Introduction:

About KFC
• Kentucky Fried Chicken went public in 1969 and was eventually bought by PepsiCo.
In 1986.

• KFC has been a division of what is now YUM! Brands since 1997 and is presently one
of the world’s largest fast food chains.

• Today the company owns and franchises more than 14,800 outlets in more than 100
countries, 5,300 plus of which are in the U.S. These restaurants offer items such as
their trademark fried chicken in original recipe and extra crispy, chicken sandwiches,
chicken pot pies, crispy chicken strips, mashed potatoes and potato wedges.

Expansion and Growth

• KFC has put a great deal of focus into international expansion, particularly in China
where the market is currently home to more than 2,100 locations.
Sales History
• KFC is the leader in the fast food chicken market with a 45% share. They have had
positive sales growth for the last 7 years, but most of that success has been
international.

Advertising History
• In the past, KFC has been all about their fried chicken roots with campaign slogans
like finger-lickin’ good and always having Colonel Sanders as their trademark.
Lately, the company has tried to create a new culture by pushing their new
“Kentucky Grilled Chicken” products and the fact that their chicken now has 0 grams
of trans. fat.

• In addition, they have tried to revamp their brand image to target younger
consumers by replacing the traditional Colonel Sanders with an animated character
and the chain’s locations now have bolder colors and updated graphics. Plus, the
company has taken the constantly in your face approach with a market leading 52
week a year TV advertising schedule.

Competition
• KFC faces competition from a number of fast food companies which include Arby’s,
Boston Market, Burger King, Cajun Operating Company, Chick-fil-A, CKE
Restaurants, Subway, Dairy Queen, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Popeye’s, Quiznos,
Sonic Corp. and Wendy’s.

• Major Competitors: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, and Burger King.

Global Promotional Strategy of Kfc:

Promotion is the method used to inform and educate the chosen target audience about the
organization and its products. The promotion of KFC is quite varieties such as TV program,
Internet, public relation and so on. Moreover, KFC innovates a new menu set for it is easy to
order and can save money. A special menu set also is cheaper than normal. At KFC,
promotion is the main tool to bring all chicken lovers attention towards its delicious one-of-
a-kind.

One of KFC’s promotion methods is sales promotion, which includes Premiums, Exhibits,
Coupons and Entertainment.

(1) Premiums
For sale promotion KFC has used premiums strategy that give gifts as premiums like
watches, keychain, coffee cup, T-shirt, toys to attract customers especially teenagers.

(2) Exhibits
KFC sometimes will hold a huge exhibition in public and let people know the history of KFC
and its new products. Since the exhibition will attract people various from different ages and
social statues, KFC are able to enlarge its consumer market significantly.

(3) Coupons

All KFC outlets offer its customers with various forms of incentives to buy its Chicken. Using
coupons that one can acquire after spending a particular amount over a period of fixed time,
customers can enjoy the benefits of free meals or free add-ons. Additionally they provide
meal vouchers and exciting offers in their print ads, which the customer must cut and bring.
This strategy can attract many people from middle or lower class people in the U.S. who are
always seeking for a lower price.

(4) Entertainment

In some KFC restaurants, children can have a special birthday party and they can play in
the amusement area to get a lot of fun. This special service are welcomed by young parents
who are busying working and have no time to spend with their children, since it can provide
the family a good time to get together and have fun together.

In addition, KFC do its promotion by Advertisement. The channels often used by KFC are
through TV Channel, Logo of KFC, Hoarding, Sponsorship, and Mobile vane.

(1) TV Channel
Advertising on different cable channel like Ten Sports, ABC, TNT and also advertising on
world call cable advertising.

(2) Logo of KFC

The logo of the smiling Colonel is probably one of the most recognized faces in the world
and instantly brings the image of fried chicken to one’s mind.
(3) Hoarding
Using regular hoarding to propagate promotion activity in order to make people buy more
foods they like.

(4) Sponsorship
This is another tool to strengthen an organizations image. KFC is currently the sponsor of
the Australian Cricket Team and the colonel logo can be seen on their uniforms throughout
the matches. Since sports have always been very popular among the young people, the
sponsorship can leave an energetic and active brand image.

(5) Mobile vane

For the delivery of the order is very quick service, for this purpose KFC has a mobile vane
that makes it possible within 30 minutes to deliver the products. The vans also can be a
source of advertisement.

Advertising Example in China: China is a society with relatively high collectivism

(Hofstede, 1998), where people have a high sense of identity to the traditional culture and
traditional food. Since the family members in China often share the similar value and most
Chinese people consider that it is necessary to keep on the wonderful family traditions, such
as respecting, loving and supporting the elderly, helping others, friendship between
individuals and so on. Thus, many advertisements of KFC in recent years try to reveal the
background of common Chinese families. In the year 2003, KFC even changed the
traditional Chinese Tang dress for “Colonel Harland D Sanders” in order to attract more
customers in the spring festival. KFC chooses the localization of advertisement by
considering the language, value of Chinese customers carefully. Evidently, the
advertisement strategy of KFC is affected by the language, customer values in Chinese
cultural environment.

Conclusion: While McDonald and subway target on individual, KFC prefer to family.
However this doesn’t indicate that KFC couldn’t enter the individual market. KFC can
simplify the meal which is more suitable for individual’s intake and open some outlets at
downtown and some other high population concentration areas. The outlet located at those
areas could not only have higher sales but also promote the brand image to more and more
people.