International Marketing Mix

International Marketing Mix
Name
Institution

Introduction
Many business organizations are expanding into new foreign markets due to globalization and advance technology. Such organizations are often faced with the challenge of whether to standardize or adapt the core parts of their marketing mix. Cultural impact on consumer demand and purchasing behavior is imperative for different products in the international market. Therefore, international markets should evaluate the cultural impact on their business organization before rolling outs its business in the international market. Culture refers to the learned customs, beliefs, and values that impact on consumer behavior in a nation (Magnusson et al., 2013). Standardization, on the other hand, refers to developing consistent depiction of all the aspects of a product. Such as the product name, quality, packaging, and materials used in spite of the location around the globe. It is of dire importance that global marketers consider all cultural elements when developing a product, product promotion, and implementing distribution networks in the international market.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is one of the biggest fast food chain stores whose primary product is fried chicken. The company is considered as the largest fast food restaurant when measured using system units: the company has about 38,000 restaurants across the globe in more than 100 nations and regions. The company offers chicken pieces, roasted and grilled chicken, Salads, Wraps and Sandwiches. On the global platform, KFC also incorporates beef based products such as hamburgers and kebabs, pork & Poutine based products. In the Southeast Asian Market, the business also serves fish recipes. The company uses product diversification strategy suited depending on the market segmentation (Gera, 2012). By and large, Kentucky Fried Chicken employs standardization strategy by ensuring that their products and services are best suited to the local context in terms of culture, religions, traditional customs, and laws. Kentucky Fried Chicken is planning to open a new restaurant in Mumbai India to offer to its core products and at the same time explore new vegetarian products. . Therefore, this report is used to develop a marketing mix that can be adapted when launching the new restaurant and during the day to day running daily operations.
Indian Cultural Context
Cultural values manifest themselves in multifaceted ways. Rituals, symbols, heroes and societal values impact on people’s attitude towards a new product in the market (Roman & Russell, 2014). Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) should, therefore, consider cultural values of Indians before launching a new restaurant in Mumbai. The company’s marketing strategy mix should be tailored to suit the Indian cultural values and norms in every aspect such as products offered the style of service, and architecture of the restaurant. It is imperative to note that Indian tastes and preferences are heavily influenced by cultural choices, traditions, values, and religion (Aloia et al., 2013). Indian cuisines vary significantly from one region to another. However, Indians utilize available local vegetables, fruits, spices, and herbs. Some of the key meals enjoyed by Indians include wheat, Basmati rice, and Bengal gram (pulses with Chana). Most of the Indians in Mumbai are vegetarians. Conversely, for the non-vegetarians, lamb and chicken is common in their diet.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Marketing Mix for Launching a New Restaurant in Mumbai
Citizens living in India are religious and follow religion and traditional customs seriously. In Indian religion, a cow is a sacred animal signifying peace and has raised mixed feelings regarding consumption of beef. Religion also restricts some Hindus from consuming pork meat. As such, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) should develop a marketing mix strategy that suits customer preferences in India.
To develop an effective marketing mix strategy that suits consumer behavior in India, KFC should reflect on the following factors. That is; understanding broad cultural values when opening a new restaurant, pertinent motivations in the Indian culture. On the Same note, KFC should evaluate promotion methods that are appropriate for Indian Cultures and finally, determine characteristic forms of decision making (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012).
It is imperative that Kentucky Fried Chicken develop a marketing strategy for launching its product in Mumbai. Marketing mix strategy assists a company to come up with a coherent plan for launching a product and running the new venture until the trade break heaven. Kentucky global success is attributed to product diversification strategy aimed at developing products that fit specific market according to market segmentation (Kaynak & Herbig, 2014). Kentucky Fried Chicken achieves this objective through the development of standardization strategies to automatically translate new culture to local people in terms of products and services. Once an enterprise identifies a new market, it has to create a marketing mix that appeals specifically to the new market. For Mumbai market, KFC has to adapt to local customs and religion.
Products
The new restaurant in Mumbai should offer a variety on the menu for patrons to select what they prefer. The items in the menu should be tailored in accordance to customers taste and preferences, cultural values, and Indian food culture. The new KFC restaurant should incorporate Chicken Tikka, Kebab, All in one Veggie, Veg Zinger, and Veggie Snacker, fried potato wings, filafil burger, and a veggie burger with cheese. The menu should incorporate more vegetable items compared to chicken items. The new KFC restaurant should avoid using beef and pork when preparing burgers because of cultural norms and beliefs that hinder Indians from consuming beef and pork products (Gera, 2012). The cuisines prepared should also be spicier, and the menu items should be divided into vegetarians and non-vegetarian Items.
Promotion
For promotion to be effective in India, the marketing strategy adopted should use the traditional approach such as print media, radio advertisements, and televisions. Kentucky marketing strategy often uses marketing channels such as point of sale display, advertising, merchandising, loyalty schemes, and sales promotion. The medium used by the restaurant to encompass radio and television, magazines and newspapers and the use of internet marketing. Words chosen to produce audio adverts should be carefully selected and spoken in local dialect or with a Hindu accent as a way of identifying with the society (Fletcher & Crawford, 2013). The company should use beautiful Hindi women dressed in their traditional silk dresses when making advertisements. Images of traditional women and men should be utilized when creating posters and visual advertisements so as to identify KFC brand with the cultural values and beliefs of the inhabitants of Mumbai (Naina Mohamed et al., 2012).
