Kentucky fried chicken marketing plan

The UK fast-food market is worth an estimated £8.02 billion annually, amounting to an average spent of £22 per month per adult. Motivations for purchasing fast foods were predominately speed and convenience, flavour value of money and quality of ingredients used. Fast food giants like McDonald’s, Subway, Kansas, with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in the lead, dominate the fast food market in UK. KFC is able to please the UK palate with its Finger Lickin Good; chicken that is part of the well-established dietary habits of the British. The British who until the1965s, were used to untidy restaurants and unfriendly service, have embraced the ambience, unique flavour, friendly and fast quick service(FQS) of KFC. As of 2009, KFC had more than 760 stores and outlets with 22,000 employees, this show its continuous growth since 1965. KFC, It is also the first food chain to introduce a drive-through restaurant in UK. Despite of heavy competition from other counterparts like McDonalds, Subway and Kansas UK’ s other food chains like The Chicken Cottage ,Burger King ,Nandos, KFC maintains its leadership in the fast food market .

MARKETING PLAN:

“A Marketing Plan describes necessary actions in achieving specific marketing objectives within a time limit, these actions intend to carry out to interest potential customers and clients identifying your products and /or services and convince them to buy the product and/or services you offer.”

EXECTIVE SUMMARY:

The following marketing plan of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) describes as a major Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) operator in UK .It mainly serves chicken related items with some side dishes.KFC competing the competitors ‘and maintain a strong relationship with its customers under consideration of its Macro and Micro environment very efficiently .

KFC has segmented its market on the basis of segmentation like;

Demographic,

Psychographic,

Geographic, and Behavioural .

KFC is showing certain buying behaviour .KFC is following of market penetration, marketing development and product development for increase of its customers. It follows production, marketing and social marketing strategies for increasing its market share and growth.KFC listen its customers to help them to evolve their menu and the choices they offer.KFC has strong demand for HALAL products.

WHAT DOES HALAL MEAN? (حلØÙ„,)

HALAL is an Arabic word meaning lawful or legal or permitted according to Islamic Law.

SITUATIONAL ANALYSES:

New products and innovations are likely to draw customer’s attention, so each company requires focusing on developing and reinventing their menu… KFC will be pioneering in the fast food chain that’s why its needs to be highly sensitive towards cultural demands. KFC attempted to liven their menu with HALAL Chicken.

SWOT ANALYSIS:

According to Philips Kotler and Kevin Keller, “The overall evaluation of a company’s

Strengths,

Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats are called SWOT ANALYSIS”.

It also involves monitoring the external and internal marketing environments. Strengths and weaknesses represent companies’ internal capabilities, i.e. operating producers, operating costs, human resources and products producing strategy. Opportunities and Threats arise from outside the organization, i.e. competition and poultry supply in our case.

STRENGTHS:

HALAL KFC is the BOMB

KFC will be the latest from the UK fast food chain which will introduce HALAL chicken in its menu.

The market for HALAL fresh meat is estimated at £400m, equal to 11% of meat sale, so there is more space for KFC to play and won.

KFC is the 3rd one from UK s fast food chain who signed up for the list of calorie contends in food.

KFC has Secret Recipe of 11 herbs and spices become strong trademark recipe.KFC ranks highest among all chicken restaurant chains for its original recipe, convenience and its variety in menu. Because of all this KFC will be most popular among UK Muslim community.

There is a huge growth in KFC sales because consumers consider that white meat is healthier than other one.orld.e world.

KFC will get licence from HALAL FOOD AUTHORITY (HFA), so no doubt anymore about the chicken.

KFC believe that all employees should follow the SMILE, which is on their stage programme, which means:

Stand up straight, don t lean

Turn to face your customer

Act on what your customer wants

Greet your customer like they are your friends

Eye contact!

KFC becomes World s First Brand visible from space.

Close up of the world’s largest logo – Colonel Sanders – in Area 51

Close up the World Largest LOGO

WEAKNESSES:

Lack of relationship building with employees, they are young, unskilled and they are working at or just above minimum wage.

KFC only sells chicken

Most commonly KFC cooks its chicken in vegetable oil (Trans fat).This is unhealthy method of cooking and it hits health and educated conscious people.

KFC s independent strategy about franchises may effect on its new market segmentation because their target market in a particular area.

OPPORTUNITIES

Need big stockrooms and freezers and chillers as well

KFC will hope that the HALAL chicken range will help in attracts a new range of customers.

Starts Home delivery

Online order service (like www.justeat.co.uk

Consumers are looking for fast food alternatives to red meat that is one of the best opportunities for KFC because of its white meat.

Service and cleanliness could be increased

Need more varieties in menu, to embrace healthier choices

To meet the market demands like having roasted or stream chicken which have less oil content.

Introduce a brand new selling concept like having a buffet style where customers are able to choose the food from the shelves and make the orders.

