Marketing Strategies of KFC: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Marketing Essentials
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional units of
an organisation............................................................................................................4
LO2 Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps)
to achieve overall business objectives........................................................................7
LO3 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan...................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 19
Reference List...........................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Marketing of any company is of great importance. According to the opinions stated
by Kotler, et al. (2015), through the medium of marketing, the enhancement of the
customer relationship between the brand and the customer can be achieved. The
aim of this report is to explore aspects of an organisation in terms of the way they
deploy their marketing techniques in the market. For the purpose of this report, KFC
has been considered for whom various areas investigated. KFC is a multinational
fast food company that operates in various parts of the world. At present, there are
more than 23000 outlets of KFC all over the world which sells the product base like
Fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, and others. The key people of KFC include Greg
Creed who is the CEO and chairman of the company, Roger Eaton and Catherine
Tan (KFC, 2019).
This report can be divided into three major parts, which include aspects such as
informing about the multiple aspects that inform about the roles and responsibilities
of the marketing department of KFC. Following which the 7P’s of marketing mix will
be explored in the case of KFC and McDonalds. Finally, a marketing plan will be
created through which various aspects such as SWOT, PESLTE, STP and other
areas have been explored.
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LO1 Explain the role of marketing and how it interrelates with other functional
units of an organisation
P1 Explain the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function.
Marketing is the way through which a company makes its products and services
visible in the market and increases the number of consumers that are willing to buy
those commodities at a communicated price. The marketing department of KFC has
several roles and responsibilities in order to increase its market presence and
elevate its sales rate. The core roles and responsibilities of the marketing team of
KFC have been illustrated here down below:
 The marketing team’s core function is always is to find ways through which
the products and services of the enterprise can be known in the market.
Research methods are implemented whereby which information is collected
from the market on what are the likes and preferences of the consumers.
When utilizing this knowledge the marketing team of KFC know what kinds of
foods, items, ingredients, and other factors do the consumers like. This
enables other departments of the organisation to become optimized and it is
known how much operations should be elevated (Armstrong et al., 2014).
 Within KFC, the marketing team also conducts processes through which
marketing campaigns are created. Through this process, posters, billboards
designs, online posts and others aspects are created. In these processes,
there is an exchange of ideas on the way through which the brand value of
KFC will be optimized by capitalizing on concepts such as the quality of the
chicken, the packaging, the techniques and ways through which it is cooked
and others.
 The marketing team within KFC also functions is the face of the company
through whom initial interaction with other companies is established. The
marketing team’s responsibility is to bring in new clients and businesses
through which B2B transaction can be conducted and better relations in the
industry can be created (Shaw, 2016).
 This team also has the responsibility to conduct training and development
programs through which new marketers can be equipped in the ways through
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which they know to properly perform marketing tasks in the market as well. In
these programs, there are several stages such as induction and others
through which the employees are made aware of the products and tasks that
should be fulfilled.
P2 Explain how roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context
Several departments present within KFC are interconnected with the marketing team
of the company. All the ways in which this team gives or supports other branches
within the enterprise has been investigated here. The core interrelation of the
marketing department and other departments within KFC has been illustrated here
down below:
Accounting Department – The accounting departments helps in creating the
budget and the means through which the marketing department can know which
areas to spend more and which areas to restrict their expenditure. The accounting
department in this manner caps the external activities and functions of the marketing
team of KFC, as they guide what cannot be done by the enterprise (Kotler et al.,
2015).
Sales Department – The sales and marketing team of KFC are directly
interconnected. The more visibility the marketing of KFC is able to get attention
towards the products and services of the company, the more the opportunity the
sales department of the company attains to acquire higher consumers.
Human Resource Department – The marketing department requires a high number
of personal to that marketing campaign can be initiated deployed both online and
offline (Ryan, 2016). The marketing department informs the human resource
department about what kind of employees and marketers are required in the
company. This understanding leads there to be better recruitment and information
exchange through which the selection process is developed well. This leads to there
being more a bigger workforce pool operating within KFC through which productivity
is optimized (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015).
