Social and posts that are posted on the sites.

Topic: BusinessGoogle
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Last updated: August 3, 2019

Social Media Analysis of KFCExecutiveSummary            This analysisprovides an understanding into the social media presence for the second largestrestaurant chain, KFC. The outline of the restaurant KFC has been described inthis analysis to help understand its position in the food industry. The statusof the company on some of the most popular social media networking sites havebeen discoursed to evaluate the existence of the company in social media.

KFCand its competitors have been compared and analyzed explaining how differentrestaurants in the food industry utilize social media to interact with their customers.Based on this assessment, a SWOT analysis has been outlined to notate theopportunities, strengths, weaknesses and threats KFC faces regarding its socialmedia presence. Furthermore, the complete analysis highpoints an ethical issuethat may arise due to the KFC’s activities via social media. Lastly, aconclusion is drawn and scope for deeper research is measured based on theanalysis. Importanceof Social Media for the Food and Beverage Industry            CEO’s and other highly ranking executives of thenumerous food and beverage companies are realizing that social, digital andmobile technologies are hugely impacted by the growth, development and successof their businesses and have made a remarkable transition over the past fiveyears.

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According to Harvard Business Review, a recent analysis by their firm,Weber Shandwick, found that 80% of the chief executive officers of theworld’s largest 50 companies wereengaged online and on social media. The results, published in “Socializing YourCEO: From Marginal to Mainstream,” showed that CEOsociability has more than doubled since they began tracking the socialactivities of chief executives in 2010, when only 36% of CEOs were social(Gaines-Ross, 2015). Therefore, the industry’s top brands such as McDonald’s,KFC, and Starbuck’s are taking advantage of social media to mold localcommunities, discover new product ideas and gather customer feedback.            Social media is an effective communication tool and allowsKFC to interact with their customers by providing up to date information dailythrough their social media websites. Customers like to feel connected to therestaurants that they love, so social media helps with open communication onthe latest current events and offerings. If there is a new flavor or additionto the menu, they will know firsthand by the pictures and posts that are postedon the sites. Social media sites are popular this day and time, so consumersare more likely to correspond to the latest news rather than going directly tothe website itself. Customers can post on sites, review the restaurant and votefor the best item on the menu.

            Social media has created competition between the food andbeverage industry. This newest strategy has allowed change for businesses inhow they operate by increasing a vast growth in their business development. Acompany that does not utilize the new social marketing trends can risk losingtheir customer’s interest in their products. Since social media platforms arewidely used for positive word-of- mouth marketing, companies that use this toolcarefully help increase their chances of having efficient and non-confusingcampaigns and contests.  According to thejournal Maximize Social Media, “wordof mouth” from a marketing perspective is defined as: the passing ofinformation, hopefully beneficial to our brand, from one to another via oralcommunication.  The potential influential power that word of mouth haswhen it spreads is what marketers have always wanted to tap, so much so thatgiving people something to talk about has become one of the foundations ofmarketing and advertising (Schaffer, 2012). Profileof KFC            With the missionof selling food in a fast and friendly environment, KFC started the restaurantby selling chicken from the roadside and is now the second largest fast foodchain, with McDonald’s leading first. With over 20,500 outlets in more than 125countries, KFC is now the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain,specializing in the original recipe along with Extra Crispy chicken, home-style sides and buttermilk biscuits.

 KFCopens around three restaurants a week leading KFC with a current market valueof over $75 billion in revenue. KFC’sStatus on Social Media            A 2015 study by Brand Base, a marketing agency, revealedKFC to be one of the most socially engaging restaurants. The study alsoconfirms that KFC is successful in all social media ventures, especiallyFacebook and Twitter. The use of social media as part of the restaurant’smarketing strategy has significantly increased the brand awareness andcompetition over the last few years. KFC has been actively and aggressivelyusing the various social media platforms to promote their menu offerings,promotions, contests, new product launches and most importantly focusing on thefreshness and juiciness of their chicken compared to its competitors since 2011(Prabhakar, 2013).

            KFC is recognized on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,Pinterest, and YouTube to name a few. Kentucky Fried Chicken collaborated andcreated an aggressive social media approach by differentiating its company fromits competitors like: Popeye’s, Zaxby’s, Church’s Chicken and Chick-fil-A byusing social channels to answer its fans’ questions and provide real-timecustomer service promptly. KFC’s content on its social media platformselaborate on individual customers experience with the restaurant and its menuand offerings. Digital tools have helped KFC increase customer communicationand interaction and enhance their experiences to make things better.

