KFC was founded as a single road side restaurant that colonel Harland Sanders opened and ran in the heart of the Great Depression, long before it rose to become the most-known fried chicken business in the world. From these modest and difficult beginnings, KFC has developed into a global brand with an estimated worth of $8.5 billion and won a spot at number 86 on the list of world’s most valuable brands for 2019.
The great level of success that KFC presently enjoys is the result of a lot of variables along the way , including their novel method of frying chicken and providing as a fast food item and it’s distinctive branding as a restaurant based on Southern hospitality and cuisine. The company’s distinctive emblem and the inovative ways in which they have employed it across their many marketing initiatives are among these elements, though we’ll go into great lengths about KFC’s branding, history and inspiration of their logo and how it has made them become the most valuable fried chicken restaurant on the planet in this post.
THE HISTORY OF KFC
Harland Sanders, the ultimate founder of KFC, and the person who would later become the restaurant’s mascot, was born in 1890 and grew up close to a farm in Louisville, Kentucky. But Sanders didn’t launch the first Kentucky Fried Chicken until 1930, when he was nearly forty years old. In fact, Sanders’ Success story is frequently cited as proof that it’s never too late to start something big.
Eventually, Sanders bought a shell gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky and converted it into a restaurant where he served the southern-style meal his mother had taught him to prepare, including steak, country ham, and, of course fried chicken.
Sanders moved into a bigger space across the street where he could accommodate more customers after four successful years at his original business. Harland Sanders had only been operating his first restaurant for six years when, in 1936, Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon bestowed the honorific title of Colonel on him. This was a recognition of his prominence in the state’s business community.
At this time, it took Colonel Sanders a total of 35 minutes to make an order of fried chicken for one of his clients. Sanders wasn’t happy with the lengthy preparation time, but has also refused to use the faster method of deep frying chicken because he felt it lowered the food’s quality. However, the first pressure cooker hit the market in 1939. These pressure cookers were initially intended solely for steaming vegetables. But Sanders managed to transform them into pressure fryers, which allowed him to drastically cut down the preparation time for his fried chicken while maintaining its quality. Sanders was able to prepare fried chicken using this new method just as quickly as other fast-food establishments were able to cook items such as burgers and fries, allowing KFC to really compete in the fast food market.
Sanders completed his “Original Recipe” of 11 herbs and spices in 1940, which is currently referred to as his. While he never made the public aware of this recipe, he did admit on multiple occasions that it was a rather straightforward one made with items that most people already had in their kitchen. Sanders’ restaurant, however, was propelled into a new level of success because to this new recipe and his inventive pressure cooker chicken frying technique. By the year 1963, there were over 600 KFC locations throughout the United States, making it the largest fast-food chain in the world. In 1955, Sanders started franchising his recipe and the name “kentucky Fried Chicken ”, which he had developed with the assistance of a sign painter named Don Anderson .
Sanders started to truly take on the character of “colonel Sanders” and assume the position of the chain’s mascot during this time of the KFC’s fast expansion. Sanders started dressing and acting the part Governor Lawrence Wetherby recommissioned him as a Kentucky colonel in 1950. He developed a goatee, switched to a white suit and string tie, and started addressing himself as “colonel”. In his later years Sanders would travel to different KFC locations across the nation while maintaining the iconic Colonel Sanders persona in order to serve as the company’s spokesmen and brand ambassador. Sadly Harland Sanders passed away in December of 1980. However, his reputation as Colonel Sanders endures.
Of course, the company’s instantly identifiable logo designs is a crucial component of KFC’s branding. KFC’s logo design has played a significant role in the brand’s growth over the years and the business has used their logo in a wide variety of ways to grow the restaurant popularity to the level that it now enjoys. While Sanders’ strategy for offering fried chicken as a fast-food menu item and his magnetic personality were undoubtedly the biggest factor that drove KFC’s initial success, the brand’s logo design has also played an important role in the brand’s growth over the years.
THE BRANDING OF KFC
Over 23,000 Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants chains operated globally in 2018, dispersed throughout more than 125 countries. According to research, KFC has over 5,200 eateries in China, making it the biggest outside market.
