ESLSCA

École Supérieure Libre des Sciences Commerciales Appliquées

Final Comprehensive Examination
Course: Marketing Management Examination: Take-home
Grade: 30% Time allowed: 24Hr

(PLEASE PLACE ALL YOUR ANSWERES IN THE ANSWR SHEET)

CASE STUDY: Please read through the following case and answer all questions.
KFC Turnaround Strategy

New management today is incredibly

deliberate about making the KFC brand
relevant again. There’s two big ways for
doing that, in the context of this industry: and
that is through bold marketing activations and
bold menu innovation. It’s all about making
the brand and the product really relevant to
emerging and quickly changing consumer
taste. They will do this in a way that’s
grounded in how the brand is currently
positioned, yet it has to be dynamic enough to push out those boundaries. The new assigned
CMO is finding ways to take what’s iconic about the brand to where their customers are to
show up in unexpected way that ultimately make those experiences better for them. Looking
out for trends and trying to be there in the moment when those trends are happening, willing to
go outside of what is comfortable.
You need to research trends and insert your brand into them. To be relevant is much harder,
and it starts with really knowing who you are, as a brand. KFC began working in

2014 and that was really the start of the turnaround. Spent months
going through the archives and to realize that when KFC had been at
their best as a brand, it was led by the heartbeat of our brand, Colonel
Sanders. The new assigned CMO also chose to put all those evocative,
iconic signifiers – the Red & White Bucket, the Colonel tie – back into
the front and center of the brand. Once re-grounded on who the brand
was, they looked for new ways to show up and express that. KFC wants to create experiences
that people want to be a part of that elevate what people are already doing. Also like to find
micro-cultures and experiment around how we can embed into them.

Fundamentally, you want to be a brand that people want to be a part of. It’s that simple. You
don’t want to be slapping your logo onto things; you want to create experiences that people
want to get involved with. For example, if KFC was concerned with staying conventional, they
could hire a few Instagram influencers and get them eating and talking about KFC. And that
would be just fine. Instead, they looked at the trend for Influencers and asked how to embed
the brand in that trend in a way that would invite people in. So, KFC used Colonel into a virtual
influencer and he struck a chord with the public. People really began to follow him, engage
with him, to such an extent that, ultimately, we were paid by brands like Dr Pepper, Casper,
and Old Spice to promote their products. In the end, a quarter of KFC media spend on this

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campaign was paid for by other brands. And the virtual Colonel was out there influencing on
behalf of other brands. You don’t get any more relevant than when other brands are paying you
to make their brands relevant.

Fast food customers have a lot of choice and are not very
loyal, so spending a lot of time building an innovation
program that is highly craveable to customers, so that they
want to come to the brand. There was a time that the KFC
brand risked becoming irrelevant, so committing to becoming
a brand that is relevant across generations was the only
option. Reconnected with heritage to understand what of core
anchors emotionally to customers, and then looked at how we
could innovate and push boundaries to drive our relevance
and deliver this kind of growth. Menu innovation needs to be
exciting and really make people want to come to KFC to try
it. Yet, KFC experience and pricelists must stay affordable for
the relevant target market KFC chooses to do business with.
The appearance of this menu innovation program was
Chicken & Waffle that launched in the fall. Waffles are a huge food trend, that most people
have heard of but haven’t tried, either because they couldn’t find it or they couldn’t afford it.
By bringing in a delicious waffle that could serve hot at over 4,000 restaurants around the
country, at a price point that people could afford, that allowed them to be a part of this huge
food trend. It’s delivered through a product that is at the core of our business, our world-famous
fried chicken, so we can do it in a way that’s grounded in who we are – but pushes into a trend
that’s happening out in the world.

Questions:
1. Considering the above mentioned in the case, please explain KFC competitive strategy for
growing the business and how it is reflecting on their new brand Positioning strategy and how
it may apply on their marketing offering with all its 3 key components.

2. Please explain your view in detail for KFC brand communication mix as mentioned above in
the case and how it may/may not serve their strategy turnaround attempt and what do you think
they should do further if any to achieve their strategic goals.

Good Luck

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Appendix:
How to Deal with a Case
A case study analysis requires you to investigate a business problem, examine the alternative
solutions, and propose the most effective solution or extract a key learning, using the
supporting evidence presented in the case.
Before you begin writing, follow these guidelines to help you prepare and understand the case
better:
• Read the case well and take notes, or highlights to relevant facts and try to underline key
issues
• Define the central issues in the case (Problem Statement)
® You may refer here to the respective question it may be of help
• Often it makes sense to Organize the problem statement in a hierarchical way:
® Identify the single most Over-Riding Issues
® Then spot any additional sub-issues, subsidiary to the main over-riding one
® When dealing with them deal with the most important first
• Identify Possible Root-Causes for the information provided
• You need to figure out and define the Firm's strategic goals and objectives
• Now you may be able to identify key external & internal constraints
• Try to list all Possible Relevant Alternatives that apply within the constraints
• Select the Best relevant alternative and state why it is the Best
• Sketch an implementation plan (Action Steps) for this Best Alternative
Once you have drafted all necessary information, and requirements a structured report of your
analysis should include the following general sections, but these may differ depending on your
assignment directions or your specific case study:
• Case Debriefing:
® Set the scene: background information, relevant facts, and the most important issues.
® Demonstrate that you have researched the problems in the case study.
® Evaluate these pieces by discussing what is working and what is not working.
® State why these parts of the case study are or are not working well.
• Problem Statement:
® Outline the various pieces of the case study that you are focusing on.
• Identify Alternatives:
® Provide specific and realistic solution(s) or changes needed.
® Explain why this solution was chosen.
® Support this solution with solid evidence, such as: Key concepts from course (text readings,
discussions, lectures) or even outside research
• Recommend Best Alternative and Justify your recommendation
• Implementation Recommended Alternative - (How to do it?)
® Determine and discuss specific strategies for accomplishing the proposed solution.
® Recommend action steps needed to assure and consider key issues for implementation.
® What should be done and who should do it?

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