Kentucky Fried Chicken was founded in 1952 by Colonel Harland Sanders and is currently headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky under Yum! Brands, Inc. (“About KFC,” 2014). KFC has since grown to be a global company with over 37,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries around the world (“About KFC,” 2014). I chose to research KFC because I noticed vast differences in KFC’s presentation and reception in America versus its reception in Asia. While there are different marketing strategies for various countries, the main differences in perceptions of KFC are the ways local factors influence the reception of KFC. KFC is received in a variety of ways in different geographical areas due to cultural variation in those places, despite the implementation of different marketing strategies.
KFC’s establishment as a franchising company enabled rapid growth and globalization. In 1952, Colonel Sanders started to seek out prospective franchisees about his “Original Recipe” for Kentucky fried chicken, and by 1963 there were over 300 franchises with overall profits of $500 million (Krug, 2001, p. 420). Kentucky Fried Chicken also systemically hired old workers through their “The Colonel’s Tradition” Program which offered older workers part-time managerial positions with various fringe benefits and a reasonable salary (DeMicco and Reid, 1988, p. 57). In 1986, KFC was sold to PepsiCo which drastically changed KFC’s relaxed culture due to the Colonel’s desire to provide for his employees to a culture based on competition and performance (Krug, 2001, p. 421-422). By 1998, KFC had saturated the American market and started to focus on international expansion with 50% of its restaurants located abroad (Krug, 2001, p. 426-428). By allowing franchisees to ow...
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In 1946 two brothers, Ben and Truitt Cathy, opened a diner in Atlanta Georgia called the Dwarf House Grill. The Dwarf House served a variety of typical grill food that included everything from burgers to hot dogs. All of that changed in 1961 when a poultry supplier stopped buy and sold Mr. Cathy chicken breast that were too large for the trays that they typically cooked the chicken on. Truitt Cathy decided that he did not want to throw out the chicken so he breaded the chicken and put it in the pressure fryer. He realized that he could cook the chicken in the same amount of time that it took to cook a hamburger and it tasted great. He had hamburger buns and pickles in the restaurant already and this is how the first chicken sandwich was made. In 1967 the first Chick-Fil-A store was opened in Atlanta’s Greenbrier Shopping Center and in 1986 the first freestanding franchise was opened. Today there are more than one thousand seven hundred Chick-Fil-A restaurants in thirty nine states. One of the ways that Chick-Fil-A has been able to make their company a success is through their unique approach to customer service. They are able to provide excellent customer service by turning individuals into team players. Teams can be seen in the hiring process, community involvement, national sponsorship, knowing what customers want, and cooperate culture. All of these different teams lead to excellence in customer service.
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The Taco Bell and KFC “micro brand” known as ZAK Family Foods is successful for three important reasons: a concept of family, a passion for progress, and a dedication to social responsibility. These three elements have evolved organically from the brand’s very beginnings. In 1979, Jerry Zakaras, now CEO and Franchisee of ZAK Family Foods, began his journey to support his family as a Restaurant General Manager for a Pizza Hut in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. His cooperation with those working with him in the restaurant expressed itself in a way that was very familiar; it was the restaurant family. His value for family was what motivated him to explore the restaurant world, and it was what opened the doors to his business success.
Still, the distinction is that the challenges themselves may cover broader or more specific problems that are directly related to the brand’s image, perception, and strategic position, rather than the operational issues specific to individual restaurants. Often, these key challenges will require targeted actions or strategies that may involve capitalizing on strengths to overcome weaknesses, or relying on proactive measures to decrease the likelihood of external threats from occurring. The first challenge we would like to address is their controversial brand image. The brand faces opposition to controversies surrounding its founders’ conservative religious beliefs and the company’s social stance on certain social issues. Chick-fil-A’s views on faith can be both a strength and a weakness for the brand, depending on how they are perceived and managed.
November 15th 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, was a very phantasmagoric day in Dave’s life. He opened his very first restaurant naming it after his little baby girl, Wendy. He expected nothing more from his little family owned restaurant, but Dave decided to approach fast food in a different angel. On November 21st 1970 he broke new grounds by opening a new feature, the pick up window. Now he could do twice as much business at the same time. This idea expanded to all of the quick service industries. Over the next thirty ones years, Dave opened up over five thousand Wendys Restaurants, not only in the United States but in twenty-seven other countries around the world. With competition rising among other fast food places, such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Arbys. Promotion would be one of his great ideas (Wendys Web Page).
