Addressing The Translation Error In KFC’s Chinese Market Entry

Need for KFC to launch in the Chinese Market

KFC is a fast food chain that operates in various countries across the world. It identifies countries whose markets seem promising and venture in them with the sole aim of becoming the market leader. The chain has been operational in China for more than 30 years and it holds about 40% of the fast food market share in China. However, there have been many challenges that it has faced in China such as the problem of translation of its tagline.

Need for KFC to launch in the Chinese Market

In China, various reasons gave KFC a reason to invest here. Firstly, the Chinese fast food market was one of the most promising markets in the world. The Chineseconsumer has been known over the years as being curious and experimental, and this gave KFC as an upper hand as it opened its first restaurant in Qianmen in 1987, Liu (2008, P. 12). Evidence points out that thousands of Chinese were eager to have a bite of the western food, and KFC rode on this whirlwind advantage to become successful.

Another need for KFC to venture into the Chinese fast food market was to bridge the gap that existed in the industry. There were not many Western fast food restaurants in China at the time, and therefore, there was the need to ensure that the West was well represented in the East. Many consumers in China always wanted to taste Western food, but they had little or no exposure to them.

Therefore, in line with their objective of venturing to all corners of the world, KFC had to consider this issue.

Finally, KFC’s strategies and policies urged them to expand o china. The local partner’s strategy allowed it to partner and collaborated with local brands. They went ahead and created a local team internally, whereby the leadership team was drawn from Taiwan. KFC had the confidence of venturing into this market because their team knew the industry in China, the culture as well as the global standards that

What could KFC do to ensure customers still visit KFC after the ‘translation error’?

One of the most important decisions would change the slogan that resulted in the translation error. The translation error offended the Chinese consumer because it was understood as being rude and uncivilized according to the Chinese Culture (Bell & Shelman 2011, P. 22).

Therefore, KF would attract more customers to their restaurants if they changed the slogan to a more civilized one and one that is clear tot eh Chinese consumer. Additionally, customers would still visit KFC because KFC would have shown the Chinese customers that they cared about what they felt and that making the customer happy was one of their first priorities.

KFC would have ensured that customers still frequented their restaurants b employing more Chinese attendants Liu (2008, P. 12). This strategy would work wonderfully through showing the Chinese consumers that it meant well even though the translation had offended them. The consumers would be confident that just as the attendants were one of their own, they had nothing to worry about buying from KFC. Many consumers feel secure and an urge to be loyal to a brand whenever they are served with people who they can identify with concerning their background and social standings (Bell & Shelman 2011, P. 22).

What could KFC do to ensure customers still visit KFC after the ‘translation error’?

What KFC should have done before entering the Chinese Market to ensure brand success

According to Thangavel (2018), One of the first steps that KFC should have taken was to ensure that they had a comprehensive study of the Chinese market before their entry. It is evident that they carried out some, but it was not done exhaustively. For instance, there was the need to ensure that they took into consideration the issues of language. The Chinese translated the tagline “finger licking good” to mean “eat your fingers off.” Though KFC did not intend to communicate such a message, it was important for them to ensure thatwhatever they used as a tagline would be suitable for the Chinese translation to avoid the apprehension that came as a consequence.

The brand would have been successful if KFC chose the right local partner to collaborate with. Collaboration with local partners who are reputable in a certain  market enhances the chances of brand success. Therefore, KFC made the mistake of not choosing the right partner who would have ensured that the brand became successful and accepted by the locals. Instead, KFC only involved locals through establishing a management team from Taiwan that they thought would capture the innocent.

The other step that needed to be taken was to ensure the complex legal environment in China was well understood. As a brand, KFC needed to take into consideration the fact that business law was something new in the Chinese market and was constantly evolving. Therefore, it was important to ensure that the brand was knowledgeableregarding the heavy regulation of foreigninvestment from the state. KFC justassumed that the Chinese market was just like the American market regarding business law and consequently, they usually found themselves at loggerheads with the state, thus lowering the brand reputation.

Solution to the problem

The KFC translation error in the Chinese market was costly. However, there is the need to ensure that such an issue does not happen in any other market to avoid losses and lower brand reputation Blablurn (2017). The most viable solution to such a problem would be to ensure that the locals have been engaged in the process of slogan and taglines translation in case the market does notuse English as their primary way of communication. For instance, whenever

KFC comes with a slogan, it should not be translated KFC itself but by nativespeakers of the language used in the target market. In the Chinese market, for example, they should have collaborated with employees who formed the management team from Taiwan and come up with a tagline that would not offend anybody. Besides, theproblem would be solved by ensuring that KFC understood that the unofficial phrases coined from the English language are different from what is coined from theChinese language. The level of understanding between the people fromthese two different markets is different. Therefore, the use of the local community would be very instrumental to avoid a repeat of such a mistake.

When KFC plans to enter into another foreign market in the future, some recommendations should be taken into consideration. Franchising is one of the steps that should be considered. As a brand, KFC should license some other businesses to open branches of the restaurant. The franchises, on the other hand, are going to pay a certain fee in accordance o their agreement with KFC. This strategy is cheap and would enhance the brand name of KFC such that it shall be able to penetrate more regions that could be possible if KFC did it alone (Liu 2008, P. 12). Additionally, there will be no maintenance costs that will accrue to KFC because the franchises are going to foot their bills and cost of running. KFC should incorporate direct exporting before it has entered into a new market.In this case, there would be direct selling to the market that the chain is trying to break into. The aim of direct exporting is to see how well a brand does in the target market and what needs to be improved to make it more viable. Once KFC has obtained data regarding sales in this respect, they shall be able to determine whether they should venture into the market Another recommendation related to the above mentioned is piggyback. In this case, KFC would start selling products directly to domestic companies in the countrywhere they aim to start operating. Such companies have international presence, and this would be important in assisting KFC to make decisions on which market topenetrate. The process of allowing the companies to present KFC products to international agencies would provide the different international markets

Conclusion

KFC is an international chain that has been successful in the various international markets that it has entered in the past. The Chinese translation blunder was a fail that threatened to derail its operation in China, though it recovered after a while. However, the chain came to understand that their market entry strategy concerning differences in language and understanding was the key point that resulted to this. Therefore, the recommendations that have been provided are going to be an important tool for KFC in future as they plan to expand into foreign countries.

References

Liu, W.K., 2008. KFC in China: Secret recipe for success.John Wiley & Sons (Asia).

Bell, D.E. and Shelman, M.L.,2011.KFC’s radical approach to China. Blablurn. (2017). KFC China In troduces:

CHIZZA.https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ kfc-china-introduces-chizza.1387511/ Thangavel. (2018). Piggyback Marketing.

https://www.slideshare.net/kavipriyaThang avel/piggybank-marketing Borad B. Sanjay. (2009). Franchising. Available at

https://efinancemanagement.com/corporate -restructuring/franchising