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Break out your finest white suit and southern-style bow tie - Colonel Sanders is back. Or, at the very least, a very game Darrell Hammond is back, this time portraying the Colonel instead of Bill Clinton on &#8220;Saturday Night Live.&#8221;According to Business Insider, <a href="http://www.kfc.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KFC</a> brought back the guise of its legendary spokesman in order to &#8220;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kfc-brings-back-the-colonel-2015-5?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">celebrate 75 years</a> since the fast-food chain's secret fried chicken recipe was created.&#8221;However, the return of the Colonel raises a few important questions about the importance of having a recognizable brand mascot, as well as reaching back into the vault for marketing campaigns.Jason Vaughn, president and COO of <a href="http://lennyssubs.1851franchise.com/brand/Lennyssubs?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lenny&#8217;s Sub</a> Shop, recently spoke about these very topics. And with his history as Director of Operations at Yum! Brands, which encompassed KFC, along with <a href="http://www.tacobell.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Taco Bell</a> and <a href="https://order.pizzahut.com/home?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pizza Hut</a>, who better?&#8220;The Colonel was always present, but he wasn&#8217;t front and center like he is now,&#8221; Vaughn said. &#8220;At some point during the brand&#8217;s tenure, they tried to distance themselves from &#8216;Kentucky fried.&#8217; I think now they&#8217;re going back to their origins and rediscovering what made them very successful in the first place.&#8221;KFC isn&#8217;t the only major brand to recently launch a blast from the past. McDonald&#8217;s just heralded the return of its Hamburglar character, albeit replacing the original cartoon version with a hyper-real iteration that was met with derision online.&#8220;My gut tells me they&#8217;re going back to their origins because smaller brands are all about origins today,&#8221; Vaughn said. &#8220;Think of the whole garden-to-table movement. Big brands are trying to figure out how to be small again. They want to tell people, &#8216;We used to be like that, let us tell you.&#8217; Some of that may be getting lost in translation.&#8221;Maybe a hipster Hamburglar isn&#8217;t the best way to go about things. In fact, maybe relying on a brand mascot isn&#8217;t a solution at all. Just look at <a href="http://popeyes.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Popeyes</a> and <a href="https://www.chipotle.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=bringing-back-the-colonel-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1806" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chipotle</a> for inspiration.&#8220;Popeyes is simply embracing who they are,&#8221; Vaughn continued. &#8220;Fried food that&#8217;s really good with a solid price value. I don&#8217;t think the emotional connection has to be a requisite for a brand to be highly successful. There&#8217;s no face to Chipotle, but they&#8217;re highly successful.&#8221;Mascots and brand spokespeople can themselves sometimes lead to unique challenges. Vaughn knows this firsthand from his time as division vice president at Wendy&#8217;s International. When Dave Thomas passed away, Wendy&#8217;s struggled with its identity.Whether it&#8217;s the Colonel, the Hamburglar or any other nostalgia-soaked character, Vaughn believes there are more important things than creating an instantly recognizable mascot.&#8220;I think brands have to understand who their audience is and who they want to be to them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Once they know that, they need to hold true to that vision. Don&#8217;t try to be everything to everybody.&#8221;At the same time, staying true to a vision doesn&#8217;t preclude evolving as a brand when it makes sense. Of course, there&#8217;s a big difference between evolution and chasing trends.&#8220;Brands that don&#8217;t change on whims but are willing to evolve are the most successful,&#8221; Vaughn said. &#8220;Following trends is dangerous business. Every year a brand that has a new menu or new look, people don&#8217;t know who they are.&#8221;Time will tell if KFC&#8217;s decision to bring back the Colonel pays off in the long term, but brands may want to start putting more stock on what they&#8217;ll do best in the future instead of reaching into the past.

1851 Franchise

Is reaching into the past the right move for franchise brands looking to the future?


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