INTRODUCTION Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action. Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people’s wants.
It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. In this essay, we will assess the effects and outcomes of the promotion and advertizing strategies of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Nando’s. We will analyze their promotion and advertizing campaigns; their failures and successes; and lastly, what the public have to say about the two organizations. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN Harland David Sanders was born September 9, 1890 in Indiana, USA.
The young Harland Sanders had many jobs such as a farmhand, a bus conductor, a steam boat driver, a soldier, and a salesman. Eventually he became a business man owning a petrol service station in Kentucky, one of the 52 states of the USA. Many travelers stopped at his service station wanting refreshments and food. The Colonel saw this as a business opportunity and decided to offer food to these customers. The Colonel enjoyed making his customers happy – he was passionate about entertaining them with excellent food and superb service. His food and service was so good that he was mentioned in several newspapers around the country.
As a result he had to expand his dining room to keep up with the increase in new customers. This ‘Customer Mania’ experience made people drive from far away just to visit the Colonel’s restaurant. KFC’S ADVERTISING STRATEGY From the onset, it is vital to gain an understanding of what an advertising strategy is, what it entails and its overall usefulness. An advertising strategy is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about products and services to potential consumers with the aim of convincing them to acquire those products and services (White, 1993).
The focus then shifts to the flexible, creative planning accompanied by in-depth knowledge of the target consumer and the methods that will be used to reach that consumer. We can thus conclude that advertising strategies are aimed at achieving three general and fundamental objectives. Firstly, to promote awareness of a business and its products or services; and Secondly, to stimulate directly and attract competitor’s customers and finally to establish or modify the business image.
In other words, “advertisements are meant to inform, persuade, remind, influence, change opinions” (White, 1993) Shifting our attention to Kentucky Fried Chicken, we will begin by examining the one advertising strategy which has remained constant and persistent throughout the existence of the Kentucky Fried Chicken brand. “As early as 1978, Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisements focused on providing home-style wholesome meals with campaigns such as, IT IS NICE TO FEEL SO GOOD ABOUT A MEAL and KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN IS HOME” (Patton and Beckman, 1995).
Obviously such campaigns portray Kentucky Fried Chicken as the ultimate family restaurant providing great tasting, appetizing, quality family meals. Such adverts have been primarily used to target those responsible for preparing family meals, which according to Kentucky Fried Chicken management are mothers between the ages of 25-54 who still cherish the value of sharing a good meal together as a family (Patton and Beckman, 1995).
This is more important now than ever as life is busier and more demanding and due to a harried lifestyle and the fact that more women are working nowadays yet they still have the responsibility of looking after the family. As a result time is a huge constraint, limiting the amount of time a hard working woman has to slave over a hot stove after a grueling day at work. Kentucky Fried Chicken offers the convenience of a ready made home-style family meal to be enjoyed at dinner time within the comfort of your home.
The latest illustration of this family orientated strategy is an advert which is currently being aired on television, where a mother arrives at home, presumably from work, only to find that her beautiful, neat, decent looking daughter has invited her scruffy, thuggish, gangster looking boyfriend. The camera than zooms into the mother’s puzzled and appalled facial expression. The pay-off line is as follows, “MOM HAS LOTS OF THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT, ATLEAST DINNER DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ONE OF THEM”.
Straight after that the advert starts showing a family meal with buns and coleslaw and a number of pieces of chicken. On the international arena, more specifically in the U. S. A. , the family orientated strategy is further emphasized by a competition which is currently running where Kentucky Fried Chicken customers stand a chance of winning the “ULTIMATE FAMILY REUNIONSWEEPSTAKES” which includes Kentucky Fried Chicken catering, event DJ and custom event T-shirts and banners. (Kfc. com)
With the family angle well portrayed, Kentucky Fried Chicken has made significant leaps in capturing the essence of youth. KFC has recently launched its snack range in collaboration with a Rock music band known as the Parlotones According to Kentucky Fried Chicken these meals are aimed at the urban youth market that generally do not have the time to keep regular mealtimes and tend to be hit by inspiration to develop outstanding projects (OppikoppiKrewe, 2009). Another advert which is aimed at the youth depicts University students and refers to their eating patterns as “grazing”.