Yum! Brands, parents company of Kentucky Fried Chicken currently, brands only disclosed companywide incomes, which in 2018 totaled $5.70 billion. Individual brand incomes are not yet reported by brands. According to data from TQSR Magazines, KFC has systemized sales of around $ 4.5 billion in the United State alone. According to Milward Darker, The Kentucky Fried Chicken is worth more that $ 16 billion. Over $128 billion was estimated to the image worth of McDonald’s in the study.
KFC employs, on average, 25,000 employees, according to estimates. KFC reportedly brought in an enormous $ 2.7 billion in revenue in 2019, according to sources.
MARKET SEGMENT:
According to the market share and food preferences, KFC has divided the world into different regions. To increase sales, they have tailored the culinary menus to the regional eating tastes. KFC’s strategy has been successful, and they have been able to create versions of his signature dishes by incorporating regional flavors. Other fast food restaurants have also followed this tactics.
The following are the main market segments:
• America
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Middle East
• Rest of the world.
TARGET MARKET:
KFC has divided the market into a number of groups. By food preference- vegetarian and non vegetarian— is one such classification. Another is by age brackets, such as young and old. The brand’s only objective was to be recognized as a family-friendly eatery. Therefore the company made the decision to serve the entire market, which ultimately helped to increase its appeal.
The following elements are essential for the brand’s target markets:
• Market size
• Market growth potential
• Typical of the area
• The demand of the market is based on the region
• Brand objective and targets.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
The KFC Chicken recipe has been the greatest one of the greatest competitive advantage for the brand, this is way the brand can find its way into the global market and has been successful till today.
They went ahead and launched a vegetarian menu for vegetarians specially.
They have been able to change their menus over time according to the taste buds of their customers. This level of adaptation is one factor leading to their competitive advantage.
PRICING:
KFC has come up with different pricing schemes. They have individual pricing as well as combo pricing. Individual pricing is for people who want to buy single items.
Whereas combo pricing offers comes with low prices and discounts and various products bundled together. Many food brands has implemented this pricing strategy into their business and it has been successful just like the KFC brand.
THE KFC LOGO
22 years after Harland launched his first fried chicken shop, the first KFC logo was created in 1952. The first KFC logo featured a picture of colonel sanders sporting his trademark goatee string tie. At this time the logo was created, Sanders and his persona as the colonel had already established themselves as a key component of the brand.
The KFC has gone through a total of six alterations since its initial design in 1952. However the same image of colonel Sanders can be seen in every iteration of the KFC logo. A number of design aspects, including the typeface, color and shape of the company’s logo, has been altered across these six successive iterations. But the KFC has never undergo a complete redesign, and the version the company uses now still has a lot in common with the very first logo that was created by the cooperation about seventy years ago.
THE LOGO DESIGN
The current KFC logo was developed in 2018 and shows Colonel Sanders’ beaming visage inside a red and white trapeze with the word KFC beneath it.
The company’s logo read “Kentucky Fried Chicken” in capital letters until 1991. The KFC acronym was used in place of the restaurant’s complete name in both the KFC logo that is currently used and the four logo ideas that came before it. Some sources claim that this alteration was made to get away from the word “fried” and its unfavorable associations.
The KFC logo as it is today embodies traditional southern hospitality with a warm and friendly appearance. It is a design that is completely consistent with KFC’s branding and a great illustration of how a corporation can use a logo to convey its essential messages to customers.
Popularity of the KFC logo
An extremely significant factor in luring customers who just chance to be passing by the location of a fast-food restaurant like KFC is the logo of the establishment. You may find a billboard with the KFC emblem outside of every KFC location. This one billboard is sufficient to inform passersby of what to anticipate when they turn into the drive because the KFC emblem is so easily recognizable.
The KFC logo, of course, has also been crucial to the company’s efforts in digital marketing. It is almost a given that any TV or internet advertisement KFC releases will have the company’s logo as a major design element.
Like any huge successful business, KFC has been able to make money by licensing its logo. Although KFC-branded goods and clothing are not particularly prevalent, they are common enough to provide the corporation with a decent stream of additional revenue.
A top-notch, expertly crafted logo will come in very handy whether you’re trying to launch the next major fast-food chain or a business in any other sector. A fantastic example of the value a strong logo design can provide to a developing brand is how KFC has leveraged its distinctive logo over the years to expand his brand and attract new customers.
