The key objective of the assignment involves analyzing the overall strategies of marketing for the KFC (Kentucky fried chicken). This has been a global company that has a diverse workforce that is ever-changing and has faces significant challenges during its operations in the international market (Schröder, & McEachern, 2015). However, the issues faced in KFC get solved in a strategic manner adapting to the various policies in the market. The company has built a firm foundation towards its operation as a local enterprise in the global market.
Industrial analysis
The fast-food market in the UK (United Kingdom) is worth an annual estimate of £8.02 billion which amounts to £22 per month in average spending for every adult. The motivations that control fast foods are predominantly convenience and speed, the quality of ingredients applied, the value of money and flavor. The industry is composed of fast food giants that include Subway, McDonald’s, KFC (Kentucky fried chicken) and Kansas. KFC has been the leading and the most dominating fast food chain in the UK market (Dietz, 2013). The company has the ability of pleasing and supplying the market palate of UK with the finger lickin good they offer which involves chicken. This has been identified to be part of dietary habits very well-established for the British people. The Britons had been used to unfriendly service and untidy restaurants till the 1965s, but have now embraced a unique, ambiance flavor, FFQS (friendly and fast and quick services) of the KFC. By 2009, the company controlled more than 760 outlets and stores which have over 22,000 employees serving the customers and this indicates how fast the company has been growing since 1965 (Scully, Wakefield, Niven, Chapman, Crawford, Pratt, & NaSSDA Study Team, 2012). The food chain is deemed the first food chain that introduced a drive-through fast food restaurant in the UK market. Despite the heavy competition in the industry from Subway, McDonald’s, Kansas, and other food chains in UK such as the burger king, Nandos and chicken cottage, KFC have maintained their leadership in the market for fast foods.
Marketing Strategy
The KFC Corporation commonly known as the Kentucky fried chicken includes a fast food restaurant chain that is based in Kentucky in the town of Louisville. The company is a brand which applies the concept of Yum brand which has been in use since 1997 when the company got spun off the PepsiCo (Brinson, Lee, & Rountree, 2011). The company primarily sells off chicken in the form of wraps, sandwiches and salads and pieces. The company has fried chicken as the primary focus but also has a line of side dishes, roasted chicken products and desserts.
The marketing mix used by the company is a combination of the accepted four Ps specifications describing the products strategic position in the market.
a. Product
This involves any item that is offered in the market with an aim of satisfying customer needs or wants. The specialty of KCF is the fried chicken which is served in different forms. The primary product of the company includes pieces of chicken that are pressure-fried and that get prepared using an original recipe (Montgomery, & Chester, 2009). There is also another chicken offering by the company known as the extra crispy that is made using a marinade of garlic and a double dipping of the chicken in wheat flour before it gets deep fried in a standard type machine for industrial kitchen. The company’s main products included the fried chicken but KFC have tried to develop other new products that suit the modern situation of the market identified as the health for menu. Moreover, there is another menu for the company that emphasizes the health and taste.
Price
The company applies a high pricing strategy for its products that is not overly high. The company tried enhancing the quality of the fast food items in the restaurants that changed the attitude of customers who use to think KFC was junk food. In this case quality goes with price as there are few or no complaints from the customers.
Place
The company has situated most of the restaurants in the source communities that include shopping malls, lodging and petro en route. This facilitates quick and easy access to the company products. The company has been applying this strategy ever since and has proved to work well for the company outlets.
