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Consumer Behavior To Fast Food
Consumer Behavior To Fast Food
A study of determinants impacting consumer food choice with reference to the fast food
consumption in UK-a case study of KFC.
ABSTRACT
This study is to understand the perceptions of the customers to the fast food in UK. The researcher
will explore how the determinants affect consumers fast food consumption and will identify various
influential factors impacting the choice of fast food among UK consumers with reference to KFC. An
empirical study will be done by the research himself to attain the objectives of the research. For this
a sample composites of 80 respondents will be constructed by simple sampling technique.
Collected data will be analyzed and presented by M-S Excel, Descriptive statistics (mean & stand.
deviation), frequency distribution.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Today in the developed countries and in urban areas of developing countries the major food
consumption trend is that more consumers are eating increasingly more meals outside of their
homes in the fast food sector. Atkins and Bowler (2001) say that, emphasis is increasingly being
placed on quick meal solutions due to the busier consumer lifestyle and dual-working families with
children. In their life the consumers are very busy. The time to them for performing their daily works
such as cooking, moving outside and taking leisure are becoming more and more squeezed.
However cooking is becoming a leisure activity for many people rather than a daily task. As a result
the emphasis on fast food items has become important. The industry of fast food is growing day by
day. This study will explore the impact of the factors in consuming fast food in UK in the context of
KFC.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the factors in consuming fast food in UK in the
context of KFC.
The core objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of the factors in consuming fast food in
UK. Other objectives are-
i. To identify the factors influencing the fast food consumption in the UK.
ii. To investigate the impact of the factors to the consumption of the fast food.
iii. To develop a food choice model keeping in view the consumer demographics and consumer
psychographics.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The researcher needed to cover the following questions to achieve the objectives of this study.
i. How different factors affect the choice of fast food in UK in the context of KFC?
ii. What are the factors influencing the fast food consumption in the UK?
iii. How much satisfied are the consumers of the KFC?
Colonel Harland Sanders founded KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, in 1952; though the idea of KFC's
fried chicken actually goes back to 1930. Sanders remains an important part of the company's
branding and advertisements, and "Colonel Sanders" or "The Colonel" is a metonym for the
company though he died in 1980,. The company adopted KFC, an abbreviated form of its name, in
1991.
Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Fast food is the worlds fastest growing food type and it is quick, reasonably priced and readily
available alternatives to home cooked food, (Goyal and Singh (2007). The industry of fast food is
growing day by day. This study will explore the impact of the factors in consuming fast food in UK in
the context of KFC.
2.2 Fast-food preferences and consumption patterns
Due to the emerging cultural diversity, different types of cooking programs, traveling a major change
in the customers tests and preferences has been seen during the last 20 years. Fast food as the
name implies can be defined as the food which is not identical to the other regular meal of the
person rather some kinds of simplicity and quickness features are incorporated to it. According to
Richardson and Aguir (2003), such kind of change in customers preferences and tastes facilitated
the fast food industry to be more sophisticated. Most of the USA and Canadian citizens usually take
their launch outside their home. This has created common trends for these towards counties
people to rely on the fast food items. Though most of the working people having less time and
leisure they usually take their meal in the way or with takeaways or in a fast food shop. The fast food
shops are generally located in the areas such as transportation terminal, service area of motorway,
crowding roadsides, parks and shopping mall, markets now days in place of work (Platania and
Donatella 2003). The major preferences of American customers ranging from age 12 to 24 are
mainly focused on lactation, delivery service, price of product and variety of product in the shop, but
the prices of product and novelties are critical points for the Canadian customers (Kara et al.,
1995). The quality, tests, nutritional value and cleanliness of the shop are major priority for the
American group of customer between age 46 to 55 while identifying the restaurants. Seating
capacity and value of nutritional are major preferences by Canadian. Speed of service and friendly
communications are required by the American ranging from age 25 to 45 years but the proper
quality of service and speed is required by Canadian. Proper emphasize should be given on the
ensuring the customer awareness regarding the nutritional value and the preferences of the young
and old customers (Brown et al., 2000). Davis and Smith (2004), through a same study performed
in London, demonstrated the significance related to the nutrition and insisted to ensure the proper
information in a printed form to be provided to the customers by the fast food shop keepers.
According to Richardson and Aguir, although it is thought that the fast food industry is a contribution
of America; the fish-n-chips style had an existence in England from 18th century as a shop where
the made foods were purchased by the lower class (especially working class). The fast food items
such as kevab, pizza, curry and Chinese noodles are obtained in England from foreign cultures i.e.
US and Canada. Hygienic fast food items in recent years have also been introduced.
