For a brand that entered the Indian market two decades ago, 2016 was a particularly hard year for KFC. Not only for the brand, but also for the entire QSR category. It was also the year when KFC decided to take a step back and re-evaluate how it wanted to play in the new socio-economic environment. Lluis Ruiz Ribot, CMO, KFC India speaks with BrandWagon’s Shinmin Bali about being bold, serving the best fried chicken and more. Excerpts:
The recent KFC campaign is for the digitally-savvy audience. How has your TG changed over the last two decades in India?
Consumers have definitely changed — they have a much sharper digital focus. They are obtaining information from digital or mobile faster and in different ways. Keeping that in mind, we try to be bold as a brand. We took something that you would not traditionally see in a TV ad, but is very normal for digital and social media. So it is disruptive in that sense. We have rolled out the first two ads for now but there are many more to come over the course of this year, keeping it fresh and entertaining. Our target audience has largely remained constant. We attract a young demographic, up to 35 years of age, which spans across children to college goers to early workers. As a brand, we are expanding to more and more cities, so nothing really is changing in the metrics of our target consumer set except that irrespective of city, consumers are becoming more and more discerning.
How has KFC’s communication evolved over the years?
Consumers are increasingly discerning and value authenticity. We have focussed our communication on who we are and our core. We are experts in chicken with a strong heritage. KFC has been concentrating on driving or leading cultural changes. For example, take our Friendship Bucket ad. Friendship is a bond assumed to be between similar people with similar interests. But we think this definition is too limited and as a society, we should embrace diversity in friendship. Hence, our ad shows friendship in the way we know it but between two friends — one of whom is differently-abled. A big part of our investment still goes into TV given that it has mass reach and is most efficient. Digital is not about how much we invest in but about how we approach it.
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KFC’s enthusiastic behaviour to try new things on social/digital is evident. What function does the digital medium fulfil for you in the Indian market?
For us, digital is a mindset. It is not what percentage of spends we want to dedicate to it. It is not a tool in the marketing field. Digital is a lens through which we see things. We have changed our approach to digital in recent years and some of the things we do are linked to either offers or online ordering. So digital is not restricted to only speaking about the brand. We are also very excited about digital activations that we do regularly.
How has KFC’s pricing strategy changed over time? How have you altered or restructured your offering in terms of quantity, pricing, etc over the last few years?
As a brand, we focus on offering value and variety to our consumers to drive engagement. We have taken a conscious call to not engage in any type of couponing or ‘buy one, get one free’ type offers. While exclusive weekly offers such as Wednesday Special definitely help increase footfall on a particular day, product offerings such as 5-in-1 Meal Box drive everyday value. With the 5-in-1 Meal Box, we have redefined the existing meal space with a complete meal option at a pocket-friendly price. Such offerings help consumers make smart choices and enjoy unmatched abundance, variety and value at the same time.
What does growth mean for KFC?
For most of 2015, we focussed our energies to reorganise our business, associate with like-minded, right partners and decode our core consumer. 2016 has been a transformational year for KFC and we are back on the growth trajectory with a 13% increase in system sales (Q3 2016). Our growth strategy is about being true to our core and who we are, and to keep bringing more initiatives to the market.
Innovation is another front. We are exploring a new concept called KFC Hangout — stores with a new look and a modern take on environment and ambience. We have started with a few stores for now. Every store will have something different.
Where are the sales numbers coming from in India?
We are seeing growth throughout. In fact, our higher growth is coming from tier 2 cities. In tier 2 and tier 3, we have tailored our initiatives.
It’s about OOH, local press and experiential but nothing majorly different from what we do in metros but definitely customised execution depending on the city. We are seeing a very positive response in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
How do you see the brand’s evolution from early days to now when the QSR category has many players, both international and local?
When we entered the market about two decades back, we were introducing a completely unfamiliar concept and a whole different taste to the Indian consumer. So there was some amount of familiarisation that had to be built in with Indianised adaptations. Today, however, consumers are well travelled and cued into global food trends. They are increasingly demanding authentic and real food experiences. So consumers are appreciating products like the Nashville Chicken or the Smoky Grilled Chicken — flavours that are bold, authentic and distinctive.
KFC has gone back to its core proposition that focusses on chicken. How was the brand’s experience with diluting the core offering through a vegetarian menu? What were the learnings?
We still have vegetarian options but our expertise remains chicken and we are not apologetic about it.
There are instances where a customer who prefers KFC for chicken, on any of her visits has chosen a vegetarian option for the day just because she likes what we provide. That’s the kind of consumer that we do not want to lose. We may not focus our communication on it but it still is an important offering from us.
Shinmin.Bali@expressindia.com
@shinminbali