Finger Clickin’ Good!
On the way home the other day, I came across the delightful little chicken shack pictured below and immediately burst out laughing:
Lieutenant Saunders at Your Service!
Clearly, this falls into the category of knock-offs, a genre that mental floss highlighted nicely with a top 10 list (Daiads Shoes are my favorite). Instinct #1 was to run over to the nearest legitimate Kentucky Fried Chicken, order, then upon receiving my food, exclaim something along the lines of “What? This isn’t the real Kennedy Fried Chicken!?! What a rip. I’m out of here!”. Something tells me they would not have gotten or appreciated the joke.
Once that subsided, it was time to examine this strategy from a legitimate marketing perspective. The owner of this store, perhaps a Kennedy, perhaps not, could have called it anything and gone with any color scheme, but clearly decided to replicate KFC. From a long-term business perspective, was this a good idea?
Looking at potential customers, I believe people passing by this store generally fall into one of the following categories:
1) The Irrelevant – This is the majority of the passers-by, those who weren’t going to come into the store no matter what it was called. Let’s clear out that chunk first. Branding had zero impact here.
2) The Appalled – These are people who might have tried out “Joe’s Original Chicken” but are turned off by the tricky marketing and decide not to enter. Negative impact here.
3) The Curious - These are people who get it, but are intrigued by the trickery. I fall into this category. I know what these people are doing, but I’m actually more inclined to try them out because of it. They’re being tricky, but it made me laugh, so I’ll buy some chicken. Positive impact here.
4) The Tricked – These are people who came in thinking they were at a real KFC, and by the time they entered and realized what was up, were at the point of no return. At this point, the business already has a short-term benefit of the sale, and now has a couple of long-term possibilities. Is the person mad they were tricked, pledging never to return, or if the food is good, thinking “yeah, they tricked me, but I’m glad they did. This is delicious!”. I’m guessing overall positive impact here.
It seems like there’s little to lose, besides possible civil action, which would need to be considered, but might not be a real threat, for a store like this. I’d wager more people end up in the store because of this ploy than are driven away.
The Lesson: Your competitors will try and steal what you have that’s worth anything because it’s easy, and it will likely make them better off. Your logo, your methodology, whatever they can get their hands on they’ll try to take. You need to constantly keep up on competition, and make sure your customers get valuable things from you that they can’t get anywhere else. It may sound paranoid, but you should ask The Colonel, he’ll back me up.
Do you have any thoughts on this practice, or some interesting knock-off experiences?
Haha nice post. I picture an old lady with a walker strolling into ‘KFC’ as the Tricked customer.
In terms of whether the copycat method is a good marketing solution for a company I would have to go with no. Is it possible to use a trick to sustain your business for awhile? Probably. However, to have a chance at greatness (to be number one or two in your industry) you really need a core business idea that sets you apart from the rest.
For this chicken place, that could mean having the best cole slaw in the East Village or perhaps having the best customer service on the block. Copying successful companies and tricking consumers will not have long-term results.
Great topic brah.
Sean – Thanks for the comment. I don’t mean to advocate copycat marketing, but in this particular case, all things considered, it looks like it might be a decent ploy. I think the short-term trickery of this method could lead to long term success, if, and only if, they really deliver with some great products. I think we agree on that constraint. Great insight.
That is hilarious. How was the chicken, Eric? Hopefully, better than the KFC pun.
I remember watching a Food Network pizza special – something like “What City is Home to the Best Pizza?” Naturally, I’d say New York. A segment of the show jokes about how many pizzeria’s are named “Sal’s” in New York. If I remember correctly, the original Sal actually lost the rights to the name. Some of the copycats made excellent pizza, according to the show, and the marketing ploy worked out lucratively. Keep an eye out for them.
On a side note, the site looks great! Keep the witty blog banter coming.
Thanks for the support. Haven’t tried the chicken yet, but I can assure you, there will be a post when I do.
I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for knock-off pizza too, though I hear all of the watches and sunglasses sold on the street are legitimate.