KFC's Buckets for the Cure

For those unaware, KFC has recently launched a cause-marketing initiative with Susan G. Komen- to read more see here and here. My frequent co-author and friend, Amy O'Connor, and I have been tracking Susan G. Komen's activities for awhile for a forthcoming case study. We were attracted to SGK because of their large investment in their brand and their exclusivity agreements with companies in particular industries (SGK agrees to only do cause-marketing with a single company in several industries).

So, Amy called me happily on Friday night about her newest addition to our pink collection- a KFC bucket (our students have been bringing us things and pictures of items that are pink and for the cure for a couple of years now). Immediately I was speechless. Amy is an expert in corporate advocacy while I have specialized in nonprofits for about a decade. She thought this was a brilliant move and I saw trouble.

About a year ago we began to see pinkwashing backlash, so care was needed from SGK in choosing this partnership. Additionally, from most consumers' viewpoints, there is little difference between cause-marketing and nonprofit certification programs. In short, co-branding is seen as endorsement from both sides. While this could be GREAT for KFC, for SGK, the choice is puzzling. SGK notes on their website the link between the consumption of high caloric, fatty foods and breast cancer. Those who were already primed to lash out against SGK jumped on the opportunity to respond. SGK served it up, literally in a bucket. There are numerous news stories about the curious partnership, including ABC, PRWatch, and the NYDaily, not to mention the more direct blog criticism.

Our research suggests that the risks of such partnerships are due to various stakeholders not believing the implicit message that the combination of this nonprofit and business are better than their separate aims. Instead, stakeholders of the nonprofit may view them as opportunistic (see the critique by Breast Cancer Action). Activist groups already targeting a corporation may expand their criticism to the nonprofit, as vegan/animal rights groups have done. Stakeholders of the corporation may react negatively to nonprofits message (like health information at their favorite fast food restaurant).

So, what's KFC and SGK to do? Well, the franchisees have already purchased all of these pink buckets and the 50 cents a bucket is actually donated by them (read the fine print). They can't pull the promotion without angering their franchisees twice in a year (once already with the Oprah's free dinner at KFC coupon debacle). The only way out of this is to change the product offered in the bucket -- make it exclusively their grilled chicken. The message might be "This mother's day, KFC's largest day of the year, KFC and SGK want to help women eat healthier and continue the fight against breast cancer."  Then, consumers might see the alignment of the product and the cause -- which our focus groups suggest they truly want from such partnerships.