Social Media Impact on Fast Food Chain (KFC)

Social Media Impact on Fast Food Chain (KFC) Uuse Table of Contents (Jump to) 1. Introduction 1.1 Research aim 1.2 Research Questions 1.3 Research objective 2. Literature review 2.1 Social media 2.2 Impact of social media 2.3 Fast food chain 3. Research methodology 3.1 Research design 3.2 Population and Sampling method 3.3 Data collection 3.4 Reliability and validity 3.5 Ethical consideration 3.6 Data analysis 3.7 Research limitation 4. Anticipated findings 1. Introduction This report is targeted on exploring and understanding the impact of social media on fast food chain, focusing on fast food companies of UK. So, we have chosen KFC for case study to carry out the research on this topic, as KFC is well known company in fast food industry not only in UK but worldwide. In today’s world, people are attached with the social media and defy on it while selecting any organization they need to deal to fulfill their needs. So, social media impacts on the buying behavior of customers and on selection of the organization. Social media is used by the companies in order to advertise their products and services. In this report, we first sort out research aims and research questions that start the plan for research. Then in literature review, the concepts on social media along with its impact and the fast food chain are discussed. Further, we choose research method and research design for this report and then we also choose the methods of data collection and data analysis. Finally, in this research proposal we discuss the anticipated findings that we could achieve from this research. KFC is a fast food company now owned by Pepsico and was established in the service station of USA serving chickens. The full form of KFC is Kentucky Fried Chicken, based in Lousville, it is one of the few brands in USA that can boast about having 59 year old history of success and innovation. KFC serves chicken along with varieties of other products like burger, mashed potatoes, and sandwiches also. It has been serving customers foods as prepared at home at very affordable price that could be bought by people of even low income also. It has opened its 15,000 outlets in 105 countries like Malaysia, China, UK and so on. In this report, we carry out our research in the outlets that are situated in different places in the capital city of UK that is London. KFC is famous for serving chicken with unique taste that has been able to win hearts of several people all over the world. It has many employees working through its outlets in several countries speaking different languages and from dif ferent cultures and tradition but are dedicated to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. The unique taste of fried chicken of KFC as well as different flavors of chicken curry, tom yam chicken, hot and spicy and original recipe etc. has been unique feature of KFC which has made it popular among its customers and a successful company in the fast food industry. 1.1 Research aims This report is concerned on social media and the fast food chain, so the aims of this research are also based around it. This research aims to find following facts on the fast food chain, To understand the social media used by KFC. To find the impact of social media on customers. To find the impact of social media in the company. To find the effectiveness of social media. 1.2 Research Questions This report is determined to find out the answers to following research questions: What is the effect of social media on KFC? What is the social media used by KFC? How is social media being helpful to KFC? What is the impact of social media on customers? 1.3 Research objectives This report is based on the hypothesis on finding the impact of social media on fast food chain. So, it sheds light on the effects of social media on the fast food companies. This research has been carried out with certain objectives which are sorted out in following points: To gain knowledge on the use of social media by KFC. To understand the impact of social media on KFC. To study the impact of social media on customers and employees of KFC. 2. Literature review In literature review section of this report, we gain knowledge on social media, its use in fast food industry and also its impact on the organization. We also discuss about the fast food industry and the fast food chains. In this report the discussion is centered on the role of social media in daily life, its consumption, customer’s perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of social media, the acceptance and impact of social media advertising, the level of engagement of brand through social media and the role of other media in reinforcing social media communication. 2.1 Social media Social media has revolutionized the communicating methods of the individuals, community, organization or the whole world. It can be defined as,† a group of internet based applications that is build on the ideological and technological foundations that allow the creation of exchange of User Generated Content.† It has been convenient way of communicating with the people not only within a certain region but within the globe. It has become an essential part of an organization in order to communicate with its customers, suppliers, investors as well as its employees. Rapid use of social media by the customers has enforced the organization to use those media in order to communicate with their customers as well as to build solid relationship with them that helps in customer retention. So, they are using blogs, wikis, podcast, social networking sites, websites and you tube so as to stay in touch with their customers and to get informed of new offerings on the market. Most of the o rganizations are using social media for marketing and include these media in their marketing strategies and plans. As consumers are turning away from traditional sources of advertising like radio and television, social media has become modern solution for advertising within the mass and wide range of people. Blogs are a kind of social media where people post images, ideas or links. Social networks are places where people with common interest meet and form personal