Strategic Marketing Plan for KFC: Analysis and Campaign Strategy

This report presents a comprehensive strategic marketing plan for KFC, addressing the company's current market position and future opportunities. It begins with an introduction to strategic marketing and KFC's background, followed by a thorough market analysis, including market size, competitor analysis (McDonald's, Burger King, etc.), and macro & micro-environmental factors (PESTLE and SWOT analyses). The report then defines key strategic marketing objectives, outlines a detailed marketing campaign strategy, including strategic goals, target audience (18-38 year olds), and campaign messaging ('promote healthy eating habits'). Tactics for strategy implementation are discussed, including the marketing mix (product, place, price, promotion) and the RACE model. A marketing roll-out plan, budget, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are also included. Finally, the report offers conclusions and recommendations for KFC to improve sales and competitive position within the fast-food industry, emphasizing healthy food options and digital marketing.

Strategic Marketing
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Market Analysis...............................................................................................................................3
a) Market Size..............................................................................................................................3
b) Competitors Analysis..............................................................................................................4
c) Macro & Micro Environment Analysis...................................................................................4
d) Customer Analysis..................................................................................................................6
e) Stakeholder Analysis...............................................................................................................6
Key strategic marketing objectives..................................................................................................7
Marketing Campaign Strategy.........................................................................................................7
a) Strategic Goal of the campaign...............................................................................................7
b) Market Opportunity.................................................................................................................7
c) Target Audience......................................................................................................................8
d) General Campaign Messaging.................................................................................................8
Tactics for strategy implementation................................................................................................8
a) Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................................8
b) RACE Model...........................................................................................................................9
Marketing roll-out plan....................................................................................................................9
a) Channels to be used.................................................................................................................9
b) Timeline.................................................................................................................................10
c) Gantt Chart............................................................................................................................10
Marketing Budget..........................................................................................................................10
Key Performance Indicators..........................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Strategic Marketing can be termed as a method by which a business organisation
distinguishes itself from the competitors by concentrating on the strengths in order to provide a
better quality of service and product value to the customers (Wilson and Gilligan, 2012).
Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC is a chain of American fast food restaurants which was founded
in the year 1930 by Colonel Sanders with headquarters of the company located at Louisville,
Kentucky, United States (Dana, 1999). KFC operates in more than 150 countries and specialises
in fried chicken. In the following project report, a strategic marketing plan is being prepared for
KFC after considering the external and internal environment and its influence on the company to
identify the trends in industry and opportunities and threats which can be considered for
improving the sales and competitive position of KFC in fast food industry.
Market Analysis
a) Market Size
Fast Food industry has witnessed an exponential growth in the past few years with more
and more companies and firms entering the market with unique propositions. KFC is one of the
biggest fast food restaurant chain in the industry and has more than 24,000 stores all over the
world. McDonald’s is one of the biggest competitor of KFC and has a market share of
approximately 19% whereas the market share of KFC all over the world stands at approximately
9%. Revenue generated by the company in the year 2019 stood at approximately $2.49 Billion
Dollars which shows the vast operations and revenue generation ability of the fast food
restaurant giant (Annual Reports, 2019).
(Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/256793/kfc-restaurants-worldwide-by-geographic-
region/)
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b) Competitors Analysis
(Source: https://www.owler.com/company/kfc)
High attractiveness of the fast food industry is primarily responsible for the extent of stiff
competition which exists within the industry at the global level. KFC also faces stiff competition
from many other fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Domino’s,
Taco Bell, Wendy’s etcetera. McDonald’s is one of the biggest competitors of KFC and is
offering similar products such as Chicken Burger, Veg Burger, Rice Bowls and beverages.
Revenue generated by McDonald’s is 789% of the revenue generated by KFC. Burger King also
gives direct competition to KFC by offering similar food products and generated a revenue of
$1.3 Billion in the year 2019 (KFC's Competitors, Revenue, Number of Employees, Funding and
Acquisitions, 2019). Hence, the industry in which KFC operates faces stiff competition from
other rival firms.
c) Macro & Micro Environment Analysis
PESTLE Analysis of KFC:
PESTLE Analysis is a tool which is used to determine the impact and influence of the
factors which exist outside the organisation on the managerial decision-making and identify
external business opportunities and threats (Perera, 2017). Here is a PESTLE Analysis of KFC:
Political Factors: Political stability or instability affect the business decisions and
operations of the KFC. For example, Brexit has affected the operations of the company in United
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Kingdom since the management of KFC is not forced to make significant changes in its supply
chain network.
Economic Factors: Due to a rising level of disposable and household income, demand of
high quality food products has increased since the customers are now willing to increase their
personal expenditure. This is an opportunity for KFC to offer high quality food products and
cater to the changing needs of people due to economic upliftment.
Social Factors: Increasing health concerns and awareness has negatively affected the
sales of fast food items such as Burgers and beverages which are being offered by KFC. The
management of KFC needs to offer a wide range of healthy food products to cater to the healthy
food requirements of consumer and promote healthy eating habits among the masses (Harris,
Schwartz and Brownell, 2010).
