Category: Communications and media

Background Analysis and insights into media consumption

Fast food industry is one of the most competitive markets as there are several of them across the UK and the world respectively. Every year there are new firms entering the market however the ones that sustain the customers interest are the old ones such as KFC, MacDonald’s, pizza hut among others. Most of the companies are creating marketing campaigns in order to attract new customers, create brand awareness and sustain the interest of the consumer.

Harland Sanders is the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken; he started this business sixty-five years back. It started as fried chicken restaurant but later started offering other products like grilled and roasted chicken, sandwiches and desserts. The company has opened its branches in other parts of the world where they sell the same products and use the same brand name. The spices used and methods of preparing the chicken is the same all over the world.

KFC is getting competition from all areas; some of the common competitors include, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, CHICK-FILA, INC and CAJUN OPERATING COMPANY. Popeyes delicacies comprise of fried chicken and biscuits. They also sell Cajun –style fried chicken and seafood. The company has several branches in twenty-five countries across the globe. They are the biggest competitors of KFC since they offer the same products as the company but what keeps the KFC at the top of the competition is their secret recipe combined with their marketing strategies.

Marketing campaigns mostly include media such as Television, radio and social media. Social media are broken down into various different platforms such as Facebook, instagram, Twitter, Linked in and YouTube which are the most successful ones in our days, with billions of monthly users (Kallas, 2017). KFC’s YouTube channel has more than 270 thousands of subscribers and views of their videos are reaching over million viewers per video on average. YouTube is a source of media that has high reputation over all generations therefore KFC couldn’t be a step back.

Additionally KFC uses platforms that are friendly to young professionals such as deliveroo. Facebook is the biggest social network on the web, both in terms of recognition and total number of users. With nearly 1.8 billion users, Facebook is a great media for connecting people from all over the world and can positively or negatively affect companies (Guide, 2017). Further on another social media that KFC uses is twitter. With twitter short texts can be shared of 140 characters or less with the combination of videos, images, links polls and some other options.

KFC can easily interact with users by mentioning usernames and re-twitting posts. Therefore, twitter is a great way to interact and quickly state your point all around the world (Kallas, 2017). Instagram is another platform that more artistic niches take place and may not be the best fit for every business however KFC advertisements have artistic background therefore instagram is a very good method of promotion. In addition to social media another key media is TV however it is an expensive method of advertisement therefore due to the fact that it attracts different age groups it has an effect on consumers.

KFC can use TV advertisements through Netflix as it is going to interact with the target audience which is young professionals and teenagers. In addition to these, the company also uses print media to market their products, they use the newspapers or magazines to advertise what they offer and their services. The print media is appropriate for those who cannot have time to watch the online adverts and those who cannot access the electronic media.

Media objectives:

Over 40% of the chicken products sales come from the students. The goal of this campaign is to increase the chicken sales by 30 % among the students. The company will reach over 10 million in 200 markets using social media and print media.

The company will launch the campaigns in September with the television at a level of 400 GRPS which is the best level for launching new campaigns. The media campaigns include social media, magazines and newspapers. The company will launch these promotional campaigns in the month of November in all the leading markets.

The use of Facebook as a campaign media helped in gaining more audience since facebook users always use it every day thus increasing the frequency of how much the product is viewed. The company can reach several people with one advert on Facebook thus it lowers the frequency with the audience.

To increase the market share by 10%

In terms of market share, McDonald’s is ahead of KFC in the globe market. A survey on which fast food chain provides the best burger and fries concluded that 34% of the respondents noted that they prefer McDonald’s and 10% choose KFC (Lang, & Heasman 2015). On burgers, KFC was the most preferred choice with 15% followed by McDonald’s at 10%.  When it comes to globe market share of the MacDonald’s takes the lead with a market share of 17% followed by KFC with 10.8% (Lang, & Heasman, 2015).

KFC should focus on increasing market share to become a leader in the global market share. The company intends to attract teenagers and young adults who are the main fast food consumers.  The marketing campaign should increase market share by 10% to put KFC ahead of McDonald’s and make it the leading fast food company in the globe.

To increase awareness about KFC products on burgers, and fried chicken

KFC must create awareness about products it is offering. Market analysis indicates that Starbucks and McDonalds have managed to make products known around the globe. KFC must generate interest in their products mainly the teenagers and adults.  The marketing campaign will focus on creating awareness and improving KFC brand awareness in the globe.

Increasing awareness means that more people will get to know the brand or never forget about it thus customers will be kept informed about new products that are arising the market and products that are already in the menu. This can also help the company through the word of mouth. By keeping the customers informed, this might lead to people talking about the brand and this can positively affect the company.

To create brand loyalty

KFC campaign aims at retaining 80% of the target market. In the past, KFC has employed various media marketing strategies that have increased the market share, but this time the company will also be looking for a way to retain market share. They will heavily rely on using various forms of media to reach this objective. The marketing campaign will focus on showing the customer experience and explaining to customers why they should continue visiting KFC. The marketing campaign will introduce KFC loyalty cards which will be used to reward customers who visit KFC many times.

Target Audience specification:

Target audience are young teens and adults at the age of 16-28. Those people are the ones that grew up in an electronics-filled and increasingly online and socially-networked world. They are the generation that has received the most marketing attack/attention from huge firms, medium and small ones (Anon, 2017). In addition to that young adults-professionals and teenagers spend a lot of time during the day on social media and online platforms such as Netflix and thus KFC would have the ability to sustain the interest and attract the attention of them.