In that advert Kentucky Fried Chicken is advertising its newly launched snack box which is meant to assist University students to get a properly balanced diet through Kentucky’s ready prepared snack box because students lead demanding lives and are often too occupied, whether socially or academically, to prepare well balanced diet meals. Lately Kentucky Fried Chicken has also embarked on the strategy of using our national cricket team players on their adverts. This is a very clever tactic because they are aware that these guys are more than just cricket players in the eyes of some adoring fans.
They are their heroes, icons and role models, the admire them. This is especially true for young boys who enjoy the game of cricket who want to imitate the lifestyle and consumption patterns of their icons at all cost. These types of adverts prey on the children’s “vulnerability to commercial pressures” (White, 1993) these advertisements use children as a tool for separating parents from their money because they end up forking out loads of cash because their children are demanding what they saw on television.
Ricky Ponting, the Australian cricket captain is being used by KFC in similar fashion to appeal to the general global cricket fans. It would be very myopic to look at such a global brand within the South African context only. More precisely, we would like to focus on the market in India which has adopted the third objective of an advertising strategy mentioned earlier which is to modify the business image. Kentucky Fried Chicken does not want to alienate the vegetarian segment of the population in India.
According to Sharamita Keswani, the Marketing director of Kentucky Fried Chicken in India, the vegetarian menu in India was adopted upon discovering that nearly 35% of the total population was vegetarian and in locations such as Delhi and Mumbai nearly half of the population was vegetarian (Yahoo, 2008) The Tikka Wrap and Roll and the vegetable Delight Burger are just some of the vegetarian products offered for consumption to the Indian market (Yahoo, 2008). This is what can be termed as the true modification of the business image, because you could be dining at Kentucky Fried Chicken yet consuming a vegetarian meal.
This has worked contrary to the majority belief that the introduction of a vegetarian menu would affect chicken sales instead, “the presence of the vegetarian menu has made the brand more relevant to a wider cross-section of the consumer society. This is important for a growing brand across the country” (Yahoo, 2008). Kentucky Fried Chicken in India has adopted a strategy known as the “Balance Standardization and Localization” (Yahoo, 2008). The Localization functions in two ways.
The first way is to modify a standard chicken product with a different topping or sauce so that it is in tune with the preferred flavours and tastes in that particular region of the market. The second way is to have a vegetarian menu. Localization is exercised in every country. The European and American markets have a traditional Kentucky Fried Chicken menu mainly consisting of chicken burgers and wraps, while the Asian markets pretty much like India have been more experimental and adventurous. In Asia they have rice meals, wraps and sides.
The change is of vital importance as Asians tastes can be very unique when compared to Western ones. Failures in the Advertising Strategy of KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken of better yet known as KFC has for many years boasted of its original tasting of mixed herbs and spices of chicken which is said to be “finger licking good”. KFC is fast food which is popular worldwide and people all over the world crave and but the extra special tasting chicken. With franchised outlets located all over the world, KFC has now become the number one choice in fast food chicken by a large percentage of the community.
Globally KFC has impacted the lives people around the world. When a family is hungry for some good chicken, what comes to mind? What are the options? It is KFC, Nando’s or South Africa’s own taste Chicken Licken. Depending on the preferences and choices of the family but KFC has, for a long time, had one of the leading successful advertising strategies. However, like every thriving, business there must have been advertising successes and failures. In this part of the assignment one will take a look at the pitfalls which have faced KFC in their advertising strategies.
In 1991 KFC made one of their biggest company brand change from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC after extensive research in consumer patterns that highlighted the major concerns that consumers had with buying unhealthy fried food. KFC’s decision to change the brand to KFC was to reduce the association that they had with fried foods in the minds of their consumers. This move was to eliminate the psychological stumbling block that some “fat” or health conscious consumers had about eating fried foods. However, KFC served as an interesting object lesson in market behavior.
They adjusted the words but to change public perceptions but they used the same method of cooking the food. Event though that strategy lasted for a long time years later the consumers needed more than a name change to satisfy their needs for fulfillment. The media has now focused a lot of their efforts into the evils of the fast food and concerns of healthy eating surface again. The most recent threats to the KFC advertising strategy is the way it promotes unhealthy eating and the way children are portrayed.
An example closest to home that happened in South Africa was the KFC advert campaign for milkshakes that was aired in 2008. This advert was of a little girl playing in the play ground and her father watching her play. The girl than cries and her father runs to her and asks her what has happened to her. The girl then tells her guardian that the boy in the playground has stolen her milkshake. This however is not true and by the end of the advert the viewers are aware that the little girl has lied and has stolen the other kid’s milkshake.
