Changing Your Name is Easier than Changing What’s Associated by your Business Name

The article, “Final Take” from the What’s Offline section of The New York Times, calls attention to KFC’s branding strategy.

Sometimes the bigger the brand, the bigger the sign needs to be in order to be viewed from space. Still, when people see KFC as they orbit the earth, at least there’s a good chance they won’t associate it with trans fats. That’s how the people behind KFC’s 87,000sqft sign in the Nevada desert might see it, in any case.

The sign shows the company’s new logo in all its Colonel Sanders glory. For the terrestrials among us who send snail mail, KFC is also lobbying for a postage stamp of founder Harland Sanders.

Whatever the associations of its fried goods, the company has worked plenty hard to shift the media focus from fried food and health to branding exercises, generating lots of publicity for the company. It will be interesting to see if KFC’s branding strategy helps it build a stronger business.