If you’re a franchise with truly global reach, sometimes you succeed beyond your wildest expectations in a land very different from the one you started in.
That’s the case for KFC, which is a mid-level player here in the United States. Everybody loves fried chicken—including me—and it’s not like they’re hurting for sales.
What you can’t say for KFC is that they have become a holiday tradition in America. But they have in Japan, where it is the traditional family meal at Christmas. You cannot possibly make this up:
The story goes that in the early 1970s, a western man residing in Japan decided to get KFC’s fried chicken for Christmas, the closest substitute to his childhood turkey he could find at that time.This one customer must have made quite an impression because the following year KFC Japan started a country-wide Christmas campaign, which since then has tied it to the Christmas culture of Japan.
No other company had thus influenced the public’s Christmas habits since cake-maker Fujiya brought in the “Christmas Cake” in the 1920s. But while Fujiya’s cakes had to be made to match Japanese sensibilities, KFC’s chickens are exactly the same as how Colonel Sanders imagined them. And the Japanese just dig it.
How did an American fast food company hit a home run in a country known for its healthier cuisine, a cuisine based heavily around pork, seafood and rice? Not by changing the recipe of their famous fried chicken, but by understanding the country’s demographics and using smart marketing.
For one, they watch how family compositions are changing. In the 1970s, the eight-piece Christmas bucket for four people was the most popular. But today, families have become smaller and Christmas has become an event to spend with your significant other, rather than with the family. So KFC started selling a two-person set last year which proved to be a hit.
They often add new specialties to their menu, too. Their Premium Roasted Chicken menu, which started a few years ago at a whopping price of almost $75, sells out every year without even having to be heavily promoted.
That lack of heavy promotion may actually work for them, because people just don’t like heavily commercialized holidays. The fact that this has been built up over nearly 40 years and has become a part of every family’s holiday season means a lot more than any jingle KFC can produce.
Your company may not quite have that global reach, but it’s worth remembering that you can get outside of your comfort zone on occasion and produce unexpectedly huge results. If you can take a low-risk gamble in another state, country or demographic than you usually reach, go for it. You could be the next KFC in Japan.
That’ll just about do it for us here at BizEngine today. If you’re enjoying KFC for your Christmas dinner, make sure you tell us about it. Happy Holidays, everyone!
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Photo credit to http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-17274089-kfc.php?st=9b0328a
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