This advert very quickly received the attention of its audiences and even was nominated for awards. However, it was not received too well on an ethical standpoint by the older generation more specifically people who are parenting and raising children of a similar age to that of the girl. They felt that the undertone of the advert was that it was ok for children to lie and get away with it and challenged the ethics of using children in ads. One particular outraged grandparent commented on the KFC complaints forum that is set up for clients to give their misgivings. I have 8 grandchildren and am deeply concerned about the milkshake advert that is being aired on South African Television at the moment. I agree it starts out all very innocent, but in actual fact it shows parents as idiots and the little girl as a liar. What impressions do other children who watch this ad get? ” “that it’s alright to lie”. I believe that this is passing the wrong message on to society, in particular children and should be prohibited from being screened. ” The advert served its purpose for a period of time but was then removed off air.
KFC had many successes as well as failures up until the early 1990’s, consumers identified with this comfort food and provided little friction towards the high-calorie and high in trans fat food but in the last two decades consumers have become more concerned with their health and more sensitive about the negative effects of this type of fast food and more recently more concerned with issues of society. To the extent that the consumers were unhappy with their portrayal of children. SUCCESSES OF KFC
KFC has had many landmarks in terms of a successful advertising strategy, further emphasising its dominance as a global brand, while still staying relatable to its local South African market. KFC pride themselves on their ‘How we win together leadership principles’ and their vibrant, dynamic brand said Keith Warren, managing director of Yum restaurants international Africa, KFC’s master franchise holder. Lisa Burman, marketing director of Yum restaurants said that their vision is to be a defining global company that feeds the world (Gillingham, 2008).
In 2008 KFC made an effort to live up to its corporate social responsibility and became official supporters of South Africa’s national cricket team, the Proteas (Image1) (Maggs, 2010). Their numerous adverts depicting the team members in the changing rooms or on tour, have proven to be effective among consumers who are already loyal to the brand, but now love it, they too can enjoy the same fast food as their cricketing hero’s (Maggs, 2010). KFC’s advertising strategy blatantly fits into two main categories, those directly targeted at white middle class families and students, and those targeted at specifically black people.
However there has been an increase in the amount of advertising targeting the white population. More specifically current adverts circulating include the “Mom’s have enough to worry about” advert which has different variations, and the Parlotones snack box advert, “When inspiration hits, who has time to stop? ” as well as adverts targeting students that include KFC’s new snack bowl meal. Television adverts are largely used by KFC because they have such a broad reach in South Africa said Lisa Burman (Gillingham, 2008).
Ogilvy Johannesburg the agency responsible for KFC’s advertising won KFC its first Loerie award for its ‘Love Notes’ commercial launched in 2008 (Image2). This advert depicts men finding love notes from their female counterparts in their lunch boxes among the sandwiches she has made them. However the men would rather have KFC for lunch than their partner’s sandwiches, even though they’d been made with love and care. The men could not hurt their partner’s feelings and hid the fact they were having KFC for lunch everyday (Maggs, 2010).
Another notably successful advert launched was the ‘Trouble’ advert where a little girl claims to have had her milkshake stolen from a boy in the playground. Her gullible father immediately snatches the boy’s milkshake from him and gives it to his daughter. However the milkshake was never hers in the first place. This advert sparked various reactions among viewers. Although sales for KFC milkshakes grew by 225% in the first week, with a record of 535% once the advert had reached its peak (Maggs, 2010).
Another advert that was released in 2009 was also found to be culturally relatable for South African consumers. The advert in which a grandfather is wiping his hands on his grandsons head (Image 3). Traditionally this action transfer’s luck and should bring future wealth to the grandson. However after the grandson has brought his grandfather KFC the grandfather licks his own fingers instead of wiping them on the boys head. Thus reinstating KFC’s slogan “Its finger licken good” (Maggs, 2010). This advert is specifically relevant because of its cultural resonance.
Many black viewers were able to relate to the idea of having their elders depict rituals upon them, whether they liked it or not. Nikki Rule, Yum Restaurants chief marketing officer said that KFC’s marketing message is the chicken’s unbeatable taste. Although Nando’s adverts tend to be more humorous and politically incorrect a recent survey suggested that consumer’s do not always relate to or understand the humour in the advert (Surveys, 2008). In South Africa’s multicultural nation humour can sometimes be lost among different cultures or racial groups.
