A Case Study of Kfc's Cross-Cultural Marketing in China

McDonalds was founded in 1943, and 1967 British Colombia was its first international expansion, advertising to middle and upper class. McDonalds decided to expand internationally, due to the enormous success in America. There was heavy research involved in the expansion. Through globalization and internationalization, McDonalds were able to develop marketing strategies according to cultural needs, to serve specific target markets. McDonalds enter India’s foreign market and 1996 and is a tough foreign market to enter, but with McDonald’s success they were able to earn high revenue in India. The success strategy is researching and the development of food. McDonalds thoroughly analyzed the preferred taste, especially to not offend locals. Their key to success is to “think global, act local.”

McDonald’s is the global foodservice business with more than 20,000 local restaurants serving more than 30 million customers each day. McDonald’s has spread through over 100 countries, including countries in East Asia (Watson, 3). In the book “Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia” by James L. Watson, he studied three countries which were Beijing, Seoul, and Japan. Also, he wrote how McDonald’s has played a role in each countries cultures that he mentioned. He mentioned how different countries McDonald’s share similarities and differences the way cultures were impacted economically and politically, and also, how people viewed the American cultures coming to their countries. In this essay, I’ll be writing about how McDonald’s has been

I’d like to talk about the menu strategy of KFC mainly, but I still focus on the impact of the menu strategy that is stricken by safety problems. The negative effect to KFC is also an idea that I will talk about.

The McDonald’s in Beijing created these trends because they used the same menu as the American counterpart. This increased business and attracted customers because they felt more modern eating the so-called “American cuisine.” The McDonald’s in Beijing is most definitely considered an example of an American-inspired, transnational culture because the Chinese are intrigued with the western influence and this does change their culture because they are becoming more modern and opening up to outside influences. With a positive view from China, McDonald’s decided to expand even more.

Throughout Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) lifespan as a division of the company Yum Brands, they have developed and establish grounds that have helped make Yum Brands the company they are today. Within this lifespan, KFC has expanded not only throughout the United States, but globally to more than 125 countries and territories building and establishing more than 20,500 KFC outlets (About KFC). Although expansion is often times a great step for a company, sometimes they are successful and unsuccessful. One of the major countries KFC is successful in is China, and one of the countries they have not been so successful in is India. At the root of KFC success and failures are a few very basic marketing techniques, the four P’s (product, price, promotion, place), their target market, and KFC’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which are continually changing as KFC continues to expand and their market continue to grow.

Due to its nature as a transnational corporation, it must deal with consumers from various cultural backgrounds and respond to different customer needs, both vitally important in international business. Thus, we chose P&G 's international operations as the focal area of our project. More specifically, China was chosen to conduct a detailed and sophisticated analysis. China, as an emerging and competitive market, has caught increasingly more attention from almost all major multinational corporations. Without exception, China has played a more important role in P&G 's ambitious blueprints, due to its immense consumer base, rapid economic growth, and gradually open environment. However, many of P&G 's brands failed and exited the Chinese market, which largely affected the company 's profitability and reputation. Therefore, to analyze the causes behind the failure and to design a set of potential recommendation to fix the issue is beneficial for the company 's future operations.

A Multicountry approach is one in which as organization’s strategies vary according to the countries in which it does business (Coulter, 2013, p.202). This approach is centered on creating an advantage through differentiation. The products, marketing, and distribution are tailored and adopted to local culture and customs. Such local responsiveness is important when significant country to country differences exist (Coulter, 2013, p.203). An example of this would be McDonald’s Corporation. To appeal to the local customers’ palates in Singapore, they added rice burgers – fried beef slices served between two pressed rice cakes, to its menu.

The first KFC was opened in Tiananmen Square, China 1987; it struggled as western food was unknown to the east. This was still a very conservative nation, not prepared for the “Fast Food” takeover. The restaurant did pretty well, but grew slowly. The Harvard business review, stated that “in 1992 the Chinese government granted foreign companies greater access to markets, KFC China’s managers gradually developed the blueprint that would transform the chain.” (Yums' China, 2017) Although they have done well for themselves they struggled, as growth was steady but slow and their customer base was shrinking. “In November 2016 Yum China Holdings, Inc. became a licensee of Yum brands in Mainland China; they have exclusive rights to KFC.” (Yums' China, 2017) Yum controls approximately 7,300 restaurants and more than 400,000 employees in more than 1, 100 cities. YUMS generated over $8bln in sales in 2015.

McDonalds has always been able to face the challenges that arise when trying to expand to foreign cultures. They have successfully expanded to over a hundred countries, including countries in East Asia. In the book “Golden Arches East” by James L. Watson, he studies different cities and how McDonalds has played a role in their cultures. Three places that he mentioned in his writing were Beijing, Seoul and Japan. They all share similarities in the way the culture was impacted positively and negatively, in society and politically. They have their differences in the way things were dealt with and how the public viewed the American company coming to their countries. In this paper, I will be talking about how McDonalds is involved in the

Despite Yum! brands huge success in china, there have been a lot of risks and threats in entering the local market. In respect to that its critical to mention the oppositionof the local population in perceiving fast food industry and especially western culture entering their own market.

The purpose of this report is to develop an international marketing plan for Tim Hortons in the foreign market of China. Tim Hortons is a multinational fast food restaurant service chain that was founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario. It has since grown to become the fourth largest publicly traded service restaurant chain in North America and the largest in Canada (Splitz, 2013). Tim Horton’s has surpassed MacDonald’s as Canada’s largest food service operator with nearly twice as many Canadian outlets as McDonald's. Today there are more than 2,750 stores across Canada, and over 350 locations in the United States with over 95% of the stores in Canada owned by franchisees (Li, 2011).

“China’s Big Mac Attack”, by James Watson goes in depth into the effect of American fast food on local culture in China, a place very obviously changed by the introduction of the Big Mac. Watson’s takes a stance on culture-change that differs from Schlosser, he attempts to show that Mc Donalds is no longer (or never was) infringing on

In 2009, Mattel opened a store celebrating 50 years of Barbie in Shanghai, China. Two years and 30 million dollars later Mattel closed the store (Wang, 2012). An analysis of the case study for Mattel’s failed Barbie venture reveals international marketing must observe local norms and cultural standards in order to be successful overseas (Nemani, 2011). This paper will discuss the problems Mattel faced in China and identify cultural issues U.S. businesses must address before attempting to sell their products internationally. This paper will also discuss how Mattel performed on the identified issues and suggest recommendations.

KFC was formerly known as Kentucky fried chicken and headquartered in Louisville in United States .Founded Colonel Harland Sanders, KFC is known mainly fried chicken, which is usually served in a bucket. KFC is one of the few brands in America that become the rich, decade’s long history of success and innovation. It all started with one cook who created the famous recipe in the world soon to be more than 70 years ago, there are more than 18,000 KFC outlets in 115 countries and territories worldwide (wisnudewobroto, 2016).

Providing customers with the best of both worlds: west meets east. In addition to its radical strategic approach of localization with regard to its food, they extended that viewpoint when selecting their management team. By hiring Chinese executives, Yum! Brands is able to build relationships with the local suppliers more easily and quickly. It definitely helps with their competitive advantage that chicken is a staple meat in China. Given these factors, it is clear that KFC has a competitive advantage in this market. However, taking a closer look at the industry and thinking longer-term, the competitiveness is undesirable but there is still potential to improve profitability. See the analysis