KFC puts the colonel back in the chicken

Jere Downs | (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- KFC resurrected Col. Harland Sanders Tuesday as the folksy centerpiece of its Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranding campaign.

"Howdy folks, it is me, Col. Sanders," former Saturday Night Live impressionist Darrell Hammond says with a cackle on new promotional spots that Yum Brands! debuted Tuesday on Twitter and Facebook. " I've been gone for a while and boy howdy have things changed.

"But what you don't always seem to have these days is my Kentucky Fried Chicken," he intoned. "Well I'm here to change all that."

Sanders' comeback from his long-held status as a caricature on the bucket of fried chicken to main spokesman for the brand may herald KFC's yearning for its mid-century glory days.

In 1999, for example, KFC stores in the U.S. held 39.7 percent of market share in the limited service chicken segment, compared with just 8.7 percent for Chick-fil-A. Fast forward 15 years and Chick-fil-A's U.S. market share has soared to 27.8 percent, while KFC has shrunk to 20.2 percent, according to an analysis by Technomic and Janney Capital Markets.

A KFC spokesperson did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday on the new marketing campaign.

Kentucky Company Makes KFC Double Down-Scented Candle If you want your home to smell like one of the most famous fast food sandwiches around, you're in luck.

Analysts say attention for the brand is long overdue in the U.S., where consumers have gravitated to healthier fare, even if they pay a little more at outlets like Chick-fil-A and Chipotle.

Using the familiar face to sell more fried chicken on the bone appears to be "a half-hearted way to re-examine the quick chicken business," Janney analyst Mark Kalinowski said in an interview Monday. Other Yum concepts, he added, like a Super Chix near Dallas, Texas, focus on the Chick-fil-A formula of a chicken breast sandwich on a bun and frozen custard.

Super Chix "seems like a better way to examine the market that doesn't involve the KFC brand," he added. "It allows you to do things from a totally fresh approach."

KFC in China has long powered Yum's double-digit annual growth in shareholder dividend payments. As a result, Kalinowski said, "investors focus on China. I've had some clients tell me they don't even care about the U.S. business. This is a China stock for them."

KFC recently closed its KFC Eleven concept store on Bardstown Road in the Highlands. The relaunch of Col. Sanders appears to be part of a brand makeover promised by new Yum CEO Greg Creed last fall.

Some fans responded to the new KFC campaign with nostalgia.

Sanders was a sweetheart in person, said Donna Corrigan Avery, a 57-year-old pediatric oncology nurse from Shepherdsville.

"I have such fond memories of seeing Col. Sanders at his wife's restaurant," Avery said of childhood visits to the Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville. "Often he would be sitting in a rocking chair in the gift shop talking to children and handing out candy sticks. If he wasn't there, he would be sitting in the window of his house."

"He would pat our hands and talk to us," Avery added. "We didn't know he was famous. He was the chicken man."

On the Courier-Journal's Facebook page, reader responses included concern about service to longing for simpler fare. While KFC has declined, the menu has become more complicated, including unpopular grilled chicken.

"Someone unlock the vault and get the original herbs and spices back," said one reader. "We just want fried chicken they way they used to make it."

"How about better food, polite staff, and clean facilities? That would be a start," said another Facebook reader.

Chick-fil-A has exactly that advantage over KFC, said Louisville restaurant critic Steve Coomes.

Chick-fil-A "is a better experience at every level. You've got fresh flowers on the table. They will bring it to your table. They are courteous." Coomes said in an interview Tuesday. "My gut reaction is I don't care what the brand icon is. KFC menus are huge and complicated and cumbersome."

In Louisville, a Sanders fan rejoiced that KFC is celebrating the entrepreneur who did not become famous for fried chicken until age 65.

Icons "like Santa Claus, Elvis and Col. Sanders are as recognizable as anything else in the world," said Will Russell, owner of Why Louisville stores, owner of Col. Sanders ephemera, including his hand-tailored white suit and string tie, and the entrepreneur behind the revival of Funtown Mountain near Cave City.

Russell is making Sanders a centerpiece of his Funtown Mountain launch next month. For the opening of the amusement park, Russell is recruiting Kentucky Colonels to wear white suits and string ties to ride the chair lift to Funtown Mountain for a giant Colonel selfie.

"Col. Sanders is one of the early pioneers of branding," Russell said. "He became a character to sell his chicken."