Scholars talk about KFC's "Crazy Four Literature" popular: Low creative thresholds, satisfying social attributes, and unpredictable to a certain extent

【Source: Nine Pai News】

Every Thursday, the "Crazy Four Literature" compiled by netizens will always arrive in the appointment. Generally, the news starts with a suspense reasoning story, or it may start with a love story entangled with dog blood. Combined with current affairs hotspots, the star gossip is included in it. The final end will definitely return to that sentence: "Today is KFC crazy Thursday, whoever Please eat? V me 50. "

It is reported that "Crazy Thursday" is a fixed marketing activity of KFC, that is, special offers on Thursday will launch special offers on Thursday. From the official Weibo of KFC, at least in August 2018, the event began operation.

Wang Ling, a lecturer of the Department of Advertising and Information and Communication of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Wang Ling, an annual conference of the American Advertising Society. The interesting and interesting side of itself is not only conducive to the creation of its own image, but also to maintain its social relationship. This is also the social attribute of this "stalk". However, you should be vigilant that the "stalk" during the spread will be continuously processed and created. The original information may be eliminated or even spoof, and even to a certain extent.

[1] What is KFC "Crazy Thursday"?

"Crazy Thursday" originally refers to the special offer every Thursday every Thursday, but because many netizens produce a large number of segments every Thursday, it has now evolved into a phenomenal hot "stalk", incorporating the "Crazy Thursday Thursday "The text is also called ---" Crazy Four Literature ".

Tracing back, KFC first proposed that "Crazy Thursday" was a special event in August 2018. At that time, most of the products that were pushed were chicken nuggets, fries, burgers, etc. with a price of 9.9 yuan.

"Crazy Thursday" early publicity map. /the Internet

In the early days of the event, KFC also invited well -known stars such as Luhan and Wang Yuan to shoot publicity advertisements and put them on elevators and express cabinets.

However, the effect of advertising is not colorful, and even because the songs are too "magical" and excessive launch, some consumers are dissatisfied.

At that time, netizens evaluated screenshots / Zhihu

By 2020, the popularity of "Crazy Thursday" is still not high, and what you know only treats it as an ordinary event. Until May 2021, a "turning point" appeared: the first generation of "Crazy Thursday" copy appeared on the Internet: "Look at your desperate look, know what day is today, today is KFC crazy Thursday."

Since then, the "Crazy Four Literature" has begun to develop, and the text has gradually formed new stalks with the current hotspot.

"Crazy Thursday" and "Crazy Four Literature" / Internet and respondents provide

Even until December 31, 2021, KFC personally ended the "Sir" in his own official identity and held a live broadcast of "Crazy Four Literature" to show the original copywriting of netizens.

According to the company's investigation, KFC successfully registered the "Crazy Thursday" trademark in January 2022. Commodity and service items are: cafes (4301), fast restaurants (4301), restaurant (4301), providing camping venue facilities (4302), nursing homes (4303), day care, child (4304) Tablecloths and glassware (4306), kitchen operation platform rental (4306), cooking equipment rental (4306), beverage distribution machine rental (4306). In addition, the company's investigation also shows that KFC still has three trademark applications submitted in May, classified as beer drinks, food and convenient foods.

KFC is applying for a registered trademark / enterprise check

[2] How hot is KFC "Crazy Thursday"?

KFC's "Crazy Thursday" popularity and explosion fire have a clear time limit. According to the Baidu Index data: In the past six months, the search index of "Crazy Thursday" (Internet users pay attention to keyword search and continuous changes in the search of keywords) on Thursday. The month -on -month growth was as high as 342%.

"Crazy Thursday" search index map / Baidu index

Except for the law of search volume on Thursday, the discussion popularity of Crazy Thursday also continued to rank high. Weibo topic#KFC Crazy Thursday#has produced 1.85 billion reading and 4.083 million discussions. Rush on the hot search on Thursday.

[3] Netizens: Entertainment with "stalk", adjust life

Mr. Chen from Guangzhou, Guangdong, said in an interview with the Jiupai news: "I think this 'stalk' is very funny, and this 'stalk' can usually be connected to other stalks, connecting with other network terms, just like I post it. This 'stalk' is connected to Jay Chou's new song. Anyway, it is entertainment. When I think it is interesting, I will share it with friends to let everyone entertain together. "

Ms. Li in Wuhan, Hubei is a fan of KFC. She pays more attention to the weekly KFC's activities than playing "stalks". "Because I follow KFC's activities, I will also see every copy of the" Crazy Thursday ". I think it is very interesting. Netizens have a lot of brains. All kinds of paragraphs can be stained with 'Crazy Thursday'. Some of them are some. The nonsense, strange paragraphs are even more humorous, "she said.

