KFC marketing story - part 3

Hi guys!

It’s still me, and today I’m back to continue our journey of discovering the KFC’s marketing strategy. This time, what we’re gonna talk about is the consumer buying behavior and its affect on KFC. As common, we’ll still have a Q&A game. So let’s begin!

10. Describe the social environment of the consumer and the way this influences the use of your product. 

·         Roles and family

Family has a huge influence on the way people choosing and buying products. A single one tends to pay for activities with friends and the personal expenses, while a married individual would spend money for the need of his family, especially when having children in the house. As working in the food industry, KFC has a certain advantage is that it serves for one of the most elementary need of human – eating. Moreover, the flavor, the convenience and the diversity of menu also have widened the competitive market of KFC and help the firm penetrates the local life deeper. However, strong competitors such as McDonalds are still a challenge in the marketing strategies of KFC.

The role of one person in society also affects his spending tendency powerfully. With a plus of choosing business market, KFC can provide its service for the majority of people working in a lot of environments in society. In other words, no matter what people are doing, they still have to feed themselves fast and appropriately.

·         Reference groups

People in this group have really close interaction with individual, they can affect the attitude or behavior of that person when he or she buying something. Reference groups are basically separated into two types: primary group and secondary group.

Primary group includes friends, family members and colleagues; all these people have impact on individual by their experience of using the product before and know precisely about that product. With KFC, reputation and quality is fairly appreciated, as a result, the feedback about the flavor and service often be bonus point. Yet, the complaint about the fat content still a considering issue of managers.

The secondary group is people who have indirect interact with consumers, such as Religious Associations, Political Parties and Clubs. KFC can approach its customers through this organization with advertisements and online promotion on websites.

·         Social classes

People in the upper-middle class have ability to afford costly items, consequently, the large numbers of potential customers of KFC are from this social class. However, KFC also serves products with low and average price which is more suitable to the financial condition of individual from middle to lower income group. By satisfying both classes, KFC can have more customers and gain more profits.

(Management Study Guide, 2016)

11. Discuss your product in relation to the stages of the family life cycle. 

·         Young and single: The young and single demographic attacks exaggerated importance to personal convenience. As a result, KFC, with an average price and its ease of finding and buying, can be a suitable choice for those people. To be more precise, this demographic is most interested in new clothes and vehicles, they often do not feel a need of having a really hearty meals but looking for convenient meals while hanging out with friends. In this situation, KFC can satisfy them for its popularity and serving speed. The restaurant also has many set that is suitable for a group of friends with various items all-in-one.

·         Empty nest 1 (Newlyweds): Couples who are newly married and still have no child are more accommodating in finance; however, they tend to reduce the money spending on ineffective items. This can be an advantage of KFC as the firm serves convenient food but with good flavor; but this can also a disadvantage because some couples prefer cooking themselves at home when having time instead of spending money on fast food. KFC has developed its menu and now is providing many couple sets that meet the demands of this demographic, which is a competitive factor in the market.

·         Full nest 1 and 2: In the full nest 1 and 2, families have more kids in the home. In this period, fast food in general and KFC in particular is always a considering matter. They might not want their children to have a KFC dish because of its high fat content, but sometimes allow their kids to try a KFC meal as the kids have watched the advertisement and are attracted by the colorful and funny animation about the firm. For this demographic, KFC provides specific family sets with bigger serving.

·         Full nest 3: Families that reach the full nest 3 have children who are working or studying in university, as a consequence, a large amount of money will be spent on the children’s education. With this finance situation, people tends to pay less money on fast food, so KFC will not have a potential market with this object.

·         Empty nest 1: Empty nest 1 families have children are not staying at home anymore; the middle-age people often have the ownership of the home and the money. They are likely to pay for their hobbies and mostly for travel. In this situation, KFC has the benefit for its convenience and commonness in the daily life and on the way traveling

·         Empty nest 2: People in the empty nest 2 are mostly retired; they tend to spend a huge amount of money on medical check and in the following generation’s financial problem. With this group, KFC also do not have a big market, but marketing activities can still be done.

