KFC Case Study: Standardization, Adaptation and Marketing Mix

This research report investigates the challenges and consequences faced by multinational corporations, specifically using KFC as a case study, as they expand into international markets, considering cultural variations. The report focuses on comparing the strategies of product standardization and adaptation within KFC's global marketing mix. It aims to explain and explore the strategies essential for successful international business expansion, taking into account cultural factors. The report includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, and recommendations. The study employs a quantitative research approach, collecting data through questionnaires from 40 respondents to analyze KFC's approach to adapting its menu and marketing strategies to different cultural contexts. The report highlights the importance of balancing standardization and adaptation to cater to diverse consumer preferences while maintaining brand consistency. The study examines how KFC manages cultural differences and the impact of these strategies on its organizational performance, with a focus on the food industry as a key example.

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Abstract
The standardization usually depends on the use of some basic template in different markets.
Further it is extremely necessary to have the specific type of product which is maintained in the
similar way which might become hard when the product actually becomes globally marketed.
The adaptation on the other hand is one strategy which is helpful in terms of dealing with all of
the competitive threats in the entire market when the competitors are found to have introduced
certain items that can outperform the company offerings. This research report deals with the
understanding of the challenges and the consequences which are quite forced by the MNC
companies at the time of their expansion in the international market with the challenges faced
regarding the varieties of culture. The study is focused on the KFC being the case company. The
KFC is found to be converting the strategy of positioning for the valuation of the customers in
the current times and it is further positioned in the customers’ psychology of the customers for
the menu of chicken. This report deals with the exploration of the adaptation and the
standardization of product in the global marketing mix of KFC. The research is aimed at the
explanation and the exploration of the strategy that is considered to be quite valuable for the
expansion of an international business having considered the culture also. The two hypothesis
have been prepared for the study and the methodology is conducted with the primary quantitative
sources consisting of the questions that have been asked to the respondents. The research
considers 40 respondents and the responses of the candidates are recorded for analysis.

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Table of Contents
Chapter One :Introduction...............................................................................................................5
Background......................................................................................................................................6
Research aim................................................................................................................................9
Research objectives:....................................................................................................................9
Research questions:.....................................................................................................................9
Research problem......................................................................................................................10
Rationale....................................................................................................................................10
Chapter two: Literature review:.....................................................................................................12
Product.......................................................................................................................................12
The Product standardization......................................................................................................12
The product adaptation:.............................................................................................................14
Suitable models:.........................................................................................................................15
The culture and the cultural adaptation.....................................................................................17
Impact of the marketing strategies on the organizational performance.....................................18
The cultural marketing...............................................................................................................19
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................20
Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................21
The research philosophy............................................................................................................22

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Research approach:....................................................................................................................22
The research strategy:................................................................................................................23
The case study strategy..............................................................................................................25
Criteria for selection of sample..................................................................................................26
The method of Data Collection:................................................................................................26
The validity and reliability of the collected data.......................................................................27
Chapter five: Recommendation.....................................................................................................49
Chapter six: Conclusion.................................................................................................................49
Reference.......................................................................................................................................51

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Chapter One :Introduction
The standardized products or the services usually can promote the convenience of usage
for customers and help them in making their lives easy providing standard qualities. The
standardization of product depends on the usage of particular fundamental template in various
markets. It is extremely necessary for particular kind of Technologies and the materials of
construction these are the features of a specific product which are maintained in an identical way
as much as possible that might be hard when the product becomes marketed globally but
becomes easy to get it locally.The adaptation is one such strategy that helps in dealing with the
competitive threats in the market when the competitors are found to be introducing new items
which are likely to outperform the offering of a company there is a danger that they can take the
market share from that company through analyzing the product specifications of the customers
one can easily recognize factors of improvement in the product one can respond quickly to the
threats of the competitors instead of taking huge time in developing new products(Hatzithomas,
Fotiadis and Coudounaris2016). This report is aimed at the understanding of the issues and the
consequences that are faced by the MNC firms during their expansion in the global market along
with the challenges they face in terms of the cultural varieties.
The primary purpose of the study is to conduct a comparison between two of the above
mentioned strategies that are the standardization and the adaptation. The idea of the study is to
examine the way the MNC companies manage the differences of culture and the strategy they
use for expanding the businesses on the international level. In the age of globalization, the MNC
companies are facing huge challenges for settling and then running in various parts of the world
successfully having considered the cultural differences too. The idea of the culture is extremely
difficult of explaining because it is complex but not chaotic as there are some clearly defined

