Marketing Mix of Kfc

As we are all aware of, KCF is a fast food restaurant that specialises in fried chicken and its headquarters is located in Louisville in USA. It is considered the world’s second largest restaurant chain after McDonalds with 18,875 outlets in more than 110 countries and territories as of December 2013, but it is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant. KCF was founded by Harland sanders in the year of 1930. Its first franchise company was opened in Utah in 1952. After the first franchise was opened, KFC started expanding rapidly world-wide, this created a brand image for the company, and their logo became popular and was easily recognised by its external stakeholders. Its strap-line (finger lickin good) defines the deliciousness of their chicken.

According to an article from ‘Supply & Demand Chain Executive’ written by (DelMonte, 2007) states what is the marketing mix: “is putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.’ The marketing mix is an implement which is needed and it is much utilized in today’s working industries for managers to evaluate business targets such as sales and company’s profits, and also to assist in order to meet consumer needs effectively. It purposes is to satisfy the customer as well as the seller by using the marketing mix tool. The marketing is known as the ‘4Ps’, and it is made up of: place, product, promotion and price.

The marketing mix is made up of seven Ps, these known as, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Packaging, People and Processes. Each element of the

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.

KFCOne of the major competitors for McDonald in the burger segment is KFC. It first came to India in 1995, where it was one of the first multinational food chains to have entered India. It proved not to be a very good time to have come to India where people were still not able to come to terms with multinationals coming to India, and it was targeted by many and remained a not so known food outlet, while the ones which came later became more popular. KFC India had to shut shop in the late 1990s after it faced heavy protests not only from anti-multinational groups but also animal rights' protector, PETA.

As per Ian Ruskin Brown and Greg Clark “ Marketing mix is the term used explaining the different elements comprising the offer that the different companies makes to their customers”. (Brown and Clarke, 2000:44). E.Jerome McCarthy in early 1960s came up with the four Ps in the marketing mix. According to him these 4ps are “ Product, price, place and promotion”.( McCarthy and Shapiro 1975: 35). Refer Appendix I for the pictorial representation. But the view of Richard Sandhusen is that the four marketing mixes should be ‘price, product, promotion and distribution’ (Sadhusen, 2000:319). According to Steven Stralser ‘in order to create a marketing strategy and plan that touch all the areas of marketing to position a product, maximise revenue etc a few more components have to be considered which are, Marketing segmentation, Marketing Strategy, Marketing research , Pricing, placement and value chain.’(Stralser,

operates several fast food brands in Australia. KFC is the major brand that Yum runs. The main product of KFC is made by chicken meat. Therefore, the strength and the weakness of KFC are obviously. People who like chicken meat will highly be attracted by KFC. However, it gives customer who like fast food a limited choice. Just use the one kind of meat will make the brand to be more professional. But it also will narrow its potential markets.

Product, Price, Place and Promotion also commonly known as the 4P’s are the major factors or tools with which a firm or an organisation operates in the market by offering a superior value proposition to its clients and customers and thus earning value back from them in return to achieve the objectives of its shareholders. These 4P’s are combined together to form the marketing mix of a firm.

The marketing mix is a combination of 4 P’s (product, price, place and promotion) that should be used in conjunction with each other to ensure a competitive edge over other companies. ‘The marketing mix is designed to produce mutually satisfying exchanges with a target market’.

KFC has a unique pricing strategy that falls solely on their many product lines. Their Value Meals fall into the category of Product Line Pricing. “Where there is a range

Marketing mix can be describes as "the use and specification of the 4 Ps describing the strategic position of a product in the marketplace… A prominent person to take centre stage was E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960; he proposed a four-P classification which was popularized. (wikipedia.com)" The marketing mix approach to marketing is a model of creating and implementing market strategies. The marketing mix stresses the mixing of different factors in a way that both organizational and consumer or target markets objectives are attained. The 4 Ps of marketing are Product, Place, Promotion and Price. Each plays a key factor in the overall successful marketing of a product or service.

KFC Does two types of planning, Strategic Planning and Operational Planning. Strategic Planning is done to increase its market worth value of the market share and Operational Planning includes launching of new product to change or innovate its product line for the customers. Planning objectives of KFC are to expand the organization on all over the UAE, to create and build superior quality for the customers, to follow marketing mix strategies and to generate superior financial return for KFC and KFC’s employees. Menu planning is done by researching. Supply chain management planning includes the full process related to the supply of raw materials which include chicken, spices and packing material and to increase operation, the objectives of supply chain management planning is to increase the level of outsourcing, increase globalization, increase the supply, increase the competitive pressure and increase the customers.The KFC mission statement is to “sell food in a fast, friendly environment that appeals to pride conscious, health minded consumers”.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a popular fast food chicken restaurant chain around the world. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) It is one of the subsidiary of Yum Brand. This company also operates the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. (Yum! Brands, Inc, 2016) KFC was founded by Harland Sanders in 1952. (Bell, Shelman, 2011) Sanders was successful in creating the brand, even the logo of KFC brand is the portrait of him. He became a notable figure in American history thanks to his great contribution on creating KFC brand. Nowadays, KFC becomes more and more popular, the sales ranking of KFC was the 11th among the worldwide restaurant brands. (The QSR 50, 2015) The sales of KFC in 2014 was 4200 million dollars. (Details in Appendix 1) It means KFC has a large quantities of consumption needs. Actually, KFC has 14,577 restaurants around the world and 70% of them are located outside America (Yum Brand Annual Report, 2015). The restaurant profit was increased year by year from 2013 to 2015. (Details in Appendix 2) Therefore, it is potential to enlarge the customer base by analyzing consumer behaviors.

The four P’s of a marketing mix are as follows, product, price, place, and promotion. Each of these offers a marketing parameter for the management and company team to control. With each marketing tool there are decisions that should be met as far as the business is concerned. Therefore, there is a list for each one that should be analyzed to meet the business standards.

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