KFC Customer Survey

The main aim of this assignment is to carry out a customer survey both in the stores of the KFC and outside available food joints to find out whether the people are willing for the introduction of local flavored menu by KFC. Through this, to identify the influence of differences in the culture, on the success of the multinational food retailing. This is a process to analyze the social aspect of a particular country influencing the acceptance of the food served by a retailing company from a different cultural background.
Objectives

This whole study is carried either to prove or disprove that people are willing to accept local menu items along with the standard menu items being offered by KFC in its several restaurants across the globe.
Based on the customer willingness to accept or to study their appetite for local items in KFC and how these items could help out to attract many people and how it will support the increase in sales if at all accepted by the customers, and at the same how at all if introduced these items are going to surrogate the main branded items of the KFC which are already doing good in its menu.
Identifying different variety of the local menu items being offered by several similar type of quick serving restaurants, analyzing deeply the menu items and their ingredients, the customer appealing value by those ingredients used there in. after an in depth analysis of these items and menu ingredients , trying to do research studies, which of them to be adopted and which can be innovated , to develop a new product.

Research questions and justification
KFC entered India in the year 1995, as Kentucky Fried Chicken, but due to the several agitations by the people from many sectors against it stating that KFC is not adhereing to the food safety norms that were prevailing in India and the issues of ill treating the chicken in the farms which supply meat to KFC (ICMR, 2005)etc, this was also followed by the agitation from the farmer leaders stating that companies like kfc encourage farmers go away from farming the normal crops to rear chicken. Adding to this most of the vegetarians from Mumbai treating kfc serve only non-vegetarian food and they never turned up in the restaurant. Due to all these reasons which ignored to study the business, cultural influence on the food consumption kfc had to leave India and it reenterd India after chaning its name to the now KFC from its past Kentucky Fried Chicken. This shows the importance of the study of cultural influences on the new market entry decisions.
There are several issues to be answered through this research questions.
First of decision should be made on whether the people are willing to accept any such item which is local in flavor. To identify this questionnaire is made with a question,
Is that advisable to introduce local flavors in KFC?
This is done along with other questions which enquire about the position of the KFC in the minds of the customers how they are perceiving its services and the ambience at the restaurants. This is also should be done along with the questions which inquire the acceptance of the present existing menu items.
Question also should be raised, to identify the taste of the palettes of the target country which type of food they are most interested or which type of recipe they had their heart throbs for. This should be done so as to get in place the menu item which will be voted most by the general people who eat outside most of the times.
Literature review
This is basically a comparative study which also should be take into consideration the strategies of similar restaurants like KFC. So similar type restaurants like McDonalds, Texas chicken, Burger king, Subway , which are into similar format as KFC intro the quick serving restaurants, but still these form different menu items in each of them.
McDonalds sell burgers as its main item but at the same this is taken as one of the referral because it is the first restaurant which broke its conventional standard item concept and introduced the local menu item in India which is named as “Aloo Tikki” this item is very much popular in the outlets of McDonalds, India knowledge,2009. Texas chicken is one such restaurant which delas with only chicken snack items exactly similar to the KFC, hence if the items from this restaturant is also studied which one is being liked most by the people from this restaurant.