It is also easy to misinterpret adverts and find them offensive in some instances. Although there brash advertising may help in creating consumer awareness, that consciousness of products does not always capitalise into sales. In a survey conducted by TNS Research Surveys (Pty) Ltd and published in Jeremy Magg’s The Annual, results showed that adverts that where deemed ‘the best’ by the 2 880 participants included KFC with 9% of the vote and Nando’s coming in with only 5% of the vote. Fast food adverts dominated this section of the survey. 0% of the participants believe it is important for brands such as KFC to advertise themselves (Surveys, 2008). The Sunday Times Top Brand Award’s, shows that KFC dominates the fast food category and is far more popular than its rivals said Neil Higgs director of TNS Research Surveys innovation and development. Higgs went on to say the reason KFC’s television adverts have been so successful is because the characters are so good at conveying expressions that are appropriate to their roles.
He also said that KFC’s usage is 81% and many people aspire to the brand even if they aren’t users, KFC’s advertising is ranked most memorable among consumers (Gillingham, 2008). KFC is the only restaurant chain to make it into the Brand Trust Index Top 20 Most Trusted Brands and was awarded Marketing Organisation of the year (Maggs, 2010). In terms of corporate growth, KFC has grown exponentially in the last decade, with promises of up to a billion rand investment in South Africa alone, creating over 9 000 jobs.
This includes beneficial training and education of unskilled South African labour in numerous development programs. Despite the economic downturn KFC plan to open another 200-300 restaurants. This announcement came as other competitor franchises stated plans to make with drawls in the market and cut back during the recession (Sapa, 2009). KFC already has 570 restaurants in South Africa employing 19 000 people. Keith Warren managing director of Yum restaurants international Africa, said that “Results for 2008 have shown a strong growth versus the year before and results for 2009 are already showing strong double digit growth. Sapa, 2009) In a questionnaire conducted among Pietermartizburg University students, 90% of students interviewed agreed that KFC’s advertising was mostly targeted at the white demographic. They also stated that they were mostly exposed to KFC’s advertising through their television adverts. KFC also ranked first as the restaurant most preferred for the majority of those interviewed. KFC’s successful advertising can be accredited to the fact that not only does it create a response from its viewers but it also creates ‘talkability’ among its consumers (Maggs, 2010).
According to the TNS Research Survey conducted, 61% of people trust the opinion of family and friends rather than advertising (Surveys, 2008). When viewers talk about KFC’s adverts they are inadvertently publicising them and referring them to there peer’s. “KFC’s consistently high brand awareness and approval rating serves to illustrate the success with which the company delivers on its promises” (Gillingham, 2008). NANDOS The name Nando’s comes from Fernando, the name of one of the founders of the chain.
He and a friend bought a restaurant called Chickenland in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, South Africa. This became the first Nando’s restaurant. The restaurant incorporated influences by former Portuguese colonists from Mozambique, many of whom settled on the south-eastern side of Johannesburg. Nando’s is sometimes still referred to as Nando’s Chickenland. NANDO’S ADVERTISING STRATEGY Nando’s mission statement is to be the best in the world by offering a world class chicken experience at affordable prices with consistent quality.
Value and commitment to its customer base. Founded by two close friends Robert Brozin and Fernando Duante nando’s has become a place where friends can meet and families can enjoy their time together. It was Robert Brozin co-founder and chief executive of nando’s and his colleagues who came up with the idea to surprise, tillitate, amuse and stir up controversy to generate free publicity. In order to take on his powerful US competitors in international markets. Nando’s has become synonymous for its cheeky and irrelevant advertising in South Africa.
The communication brand is connected to current, topical issues which constantly seek to expose human truths in a fresh and cunning way. One could say that nando’s advertising has the similar approach to Pieter dirk uys’ style of performance, because he uses his character Evita who he has made a woman to talk about whatever the country is dealing with at a particular time. He uses Evita who doesn’t exist in reality who is just a make believe person to express his opinion and thoughts about government and politics, when he gets into trouble he uses the excuse that it is not him that is saying all these things but the character.
In the same way the team of Nando’s uses their adverts not only to advertise their food but also to attack current issues that the country is facing in a cheeky and satirical way. The nando’s advertising team with Sylvester Chuake as marketing manager base their advertising on an eccentric but always topical mix of pun and jokes; they call themselves the “challenger brand”. Needless to say that the adverts they have cause some heated topics of conversation almost every time the release a new one to the public.