websites. Content communities are websites where particular content can be organized or shared with others. Forums are sites for exchanging ideas or information around particular interests. Some of the most popular social media that people use are facebook, twitter, You Tube, Flickr, and Wikipaedia. Social media sites have been attracting millions of users around the world and some researches also show that most of the people in the world remain in touch with the social media sites daily. Social media is combination of sev eral internet tools that enable users to generate, exchange and modify content continuously. Social media like facebook, twitter, instagram, you tube websites, mobile social media etc have overwhelming number of followers increasing day by day. As the fast food industry in UK has become very competitive along with entry of several players, it has increased the level of competition and challenged the marketing players. So, KFC though is very popular needs to use more advertising sources in order to get a competitive edge and to win over its rivals. Social media has been rapidly used by KFC in order to gain global access and also for reducing its transaction costs. Further, it also facilitates access to potential customers along with customization of products and services and exchange of service and information. It has also become easiest way of taking orders for the food items for the company as well as its customers due to overwhelming use of social media. 2.2 Impact of social media Social media as being used rapidly by the people around the world attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social network sites. It acts as a platform for everyone who has easy access of internet. Social media also serves as the best advertising media as it is driven by word of mouth and can be considered as earned media rather than paid media. It also helps in increasing brand awareness through increased communication activities. It can be helpful in marketing campaigns for the recognition of the organization in the newer market as well as existing market. Social media is an online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. It provides numerous opportunities for strengthening and expanding relationships to customers. Social media impacts the customers for the selection of the organization they want to deal in order to fulfill their requirements as they are closely related to these media nowadays and trust these media the most to get information. For this research, it is important to understand the effect of social media on the potential customers when they are deciding which product or services they want to acquire. Customers use social media to enable them to create and share content, and communicate with one another build relationship with other people. Social media has become major factor in influencing various aspects of customer behavior including needs, recognition, information acquisition, opinions and attitudes, purchase behavior and post purchase communication. Social media develop horizontal relationship ranging from customer service to customer retention and acquisition. Increasing use of social websites perceive as a tool in forming online communities of users. Also companies can obta in various feedbacks and comment regarding their services so that they can improve their service in order to meet the needs and satisfaction of customers. Development of social media has helped in growth and expansion of business of fast food companies like KFC. 2.3 Fast food chain Fast food industry was not been available since ancient times but it has now becoming rapidly growing industry along with busy and scheduled life of people. As its name this industry is famous within its customers in providing quick food service for the rush hour of rapidly moving people. Mostly fast food industry serves quick foods like hamburger, sandwiches and also meat contained product. This industry is one of the most competitive and saturated industry in developed countries like UK or USA. Fast food service has culture has been embraced by several people due to their busy schedule and also easy availability of food when they want. 3. Research methodology 3.1 Research design This research is based on fast food chains and needs to explore the facts on impacts of social media, so it follows positivism theory of research methodology and deductive approach as the process of this research arrives at conclusions based on the interpretation of the meaning of the results of data analysis. This research is of exploratory nature as less previous researches have been found regarding this subject and general nature of the problem along with factors related to it has to be discovered. So, this research is commanded by qualitative methodology as it is of exploratory nature. Through deductive process, this research aims to uncover rich and detailed descriptions with a holistic focus. 3.2 Population and Sampling method In the proposed study, the population to be studied has been first identified and sampling frame was developed. The population for this study comprises all the customers and employees who are related to KFC belonging to different levels of jobs they are employed to. As this research is carried in KFC stores located at London Chinatown and Marylebone in London, UK, the population for this report is the customers and employees who are related to the stores there. Further, non-probability sampling method will be used for this research as it doesn’t involve random selection which is not feasible for this research. This research is of exploratory nature, so convenience sampling method is appropriate where the samples are selected looking into the ease of their accessibility and interest for the study. As the name reveals, convenience sampling is selected because it is convenient and often saves time and effort of the researcher to select a random sample. 