Chapter 9 McDonald's VS KFC: Who is more successful in China?

The profits of chain enterprises come from the quantity and quality of chain stores, especially the expansion speed and development success rate of chain stores in a competitive environment.As for brand strategy, products, site selection, price and promotion strategies, as well as supporting internal operation and management mechanisms are all tools and means to achieve basic business goals. It is also the world's top excellent fast food company, and it is also a chain operation system. McDonald's has a longer operating background, stronger corporate strength, and stronger brand equity. Such a huge gap?

Since the 1990s, China's economic globalization has accelerated.In the Chinese mass catering market with the largest population and the most potential in the world, the two global fast food giants McDonald’s and KFC, which are “born from the same root” (same origin from the United States), have never staged “why is it too urgent to meet each other” in the Chinese market? All the tragedies have achieved impressive results in the game that put other markets in the world to shame, and the Chinese market has become the "engine" driving its global business development. From a global perspective, McDonald's and KFC are not yet a heavyweight: McDonald's currently has more than 30,000 stores in 121 countries and regions around the world, with a global turnover of about 40.63 billion US dollars, while KFC has chain stores in 80 countries and regions around the world. Only more than 11,000.According to the statistics of American fast food sales and the number of restaurants in 2003 by Technomic, a research organization of the American food industry, McDonald's ranked first with 13,609 restaurants in the United States, with sales of more than 22.1 billion US dollars; while KFC ranked first with 5,524 restaurants in the United States, with sales 4.936 billion US dollars ranked seventh.

However, the overall development status of McDonald's, the absolute leader of the world's No. 1 fast food brand, in the Chinese market is uncharacteristically and not optimistic. It is far behind the No. The performance between them is very different. Many experts have done a lot of analysis on the reasons for this gap, but there are few systematic understandings from a high-level perspective and tracing back to the source.As for the behind-the-scenes truth of the gap between them, the author might as well make a bold attempt here to attract more people's participation and attention.

As we all know, whether KFC or McDonald's, to use a fashionable professional term, both of them operate in the form of "chain operation". The so-called "chain operation format" includes three basic models: direct chain (or formal chain, referred to as RC), that is, the head office directly invests in opening chain stores; voluntary chain (or free chain, referred to as VC), that is, retaining a single The combination of capital ownership; franchise chain (or franchising, contract chain, franchising chain, referred to as FC), that is, chain operation with the transfer of management rights as the core, that is, franchise operation.

Although the three models have their own characteristics, in simple terms, their core features are chain stores as the operating platform, and the expansion speed and success rate of the chain stores (that is, the number of chain stores and the quality of single store operation) as the core evaluation indicators. model.The operating goal of chain enterprises is to maximize the profit of a single store as much as possible while pursuing the maximum market share.It can be said that the profits of chain enterprises come from the quantity and quality of chain stores, especially the expansion speed and development success rate of chain stores in a competitive environment.As for brand strategy, products, site selection, price and promotion strategies, as well as supporting internal operation and management mechanisms are all tools and means to achieve basic business goals.

As the saying goes, "removing the complex makes the three autumn trees simple." Here, we might as well start with the two core index systems to measure the development level of chain operation companies through appearances, and compare the truth of the performance of McDonald's and KFC in the Chinese market: McDonald's: McDonald's is famous for its fast food business. It was founded in the United States in 1955 by Crocker. On October 8, 1990, China's first McDonald's restaurant opened in Shenzhen. In April 1992, the largest McDonald's restaurant in the world was opened in Wangfujing, Beijing at that time, and the number of consumers on that day exceeded 10,000.

By the first quarter of 2002, the total number of restaurants had reached more than 460.During the 14 years since entering the Chinese market, by the end of 2004, the total number of chain stores was about 600.However, its development speed began to be rapid, and the later period was relatively slow: in the last three years from 2002 to 2004, the average number of newly added stores per year was only 47.5, and the annual growth rate was only about 25%, which was lower than the initial annual growth rate of 38%. Rate. KFC: It is the first Western-style fast food chain group to enter the Chinese mainland.

