KFC: JAPAN'S FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS FOOD

Breaking Down The Strategy

In the early 1900s Christmas wasn’t really a thing in Japan.

There were very few Christians in the country, which meant very few people celebrated it.

This also meant that the classic Christmas traditions like eating turkey, simply didn’t exist.

However, by the 1970s Christmas had spread into Japan and more and more people had started celebrating.

Yet still, there was no set way to celebrate it. People just ate whatever they wanted.

Some ate sushi, others ate Pizza.

Then it’s said that in 1973, a school teacher walked into a KFC and offered to buy the whole school KFC for Christmas if the owner - Takeshi - delivered it in a Santa costume.

Takeshi obliged.

But the word began to spread.

One school wanted the offer, then 2, then 3.

The next minute Takeshi was delivering KFC to a bunch of schools dressed up as Santa.

That night he went to bed and apparently woke up with an idea…

“What if KFC’s fried chicken could be a substitute for Turkey?”

In 1974, Takeshi activated on the idea and KFC Japan launched a new campaign across Japan called “Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii!” (Kentucky for Christmas).

Which consisted of:

• In-store Christmas Decor: This included KFC stores dressing up Colonel Sanders as Santa.

• Nationwide Ad Campaigns: Consisting of families sitting around the table with KFC on Christmas.

• A Special Christmas Offer: They called them “Christmas Party Barrels” which had a selection of KFC food in them.

After this, KFC for Christmas really took off and KFC took advantage of it.

Over the next few decades KFC would poor millions into advertisements that pushed the connection between Christmas and KFC.

Whilst heavily pushing Colonel Sanders as Santa within the ads.

Now, nearly 50 years after the campaign started Colonel Sanders is literally a representation of Christmas to the Japanese people.

So much so, that if you Google “Christmas in Japan” Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa is all over the results.

But KFC Christmas hasn’t just taken off in terms of association.

Oh no.

It’s one of the highest ROI campaigns ever run.

• Christmas weekend makes up a third of KFC’s yearly sales in Japan.

• Most franchises 10x their monthly revenue over Christmas.

• In 2019 KFC made a whopping $62.5 million in Japan over Christmas.

Crazy.

But what are the marketing lessons we can learn from it?

THE MARKETING LESSONS

1) Find The Gap

Most brands push Christmas campaigns and get a pitiful ROI, because there’s no gap in the market for western Christmas.

KFC capitalised on a huge gap where Japan weren’t celebrating Christmas.

More brands should look for these gaps rather than just putting out the same campaigns at the same time every year.

2) Win Through Association

KFC wouldn’t have been able to sell that much KFC on any other day of the year. They couldn’t create a successful “KFC day”.

They won because of their association with Christmas.

They didn’t need to drive buyer intent, they just needed to drive home the association.

3) Translate Traditions

How do you win like KFC did? Find a tradition that is slowly migrating to other cultures.

Maybe other countries are starting to celebrate Thanksgiving? Or maybe Chinese New Year?

This has to be one of the coolest campaigns I’ve ever covered. Hopefully you found it just as interesting as I did.

To those who still need to do last minute Christmas shopping… good luck!

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

This has been a breakdown of KFC’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

Don’t forget to subscribe to get next week’s breakdown straight to your inbox!