Nando’s uses television, radio, print media and electronic mail to advertise their restaurant they are very flexible. ?STRENGTHS •Although their adverts do cause a negative effect on some people this is not always the case because their adverts do cause some sort of awareness to the public. •Their adverts deal with issues that people wouldn’t normally talk about maybe because they uncomfortable or scared. By seeing the nando’s adverts’ however they are able to talk about them on a lighter note without getting depressed because nando’s finds the humour. Their print media adverts on newspapers, magazines, pamphlets etc. Show pictures of mouth watering food. The words and the pictures bounce of each other. •Nando’s has an advantage over their main competition which is KFC, by advertising that they have the healthier option their meat being lower in fat and high in protein their slogan in print adverts is “grilled to perfection” resulting in lower cholesterol •They have got awards for their adverts which prove that they are hitting the nail on the head. They were saluted by Charles Ash for their email campaign “Joost”.
This was about the infamous former springbok Joost van der Westhuizen sex tape scandal. Their slogan was “Joost, if you not eating at home, eat at nando’s”. •Their adverts are catchy and memorable and that’s what all advertisers strive for. •Their adverts are always on point and deal with current issues, the recent one now being on the fifa world cup and how to treat the tourist. ?WEAKNESSES •Their adverts upset a lot of people and therefore they risk losing customers. •They do not think about their customers much when advertising they lack ethical theory.
For example one of the adverts they had with a blind women walking into the pole being lead by the dog and then the dog ends up eating the nando’s meet she was carrying. Blind people association filed a complaint and the advert was stopped. •They do not necessarily consider their target market when it comes to adverts because they may not appreciate nando’s approach. Nando’s can be seen as a place for people for an appetite not only for good food but for life as well. They believe that in this fast paced world, nando’s offers you return to simpler, slower, saner way of life.
Their Barcelona cockerel remains the most visible expression of nando’s passionate pursuit across fire continents. Furthermore even though their food takes a little longer to prepare, the reality is that the taste is remembered long after the wait has been forgotten. FAILURES OF NANDOS CAMPAIGNS Nandos is used to using various parodies and wit in their advertising campaigns. This has proved to be a very successful way of advertising their products as the advertisements attract a lot of attention therefore allows Nandos to get a lot more publicity. This bold way of advertising has also had its fair share of criticism and failures.
This part of the assignment will focus on the failures that Nandos encountered when trying to advertise their brand and products. The main failures that will be focussed on will be the dispute between MTN and Nandos, the series of adverts that had to be withdrawn from rotation, and the Boycott Nandos website that has been formed. In November 2007 Nandos received an opportunity to use a hummer in their advertising scheme. This was an advertising strategy that had been used by cell phone networks MTN, and Cell-C. Nandos made use of the exact shade of yellow that was being used by MTN in their logo and branding.
The advertisement continued to use key words like, “top up” and “Yello Hummer. ” These words were very similar to the words that MTN were using in their “Yello Summer” campaign. It was at this point where MTN launched a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) urging them to make Nandos stop running the campaign that was copied from them. Nandos tried to argue that they weren’t copying the cell phone brands campaign but merely making a parody since their past advertisements had also done the same by making fun of well known brands.
ASA ruled against Nandos in this instance and they had to stop this campaign and remove their posters and flyers that had been sent to all the stores. This campaign although clever and caused a stir was ultimately a loss to the company as all the money they had invested in employing advertising agencies was lost and regarded as a sunk cost. Nandos also lost money that was paid for advertising space that could not be recovered. The advertisement was cancelled and Nandos proceeded to launch another cheeky advertisement poking fun at MTN, but also advertised the product being sold at the time.
The pictures for both of these advertisements are attached in the appendices. Another advertisement that can be seen as a failure by the Nandos marketing team also occurred in 2007. The television advertisement showed a mother who was addicted to Nandos and her occupation was a pole dancer. This advertisement was seen by the public as particularly offensive since it was aired during prime time viewing. This advertisement caused uproar from the public, so much so that they also launched a complaint to ASA citing that the advertisement had sexual connotations that were offensive to children.