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patterns and lines of differences. It is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes
one group of people from another. In terms of the marketing mix of a product, in the global
market is extremely vast when it comes to the standardization and the adaptation. A product’
standardization on the international scale is extremely important and this is one significant issue
that is faced by the larger MNCs. As a contrast, the strategy of adaptation is further considered as
quite effective in case of the MNC companies that adapt themselves as per the geographical
topography and the culture. Notably, the food industry is one significant example of to the whole
study that illustrates the idea of the culture and both of the strategies in the global market.
Background
The standardization is actually the method through which uniformity and the consistency
among different iterations of specific good or service are made available in various markets. It is
actually a method of marketing proper service without having made any changes to it. When a
product is changed properly it is not change properly but superficially .On the other hand there
are characteristics of services or goods that are quite uniform and made during the time of using
equal processes and materials having same packaging under the same name.There are different
strategies of standardization that need specific industries or companies following particular
guidelines so that the consistency of a products nature the quality and appearance is
maintained.These are the guidelines which are for those who are accepted on some usual basis
and stick to the time of producing a good.
These are the guidelines that may apply to one of the organizations or one of the
industries and can be applicable on the state level, on the national level or the global level .it can
be said that the product standardization usually lowers the variety of products which serve equal
purposes and the products may be either customized or standardized serving specific customer

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base. There are some usual or basic standards that every good needs to meet as far as the industry
wide standardization comes to the fore. The customers are able to select from a wide variety of
goods and services that are completely distinct. However these offer equal benefits and these are
of general quality and the uniformity of products become quite cost-effective and develops the
production efficiency. There are many usage of product standardization having followed certain
guidelines for a particular product or service as innovation the streamline production system the
cost reduction and many others.
The standardization of product usually can reduce the cost of production the time when a
set of guidelines are followed for producing similar services or goods the cost of the raw material
become less the raw material that are used in specific product are equal standardization in this
regard and sure that the production and maintenance of the expenses are kept reduced there is no
such requirement for introducing various advantages along with iteration of product the result is
that the cost of the production is highly reduced On the other hand the product adaptation is
another method through which modification of an existing product can be done which is suitable
for various customers at various market contexts. The adaptation strategy is specifically essential
for various organizations which export the products they have due to the fact that it ensures
product meeting all the local requirements along with the cultural requirements.
Adaptation is extremely important for those organizations that desire for introduction of
new items but do not acquire that much fund for developing new items.as per one article
published in the year 2007, the top four aspects or factors which drive the adaptation of product
are market development, laws, culture and competition. The adaptation strategy must be based
on the needs of the customers having compared the features considered by the customers along
with the specification of the current product. One can recognize the gaps and the scopes for the

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improvement of the appeal of the product. There are ways through which comments on particular
product can be gained through social media interactions which are extremely helpful for the
identification of customer needs..
KFC which is known as Kentucky Fried Chicken is one an American fast food restaurant
chain the headquarter of which is situated in Kentucky Louisville. Theorganization is known for
having the specialization in Fried Chicken earning the title of world' second best restaurant chain
as far as the sales are considered. The company was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders who
was an entrepreneur and started selling Fried Chicken in Kentucky during the period of Great
Depression. He identified the strength of the restaurant and opened the first franchise of
Kentucky Fried Chicken in the year 1952. Theorganizationpopularized chicken in the entire Fast
Food Industry having diversified the market through challenging the already developed
dominance hamburger head created. KFC is considered as the second largest chain of fast food
and chicken restaurant based on the sales and it is also a successful brand of the parent company
named as YUM! The company has completed 75 successful years and the recipe of fried chicken
is still satisfying the customers due to the fact that it is finger licking good. The company has
more than 800000 employees who serve fresh fried chicken to the consumers in around
restaurants across the whole world. It is found that KFC makes use of the democratic
segmentation in order to serve the customers according to their wants and needs the customers
ok she usually belong to all categories the demographic segmentation is used for serving
standard menu across the whole world in each state in each country depicting the surprising fact
that the targeting strategy is undifferentiated on the other hand in the current years KFC has
begun localizing the menu it has providing better acceptability in the whole market.

