"Crazy Four Literature" can't beat "Mai Men"? Why did KFC lose its first-mover advantage?

In many people's Internet memories, KFC's "Crazy Four Literature" has become a part of our daily life. However, the spread of "Crazy Four Literature" on major social platforms is obviously inferior to Maimen. Why did KFC lose its first-mover advantage?

KFC is finally getting anxious!

The "V50" that existed in many people's Internet memories was turned into "V50 Chicken Nuggets" by KFC, which was linked to the previously popular "Crazy Four Literature". This innovative marketing method should have been a marketing case that gained both traffic and word of mouth.

However, what surprised KFC was that the world of the Internet had already changed. On social media such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu, the number of interactions and likes for KFC’s official announcements was far less than that of McDonald’s during the same period. In the comments section of KFC, there were still many “McDonald’s followers”.

The "Crazy Four Literature" that was originally in the lead was overtaken by "Maimen Literature", and quickly expanded into a powerful "Maimen Followers" and planned to instigate the rebellion of the "Kenmen People".

KFC, which was slow to realize the situation, also had a long and glorious history.

As early as August 2018, KFC, which is well versed in marketing, launched the brainwashing slogan "Crazy Thursday, 9.99", but the effect of this brainwashing slogan in offline media such as elevators and subways was not ideal. Until 2021, the first generation of "Crazy Thursday" copywriting appeared on social media. The unexpected contrast extended from this brainwashing slogan made this copywriting crazy fission across the entire network, and the public began to create magical secondary creations on it, and finally opened up a new school of "Crazy Thursday Literature".

KFC was quite foresighted at the time and quickly grasped the traffic code. The official launched a "Crazy Four Literature Festival" to justify the reputation of secondary creation users. It is certain that "Crazy Four Literature" has become a new source of vitality for KFC in the social field and opened up the link of brand rejuvenation.

However, social hot spots are always changing, and hot memes also have their life cycle. On the fifth anniversary of its launch, "Crazy Four" also had to face the dilemma of fading popularity in the social scene.

1. Amorousness vs Loyalty

As is customary on the Internet, every Thursday there will be a wave of propositional creation.

The non-fiction writing school is good at using the first-person perspective. Some of its well-known representative works include:

I was originally an Ultraman from a prominent family, but was harmed by a cunning monster! The Ultraman family abandoned me! Ultra Father chased me away! He even cut off my gamma rays! I was reborn, and today is KFC's Crazy Thursday! Who will treat me?

From the day I added you on WeChat, I started following you and often looked at your Moments. I am not good at speaking, so I dare not chat with you. This message is set to be visible only to you. I want to spend the weekend with you. If you agree, just pat me, V me 50, and treat me to KFC Crazy Thursday.

Follow the current events and choose to find inspiration from hot topics:

What's expensive? It's been this price for so many years! Crazy Thursday has always been 50 yuan for V-ing me! Don't talk nonsense, it's hard to eat Crazy Thursday, okay? And I really don't just pick someone and charge him 50 yuan. I've been eating Crazy Thursday for so many years, I know it best, it's really been 50 yuan for so many years, you can transfer 300 yuan to me on WeChat and buy one month get one month free. What's expensive? Sometimes you should look for your own reasons, okay, have you V-ing me 50 yuan in all these years?

The rigorous academic school also found a new way from its own professional knowledge :

Given a triangle △ABC, AB＝25 AC＝18 sin∠BAC＝0.2. Through the midpoint K of AB, draw KF⊥AB and intersect AC at F. Connect the midpoint K and the vertex C of the triangle to get the triangle KFC. Prove that KFC=50. Who can help?

Insanus lovis (scientific name: Insanus lovis) is a widespread chronic disease. Most susceptible people are young people in mainland China. There is no effective cure for it. The only way to relieve symptoms is to use the biological agent Fried Animal Protein (FAP, Chinese translation: Feipu) developed by the American company Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to target receptors in the stomach and small intestine through the esophagus. Today is the day when the company reduces the price of the drug. Donate 50 to help me treat this chronic disease.

Whether the story begins with a couple who just broke up or a fish escaping from nuclear pollution in the North Sea, it all points to the ending of "V50". This mental state of the whole world going crazy together is the charm of "Crazy Four Literature". Young people can vent their emotions and find resonance through strong contrast and abrupt copywriting. Therefore, the creative form of "Crazy Four Literature" has been infinitely extended to mathematical formulas, English, emoticons...

The biggest beneficiary of "Crazy Four Literature" is naturally KFC. After reaping the benefits of social media marketing, KFC's ambitions have continued to expand, copying the marketing plans of "Crazy Four Literature" one after another.

