KFC officially went

FCK
A masterclass
in crisis
management

Anand
Sankaranarayanan
Background

Feb 2018
KFC was hit with a chicken crisis in the
UK and Ireland

The brand faced logistical issues with

their new delivery contract

Resulting in KFC restaurants running out

of chicken

900 UK stores were shut down over the

weekend!
The chicken crisis backstory

Oct 2017
KFC ended its relationship with Bidvest
Logistics and partnered with Quick
Service Logistics and DHL.

KFC and DHL promised to revolutionize

the UK food service supply chain with
innovation, quality and reliability.

Soon after, DHL struggled to fulfill

franchisee’s just-in-time orders.
The chicken was neither leaving
the depot, nor crossing the road

Mid February, 2018

KFC restaurants were running

out of key ingredients,
including the chicken

26000+ employees were facing

the wrath of angry customers
day in and day out

The brand was on its knees, in the midst

of a massive business crisis.
News coverage like a wildfire
Nearly all the press covered the crisis,
and public outrage was at an all-time
high.
Marketing prowess
With the crisis raging and the brand
being harmed by the minute, KFC looked
to its marketing prowess for help.

Two objectives for this campaign

1. A large scale public apology to make

amends for the inconvenience
caused to diners & franchises alike

2. A clear explanation of what was

being done to resolve the problem
Media strategy

Print was the medium chosen

to manage the crisis

Estimated to reach 6 million

audience

Planned to gain trust since

print is considered more
trustworthy than social media
Creative masterstroke

In the moment of crisis, the brand got

creative and openly condemned itself

A full page ad on UK’s national dailies

with logo changed from KFC to FCK

The ad directed consumers to a

microsite, kfc.co.uk/crossed-the-road
using humour as a means of disarming
customer frustration
Consumer reaction

People's rage was transformed into

empathy and laughter as a result of the
brand's amusing apology

KFC turned a business mayhem into a

brand breakthrough

Rewrote the manual for corporate crisis

management
Consumer reaction
Press coverage
Press coverage
Results

1 Billion
Global reach by May 2018

700+ 219 Million+

Articles and Social media users
media mentions exposed to the
about the brand campaign

These results are after

appearing just once in two
newspapers
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 Anand
Sankaranarayanan
Co-Founder and Director - TMA Global

A global branding and marketing consultancy

that helps B2B & B2C companies succeed

TMA Global Brand Consultancy

www.tmaglobal.net