As of December 14, 2004, with the opening of the KFC restaurant in Sanya, Hainan, KFC has reached 1,200 in China.So far, KFC has opened twice as many stores in China as its old rival McDonald's. It took KFC 17 years from the first store in Qianmen, Beijing, to 1,200 stores in Sanya; during the golden development period from 1997 to 2004, KFC quickly increased from 216 to 1,200, with an average annual increase of 140 stores Above, the average annual growth rate is as high as 70%. KFC is the world's largest fried chicken fast-food chain enterprise. Since its first store opened in 1987, after six years of exploration, the total number of restaurants in the country reached 10 in 1992. On June 25, 1996, the 100th store of KFC China opened in Anzhen Bridge, Beijing. This is a milestone, marking that the development of KFC in China has entered a new stage.From the opening speed of 9 chain stores per month in 2002 to 25 chain stores per month in 2003, the speed is getting faster and faster.

compare results: Apart from the fact that KFC entered the Chinese market three years earlier than McDonald's, during the 14 years of common development between the two, McDonald's has always lagged behind KFC in terms of restaurant expansion speed and the final number of developments. In 2001, the gap between the two sides suddenly widened to 149, and in just three years from 2002 to 2004, the development speed and number of KFC restaurants were more than twice that of McDonald's. According to media reports, McDonald's plans to open a total of 100 restaurants in 2005. By June 2006, it will open about 10 franchise stores in mainland China. By 2008, the number of McDonald's restaurants in the mainland will reach 1,000. Franchise stores will account for 20%.At the same time, Su Jingshi, President of China Yum Brands Group, publicly stated that KFC will maintain a high-speed store opening strategy in 2005 and expand its network to fourth-tier cities. In 2005 alone, it will open 300 new restaurants, of which franchises will not exceed 5%.

McDonald's: According to statistics from the China Chain Store and Franchise Association in 2003, by the end of 2002, McDonald's had 543 stores in China, with a sales volume of 3.2 billion yuan.According to rough calculations, the average annual operating income of McDonald's in the Chinese market is about 6 million yuan per year. KFC: Also derived from the statistics of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association in 2003, by the end of 2002, Yum! (more than 90% of which came from KFC) had a total of 902 stores in China, with a sales volume of 7.3 billion yuan.By analogy, the average annual operating income of a single store of KFC in the Chinese market is about 8 million yuan per year.

compare results: According to the operating performance of the two parties in 2002, it can be said that McDonald’s is far inferior to its rival KFC in terms of single-store competitiveness. A considerable number of outlets are in a state of low profit or even no profit. Taking a comprehensive look at the truth of the above two major gaps, we can’t help but ask, it is also the world’s top excellent fast food company, and it is also a chain operation system. McDonald’s has a longer operating background, stronger corporate strength, and stronger brand equity. Why is KFC so popular? Can the Chinese market show a comprehensive overtaking trend?Even forming such a huge gap?The whole story is just the localization process of acclimatization, or is it a strategic step that comes first?In my opinion, it's not that simple. As the saying goes: "As big as the heart is, so is the world." This is true for people, and so is for enterprises.A company that lacks foresight, especially a company that lacks clear goals and long-term planning and is unswerving in its implementation, will always be disturbed by things on the way forward, and it is difficult to reach the other side of success.In this regard, the different results of McDonald's and KFC's competition in the Chinese market are also due to their different strategic starting points and fixed positions. KFC: (1) Foresight, local starting point As early as 1985, Meyer, who was the general manager of KFC at the time, had a strong interest in the Chinese market, which has the largest population in the world and contains unlimited potential, and he had the idea of ​​developing China. After fully absorbing the experience and lessons of Hong Kong's development failure in 1970 and 1971, he deeply realized that the first difficulty to overcome in the development of this ancient new continent is to be familiar with and understand China's cultural heritage.In this regard, he wisely chose Singapore as a pilot before entering China (Singapore speaks Mandarin, and its living habits are closest to the mainland, while Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, with