Technological Factors: Technological innovation and development has played a major
role in the exponential growth of fast food industry. Drastic changes in technology have opened
up a new sales platform for the management of KFC which is online sales and developments in
Information and Communication Technology also provides an opportunity to engage and
advertise the products being offered by KFC at a very wide-scale at low costs.
Legal Factors: Compliance with health and safety measures associated with food
products and providing detailed information about the nutritional contents of the products being
offered by KFC is essential to escape or prevent the company from any legal complexities or
lawsuits.
Environmental Factors: Rising awareness about environmental issues such as global
warming and climate change has put the onus on companies like KFC to reduce the amount of
carbon footprints and emission of greenhouse gases. Management of KFC needs to make
changes in its operations to reduce the negative impacts which are being created on the
environment.
SWOT Analysis of KFC:
SWOT Analysis is a tool used to determine the internal strengths and weaknesses of an
organisation and also identify the resulting external opportunities and threats to assist the
managerial process of decision-making (Gürel and Tat, 2017). SWOT Analysis of KFC is being
done as follows:
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Strengths: KFC is present in more than 115 countries and has a very strong global
presence which is one of the biggest strengths of the company. KFC has a huge base of loyal
customers and offers a wide variety of food products and beverages attracting more customers
(Omer, 2018).
Weakness: Poor franchise management is one of the biggest weakness of KFC and the
company has also been facing issues and problems in its supply chain management and
management of distribution network.
Opportunities: With strong global presence and a huge base of financial resources, the
management of KFC has the opportunity to experiment with new range of food products catering
to the dynamic consumption needs of customers and improve the competitive position of the
company in its industry.
Threats: Increasing health awareness and changing food consumption trends is one the
biggest threats for KFC and the management of the company has also been facing challenges
from the safety and health guidelines of food products issued by various government agencies
and authorities.
d) Customer Analysis
KFC has a huge pool of loyal customers all over the world. KFC has targeted different
segments of potential customers using different products and food items. Primarily people aged
between 14-45 years of age are amongst the potential customers of the company. It includes
youth, married couples, working professionals and children. Company launches a new range of
product every two to three months for targeting new customers (Binsar Kristian, 2014). The
marketing campaign of KFC ‘KFC for everyone’ demonstrates the target customers and
customer persona for the company. For example, KFC launched a rice bowl meal adding chicken
to rice for meeting the lunch requirements of working professional. It also offers medium-range
affordable products to high-priced food products for targeting low-income, middle-income and
high-income customer segments. In this manner, it aims to target customers based on different
demographics, age or any other classification using different strategy.
e) Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders are individual or group of individuals which are interested in the activities
of a business organisation. KFC has many stakeholders including employees, customers,
shareholders, government, suppliers, distributors etcetera. It is important for the management of
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the company to safeguard the needs and interests of each stakeholder. Customer are the primary
stakeholders of company and more than 12 million people are served daily by KFC all over the
world and the management protects their interest by offering high quality products at affordable
prices. More than 750,000 employees work at KFC which are trained and developed and
provided adequate job security and financial compensation to safeguard their interests. Profits of
the company has grown over the years maximising the return and wealth creation for its
shareholders and the amount being paid to government in the form of taxes has also increased.
Hence, management of KFC makes sure that business operations of the company are in complete
harmony and alignment with the interests of its different stakeholders.
Key strategic marketing objectives
Objectives of the marketing campaign for KFC are:
 To increase the sales of the company by 5% using social media and digital marketing in
the period of four months
 To increase the number of customers being served by 12% by offering a new range of
healthy food products with high nutritional contents and extensive advertising and use of
sales promotional tools.
Marketing Campaign Strategy
a) Strategic Goal of the campaign
Strategic goal of the marketing campaign for KFC is to increase the number of customers
and increase the sales of the product by offering food products with high content of nutrition to
promote healthy eating habits. Another important objective of the marketing campaign is to use
digital technology and social media tools for promoting the new range of products which are
being offered by the company and establishing a strong healthy brand image for the company.
b) Market Opportunity
There exists an opportunity for the management of KFC to increase the sales of the
company by catering to the increasing need of healthy food products and food items with high
nutritional contents in the fast food industry as a result of increasing health awareness among the
people. Demand for healthy products is significantly increasing in the markets of United
Kingdom which is one of the biggest market for chicken burgers (Lin, Wood and Monterosso,
2016). Innovations and developments in social media technology is also an opportunity for KFC
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to spread information about these products to a wide range of people and increase brand
awareness and sales by extensive promotions and advertising strategy.
c) Target Audience
Target Audience of this marketing campaign for KFC includes people aged between 18-
38 years of age who are very active on these social media platforms and also demand food
products with health benefits and nutrition-rich contents. Target market also incudes vegetarian
and vegan people with an objective of offering more range of vegetarian food products
considering the growing trend and culture of veganism all over the world.
d) General Campaign Messaging
Primary message of the marketing campaign for KFC is to ‘promote healthy eating habits
while enjoying the authentic taste’. With the help of this marketing campaign, the management
of KFC aspires to deliver a message to its potential customers that considering the changes and
trends in healthy food consumption and concepts such as veganism, KFC has launched a new
range of products which are healthy and rich in nutrients while preserving and maintaining the
authentic taste.