The foundation for developing an effective diversity management program relies on leadership commitment and the CEO should communicate the organization’s position on diversity management and his or her sincere belief in the importance of diversity (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). Indra Nooyi, the current Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, is a leader who demonstrates a strong passion for managing diversity. In this paper I will be discussing Indra Nooyi’s personal and professional background, the status of diversity within PepsiCo before her role as CEO, the leadership philosophy on managing diversity Indra Nooyi has taken, the strategies she has used to implement diversity management, and her diversity related goals. I will conclude with a discussion on the current status of PepsiCo in terms of diversity, their future diversity goals and how Nooyi’s diversity management efforts have affected the overall success of the company as a whole.
Dunkin’ Brands, Inc., a global player in the fast food business, while targeting Asia for its global expansion, concluded that South Korea’s economy was stronger than those of other Asian countries. Dunkin’ Brands, Inc. launched in South Korea in 1992. Dunkin’ cited the fact that U.S. Military troops have long been a presence in South Korea, which has allowed South Koreans to be exposed to Western influences and which makes the Dunkin’ Donuts brand familiar to South Korean consumers. Dunkin’ was right on both counts, and now counts its South Korean franchises as one of the largest contributors to its business interests located outside the U.S. In 2008...
The purpose of this research is to provide a substantial assessment/explanation/analysis of the degree to which the McDonald’s operates based on a universal cultural or whether it is most strongly influenced by the national culture of that country. The researcher will explain how McDonald’s uses diversity and organizational initiatives to contribute to the corporate bottom line. Finally, the researcher will evaluate the company’s bottom-line rationale for diversity initiatives.
KFC is one of the most popular fast-food restaurant chains by the Yum! Brands and fried chicken is what the company specializes. KFC was founded by Harland Sanders, which was later known as Colonel Sanders. Moreover, KFC was one of the first fast-food restaurant chains to expand internationally, including the opening outlets in Beijing, China, in November 1987 (KFC Website, 2013). The fact that KFC was the first Western fast food company in China makes it very challenging to satisfy the Chinese market. Trying to sell the same products or services is a typical approach to most foreign expansion for franchise businesses (Bell, 2011). However, one-size fits all approach is not what KFC chooses to apply for their company. According to Shelman, the writer of the case study regarding KFC’s Explosive Growth in China, key success for KFC China is to change the menu to suit Chinese tastes and style of eating (Starvish, 2011). “One of the lessons I take away from this case is that to ...
... conclusion, to compete with the intense competition in today’s fast-food market, KFC China differentiates the company by being innovative. Three significant innovative strategies are localizing the menu, understanding the Chinese culture, and hiring local management. KFC demonstrates that one size fits all approach in the global market does not always work. Many typical Western approach to foreign expansion is to deliver the same products or services as their original establishment. For instance, Domino’s Pizza, an American restaurant chain, nearly failed in Australia due to the underestimation of the need to adapt their offerings to the local tastes. KFC China offers important lessons for global firms. It is essential to know that to what extend the company should keep the existing business model in emerging markets and to what extend it should be thrown away.
By choosing to expand into markets later than other fast food restaurants Burger King hopes to avoid the problems of developing infrastructure and establishing a market base. For instance, by following McDonalds into Brazil, Burger King avoided the need to develop the infrastructure and mark...
For future trend and growing in this industry, understanding market trend and meet customer needs is very important. Innovation in using technology to automate process can drive food industry to better growth such as using robots. Continuously create unique products to attract customer, expertise strong branding and strategy marketing trend. Strongly adopted by KFC as KFC won marketing excellence award in year 2014 and has become one of the top players in the industry. KFC will continue to expand and create an excellent result with strategy business plan in future
Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...
...ll have to desire and implement its new marketing battle effectively with effective ways to do it. The organization has to pay attention that its staff who has the ability in transferring the result and that is minimum against from the internally. There is a good opportunity that KFC can change its impression in food industry from junk food supplier to a health nutrition meal supplier.