BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

When an Oprah Winfrey tie-in offered an opportunity for viewers to download free coupons Wednesday, KFC was clearly unprepared for an overwhelming response from consumers wanting to try the Colonel's new grilled chicken. Millions of customers downloaded the coupons and lined up at KFC stores nationwide. But thousands were turned away when many stores around the country ran out of chicken. Within hours, KFC had a PR problem on its hands as customers turned to the Internet to express frustration and the mainstream media picked up the story.

At that point, KFC had a prime opportunity to take advantage of the situation and strengthen its brand. Almost immediately after the coupon was posted online, "Oprah Winfrey KFC coupons," was the fifth most searched for item on Google, and countless Twitter users had expressed their thoughts, both positive and negative, on the promotion. At that point, the company could have rushed product to stores and enjoyed a PR field day from the popularity boost spurred by TV' s favorite pitch woman. The company could even have made a virtue of its unpreparedness by declaring it had no idea how popular its chicken was.

But KFC may be blowing its golden "Oprah-tunity" by allowing its problem to grow into a crisis. The media are citing reports of surly KFC salespeople shooing customers away by the thousands while the company' s PR people are avoiding media calls and claiming to be in internal strategy meetings. Huh?

If KFC acts quickly, it may still be able to transform the crisis into a showcase for the popularity of its grilled chicken. But to leverage this opportunity, KFC needs to engage consumers in the same medium in which the news of the giveaway and its resulting problems spread in the first place: the Internet. KFC could monitor social networks for customers who were turned away and offer those individuals exclusive new coupons. Such an apologetic gesture would cost the company very little while providing the disgruntled customers another chance to try the new product.

Reframing the issue into a positive message about the product' s popularity will create long- term opportunities for KFC to strengthen its brand. KFC can not only continue to expand awareness of its new healthy alternatives but can also ensure that the negative message of under-preparation does not dominate the ongoing narrative.