Further to that young generation depend on social media because it’s their communication method, and also it’s the place where they share their opinions, posts and pictures about everyday life. However, young generation receives every day huge amount of advertisement on social media therefore KFCs advertisement has to be considered as friendly and enjoyable by the young generation in order to take it into consideration.

The target audience are mostly female non- vegetarian who have money to spend on our delicacies. Most of these people are working and may not have time to prepare meals at home. They are people who mostly dwell in the urban centres and families who may sometimes decide to go out for a treat. Another target group is that f students who mostly buy lunch from restaurants since they are not in a position to make their lunch due to little time or lack of interest.

Media mix and supporting rationale:

Media mix uses various communication channels to achieve the marketing objectives. Using a combination of media channels enables accompany to effectively communicate products. An effective media mix ensures that the right message gets to the right audience (Babin, & Zikmund, 2015). In marketing, a company identifies the target market. For instance, the main strategy audience for KFC is the young adults and teenagers. It is important to use media mix to ensure that the company reaches a maximum number of the target market.

An effective marketing mix aligns with buying stage of the consumers. Once a company creates rawness of products it must convince consumers to make the buying decision.  For instance, KFC can create awareness by placing an advert on movies but can further influence the buying decision by providing detailed information about products in the fast food magazines.

The main media channel that KFC will use is placing advertisements on various Netflix movies. The channels will be used to reach global consumer since Netflix is online television that is watched by consumers around the globe. KFC will use social media to market products. The company will establish interactive shows on YouTube to provide young people with an opportunity to ask questions about the products. The company will increase presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, and Twitter. It will use fun video and photos to attract young people to read posts about the company and attract many people to like the pages as well. The social media will be an effective way of reaching out to young adults and teenagers. Research indicates that young adults and teenagers are likely to access the social media at least once per day (Babin, & Zikmund, 2015).

.           The company can further use mobile phones to text young people and communicate with them directly on announcement and offers. Research indicates that the young people like texting hence the company can use texts to further influence the purchasing decisions of the young adults and teenager (Pelsmacker, & Kitchen, 2014). The use of print media like the magazines and the newspapers will also attract the customers to the restaurant.

These types of media were selected since they were the best that could fit the company’s requirement. Television is effective since many people can access it and it can also make also help in creating awareness among the target group and lure them into buying the products. The print media like the magazines are appealing to the eye and thus can attract people to read it hence make the target group learn more about KFC and visit the restaurant.

The magazines also give reasons why the people should try the products and this arouses their interest in buying the products. Social media is a platform used by many people therefore the company will be in a position to reach several people at the same time. Through likes from the available customers and their positive comments, the target group will have the urge to have a taste of what the others are praising thus increasing the customers hence increase in revenue.

Media schedule:

Scheduling is used to show the patterns of time in which advertisements will run. Scheduling is used to allocate time slots to ensure that an advertisement reaches the target audience. There are three main models of scheduling that are used in advertising continuity, flighting and pulsing. Continuity model is used for advertisements that run throughout the year (Licciardello, 2013). The flighting model advertises products in intervals. For instance, advertisements activities are increased during the season that the demand for the products is increasing.

The pulsing model employs the continuity and flighting schedule aspects. KFC will make use of the pulsing model. It will use heavy advertisement during the peak period.  KFC will make use of heavy advertisements such as placing adverts on movies during peak periods such as festive period but also use social media and high school media to advertise products through the year.

In Addition to that the advertisement on Netflix will also be played at the KFCs website after a few weeks’ time. It has been decided to exclude August from the time table as it is a holiday period for most of the people plus students therefore the respond during that period would have been low. The adverts will be launched in September when the students resume school since they comprise of the largest population among the target groups.

Timeline

Activity                                               Time                                          Frequency

Launching of television campaigns   September-December 2017        Weekly

Launching of internet ads                   January- February      2018         Daily

Launching of newspaper ads               March                        2018         Weekly

Magazine Launching                           April                          2018         Monthly

Media Schedule Time Table

Budget allocation:

The company will mainly use three channels of advertising the social media, supporting high school football and advertising on Netflix. The estimated average cost of advertising using the Twitter is 2325 British Pound per month, and Facebook is 1940. British Pound per month (Percy, 2015). The average price of advertising on Netflix is 270 pounds per advertisement. However, the costs of advertising on Netflix will vary depending on the duration of time the advertisements will take place and on the shows that the company chooses. The budget allocations are indicated in the table below

The company estimates that the average cost of advertising on Netflix is 270 pounds per advertisement. The company plans to introduce advertisement that will run for one minute and the advertisement will be played on the most popular shows such as The House of Cards. The company has budgeted 9million pounds to run advertisements. The estimated cost of advertising on Facebook and Twitter per month is 4255 pounds. Since it will run for 10 weeks and the total cost is 51180 pounds. The company intends to contribute 450thousand pounds to support high school football.

Media Evaluation:

Media evaluation determines the effectiveness of the media tools that are used by a company. Media evaluation determines if the media that was used to communicate the message was effective in getting the message to the target audience. KFC will make use qualitative and quantitative media evaluation to measures the effectiveness of campaign (Christensen, 2015).

KFC is the biggest chicken company in the whole world; this is as a result of the consumers’ satisfaction and hence came back for more goods from the restaurant. The employees are also satisfied with their jobs because they get good salaries. The employees should be made happy since it results in better performance and productivity among them. The company also considers corporate social responsibility to the community; this has also resulted to the company’s success.

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