KFC is wholly owned subsidiary and a chain of fast food stations founded in 1930 by Harland Sander. It’s headquarter is based in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Its franchises got operational in 1957. The company has become a brand of Yum Brands.Inc in 1997, which is the largest food chain around the globe. Now KFC is focusing on the chicken items like fried chicken, grilled chicken and southern related foods.
Strengths
• Brand Equity is the major strength of the company.
• It is second largest fast food sellers in the world, first being McDonalds.
• Recognized and experienced all over the world and have strong markets in UK, Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico and Middle East.
• KFC franchises and licensing fees earn huge revenue for the company.
• Secret and trade mark of the recipes had maintained its supremacy in the fast food world.
• The company is holding over 50% shares in the fast food industry because of its global brand recognition.
• The company has deep concerns to hygiene, availability of the fresh products to the customer and establishing the environment friendly approach.
• Profits of the company increases by almost $ 1 billion each year.
Weaknesses
• Least concerned about the importance of research and development industry.
• Quality comprise on few of its franchises that is harming the brand name and its image.
• Inflexibility of prices makes it unaffordable to middle class people.
• Unequal entrance of the franchises to different markets at one time especially in United States has tremendously decreased its growth rate.
• Unable to work out for their original ideas, the thick paper bags used by the company were initiated by Wendy’s restaurant.
Opportunities
• Entrapping and tempting the young customer between 18 to 24 years of age.
• Reliability of the chicken meat used as the people are scared of diseases from eating cow’s meat internationally.
• Replacing home meals very speedily.
• Increased and efficient services specially home delivery and office orders.
• Updating the restraints with facilities like play stations for kids, LCD’s and booking the outlets for parties.
• Induction of new products other than chicken including fish in almost all the items in which chicken is present, corns, salads etc, in fact the whole menu is balanced and attracts the customers considerably.
• Trying to position itself strongly in the markets of South America, with a view of increasing market value as well as share.
Threats
• High rates on the prices as compared to the other brands selling same items may cause the customer’s shift.
• Less economical packages and deals are being offered in comparison of its biggest competitor McDonalds, which work on the strategy of seasonal induction of tempting deals.
• Shift of customer demand to more healthy and fresh food, avoiding the all fried items.
• Less variety of products pose a threat to the company, as they have very few products other than their portfolio” Fried chicken”.
References
• Official Website. http://www.kfc.com/. Online retrieved on March 25, 2011.
• Jenifer K. Nii (2004). "Colonel’s landmark KFC is mashed". Deseret Morning News. Retrieved online from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595057690/Colonels-landmark-KFC-is-mashed.html.
• Lebhar-Friedman. (2001). "KFC taps ‘Seinfeld’ star, starts ‘Wing Works’ test". Nation’s Restaurant News.
• "KFC bolsters security – for secret recipe". (September 9, 2008). CNN Money.
• Poundstone, William (1983). Big Secrets: The Uncensored Truth About All Sorts of Stuff You are Never Supposed to Know. New York: Morrow. pp. 228 pages.
• Ritzer, George (2004). The McDondaldization of Society. New York: Pine Forge Press. p. 64.