Operations Department – Through marketing, at the time when the visibility of the
enterprise increases the marketing team can anticipate more sales will come within
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the enterprise; this will prepare the operations team of KFC to be ready for future
needs of the enterprise and will stop the company from hitting a head end.
Research and Development Department – The research and development team
directly helps the marketing department, as the more research into the market would
imply that there is higher data on what are the needs and wants of the consumers of
KFC. Better research enables there to be better creation of products and better
direction within the enterprise. The research and development team also enables the
managerial heads of the company to make better managerial decisions (De Mooij,
2018).
As seen above all the departments of the enterprise is one way or another
connected to the marketing department of KFC, this gives the team a high degree of
importance and makes it essential to optimizing the working within the organisation.
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LO2 Compare ways in which organisations use elements of the marketing mix
(7Ps) to achieve overall business objectives
P3 Compare the ways in which different organisations apply the marketing mix
to the marketing planning process to achieve business objectives.
Marketing Mix is model through which an organisation pursues and tries to attain its
marketing goals in the market. Through this model seven factors are evaluated
which includes elements such as product, promotion, price, place, people, process,
and physical evidence (Kotler and Armstrong, 2015).
Basis of
Difference
KFC McDonalds
Product The company has burgers,
drinks, and other products
however; the company
specializes in making deep
fried chicken. They enable
these fried chickens to be sold
in large buckets.
The company has many
products such as wraps, French
fries, cold drinks and others.
However, the company
specializes in creating high
quality large burgers.
Promotion KFC focuses on creating
advertisement strategies that
focus on the juiciness and
flavour of the chicken, which
they use. In addition to that put
high emphasis is put on the
crunchiness of the put as well
(Baker, 2014).
McDonalds focuses on giving a
high variety of products in the
market and focuses on
advertising that the company
uses fresh materials through
which it creates superior
products (Fahy and Jobber,
2015).
Price The pricing model of KFC is
low and moderate so that
several consumers with limited
income buy the product. The
standard price of meal price of
KFC is $36.99, which includes
McDonalds’ pricing model is
similar to KFC’s it also focuses
on attaining consumers that
have low to moderate income.
Some of the products of
McDonalds include product such
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four large sides, 16 pieces of
chicken, and 8 biscuits. This
product can be had a large
family. For individual
consumers, smaller items such
as that two prices of chicken for
$5.99 or another product is a
popcorn nuggets combo which
is priced at $5.49 each (Fast
Food Menu Prices, 2013).
as the big Mac, cheeseburgers,
bacon clubhouse, quarter
pounded and others. All of these
products are priced at $3.99,
$2.00, $4.49, $3.79 respectively.
All these prices are
comparatively lower than the
prices of KFC.
Place The company its primary
location in Kentucky and Texas
however the company has
expended over the years in
places such as London, Japan,
Melbourne, and others.
Currently the enterprise has
over 22,621 locations all over
the world. In some places like
Shanghai and others the
company has launched a new
initiative called K-Pro, where
healthier and more varied
products are sold at a higher
price.
McDonalds has its headquarters
in Chicago, Illinois. The
organisation currently has
37,855 all over the world such as
America, United Kingdom, Asia,
and Australia. The place where
the company has least amount
of branches is in Africa. Several
branches McDonalds have more
varied products like the
McDonalds in Japan and Korea
and have items that influenced
by culture of there.
People KFC has over 200,000
subordinates operating in
different outlets of the company
all over the world. Harland
Sanders had initially founded
the company. However
currently managerial heads like
Greg Creed (CEO), Roger
McDonalds has over 210,000
employees as per 2018 spread
across all of its branches all over
the world. The managerial of the
organisation include people like
Steve Easterbrook (president
and CEO) and Enrique
Hernandez Jr (chairperson)
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Eaton (President), and others
currently run the company.
(Corporate.mcdonalds.com,
2019).
Process The operational process of
KFC includes bringing in fresh
chicken and other ingredients
from the market. After the
material are brought into the
locations of the outlets of the
enterprise. Then special
machines are used so that
these meats are cooked in
fresh oil and made into a
variety of multiple products.
The company has its own
farms as well, through which
they produce their own
chickens as well which are
meatier as they are fed better
grains.