Thestatistics that solidify KFC’s effective online presence are as follows:Facebook:49 Million Likes            The official pagefor KFC was created in 2009 starting with a tiny community of followers thateventually grew to become the largest social media site for KFC. The socialmedia site was created with the intention of educating customers about new itemson the menu, scholarship opportunities, and other fun events that were beingoffered by KFC. This idea was to help create open customer service feedback andreviews, allowing for better service, menu offerings and brand identity. Thiswebsite has more than 49 million likes and receives many likes, comments andreviews daily helping bridge the gap between KFC and its competitors.  Twitter:1.3 Million Followers            KFC’s agenda for having a Twitter page is to engage withpeople, provide feedback for enhancements, address issues of unhappy customers,and inform customers about new menu offerings, events, scholarshipopportunities, and contests. Since 2008, Twitter has allowed KFC to stayconnected with its customers on a more personal level.

KFC utilizes the mainTwitter page and has one “official” twitter account with only 11 followers. USAToday quotes, “We know KFC can do chicken right,but they’re pretty good at Twitter, too. The fried chicken restaurant follows 11 accounts on Twitter,and it’s an interesting bunch. Five accounts belong to each of The SpiceGirls: Geri Horner, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie C and VictoriaBeckham.

The other six are accounts of users with the first name Herb, includingGreen Bay Packers player Herb Waters and musician Herb Alpert. In case youhaven’t figured this out yet, that’s 11 “Herbs and Spices,” in honorof KFC’s secret fried chickenrecipe” (Molina, 2017). KFC focuses mainly on the funaspects of Twitter, but responds and solves conflicts. Many customers often wonderedwhy they only followed 11 people, so that became the “talk of the town” for awhile until all of that was resolved. Instagram: 1.2 MillionSubscribers             KFC surprisingly has an active presence on Instagram aswell.

The company uploads contests, new menu offerings, and pictures of the newfood being changed or added to the menu. Videos are also allowed to be uploadedvia Instagram so KFC takes full advantage and helps promotes their newest tvcommercials to the site also. Outlets around the world including internationallocations utilize this service and is posted in all various languages andcultures. Customers can tag their content related to KFC using the KFC hashtagand share for the rest of KFC’s followers.YouTube: 406 ThousandSubscribers            KFC utilizes this social media site by uploading theirlatest commercials and other fun content.

This site created in 2011, isutilized around the world and videos can also be uploaded in differentlanguages defending the culture behind KFC. There are videos outlining thecomplete history behind KFC and how it was started by Colonel Sanders, as wellas fun challenges by customers and KFC’s menu. For example, one video notates asmall child trying the different spices on chicken with her eyes closed andthen having to guess which spice corresponded with the chicken. People of all agescan partake in KFC’s social media presence- it can be a lot of fun! The uniquefeature of YouTube is that any subscriber can embed a video of their ownopinion of the restaurant, which can also be a disadvantage for the company.

Some videos also show where customers have complained about their food andwanted to post it for everyone to hear and see. KFC is adamant about respondingquickly and helping make things right. At the end of the day, it is all aboutcustomer service for this brand. After all, the customers are what keep therestaurant running!Pinterest: 10,000followers            Created in 2013, Similar to KFC’s approach to usingInstagram, the company’s approach using Pinterest is simple.

Both sites arebased on visual appearance, so their idea is to post pictures of yummy foodsthat look appealing, fresh and delicious; make your mouth water sort ofappealing. Again, customers can snap a picture of their own food that they haveordered around the world and upload to the site by using a hashtag. Other customerscan like the picture, or comment on the picture. Most times this creates a”must have” desire for other customers, so the marketing tool has beensuccessful. Customers also have the choice to “re-pin” these pictures under acertain board that they have created under their own personal account. Forexample, a person might re-pin a picture of the fresh biscuits uploaded undertheir “favorite foods” board to keep for themselves or to share for others tosee.Troubleson Social Media            Even though KFC ispopular on most social media sites, and most of its followers seem to be happycustomers, there is always the downside of negative controversy with anything.

The latest controversy in 2016 involved an Australian KFC restaurant chain. “Warning:Something hot and spicy is coming soon…..” was tweeted and many customers wereoutraged by this “sexual” remark, which was not even closely resemblinganything sexual. The reaction was immediate, with the definitely-NSFW postracking up more than 1300 retweets in an hour. This created accusations ofsexism, with one person saying the chain had “set women back 50 years”.

Some also suggested that KFC Australia would be on the hunt for a newsocial media manager soon. In a statement to News.com.au, KFC said: “This was agenuine tweet to launch KFC’s new Hot & Spicy chicken products next week.It was not intended to offend anyone and we’ve removed the image” (USA Today,2016). Obviously, the tweet was not intended to protrude an obscene scenetowards their customers, it was intended to promote their new “hot and spicy”chicken that was new to the menu.

