KFC'S "Kill Door": Is It Just The Failure Of Promotion Plan?

"Spike", a very creative and vivid source of words from the Internet. It has to be said that Taobao or the Internet is really a lot of magic. In the past, we often said that great wisdom was hidden in the public, and the development of the "network society" to today's situation also had to sigh. Today's netizens are truly "great wisdom".

But "spike" is not a marketing promotion can be applied, after all, "spike" the rise of the beginning is just gathered online shop popularity of a publicity, promotional form and means. KFC uses "spike" to promote sales and gather popularity. It is a bit of a self defeating taste. To put it simply, does KFC need to use such promotional activities to attract and gather popularity? Not only is it self defeating, it also makes it difficult to clear up the risks.
　

In April 7th, KFC released a statement on electronic kill coupons on the front page of its official website, which also indicated the termination of activities. It is easy to unilaterally declare "the end", but the strong influence caused by this event did not end naturally with the announcement of KFC's "termination". 　　
 

"Kill the door"

In April 6th, KFC and Taobao launched the "super value Tuesday special spike coupons". The first round of spike was launched by the Colonel chicken. The coupon shows that only 11 yuan from the original price is 5.5 yuan, but this ticket is only available in April 6, 2010, April 13th, April 20th and April 27th. Similarly, there were also related activities on Taobao. Taobao showed the second round spike product was spicy / spicy chicken drumsticks. At the same time, the electronic coupon inventory of the two products was set to 100. KFC parent company Baisheng Chengdu branch responsible person said, the family barrel is Kentucky's original third kinds of "spike" products. 　　

Responsible person said that the first round of spike activities had been successfully concluded, but a large number of fake coupons appeared on the market before the second round of spike activities. For this reason, the company temporarily decided to stop the second round, the third round of spike activities, and said that the coupons on the second round of the market and third rounds of spike were fake tickets, and all KFC restaurants refused. But they will also announce the following promotions on KFC discount website. 　
　

In April 7th, KFC issued a statement on its official website, saying that "many netizens may take spike killing coupons to go to the restaurant without starting the spike activity. Now KFC has cancelled the other coupons" of the Colonel's chicken coupons, and has clearly refused to accept this coupon. If you want to use it, you should first consult the restaurant.
　　

This has aroused many netizens' doubts in many cities throughout the country. Now, we are not going to discuss whether the "fake coupons" are the cause of the disaster or KFC's "no recognition". The most important thing is the question of netizens' uncertainty. KFC's response is to solve the problem or evade the problem. Unfortunately, KFC chose to evade and shirk responsibility, or even to respond to the alarm. 　
　

There are similar cases.

I remember many years ago, when I was still at school, I saw a local newspaper (not tabloid) published an advertisement: on Saturday, I went to a park to take part in the treasure hunt. The first 1000 people could receive an umbrella free of charge. For this advertisement, I can't remember clearly what company or brand campaign has been carried out. But now I think of it, leaving behind "fear". 　
　

On the early morning of the Saturday, thousands of people gathered at the entrance of the park and nearby, because only 1000 people could get umbrellas, and the remaining thousands of people would not be able to get them. The staff, the security guards and the public are in a mess, and even fight. What the end, I did not look forward to see, see so many people to grab the umbrella, I have felt horrified, which is still in the mood to seek treasure, at last, it seems that the police come to control the situation.
　　

In the past, there have been such cases in Shenzhen. The number of shoppers in front of the store can be purchased for free or at a super low price, or they can receive gifts free of charge. In general, all these activities will go wrong. In a few years ago, Shenzhen was also blocked by such things as consumers who were not able to receive gifts and people queuing up for free gifts, causing traffic paralysis. 　　

Of course, the most alarming thing is: similar activities like Carrefour "spike", causing consumers to rush to trample on the tragedy of death. 　　
 

The wise also succeeded in boycotting such a promotional case. In the 06 year, a cigarette factory wanted to do promotional activities to upgrade the sales volume of a new product. At this price, there are two packs of cigarettes, one package is soft box, one package is hard box, and the soft box is 2 yuan cheaper than the hard box, which causes the hard box cigarette sales to be much worse than the soft box smoke. The tobacco factory certainly wants to solve this problem. So what is the way? 　　
 

We propose to customers: promotion in hard box cigarette card. Simply put a card in the cigarette box, such as gold card, silver card, drill card and so on, in order to attract consumers' attention and publicize new products. From the perspective of pure marketing, this plan is very good. But it was finally defeated by the leader of China tobacco. There is only one reason: fear of fraud. 　
　

Now, to think of it, this veto is undoubtedly wise. No matter how good security you are doing, for example, compiling some "passwords" and "passwords", once a large number of fake cards appear, consumers will no matter whether these cards are true or false. They want concessions and free, which will cause enterprises to fall into the passive and the cusp of the storm. 　

What is the lesson of KFC?
　　

Read the relevant reports, I believe to a certain extent, a large number of electronic coupons will not be issued by KFC itself, especially the second and third stages of "spike" activities coupons. But Kentucky's attitude is definitely not "preferential" and "appeal" to the police. Among them, there is a more puzzling point: why do we need to make photocopies effective since the electronic coupons are faking? Do copies also have the function of anti-counterfeiting?
　　

Such a situation is considered a failure of a promotion. It is also a matter of fact, but I believe that the essence of the problem is definitely not a failure of "promotion plan". The biggest failure is the departure from the real purpose of publicity and promotion and the low level of Internet communication power.
 

First, the failure of the promotion mode. Since Taobao founded the "kill" campaign, it has increased the number of Taobao shops and gathered a lot of Internet popularity. Obviously, this way is mainly propaganda and sales promotion, and this way has caused a lot of dissatisfaction on the Internet. KFC obviously does not need this kind of short-term behavior propaganda, because KFC is not lack of popularity and consumer sources.
　　

Second, KFC obviously underestimated the power of the Internet. Network is a double-edged sword with low cost publicity effect, but it also has "uncontrollability". Originally, KFC's consumer group is very wide, mainly young people, the preferential information published on the Internet (such a large discount) will certainly cause a rush to rush to buy; coupled with online printing of electronic coupons can also be photocopied, the Internet age, through QQ and QQ group, SNS, forums and other dissemination, how many people get coupons! It can be seen that whether the coupons are true or false, it will be difficult for the parties to control the situation. 　　

Once again, do not blindly follow suit. " "Second kill" or "first come first served" must not be popular because of some marketing mode or marketing mode. As a world-famous fast-food chain brand, KFC has its own mode in brand promotion and marketing promotion. It should be enough for some immature or inappropriate marketing methods. Unfortunately, the pace of walking too fast, there is also a time to slip. 　　

Finally, speed wins, but we must not forget stability. KFC's development in mainland China is obviously faster than that in McDonald's. This is very much like the competition between WAL-MART and Carrefour. McDonald's is significantly higher than KFC on the global scale, WAL-MART is also much higher than Carrefour, but in China's emerging market, the situation is the opposite. The development of KFC and Carrefour in mainland China is obviously better than that of McDonald's and WAL-MART, but Carrefour and KFC are often the problems. For example, Carrefour's stampede, KFC's Sudan incident, etc.
　　

Why? This question is worth pondering.
 

But at least it can be explained that as the world's top 500 KFC, its crisis management capability and resilience are not reflected in the Chinese market. Although the strategy of KFC's integration into China is right, we must discard some "impetuous" things in the "developing market". In any case, for the failed "spike" campaign, KFC's brand image has already hurt consumers' minds, and consumers' loyalty to KFC is bound to suffer from long-term negative effects.