McDonalds has its own factory
and manufacturing process
through which it creates pre
made material like patties,
bread, and other semi ready
products, which it can utilize in
its outlet when required. The
company has emphasis putting
forth large pieces of actual meat
and has more emphasis food
that is easily consumable without
making much of a mess.
Physical
Evidence
This includes various aspects
of the company through which
the company is recognized in
the market. This includes the
companies’ logo, its unique red,
white, and black packaging. It
also includes the patent the
company has, through which
other companies are prevented
from creating and replicating
their products. The company
has a image of the founder of
the company as well, who
performs as the mascot of the
The most prominent physical
evidence of the company
includes the clowns mascot of
the company that is red, yellow
and white in colour. Along with
which the company has a unique
yellow “Mc” logo as well through
which the company is easily
recognized all over the world.
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company who had initiated the
brand (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019).
Table 1: Marketing Mix
(Source: created by the leaner)
From the above comparison it has be seen that there are multiple differences
between both the brands and each functions differently, both of them still have the
same target audience who love fast and convenient food will buy their products at a
regular basis
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LO3 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan.
P4 Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
1.0 Exclusive Summary
In this report, in the case of KFC a SWOT and PESTLE analysis has been
performed where various aspects such as the company’s high brand value, inability
to develop healthy options, the pressure of the political association in US and others
have been explored. Following objectives such as increasing the company’s profit by
10% has been stated. After STP has been conducted, it has been that the age group
below 40 has been considered.
2.0 Situation analysis of KFC
2.1 Current situation of KFC
KFC is one of the fastest growing food chains in the world with more than 23000
KFC outlets by the fiscal year 2018 (Statista, 2019). According to the annual report
of Yum Brand, the mother concern of KFC, the growth of the company is at 6% per
annum in comparison to 2% of Pizza Hut on a global basis. Moreover, the worldwide
same store sales growth of KFC has been 3% all over the world in comparison of 4%
of Taco Bell (Yum Brand, 2019). Most of the sales of KFC is done in the province of
China, USA and India where the growth of the sales has even crossed McDonalds
by leaps and bounds. However, the overall revenue of Yum Brands fell by 5.5% from
$1.37 billion, from $1.45 billion a year which indicated a loss for KFC in the fiscal
year by a little amount (CNBC, 2019). However, the net income of Yum brands
including KFC rose to $321 million from $206 million which is approximately 56% in
the same fiscal year of 2018 (CNBC, 2019). KFC has been one of the largest
growing brands of Yum Brands which made the company have enough profit in the
yearly basis.
2.2 SWOT and PESTLE analysis of KFC
Strength
 KFC is the 2nd largest restaurant
Weakness
 One of the biggest weaknesses of
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chain in the world with over 23000
outlets all over the world by 2018.
The company operates in over
120 countries and is a market
leader in terms of non-veg items
(Roberts-Lombard, 2009).
 KFC has a strong parent company
in terms of Yum Brands which
also owns Pizza Hut and Taco
Bell. The company is listed
amongst Fortune 500 list KFC
have a strong backing
 KFC has a secret recipe with 11
herbs and spices which is one of
the largest trade secrets in the
food industry. The secretive
nature of KFC attracts consumers
all over the world.
KFC is the unhealthy nature of the
food. The food served has
unwanted calories which is not
good for health (Zhu,
Anagondahalli and Zhang, 2017)
 KFC has a strong franchise base
however it is difficult for the
company to manage all the quality
of the franchise in the stipulated
frame of time. This is a weakness
of KFC
Opportunity
 KFC can expand into the
developing nations of the world
where there is no presence of
such a company
 KFC can also introduce special
vegetarian menu as well as vegan
substitution for some of the food
items to attract all customer base
(Zhu et al., 2017)
 The calorie intake of the food
items should be reduce so that the
Threat
 Competition from other brands
including local chicken brands is a
big threat
 More consumers are focusing
towards healthy eating which is a
major threat ( Roberts-Lombard,
2009)
 The price of KFC and the rising
price of raw materials is another
major threat
 Focus on only chicken and not on
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