"Rather than using this stalk, it is better to say that I have used it on the Internet." Mr. Li from Wenzhou, Zhejiang told Jiupai news, "This may reveal the characteristics of the current online chat, not that I like I like it Use this stalk, but when you encounter a large stalk of the stalks when chatting, you will be pasted and copy, and this is more like a self -entertainment method. After all, the tasteless and boring life requires a little seasoning. [4] Scholars: "Crazy Thursday" has social attributes, and it can be maintained for a long time

In response to the popular phenomenon of "Crazy Thursday", Jiupai News contacted Wang Ling, a lecturer of the Department of Advertising Department of the School of Journalism and Information and Communication of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and an annual judge of the American Advertising Society.

Jiupai News: From a professional point of view, why are you happy to use the "crazy Thursday" "stalk"?

Wang Rang: From the core appeal, the "Synches" of "Crazy Thursday" created a sense of humor through nonsense reversal, and humor's demands have always been one of the best demands for communication. In the form of copywriting, this "stalk" follows the "XX literature" form in Internet popular culture, such as: Versailles literature, nonsense literature, creating KFC's "Crazy Thursday Literature", which is in line with brand target consumers, that is, the language of young people, the language of young people Habit. Like other popular "XX literature", KFC's "Crazy Thursday Literature" creative threshold is low. When consumers spread this "stalk" on social networks, they show their own humorous and interesting side. It is also conducive to maintaining its own social relationship, which is also the social attribute of this "stalk".

Jiupai News: "Crazy Thursday" is often used in combination. Even after the end of other hot spots, the next hotspot can still be found on Thursday. Netizens joked "the flow of flowing water, the crazy four of the iron", what do you think?

Wang Rang: In fact, this phenomenon is because "Crazy Thursday" is a "stalk" based on language form, and the irrelevantness of the content before and after the content of the nonsense is the source of its sense of humor. In other words, the phrase "today is KFC crazy Thursday" can be connected behind any content. The more unrelated, the more fun, so it can always find a new hot spot to connect.

But I actually don't agree that this is "stalk" is unique, and I don't think it can continue to live by constantly connecting new hot spots. All the popular text stalks have the characteristics of low use threshold and flexible use of it, otherwise it will be difficult to be continuously created and realized virus spread. From this perspective, KFC's "Crazy Thursday" is not unique.

Jiupai News: What kind of marketing means "Crazy Thursday"?

Wang Rang: "Crazy Thursday" is not very able to be attributed to a certain marketing method. On the contrary, it can see multiple marketing elements on its body. Its starting point is event marketing with price reduction promotion as the core, that is, KFC has created a discount festival (Crazy Thursday). This is the same as Double Eleven and 618, but it is much smaller.

The advantage of this method is to maximize the sales, shorten the distance between the brand and consumers, the virus transmission in a specific circle, the continuous second creation of consumers injects the vitality of the brand marketing, and reduce marketing costs. The second is that if the operation is proper, this phenomenon can be maintained for a long time to achieve IP.

In my opinion, either event marketing, discount promotions, interactive marketing, "stalk" marketing is a feasible marketing strategy, but whether they can play a role, it depends on the brand's marketing goals and selected choices. Whether the marketing strategy matches, and at the same time, it depends on whether the specific creative design is proper.

Jiupai News: What are the disadvantages or shortcomings of such multiple marketing elements?

Wang Rang: The disadvantage is that if the discount is too frequent, it may damage the brand image and brand assets, and the events selected by KFC are too small, the native communication is limited, and a shell with strong communication can be used to achieve better results.

Similarly, due to the limited brand information that "stalks" marketing can carry, sometimes it is difficult to carry functions other than informs. For example, Crazy Thursday literature in this case has not much other effects except the information on Thursday, which conveys the information of "KFC on Thursday" Limited, it is only suitable for brands aimed at youth and popularization. In addition, "stalks" during the transmission process will be continuously processed and created. The original information may be eliminated or even spoof, and even to a certain extent is uncontrollable.

Jiupai News: When will such "stalks" be popular?

Wang Rang: Its life cycle is associated with KFC's crazy Thursday event, or when this "stalk" becomes old and flooded, it makes consumers feel that it seems outdated and crowded. When deducting points, its popularity is naturally beam.

Jiupai News Intern reporter Lin Feng

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