Turning to KFC while hiding from the world…

KFC AustraliaSo as part of my ‘hiding from the world’ theory I decided to go back to uni full time for a while. This leads me to why I’m blogging about KFC… aside from being one of my vices this is actually assignment related. I’m taking ‘Integrated Marketing Communications’ (IMC) this semester and one of the assignments is to write a six blog post analysis of a current marketing campaign. Having been totally out of touch from reality of late, the KFC ‘Goodification’ was the first campaign to come to mind as a good example of an integrated marketing campaign.

Integrated marketing is a fancy term to say the campaign is using more than one way (channel) to communicate its message. In my mind, marketing is always about getting bang for your buck and most companies use integrated approaches with their marketing for this reason. My textbook defines integrated marketing as “…the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program that maximises the impact on customers and other stakeholders at a minimal cost.”(1)

B&T describe the KFC Goodification campaign as …”a new brand campaign with Ogilvy & Mather in line with new efforts to improve the quality of the KFC experience for customers, employees and staff.”(2)

Check out the tv commercial they’ve been running.(3)

They’re trying to make it good, -er, -est, -ify? What does it all mean? I’m still not entirely sure… from what I can ascertain it’s about refreshing their brand. Brett Howlett, ECD Ogilvy Sydney explains, “The Goodification is a reflection on how The Colonel behaved in his stores when he first started, constantly trying to make the KFC product and service better for their customers. Goodification is in the DNA of the brand and this campaign is going to highlight that behaviour.”(4)

On one hand it’s quite clever and comes down to being able to create a good back story for the campaign and I’m waiting for it to unfold. Personally I have issues with their creative interpretation of the English language and according to comments on the web, I’m not the only one! (I’ll unpack that one in another post!) To date, the campaign has utilised an entirely integrated approach:KFC Goodification Campaign

As outlined in my assignment brief, over the next five exciting instalments I’ll “…discuss the identified campaign components with specific reference to the integration of communication tools and describe the success/failure of the campaign and any controversy associated with it.”

And because this post is being graded as part of my assessment, the reference list:
1. (Clow & Baack:2010:32)
2. ‘KFC’s goodification’, B&T, 28 February 2012
http://www.bandt.com.au/breaking-campaigns/kfc-s-goodification
3. YouTube
4. ‘Ogilvy & Mather showcases big changes for KFC’, Australian Creative, 28 February 2012
http://www.australiancreative.com.au/news/ogilvy-and-mather-showcases-big-changes-for-kfc

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