In the fast food as well as restaurant industry the franchises of American companies have a
dominating power in England. The mentionable franchises are Famous Amos, Kentucky Fried
Chicken (KFC), Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, A& W, Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Shakeys
Pizza, Starbucks, Domino Pizza, Kenny Rogers Roasters, Outback Steak House and Haagen
Dazs. Around 82 percent of the consumption of fast food items in England was only by the students
(Schroeder and McEachern, 2005).
According to the Keynote (2003), nine major factors affect fast-food consumption; Social
Development, Economic Forces, Political Climate, Technological Development, Ecological
Development, Market Forecasts, Buying Groups, Equilibrium of Power and Regulatory
Framework. In short the factors can be called SEPTEMBER.
2.5 Food choice model
Here I have developed a model of food choice considering demographic and psychographic
variables explored in UK context.
2.6 Summary
Consumption of fast food is increasing tremendously across the world. Fast food as the name
implies can be defined as the food which is not identical to the other regular meal of the person
rather some kinds of simplicity and quickness features are incorporated to it. According to
Richardson and Aguir (2003), such kind of change in customers preferences and tastes facilitated
the fast food industry to be more sophisticated. Most of the USA and Canadian citizens usually take
their launch outside their home. Several factors influence the consumption of the fast food. This
study will investigate how these factors affect consumption of fast food in UK in the context of KFC.
Chapter -3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 OVERVIEW
In this chapter I explained the research procedure that I will follow in conducting the proposed
research. Here I described what research approach, method, and strategy I will follow. By which
methods I will collect required data and how way I will analyze them have also been described in this
chapter.
In general, exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory research approaches are available. Scholz and
Tietje, (2002) says, Exploratory approach is useful when the purpose is developing hypotheses,
models or theories. Therefore, I will use exploratory approach to explore the research objectives.
Dubois and Gadde, (2002) say, three are types of research method- inductive, deductive or
abductive from which the researcher uses the suitable one. Saunders et al (2007) says that when
a theory is being tested whether it is right or wrong deductive or quantitative research method is
helpful.
Saunders et al (2007) says, The Inductive or qualitative research method is suitable when their
needs hypotheses on a progressive basis to grow a theory and to draw the impact of the theory. A
qualitative research method exercises definite case studies and relies significantly on subjective
meaning given by respondents, (Burns & Grove, 1997). Hence, In this research the research
method in qualitative method.
According to Yin, (2003), Research strategy is classified into four areas; Such as case study,
experiments, surveys, histories and an archival analysis. Generally case study strategy is the most
followed research strategy. Yin, (2003) says that, when the research questions include how and
why the case study strategy is appropriate. I have chosen the case study strategy to explore the
research aim.
For the research purpose I have chosen KFC restaurant as the case company.
I will collect and use data from two sources. These are Secondary data and Primary data.
Secondary data is the data that have already been collected and used by someone. I will use
secondary data from different sources like- internet, textbooks, journals, articles, etc.
Primary data can be collected through experiments, survey, or observation. I will collect primary data
by the survey method of data collection.
In constructing the sample size I will simple random sampling technique. Simple sample technique
is sampling technique where each item of the population has equal probability to be selected. The
sample size is 80 for the proposed research.
I will use M-S Excel spreadsheet to analyze the collected data. I will also use descriptive statistics,
percentage analysis, and frequency distribution. Mean and standard deviation will be used as
descriptive statistics.
3.11 VALIDITY
According to Saunders et al., (2003) validity is the concern about the findings that whether they are
relevant to what they actually are. Yin (2003) suggests collect the chain of evidences which will
increase the validity of the study. Therefore I will save all evidences such as interview to increase
the validity.
3.12 RELIABILITY
Saunders et al., (2003) says that, The reliability of the research is whether the procedures will yield
the same results on other occasions or not, whether will the similar observation be reached by other
observers or not? Yin (2003) states that, the objective of reliability is to give assurance that if the
same research is done with the same cases by any other investigator again, he should get the
same findings and conclusions. Yin (2003) suggests keep proper documentation of the
procedures. Therefore I will do this to increase the reliability.
CONNNCLUSION
Today the industry of fast food is growing day by day. Fast food as the name implies can be defined
as the food which is not identical to the other regular meal of the person rather some kinds of
simplicity and quickness features are incorporated to it; such kind of change in customers
preferences and tastes facilitated the fast food industry to be more sophisticated. Various factors
affect the perception of the consumers towards the consumption of fast food. Competition in the
fast food is increasing day by day. So, companies have to know what factors influence the level of
fast food consumption.
This study is to understand the perceptions of the customers to the fast food in UK. The researcher
will explore how the determinants affect consumers fast food consumption and will identify various
influential factors impacting the choice of fast food among UK consumers with reference to KFC. An
empirical study will be done by the research himself to attain the objectives of the research. For this
a sample composites of 80 respondents will be constructed by simple sampling technique.
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