The Decline of KFC...What Happened?

Foreign Kentucky Fried Chicken has been an iconic American brand for decades, families across the country have gathered around the table to share that bucket of original recipe combined with mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits. I know I'm not the only one. Who has good memories like that? I mean, they used to be the best example of a successful fast food chain. Competitors would consider themselves lucky if they could somehow replicate some of that KFC magic and that sounds strange today because it's not the case. They are no longer as popular as they used to be, apparently they are not as well-liked and financially they have been hitting some low points, perhaps the easiest way to demonstrate this would be by looking at the number of locations in the US, which has been steadily declining for the last years.

For quite some time it's been difficult to even determine the best period for KFC, obviously if we talk about highest sales or most locations it would be around 2004 for market share, it would be around the 1970s and if we talk quality or customer satisfaction, you could argue that its finest hour was when the colonel was still in charge before 1964. There's a lot to see here, it's one of the biggest stories in fast food, so for today I'm I'm going to talk about the evolution of KFC by highlighting the different owners over the years while also identifying

what

I believe are the five biggest reasons behind its

decline

.

The first owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, of course, was Colonel Sanders, who was quite a character who lived. In a rather hectic life, he learned to cook when he was six years old because his father died, his mother had to work all the time to support the family and young Harland, as he was known then, was forced to cook for his parents. two younger brothers when he was 12 and his new stepfather didn't get on with him, so we dropped out of school and left home to initially work as farm hands, but that turned into a variety of different jobs over the next few years. 20 years or more.

In 1929, he opened a gas station in Kentucky and converted a warehouse into an eating area where he served customers chicken and vegetables and, of course, cookies. The food proved popular, so the following year, just as he turned 40, he opened a restaurant that seated 142 people. nearby motel and that is

what

I would consider the beginning of the business that became Kentucky Fried Chicken in the 1950s. He was almost entirely concerned with expanding the refranchising concept, opening the first franchise in Utah in 1952 and within four years He went on tour full time trying to convince people across the country to open their own KFC restaurants.

All of these potential franchisees were influenced by the recognizable theme of red and white stripes in the restaurants. The signature recipe he had perfected. including the 11 herbs and spices and of course the branding that included their unique appearance at this point has probably become more iconic than the restaurants themselves; It was all a very simplified summary, of course, but that's how he grew the change to over 600 locations around the world. country before selling it all in 1964. That year it was purchased by a group of investors for two million dollars along with the promise of a salary of forty thousand dollars a year to Colonel Sanders if he remained the face of the company.

Traveling around making public appearances and getting people excited about the brand, these new owners were even more effective at opening new restaurants than the Colonel because in just six years after taking control, by the end of that decade, there were 3,400 KFCs. in operation and that brings me to the first reason behind its

decline

in competition. Just think about that number of 3,400 locations in 1970. That's an incredible number. I think it made them the largest fast food chain in the country. I can tell you they were twice the size. McDonald's had an advantage in almost every market in the country, especially when you limit it to just chicken restaurants, since every other fast food chicken restaurant you can name today wasn't even a factor, most of them didn't even exist. .

However, as the years have gone on and things have become more competitive, KFC has found it difficult to keep up with them, for example, Boston Market, they became a sensation in the 1990s by offering rotisserie chicken, so KFC followed suit by selling the same in 2013. Chick-fil-A became the top-selling chicken restaurant in the United States with a title that KFC had held for more than 50 years and Chick-fil-A was able to take that title by operating not even half as many stores as a KFC had in 1971. Purchased by Hubline for $285 million, they were producers of popular alcoholic beverages, including Smirnoff vodka, over the next decade they continued to find people to open even more restaurants, reaching almost 6,000 by the 1980s.

Now, for these two owners previous, it is clearly a great Their goal was to expand the brand by opening as many restaurants as they could and one way to achieve this was by eliminating many Esquinas. You know, they found ways to make food faster, cheaper and easier and, of course, sacrificing quality. In the process leading up to my next reason behind their decline, there were several issues with their menu and who else on this Earth can better identify a decline in food quality than the core itself? Throughout the 1970s, he commonly criticized food in restaurants stating that there were many changes made to his original recipes referring to KFC.

He said it's the worst fried chicken he's ever seen. He said OMG, that sauce is horrible. They buy tap water for 15 to 20 cents per thousand gallons and then mix it. it with flour and starch and ends up with pure wallpaper paste, he called it wallpaper paste with sauce and in 1974, when they launched their extra crispy chicken, he called it a ball of fried dough stuck to some chicken. KFC even tried unsuccessfully to sue them for these statements so clearly that some sacrifices were made on the menu, another big problem they had with their menu at the time was their attempts to divert it away from fried chicken, losing their identity and neglecting their core product by emphasizing other things like ribs or roast. beef in the late 1960s, they even tried to start a whole spin-off chain of restaurants called Kentucky roast beef that grew to quite a few locations before closing completely here, let me end the list of owners in 9 1982 at KFC along with the rest of Hubline was purchased by R.J.