Tactics for strategy implementation
a) Marketing Mix
Marketing mix refers to the key elements of a comprehensive marketing plan which needs
to be considered by the management for implementation of a strategy or marketing campaign
(Singh, 2012). Here is a marketing mix for KFC:
Product: Product which will be offered to the consumers under marketing campaign for
the company includes a wide range of healthy food items and food items with rich nutritional
contents and similar taste to promote healthy eating in fast food industry.
Place: Place of distribution under the campaign primarily includes offline in-store
purchases and along with extensive offline sales, online sales of the new products will also be
focused by the management of KFC on various food delivery platforms and websites.
Price: With an objective of promoting healthy eating habits for masses, the price of the
new products will be kept low to increase the spectrum of potential customers and increase the
affordability of the food products.
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Promotion: Advertising and promotion under the marketing campaign will be made using
various social media platforms and tools such as Instagram, Facebook, Food Blogging Websites,
Company Websites, YouTube Advertisement etcetera.
b) RACE Model
RACE Model is an important framework which is used in digital marketing planning and
determines the key activities need to be performed in the four different stages of the customer
lifecycle (Chaffey, 2019). Application of RACE Model for the digital marketing campaign of
KFC is as follows:
Reach: This stage refers to spreading information about the brand and the products which
are being offered and reaching out to the widely spread potential customers of KFC. During this
stage, social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook will be used to create always-on
digital paid form of advertisement and awareness of brand will be increased.
Act: It refers to influencing the behaviour of customer and encouraging interactions on
company websites and generating leads for the products. For this stage, traffic will be developed
on the company’s website and potential customers will be persuaded to act upon getting more
information about the product using attractive posters, images and graphics.
Convert: At this stage, the primary focus of digital campaign is to convert the leads and
turning the potential customer for a brand or product into a customer of the brand or product.
Retargeting and marketing automation will be used by the management of KFC along with tools
of sales promotion such as personalised discount coupons to increase the conversion ratio.
Engage: It refers to long-term relationship management with the customers and engaging
with the customers to increase repetitive sales and building customer loyalty. KFC will use
feedbacks and handle customer complaints in a quick responsive and effective manner to
increase the level of customer satisfaction and fostering long-term relationship with the
customers.
Marketing roll-out plan
a) Channels to be used
Channels which will be used for marketing campaign of KFC are Instagram, Facebook,
YouTube, Twitter Company Website and Blog & Articles. With the help of using these channels,
marketing campaign can be effectively implemented.
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b) Timeline
Activity Timeline
Instagram and Facebook Advertisements 45 Days
Articles and Food Blogging Websites 15 Days
YouTube & Twitter Advertisements 30 Days
Customer Feedbacks and Complaints on
Company’s Website
30 Days
c) Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is primarily a type of bar chart which is used by the management to illustrate
the schedule or timeline of a project or an activity (Gantt and Adamiecki, 2015). Gantt chart for
marketing campaign of KFC is as follows:
Marketing Budget
KFC marketing Monthly
Total Marketing budget £5,000
Marketing automation £350
Advertising campaign £550
Online Display advertising £425
Social advertising £675
Total online advertising £2,000
Emails £250
Search Engine optimization £350
Management & training £450
Training and development £445
Marketing technology £475
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Total digital marketing budget £1,970
Key Performance Indicators
Key Performance Indicators refers to a measurable value which is used to demonstrate the
effectiveness of a business organisation in achieving the objectives and goals of business or
determine the success and effectiveness in implementation of a strategy or any campaign (Marr,
2012). KPIs for the marketing campaign of KFC are as follows:
Sales and Revenue: Increase in sales and revenue of new food products across different
stores of KFC all over the world can be used to determine the effectiveness of the marketing
campaign and will act as a key performance indicator for the management.
Lead Conversion ratio: Conversion ratio of leads generated through online marketing
campaign will be an effective measure to determine the success of marketing campaign and
strategy for KFC.
Traffic generated on Website: Traffic which is generated on the website of the company
after initial implementation of the marketing campaign is also another important Key
performance indicator.
Customer lifetime value: Extent of repetitive sales and long-term relationship management
with the customers can be used to assess the effectiveness of the marketing campaign for the
company.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above marketing report and strategy for KFC that there exists
an opportunity for the company based upon internal and external environment analysis to
increase the sales and maximise revenue by catering to the needs of healthy food products in fast
food industry through launching a new range of products and extensively using the various social
media tools and digital marketing technology to create brand awareness and spread information
about the products which are being offered by KFC.
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Recommendations
 The management of KFC can use influencer campaigns to actively engage with the target
audience and potential customers of the company using digital media and social media
platforms.
 With the help of creating company pages on websites such as Instagram and Facebook,
KFC can establish a platform where it can interact and engage with customers in a much
effective manner.
 Use of company website is recommended to spread vital information to the potential
customers of the company.
 Better relationship management can be done by actively conducting market research and
inviting customer suggestions and feedbacks across various platforms of digital
environment.
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