Hospitality and Tourism Marketing Strategies of KFC

In the present time marketing strategies has taken a turn from transactional approach towards the relationship marketing strategies. In the paper discussion on the hospitality and tourism marketing strategies that are used in the competitive era is discussed. The study has also covered the discussion over the different strategies of marketing that are used by hospitality and tourism organization in modern time for getting the competitive advantage over the different organizations in the hospitality industry. The study has also included the discussion over the marketing strategies development that can be utilized by the organizations for attracting the customers. The paper also includes the arguments over the evaluation of marketing strategies adopted by hospitality and tourism industry

The study also includes about the role of customer relationship management and network strategies in the hospitality and tourism organizations, along with that paper will include about the evaluation of strategies adopted at KFC. The paper has also included the discussion over the details of company, its size, customer base and various services provided by the company to the customers. The paper also enumerates about the marketing and customers loyalty strategies evaluation that can be used by the organizations for raising the loyalty of customers and increase in loyal number of customers within the organizations. The paper also covers about the marketing communication strategies evaluation which is used by KFC organization for developing its customer base. The study also includes about the effectiveness and evaluation of various modern marketing strategies which are used by hospitality organizations.

OVERVIEW OF KFC

KFC is also known as Kentucky fried chicken, which is the fast food restaurant chain situated in Louisville, Kentucky, US. KFC is the brand and operating segment since 1997. The main focus of the company is into fried chicken; along with it also sells chicken pieces, sandwiches, wraps, salads, grilled and roasted chicken, side dishes and desserts.  The company uses Kentucky fried chicken for its packaging, signage, and advertisements in US and other parts of the world. The restaurant serves 12 million customers daily at KFC in 109 countries and territories across the world. The company operates 5200 restaurants in US and more than 15,000 units across the globe. The company spends lots of money in advertising the products, so that it can grab the large population and makes its hold in the market (About us, 2011).

SWOT ANALYSIS OF KFC

Strengths

• KFC continuously dominates the chicken segment through the record sales of 4.4 billion in the current year.
• Despite of gain calculated by the Chick-fill and Boston market, customers of KFC are still loyal to the KFC brand as it has unique taste.
• KFC has continuously dominated the take out segment and dinner of the industry.
• It has strong trademark recipes.
• The company ranks highest among the chicken restaurant chains in the work due to its convenience and menu varieties.  
• The company generates 1 billion each year.

Weaknesses

• The company is losing the market share because other chains of chicken have increased the sales at faster rate.
• The company failed at reaching the top rank in the in top 20 companies of the world.
• The company fails to get the knowledge about its customers.
• In the family segment the company was forced to shut down restaurants due to the declining profits.
• The company lacks in research and development.

Opportunities

• At Burger king per store sale remained flat and at Hardees’s per store sale has declined to 10%.
• Within the Pizza Hat, Pizza Segment, and at little Caesars has closed the underperforming restaurants.
• The Boston market was the new restaurant chain that focuses over the roasted rather than over the fried chicken, but due to Bankruptcy it was closed.
• United States median income has increased that has created opportunities for KFC.
• The company is customer focused and has increased the delivery services.

Threats

• The company was rated 83 out of 100 in terms of competitiveness in the market.
• Increase in wage rates has directly affected the menu prices.
• International Exchange rates has also increased.
• One of the major threats is that according to health trends customers are getting away from fried foods.

DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR KFC

In the current time hospitality companies wants innovation in their products and services along with the advanced strategies of marketing for development and growth of their companies. In the competitive era traditional marketing strategies are no more effective. In today’s time it is essential for the companies to build their brand with the help of effective marketing and maintain their campaigns and public relations.

There are different strategies that are sued by the organizations and it can also be used for the aggressive marketing of services and brand and also for attracting the customers. It is also used for maintaining the effective public relations for achieving the competitive advantage in the market. There are different marketing strategies adopted by the companies such as, customer or public relationship strategy, network strategy, electronic marketing strategy, service recovery strategy, and many more (Thyne and Laws, 2004).

1.1 Critically evaluate marketing strategies in the hospitality sector: There are different strategies of marketing that are utilized by the hospitality sector. Marketing strategies are very popular in the current hospitality organizations and is becoming popular in competitive era. In this era advanced strategies are used that are different from traditional strategies. There are various marketing strategies available in the hospitality companies that are applied over the diversified customers. It also includes different nature of activities that involves handling different customers from the diversified cultures.The strategies includes advanced and new strategies such as marketing and customer loyalty strategies, branding strategies, guerilla marketing strategies, network and customer relationship strategy, electronic marketing, and many more. All the strategies of marketing can be easily evaluated by examining its application and its impacts over the hospitality organizations.