strong local characteristics). In April 1986, Meyer took decisive action to reorganize KFC's Southeast Asia regional office.At the same time, in order to ensure the independence of entering the Chinese market, strategically repurchased all the franchise rights in Singapore (the KFC in Singapore was authorized to operate by others at that time), clearing the ownership barriers for the independent development in the Chinese market in advance. In late September of the same year, he appointed Wang Dadong as the deputy general manager of KFC Southeast Asia to undertake the important task of expanding the Chinese market.Wang Dadong was born in China, with a typical Chinese cultural background; he studied in the United States and received rigorous professional training.As a middle-level manager of KFC for many years, he is familiar with and understands the unique culture of this company, especially the successful experience of opening a catering business in China. This kind of cross-cultural experience is very important for KFC's expansion in China. The joining of Wang Dadong injected localized blood into the development of KFC in China, which played a key role in the initial local rooting and development of a multinational company that is not familiar with the characteristics of Chinese culture.And through the training in Singapore, KFC has accumulated enough experience in cross-cultural management, especially in the management of Orientals. On the other hand, it has also accumulated operation talents familiar with Chinese characteristics, ensuring that it can quickly integrate and integrate after entering mainland China. Do it with ease. After more than a year of investigation and demonstration, Wang Dadong expressed his understanding of the Chinese market in a letter to the headquarters: "I am completely convinced that KFC has an absolute competitive advantage over any other American fast food chain, although McDonald's is trying to compete with China. Establishing a relationship, but there is still a long way to go before beef supply is possible. Poultry farming is a priority development area in China's agricultural modernization, and with the strong support and encouragement of the government, we have the advantage to open the door of China." On this day It soon became a reality. On November 12, 1987, the first KFC restaurant in China was established in the bustling area of ​​Qianmen, Beijing, officially launching the pace of China's strategy. (2) Pursue excellence and win with speed At the beginning of KFC’s entry into the Chinese market, Mr. Su Jingshi, who was the vice president of PepsiCo’s Asian region and now the president of Yum! No. 1 brand in the industry, and even the most popular catering brand in the world. In the whole process of entering and expanding the Chinese market, KFC has always adhered to the principle of "the No. The number one in China is KFC that everyone likes.” Su Jingshi said at the opening ceremony of KFC’s 400th restaurant in China.KFC finally achieved positive results in China and truly realized the vision of the first brand in China's fast food industry. After 6 years of exploration, on the basis of successfully opening 10 Chinese restaurants and mastering rich local operation experience, KFC began to make efforts in China.Since 1996, relying on its first-mover advantage, KFC has established a fast-response decision-making and response organization mechanism (the first to relocate the China headquarters to Hong Kong, and later to Shanghai), concentrated its strength, integrated resources, and started a steady "accelerated expansion" strategy: ——In the chain operation model, implement the speed-up strategy of "direct chain" and "franchise chain" (as early as 1999, the "zero-start franchise" franchise was implemented. Since the end of 2004, 1,200 5% of the restaurants are 60+ franchise stores). ——Strategically introduce Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and other catering brands in the group into the Chinese market, implement strategic synergy in elements such as supply, marketing, finance, and talents, and further enhance KFC's competitive advantage through multi-brand synergy. - Supply chain integration.Taking full advantage of the convenience that China is a large agricultural country, the localization of supply ensures the maximization of profits. McDonald's: The phrase "McDonald's is more than a restaurant" accurately sums up its business philosophy.In the global McDonald's system, the operation of McDonald's restaurants is a very important part. In 1990, McDonald's opened China's first McDonald's restaurant in Shenzhen, and then opened the world's largest McDonald's restaurant in Beijing's Wangfujing in April 1992, with more than 10,000 customers on that day.Since then, McDonald's has developed rapidly