Bloomberg News is reporting that the KFC brand is defeating all other fast food brands for dominance in China. By getting in early, tailoring its menu to local tastes (hamburgers are foreign, while fried chicken is well accepted), and hiring local decision makers, KFC stores in China contribute 36% of parent company Yum’s global operating profit.
Bloomberg even reports that “Colonel Harland Sanders’s image is a far more common sight in many Chinese cities than that of Mao.”
Nothing breeds imitators like success—especially in China. When I last visited China, many cities boasted a local look-alike KFC brand contender. One wag has suggested this fake Chinese Col. Sanders might just be the famous General Tsao. . .
(Note: I know that KFC has updated their Col. Sanders logo, however, the Chinese copy is of the old logo, so I use the old one here for side-by-side comparison.)