KFC Marketing story - part 9

Hi guys!

For this week, what I will mention is about targeting and positioning in the marketing process of KFC. Let’s start!

6.    No brand positioning should ever be done without doing some research first. The reason is simple: it is likely that where and how you think your brand should be positioned is quite different from what consumers want, expect, and will accept. Create a short questionnaire with which you can measure the consumer perceptions of your product. You might use existing brand positioning questionnaires as inspiration.

1, Which are the three fast food restaurants you can think of? 

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

2, How often do you eat fast food in one month?

a.    Never

b.    Once a month

c.    2-3 times a month

d.    4-5 times a month

e.    More than 5 times

3, Which fast food restaurant have the best price?

a.    Burger King

b.    McDonald’s

c.    KFC

d.    Subways

e.    Other: _____________________

4, Have you ever eaten at KFC?

Yes _____

No   _____

If “No”, please move to question 16

5, If “Yes”, when is the latest time you ate at KFC?

a.    Last week

b.    Last month

c.    Few months ago

d.    Last year

6, How familiar are you when using KFC’

 Not familiar   |___|___|___|___|___| Very familiar

 1     2     3     4     5

7, What make you choose KFC?

a.    To eat chicken

b.    Quality of food

c.    Good price

d.    Convenience

8, What do you think is the advantage of KFC’s menu?

a.    Family and couple combos

b.    Healthy menu items

c.    Extra crispy

d.    Diverse types of chicken

9, Do you think that KFC is a common family restaurant?

Disagree   |___|___|___|___|___| Agree

 1     2     3     4     5

10, What is the impression of KFC in your mind?

a.    Fried chicken

b.    Family meals

c.    Average price and quality

d.    Other: ________________________

11, How many KFC advertisements on TV of any other source of media have you seen in the last few months?

a.    0

b.    1-5

c.    6-10

d.    More than 10.

12, Will you accept the new and better options of KFC in the future?

Yes             _____

No               _____

No answer  _____

13, On which field do you believe that KFC is concentrating on?

a.    Convenience

b.    Price

c.    Health & quality

d.    Other ____________

14, Which firm that you considered to be the biggest competitors of KFC?

a.    McDonald

b.    Burger King

c.    Subways

d.    Other ____________

15, In your opinion, what are the positive aspects of KFC:

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

16, In your opinion, what are the negative aspects of KFC:

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

7.    Execute three face to face interviews with your friends and/or members of your family, based on the questionnaire you created. Create a positioning map for your product, based on these interviews.

After evaluating the result of three interviews, I have made a basic scoring system to determine the position of KFC in the fast food industry.

-       Healthy Food (9) Junk Food (1)

·         McDonalds = 6

·         Burger King = 5

·         Wendy’s = 7

·         KFC = 4

·         Subway = 8

·         Pizza Hut = 4

-       Wide Choice (9) Limited Choice (1)

·         McDonalds = 7

·         Burger King = 5

·         Wendy’s = 3

·         KFC = 7

·         Subway = 6

·         Pizza Hut = 6

è Positioning map of KFC:

KFC Marketing story - Part 8

Hi guys!

I have come back in the second blog of the continued series about KFC. For this time, what I and you guys will discover together is the way KFC segment its markets. No more words! Let’s begin!

4.    Describe the market segment(s) your product aims for. What segmentation targeting strategy does the manufacturer follow? Which market segmentation criteria are used? Also describe the positioning strategy used for the product.

·         Personally, I believe that KFC chooses segmentation variables from three categories for the consumer market, those are demographic variables, geographic variables and psychographic variables.

Demographic criterion that marketers commonly apply in segmenting marketing are age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, education, family size, family life cycle, religion and social class. (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 219) To be more precise, KFC aims specifically at the age group of 6 to 65, in other words, the target group of client of the firm include children and people who are in working age. Gender does not influence the marketing strategy of KFC significantly as the firm focus on both males and females. On the contrary, income can be an important factor when segmenting the market; KFC focuses on customers who have average and high income. This also means that customers of KFC are mostly in the middle and upper class. The reason for this is that KFC provides good quality products but with a popular price, and only people who have certain financial ability can afford. Family size and family lifestyle also play a remarkable role in KFC plan. The targeting family size of KFC is 1-2, 3-4, 5+; the firm have numerous specific combos and sets of product that are suitable to different groups of customer.  

In geographic segmentation, the demands of consumers in different geographic locations may be influenced by the local climate, terrain, natural resources and population density. (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 222) In the case of KFC, the firm focuses more on urban and semi-urban areas, as the target customers mostly concentrate in big cities and the surrounding areas. KFC has outlets internationally and provides its products in relation with the geographic needs of customers.

Motives in psychographic variables also have a certain impact on marketing segmentation of KFC. Motives can include product durability, value of money, concern for the environment and convenience. (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 224) For KFC, convenience can be a competitive advantage; however, this is now not the bonus point of only KFC as the competitors such as McDonald also can provide its service simply and widely.

·         The segmentation targeting strategy that KFC is following is differentiated strategy. With multivariable segmentation, KFC can focus its efforts on two or more targets that are tightly defined. To achieve this, more than one characteristic is applied to divide a total market. The market will be segmented in three variables; those are annual income, population density and volume usage.