Promotion
The company applies various strategies to promote the products that include the internet, leaflets, public relations and TV programs. Additionally, the company has an innovation for the new menu set that is characterized by an easy to order and save money process (Weber, Story, & Harnack, 2009). This special menu set is quite cheaper than normal. Promotion involves methods applied in educating and informing the targeted customer audience concerning the products and the company. These include advertising, coupons, bundled packages and discounts, public relations, events and experiences and sales promotion (Belz, & Schmidt?Riediger, 2010). The company has found its survival and meaning on promotion. The company applies this as the main tool that brings the various lovers of its chicken products towards the one of the kind product of fried chicken. Marketing Strategy: building customer relationships through partnerships
a. Marketing Strategy
The company uses the geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and demographic segmentation to target customers for its variety products. The demographic segmentation involves the company dividing the market into groups that are based on gender, age, income, family size, religion, occupation nationality and race. The company has divided the market in terms of demography as follows;
The company has outlets globally and sells the products based on geographic needs of the various customers. In the Indian market, the company focuses on the different customer demand in terms of geographic location. In the northern side of India, the chicken is the primary selling item while in the southern side; the veg. items are demanded more than chicken (Kraak, Gootman, & McGinnis, 2009). The psychographic strategy of market division involves using social class, personality traits and lifestyle characteristics. KFC applies the following psychographic variables as follows;
Since the KFC outlets are located in posh areas, and the prices are also quite high for overhead expenses such as air-conditioning, employees and rent, the company targets the middle and upper classes. The targeted market is dependent on the population growth rate ad size, market structural attractiveness and the company resources.
c. Market Positioning
The company applies the strategy of products occupying distinctive, desirable and clear places relative to products that compete in the minds of the targeted consumers. The KFC Company collects customer feedback so that they know the product demand and then the products undergo improvements (Glanz, Bader, & Iyer, 2012). The company targets the fresh and pure foods so that they create a clear and distinct position in the customer minds. Thus the company has developed a strong brand name that makes them the leading suppliers in the market for fried chicken. The company has a popular raspy for chicken products all over the world. They target the east and Asian sides since people have a liking towards chicken products. This enables the company to enter the market easily to meet this demand
The company has the belief in channels that are first level in the order of the manufacturer, the retailer and the consumer. The company uses the flow of techniques of good operation such as good operations manager that leads to good selection of a team who offer good services to good targets and good revenues (Colby, Johnson, Scheett, & Hoverson, 2010). The company also practices the following strategies; employee training, targets that involve incentives, recognition of good work, bonuses to good performance and employee motivation through various benefits.
The markets microenvironment of the market involves all the various forces that are found close to the company and which the company’s impact is felt. These have a direct influence on how the company gives services to its customers (Katchova, & Woods, 2011). Three major environment components have an influence on the microenvironment of the company. These include;
The prices of the company products can be compared directly with those of the dominoes, pizza hut and McDonald. When these competitors offer their items at reduced costs, then KFC also lowers the prices for its own items (Wymer, 2011). For the case of the KFC Company, the primary item of sell includes the fried chicken. This item controls the monopoly in the fast food market of India serving only fried chicken. The prices for burger, soft beverages and French fries are controlled in relation to the prices in the competing firms.
The customer market is the sole customer market for the company. The company’s products get bought by different individuals who include singles, families, females and males (Harris, Brownell, & Bargh, 2009). Therefore, the range of products that get offered by the company should be able to have an appeal to so many customers within the consumer market that the company sells the maximum quantity of items.
The company brand includes quality products to customers including a varied of chicken products. The identity of the brand is defined as the impressions of customers towards the four different identity elements of the company. These include products, publications, properties and presentations. According to market research on the company brand, it has been confirmed that young consumers in many countries are more apt to consume in the KFC restaurants (Mintu-Wimsatt, & Winston, 2013). The same groups spend more time and resources on the company brand as compared to Americans. The chines normally have impressions that are much more positive towards the company brand. The impressions for brand identity are correlated to the overall satisfaction of customers and to the intentions of future patronage for various groups. The company has a support model where cultural frame differences of reference lead the consumer to localize the brand identity actively towards the globalized company products.
The KFC products are packaged based on three criteria that include grease absorption, heat retention and moisture removal. The carton design and packaging material are adapted towards the maximization of the performance against the three criteria.
The chicken boxes and clamshells contain much material for recycling as allowed legally. The law requires the company to have a board of virgin fiber in all parts of the packaging process that gets in contact with whatever food is being packed. The virgin fiber is obtained from board suppliers using pulp that they buy from managed Scandinavian forest. Any wood that gets cut for production of paper gets replaced with other plantings. For instance, the company brought a first food container in the market in 2010 that is reusable after consuming the fast foods. The plastic plates have been replaced with serving boxes made of paper (Chandon, & Wansink, 2012). This means that the company makes use of non-renewable resources while reducing the Styrofoam amount in their restaurants. The process is meant to create a customer friendly environment as part of its brand.
