Consumer Behavior | EssayIvy.com

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Consumer Behavior

Across the globe, consumers of different products and services undertake different

actions in the market place. There are underlying motives for these actions. Marketers have a

noble course to determine how well to avail the products and services to the consumers meaning

they have to interpret what makes the consumers buy a particular product (Hawkins). A clear

understanding of which products are needed in the market, which is obsolete and, how the

consumers want them is critical as it aids in delivering consumers taste to the market place.

Consumer behaviour, therefore, is scanning and observing how consumers make their decisions

about what they need, desire and want. How they go about their buying, using and disposing of is

an acquired habit.

Having a look at MacDonald’s and KFC's market penetration approach into the China

market, it’s clear that the two giant firms were looking for an effective way to leverage their core

business for growth. However, it calls for an accurate and informed assessment of the chosen

approach to support the growth opportunity failure to which a company can bog down due to a

bad bet of an entry strategy (Solomon).

KFCs approach was a forward gear that made the firm win a higher percentage of the

market share. Rethinking its usual model and went far into localising its products. The main idea

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was creating a brand with Chinese characteristics to be perceived as Chinese. Expanded rapidly

into Chinese cities, training employees in service and owning rather than franchising were other

radical elements embodied in their approach. Dozens of outlets were opened every year, and

KFC became part of the community and picked pace even further by taking four to six months to

bring a new restaurant which was half the time taken in the home market, United States. The

rapid penetration even into the smallest cities kept them ahead of the pack running more than 700

outlets in the host country.

On the other hand, MacDonald’s adopted their home format in their globalisation move

into the Chinese market. The Big Mac was reluctant to rethink their model and thus wanted to

sell their American lifestyle. By retaining their home model, they offered the same menus and

allowed franchising. Main targets and concentration were big cities unlike their giant competitor

KFC.

Through the above explicit comparisons of the two company’s globalisation strategy,

there is a clear judgement between them. Any fast food company pursuing a global expansion

can prefer adopting hosts country’s distribution model rather than an approach used in the home

country (Nelson). China is a place where KFC exceeds MacDonald’s due to appropriate

surveying and understanding cross-cultural management. KFC in their approach occupies a

handful of advantages and is thus more suitable.

To avoid a business falling wayside and being hit hard, a fast food company intending to

enter India can choose to modify and soften its brand to fit the local exciting and promising

Indian market just like KFCs did it in China. Adapting a local model is a penetration booster in

many ways (Johnson).

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Firstly, adopting a local lifestyle and grooming the fast-food company as a local make the

company look like a local entity in the eyes of many. Indians will appreciate a company that

matches their preferences regarding culture and lifestyle. Delivering their taste would be an

excellent business positioning in Indian consumers.

Secondly, this particular approach guarantees fast entry and penetration. Rapid expansion

like that adopted by KFC is vital. Winning numbers and significant market share calls for

genuinely making a customer come back tomorrow or another day with a new lead. The

modification of brand to suit the customers taste in menus, appearances of stores and outlets with

the local customer in mind results in acceptance of the similar outlets in most of the Indian cities.

Thirdly, just like KFC China, becoming part of the community with local cultural

characteristics paves the way for a variety of firsthand experience with local markets. Having the

employees trained on serving a community and having local managers onboard not only

guarantees the creation of an organisation that lasts but also a quicker sales with long term

presence. For instance in India, a team that already understand their market, town, cities and

culture way much better than anybody else is an advantage.

For a fast food company, a sure to win strategy into the Indian market must be backed

with a clear understanding of the host’s consumer behaviour trend accompanied by other market

penetration factors. India has a population of more than 1 billion people. There exist plenty of

defined and isolated cultures of all religions and communities present in the sizeable nation.

Such include India’s languages, food, religion, architecture, music, and customs that differ from

place to place within the nation — not forgetting the socio-political stratification in the Indian

society and India’s ethnography that involves a caste system setting. The rapid growth of the

country’s per capita income is a crude indicator of promising prosperity of the country. A new

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fast food entrant can not overlook psychological factors revolving around the perception, beliefs,

and attitude held by the Indians. The above essential and proved elements are more likely to

affect the consumer behaviour of the Indian community.

In conclusion, KFC and MacDonald’s adopted different expansion strategies into China.

KFC's tremendous success was due to realizing the distinctiveness of the market and emphasis

on the local customers and the environment in China. Similarly, in the Indian market, it’s a

combination of informed localization, understanding the local culture, intelligent pricing

mechanisms, fruitful consumer education and a menu that soundly appeals well to the ever-

changing Indian consumer preferences in foodstuffs that would guarantee any fast food company

a legendary success like that of KFC China.

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Works Cited

Hawkins, Del I., and David L. Mothersbaugh. Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy.

Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin,, 2010.

Johnson, Joseph, and Gerard J. Tellis. "Drivers of success for market entry into China and

India." Journal of marketing 72.3 (2008): 1-13.

Khan, Matin A. Consumer behaviour and advertising management. New Age International,

2007.

Nelson, Phillip. "Information and consumer behavior." Journal of political economy 78.2 (1970):

311-329.

Solomon, Michael R., et al. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Vol. 10. London:

Pearson, 2014.

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