Remembering Colonel Sanders and His Kentucky Fried Chicken
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — KFC wants to fix up a second serving of Colonel Sanders in an attempt to lift a fading image. A survey of American adults aged 18-25 revealed that six out of ten could not identify Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of the world's largest chicken chain of 15,000 restaurants in 109 countries. Fifty-two percent believe he is a made-up corporate icon.
Franchisees and the company are not happy about this. Sanders is revered by thousands of owner-operators.
"Colonel Sanders wasn't Kris Kringle, Father Time or Uncle Sam," said John R. Neal, longtime KFC franchisee. "He was a living, breathing, wildly successful entrepreneur who impacted our national cuisine. The Colonel was a marketing genius, even though he had only a sixth-grade education. I'm really proud that we are embarking on this effort to celebrate his many accomplishments."
Colonel Harland Sanders' genius may have been that he listened. He had a strong tradition of giving franchisees tremendous say in the marketing and restaurant practices of the chain. His first franchise owner-operator decided to call his Utah cafe Kentucky Fried Chicken, to remind customers of southern hospitality and great fried chicken. He thought it sounded better than Utah Fried Chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken became the name for the chain. The franchisee, Pete Harman, asked Sanders to be the face of the company in a local parade. He bought a white suit for the Colonel. That image stuck. A star was born. The Utah franchisee also experimented with buckets of chicken, which were the right price and size for families who ate at home. The restaurant system adopted that product and marketing effort too.
Today's confusion by the public is partly of KFC's own making. USA Today notes, "In the past few decades, it ping-ponged back-and-forth from fried-chicken-maker to grilled chicken specialist. In the logo, it put the colonel in a red apron instead of his iconic white suit. And it turned its Kentucky Fried Chicken name into KFC. 'I wonder if most kids know what the initials KFC stand for?' poses brand guru Steven Addis. 'It's just an alphabet soup now.' "
The firm thinks public relations events and social media may be the answer. Through Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and other social media sites, the company is introducing the public to the Colonel once again. It is careful to call the actor who plays the Colonel a look-alike, to remind the public that this is no department store Santa Claus. There really was a Colonel Harland Sanders, whose 120th birthday would have been on Thursday, September 9.
It is also asking painters nationwide to enter a contest in which the winning artist will paint a portrait that hangs alongside a famous Norman Rockwell painting of Colonel Sanders at the franchisor's headquarters. With a twist of humor, the company will provide special paint, which contains the Colonel's original eleven herbs and spices.
Prior to opening his first restaurant, the Sanders Court & Café in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930, Sanders tried his hand at a variety of jobs, including farmhand, streetcar conductor, army private, blacksmith's helper, rail yard fireman and tire salesman. Sanders Court & Café made such an impact that in 1936 Harland Sanders received from Kentucky's governor the title of honorary Kentucky colonel for his contributions to the state's cuisine.
At the age of 65 the Colonel used his $105 social security check to start KFC, and until his death at the age of 90, traveled 250,000 miles a year visiting KFC restaurants worldwide. For years he carried the secret original recipe in his head and the spice mixture in his car as he drove to franchises from coast to coast. The company says that by 1976, Colonel Sanders ranked as the world's second-most recognizable celebrity, behind then-heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, a fellow Kentuckian.
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