From ‘So Good’ to ‘So Bad’

Social media and a smartphone in almost every consumer’s hand – it’s a combination which has the power to bring a mighty company to its knees within days.

And none know that better than KFC right now.

A couple of years ago, the chances of that Braamfontein man being able to stand on his balcony and capture those KFC employees blasting raw chicken on that grubby cement floor with a firehose would have been virtually zero.

But now a huge and rapidly growing number of consumers have, at arm’s length, virtually constantly, a pocket-sized device which enables them to take photos or videos and post them onto Facebook or Twitter within seconds.

So Braamfontein Balcony Man probably pulled his phone out of his pocket the moment he realised what he was seeing, tapped Video, and the rest is KFC misery.

The story was splashed in newspapers and carried by radio and TV stations for six days and sparked 55-million social media impressions.

“The impact on sales was massive,” said KFC Africa’s chief marketing officer, Mike Middleton, declining to elaborate.”

“We are suffering.”

KFC has a massive 41% share of the quick-service restaurant (food to you and me) market, with 800 outlets countrywide.

“When you own a category, you

become a talking point very quickly,” Middleton said.

And when that talk is about food quality, consumer trust goes down the drain as quickly as hose-blasted breading, along with sales.

It probably didn’t help that the company’s response to that viral video was confusing and contradictory. First MD Doug Smart told an SABC TV crew that the workers had been trying to thaw frozen, reject chicken in order to count the individual pieces.

Then the story changed and the nation was introduced to the word “breading” – the flour and “secret spices” which coat the famous chicken pieces. We were told that the workers had defied the franchisee’s order to remove the not-so-good pieces of chicken – a broken drumstick, for example – before breading, not after, in order not to waste flour and spices on pieces that wouldn’t make it into the fryers.

So what they were doing in that

behind-the-scenes courtyard was washing the breading off the reject pieces in order to cover up their wasteful mistake. But, we kept being reassured, that chicken was never destined to be sold to the public.

Unfortunately for KFC, pictures speak louder than words, and those blurry cellphone images of KFC workers, in uniform, throwing chicken onto a dirty cement floor, are easier to grasp than the company’s explanation.

Of course, it didn’t end there – next to go viral was the video posted on a Durban restaurant review Facebook group of a KFC worker in Umhlanga sharpening knives on the pavement.

And then came the third strike. Last Tuesday a KFC customer in Vanderbijlpark posted a photo on Facebook of a Twister allegedly bought at the Three Rivers franchise, clearly showing pieces of raw chicken.”

“My raw Twister. Thanks KFC”, he wrote.

“That case is still under investigation,” Middleton said.

“At the risk of sounding defensive, we are not convinced the product photographed is ours – the lettuce is not shredded, as our Twister lettuce is; and it looks like a chicken fillet, whereas we use a stripped, breaded piece.

“We’ve asked the person who posted it for more information, but he publicly posted that he is not interested in communicating with us.”

The three incidents, particularly the first, have opened a Pandora’s Box, Middleton says.

“We are being inundated with horror stories about our food which just aren’t true, including one about maggot-infested chicken.

“People are trying to cash in by sending these things and threatening to post on social media ...”

Here’s what the chicken washing, knife sharpening citizen videos achieved, besides causing real damage to a major brand: KFC has set up a Whistleblowers Hotline for its 30000 employees, encouraging them to report any dodgy practices on the part of their colleagues; and the company developed a Doing The Right Thing (DTRT) training programme in record time.

DTRT is the core of their business, Middleton says. Getting their customers to believe that again is the challenge.

This tweet, by Julia Madibogo, encapsulates what they’re up against: “Dear KFC, You sold us floor washed chicken, then you used pavement side wall sharpened knives, now you selling us raw chicken? WHY :(”

CONTACT: Email: consumer@knowler.co.za

Twitter: @wendyknowler