Introduction
The only fried chicken fast-food restaurant brand in America is named KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) which has its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. It had 22,621 restaurants location in almost 150 countries till December 2019 which makes it the second-largest restaurant chain in the world after McDonald's which is completely based on sales. The chain is a part of the Yum! Brands which is also a restaurant company that is owning Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Colonel Harland Sanders (1890-1980) is the founder of the fast-food restaurant brand KFC. He was a businessman from Corbin, Kentucky who started selling fried chicken from the roadside stand during the Great Depression. The first KFC was opened by him in Utah after knowing the potential of the restaurant franchise model. The fast-food industry started knowing the brand as the name of KFC,s chicken and one of the fried chicken brands became famous all over the World.
In the case study, the reason behind the failure of the brand in Israel is discussed and it shows the company's effort and struggles behind the intercultural challenges and the way of competition. The difficulties that the brand faced are the cross-cultural community problem and this made the brand unsuccessful in Israel. As the brand is from America and with a totally different culture, it became difficult for the brand KFC to flourish in Middle East countries. The theories of Hofstede about culture are assessed and in this situation, Trompenaar's model of national cultural disparities is examined to have the differentiation of the two country's different cultures. For having a hold on Israel the brand tried new methods for making their fried chicken productive in the country and it started producing its product kosher chicken. It also replaced the milk powder coating with soya-based products that again came to failure. The soya-based coating was not at all fruitful as the batter didn't stick to the chicken well and the quality of the fried chicken failed to become economical.
Findings
Cultural orientation was the main problem in the situation as it has its headquarters in America. The culture of America is totally different from that of the culture in Israel but the company is American based company and already had expanded its business all over the world (Safran, 2019). The brand tried to introduce non-dairy menus for attracting local customers but the plan failed as according to the local people the brand was disrespecting their 100 years old cultural traditions (Kaplan, 2021). With the merge of local and international business, the company had to fight much for the competition which results in the formation of conflicts between kosher and no kosher meals. The primary faults that the company had in establishing its business in Israel are:
The ignorance of the brand on Israel tradition that is centuries-old: Israel is the country having the highest number of Jews in the world. The country has various religious laws and local people need to follow those (Allal and Carrilero, 2021). The food that is cooked in the country is called kosher food which is almost the same as the term Hall food. According to them, food should never be a mixture of meat and dairy but it was not applicable to KFC and it was doing this every day all over the world, even they did it in Israel. Dairy is one of the main ingredients of the brand KFC and it is a big no for the Jewish culture as they eat kosher food (Datta, 2022). This made the brand disloyal to the local people of Israel.
KFC's nondairy menu didn't attract the local taste buds: KFC knew that the brand has to change its process of making food for local customers and they introduced Kosher food in 2009 in which the milk coating is replaced by a soya-based coating which they think would be successful (Mandelkern and Oren, 2022). Wherever the taste of the chicken changed and the new taste could not make a success in the local community, also the soya-based coating didn't stick with the chicken well and it made a process failure.
Tough competition was there: Like the other market, the brand was having tough competitors who were continuously trying to earn their slice of bread (Boyer, 2020). There were many local restaurants that were continuously having competition and the giant brand McDonald's which was there and made the situation worse with respect to the competition.
The contrast of customers goes beyond handling: In the country, there is vast contrast of customers (Volokh, 2022). There were customers who want taste more than the kosher food and on the other hand, there are customers who do not want the taste but they want the kosher food in their meal (Melnik, 2019). This contrast made it difficult for the brand to have fame in Middle East countries and made it a business failure.
The Israelis needed a better option for visiting KFC: Chicken is the staple food of the country and most of the household product is based on chicken (Yang, 2020). The local people needed a good reason to visit KFC as the brand was not having any USP left after introducing the kosher chicken which was also not up to the mark in the taste. The Israelis didn’t find any reason to visit KFC as they could get more tasty food in their homes and also at a cheaper price.
A theory is described with respect to understanding the fact for which the company KFC has failed to take over the business in Israel (Lukman, 2021). Hofstede's cultural dimensional theory: The country Israel is the only country in the World that has a larger population of immigrant groups and the culture is dominated over the native culture of the country.
Power distance: According to the dimension the score of the country is 13 points which are low in comparison with the other countries due to the belief in independency, equal rights and empowerment. The country's respect is in the hand of expertise.
Individualism: It is the degree of independence that a society has to maintain among its members. The society is a blend of individualist and collectivistic cultures which means the society has a main focus on the parent-children relationship rather than the relation of uncle and aunt (Rahmawati, 2020). The families have many children and close relations with the other family members are part of this society.
