For over ten years, the KFC brand has seen its fair share of woes. As a member of the YUM! Brands group of restaurants, it has seen its partner companies soar past (even Pizza Hut, which has seen its own set of hurdles to overcome) in terms of popularity and bottom-line performance.

Add in competition from the lies of Chick-fil-A and Popeyes as well as the Great Recession and a few other setbacks, and you’ll see why KFC became the main ingredient of a recipe for disaster.

So, where did KFC lose the plot and start its free-fall into semi-obscurity? Well, if you ask most experts, it started the moment Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC back in 1991. Today, restaurant consumers want something a little more nostalgic and the KFC acronym simply screamed “too modern” and “too new.”

So people left for more progressive brands that were not just embracing the changing tastes of QSR consumers, but also embracing the uncertainty that eventually resulted in the great recession. While KFC closed over a thousand stores, competitors grew and when the great recession did hit, KFC wasn’t as ready as it could have been and it suffered even greater losses.

But that’s all in the past, as is the brand’s attempts to move forward. You see, the brand’s nostalgia is the cornerstone of its revival. From reverting back to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken moniker to creating a crowd of celebrity Colonel Sanders impersonators, what made the brand famous once will be what makes it famous again. That is, if you ask KFC leadership - which is determined to right the KFC ship.

The celebrity impersonations of Colonel Sanders seem to be paying off as they have certainly increased engagement both online and in locations as fans both young and old are gravitating toward the concept of today’s Hollywood and TV talent playing a nostalgic character such as the Colonel.

Add to this some great new menu modifications and a renewed approach to marketing that includes better ads in every medium and you’ve got a recipe for one of the greatest comebacks in QSR history. But as with anything in this industry, there are no guarantees. Brands have to fight hard to keep the market share they already have. So it makes sense that a turnaround such as the one Kentucky Fried Chicken is mounting is no small feat.

Only time will tell if the brand will live on like the Colonel’s legend has. But we suspect that with the support of KFC’s parent company and a re-invigoration of its customer base, Kentucky Fried Chicken is on its way toward being the star of a real QSR comeback story.