ASA ruled in favour of Nandos in this case saying that the advertisement did not have excessive nudity and it continued being aired. Although this advertisement continued, Nandos lost a big percentage of customers who linked the company with supporting underage exposure to offensive material. The loss of these customers might not dent the success of the company but it did dent the image that society saw had on the company. During the national political elections in South Africa in 2009 Nandos aired an advertisement that caused a huge amount of controversy.
This advertisement had a dummy of the African National Congress Youth League’s president being interviewed and him promoting the new Nandos’ meal for its value for money and repeating that when purchasing the product you get a lot of change. The play on words correlated with the campaign that the African National Congress was telling promoting at the time to get votes. This advertisement was enjoyed by most of the general public who found it humorous and appropriate since the country was at a time when elections were taking place.
The president of the ANCYL did not see the humour in the advertisement and the ANCYL commented saying, “We are fully aware that the advertisement is intended at mocking the president of the ANCYL, and in a racist fashion portrays political leaders as Cartoons. ” The ANCYL then instructed Nandos to withdraw their advertisement and went on threatened to use militant action against the establishment. With these threats and the president of the Youth league’s lawyers suing Nandos over the advertisement, they were forced to withdraw their radio and television advertisements.
This advertisement would’ve done well had it not been taken off the air. Nandos ended up not reaching the desired number of people because it was pulled off the air a short time after it premiered. The advertisers had to go back to the drawing board and decided to release the same advertisement but with a pixelated photo of the president of the youth league and an altered voice. This advertisement was not the same as the previous one and consumers were less interested in the product trying to be promoted.
The advertisements that Nandos works on and get pulled due to their offensive nature have cost the company millions which could’ve been reinvested in the company. Nandos has a very bold approach to advertising and this has lead to a lot of people not liking their adverts or the company. This is evident because the disgruntled members of society have proceeded to make a website urging members of society to boycott Nandos. This website lists why members of the public should not eat the food from Nandos and why their advertisements are offensive.
These types of websites show how the adverts have failed to reach the public and caused them to dislike the company. The problem with this is Nandos loses their person to person promotion because as the number of people who join this website increases the more people who will tell others to stop eating Nandos. http://www. boycottnandos. com/default. aspx SUCCESS OF NANDOS PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES The success of Nando’s is largely owed to the popularity of Nando’s as a brand and the continual increase in profits and share equity due to its aggressive marketing strategy that continues to evolve with consumer and environmental changes.
Nando’s is notorious for its adventurous and often controversial promotional strategies that thrive on society, culture, economical, local and current affair issues. As a company, Nando’s make use of diverse forms of advertising towards their target market, which consists of television, radio, print and the world wide web in order to ensure good customer relations by providing their customers with value, ensuring customer satisfaction, building customer trust and most importantly securing their customer retention. Its tongue-in-cheek promotional strategy is very much reflective of the company’s managerial structure and management style.
Nando’s refers to the term “globallocal”. As a company competing in an aggressive industry, Nando’s managing director, Brian Sacks affirms that “Nando’s aims to be ‘globallocal’, we want to be global, but we need also to be a localized brand – we want to be an SA brand selling on the high streets of the world” (Business Times, 2009). Therefore, by using daring promotional strategies, they ensure an impact on the audience every time, and ultimately raise awareness of Nando’s as a brand and thereby increasing its market share in a cutthroat industry.
Nando’s has proved to be a success amongst industry giants because of its effective and powerful promotional strategy. Nando’s promotional direction ranges from television advertisements, radio advertisements, use of the web and print media, which it uses to focus on promoting and addressing both the current and potential target market. Nando’s strategy comprises of using a particular theme for the proposed advert in order to promote a Nando’s meal special that is currently featured on their menu.
The theme is carried out throughout different promotional forms, namely, television, radio and print. One might think that Nandos’ bold advertisements are often rejected by the public, but this is vastly not the case. Numerous examples of advertisements relating to local, cultural and current affair issues have proven to increase short-term sales in Nando’s restaurants nationwide, and have increased long-term market share through increased public awareness. An example is the success of the advertisements aired during the South African presidential elections in 2008 (1A).
The advert features internationally reknown political satirist Evita Bezuidenhout played by South African, Pieter Dirk Uys, where two Nando’s meal options are advertised using the letters ‘A’ and ‘C’ which finally spell out the acronym of the ruling party, the ANC (African National Congress). The airing of this advert resulted in a fuelled reaction from the ruling party and from the South African public; however, the publicity the advert sparked ensured increased public awareness of Nando’s as a brand (Matthew Buckland, 2008).
