Comparative Analysis of McDonald's and KFC Marketing Strategies

In our memory, McDonald's and KFC are either face to face or shoulder to shoulder. For a long time, they have been helping things to listen to good base cone ice cream, hot chicken wings, chicken leg burger and other similar products, and also long for us to enjoy. But after years of competition, now the two world's fast-food industry between the world's strategic differences are becoming more and more obvious, it seems that they are beginning to find their own development path.

One, KFC

KFC belongs to the world's largest restaurant group - Yum Global Catering Group, which has a chain of nearly 30,000 world-famous KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants in more than 100 countries and regions. KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

KFC is the world's largest fried chicken fast food chain, with more than 11,000 restaurants around the world. They can be found in more than 80 countries, from the Great Wall of China to the bustling downtowns of Paris, the picturesque city center of Sofia, and sunny Puerto Rico, where fast-food restaurants can be found under the KFC logo.

KFC began its history in the world's most populous country in 1987 when it entered the ancient capital of Beijing, a city with a rich food culture, to meet the needs of China's growing restaurant industry.

KFC opened its first restaurant in China on November 12, 1987, in the bustling Qianmen district of Beijing, and Beijing KFC Co., Ltd. was the first Sino-foreign joint venture to operate a fast food business in Beijing at that time. With Beijing as the starting point, KFC's nationwide expansion began as a prairie fire, growing from 11 restaurants in 1992, the largest number of fast food chains in China at the time, to 50 in 1995.

On June 25, 1996, KFC China's 100th store was established in Beijing, a milestone that marked another new stage in the development of KFC in China. On June 1 of the same year KFC's Shanghai People's Park restaurant set a new record for KFC's global single-store single-day turnover with a daily turnover of nearly 400,000 RMB. In China, KFC now serves nearly 1 million consumers every day.

Since opening in 1987, KFC has sold 240,000 tons of chicken products in China, all of which are locally produced. A rough estimate of the total amount of chicken meat sold by KFC in the country is 624 million chickens, which, if each chicken is arranged end to end, is the equivalent of 36 round trips from China's northernmost point, Mohe, to its southernmost point, Zengmuandangsha.

Today, KFC's business development is widely recognized by Chinese consumers and has taken a great leap forward:

According to 16,677 questionnaire surveys conducted by a professional research company in 30 cities in China in 1999, KFC, the earliest western fast food to enter the Chinese market, has been recognized by Chinese consumers for its unique cuisine and quality. KFC, the earliest western fast food restaurant to enter the Chinese market, is widely known and loved by Chinese consumers for its unique cuisine and quality, and is recognized as the "most frequented" brand, topping the list of the top ten internationally renowned brands.

November 28, 2000, KFC in China's leading restaurant chains in the industry, the first breakthrough 400, the number of international fast-food chains in China opened the most stores. By January 2003, KFC was able to break through 800 restaurants in China in just over two years. So far KFC has 32 KFC Co., Ltd. in China, and manages and operates more than 850 chain restaurants in nearly 200 cities across the country. Such development speed and scale make KFC become a fastest growing fast food chain in China.

Two, McDonald's

"McDonald's is more than just a restaurant" is a phrase that accurately summarizes the McDonald's Group's business philosophy. In the overall system of McDonald's around the world, the operation of McDonald's restaurants is a very important part, because McDonald's business philosophy and the joy and deliciousness of McDonald's is passed on to customers through the restaurant staff. However, the restaurant is not the whole of McDonald's world brand, it is only the tip of the iceberg, because behind it there is a comprehensive, perfect and powerful support system to fully cooperate with the quality and quantity of the effective guarantee, and the support of this powerful system includes: advanced technology and management of food processing and manufacturing suppliers, packaging suppliers and distributors and other procurement network, perfect and sound human resources management and training system, management around the world, transportation and training system. training system, worldwide management, distribution system, building development, marketing, accurate and fast financial statistics and analysis ...... and so on. Each department is dedicated to its own function, striving for excellence and teamwork to achieve McDonald's goal of "100 percent customer satisfaction".

McDonald's Corporation is famous for operating fast food. 1955, Kroc founded the first McDonald's restaurant in the United States, the varieties on the menu are not many, but the food is high quality, inexpensive, fast supply, beautiful environment, the chain has rapidly developed to every state; to 1983, the domestic outlets have more than 6,000. 1967, McDonald's opened its first foreign outlets in Canada, and then foreign business development. In 1967, McDonald's opened its first foreign branch in Canada, and its foreign business has developed rapidly since then. By 1985, foreign sales accounted for about 1/5 of its total sales. more than 18 million people patronize McDonald's every day in more than 40 countries.