in China, and has opened more than 460 restaurants in 74 large and medium cities in 17 provinces across the country, occupying an important position in China's catering industry market. McDonald's currently has about 600 restaurants in China, mainly operating in three modes: 50% joint venture, contractual joint venture and wholly foreign-owned.McDonald's plans to open a total of 100 restaurants in 2005, and by June 2006, it will open about 10 franchise stores in mainland China. (1) Obsessed with hindsight, insufficient stamina In 1990, three years after KFC entered China, McDonald’s started its journey to compete in China, intending to catch up with others and implement a catch-up strategy. During the 10 years from 1992 to 2002, the average number of stores opened per year was 38.3, and it caught up from behind in the Beijing market. The number of stores opened is ahead of KFC.However, during the critical three years from 2002 to 2004, due to the drag of global (especially in the United States) operating performance, compared with KFC’s great strides forward, the development speed of McDonald’s slowed down significantly, and the average annual increase of stores in the three years was only 60-70 , while KFC added more than 400 new stores during the same period. (2) Behemoth, slow decision-making In 2004, Chen Jinfa, general manager of McDonald's Greater China region, said: "McDonald's attaches great importance to the mainland market, but Hong Kong is still one of the most important markets for McDonald's in Asia. The headquarters has not considered moving its headquarters in the Chinese market from Hong Kong. to the mainland.” This shows that McDonald’s headquarters is more inclined towards internationalization in terms of power control, and is less prepared for the complex environment faced by the Chinese region.Similarly, after 12 years of brutal market competition, McDonald's began the two-way development of "direct chain" and "franchise chain", and it was not until early 2005 that it considered moving its headquarters from Hong Kong to Shanghai.The slow response speed of decision-making also restricts its expansion speed, and even affects its decision-making speed in terms of site selection and enclosure in the Chinese market, public relations response, etc., so that it affects the decision-making process for the same target store location. summary: To be honest, from a global perspective, McDonald's and KFC are not rivals of the same heavyweight. Whether it is development history, overall scale and strength, or even brand equity, KFC lags behind McDonald's.But why can the Chinese market become the "base camp" for KFC to overwhelmingly fight against McDonald's? The Chinese market has become the "base camp" for KFC to overwhelm McDonald's. First of all, it should be attributed to the decision-making level's understanding and attention to the particularity of the Chinese market, especially their deep understanding of the essence of cross-cultural management integration, and the selection of suitable general talents. Avoid mistakes.Secondly, we should attribute it to the three differentiated competitive strategies implemented by KFC in the Chinese market ("targeting high-growth markets, pre-empting strikes, and accelerating expansion"), strategic chain operation, multi-brand integration and synergy, and flexible two chain models ("Direct Chain" and "Franchise Chain"), the guarantee of this system has laid the foundation for obtaining competitive advantages, and has also obtained speed advantages from the response mechanism. For McDonald's, through the analysis of its development curve in the Chinese market, it is not difficult to find that the development strategy of McDonald's in the Chinese market has two characteristics: "lag and slowness" and "travel and swing". Due to the large scale after global expansion, it encounters management problems , Compared with KFC in terms of overall system efficiency, it is much inferior.McDonald's has been sticking to the "direct chain" strategy for a long time (as late as August 2003, it implemented the "franchise chain" model in China, while KFC took the lead as early as 1999, and has developed more than 40 franchisees in 2003. In addition, from the perspective of McDonald's global market positioning, the Chinese market has become a "hematopoietic machine" for it to support the development of other markets. According to McDonald's regulations, franchise stores need to pay 17%-23% of their turnover every month. As patent fees, service fees and rent to the headquarters, while KFC's royalties are only 8%, all of which have seriously affected the enthusiasm for the operation of each single store. The long-term organizational decision-making mechanism is far away and slow. When it comes to strategic key location decisions, McDonald's is often paranoid