The Chicken vs The Cow!

Source: UWS website

Ryan Boyce, BA Marketing
B00307140
University of the West of Scotland
Marketing Assessment

What Is Marketing: 

-Marketing is typically defined as the process of promoting and selling either a product or service.

-It is the management process used to Identify, Anticipate and Satisfy your customer's needs.

Source: Marketing91.com

 T H E  M A R K E T I N G  M I X

T  H  E  4  P' S

It is generally considered that a marketing mix is made up of the 4 p's.

.

P R I C E -                                    The amount a customer will pay.

P R O D U C T -                           The way a product or service looks.

P L A C E -                                   How the customers receive the product.

P R O M O T I O N -                    How the customer is made aware of the product                                                                                      or service.

 However, with a more in depth look, we are introduced to an extended 3- taking us to 7 p's.

P E O P L E -                                                 Delivery of the product or service through staff.

P R O C E S S -                             The method in which it is delivered.

P H S I C A L  E V I D E N C E - The visuals enticing the customer to buy.

T H E  C H I C K E N

Founded in 1930 as "Sanders Court and Cafe," KFC has grown to become the largest  fried chicken fast food franchise on the planet. This success is furthered in that they currently reside as the 2nd most popular fast food brand in the world.
Second to their biggest competitor, McDonald's

KFC is a subsidiary company, owned by another parenting company, Yum! Brands. Who also parent Pizza Hut and Taco Bell to name a few.  Source: Forbes

Source: Memeshappen.com

T H E  C O W

Source: McDonald's Website

McDonald's, founded 1940, is the biggest fast food chain in the world to date.Specialising in their hamburgers, they have stores in around 119 countries around the globe.

The fast food king is constantly adapting to remain the market leader.

Source:Forbes

Source: Memecreator.com

P R I C E

Price is a hugely important factor for both brands. Aiming to attract the most customers, both need to carefully think out their pricing plan.

KFC -  It is generally regarded that KFC's products, food, is of a higher quality than that of McDonald's. Keeping this in mind, with higher quality comes a higher price and this can be seen by comparing numerous examples of the same product from each brand.

KFC will be looking to make a return on their investments, with higher quality raw materials comes a higher cost to the organisation. This falls into the Premium based pricing strategy.

This strategy essentially means that the organisation will set their prices higher than that of another organisation offering similar products, N Giddens, University of Missouri

Source: KFC Website, including info

For example, here is a KFC Fillet Meal, essentially a chicken burger with fries and a drink Priced at £4.69.

Find Out More

Below is a McChicken Sandwich Meal,
again,  a chicken burger with fries and a
drink. Priced at £4.29.

Find Out More

Source: McDonald's Website, including info

Looking at these products which are essentially similar, the KFC Fillet Meal looks more appetising and of higher quality. However the McChicken sandwich is noticeably cheaper.

This is down to McDonald's view on pricing.









McDonald's are always striving to beat their competitors. Using the competitive pricing strategy, they boost their sales, attract customers from other organisations and eventually become the market leader.
What is competitive pricing?

An organisation, McDonald's in this case, will look at their main competitor's,which is  KFC, pricing on similar products and thus decide the price of their product on the basis of trying to compete with the competitor. Source: BBC Bitesize

To conclude this section, it is clear that McDonald's choice in pricing strategy is effective. The brand remains the cheapest, yet still the market leader. Whereas KFC remains the brand with the higher quality product it's Premium pricing seems to drive customers to their cheaper alternative. Their biggest competitor.

P R O D U C T

The product is the item the organisation builds/produces to satisfy their customer's needs and wants. There are two types of product, Tangible and Intangible. Tangible being an actual physical product whereas intangible is the opposite, cannot be seen or touched. A service.  Source BBC Bitesize

An organisation must understand their core product. This is what they're really selling to the customer. Taking KFC into example, their core product would be their famous chicken.

But why is it famous?

An organisation must understand the main benefits of their product, the core benefits. What features does the product have? How high is the quality? How is it packaged? Do we have a brand name?

With KFC in mind, they are known for their crispy, "finger lickin' good", chicken. The chicken they sell is, arguably, the highest quality available on the market. Customer's are not only interested in price, but quality too.Taking these into account is classed as the actual product.

After an organisation acknowledges their core product and then the actual product, they can begin working on the augmented product.

KFC UK

KFC would have two goals in mind when it comes to  their product. To obtain the customer's Brand Preference and ultimately, the customer's Brand Insistence. What are these?

Brand preference is obtaining a customer's loyalty. For KFC, having their customers prefer them over McDonald's,

Brand Insistence is having a degree of loyalty where your customer will accept no substitutes.

Source- Dibb et al

KFC can develop this through their product line. Currently KFC has a wide range of products availaible, however to compete with McDonald's, development is needed. Here are a range of products available:

KFC UK

• Box Meals
• Meals for One
• For Sharing
• For Kids
• Snacks
• Treats
• Drinks
• Breakfast

source: KFC Website

A product mix can be measured in 3 ways:

Width -  this is the number of different product lines an organisation offers
Length - this is the number of products contained within these product lines
Depth - this is the number of versions offered of each product line

Procter and Gamble

New Product Development :

KFC recently introduced a breakfast line into 10 stores throughout the UK. This is a test run to see if it would be successful if it were to be introduced into all stores in the UK. In an attempt to compete with McDonald's, who have had a breakfast line for years, this risky approach could attract more customers from McDonald's. Increasing market share, thus sales and profits.

KFC UK

 Organisations need to make constant changes and innovation in order to keep up with changing trends in the current market. Those who fail to innovate will see eventual failure. Any organisation who seeks success has to constantly meet their customer's needs in order to grow.

 P R O M O T I O N

Source: Functions & Frameworks website

Promotion is hugely vital if an organisation wants to be successful. This category involves how an organisation attempts to make customers aware of their product and bring in new customers form the market. There are many ways in which an organisation can attempt this. It's know as the Promotional Mix.

We will be focusing on KFC's take on Sales Promotion and the methods they use to get their brand known.

So what is sales promotion?

To put it simply, it is an action(s) taken by an organisation to generate extra sales, either from existing customers or new ones who may be interested by incentives or deals.

Source De Pelsmacker et al. 2010

This method can be used to get a general idea of your customers interests, especially when a loyalty scheme is used which requires registration. This will reward the customers for their brand loyalty, usually with special offers, discounts or free products. 

KFC use a loyalty scheme called - The Colonel's Club     Register Here

The Colonel's Club offers the customer many benefits in return for using KFC. As heard in the short clip customers can "earn points simply by counting their chickens," to put that simply, every time you shop at KFC, you earn point which build up towards reward.

The reward tiers are as follows:

• 3 - customers receive a free side
• 7 - customers receive a free snack
• 11 - customers receive £5 off their next order

Apple UK

This reward scheme features a really effective feature. Customers can download the app to their mobile device to keep tally of their point but they can also use their phone to collect points.

 Similar to Apple Pay, the reward card can be kept in your apple wallet, thus contactless methods can be used for point collection and redemption,

Along with their reward system, KFC offer discounts to customers who complete a survey at the bottom of their receipt. Upon completing the survey, customers will receive a 20% discount in return for letting the organisation know how their service was.

An additional benefit of offering reward in return for information is that the organisation can see their strengths and weaknesses in their service. Allowing marketers to create a SWOT analysis to develop in the future.

Source: Marketing Presentation

However only using Sales Promotions won't allow the organisation to grow their customer base quickly in the long term.

Regular advertisement is needed to further sales over a shorter period of time.

Advertisement is a form of communication, organisations can promote their products or services in many ways, the most common being:

Source: memesgenerator.com

• Online ads
• Television ads
• Newspaper ads
• E-mailing lists
• Billboards
• Endorsements

KFC advertise their products in many different, but effective ways. Everywhere you go, there always seems to be a billboard or bus shelter with KFC's products slapped all over it.

Luckily, KFC's brand is recognisable worldwide, this is down to their slogan "finger lickin' good"but more importantly, the colonel's face. It is extremely beneficial to organisations if the customer immediately recognises a brand through an image. Some of these lucky organisations are:

KFC UK

• Apple
• KFC
• McDonald's
• Nike
• Adidas
• Starbucks
• Facebook
• Twitter 

Without effective advertiser, organisations will see drops in sales as interest in the brand will decrease. In order to market, or simply to survive, an organisation must be constantly advertising.

