We can see McDoanald’s everywhere in Vancouver today; however, it took me half an hour to find a KFC store to get their fried chicken. It is obvious that the McDonald’s is probably the most popular fast food resturant in Vancouver.  However, as a person living in China for 20 years, I would say KFC in China is doing a much better job in terms of marketing than it is in here.  In fact, the number of KFC chains  is no less than those of McDonald’s, and the biggest  competitor of the McDonald’s in Chinese market is KFC.

Therefore, here I’d like to talk about the marketing strategies that KFC applied according to Chinese market.  First of all, they do know their customers.  At the beginning, KFC spend large amount of money on advertizing as McDonald’s did.  Unfortunately, they weren’t able to compete with McDonald’s.  McDonald’s had been widely accepted by Chinese people, but KFC didn’t do well (although KFC stepped into Chinese market earlier).  The reason why they almost reversed the situation is that they seem to know their customers better .  They understand that they are facing Chinese people who can not simply be satisfied by fried chicken and burgers. From then on, the menu of KFC has been getting updated frequently.  They provide roasted chicken wings instead of fried ones.  Their New Orlean roasted wings have been the most popular dish in KFC.  Later, they created their own burger called New Orlean roasted chicken leg burger, which became their another best seller.  Such new dishes that  hit right on Chinese people’s taste brought KFC to the level where McDonald’s spend large amount of money and time to achieve.  I would say, as a Chinese international student, I miss the KFC in China=(.

image sources: http://image.baidu.com/

Chinese Fried Fritters     New Orlean roasted wings