In 1990, McDonald's opened China's first McDonald's restaurant in Shenzhen, and countless citizens went there with their families on the opening day to *** enjoy the joy; followed by the opening of the world's largest McDonald's restaurant at that time in Beijing's Wangfujing in April 1992, with more than 10,000 people transacting business on that day. Since 1992, McDonald's has grown rapidly in China. in February 1993, the first McDonald's restaurant in Guangzhou opened in the Guangdong International Building, and the number of transactions on the opening day broke the McDonald's global record at that time; in June 1994, the first McDonald's restaurant in Tianjin opened on Binjiang Road; in July 1994, the first McDonald's restaurant in Shanghai opened on Huaihai Road; in 1995, the first McDonald's restaurant in Jiangsu Province opened in Nanjing Fuzi Road. McDonald's restaurant opened in Nanjing Fuzimiao, the opening day set a new record for the average consumption of McDonald's; Wuhan, the first McDonald's restaurant in July of the same year, also opened in Jianghan Road; December 1999 and August 2000, the western cities of Chengdu, Chongqing McDonald's restaurants were opened, the opening day, unprecedented, especially the Chongqing McDonald's turnover on the day of the opening of the Chinese daily sales record; August 2001, the opening day of McDonald's restaurant in Chengdu, Chongqing, China, the opening day of McDonald's restaurant in the city of Chongqing, the first McDonald's restaurant in China. sales history record; in August 2001, Xi'an, the first McDonald's restaurant opened .......

In the following years, with the assistance of relevant government departments at all levels and Chinese partners, McDonald's has opened more than 460 restaurants in 74 large and medium-sized cities in the four municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing, as well as in 17 provinces, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Anhui, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi. More than 460 restaurants have been opened in 74 large and medium-sized cities in 17 provinces in China.

McDonald's adheres to the business principles of "quality, service, cleanliness and value for money", and adheres to the concept of establishing a comprehensive food supply network system and human resource management and training system in China, which should be developed with the local **** and **** with the progress and prosperity.

*Note: The total number of restaurants is as of the first quarter of 2002

"Rise and Shine" versus "Tailor-Made" Marketing

I. KFC's "Boat Rising" style marketing

1. Localization and professionalization of terminal personnel; focus on training and high aspirations

KFC's rapid development has provided a large number of employment opportunities in China. At present, KFC has more than 50,000 employees in the country*** and more than 5,500 managers in restaurants and various functions of the company. From the first restaurant in China to the present more than 850 restaurants, KFC has always achieved 100% localization of employees. In the past 16 years of development, KFC has continuously invested money and manpower in training at various levels. From restaurant servers, restaurant managers to managers of the company's functional departments, the company arranges scientific and strict training programs according to the nature of their jobs. These trainings not only help employees to improve their work skills, but also enrich and improve their own knowledge structure and personality development. Many young people grow up in KFC and become outstanding management talents.

In order to make KFC's management staff reach the level of professional fast food management, KFC also has a professional training base for restaurant management - Education Development Center. Since the establishment of the center, it has provided thousands of training courses for more than 2,000 restaurant managers from all over China every year.

2, localized management, know your enemy

A recent survey conducted by an international information company in mainland China showed that the Chinese people's favorite ten foreign brands, KFC Hometown Chicken topped the list, while Coca-Cola and McDonald's only ranked fourth and fifth. The survey shows that the closer a foreign brand is to Chinese culture, the more likely it is to take root in the mainland consumer market if it is properly localized in terms of its marketing strategy.

The Lianhe Zaobao reported that ACNielsen recently announced that KFC is the favorite foreign brand among Chinese people, according to a survey of 16,677 questionnaires sent out in 30 Chinese cities. The biggest reason for this is that the Chinese people themselves like to eat chicken, and KFC's main product is fried chicken. Compared with McDonald's hamburgers, chicken is naturally more acceptable to the Chinese.

Last year, KFC spent 7.6 million yuan (about S$1.52 million) to redecorate the world's largest branch in Beijing's Qianmen district, using Beijing's courtyard houses and the Great Wall as the main tone for the murals, and then decorating the dining areas with traditional folk arts such as mudman Zhang, kites and shadow puppets.

In addition, KFC stores in different cities organize different kinds of charity activities to meet the needs of the local communities. For example, free English classes and university scholarships, and scholarships for disabled children have greatly enhanced the company's image.