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Also it is converted the positioning strategy for valuing the customer in the recent times
KFC is highly positioned in the psychology of customers for the chicken menu and the recipe it
has there are many outlets that provide anything for the vegetarian customers to however when it
comes to the non-veg items KFC is at its best. In this research, the exploration of the
standardization and adaptation of a product in the international marketing mix will be done
providing special focus on KFC.
Research aim– The research is aimed at explaining and exploring the strategy considered as
valuable for expanding an international business considering the culture too.
Research objectives:
 Analyze how the multinational companies make use of the adaptation strategy in their
marketing mix
 Study the standardization strategy towards their marketing mix
 Analyzing how the specific food company (KFC) expand itself in different parts of the
world in the terms of culture.
 Explore that the strategies should work separately or together.
Research questions:
What is standardization and what are its impacts on marketing mix of a product of KFC?
What is adaptation and what are its impacts on the marketing mix of a product in KFC?
What is the extent of adapting or standardizing the products of a food retailer MNC’s on the
global scale?
How the company manages the cultural differences?

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Research problem
The time when the MNCs are expanding themselves on the global borders, it has to then
take care of the approaches of the standardization and the adaptation. The primary discussion of
the research paper will be to explore the extent the firms are favoring the process of
standardization and adaptation and the way these strategies go simultaneously in the global
marketing mix.
Rationale
This topic has been selected based on the fact of KFC being one popular brand in the
entire world. The reason behind the selection of the case study topic is that there is a lot of data
available on the food industry. KFC is a real-life company and can draw the conclusions on the
foundation of strategies followed by the company. It is the international company and has made
some changes as per the food culture of people of different countries as per the geographical
area. The analysis of the standardization and the adaptation can become easier with the clear
understanding of the company.
Hypothesis one
H1 null: The fast food companies will exhibit neither an adaptation nor a standardization
strategy across cultures.
H1 Alternative: The fast food companies will exhibit a pattern of adaptation across cultures.
Hypothesis two
H2 Null: The level of standardization/adaptation of the product will be consistent across all
product mixes.

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H2 Alternative: The level of standardization/adaptation will not be consistent across all the
product mixes.

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Chapter two: Literature review:
Product
The product of a company is the core of its international business. it can be said that both
the intangible and tangible elements which distinguish it from different entities in the whole
Marketplace is the product. A product is actually a bundle of satisfaction received by the buyer
including taste, form, odor, texture and color and the way it functions along with its packaging,
the warranty, the services of the manufacture and the label it has. The success of a company
solely depends on the way it can differentiate the product from the market competitors. However
there are few factors of success which can vary country wise. Hence for a company it is
extremely essential to select the suitable strategy between the product standardization and
product adaptation(Lundahl and Persson 2017). The product adaptation is the way the firm can
adopt the product as per the local markets. In short it is the method of modifying products for
various countries or the regions having designed new products in the foreign markets.
The Product standardization
The product standardization on the other hand is the way the company cells and then
advertises the particular product in the Global context. There are different types of products
based on the target group such as local products, multinational products, International products
and the Global products. Additionally,there are different ways also for introducing innovative
products in an emerging market. One of the best advantages of standardization is that is saves
expenses in departments such as marketing and production, research and development and the
like(Kotulla and Schmid 2016).The department of research and development can be concentrated
on one particular product without any problem of adapting the product to other cultures. In this