KFC marketing story - part 11

12. How is the product presented in the supermarkets/shop? Describe the shop’s atmospheres, using the following elements: general atmosphere, music, colour, shop design, personnel’s clothing. Where in the shop is your product located (in the front; in the back, near the cash register)? Explain why this specific location has been chosen. If your product cannot be found in supermarkets/shops, describe the “best” spatial environment of the place where you see your product being sold.

KFC is not presented in the supermarket; the firm has its own outlets to sell chicken and meals. Every KFC restaurants are designed with the main colour of red and white and decorated with creative graphics and picture in order to create the cosiest atmosphere. The music played in the restaurants is usually popular songs that are widely recognised and interested. The employees in every restaurant wear uniforms when working. The KFC uniform, is 100% cotton and should fit the body properly, not too tight, too lose or hanging, so that the employees can feel comfortable and work in the best condition; the design in the red theme and fit form also create the speedy and active impression in customers’ minds. KFC managers decide the location of the new restaurants based on the following factors.

- Propinquity to Customers: KFC outlets are always placed near the target customers and the target market, specifically the crowded places like in the city central or near the station, so that the customers can easily approach to outlets.

- Total costs: KFC tries to select the area with the lowest price of land, labour, constructions, taxes and energy cost. Minimizing the expenditure in those factors can help KFC reduce the product cost and instead focus on marketing activities and operating activities.

- Quality of Labour: The ideal location for KFC is the place where skilled labour is available. This can be the reason for the fact that KFC tends to open new outlets in big cities and developing areas.

- Infrastructure: The suitable location should be in the area with adequate infrastructure, which is easy to transport and reachable to different means of transportation.

13. Take some photographs of the shelves up to 1.5 meter to the left and right of your product. Where are the best known brands located? Which value brands are offered? Which own-label offerings are present? If not relevant for your product, give a description of how you would locate other brands of the same product and/or other similar products of the same brand.

As mentioned above, KFC has its own outlets, and KFC chicken is not sold in any department of supermarket. The competitors of KFC, serving in the same industry, also have their own restaurants. The competition between those firms is not presented in one particular one supermarket but appear in a larger scale. Basically, the way of choosing the suitable location for new outlet is fairly similar to KFC. In one same area, the rivalry depends not only on the marketing strategy but also partly on the number of outlet, the design issues and the quality of employees. Take McDonald, the greatest opponents of KFC, as an example. The KFC’s outlet and the McDonald’s outlet are rarely placed right beside each other; this is because the properly distance can cause certain competitive advantages. Moreover, KFC and McDonald can instead increase the number of restaurants. By scattering the outlets, both firms will have more chance to attract customers and expand the profit.

14. Count the number of facings of your product and compare this to the number of facings of competing brands. Measure the space on the shelves and calculate the “share of space” of your brand. If not relevant for your product make an estimation of these aspects.

The facing of KFC is not determined by the “share of space” in shelves with different products in the same supermarket. This factor is affected by the reputation of the firm in the market and the royalty of customers.

15. Describe the relation between transportation, packaging and communication in relation to your product.

Transportation has a certain impact on the service of KFC. The demand of fast ordering and home delivery has been rising rapidly recently, and KFC has definitely caught up with the new trend really fast. However, a raising problem is about the amount of time when bringing the ordered dishes to customer’s home. This matter is influenced partly by the condition of road, traffic and how the shipper drives. Usually, when customers finish their order, KFC’s staff will mention about the probable time to ship the meals from the nearest restaurant to the customer’s house. This period of time varies depends on the time of cooking and the time on roads when having known the direct location of customers. Being clear like that can give clients the basic impression of time and avoid conflicts with customers.

The second factor, packaging, conversely, affect the business of KFC indirectly. Its main impact relates more to the environmental issue, which is relevant to the law part. Consumers definitely do care about the environment, and that is the reason why KFC choose paper packaging for easier recycling process. The fees and taxes on packaging recently is actually a big deal for KFC in many continents, as a result, besides the quality of food, the firm also has to spend more attention to the packaging stage.

Lastly, I want to describe more about communication and its relation with KFC. Communication of KFC can be divided in two main parts, internal and external. Internal communication is between employees or between managers and staffs. This relates more to the organization part. External communication, instead, has some certain impacts on the marketing strategy of KFC. This includes communication between managers and customers and between staffs and customers. Both of them influence the customer services. The former takes place when there are conflicts with customers or clients want to give feedback; the later directly affect the impression of customers when trying one KFC restaurant. No-word communication can also be one of the practical and unique forms to communicate with customers. This is presented through quotes, pictures painted on the wall or the advertising video played in the T.V screen. This can be some examples for this type of communication in a KFC outlet in India.