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Burger king is also one of the famous quick serving restaurant in India which totally relies on the burger menu items only. Coming to the subway the food sold here is full of green in nature they serve for the gourmets who are calorie conscious also. Knowing the tastes of the people visiting such varied restaurants can enhance the knowledge of the taste of the people. Along with the consensus of which famous item is liked by them it should also be known whether they like the menu items which are local being offered by them. This will once again reconfirms the decision of introductions of the local menu item into a target market by KFC.
Marie-Cécile Cervellon and Laurette Dube, 2005, made a research on how different cultures influenced the likes and dislikes in consuming a particular food. They discussed in detail the theoretical and practical results on the dominance of the culture. This study was done in basically to study the inter-influence of cultures on food between the French and the Chinese cuisines.
American Heart Association, 2010, in their curriculum to teach their nutritional experts, briefly explain its how the differences in the cultures, differences in the ethnicity they belong to, differences in the family backgrounds, depend upon the choice of food intake by their patients. This will really help them in formulating the complete diet chart.
But there are very few studies which discuss on the influence of cultures for the success of multinational fast referred retailing giants. Though McDonald’s is already serving with different menu items in different countries. Initially it got its lessons from its failure in the Chinese countries, where the eight initial intervals and its standard menu, which was not eventually accepted well by the Chinese people. Then it came out with a principle to introduce the combination menu with both the local and standard menu variants.
Methodology and Data collection methods
The research is intended to use two kinds of data to carry out the research namely, primary and secondary data. Assessing the data that was already been used by the others which was collected through primary sources for some other purpose is known as secondary data. Primary data is the most recent or new data that is collected specifically for the purpose intended book will for the research.
Based on the aim and objective of the present study, the data should be collected afresh to decide upon whether to introduce a new customized menu for India by KFC. This should be taken from the people who are intended to be the customers of KFC. The whole survey would be done in two stages where in the first stage of the primary data collection is done at the outlets of the KFC only. This could be done through the responses of the customers who walk in to KFC, from whom the primary data is collected through a survey questionnaire. Basically this research is intended only to decide upon whether is it advisable to introduce a local menu item along with the standard items that were present with the KFC. This survey process shall be conducted by any survey agencies with the aid of the survey questions designed by me and the company together , this also can be done through any free online survey website or by directly mailing the questionnaire to those mail ids which were already present with the KFC which it maintains them as part of their promotional activity to mail them for greeting them on their special occasions, or which were collected through several of their contact points.
The second stage of the survey process is aimed at actual introduction of the local menu item, this is to be carried out after the initial stage was complete and once any such decision was taken to introduce the local menu item and then if this is the time to decide which menu item should be introduced, based on the taste of the customers who regularly eat outside of their homes in quick serving restaurants like KFC. This survey could be done at other such outlets which are similar to KFC or those which have good appeal on the gourmets, and any other such hotels or restaurants which are famous for their exclusive or multi cuisine recipes. This survey also will be carried out online for a specific period of time till the intended sample size of the objective is fulfilled. Actual aiming sample size for online survey is 2000 people.
After concluding the two types of surveys which will be done through different channels, the data collected here will be qualitatively analised using the statistical charts. This will enable us to go through an easy process of decision making as the figures here will disclose the intention of the people who participated in the surveys. Based on these results the recommendation ot the company whether there is a necesiity for the introduction of the local item is necessary or it is better to continue with the existing standard items with the KFC. Once it is decided to introduce the local flavour or local menu item decision to zero down on which type of item should be introduced should be made. This is based on the second survey, though there will be no concrete decision can be made to go out with the items or the spices being used in the survey list as is , KFC can get a clue which type of items can be liked by the people who visit the restaurants of KFC.
For the second issue which is aimed at studying the cross cultural issues of introduction of Indian food in other countries, and the cross cultural issues to be taken care for KFC. The whole data is collected through secondary source only which include internet, This whole study is based on the exploratory method of research. Exploratory research frequently relies on secondary data for its research like reviewing the available literatures and/or data, also depends on qualitative approaches which include data collected by other researchers through informal discussions with the people involved or related to the fast food industry and the study of culture on the eating habits, employees, and the management or the competitors who can reveal different things which may be useful for carrying on the whole research successfully. And more such formal approaches of thorough in-depth interviews which were already available from the said focus groups, using of different projective methods, can also depend on the case studies or pilot studies which are already done by several intellectual individuals based on the primary information.
Ethical issues and procedures:
Fair practices are followed through out the study process while collecting the data , analyzing the data. All such disclosures which ever are necessary and important will be made to fulfill the analysis process. No data is suppressed or over described through the process. No stereotypic analysis will be made based on the fraud made by Ramalinga raju and his aids who had still had due respect till the case is to be finalized. No data will be collected or used which is copyright material, without the permission or only if it is free to use.
Data Analysis
both qualitative and quantitative to analysis of the data should our recommended league proposal to analyse the data in this research process. He grounded Theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) which uses the open coding, axial coding and selective coding all the tools which will be used to analyse the data obtained from in-depth interviews and extensive participation of the survey participants. to arrival at a particular theory through a less formalised and with less procedurals while maintaining rigourous data in a systematic way is only possible with this grounded theory approach and the sees its advantage for the data analysis more quickly.
Apart from this as a part of the research process that data will be analysed by statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS), which is a software package which he is being used for data management and statistical analysis. This will help in the research process to profile the respondents to the survey.
Resource Requirement
The college library facilities and the learning support services are the best resources for the publishing copies as well as the electronic copies of the required a literature which will be useful for literature review.
Usage of both telephone and Internet facilities are very essential to carry on the fieldwork, survey which he is intended to carry on at the any of the outlets of the KFC. Continuous interaction with the store managers and other executives of the restaurant is very essential as there are key contributors for the whole research process.
Frequent travelling is also can be expected to visit the place of fieldwork to negotiate and convened our research process with the help of the store manager and other authorities of the KFC.
References

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory, procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2003. Research Methods for Business Students, 3/E. Financial Times Press.
Saunders et al., (2007), Research Methods for Business Students,4e.prentice hall publication.
India Knowledge,2009. Made for India: Succeeding in a Market Where One Size Won’t Fit All. Found at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4358. accessed on 25feb2010.
Marie-Cécile Cervellon and Laurette Dube,2005. Cultural influences in the origins of food likings and dislikes. Elsevier Ltd. Volume 16, Issue 5, July 2005, Pages 455-460.
American Heart Association,2010. What or Who Influences Your Food Choices? Lesson Idea. American Heart Association press.
cgull8m,2007. McDonald’s Strange Menu Around the World. Found on http://hubpages.com/hub/McDonalds_Strange_Menu_Around_the_World, accessed on 24feb2010.