·         As written in the book “Marketing: Concepts & Strategies”, companies need to determine precisely how where are the target segments in order to have the suitable products and services. The needs and wants of targeted must be translated into a clear mix of product / service, personnel, price, promotion and place / distribution. (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 216)

KFC has diversity menus with different kinds of food. Its main products are fried chicken, burger and some drinks with different other dishes in different countries. The firm uses the similar recipe to maintain the food quality in every outlet. The statement of KFC in brand positioning is “its finger lickin’ good!” which is also KFC’s slogan. This means that KFC focuses on the flavour of its food and leave the impression of being very tasty in the customers’ mind. KFC, as a consequence, tries to offer customers freshly and delicious foods that are at the same quality everywhere. Price, however, can be different between areas and countries.

KFC sets its brand position as its products can be enjoyed as a family, a group of friends or any social gathering. The firm highlights on the impressive memory and positive feelings when trying its foods. To be more precise, eating KFC chicken can remind one to remember his family, friends, lover or any close people that he wants to share the excitement of eating and the taste.

KFC’s positioning is effective but can be developed. It can adapt to new changes of the current market. For example, as the customers are concerning more about health issue, KFC can also position it as “Healthy Fast food” by introducing a vegetarian menu besides the traditional dishes.

5.    Describe the basic conditions for effective segmentation and evaluate whether these conditions are met for the segments you described before.

KFC is strategy that focuses on the customer and makes development in the diversity of menus according to the demand of customers. There are five criterion are used to effectively reach the purpose of the firm. Those are measurability, substantiation, accessibility, stability and usefulness.  (Dibb, Simkin, Pride, & Ferrell, 2012, p. 230)

Precisely, measurability is the level that reflects the size and purchasing power of market segments, in other words, is how easy it is to identify and measure market segments.

Substantiation is the knowledge of whether the target segment is big enough and is profitable or not.

Accessible can be understood as the ability to reach consumers through suitable marketing communications.

 Stability is the certainty of whether revealed segments will be around long enough for action to be taken.

Finally, usefulness shows the meaningfulness of selected segments to the managers so that they can operationalize them and be likely to satisfy the target market.

Bibliography

Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. (2012). Marketing: Concepts & Strategies. Cengage Learning EMEA.

KFC marketing story - Part 7

1. Describe the Nielsen retail panel, explain which data the manufacturer of your product can buy from Nielsen and explain the benefits of these data.

The Nielsen retail panel provides information about consumer’s behaviours as well as the products purchased between them and the sellers. The information is generated by analysing the data collected weekly from the retail outlets (Nielsen , 2016). In this case, the data which are desired from KFC are about the behaviours of the customers. In depth, data would express how customers come up with the decision to choose KFC over the other fast food suppliers. Besides, the data could also give information about which types of chicken dishes are the most favourable in every KFC food court. To KFC, these information brings many benefits. Firstly, KFC have a widen knowledge about the psychology factors affecting their profit. Secondly, they know how to serve their customers better in order not only to keep their customers but also to attract new customers. Thirdly, they can decide which strategy to take into action based on which products are the most desirable. And lastly, they would save their time and money when having Nielsen to do the market research for them.

2. Describe the marketing research company GfK, and explain what kind of data GfK could generate with its consumer panels for your product / brand? 

About company GfK, they are the supplier of market research reports providing information about the related market and consumer information in terms of many kinds of researches. In particular, GfK conduct information about developing strategic opportunities, designing valuable experiences, optimizing in-market performance, growing profitable relationships, sustaining business success (GfK, 2016). Customer panel is one of the research conduction in those catalogues. Customer panel data deliver information about customer’s behaviours, locations where purchases are made, customer trend as well as the opportunities that clients can seize in the related market (GfK, 2016). For KFC, they can expect information providing behaviours of their buyers. They then understand how buyers come to KFC but not the others. More important thing is that KFC could recognize the opportunities offered to them in the market. Also, they can expect from the data to have a look at what their competitors bring to their customers; which data from Nielsen might not clear enough to generate. In conclusion, the main purpose of those data is to help the company to get close to the customers who are the main factor to decide whether a company will go well or go bankruptcy. Then, the company would come up with the most efficient strategy for its own business.

3. Create a short questionnaire (12 questions) that you can use to research consumer attitudes towards your brand. Hint: find out how attitude surveys look like in general, and then apply it to your brand.

Attitude survey for KFC

1, Do you usually eat fast food?

Yes _____

No   _____

2, Restaurant

2.1, Dishes are ordered correctly and promptly

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

2.2, Employees have hospitality performances when serving customers

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

2.3, Services are excellent

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

2.4, Quality of drinks

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

2.5, The sound system is good

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

3, Quality of food

3.1, There are diversity items of dishes in the menu

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

3.2, The food is hot and fresh

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

3.3, The dishes are tasty and delicious

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

4, Price

4.1, The food is worth the price

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

4.2, Prices are suitable for customers’ pocket

    |___|___|___|___|___|

                  1     2     3     4     5

5, Any feedback for the restaurant?

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________