KFC McDonald's Attacks Coffee Market Fast Food Giants Siege Coffee Franchises

KFC freshly ground coffee does not have a separate counter and seating area.

At 08:30 in the morning, Miss Wang, a white-collar worker on the 48th floor of Raffles Plaza, routinely buys a cup of coffee to the office. It's just that on this day, instead of choosing a regular Starbucks, she turned a corner, walked into a KFC restaurant from the side door, and bought a large mocha for 19 yuan.

Perhaps there will be more and more such scenes in the future. KFC has announced that it will launch freshly ground coffee in 1000 restaurants in no less than 20 cities in 2015, coupled with McCoffee, its old rival McDonald's across the country. fast food giants have challenged the traditional coffee chain represented by Starbucks.

KFC

Freshly ground coffee highlights the ratio of performance to price

On the 12th of this month, KFC launched a series of freshly ground coffee products in more than 300 restaurants in Beijing, the second city after Shanghai opened in early November 2014. In a short period of time, more than 600 KFC stores have joined the competition in the coffee market. According to he Yong, vice president of brand planning of KFC, 1000 restaurants will launch freshly ground coffee in 2015, distributed in "no less than 20 cities".

It is not on a whim for KFC to lay out its freshly ground coffee business so lavishly. Careful consumers will find that freshly ground coffee has quietly appeared in some KFC restaurants in Shanghai, Beijing and other places since 2009. He Yong said that KFC had tried different coffee beans, coffee machines and processes, and "at least four series of coffee products were launched during this period." finally, after a series of consumer research and sales data comparison, the products officially sold on a large scale will be today's freshly ground coffee series.

Different from the recent efforts to use Korean star endorsements to promote new hamburger products, KFC launched the marketing strategy of freshly ground coffee, whether it is pricing from 10 yuan or marketing activities, all adhere to the word "low-key". A reporter from the Business Daily saw yesterday in a KFC restaurant in people's Square that there was no independent counter and seating area for coffee grinding. On the freshly ground coffee price board above the ordering counter, there are even the prices of cola, juice drinks and other drinks, but the prices of several types of coffee are more conspicuous. After the reporter bought a large latte, a waiter went to a coffee machine on the right side of the counter, directly pressed the "latte" button, and later brought out a cup of freshly ground coffee.

The whole buying process is not much different from consuming a hamburger or an order of French fries, which may be the intention of KFC: there is no need for other "gimmicks", only to highlight the value for money. The reporter saw on the price board that the cheapest small cup of American coffee sells for 10 yuan, while the large cup mocha sells for the highest price of 19 yuan. KFC sources said, "compared with similar coffee market pricing, this price is very competitive."

McCoffee

There are more than 800 stores in the country.

McDonald's, KFC's old rival, does not regard price as its main competitive factor in the coffee market. In McCoffee, the cheapest small cappuccino is 12 yuan, most of the medium cup products are concentrated in the price range of 13-19 yuan, and the large cup is more than 20 yuan. This price is higher than KFC, but it has a certain advantage compared with Starbucks, which focuses on the price of 30 yuan.

McCoffee puts more emphasis on its "experience". Although most of the McCoffee models still belong to McDonald's restaurants, there is a clear distinction between product settings, guest design and staffing. McCoffee has a separate counter for selling cakes, muffins and even fashionable macarons in addition to all kinds of coffee, snow ice and tea. In terms of guest design, McCoffee generally has its own seating area, which provides sofa seats more comfortable than fast food restaurants. In addition, "professional barista" is also the selling point of McCoffee. In early 2014, McCoffee had more than 3300 Barista (baristas). McDonald's sources told the Business Daily: "in McCoffee, baristas are a special recruitment team, they also need to receive irregular advanced training."

The price is slightly lower, while the style and atmosphere are more similar to the McCoffee model of the general coffee chain, which began in Australia and was introduced to China in 2009. Although this time is ten years later than Starbucks' entry into China, it has developed rapidly relying on the advantage of close integration with McDonald's restaurants. So far, the number of McCoffee stores in the country has exceeded 800. Among them, the number of McCoffee stores in Shanghai reached 100 in January 2014.