In the near past, KFC adopted the “logo makeover” as their marketing policy. This company makes a good case study to show the importance of logo evolution over the history of a company. A generation grew up by looking at the immaculately dressed Colonel Harland Sanders in white suit and black bow tie. Although, the grammar of logo designing doesn’t encourage the use of face in the company logos, the face of a smiling colonel in KFC logo became one of the most recognizable icons all over the world over the fifty years of its history. KFC has been one of the few companies that consistently clung to its brand identity with only four small changes in its logo over the past fifty years.
KFC was created by the Colonel Sanders, who is became the emblem of the logo in a stylized version since the creation of the 1st logo. Year after year, the emblem is redesigned to be more and more nice and friendly!
After 26 years, the first logo was redesigned: the ribbon bow tie appears shorter and the fonts on the words «Kentucky Fried Chicken» were changed. The third version of the logo was designed in 1991: the words were changed to “KFC” instead of “Kentucky Fried Chicken”. The word changes were mainly due to the different marketing direction that KFC is trying to approach. The “Fried” sounds too fatty and taken out from the logo and replaced by the word “KFC”. KFC emblem went through a design changes again in 1997: Colonel Sanders appears friendly in this version, we can see his teeth! From 2006, the latest version of KFC emblem was born: The Legendary KFC Colonel got stripped off his white suit! Relax! He got an all new red apron. This new version could reinforce the sentiment of good quality, home cooked food, and of course the fact that the Colonel devised the secret recipe himself. This new logo is expected to be more captivating for the sensibilities of the new generations of the customers.