1.2 Assessing the role of network and customer relationship marketing strategies for KFC: The customer and network relationship marketing strategy plays important role in developing the brand KFC in the globe market. This strategy has helped the KFC in developing and maintaining relationship with customers which is believed as the main factor through which large number of customers can be retained by the organization. KFC uses the networking strategy as the essential tool with the purpose of maintaining the relationship with global customers and also helps the company in developing the new relationships with them. The restaurant uses the networking strategy as a chain through which customers are connected and linked with the restaurant. KFC uses the chain of networks and also various agents in increasing the customers. The restaurants use the networking as a tool for increasing the customers in the restaurants (Fyall and Garrod, 2005).

The relationship and networking strategy of the restaurant also covers the alliance use and use of business partners for increasing their customers and it also helps in increasing the customers and maintains its competitive position in the non seasonal and seasonal periods. The customer and networking relationship marketing strategy also provides helps to the organizations in increasing the loyalty of customers and customer’s retention rate. This strategy is also helpful in developing the international relations with the clients and also in maintaining the business relations with the business partners and alliance. This strategy is also helpful in developing relationship with business alliances or business tie-ups for long term and also benefits the company by maintaining cordial relationships.

1.3 Recommending marketing and customer loyalty and customer loyalty strategies for KFC: It is important to analyze the strength and weaknesses of the organization before undertaking the marketing plan for an organization. It should cover all the information about the past trends and performance, annual analysis of the market along with the competition going in the market. Marketing activities of restaurants is going through constant state of flux due to the implementation of plan corporations and evaluation of tactics and new strategies of marketing. The essential concept that must be considered in strategy of marketing is daily operations and operations going in inventory control (Levinson, Levinson and Levinson 2007). The best way to generate the loyalty of customers is through providing quality services to them. The company should also provide discounts over the products and services through attainable and attractive offers via email marketing. KFC undertakes the different promotional strategies in different countries. Through these strategies company promotes its services among the customers. Through the service recovery and amenities restaurant tries to offer best services to the customers, so that they could be satisfied (Allen, 2009).

CRITICALLY EVALUATING MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR KFC

All the organizations in the current business scenario requires to formulate its marketing strategies for the promotion of its products and services offered to the customers and the market, in order to attract a large number of customers can be attracted and avail this services. The customer plays a vital role in the development of the company. KFC also adopts the marketing and communication strategy for attracting the customers and offer them best services. These strategies also help the organization in targeting a large customer base and make their own position (Carter, Clegg, Kornberger and Schweitzer, 2011).

KFC also adopts several marketing strategies such as interactive and internal marketing strategies for the promotion of its products and services. Using the internal marketing strategies the organization employees are provided with training for appropriately interacting with the customers, so that they can properly provide those services and handle their each and every query related to the product and services. KFC also focuses on interactive marketing strategy which focuses on service quality, dependent on the service quality and delivery to customers. The customers judge all the services of the organization, as they are the one who decides whether the services meet with the desired standards or not (Saee, 2006).

2.1 Explaining how marketing strategies can be utilized for developing brand and identification strategies by KFC: Development of brand identification strategy is a difficult task for organizations, as it requires high efforts and the organization needs to face different challenges. Even by facing different challenges the organization needs to develop identity of the company. The frequency and the consistency of the organization can be maintained throughout the life once the communication is established. The organizations needs to develop its competitive position among its competitors and market and for this it needs to adopt differentiation strategy, change its delivery services, image, services provided to customers, so that the customers can be attracted towards the organization. The vital strategy which the KFC can adopt to create brand identity is to deliver its products and services to the customers in a minimum waiting time, and the satisfaction level of the customers can be meeting with ease and high level of satisfaction can be attained by the customers (Donaldson and O'Toole, 2007).

2.2 Assessing the effectiveness of e-marketing, viral and guerrilla marketing strategies in KFC: Looking at the market factors the hospitality organizations are advancing on the technology part in order to compete with the other players in the industry. Using the strategic information management system the business missions are facilitated by managing the information collected, processing it and even with the use of information technology. The use of information technology is applied in the hospitality sector in the three main areas; this includes the operational area, guest services and the management information system. Functionality of these applications can be seen in the KFC organization using the technology. Use of the information technology has increased the efficiency of KFC in terms of flexibility and quality of services (Levinson, Levinson and Levinson, 2007).
 