P L A C E

Source: Marketing Presentation

Place regards how an organisation gets it's products to its customers through distribution channels.

There are many different ways in which an organisation gets its product to the customer. Here are the most common:

• Direct Distribution 
• Indirect Distribution

Choosing the correct channel is vitally important for an organisation, failure to do so can result in stock being tied up in warehouses, driving up costs and holding back sales.

KFC chooses to sell to their retailers (stores) and then too the customer. The location of these stores is of major importance. Having stores in the wrong places will affect sales negatively and the store will be operating with a deficit each year. 

Source: PrimePropertiesSpain

Typically, you'll see branches in:

• Cities
• Towns
• Retail Parks
• Shopping Centres
• Food Courts
• Motorway rest stops

Location certainly has an impact on an organisation's sales. If it's difficult to reach, say a fast food branch in a desert for example, sales would suffer. Whereas in a buzzing city with loads of consumers, sales will be higher on a dramatic scale. Although having the top location isn't always a good thing for an organisation

Source: geograph.co.uk

KFC's flagship store in Scotland is located on the infamous "four corners" on Argyle Street, Glasgow.

Having a store in this busy street is an excellent achievement for any organisation. However due to high rent prices, this store operates at a loss every single year. Now it would make sense to relocate but giving up a location in the heart of a busy city to a big competitor could see disastrous implications on the whole organisations sales.

Getting the Place category right is vitally important to an organisation.If an organisation wants to succeed, the MUST get their product to their customers and make it easy for the customer to get these products. Distribution is critically important to any organisation's success, as getting it wrong can be difficult and expensive to resolve.

T H E  E X T E N D E D  M I X

Source: KeepCalmgenerator.com

The extended mix involves people, process and physical evidence.

P E O P L E

This section involves the people within the organisation, those who the customer will be dealing directly with when within the organisation. It is important that front-line staff are fully trained and know their organisation. Customers typically view staff as the actual organisation, if something goes wrong, it's the staff who they are dealing with who are at fault as they are seen to represent the organisation

Uniform falls under this category it gives the staff a sense of responsibility and community, they'll feel like they are important to the organisation, therefore will try their best to represent to the best of their abilities. Win win for the organisation.

Source: KFC Linwood 2016

 P R O C E S S

Process involves the way in which a customer will receive a product which an organisation if offering. KFC focus on this as soon as the customer enters the store. Staff being friendly and helpful to customers all falls under this category.

Service is key to organisations. They thrive to provide the quickest and highest possible service to their customers. KFC aim to serve their customers, in-store, within 2.5 minutes. Service of this speed and quality is highly looked upon by customers. After all, most consumers use fast food for its speed of service, Additionally, KFC branches with drive-thru's work under a timer to provide a high quality service(as seen in the above image.) They thrive to have served and hand out the order within 140 seconds on average. Providing service of this quality is an excellent tool for growth. Organisations must always be seen to constantly thrive for the best if they want to gain a better market share.

Source: KFC website

P H Y I C A L  E V I D E N C E

Physical evidence, again, is hugely important in terms of marketing your brand. This involves the customer's experience, in-store or online. For KFC, they try their best to improve the customer's experience to keep them coming. The layout of the store is very important to the customer's experience. KFC name their method, "A Fusion Layout". This basically involves the customer waiting in a short queue, with around 3 members of staff on a till waiting to serve them with a positive attitude. Once served, customers wait to the side with an order number, which will be called when ready, similar to Argos.

Source: KFC training website

Source http://designconference.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/fusion1.pnghttp://designconference.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/fusion1.png

 S O  T O  C O N C L U D E

The marketing mix is, of course, vitally important to the success of an organisation.All 7 P's must be considered to a great degree if the organisation wants to put it's customers first.

Source: quickmeme.com

The marketing mix are the most import decisions organisations will make, when trying to sell their product, in my opinion.

Source: Pintrest/marketing

When an organisation gets it right, decision making becomes easier, sales go up, market share increases, customers are happier and the business' brand name will increase in popularity.