about the stable and conservative principle of "appropriate price". This opportunity has also affected its expansion in the Chinese market. It can be said that it is precisely because the two attach importance to the Chinese market and the global market that they do not agree with each other, leading to a difference in several major factors such as strategic decision-making, which determines the expansion speed and number of chain stores of the two in the Chinese market. Objectively speaking, although KFC has a first-mover advantage over McDonald’s, in the third year after McDonald’s officially entered the Chinese market, the number of KFC’s chain stores is only a handful, and there is no obvious advantage. The market starting points of the two can be said to be basically the same.What's more, the rapid development strategy of McDonald's at the beginning of entering the Chinese market in 1990 was not substantially different from that of KFC, but why did its development seriously lag behind after entering 2000, especially in the crucial nearly three years, so that there was such a huge disparity? What about the market gap?The author believes that we cannot ignore the "McDonald's dilemma": ——The business environment in which McDonald's is located has deteriorated significantly.Since the 1990s, McDonald's overseas expansion has accelerated, but as one of the three major cultural symbols of the United States, its rapid expansion has not brought it much glory. On the contrary, it has become a scapegoat for "capital globalization". Since 1999 Since then, there have been 5 attacks on McDonald's caused by environmental protection, religion, globalization and involvement in US foreign policy. Immediately after the "9.11" incident, Muslims rioted in the McDonald's restaurant in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.What's more, some people set October 16 every year as the "World Anti-McDonald's Day", which began to challenge their habitual "netting to win" strategy. In December 2002, McDonald's announced a loss of 27 cents per share for the first time in 47 years. Due to its large scale, it could no longer maintain a growth rate of 10% to 15% per share.The reputation of McDonald's took a sharp turn for the worse. In the fourth quarter alone, it closed 175 fast food restaurants, and at the same time withdrew its business from three countries in the Middle East and Latin America, cutting 400 to 600 jobs. The continuous outbreak of environmental crisis has seriously affected its overall business performance, resulting in the embarrassment of its capital chain, and also affected the pace of its development strategy in the Chinese market.Although KFC is also in a similar business environment, due to its relatively weak global status and brand power, it is easy to enjoy the shade under a big tree, and its foreign business proportion is far smaller than that of McDonald's, and its involvement is far smaller than McDonald's. ——The single direct chain model has made McDonald's more dependent on its own funds.By the end of 2004, KFC has developed more than 60 franchised stores by strategically developing franchise chains first. According to the franchise fee of 8 million yuan for each franchised store, at least in the Chinese market, KFC has developed through this method. The way to obtain as much as 480 million yuan of rolling development funds, and McDonald's achievements in this regard is very little. In 2003, McDonald’s changed its strategy in China, expanded its franchising model, and invited Chinese investors to join McDonald’s. Chinese investors need to spend 2 million to 3 million yuan to open a McDonald’s store. The franchise fee is comparable to that of other foreign regions. . KFC's franchising method is more suitable for the prudent Orientals' investment psychology. The franchisee has zero risk. After the franchisee pays the franchise fee, if the profit point is not reached, the loss will be borne by KFC.Once the franchise store is operating well, KFC usually buys back the franchise store at one to two times the price after two or three years of operation. ——The chronic disease of the system of "netting to win".For a long time, McDonald's has been relying on the "netting to win" strategy to spread the net everywhere, in order to effectively segment and intercept the customer base before competitors.However, it can easily cause enterprises to suffer from "post-globalization syndrome", that is, after the global expansion reaches the optimal economic scale, the enterprise will enter a period of stable development. If we move forward, we will encounter the bottleneck of management costs. Due to its enthusiasm for network formation and in-depth development of channels, McDonald's lags behind its competitors in product innovation and quality improvement, and its product development