Reports indicate that KFC's understanding of China's local culture is due to the fact that the entire China Business Department is entirely Chinese, and most of the decision-making departments are overseas Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan students

3, channel management: "starting from scratch franchising" to "non-zero franchising". "Non-zero start franchising"

Like other famous brands in the world's chain industry, KFC has been using " franchising " as an effective way to expand its business around the world for more than 20 years now. In China, KFC authorized the first franchise company in Xi'an in 1993, and in August 2000, the first KFC franchise in China was officially authorized in Liyang City, Changzhou, and so far, 11 KFC franchises have been established. So far, 11 KFC restaurants "without starting from scratch" have been authorized to join. At present, 95% of KFC restaurants in China are directly operated and only 5% are franchised. Pizza Hut also has more than 100 restaurants in China, one-third of which are managed by franchisees. When franchisees join KFC, they simultaneously begin a partnership with KFC on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, in the same boat***. In order to promote the steady development of KFC in China, so that consumers in more cities will be able to taste the same KFC food as any KFC restaurant in the world at their doorsteps, KFC began franchising in China in 1993, and at the end of 1998 KFC once again searched for a franchise partner in the Chinese market and publicly announced the conditions for franchising applications.

In the last two years, KFC plans to open up to franchise applicants in China with a non-agricultural population greater than 150,000 and less than 400,000, and an annual per capita consumption of more than 6,000,000 yuan of cities (except for cities with KFC joint ventures), that is, after the KFC company's applicants for franchises from the strength of the financing to the management of the business and other aspects of the very strict audit, the franchisee can buy the KFC One or several including restaurant premises, all the supporting equipment, facilities and experienced restaurant management, including the KFC restaurant is operating and profitable, one does not have to "start from scratch" operating KFC restaurant.

KFC's development potential in China is huge and immeasurable, and China will become the world's largest fast food market. No single company can fully occupy the Chinese market, relying on franchisees who love the KFC brand to **** with the development of KFC in China, thus achieving the most effective development potential. Therefore, the prospects for franchising in China are very promising.

4, niche market positioning is accurate, public welfare promotions for the purpose of clear

As a member of the social family, KFC to "return to the community" corporate purpose to actively care about people in need of help, especially in recent years, when KFC's own rapid development at the same time, the public welfare of China, especially the education of Chinese children. Especially in recent years, when KFC itself has been growing rapidly, its investment in China's public welfare, especially in the education of Chinese children, has become one of the core elements of KFC's "return to society".

In order to make children and teenagers grow up in a healthy environment, KFC supports the education cause in various cities and regions in China in various forms every year, from donating to education projects such as "Project Hope", to subsidizing students with special needs, inviting children from orphanages and children with disabilities to have meals for free; from organizing sports and cultural competitions to donating books and picture books. From organizing lively sports and cultural competitions to donating books and picture books. In recent years, KFC has also carried out the KFC Health Mobile Class, which is lively and entertaining, and organized the "Kid's Home" winter and summer camps together with the TV station, which are loved by children and parents. These activities reflect KFC's corporate culture of "repaying the society and caring for children". 38 million RMB "China KFC Aurora Project" was launched in September 2002, which will serve as a long-term subsidy for the aspiring children as a token of appreciation from all the staff of KFC, It will be a long-term financial support for the poor but outstanding college students to help them and spread the light of day for their study, career and life.

According to statistics, over the past ten years, KFC has directly and indirectly spent more than 60 million RMB on youth education and social welfare, which are all used to help deaf, dumb and mentally retarded children, out-of-school children in poverty-stricken areas, as well as college students and educators in need of help.

Two, McDonald's "tailor-made" marketing

Establishment of core competitive advantages

1, emphasis on culture, quality and service, to strengthen the core competitiveness of the brand

McDonald's golden arches promise: each restaurant's menu is basically the same, and the menu is the same. "Superior quality, excellent service, cleanliness and hygiene, the real thing". Its products, processing and cooking procedures and even kitchen layout are standardized and strictly controlled.

Quality

McDonald's emphasis on quality can be seen before each restaurant opens. The first step is to establish a series of local production, supply and transportation network systems to ensure that the restaurant receives a supply of high-quality raw materials. At the same time, McDonald's food must go through a series of strict quality checks, and for beef patties alone, there are more than 40 quality control checks. Perhaps many customers don't realize how complex McDonald's food control procedures are, but they have all y experienced the results, which are McDonald's high-quality, delicious and nutritionally balanced food.