Masculinity: The country is having a high score in masculinity and that means the country is based on masculine dominance (Zein, 2020). The feminine society of the country has low importance and according to them, the best is the masculine society and the feminine is the society taken for granted.
Uncertainty avoidance: The country Israel is very strong in uncertainty avoidance and scores 81. According to them, there is an emotional need for rules, people have an inner urge to work hard, time is money, and precision and punctuality are the norms (Datta, 2022). The culture with the high score in domination is very expressive which is shown among them.
Long-term orientation: The low score in the dimension indicates that the culture of Israel has preferences for normative thoughts (Zein, 2021). The people of the country believe in absolute truth and they are normative in their thinking (Katz, 2022). They are having great respect for tradition and they believe in achieving quick results rather than ideas to save for the future.
Indulgence: It is defined as the fact of people in which they try to control their desires and impulses. The country is having no score in this respect and has no impact on the dimension.
KFC had many reasons for its failure in the country of Israel, but the main reason for which the company failed to do business is the cross-cultural diversities and the fact that the company has ignorance of the primitive tradition of the country Israel (Windhauser, 2020). KFC however has tried to uplift the business by changing the form of the menu but still couldn't hold the business due to the lack of taste for the new process of food preparation.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that KFC has opened its stores in different regions across the world. It has developed a good market but failed to develop its market in Israel. This organization is connected with the food industry thus it is necessary for the management of KFC to look after the quality of food and bring fresh and healthy products to its customers. They are needed to be concerned about maintaining the quality of food and serving tasty food before the customers. It is necessary for the organization to adopt proper strategies for the development of the organization and to attract more customers toward it. This is necessary for the organization to implement proper strategies that can help them to target loyal customers to enhance its business and expand the business throughout the world. These concepts were adopted by the organization and in spite of that they failed to attract the Israelis toward their food. This situation occurred with KFC because it was found that the food habit of the people of Israel was different.
The concept of the Israelis toward the food was different and did not match the recipes of KFC. The people of Israel believed that no food should be a mixture of milk and chicken but KFC presented the food as a combination of milk and chicken. They needed to change the procedure of preparation of food to attract the Israelis toward it, which was not done by the management of KFC. The preference of the people of Israel was different from that of the food of KFC. They wanted to get unique food that was not delivered by the organization. This led to the fall of KFC in Israel and this affected their business, thus KFC did not continue the business in Israel. Hence, it could be concluded that, the reason behind the fall of KFC in Israel was failing to adopt the regional culture of Israel in the organization.
Recommendation
KFC is a well-reputed organization and they have adopted different strategies and techniques for the development of the organization and expansion of its business. They have opened different sectors across the world but failed to grow their business in Israel. They need to bring some exchanges in their working strategy and strategic implementation in the organization. The development of KFC and the improvement of its business would require maintaining different things, which can help them to open new sectors and grow its business (Uddin, 2020). They are required to bring improvements to attract more customers and increased its sale, along with that, they would also require to bring changes for the sake of their stakeholders and staff. Thus they can be given some recommendations which can help the organization grow further.
It can be recommended to KFC to KFC bring changes in the menu as per the demand of the people located in that region. It is well known that the food of KFC is preferred by many people but it was not chosen by the Israelis. The organization can develop the business in Israel by bringing food as per the choice of Israelis. People choose food that is unique and tasty and along with that, they go to get the food that they don't get at home. Thus, the preparation of food based on their choice can be helpful to attract people toward it.
They can be recommended to change the procedure of food preparation. It was found that the Israelis do not prefer the combination of meat and dairy, thus, they did not visit KFC. The change in the procedure of food preparation needs to keep in mind about the choice of the customer. They can attract the customer of Israel by bringing products that are not a combination of dairy and meat. This changed procedure of food preparation is preferred by the people of Israel thus, this can help to attract Israel customers. Along with that, it can help them to expand their business in Israel too.
It can be recommended to the management of KFC to enhance the customer service strategy. Customers are the key component of any organization and it is necessary to implement strategies in the organization to satisfy the needs of the customers. Thus, it is necessary for the organization to make effective interactions with the customers (online.kfc.co.in, 2023). This can help them to know the opinions of the customers and get their reviews, which would be helpful to the organizations to learn the need of the customers and bring changes accordingly. Along with that, it is necessary to maintain proper relationships and behaviors with the customers to make them bring positive views regarding the organization. This can help them to improve their business and help the organisation to get more customers.
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