Comparison of KFC and Its Competitorsin Terms of Their Social Media Presence             Chick-fil-a and Zaxby’s are the immediate competitorsof KFC in the food and beverage industry. Both Zaxby’s and Chick-fil-a have incorporatedmany social media sites to stay connected with their customers. Even thoughboth competitors engage in the same social media sites as their marketing toolsalso, they have lower fan following and subscribers (see table 1). Each restauranthas their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the restaurant andsocial media sites and all receive different attention matters. The gap betweenZaxby’s and Chick-fil-a notates a potential danger alert, but is an advantageto KFC. Both competitors are clearly missing points in relation to their socialmedia marketing according to the data retrieved in this analysis. A study byFranchise Chatter (2014) suggests that although Chick-fil-a has built a strong presenceon Twitter, it has failed to create a people-oriented image on Facebook becausethe company is allowing their customers to provide up to date information on theirevents and offerings instead of updating the news themselves. This leads to Instagramhaving more followers than Facebook because customers are uploading pictures oftheir food and shakes and hash tagging Chick-fil-a to give them credit.

A comparison of KFC and Its Competitorsin Terms of Their Social Media Presence in 2017Table 1            Social Networking Platforms KFC Chick-Fil-A Zaxby’s Facebook 48,488,489 million likes   7,987,239 million likes   1,355,930 million likes   Twitter 1,247,963 million followers   883,410 thousand followers 93,668 thousand followers   YouTube 405, 203 thousand subscribers 37,685 thousand subscribers 1,711 thousand subscribers Instagram 1,201,004 million followers   863,012 thousand followers   52,717 thousand followers Pinterest 16,388 thousand followers 7,450 thousand followers 1,701 thousand followers  SWOTAnalysis of KFC’s Social Media Presence            As the world’ssecond largest fast food restaurant, KFC has built a leading presence on socialmedia worldwide. It is imperative to evaluate, however, the effectiveness ofthe brand’s presence on social media must be assessed (see table 2).ASWOT Analysis of KFC’s Social Media PresenceTable2 Strengths Weaknesses ·       Is active on popular leading social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram ·       Has the capability to gather large number of likes, comments and shares from followers, users and customers ·       Has a large fan base that is engaged due to the history of the brand ·       Can modify and change designs to any social media sites- keeping the trend current with its competitors   ·       Has documented controversies on social media (especially Twitter) because of certain posts and comments.

Example: the “Hot and spicy” chicken release statement on Twitter. ·       Has no control over how many followers, fans or subscribers they have. They can only maximize their marketing strategy by how well their menu offerings are and how well they keep fun and engaging activities alive for their customers Opportunities Threats ·       Low competition from other competitors ·       Increasing number of social media fans and users ·       New developments and innovations: Example: The new 11 spices and herbs chicken that relates to “the spice girls” who are a widely known music group   ·       Users can dictate what they like, dislike, comment, review and share on social media sites ·       Competitors can view, monitor and engage in social media sites to keep their marketing strategies up to date with its fellow competitors ·       Aggressive contests by competitors ·       Future social media changes and structures  ASocial Media-Related Ethical Issue That KFC May Face            Ethics are imperative when managing a business becausedecisions made determine a company’s image and reputation. Moreover, a businessis to remain ethically correct especially since they are widely presented onsocial media sites. If KFC fails to follow ethical guidelines and code ofconduct, it can a create negative impact for their customers and eventually thecompany as a whole. One unethical issue that KFC may face as mentioned earlieris being careful with how they post comments on social media sites.

A customercan take one post the wrong way and immediately claim it is not compliant toethics code of conduct. Regardless of how innocent the post proves to be, allbusinesses alike must take into consideration how posts can negatively impacttheir customers.Conclusion            KFC has included technology based strategies to helpmarket and promote the growth of their business. As KFC continues to grow andexpand worldwide, social media will continue to adopt and offer the latesttrends. KFC’s marketing strategies continue to expand the growth of theirfollowers, fans and subscribers. This creates a plan that is effective for continuousgrowth to keep ahead of its competitors. KFC has saved money on their marketingbudget by utilizing social media websites and relying on their customers togive them high ratings.

            The comparison with its immediate opponents Chic-fil-aand Zaxby’s shows that KFC is highly popular on social media and proves thattheir customers are engaged in their offerings and contests. The brand hascreated a digital dialogue with its fans and customers allowing them to provideadequate feedback for growth. KFC is great for providing speedy resolutions toany dilemmas, so customers trust in KFC and their promises and commitments.This method will continue down a path of growth and development for the foodand beverage industry. Despite any future litigations and controversies, KFC isahead of their competitors.

In order for KFC to eventually become the numberone restaurant worldwide, they must continue to keep current with the latestsocial media trends and double check their ethically driven comments and postsdaily.  

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