Service

Fast, friendly, and reliable service is the hallmark of McDonald's. McDonald's understands from experience the importance of providing quality service to its customers, so every employee puts the customer first and brings a smile to their face.

Cleanliness

Every utensil, location and corner of the restaurant reflects McDonald's focus on hygiene and cleanliness. McDonald's provides a clean, comfortable and enjoyable dining environment for its customers.

Value for money

McDonald's provides customers with high-quality, nutritionally balanced and tasty food, and at the same time, brings customers more choices and more laughter, customers in the McDonald's family fully experience the "value for money" commitment.

McDonald's has always been recognized as the fast food brand that has changed the world's dining culture, and the key to its success lies in its ever-changing brand proposition and persistent brand core. For example, in the United States, McDonald's slogan in the 1970s was "You deserve a break today," expressing the deep-seated American belief that work ethic should be rewarded. The slogan "You deserve a break today" was in keeping with the prevailing emphasis on the rewards of labor. In the early 1980s, the theme of McDonald's advertisements, "McDonald's and You," reflected a shift from work ethic to self-direction, meaning the desire to avoid losing oneself to work and thus to live for the day, and in the mid-1980s there was a general shift to a "we" orientation, reflecting a deeper American belief that work ethic should be rewarded. In the mid-1980s there was a general shift towards a "we" orientation, reflecting the traditional focus on family values, and McDonald's advertising changed accordingly: its theme shifted from the individual consumer to a family orientation. Its slogan is "It's a Good Time for the Great Taste McDonald's". Effectively linking food and family values. The establishment of Ronald McDonald's image and the fact that many McDonald's are friendly and concerned with the upbringing of children confirms the success of its business strategy. On the contrary, its original competitor, Burger King, was perceived as aggressive, masculine and unfriendly. When the deep recession occurred in the early 1990s, another cultural change occurred, which caused McDonald's business strategy to be modified accordingly. Many consumers were less optimistic about the future, less interested in the traditional American dream, and more price-sensitive - a trend we'll discuss later in this section, "The Latest Reality". So, in 1991, McDonald's began a series of price cuts, introduced a number of special sales, and "value for money" became the theme of its advertising. At a time when the economy was coming out of the recession, but economic insecurity still existed, McDonald's adopted a more relatable theme, "Have You Had Your Break Today?" This title, by implying a right to rest, reflects a shift in cultural values toward a more hedonistic focus. Cultural values are persistent, and McDonald's has always tried to adapt its brand proposition to meet cultural trends, but in the midst of this McDonald's core values of "quality, service, hygiene, and cleanliness" have remained the same.

In the process of adapting to cultural trends, McDonald's has always focused on attracting children. As a reflection of the times, McDonald's is doing its best to attract children and teenagers to the Internet. in 1996 McDonald's Corp. offered children the opportunity to design personalized newspaper headlines on their computer screens, allowing them to use their imaginations, such as battling with Michael Jordan to defeat evil aliens. McDonald's Corporation knows that this creation of fiction and fantasy helps children establish a fundamental cultural value - the drive toward individualism. And work ethic followed as another cultural value.

McDonald's doesn't just reflect American culture at home, it channels it overseas. The golden arches have come to be recognized as an icon of American service, and the craze for gourmet food as fast food has spread across the globe.

2, channel management: franchising, line all over the world

McDonald's as one of the world's most successful franchisors, so that it is proud of its franchising approach, the success of exotic high-level expansion and internationalization of operations. In the course of its franchise development, it has accumulated many, many very valuable experiences.

(1) Clear business philosophy and standardized management. This mainly refers to the important principle of customer supremacy and customer always comes first, which can best reflect the characteristics of McDonald's.

(2) Strict inspection and supervision system. McDonald's system has three kinds of inspection system; one is the regular monthly assessment; the second is the company's headquarters inspection; the third is a random inspection. This is to ensure that the McDonald's franchise meets departmental standards and maintains the brand image of the guarantee.

(3) perfect training system. This provides a reliable guarantee for the licensee to successfully operate McDonald's restaurants and shape the unified image of the "McDonald's" brand.

(4) Joint advertising fund system. Franchisees can raise a generous advertising fund by joining together, thus increasing advertising efforts.

(5) Mutual constraints, ****rong ****survival of the partnership. This practice for the franchisee to show their skills to create the conditions, so that the franchisee marketing strategies emerge one after another, which in turn for the McDonald's brand value enhancement has made a great deal of credit. It is through the implementation of the above strategies in the franchise marketing, McDonald's has achieved great success, creating a brilliant franchise marketing page chapter.

