Marketing secret war between McDonald's and KFC

McDonald's and KFC, two natural competitors, will inevitably have intersection, competition and infighting, and there will be comparisons and judgments that consumers can't stop.

Nowadays, McDonald's and KFC, the two global fast food giants, have jumped out of the simple price war in the catering industry, developed new products according to their own positioning, expanded the market, and the strategic differences in the competition have become obvious.

In the eyes of consumers, they are natural competitors. No matter how innovative the marketing means are, there will inevitably be intersection, competition and infighting, and there will be comparisons and judgments that consumers can't stop. In the fast-growing China market, the two catering giants have launched a secret war on marketing methods such as public relations and localization.

Accelerate the crisis response and secretly catch up with the opponent.

As early as the beginning of September, people began to see the TV advertisements of McDonald's launching the national kitchen open day on CCTV and major TV media in China. Mr. Deng Yaoguang, Chief Operating Officer of McDonald's (China) Co., Ltd. personally went out to publicize the contents of the Open Day in an advertisement.

For the purpose of this behavior, McDonald's did not clearly explain it in the press release to the media, only saying that "this educational activity not only enabled customers to deepen their understanding of McDonald's food cooking and kitchen operation processes through seeing is believing, but also more vividly demonstrated McDonald's unremitting efforts to communicate with consumers through transparent measures."

Although McDonald's avoided talking about the crisis, it repeatedly emphasized its responsibility for food safety and transparent communication with the public in its press release.

If opening the kitchen belongs to crisis public relations, then this crisis public relations has been done quickly and successfully: unified propaganda caliber, a large number of disposable disinfection clothes, rigorous registration, audit, visit and explanation procedures, and busy but not chaotic. Nearly 5000 customers from more than 90 restaurants in Beijing market (including McDonald's restaurants in Langfang, Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan markets) participated in the open day visit. According to this calculation, the number of customers in more than 680 stores nationwide exceeds 35,000. And this is only 15 days from the North American French fries storm. McDonald's rapid response is very different from the Sudan Red incident a few months ago. Today is different from the past. Whether it is the kitchen open day or the announcement of nutritional ingredients in all restaurants at the end of September, McDonald's has quietly changed from "vigorous" in the Sudan Red incident to "moist and silent" in the infiltration of food safety.

In contrast, KFC's public relations to solve the crisis has repeatedly "saved the day". For example, in June last year, KFC released the White Paper on China KFC's Healthy Food Policy, which took three years to make when it opened a store 1000, so as to gradually eliminate the bad impression of Chinese people on foreign fast food; In February last year, when the avian flu broke out, we started the crisis public relations in advance, and held simultaneous press conferences in major cities across the country, promising the society that "KFC chicken is absolutely safe to eat". At the same time, a series of perfect emergency plans are adopted, involving suppliers, inventory, transportation and cooking.

Localization marketing competition

This Mid-Autumn Festival, KFC made a lot of publicity on mainstream TV stations, light box advertisements and in-store billboards, comparing the shape of its egg tarts to less than full moon, and launched 20 gift boxes containing egg tarts. Egg tart is a product that KFC had before. This move is packaged with traditional festivals in China. The simplified promotion of "changing the soup without changing the medicine" has reduced the cost and achieved good results.

Localization marketing is a common killer of KFC. Since the mid-1990s, KFC has declared that it wants to build a brand for China people that meets the needs of China people. In 2000, KFC invited more than 40 national food nutrition experts and established the "China KFC Food Health Advisory Committee" to develop products suitable for China people and promote product diversification. With the release of old Beijing chicken rolls, Ruyi salad, breakfast porridge, egg rolls, pork tenderloin, egg hamburgers and other local products, related packaging, publicity and promotion activities followed.

KFC invested a lot of money in the mass media for localization, and even replaced the pad paper in the tray for this purpose. The differences between traditional foreign fast food and its new fast food in nutritional composition and product taste can be seen everywhere. A clenched fist is set off against a dark yellow background, and the lower line is marked with the initials "Change for China, Create New Fast Food".

Different from KFC's localized marketing style, McDonald's marketing activities give people the impression of being long-term and systematic.

On September 1 day, McDonald's started the activity of "student ID card for student discount card". From September 1 to February 28th next year, all students can get a discount card that can be used until February 28th next year (one semester). It is understood that this activity is a "traditional program" of McDonald's over the years. In addition, McDonald's "365-day Excellent Value Selection" campaign has lasted for one year since last year, among which Maixiang Chicken 10 yuan original price 5 yuan, half of the price reduction space won the hearts of the people; Seasonal promotional activities (red mung bean paste drink last summer and "brand new summer ice dessert series" launched this summer) have also been welcomed by consumers, and even after the activities, there are still consultations. McDonald's is well-planned in its promotional activities. "Summer iced dessert series" is very similar to "selling music and cooling" all the year round in composition and taste. Perhaps it is precisely because of the fierce sales of "Selling le cool" that the "Summer Frozen Dessert Series" was launched.

Image positioning "suitable for all ages"

In everyone's impression, the elegant and smiling Colonel with white beard has become a symbol of KFC's gentle image, which is consistent with its position in the consumption of family members' warm and reunion atmosphere; Uncle McDonald dressed up as a cartoon and sat on a bench with his legs crossed, attracting more children and young people.

Today, this image has been strongly deepened by the two giants. The slogan "More choices, more laughter, all in McDonald's" has given way to "I like it". Two years ago, McDonald's held brand promotion meetings in 120 countries around the world, and vigorously promoted the "rolling passion" marketing plan with five advertisements as pioneers. "McDonald's should invest heavily in shaping its young brand image," McDonald's executives said. "Forever young" should become the brand promise of McDonald's. The industry believes that this means that McDonald's has extended the traditional positioning of children and families to the younger generation with more consumption potential. The direct strategic intention of this behavior is to re-strengthen the brand characteristics of McDonald's unified quality and fast service. At Christmas and other important festivals, some shops enhance the image of young people by issuing free heart-shaped cards.

During the Spring Festival of KFC, the white-bearded "Grandpa KFC" changed the classic image of "suit and tie" on weekdays, and put on the traditional festive costumes of China in 800 restaurants in more than 70 cities across the country/Kloc-0, which strengthened the warm and harmonious atmosphere of the family and incorporated a lot of festive and peaceful elements into the store layout.