(King, 2016)

12. What type of consumer buying behavior is most likely for your product? Describe the consumer buying decision process for buyers of your product.

·         KFC is most likely with routine response behavior as the product is frequently-purchased, acceptable price and has low risk. (Dibb, Simkin, M.Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 150)

·         Consumer buying decision process

Ø  Stage 1 - Problem recognition: KFC is working on fast food industry, so in this basic stage the firm attaches the need of being satisfied immediately by fast food when hungry. KFC has perceived a need in this step of buying behavior, especially in youngster who hanging out a lot and people who love chicken.

Ø  Stage 2 – Information search:

There are two aspects in this stage, one is internal search and the other is external search. In internal search, consumers define the product by what they can remember about it in the past. With this psychology, KFC has many advantages for its popularity as most people know about KFC and understand what the firm is doing is serving fast food in high quality but average price. They can even memorize more through advertisements and print media, or simply by passing a KFC restaurant every day on the way to work.

In external search, consumers start looking for more information from other sources. KFC has its benefit of being really well-known and penetrating the daily life of most people, so basically when people mention about KFC, they often have average or high evaluation. However, working on fast food industry means that KFC has to face with problem of the fat content and food safety. High fat content is always the problem of any fast food restaurant including KFC. Also, KFC has stuck many times with scandals of food safety and ethical breeding; this affects badly to the reputation of the firm even when the case has been amicably settled. But after all, KFC still has a strong brand name; this is represented clearly when looking at Consumer Reports.

Ø  Stage 3 - Evaluation of alternatives

After knowing basic information about KFC, consumers often evaluate it when putting it in a group of alternative products. The evoked set of fast food might be the group of KFC and McDonalds. These two firms are usually compared with each other in order to choose the most suitable products for consumers. Evaluation may be based on price, quality and special criterion of customers. Precisely, the prices of these firms are equivalent, so the decisive factors are the quality and subjective preference of customers. Both KFC and McDonalds serve chicken; KFC chicken is flavored by 11 special spices and plants to create its crisp and tasty feeling, while McDonalds’s chicken is mostly served with burger and salad in a full meal. There are also chicken burger and chicken dishes with rice in the KFC menu system, which has diversified the choice for buyers. Personally I think that this could be an advantage of KFC.

Ø  Stage 4 – Purchase

Even when people decide to try KFC dishes, there are still factors that affect the decision. It could be social surrounding such as other people who have tried KFC before; physical surrounding of music, advertisement and the cleanliness of the restaurant nearby; or antecedent states like the feeling of a person when he/she want to buy KFC chicken and the amount of money left in the pocket.

Ø  Stage 5 – Post-purchase evaluation

In this stage, there can be two cases occur. Customers may have positive comments about the taste and the quality of KFC dishes and some even give bonus point for the serving attitude of the staffs in the restaurant. On the contrary, people may also complaint about its oily taste as well as the quality of the dish when they know that chicken is cooked early and kept in warm environment.

(Vikrant et al., 2016)

13. Develop an attitude scale with which you will be able to measure consumers’ attitudes towards your product.

(This question really make me confused. If there’s anyone who are willing to help me answer this, it will be really great! )

Bibliography

1.       Dibb, S., Simkin, L., M.Pride, W., & Ferrell, O. (2012). Marketing: Concepts and Strategies (6th ed.). China: Cengage Learning EMEA.

2.       King, T. (2016). The Stages of Family Life Cycle Marketing. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stages-family-life-cycle-marketing-61214.html

3.       Management Study Guide. (2016). Social Factors affecting Consumer Behaviour. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/social-factors-affecting-consumer-behaviour.htm

4.       Vikrant et al. (2016). Kentucky Fried Chicken. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://vi.scribd.com/: https://vi.scribd.com/doc/54273059/Kentucky-Fried-Chicken