What is it that comes to your mind when you think of KFC? Well, I guess it is the great taste of chicken created by Colonel Harland Sanders and the red signature color of the brand. In India, KFC has very high brand equity among chicken lovers and another feature the has led to the success of these multinational chain of restaurants is the experience they provide to the customer in terms of taste, varieties, ambiance, etc.
As KFC is one of the highly recognized brands for chicken, people associate and connect to it. KFC's red signature color that is seen on its signage and instore arrangements, people tend to generalize the red color of a food outlet as KFC, which is assurance of great quality chicken.
Well, this results in what is called stimulus generalization, wherein customers tend to generalize the offerings of various organizations on the basis of brand equity built by the strongest player in the category. I came across a food outlet here in Bangalore called BFC with red signage and red interiors. I guess BFC stands for Bangalore Fried Chicken. They have used the red color so that customers generalize the stimulus provided by their offerings as equivalent to KFC.
Stimulus generalization is used by marketers to extend their brands in the same category to leverage the high brand equity of a brand to its various brand extensions. Also, it is used by people to create duplicate products by copying the graphic labels. BFC is one such case of duplication using what marketers refer to as stimulus generalization.
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6 comments:
i found this really funny, but i guess this is the best strategy to attract customers who just recognise thr brand thru th display(esp.red color in dis case, n similar name).As u say thy hve evn tried to paint thr interior red in color, it shows thy r trying to position thmselves vry similar to KFC.
But do u think, promoting yo own brand by replicatin othr is a gud idea??do u think it will wrk out fr thm?
To add on to this, i have come across such many local brands which try to name there brand very similar to the brands famous in market..and u see these brands esp. in remote areas.
i wonder what must be there strategy behind this...
Well, the outlet wasn't a food chain and I think was owned by a small trader. As such, he doesn't have a brand whose image would get tarnishing by copying KFC.
Also, it is not targeting the customers of KFC but the people who can't go to KFC for constraints like finance. As such, BFC may fulfill the aspirational need of target consumers to experience the service and ambiance if a KFC like outlet.
I hope you got the answer to your speculation in my earlier comment.
thanks for enlightning me with your views..i agree to you completely.May be i was wrong to relate unrelated things.
Thanks
Well, very nice relation of observations to "Stimulus generalization".
I liked it. I would like to refer to another of it. It might not be an example of "Stimulus generalization" exactly but for sure its marketing magic :).
If you have seen TATA Docomo's Logo's style carefully. It contains only 2 O's but still anyone would read it as TATA Docomo's (3 O's).
Thats what is called Marketing Magic:)
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