The primary objective of the promotion should be to popularize KFC menu items prepared with local spices, accepted meat, and acceptable products. Such as basmati rice, and vegetable products like ‘veg Zinger’ and ‘Veggie Snacker.’
Price
Pricing a product is important as it determines the demand for the product as well as the proceeds obtain from the business operations. Before determining the price of a product, it is paramount to reflect on all the cost incurred and customers’ perception of value. The Indian population is made up of a large number of low class and middle-class people (Taneja et al., 2012). Therefore, KFC should consider customer perception of value and all the costs incurred such as promotion and advertisement costs. The company should also collect feedback from various customers so as to understand customer demands and make an improvement on their pricing and products offered.
Therefore, the best pricing strategy for the new restaurant in Mumbai is price segmentation. This implies that KFC should fix a different price for the different market segment. The new restaurant price should adopt prime value product because most of the citizen in Mumbai is of middle-class.
Place
A place refers to the location where the client will avail himself to receive a service or the product offered by an organization. For a restaurant, it is paramount to select a strategic place. The position for a restaurant should be conveniently placed in such a way that it is easily accessible to the clients. A restaurant ought to be spacious and in a serene environment perfect for taking meals. For Kentucky, a place is not only the location for serving and distribution their products but also the management and processes involved in conveying the products to the clients (Hejnas et al., 2012).
As such, the new Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mumbai should be located in a central location. It should be placed near auxiliary industries such as banks, hospitals, shopping malls and other busy organization that serves a lot of customers on a daily basis. This strategic positioning of the KFC will ensure that the new restaurant is easily reached by as many customers as possible. The architecture of the building to be selected should be designed to depict Indian culture in every aspect. It should also have enough parking space enough for customers to park their vehicle and enter the restaurant for to explore the wide variety in the menu. The utensils used for serving customers should also be cultural with beautiful drawings of flowers as Indians have a soft spot for beautiful and decorated items. Therefore, the new restaurant will be attractive to middle-class clients living in Mumbai.
Recommendation
KFC multinational outlets are adapted to the geographical need of the customers. The company adopted product diversification strategy when entering new markets. Different KFC outlets have almost similar features but are tailor made to suit local customer and the cultural norms of the society. Therefore, Kentucky Fried Chicken should develop a marketing mix strategy that is specifically suited to Mumbai. The items in the menu should contain KFC’s core meals such as fried chicken but prepared using ingredients that are in line with the cultural and social values of people living in Mumbai.
The new KFC restaurant should use self-service concept when serving their customers. The customers can make an order at the counter, pay for the purchased products, collect the meal and dine in the restaurant or take away and consume the delicacies at home. The new restaurant should be built and decorated in the original KFC format. However, the decorations should be customers to suit the cultural values of the citizens living in Mumbai. This feature is paramount in maintaining the organization’s brand and at the same time fit into the cultural perspective of the people inhabiting Mumbai.
Kentucky Fried Chicken should also choose a suitable location for the new restaurant to be placed in Mumbai. The new hotel should be located in a strategic location in busy streets with bubbling activities. For instance, near supermarkets, shopping malls, or banks. It is also critical that the chosen location have a good parking space to permit customers to park their vehicles and procure food from the restaurant. Also, the new KFC restaurant should employ cheerful and professional natives to work in the restaurant especially the waiters and cashiers as a way of identifying with the society. Having a cheerful workforce will enable the new restaurant to attract more customers by utilizing good customer relationship strategies.
Kentucky Fried Chicken has achieved success in exploring the international market through standardization and adaptation strategy. The Company kept its American style but made certain changes to adapt to the Indian culture through adaptation. Adaptation is important when developing a marketing mix for foreign markets to accommodate cultural differences, fulfill client taste and preferences. Therefore, a company must develop a marketing mix that specifically meets the local culture and customer requirements. For instance, Kentucky Fried Chicken has to adjust items in the menu for the new restaurant in Mumbai. To include; local vegetables and a lot of spices as compared to China market, which the products are less spicy. Kentucky excluded beef in their menu for the new Mumbai restaurant due to religious beliefs that restrict customers from consuming beef products. On other places like Pakistan, KFC excluded pork in its menu since Islamic people do not consume pork meat.
In conclusion, the success of KFC in exploring new markets is because of the company’s ability to identify and make necessary changes to meet customer needs. In the U.S. for instance, Kentucky Fried Chicken uses chicken, burgers, beef, pork and fish with less spice. However, in Mumbai KFC menu items is more vegetarian including All in one Veggie, Veg Zinger and Veggie Snacker, fried potato wings, filafil burger, and a veggie burger with cheese. KFC adopted market segmentation in Mumbai in their pricing strategies. Finally, KFC uses traditional print media for promoting its goods and services in Mumbai to win more potential customers.

References
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