Page 151 - Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies

10: Marketing, competition and the customer

CASE STUDY KFC in Africa

In a recent press interview, KFC’s general manager of new African markets, Bruce Layzell said ‘taking a blanket
approach to doing business in Africa does not work. A Zambian is as different to a Nigerian, as an Italian is diff erent to
a Russian, and people need to start to understand that.

‘People are different, and that means tastes are different, cultures are different, religions are different. As a
result, how we take our products to these different people needs to obviously be different. We need to meet them

at their needs.’
KFC reflects the local culture on the walls and in its advertising. Murals on the walls depict customers – they have

Zambians on the wall in Zambia and Nigerians on the wall in Nigeria.
KFC’s core product – original recipe chicken – is standard in all of its restaurants. However, in countries where
spicy food is popular, it puts hot and crispy chicken on the menu as standard. In Nigeria, jollof rice is on the menu. In
Kenya they have a product called ugali, so that is on the KFC menu. KFC will put its own spin on these local products
so that it becomes unique to the KFC brand.
Source: Adapted from http://bizmag.co.za/kfc-to-expand-steadily-into-africa
TASK
a Use the article to explain how KFC uses geographic segmentation.

b Identify two ways geographic segmentation affects the goods and services provided by KFC.
c Explain the benefits to KFC of geographic segmentation.
d Do you think there are any additional costs to KFC of segmenting markets this way? Justify your answer.

Demographic segmentation 149
Demographic segmentation is a method of dividing the whole market according
KEY TERM

to characteristics of the population. The diagram below illustrates the main factors
Demographic segmentation: that may be used to segment a market using population characteristics.
dividing consumers in the market
by factor such as age, gender,
income, ethnic background and
social class.
Age

Family size Gender

Demographic
Segmentation

Ethnic
background Income

Social
class

Figure 10.4 Demographic segmentation factors