Can Five Star Chicken Rebrand And Make It Work?

Last week, one of the leading fast food brands in the country announced that they were going to rebrand and rename the company so that it caters better to vegetarians. But when a brand that has been known as “Five Star Chicken” since inception suddenly changes the name to drop the ‘chicken’ part, would people be more interested in what they’re selling?

It’s not as if Five Star Chicken (yes, we are continuing to call them that) doesn’t have vegetarian dishes on their menu, but they have been more popularly known for providing chicken to brands like KFC. India, as a country, has more vegetarians than non-vegetarians and a lot of these vegetarians are strict about their beliefs and the food they eat.

According to Five Star, 40% of their products are already vegetarian, but they’re going to branch into more options by adapting to local flavours and taste, so that their products appeal to the masses. Plus, they are known for their ‘farm to fork’ concept which is when the brand handles everything from growing the products to processing and production before it reaches the final customer.

Can they make the leaf?

Sorry, the leap.

It’s a huge step to go from being known as a brand that is 60% chicken to being a brand that has both. Till this moment, most people probably didn’t even realize that Five Star has more than just chicken on their menu. When you start a company with a name like that, the switch isn’t easy. Sure, the brand has only been around since 2012, but since then, they have become synonymous with KFC, burgers, hot dogs and so much more. Making people understand that there is more to the brand than just meat is a difficult switch.

Five Star will have to do everything possible to make sure that their marketing is handled the right way. They might have a research and development team finding out what works and what doesn’t, but does that mean that everything is going to work out for them? Vegetarians around the country already know of the brand as Five Star Chicken, but would they really be trusting of a brand that just dropped one part of their name?

Plus, would their logo change? Currently their logo has a chicken wearing a chef’s hat and an apron with five stars over its head. When they change their logo, would the chicken be replaced with a vegetable in an apron and a chef’s hat? They say that the name will change, but the brand will stay the same, but there’s so much more to the brand than just changing the name and promoting themselves as a brand that has more than just chicken on their menu.

Will it work?

We hope so. Five Star is a great brand and their products are fantastic, which tells you that they do take their R&D seriously and they care about their customers’ needs and wants. But something like this is a huge change, it’s a huge step and it’s something that’s a lot more complicated to do. But they do have a great mission and the reasons behind why they’re doing this are clear. It might take some work and some time, but Five Star Chicken could become Five Star and grow their customer base.