Going into burger businesses

THREATS

KFC is not alone; moreover it is followed by its wealthy competitors, including McDonalds, Burger King and Subway.

Increase of trends of more vegetarians

There is always a threat from new competitors trying to take some

Market share.

Bird -flu risk can be increase any time.

COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES

Porter’s Generic Framework

KFC is using differentiation strategy while McDonald focusing on the cost leadership strategy as their competitive advantages in order to gain broad target. The above mentioned shows that KFC are more concentrated on their special recipes , chicken and sides order to gain market share by concerning healthy food. Nevertheless, McDonald offers cheap price, fast service to attract more customer and to gain market share by building up unique restaurant.

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Ansoff Products/Markets Framework

Ansoff’s matrix assesses KFC and McDonald’s marketing objectives and strategies which related to their products and markets. Penetration and product development are more concentrated to run their market. Besides, they are on the procedure of entering to market development.

As a conclusion of this, it demonstrates that McDonald’s has had and continued to create and develop new products satisfying the existing of new target expectations for great taste and great value. Meanwhile, KFC keep improving its products and launching new types of product for attract new target market. It is considered to support its market penetration for the company

Marketing strategy

KFC’s objectives would be to:

To expand their business and equal to McDonalds

To achieve customer satisfaction

To increase on the profit margin each year by beating their standards of last year.

To have a larger market share as compare to their competitors.

Organizational

The strategy to enter into HALAL shall be through franchising as avoid the risk committing resources into an unfamiliar market. To grant franchises to the only highly motivated and talented entrepreneurs with integrity and business experience and train them to become more active and aggressive owners for KFC. A revision of franchise contracts would support to KFC to protect itself from expanding other KFC franchises in the area of other existing nearby franchise of KFC to one another and the prevent franchisees from conducting different standards. The traditional Colonel’s way of life philosophy would be inflected back into KFC’s mission and goal statements to improve relationships and to reduce management turnover and internal discontentment. In addition, it is very necessary to have well trained marketing staff, with sufficient knowledge of the evolution of halal market, halal laws and regulations.

Product

KFC will increase its product line to include new menu items in several locations to test acceptability and possible sales in relations to demographics. While, the expansion of its menu is very crucial and be focused in continuing its product on the “healthy foods” they domestic customers is demanding as target market. KFC could reach the objective of healthy foods by adding new additional items such as grilled chicken and grilled chicken sandwiches and dinner and steam chicken.

Place

For achieving the goal this kind of industry, distribution channel for new product introduction are the keys to success. Thus, KFC shall expand into more non-traditional locations in those hospitals area, gas stations, convenience stores, malls, airports, concert halls, amusement parks, and college campuses. They need to implement new culturally specific procedures such as serving beer in German restaurants, more Asian chicken dishes, familiar dress in Asian restaurants, and a pub-type atmosphere for London restaurants with a leisurely atmosphere conducive to long conversations and others depending on the Birmingham and Manchester.

Pricing

Price is a factor needed for customer decision to make on the first purchase. The price should be considered as a reasonable and competitive with other local restaurants who offer chicken menus. Therefore, the price of the initial launch must be reasonable in terms of low price setting.

Promotion

Promotion of all the three divisional products combining advertisement and reducing cost for individual advertisements. Offering special introductory bargain for newly opened locations attract customer’s attraction. Celebrity promotions of KFC should be continued. Promotion of beneficial societal programs by continuing its neighbourhood grant programs and expanding opportunities for more neighbourhood youths as new restaurants are built up as the outreach and advertisement of Pepsi Co’s traditional values and “caring” attitude.

However, this strategy will show its result in long-term periods, thus, considering this matter and

opportunities for expansion, I argue that KFC must first focus its resources to defend its market position in the cities where KFC had already gained superior brand preference such as in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Failure to defend its market because of too much focusing in early entry strategy, will expose KFC to the risk that the existing market will slip away, while the new markets are doubt-able successful.

The national market, though attractive, were also exposing some risks, including political risks, economic risks, competitive risks, and behavioural risk; beside those external risks, KFC were also exposed to the internal financial risk since there were some periods where KFC lacked the financial cash flow needed for expansion.

KFC rules the world when it comes to serving the chicken considered as the world’s largest fast-food chains, everyday more than 12 million customers are served at KFC. The company owns and franchises more than 15,000 outlets in more than 109 countries and territories across the world (About 5,200 locations are in the US and 760 in UK) The restaurants offer the Colonel’s trademark fried chicken sandwiches, chicken (In both original recipe and extra tasty crispy varieties) along with chicken sandwiches, chicken pot pies, crispy chicken strips, popcorn, hot and spicy wings, and gravy, coleslaw, beans and corn on the cob and cheese cake. Most of the locations can be found operating as free-standing units and kiosks in high traffic area.

Manufacturers and businessmen are scrambling to satisfy the craving of Muslims, as the global demand for HALAL-certified products increases day by day.