does not meet the needs of the target market. It is greatly inferior in single-store competitiveness. Compared with opponents, this makes a considerable number of outlets in a low-profit state. In the last two years, KFC plans to open to KFC franchise applicants cities in China with a non-agricultural population of more than 150,000 but less than 400,000 and annual per capita consumption of more than RMB 6,000 (except for cities with KFC joint ventures). This is very clear It clearly shows KFC's next intention. After taking the lead in the competition with McDonald's in big cities, KFC has begun to advance layer by layer, turning to the process of infiltrating small and medium-sized cities dotted around China. The system of "netting to win" is system linkage, but it is very easy to be divided and eroded by competitors. KFC's individual soldier coordinated combat not only considers the synergistic group effect, but also focuses on the combat skills of individual soldiers, which can be greatly improved. Improve the ability of individual soldiers to fight independently.With this strategy, KFC beautifully fought a defensive counterattack in the Chinese market that caught McDonald's off guard. The tight capital chain and the chronic illness of the system make McDonald's lag behind KFC.From a micro perspective, the key factors that determine its success come from the following basic marketing elements. (1) The slightest difference in crowd positioning Although both are urban families in the selection of target groups, they are biased in terms of the three major groups that make up the family (ie children, young parents, young men and women): before McDonald’s changed its face in 2004, it always insisted on children The family is the center, and then parents and young men and women are taken into account; while KFC is young men and women as the center, and then children and young parents are taken into account.Although there seems to be only a slight difference between the two, this difference determines the focus of their business operations and affects the subtle differences between the two in many aspects such as restaurant decoration and layout, product selection and location selection. With the changes in the concept of marriage and family in the world in recent years, the phenomenon of late marriage and childbearing and singleness is becoming more and more popular in society. The group of single and childless families is growing rapidly. It forms a kind of mutual elimination with McDonald's "family" market positioning rising substitution relationship.Young people aged 16-25 account for more than 60% of the consumption of Chinese foreign fast food, both in terms of the proportion of the consumer group and the proportion of the consumption amount. McDonald's has been focusing on the target customer group based on the triple nuclear family, and has successfully established the benchmark brand image of "family" fast food, but "children" do not have direct purchasing power. The "purchasing power" group must invest a large amount of non-profit absorption costs on the "non-purchasing power" group, such as amusement parks, entertainers, etc., and this part of the cost will gradually increase as the market picks up.However, the influx of competitors has made McDonald's more and more powerless. The "new product war" and "promotion war" between each other are gradually diluting the profits of this industry. It has been quite difficult. In the fast food retail industry, especially in the era of mass consumption, the source of customers is the most important bargaining chip for a company to win. It is the rule of the game in the era of mass consumption to obtain as many customers as quickly as possible. Undoubtedly lost opportunities in the changes. The promotion of the "I just like it" series of advertisements is an important milestone in the history of McDonald's.In a sense, this major brand adjustment of McDonald's should be a brand "big shake-up", because in this adjustment, McDonald's risked abandoning its "family" positioning position that it has insisted on for nearly 50 years, and focused its goals on Family mother and child consumer groups and young consumer groups under the age of 35, and put the strategy center on "young people". (2) Product positioning is similar with minor differences There is a big difference in product positioning between KFC and McDonald's. McDonald's mainly focuses on hamburgers, which is more suitable for Europeans and Americans.KFC mainly focuses on chicken products, which is more suitable for Chinese tastes. In terms of product localization, KFC spares no effort to meet the different needs of Chinese consumers.Since the mid-1990s, KFC has been determined to create a brand for Chinese people that meets the needs of Chinese people. In 2000, KFC invited more than 