Nando’s evolves with the consumer by releasing adverts which are up to date with local issues. The 2009 scandal between famous South African couple, Amor Vittone and her husband former Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen’s infidelity definitely created publicity for Nando’s as a brand (1B). Nando’s official website was flooded with positive comments of the courageous yet cheeky advert, “This is absolutely brilliant! I guess, in that case Nando’s chickens are probably a bit ‘beefier’ as well” (Times Live, 2010).
Two recent advertisements that landed Nando’s in hot water, but resulted in resounding success are the Julius Malema adverts (1C) and the Nando’s advert poking fun at South African President Zuma’s several wives (1D). Both advertisements resulted in an increase of 400% in the sales of Nando’s meal specials that were advertised and Nando’s range products during the period the adverts were aired nationally (Talking Retail, 2010). Nandos’ daring advertising has definitely made the company a success story, not only in the fast food industry but also in the corporate world.
Since its establishment in 1987 in southern Johannesburg, Nando’s has opened 103 outlets in South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland. Its rapid growth is represented by how it has broken the local barrier and has taken the popular franchise globally. Nando’s is currently operating in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, several countries in Africa, Turkey, Cyprus, Ireland, Indonesia, India, Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia and will operate its first outlet in Singapore in 2010 (Wikipedia, 2010).
Internationally it has 37 restaurants. Another indicator of Nando’s success is its recent listing onto the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). It was listed after a R10-million preferential offer and R15-million public offer was made, which was 24 times over-subscribed. Turnover has also grown to R218,3-million from R40-million five years ago and bottom line income to R8,6-million from a R2,3-million loss (Business Times, 2009). Retail has grown from R400 000 to R4, 5-million.
Even with the global economic downturn, Nando’s has proven to be rooted in the industry by showing a steady sales increase of 21% . It can thus be said that Nandos’ promotional strategy has not only increased its market share and public awareness, but its powerful yet cheeky strategy has proven to take the Portuguese chain restaurant from strength to strength , and has won the hearts and smiles of many South Africans with its newsworthy promotional strategy. Public opinion
Both KFC and Nandos are widely regarded to be two of the most successful fast food franchises in South Africa. They command masses of highly loyal customers and are both extremely recognizable household names with immense brand power. One only needs to observe one of either Nandos or KFC’s many franchised outlets to appreciate the extent of their popularity. They both have highly successful branding and marketing strategies, utilizing many different forms of media to get through to their target markets.
Both companies have distinguished themselves in their market and have instantly recognizable advertisements. Therefore due to the extent and quality of their respective marketing and advertising strategies they both have a largely positive public image. A research questionnaire was compiled to assess the publics’ opinion with regard to their preference between KFC and Nandos. The sample was a small sample which comprised mainly of University of KwaZulu-Natal Residence students. The sample consisted of 50 students who were randomly selected.
The research participants were randomly selected by selecting every second even number (room number) across the main campus residences. The questionnaire used a forced choice research questionnaire whereby the research participants had to respond with their answers by choosing either `Yes` or `No`. The 10th question in the questionnaire asked the research participants to answer briefly why their chosen restaurant was better than the one they did not choose. The research results are as follows: 40% of the sample preferred Nandos. (20/50) •60% of the sample prefers KFC. (30/50) •32% of the sample answered `Yes` to the questions regarding Nandos. •10% of the sample answered `No` to the questions regarding Nandos. •48% of the population answered `Yes` to the questions regarding their chosen restaurant KFC. •10% of the population answered `No` to the questions regarding KFC. With reference to the statistical results shown, public opinion says that KFC is the most preferred restaurant when compared to Nandos.
In question 10 of the research questionnaire the participants who preferred KFC felt that KFC was better than Nandos because of the original recipe chicken, KFC’s choc-chip ice-cream and their twisters. The research participants who chose Nandos felt that Nandos was better than KFC in that the meals at Nandos were much healthier because the chickens are flame grilled as apposed to being deep fried; also Nandos has a variety of flavours to choose from such as: lemon & herb,mediteranean, mild, hot and peri-peri.
Conclusion In conclusion, KFC has proven to have a more affective advertising and promotional strategy than Nando’s. KFC’s family oriented adverts have proven to be more successful and has warmed the hearts of many consumers locally and internationally. Nando’s politically incorrect advertising has lead to the organisation spending more money on legal suites rather than positive feedback.
