Posted on: Sunday, May 9, 2004

KFC reinforces image while updating menu

By David Goetz
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Before America gets a look at the slimmer lines of KFC's long-awaited roasted chicken menu, the company has some unfinished business with the critics who have consigned Kentucky Fried Chicken to the devil's deep fryer for being out of step with a health-conscious America.

To support tomorrow's introduction of its Oven Roasted Strips Meal and Roasted Twister sandwich, KFC has prepared an in-your-face advertising tribute to the Colonel's original recipe.

"It's basically reinforcing that this brand is alive and cookin'," said Scott Bergren, chief marketing and food innovation officer.

Howls of protest and a call for a Federal Trade Commission investigation followed ads last fall that promoted Kentucky Fried Chicken as a healthy fast-food alternative. This time KFC isn't making any bones about what makes it popular.

The new ad, from Foote Cone & Belding, Chicago, comes with a country-western anthem dubbed "Chicken Capital USA," sung by Trace Adkins, with plenty of shots of young, happy and defiant fried-chicken eaters. A few lines suggest the flavor of the piece:

• "Ain't afraid to be chicken."

• "The bucket stops here."

• "Before you try to take me out of this land, you're going to have to pry this drumstick out of my hand."

• "There'll be one less man at the salad bar tonight."

Bergren calls it a "chest-beater" for the brand that reinforces consumer attitudes about fried chicken and KFC. "This is our equity," he said.

Some of that equity has seeped away. Comparative sales at KFC restaurants are in a second year of decline. The brand's not losing customers, Bergren contends, but they're not stopping by as often.

Yum! Brands Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive David Novak promised analysts and investors that KFC will be rebuilt from the ground up. And roasted chicken strips are among the building blocks.

They're the same breast slices as KFC's current Crispy Strips. They're seasoned and then baked in the restaurants' biscuit ovens. The flavor is not original recipe, Bergren said, but it's "highly acceptable to our target audience. It tastes like it's oven-roasted."

The roasted product appeals to "light and lapsed" KFC customers, he said.

With the new menu, "we're giving customers relevant chicken options that should have been on the menu a long time ago," Novak said.

Innovation has been slower in the United States than in some other KFC markets, according to Novak.

"We have a franchise system that's steeped in the past and is much more bureaucratic than it needs to be. We're working very aggressively with them to get a much higher sense of urgency going forward."

The genius of the chicken strips is in their versatility. Three roasted strips, green beans and seasoned rice make the oven-roasted meal. Two strips, lettuce, tomato and a pepper mayonnaise nestled in a tortilla become the Oven Roasted Twister, next in line for launch.

"I could show you 15 different products you could make from the roasted strip," Bergren said.

The $4 roasted strip meal is lower in fat and calories than a comparable crispy strip plate, but the first ad, at least, doesn't emphasize any health aspects.

"If we wanted to just focus on our fried chicken business, I think I could have great sales comparisons for the next two or three years," Bergren said. "But that really isn't a good, long-term vision for the company. It's just one dimension of how people eat chicken today."