Mark out of 10: KFC

Before I go to sleep every night, I have to check every social media channel, all messaging apps, any football scores and that the trains are running on time for some bizarre reason.

During this ritual, I almost dropped my phone on my face when I saw a sponsored tweet from KFC. Firstly, who does sponsored tweets nowadays? And, secondly, the tweet was to invite you down to an open day where you get to look around their kitchens and even cook some food yourself.

My inner snob voice scoffed for a millisecond at the thought of both things, but then my inner sensibility gave me a well deserved slap. After all, I saw the sponsored tweet so that must still work AND this is exactly the type of thing you have to do to meet issues head on, promote change and to stamp out the misconceptions that the public out there may have about your business (if there are any).

Here is a massive business that most people above a certain demographic would not dream (or admit to) going into but they look dead set on changing people’s perception from the inside out. (KFC is still my favourite fast food guilty pleasure by the way.)

This is highly risky as one false move and that could take the spotlight. It is a brave move as the size and complexity of pulling this off must be in the hard to do box. But, the rewards could be massive. It is more than any vacuous ad campaign, social media image or PR story can do alone. This is as real as it gets community outreach, conversation and hard work to change the perception of KFC one family at a time for customers and to give an insight of what it is like to work there.

This stuff is not easily forgettable either, one friend reminded me that we used to go to Burger King for birthday parties and we would have killed each other to get a go on the grill to flip a burger when shown around the kitchen. We still remember this 30 odd years later. You do have to pay £5 for the privilege but it goes to the KFC foundation.

Also, in terms of employee engagement and keeping franchisee relations alive this initiative will almost certainly help. Other are having real troubles with franchisees as I type. This feels like one company with one vision, all pulling together to welcome people with open arms to build community trust and family trust. I wouldn’t discount the opportunity for attracting new recruits too.

Very very smart thinking from the Colonel and the team.

I’d be really interested to see what you all thought. Tweet me @supersonic_inc or Mark McCulloch on LinkedIn #markoutoften

Summary – 8/10. A clucking good idea. They need to keep at it and use this as a platform to be open about their kitchens, products and processes. This could be as big as I’m Lovin’ It or Good to Know from McDonald’s.