Furthermore, the rise of Halal market is considered by the Asian Leadership and Strategy Institute as one of the latest trends and opportunities together with the:

Internet

Social networking and

Viral marketing

Demand for the Halal food is greater than the Muslim population, but can be a choice for non-Muslim. Halal food products are perceived to be hygienic and healthy.

In marketing, Qualifying to the Halal standards KFC can now be considered as a strategy to widen the target market.

Certification is key to Muslim food market, Without the Halal certification, KFC can only target the usual consumers, while getting the certification it will target at least two market segments,

The Muslim consumers and

The health-conscious people

According to UK Food Safety Authority, there are 6 million Halal meat consumers in UK

Marketing to Muslims”, sees the faith group as Britain’s largest untapped niche market, and one that is certain to grow: it comprises 3% of the population, is Britain’s second largest faith group and has the youngest age profile.

When advertising to Muslims, a more modest approach than that used for a non-Islamic audience is preferable. Because UK Muslim communities are not homogenous, and have a variety of ethnic, linguistic and cultural characteristics, interpretations and attitudes differ, so variations in the portrayal of women in advertising can be expected.

KFC vs MacDonald and Subway:

Nearly 9,000 new jobs in a recession are not to be sniffed at, even if they do come with a “finger lickin’ well” herb and spice coating.

Colonel Harland D Sanders, the late American founder of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken business, can for once is excused his ever-optimistic grin on the signs that still adorn his bearded image at group restaurants.

KFC is not alone, moreover. Fellow US fast food chain Subway is creating 7,000 new positions at 600 new stores in the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s is adding 1,000 jobs after seeing European sales surge 7.6pc during the last quarter of 2008 and this week Domino’s Pizzas got in on the act, announcing 1,500 new posts on the back of a 10pc boost in takeaway orders

Controls:

The KFC tasks of marketing research is to assess the information which needs and provide management with,

Relevant

Accurate

Reliable

Valid

Current information

To help in market decision making process

Company need to conduct and use these market research to stay competitive and to avoid high costs associated with making poor decisions based on unsound information.

Marketing research plays a significant part in the development of marketing plans because it allows the organisation to become less isolated from the key trends and changes, which covers their product. To continue to be successful, KFC must receive information from the researcher that is clear and accurate .It also has to satisfy its pre-determined goal for its research.

But why is KFC enjoying a hike in UK sales when other fast-food brands are experiencing a dip? And how will KFC’s marketing keep sales buoyant and sustain the chain’s expansion plans?

One reason is the shift in people’s dietary preferences as the media’s promotion of health awareness has steered people away from fatty and red meat toward white meat. Dominick Nasalise, market analyst at Data monitor, says: “People who are meat reducers are on the rise. They are cutting back predominantly on red meat, and chicken is generally seen as a healthy option. Whether KFC is better for you given what it is fried in, is arguable.”

The fast-food industry has historically attracted criticism. While McDonald’s is widely acknowledged to use processed meat, KFC sells ‘real’ cuts of chicken. But as a mass-producer of food it is still not immune to negative publicity.

KFC is investing more than £100m in its plan, with a target of 1000 by 2012. This comes as McDonald’s is to close down 175 restaurants in ten countries. In 2001 the US burger giant had 1184 outlets in the UK (according to Mantel).

On the KFC website its founder and brand icon Colonel Sanders speaks from beyond the grave, saying: “You, like my chicken so much that we’re growing faster than any of them other big restaurant names – including them Burger Boys.” And it’s those ‘burger boys’ who had better watch out as KFC proceeds to carve a chunk out of the market.

But why is KFC enjoying a hike in UK sales when other fast-food brands are experiencing a dip? And how will KFC’s marketing keep sales buoyant and sustain the chain’s expansion plans?

One of the reason is this the shift in people’s dietary preferences as the media’s promotion about health awareness has steered people away from fatty and red meat toward white meat. Dominick Nasalise, market analyst at Data monitor, says: “People who are meat reducers are on the rise. They are cutting back predominantly on red meat, and chicken is generally seen as a healthy option. Whether KFC is better for you given what it is fried in, is arguable.”

older employees rather than hiring people from external sources The recommendations that I would offer KFC is to maintain its current low turnover rates and incorporate even more practices in its culture which provide recognition to employees and make them feel valued. As for selection and recruitment practices, age should not be a bias factor and the principle of promotion from within should be adhered to. This is because for companies like KFC, it is very important to promote a certain employee culture; hence, it is better to promote

HALAL KFC s growth strategy is to be successful KFC will need to broaden its target market and this is where marketing and the BBH appointments will come into their own.

KFC is not going to overthrow the burger giants yet, as McDonald’s and Burger King have far greater market penetration. But as consumers continue to seek fast-food alternatives to red meat, KFC’s ambitions couldn’t come at a more opportune time.