Challenge.
These restaurants are part of their franchise network and each one needs to reflect the very best aspects of the KFC brand. A dedicated team of marketing professionals are responsible for supporting this growing customer base across the whole of Europe and they need a design partner they can trust to live up to the KFC’s brand value of “Always original” and not accept second best. Toast was up to the task and showed KFC how it lives up to the challenge of always being original.
Approach.
Following our full process of strategy and planning, concept sketches and development by many of the Toast team. We also worked alongside KFC’s European Brand Managers, Dallas-based Global Brand Managers and Architects to develop a solution that creates a dynamic and youthful feel whilst remaining true to the KFC brand. We reviewed the entire brand toolkit, putting ourselves in the franchisee’s shoes and from this viewpoint pitched our honest thoughts and practical solutions. These ideas were discussed and developed with the KFC team and evolved into a set of themes that complemented and supported the existing toolkit.
Because the new artwork needed imagery outside of the existing KFC brand library, we storyboarded and art directed photo shoots of ‘real’ KFC cooks and ingredients, with photographers MM Studios and Richard Tymon to create a series of unique and authentic artworks that are interchangeable and adaptable, which is key for different sized KFC restaurants across many European markets.
Solution.
The new designs build on the strength of the KFC brand and aim to reinforce two main messages: all KFC food is freshly prepared in-store every day by trained cooks, who still follow the original Colonel Sanders recipe, which is why the KFC taste is unique. The artwork will be used throughout the restaurants and includes large-scale graphic panels of 4m wide, to information panels, glass panels and poster designs. It’s designed to be interchangeable with existing designs and flexible, so it will work on both smaller and larger restaurant spaces, giving franchisees everything they need to create engaging, on-brand retails spaces.
Since this original project, Toast has gone on to support the KFC CEE Marketing team with a range of other projects from events to day to day marketing materials.
Talk to us today about your store design
“Toast has seized the brief to come up with some fresh-thinking that will give customers a new insight into what makes KFC such an enjoyable experience. Their work clearly conveys our core brand values: natural, authentic and high quality, and gives us a platform which we can adopt globally in the future.”
Austin Cooke
Development Director for KFC CEE
“When approaching such a well recognised global brand as KFC it would have been easy to be intimidated and take a conservative route and avoid addressing the key issues, but we believe in solving challenges not avoiding them.”