40 national food and nutrition experts to establish the "China KFC Food Health Advisory Committee" to develop products suitable for Chinese tastes.Including: old Beijing chicken rolls, tomato and egg drop soup, Sichuan spicy chicken, nutritious breakfast, etc., and even completely localized "Wanglaoji" herbal tea is sold in many restaurants. The standardization and quality consistency strategy that McDonald's is proud of is being criticized, and its food is accused of being unhealthy products with "three highs and one low" (high fat, high sugar, high salt, low fiber, and low vitamins). When people's measurement standards for fast food extend from freshness and uniform specifications to long-term health benefits, McDonald's product advantages will gradually disappear with the change of mass consumption trends and the innovation of competitors.In the United States, McDonald's has long been besieged on all sides, and Burger King and Wendy's are not inferior in the confrontation with McDonald's price war.In recent years, although McDonald's has also vigorously launched "Spicy Chicken" and "Drumstick Burger" similar to KFC, in the catering market that compares taste and feeling, the subtle differences of products determine that McDonald's is in a disadvantageous competitive position. Due to the lack of a strong organizational guarantee to support product localization, although McDonald's is also constantly innovating in the localization of products, it has always lagged behind KFC in terms of quantity and speed (McDonald's only started to launch a Chinese local product at the end of November 2004. market's "Treasure Triangle").What is even more frightening is that McDonald's product accidents are frequent, such as the explosion in Xi'an in 2001, the poisonous oil incident in Wuhan in 2002, and the disinfectant water incident in Guangzhou in 2003, which have become McDonald's lingering pains and seriously affected consumers' trust in products. On March 9, 2004, McDonald's significantly reduced its hamburger series of food in 16 European countries and replaced it with chicken salad, yogurt and crushed fruit.Dennis Enekan, executive vice president of its European business, said: "Customers are paying more and more attention to health food and lifestyle, which is our response to customer needs." Contrary to Europe, "double-layer cheeseburger" is developing in China Running a year-long sales campaign has us wondering about the perverse mentality of this behemoth. (3) High fluctuations in cost and price As we all know, as fast food, stable product prices have always been one of the symbols of its continuous and stable operation.The prices of similar products of KFC and McDonald's have been basically the same for a long time.But until June 2003, McDonald's began to wield its price weapon. First, under the pressure of global performance and cost control, it implemented a comprehensive price increase against the trend; In March 2004), McDonald’s cut nearly ten main products to less than 5 yuan, with a maximum drop of 50%, which caused the embarrassment of rushing out of stock in many areas, and all of these are reducing product capacity and even quality. based on implementation.However, KFC seldom has such price repetitions, and has always insisted on the "appropriate price and qualified products" route. It is reported that the cost control of McDonald's products has also remained high.In terms of product procurement and supply, McDonald's prefers its domestic companies in the United States to provide sources of goods for China, while KFC prefers to develop suppliers in China.Coupled with its supply chain synergy and sharing effect with brands such as Pizza Hut, KFC is also slightly better at controlling product costs. (4) Execution level of site selection strategy To be honest, McDonald's and KFC each have their own bibles in terms of site selection strategies.Whether it is the rigorous process and consideration standards of its site selection, it is difficult to distinguish its superiority.The president of McDonald's China East China once declared, "The reason why McDonald's chain stores are booming is that the first is the location; the second is the location; the third is the location."But in the actual implementation process, its superiority and inferiority can be seen: the success rate of KFC's location selection is almost 100%, while McDonald's often has unspeakable store closures (on December 1, 2002, McDonald's Chengdu Shuangnan store suddenly "disappeared") It disappeared without a trace. This is the first branch of McDonald's to close in mainland China. However, according to people familiar with the matter, there are 10 branches of McDonald's in Sichuan. At the end of May 2003, when the aftermath of the closure of McDonald’s Chengdu Shuangnan store had not completely subsided, there was