It’s not everyday a sandwich makes headlines in the news. According to CTV news, “the Double Down became KFC’s most successful sandwich in the company’s history, with more than 10 million sold in a month.” For those of you who don’t know, the Double Down is a sandwich with two pieces of fried chicken instead of buns to sandwich together bacon, cheese, and KFC’s secret sauce. To some, just the thought of melting cheese and thick slices of bacon squeezed between two slabs of chicken would already sell itself, but in this case the real driver behind the Double Down’s success is marketing.
One of the key componenets of this campaign are the Double Down’s commercials. These commercials are targetted towards men and seem to send the “more is better” message and only a Double Down sandwich can satisfy a man’s hunger. To build upon this, KFC has even expanded their campaign to Facebook where they have an official page for the sandwich. In addition, they issued a challenge to “Take Down the Double Down” and have even created a “Wall of Fame” for people to brag about how many sandwiches they’ve eaten. Finally to take its campaign one step further, KFC does something probably no other fast food chain has done. In order to further appeal to male consumers, KFC paid young female college students to hand out coupons while wearing tight track-suit bottoms with “Double Down” written on their butts. In the end, the creation of a community of Double Down followers and marketing tactics appealing to male tendencies are responsible for the Double Down’s success.
Note: this post is a response to http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101018/double-down-kfc-101018/