LOUISVILLE Ky. KFC was looking to grow its “Grilled Nation” roster of consumers who have tried its Kentucky Grilled Chicken with a third national giveaway on Monday, but faced competition from rivals Boston Market and El Pollo Loco, which launched their own offers.
KFC, a Louisville, Ky.-based chain, handed each customer a free piece of Kentucky Grilled Chicken as part of its “UNFry Day” promotion. Costa Mesa, Calif.-based El Pollo Loco ran a competing promotion awarding free chicken for a year to one person drawn from fans who left a comment on the chain’s Facebook or Twitter pages. Meanwhile, Golden, Colo.-based Boston Market entered the fray by offering $1 value meals featuring a quarter chicken, mashed potatoes and cornbread. The deal, which will be offered through this week, was promoted via e-mail blast to the chain’s VIP Club, but any customer can print a coupon off Boston Market’s website.
Boston Market chief executive Lane Cardwell said KFC’s one-day, one-piece offer didn’t go far enough, so his chicken chain seized the opportunity to provide more food for longer, though not necessarily for free.
“We thought people might still be hungry if all they got was one piece of chicken,” Cardwell said. “That kind of offer benefits the company but not necessarily the guest. We could’ve made this a one-day offer, but that means there are going to be long lines and product shortages. We thought that to spread out people’s ability to enjoy our promotion over a week was beneficial.”
Cardwell said his executive team put the finishing touches on the idea for the deal last Thursday, told employees about the plan Friday, finalized creative for the promotion Saturday and rolled the offer out on Sunday. Initial results from some markets already are proving successful, he said.
“A buck’s a pretty good price,” Cardwell said. “The first three hours at one unit, they had 100 people go through with the $1 meal coupon. Our people were ecstatic. We love seeing lines, as long as everybody’s happy, and they were ready for it.”
KFC’s first UNFry Day, for the product’s debut last April, served more than 4 million guests, said KFC spokesman Rick Maynard. In all, KFC has doled out more than 60 million servings of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.
“Our research shows that when people try KGC [Kentucky Grilled Chicken], they love it and they come back for more,” Maynard said in an e-mail, “so we’re excited about adding millions more KGC fans to Grilled Nation on UNFry Day.”
El Pollo Loco, which has taken on KFC with combative advertising and promotions throughout the segment leader’s entire campaign with its grilled-chicken product, also acted quickly in response to KFC’s latest promotion. El Pollo Loco, which specializes in citrus-marinated chicken that is cooked over an open flame, developed its offer Friday afternoon and quickly spread the news to bloggers.
“We’re very flexible and responsive,” said Julie Weeks, vice president of communications for El Pollo Loco. “We’re revving up the social-media machine to help the bloggers and all the folks online spread the word.”
El Pollo Loco’s contest asks fans to explain on the brand’s Facebook and Twitter pages “why flame-grilled chicken is better than oven ‘grilled’ chicken,” pointing out its major point of differentiation — flame grilling — from KFC. The winner drawn from all the commenters will receive 52 coupons for two pieces of chicken, but Weeks said other incentives and prizes would be given to especially creative comments.
“What we’re finding is that our fans really spread the word for us in terms of the superior flavor of flame-grilled, citrus-marinated chicken,” Weeks said. “They respond to what we’ve deemed the chicken wars. … It’s gotten some TV coverage today alongside KFC’s giveaway, and since we’re much smaller than KFC, this provides us a great way to get the word out about our chicken.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].