In the economic business world there is a great impact of technology on marketing and distribution channels and has also left untouched the human intensive areas that cover the customers handling and relationship building with the retailers and business partners. The use of information technology has increased the service quality and efficiency of KFC by promoting its products online and also by effective online marketing. The use of technology is also done by KFC for operational purpose and also for the strategic and tactical management. Using internet as the marketing tool serves the organization digital distribution channel and also the electronic spreadsheet (Thyne and Laws, 2004).
 
Many managers in several organizations have the misconception about the effectiveness and applicability of viral marketing as this requires huge budget in its application. But this is not true looking at the hospitality sector and also looking at KFC. KFC uses the social channels to achieve success. For increasing the profit of KFC the viral marketing strategy is beneficial, in impacting the large customer’s base in a limited budget. The main goal of the KFC in adopting this strategy is to increase the traffic of customers in its site and encourage the customers to use their products and services. As internet marketing is the vital source of marketing in this global era, ad is also the cheapest source to reach large number of customers, so KFC is also applying this strategy to attract large customers. In KFC the revenue management and the internet marketing are the two interlinked areas as large number of customers are booking online and purchase the services for home delivery (Levinson and Horowitz, 2010).

2.3 Recommending and justifying marketing & communication strategies for KFC: Increasing the awareness about the products and services among the customers has been the vital part of KFC marketing strategy. For marketing their product and services KFC targets particular segment of customers for particular type of product. KFC uses different marketing strategy for promoting and advancing its product and services among the customers (Allen 2009). Using the public relationships and communication strategies the organization promotes its products and services in international market. KFC uses several marketing strategy like the initiation of different schemes for some corporate clients or for specific group of customers in order to maintain relation. The organization also sponsors different events in order to maintain relationship and increase awareness of its product and service and promote brand value. Using different discounts and offers the organization attracts large number of customers to use its products and services (Fyall and Garrod, 2005).

RECOMMENDATIONS

If the company increases its restaurants around the world and focus over its quality, services and cleanliness in the restaurants, then it can increase its capital revenue. The company can also make the strategic alliance with the major suppliers for gaining the advantage over its competitors in the market. Through the good business model and good strategy it can get the opportunity to change the rules and establish itself as the major and recognize market leader. A powerful marketing and communication strategy helps KFC to promote its business as standing out of the crowed. Through the proper strategy implementation KFC can develop its own communication and marketing communication. Making the proper strategy formulation KFC can make its marketing communication personal and get in touch with people and get in touch with the emotions related to the taste and preference of the customers. Through providing what the customers want and of what taste then KFC can grow with a fast pace. The organization must also analyze the problems which the customers face in availing the services and then try to remove them and provide them with appropriate services and make them satisfied and also make them loyal towards the organization. In KFC the customers are the priority, so the organization focuses on handling all the grievances and problems of the customers and try to provide them with best quality products and services to make their expectation met.

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion it can be concluded that KFC can adopt several of the marketing strategies and can increase its customer’s base.  KFC can utilize several marketing strategies by which it can benefit in long term. KFC can also improve its brand value and goodwill in the market there are several strategies which the organizations is the hospitality industry can utilize for increasing the customers base and attain competitive position in the market. It can also concluded from the above analysis that KFC can effectively utilize customer relationship and networking strategies in organization for increasing the client base and also increase its loyal customers and attain competitive position in the market.
 
Organizations in hospitality industry can also use these strategies explained above for attaining competitive position and develop relationship with different associated parties to the business. The communication n and relationship marketing strategy also plays vital role in organizational development. Relationship marketing plays vital role in organizational development as majority of the operations of KFC are related with customer’s interaction so communication strategy and relationship marketing also plays a vital role. Thus it can be concluded that the strategies explained above can be effectively utilized by hospitality organizations for their effective working and all round development.

REFERENCES

• Carter, C.  Clegg, S.R.  Kornberger, M. and Schweitzer,  J., 2011. Strategy: Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications Ltd.  
• Donaldson, B. and O'Toole, T., 2007. Strategic market relationships: from strategy to implementation. John Wiley and Sons.  
• Levinson, J.C., Levinson, J. and Levinson, A., 2007. Guerrilla marketing: easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  
• Levinson, J,C. and Horowitz, S., 2010. Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet. John Wiley and Sons.  
• Fyall, A and Garrod, B., 2005. Tourism marketing: a collaborative approach. New York: Channel view publications.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit