the dead white guy from space. And, this sells more chicken how? Is E.T. coming to visit? Do aliens like chicken? […]
June 5th, 2007 at 7:25 am
[…] Sadly, this kind of flim-flammery is all too common and even the biggest companies fall for it (See my posts He’s Still An Old Dead White Guy and Stupid Brand Tricks about KFC’s change in logos). But, KFC has some big bucks to blow – I really hate it when I see small businesses get hit by drive-by marketing. For example, when I ask a man for a stack of cards (so I can promote his services to others) and he doesn’t have any…because – well – his marketing guru had to first find a new name for his company…then they’ll get a logo…then they’ll do “web development”…then maybe he’ll get his cards. Hello? Marketing is about communicating so you can form relationships so you can – yes – sell something! Let’s not confuse the “creative process” with the “making money process.” (Do I need to mention that his guru apparently didn’t do a URL search before coming up with a new name for the company? Nahhhh….) […]