Reynolds, the largest cigarette maker in the United States at the time, until they became involved in Consumer Foods after having acquired Del Monte three years earlier and would then acquire Nabisco three years later, but after just four years they sold KFC to Pepsi paid $850 million for him, a deal that seemed to make sense for several reasons, but mainly because Pepsi had previously acquired Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. I've talked about all of this in previous videos if you're interested in learning more. about that, but I want to mention that KFC used to sell Coca-Cola products and of course switched to Pepsi products after the acquisition and this goes along with their menu issues.

Taco Bell and Pizza Hut were known for introducing a successful new menu. items, so when Pepsi took over it looked like they would do the same with KFC. They invested millions of dollars in a new complex dedicated to it, but it never seemed to pay off in the way that would be expected when introducing many failed products. At that time to finish the list in 1990, 37 all those restaurants under the control of Pepsi were spun off into their own publicly traded company called tricon, which was later renamed yum brands and then they bought and sold other fast food concepts, They even tried co-branding many of them under the same building, but that's where KFC still remains today, so now, going back to my other list, another big reason behind their problems was their marketing when Colonel Sanders died in 1980. at 90 years old, they lost their spokesperson, honestly, is he there? any other brand with anyone more associated with it than KFC and Colonel Sanders.

I wasn't even alive at the same time as him and I associate the two and I don't really know exactly what they're supposed to do here in either attempt. In different campaigns they have not been as catchy or effective, they tried to bring them back in cartoon form in the 1990s and, more recently, when several celebrities dressed up as him, that one there was part of a 185 million investment dollars in 2015. To breathe new life into the brand, he was originally played by comedian Daryl Hammond, who felt guided by the company because he thought he would be the spokesperson for a long time, but was later replaced by Norm Macdonald and Jim Gaffigan and many others including Reba McIntyre I.

I don't know, it's a bit polarizing, it can be seen as disrespectful to some extent, maybe it brought more attention to the brand, but I don't see any numbers to suggest it was as effective in 2009. KFC had a hit menu item with their grilled chicken but the marketing of it was not handled very well. KFC sent a letter to the UN asking them to recognize a country called the grilled nation made up of the 60 million people who ate their new product and then they sent someone dressed as Colonel Sanders to the UN building who somehow managed to get into restricted areas and even shook hands with some important people there again, potentially a misguided and even disrespectful marketing attempt still related to grilled chicken there was another fiasco in which Oprah Winfrey promoted a deal on her show where the public can download a coupon for a free meal and ensure that many people show up.

The wait times were too long and they couldn't accept all the coupons. It was more bad publicity for KFC. Another possible reason behind its rejection would be health content. I don't pretend to know exactly what people should or shouldn't eat, but Kentucky Fried Chicken is generally considered to be among the least healthy restaurants; The public has become more health conscious over time, especially compared to their dominant years in the 1970s and that hasn't been good for business, I mean, they have the word fried in their name, in fact, in 1991 they changed their official name to the initials KFC to not have that unhealthy sounding word in their name shortly after trying to introduce more health conscious menu items which again didn't seem to go over very well in the early 2000s. , they had a campaign that said KFC stood for fresh kitchen chicken seemingly another health-oriented campaign in 2006, were sued for the staggering amount of trans fats on their menu, and then that same year pledged to phase out the use of trans fats in your cooking oil.

The Double Down sandwich in 2010 used fried chicken instead of bread, so you know, it was joked about as unhealthy. I know it's been a constant fight for KFC to be seen as at least somewhat healthy. The last reason on my list is kind of a combination of leftover minor reasons that I'm just going to call them: their reputation which KFC just doesn't have. a solid reputation at the moment they have had a history of poor relations with franchisees they have been constantly criticized by animal rights groups every time they renovate or update their restaurants it always seems like they are a few years behind their customer service has been criticized and That's especially damaging considering that its biggest competitor, Chick-fil-A, is known for its incredibly good customer service.

In 1991, when they changed the name to initials, this big rumor started that they had to change it because genetically they were doing something with chickens. and then the resulting new creature could no longer legally be called a chicken, just to be clear, that's not true, but it's a rumor that's been around for about three decades, so there you have it, KFC isn't that big or that respected. like before. be and those are what I think are the biggest reasons behind this, although I do want to mention that everything in this video applies to Kentucky Fried Chicken in the United States;

In reality, they have been much more successful in different markets around the world. specifically in China, they were the first US fast food chain to open there in the 1980s with a very different menu and have since capitalized on that Head Start by becoming one of the most recognized American brands in the country in 1997. Its international locations surpassed those in the US and today account for more than 80 percent of them, so, to be fair to KFC, most of its attention has been focused on foreign markets for this time and maybe we can look at that as yet another reason why they've been falling in the US, let me.

Do you know in the comments what you think about KFC? Do you like getting that classic bucket of chicken or one of their timed deals?limited or would you rather go to one of their competitors? That opinion has changed over the years. Do you also agree with my opinion? list of reasons behind his rejections is there anything you would change about it this was a broad topic compressed into a short period of time so if you want me to expand on something like maybe a video about Colonel Sanders himself let me know and any other ideas Whatever you have about Kentucky Fried Chicken or anything else in this video, leave them in the comments.

I'd like to hear what you have to say thanks for watching.