KFC has a trump card in the form of popular celebrities with strong appeal among young users. KFC, which is generous, adheres to the principle of "playing with whoever is popular", and chooses the most popular celebrities at the moment. Of course, once the cooperating artists show signs of declining traffic, KFC will never hesitate and decisively replace them.

Gong Jun, who became popular with the drama “Word of Honor”, ​​was spotted by KFC. KFC, which has an accurate judgment of traffic trends, quickly cooperated with him and officially announced that Gong Jun became the “KFC Taste Officer”. However, before Gong Jun’s traffic cycle was over, in September last year, KFC targeted the new traffic star Tan Jianci and reached a cooperation with him in the name of “K Coffee Experiencer”. It can be said that the frequency of changing the human-shaped stand in KFC stores cannot keep up with the speed of changing spokespersons.

In addition to pleasing traffic fans, KFC is also focusing on niche users, and IP co-branding is one of the means. Since January, KFC has co-branded with popular IPs such as Pop Mart Sweet Bean, Sky: Children of the Light Mobile Game, Sanrio, and Barbie, attracting the attention of young users through blind boxes and peripherals.

It is undeniable that KFC's marketing investment in celebrities and IP has also gained a lot of traffic and popularity. Under KFC's official Weibo account, the number of reposts, comments and likes with #时代少年团# content is hundreds or even thousands of times that of other blog posts. Unfortunately, all this traffic comes only for the handsome "little brother", and it is still unknown how much effective conversion it can bring to KFC in the end.

KFC official Weibo comment area

The "Crazy Four Literature", which has the largest influence in the natural traffic pool, is difficult to effectively integrate with sophisticated celebrity artists. The popularity of this topic is constantly cut by intensive marketing actions and is gradually forgotten in the rapidly changing social field.

McDonald's, which cannot "waste" like KFC, rarely cooperates with popular artists. Although its marketing actions are not as frequent as KFC, its moves are deadly and hit KFC's weak points directly.

Unwilling to be suppressed by "Crazy Four Literature" for many years, McDonald's keenly observed the response of "McDonald's Unlimited Goodness" on social platforms and personally "stamped and claimed" the title of Maimen. Since then, "Maimen" has become an important weapon for McDonald's to achieve overtaking. In order to accelerate the expansion of the "Maimen" voice, McDonald's can't even wait for users to create secondary creations, and decided to take the initiative to produce dissemination materials, publish the "Maimen Guide" popular science video on Bilibili, and produce Maimen emoticons, posters, etc., to help the secondary dissemination and diffusion of the social field.

Unlike KFC, McDonald's is particularly careful about its marketing, and every marketing campaign is closely tied to the core theme of "McGate". The joint venture with Crocs, a hole shoe brand, has triggered a lot of positive feedback from users. As the two most famous "schools" in 2023, the strong combination of Crocs and McGate has successfully leveraged the natural traffic in the social field.

2. Reserved vs. Crazy

A careful analysis shows that "Crazy Four Literature" and "Mai Men Literature" actually have the same goal. Although they belong to different schools, they both carry the "crazy needs" of young users.

The origin of "McMen Disciple" is that users expressed their love for McDonald's in various ways in the order notes and received gifts from McDonald's as a result. This kind of give-and-take interaction was widely spread, and a large number of users were eager to try it out and came up with various ways of doing things in the copywriting.

I am a Maimen believer in my rebirth. Many years ago, KFC plotted against me and they secretly gave me an extra box of sweet and spicy sauce. Let me tell you my revenge story. Thank you, Maimen!

An old friend prepared chicken and potatoes and invited me to Mai's house. The wheat is whirling and the chicken is crispy. We open the window to the wheat field and talk about mulberry and hemp. When the sun is not shining, I will come to Mai's house to eat again.

A person who thinks McDonald's is delicious can't be that bad, that's my view of good and evil! If a person starts to criticize McDonald's and pretends to be noble when hearing the words "McDonald's is delicious", this person may secretly add sesame paste to your burger in the future.

Absurd and self-deprecating copywriting is a means for young users to fight against the downward economic environment. It is also the key to gaining resonance and recognition on the Internet, ultimately triggering fission propagation.

In this user carnival, the brand's attitude is also a key link. Whether it is arrogant and self-reliant, letting users have fun on their own, or lowering oneself and dancing with users, these two completely opposite attitudes will also lead to different marketing results.

