Golani Brigade

Operating in over 110 countries with 38,000 restaurants is now ranked #214 in the Fortune 500 list. It has opened four new restaurants each day of the year in 2010 and their start of expansion was based on co-branding. Most of the expansion took place outside of the US as the domestic market (QSR segment) was saturated. They mostly expanded through acquisition in different countries with their main focus being China.

Co-branding strategy is being pursued by many organizations as it leads to increased transparency between shareholder value and brand strategies. It also helps to increase cash flow through increased number of touch points between brands.

This strategy has been to pair KFC with Taco Bell or Pizza Hut with Taco Bell. The co-branding approach has added 30% to its sales compared to singe brand units (Enz, 2005). As the competitors such as McDonald's and Burger King were trying to reinvent their strategies, Yum Brands adopted an unusual track of combining diverse brands in a single restaurant. This led to increased sales and improved efficiency. Moreover satisfying different customer segment under one restaurant is crucial, as it leverage to discontinue the restaurants, that make inefficient sales volume and be cost efficient.

Apart from offering different products to a diverse segment, Yums has responded to the obesity and health concerns also by co-branding with health organizations. As such it partnered with charitable organization for cure cancer and to sell pink buckets of fried chicken to uphold the reputation among socially conscious customers and regulatory bodies.

Their biggest expansion is in China and they have adopted the localization strategy and localized the menu options (Burchett, 2011) together With a superior distribution network, presence in over 700 cities in China. That apart, they have also introduced fine dining in India and China which is different from the fast food sector. They have their own fast food Chinese restaurant - East Dawning - and the brand association with KFC has a strong impact on the Chinese consumers.

To gain competitive advantage, Yums pursued the hybrid strategy. As per Porter's generic strategies, their strategy could fall under the differentiation strategy as they offered higher perceived value by differentiating products. They did not go for cost-leadership strategy because they did not want to be perceived as low-cost brand. However, based on Bowman's Strategy Clock, this is a hybrid strategy. Their prices are at par with the competitors but they offer higher perceived value than their competitors through their multi-branding strategy. The combination of good quality and competitive prices together with unique training methodology based on CHAMPS (stands for Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy, Maintenance, Product and Speed) supported by Customer Mania, Team Work, Recognition, Coaching & Support, Believe in People, Executional Excellence,