The impact of consumer behaviors on business strategies. A KFC Case Study.

This thesis focuses on the decision that companies face once they decide to move abroad: the struggle between the global integration theory and the local adaptation strategy. It is an analysis of how multinational companies find success in utilizing local adaptation once they open a franchise and how difficult but vital it is to find the balance between maintaining a brand identity unified all over the world while at the same time distinguishing its product based on the tastes and preferences of the local potential customers that inhabit the area the new shop is located in. To further study the practical strategies adopted by these kinds of companies a Case Study is also conducted, based on a questionnaire filed both by Chinese and Italian customers of the American fast food chain, in order to confront how the restaurant chain changes its approach once its potential clients belong to different cultures and their tasted are likely to vary from those of the original customers of the brand.