In fact, many brands are trying to be "jokers" to gain traffic and attention. During the collective trend of Chinese products going viral last year, a user commented in the comment section that Fenghua's packaging was "a bit cheap", and Fenghua replied bluntly, "We are cheap to begin with." The unabashed and generous response caught young users who have been surfing for years off guard and made them feel good about it.

Some brands have become "street stalkers" on the Internet, "showing up" in major hot events. After Fenghua released content about its inventory shortage, brands such as Longliqi, White Elephant, and Southern Black Sesame flocked to its comment section to attract traffic by playing with memes. Brands such as Want Want and Wolong also conduct daily "patrols" on platforms such as Bilibili, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, appearing in the comment sections of ordinary users and actively interacting.

McDonald's has also established an image of a "joker" by exchanging "McGate codes", going crazy, and flipping cards with users on platforms such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu. It can be said that many users are inferior to McDonald's in terms of playing memes.

Take McDonald's official Weibo account's regular operation column, Late Night Open, for example. McDonald's often posts fill-in-the-blank questions, invites users to interact, and comments on each question in the comment section. In a question, "If you could, would you like to eat McDonald's ___ for free for the rest of your life?", a user boldly filled in the word "profit". Some users even went crazy in McDonald's' comment section, and McDonald's did not back down at all, and also responded by going crazy.

In contrast, KFC's operating style on social media is much more "reserved". Not only does it not actively create or respond to memes, it even rarely interacts or flips in the comment section. Among the Weibo content released by KFC in January, only two comments were replied to under the official announcement of Crazy Thursday and Meituan Takeaway Coupon Festival released on January 18. On platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, KFC focuses on polishing interesting content that fits the language of young users, but it also rarely replies to user messages.

As emotional consumption gradually becomes mainstream, if brands cannot lower their profile in social situations, they will not be able to maintain interaction and communication with users, let alone form emotional connections with users, which will ultimately affect users’ minds.

3. Positive reviews vs negative reviews

The liveliness of social events cannot be equated with successful transactions in business. The final conversion of marketing effects still depends on the performance of the product. Quality has become a key factor affecting brand reputation and user mind.

For chain restaurant brands, quality control and scale expansion have always been a difficult contradiction to reconcile. In order to ensure product quality, chain restaurant brands will establish rigid standards in store operations and management systems, requiring all stores to use uniform ingredients and strictly control operating procedures. This set of standards is still feasible under the direct sales model. However, once it is open to franchising, franchisees in various places will easily have various loopholes in execution, which will affect product quality and damage brand reputation.

As the fastest-growing Western restaurant brand in the Chinese market, KFC opened its franchise system as early as 1993. Undoubtedly, the opening of the franchise system helped KFC expand rapidly in China and increased its brand sales. In 1998, KFC also launched a new franchise policy: instead of starting from scratch, it transferred directly-operated stores that were already mature in all aspects to franchisees, thus ensuring product quality while also ensuring the brand expansion strategy.

However, KFC, which has accelerated its expansion in recent years and continued to attack lower-end markets, has laid a considerable hidden danger to its product quality.

On social platforms, many users have questioned KFC products. Chicken wings, crispy pork, hamburgers and other items have been reported to be undercooked or even have foreign matter. At the same time, the inefficiency of the subsequent complaint process continues to reduce users' trust in the brand. The emergence of such problems exposes the shortcomings of KFC's store management. KFC, which has opened 10,000 stores across the country, naturally cannot extend its tentacles to all stores.

In addition to product quality issues, KFC’s usual marketing strategy of limited-time returns of popular items has also aroused consumers’ disgust.

Take KFC's recent marketing event, the return of Tender Beef and Five-Sided Pork, for example. Tender Beef and Five-Sided Pork has been a popular item at KFC for many years and is highly sought after by users. However, for this popular item, KFC did not increase the supply, but did the opposite, frequently withdrawing it from shelves, and then returning it for a limited time on social media to arouse users' enthusiasm.

Industry insiders analyzed to Doujiao that part of the reason for the withdrawal of Tender Beef Five-Sided Beef was the careful control of its product raw materials. In order to ensure the taste of the beef, KFC had to give up its long-term supply.

However, the user response to the return of the tender beef five-sided cake was very lukewarm. Some users said in the comment area that they were immune to this kind of hunger marketing method, while others pointed out that the taste and size had changed and were no longer the same as before. The so-called return failed to awaken users' feelings.

What KFC faces is not only a battle of innovation in marketing concepts, but also a battle of offense and defense in product quality. In the rapidly changing Chinese consumer market, KFC can no longer be so high and mighty. It needs to learn to humble itself and reshape its brand awareness and image through in-depth communication with users.

Author: Bukong, WeChat public account: Spicy