news of the closure of the store in Guangzhou, a southern country). summary: Objectively speaking, it is difficult to distinguish between the two internal management mechanisms, but subject to some subtle differences in micro-factors, it has profoundly affected the investment income and operating quality of the chain restaurants of both parties, which in turn has affected the expansion speed and number of chain stores.The behemoth McDonald's is constrained by the system, its decision-making is slow and it has been repeatedly implicated in global turmoil. Compared with KFC's focus on the development of its strategy in China, it naturally falls behind. After analyzing the factors at the strategic and marketing levels that lead to the differences between the two, we cannot ignore the gains and losses of the two at the brand and image level: in 1999, according to a survey of 16,677 questionnaires in 30 cities in China by the world-renowned AC Nielsen research company It shows that KFC, the Western-style fast food that first entered the Chinese market, is recognized by Chinese consumers as "the most frequently patronized" brand by Chinese consumers and tops the list because of its unique food and quality. In October 2003, after McDonald’s successive negative news came to light, the TOM website conducted an online survey on its customer satisfaction. There were 6,050 votes who were very dissatisfied with McDonald’s, reaching 41.31%; 5,563 votes were considered average, accounting for 37.98% %; 3034 votes were considered acceptable, which shows that the impact of various negative news is no longer optimistic. According to the survey, although McDonald's is the most expensive fast food brand in the world, and its brand equity ranks among the top 10 in the world, it is surprising in the Chinese market.We have no way of judging the level of advertising communication between the two companies in the Chinese market, but we can compare their level of public relations in response to the crisis. ——McDonald's, as a multinational brand, is naturally "a big tree attracting wind". It has been accused of being "a tool used by narrow American culture to erode other civilizations", and it has become a "punching bag" for angry people.In addition to product quality accidents such as poisonous oil and explosions in China, incidents that disappointed the Chinese people such as "China cannot be found on the country list on the website, what did McDonald's do wrong" also occurred frequently, which undoubtedly directly damaged the brand image of McDonald's.On the other hand, McDonald's attitude and efficiency in dealing with the crisis have also become the focus of criticism, and many factors have affected its business development. ——And KFC has repeatedly "turned danger into disaster" and often has "rejuvenation".For example, on January 16, 2004, KFC released the "China KFC Healthy Food Policy White Paper" on the occasion of the opening of the 1,000th store in the mainland, in order to gradually eliminate the bad impression of Chinese people on foreign fast food; in February 2004, the "bird flu" , so that KFC, which mainly operates fried chicken and chicken burgers, suddenly encountered a cold winter.At this very moment, KFC held a press conference in major cities across the country, promising to the society that "it is absolutely safe to eat KFC chicken."A series of comprehensive emergency plans are adopted, and suppliers, inventory, transportation, and cooking are checked at every level to eliminate the impact of the epidemic. summary: China's brand and image operations have unique characteristics: on the one hand, they have a strong sense of national honor, and on the other hand, the media has strong credibility.These two factors determine that once an event that hurts public sentiment is exposed, public opinion will be one-sided.The slow and inappropriate crisis public relations of McDonald's in China has directly led to a decrease in its brand identity, which is also an important footnote to the gap. Based on the gap in its overall operating performance in the Chinese market, in September 2003, McDonald's global CEO and chairman Cantelupo, who had just recovered from the global financial crisis, issued an order to "accelerate the opening of stores in China". voice.在中国市场启动了全面赶超的“制胜计划”(Plan to Win)：一方面开始大力推行特许连锁加盟，另一方面，将总部由香港迁至上海，并宣布其在中国的快速扩张计划（1年时间从600家扩张到800家），并在全球120多个国家同步推动“我就喜欢”的全新品牌活动。通过此次重大决策调整其品牌战略，将目标消费者人群从先前“小孩和家庭路线”转向“青年路线”，以期重塑昔日辉煌。 仔细观察麦当劳在中国市场的最新举措，不可不谓是其面对中国市场落差的某种觉悟，从组织机制、市场定位到“品牌变脸”，但以前笑眯眯如今改跳街舞的麦叔叔在中国市场上真的能如愿以偿吗？也许答案真要让笑到最后的人来回答。 营销大师弥尔顿·科特勒曾经罗列出了麦当劳在中国遇到的问题，其中最致命的一点就是“产品一致性带来的硬伤”。麦当劳与肯德基的竞争仍在继续，如何在本土化产品研发上市与保持快餐标准化一致性中寻找到一个平衡点，这对于这两家国际餐饮巨头而言，都是非常紧迫之事。 我们在研究肯德基与麦当劳的过程中还发现了这样一个事实，虽然这两家彼此都视对方为最重要、最直接的竞争对手，但也都在中国市场取得了不俗的成绩。他们没有陷入同质化进而互打价格战的恶性竞争中去，却各以各的方式提升自己的竞争力，竞争的结果是实现了双赢。这也许更值得中国本土企业思考和借鉴。