Crisis in all directions

3, blind "localization" of the operation of the loss of market control

Before and after 2003, McDonald's has always been selling only hamburgers, fried chicken and French fries, began to 350 business locations in Taiwan, "selling rice! ". McDonald's has never been able to appear rice, revolutionary towards the "localization" of the business. McDonald's in Taiwan to sell rice is not the first, in March 2002 McDonald's in Singapore breakfast time to sell congee, in July in Hong Kong dinner to sell rice, Taiwan's lunch and dinner to sell rice, is the third wave of McDonald's operation.

These blind "localized operations", due to the inflated prices and lost many customers. It is reported that McDonald's sells rice, the initial stage to provide curry pork chops, mushroom chicken legs, Wafu yakiniku and Thai-style spicy chicken and other four rice packages, the price lock 129 yuan Taiwan dollars, than the supermarket supply of fast-food boxed lunches 2.5 times more expensive. For Taiwan, whose economy is already in the doldrums, such prices have undoubtedly caused it to lose a lot of "territory".

The opposite of this inflated prices is to reduce prices, even so, did not bring hope for the shrinking business. 1998, McDonald's performance declined continuously, causing panic among top managers, they are desperate for medical help, lifted the overall price cuts this magic, the big price war. McDonald's big price cuts to make the old customers get the benefits, but did not attract more potential customers, and even let the general public have a price cut and poor quality lagging goods association. As a result, McDonald's price cuts have led to even greater slippage in performance.

In the case of raising prices and lowering prices can not improve business performance, the century-old McDonald's is like an old and late, losing the ability to grasp the market.

4, blind expansion of the market, the loss of the core brand

Because of McDonald's foreign investment too fast, resulting in a substantial decline in customer satisfaction, the market share has decreased without rising. Before McDonald's scaled down its expansion program in 2002, the fastest rate of McDonald's new stores in the world once reached one every three hours. However, between 1987 and 1997, although McDonald's outlets increased by 50%, total sales declined by 2%, and individual outlet profits also declined sharply. McDonald's blind opening of outlets also caused dissatisfaction among many franchisees, who believed that McDonald's had opened a large number of inappropriate outlets in inappropriate places. The single-minded pursuit of quantity has led to a significant drop in customer satisfaction.

Since Greenberg came to power in 1998, franchises have more autonomy than before, free to make a series of decisions from marketing to specific menu items, which greatly weakened McDonald's has always been proud of the heirloom - "McDonaldization ". McDonald's core competencies and branding have been greatly lost as a result.

Rejuvenation

Sorris Management Consulting (International) Ltd. chief consultant Li Hailong for McDonald's critical situation, through the analysis of the right medicine, to start from the solution of the following three points:

Firstly, fast and clear, and quickly close the serious loss of stores, the unsuspended property will be converted to Coca-Cola's other operating business. The main focus remains on profitable stores and large and medium-sized cities.

Given the current trend of urbanization of the rural population is becoming more and more obvious, a large number of urban population from rural areas is increasing, McDonald's can focus on large and medium-sized cities on the periphery of small and medium-sized cities to selectively open outlets, in order to form an encirclement of KFC, and at the same time to achieve the cultivation of the purpose of the potential consumer groups, the population will become a regular customer of McDonald's in the large and medium-sized cities.

Secondly, under the premise of maintaining the existing "standard, fast, clean, service" core points, actively deepen the understanding of Chinese food culture, looking for entry points, such as in the taste of the appropriate improvement and enhancement. Can even refine the "appetite for McDonald's", "good taste, appetite, happy McDonald's" type of strategy to make up for the lack of.

Third, the low price strategy should continue to maintain, in a country like China, where per capita income has not yet reached the standard of affluence, cheap prices are always very competitive, and "no two cents to beat the loyalty" is "universally applicable". No two cents to lose loyalty" is now "universally true". It is also a powerful weapon for rival KFC.

It is with this dose of Lee Hyland's medicine that the arch is golden again.

Worrying prospects

While McDonald's still has a global fast-food industry "giant" loud brand, but it is undeniable that the brand is no longer as wide-ranging as it used to be, and many fast-food industry newcomers are rising to challenge McDonald's "hegemony "McDonald's is in decline. McDonald's declining, competitors have gained a rare opportunity for development and market space, have taken from McDonald's hands of the huge market profits, resulting in McDonald's in the U.S. domestic market share continues to decline. Currently, McDonald's market share in the United States has fallen to 43%.