The company offers free services of home delivery to its customers at specific branches in particular cities. This normally takes the company an average of 30 minutes in delivery. The various deliveries made need to be orders above Rs 200 (Smith, & Blake, 2013). The company also provides services for celebrating kids’ birthdays at the consumer homes or in their restaurants. The company now offers services of a mobile unit.
Conclusion
The company has the ability of pleasing and supplying the market palate of UK with the finger lickin good they offer which involves chicken. This has been identified to be part of dietary habits very well-established for the British people. Despite the heavy competition in the industry from Subway, McDonald’s, Kansas, and other food chains in UK such as the burger king, Nandos and chicken cottage, KFC have maintained their leadership in the market for fast foods. The company uses the geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and demographic segmentation to target customers for its variety products. The company has the belief in channels that are first level in the order of the manufacturer, the retailer and the consumer. The company markets itself through home delivery services, recycling paper and reusable items for sustainability, and a quality brand.
References
Belz, F. M., & Schmidt?Riediger, B. (2010). Marketing strategies in the age of sustainable development: evidence from the food industry. Business Strategy and the Environment, 19(7), 401-416.
Brinson, A., Lee, M. Y., & Rountree, B. (2011). Direct marketing strategies: the rise of community supported fishery programs. Marine Policy, 35(4), 542-548.
Cairns, G., Angus, K., Hastings, G., & Caraher, M. (2013). Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children. A retrospective summary. Appetite, 62, 209-215.
Chandon, P., & Wansink, B. (2012). Does food marketing need to make us fat? A review and solutions. Nutrition reviews, 70(10), 571-593.
Colby, S. E., Johnson, L., Scheett, A., & Hoverson, B. (2010). Nutrition marketing on food labels. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 42(2), 92-98.
Dietz, W. H. (2013). New strategies to improve food marketing to children. Health Affairs, 32(9), 1652-1658.
Glanz, K., Bader, M. D., & Iyer, S. (2012). Retail grocery store marketing strategies and obesity: an integrative review. American journal of preventive medicine, 42(5), 503-512.
Harris, J. L., Brownell, K. D., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The food marketing defense model: integrating psychological research to protect youth and inform public policy. Social issues and policy review, 3(1), 211-271.
Katchova, A. L., & Woods, T. A. (2011, July). The effectiveness of local food marketing strategies of food cooperatives. In Selected paper, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Meeting.
Kraak, V. I., Gootman, J. A., & McGinnis, J. M. (Eds.). (2009). Food marketing to children and youth: threat or opportunity?. National Academies Press.
Mintu-Wimsatt, A. T., & Winston, W. (2013). Environmental marketing: strategies, practice, theory, and research. Routledge.
Montgomery, K. C., & Chester, J. (2009). Interactive food and beverage marketing: targeting adolescents in the digital age. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(3), S18-S29.
Schröder, M. J., & McEachern, M. G. (2015). Fast foods and ethical consumer value: a focus on McDonald’s and KFC. British food journal, 107(4), 212-224.
Scully, M., Wakefield, M., Niven, P., Chapman, K., Crawford, D., Pratt, I. S., … & NaSSDA Study Team. (2012). Association between food marketing exposure and adolescents’ food choices and eating behaviors. Appetite, 58(1), 1-5.
Smith, J., & Blake, M. (2013). Infant food marketing strategies undermine effective regulation of breast?milk substitutes: trends in print advertising in Australia, 1950–2010. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 37(4), 337-344.
Weber, K., Story, M., & Harnack, L. (2009). Internet food marketing strategies aimed at children and adolescents: a content analysis of food and beverage brand web sites. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106(9), 1463-1466.
Wymer, W. (2011). Developing more effective social marketing strategies. Journal of Social Marketing, 1(1), 17-31.
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