3.3 Data collection As per the need of the study, both primary and secondary data will be collected, but priority will be given to collection of primary data, which will be both quantitative as well as qualitative. Primary data will be collected by some of the popular techniques used in this field. Primary data will be collected via field study where the researcher will visit KFC stores in order to collect data. In KFC stores, the researcher will collect the data through questionnaire method by distributing questionnaires to the respondents and then after they finish collecting it. So, questionnaire will be designed in view of data requirements and will be distributed to the respondents in the field. The respondents will be convinced that their responses will be kept confidential and average time taken to fill the questionnaire will also be limited. Secondary data will be collected adopting various secondary means and through the access of some secondary sources available conveniently. It will be collected from previous researches, previous studies, published or unpublished documents, annual reports of KFC, journals on KFC and other related articles that can be useful for this research. Secondary information available will be useful in checking the validity and reliability of empirical field data. The methods adopted in the study to generate relevant data will be guided by research objectives, questions and type of data required for the study. 3.4 Reliability and validity A reliable measurement is one which gives consistent results on independent testing. If the findings of one piece of work can be replicated by another research group, or by the same research group at a later occasion, then it produces the same result, then it is deemed to be reliable. Though total reliability is difficult to be achieved, quantitative methods are likely to aspire to it. In order to eliminate the chances of error, it is always better, if there are repeated observations and the measurements of the same individuals or situations. Validity concerns whether a research method gives a true picture of what it claims to have recorded, and shows social realities as they really are. No matter how reliable data may be, it will always be limited in its validity if the researcher cannot show that it gives true account of what it is being studied. It is the strength of our conclusions, inferences or propositions. It is an element that addresses the issues of whether the researcher is actually measuring what they want to. Reliability estimates the consistency of measurement and validity estimates the accuracy of your measurement. A measure can be perfectly reliable but yet not valid, which shows that reliability and validity differ from each other. 3.5 Ethical consideration In present situation, researchers have to carry out their research along with the consideration of ethical issues as well as obligations regarding the people participating in the research as well as the organization. Researchers need to do everything in their authority to make sure that their research doesn’t harm the cultural or ethical respect of the participants. So, for the research, written permission to conduct it has been sought and the Code of Good Research Practice of KFC will be followed. The respondents will be chosen based upon their willingness towards the research. Privacy, anonymity and confidentiality (PAC) of the studied groups will be strictly maintained. The data collection method includes personal information of the respondent also, so the information will be kept confidential and will not be used for other purposes than the research. Further, data provided by KFC will be secured in files with password protection. The final reports will not be provided for other researches and will not be provided for wider circulation. The participants as well as the organization under study will be provided with the required information on the research as well as the researcher. Further, while doing research the researcher should also ensure that the participants will be provided with certain questions to be answered and given certain time which will be recorded by the researcher. Further, the rules and regulations of KFC as well as of the business schools shall be followed while carrying out the research. 3.6 Data analysis Data analysis is very decisive in research as researcher has to highlight how in what ways data has to be tabulated and analyzed. The data collected from secondary and primary sources will be analyzed to obtain findings of the research. Statistical procedures will be clearly indicated. Quantitative as well qualitative data will be analyzed using the techniques that are available and easy to use. Simple statistical techniques will be espoused for analyzing data such as charts, diagram, figures percentage rank etc. so, qualitative and quantitative data will be analyzed, categorized and tabulated according to the objectives of the research study. 3.7 Research limitation Like every other researches, this research is also bound into certain limitations that has to be followed and considered while carrying out this research. There are certain limitations for this research which binds this research in a small boundary with restricted time frame. Hence, major limitation of this research is termed as the timetable that limits this research in a boundary of time frame for completion of this research. Further, limitation of this research also has been observed in the research method to be used which is in the sampling method to be used in this research. The limitation also can be observed in the scope of this research. Also, the research methodology of this research is chosen for the shorter span of time and less time consuming method due to restriction of time. So, this research may not shed much light on the impacts of social media but can be useful in order to carry out other researches in future regarding the same subject matter. 4. Anticipated findings After the analysis of data collected from the research, this report may shed light on various facts on social media and its impact on the fast food chains. So, we can assume that we can be able to shed light on the following points of the subject topic: Reveal the involvement of KFC in use of social media. Provide information on impact of social media on KFC. Provide information on advantage or disadvantage of social media regarding fast food chains. Provide suggestions on use of social media for benefit of fast food chains.