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Published on March 27, 2008

KFC is introducing a non-fried-chicken menu, starting with the Roasted Wing Hitz, priced at Bt49 per pack of three pieces, to respond to the growing health-conscious trend.

"Customers aged 20-29 are worried about high calories in fried food, because it might make them fat and less beautiful. Meanwhile, customers aged 40-50 are also highly concerned about that but for the different reason of health problems," Waewkanee Assoratgoon, marketing director for KFC at Yum Restaurants International (Thailand), said yesterday.

The new menu is the culmination of three years of discussions and market research by Yum and major KFC operator Central Restaurant Group (CMG).

The launch involves equipping all KFCs with hi-tech ovens at a cost of Bt350 million - with Yum chipping in Bt200 million and CMG B150 million - updating uniforms and slogan, and kicking off a Bt25-million marketing campaign.

The old, mainly red crew uniforms have been replaced with new ones in green and orange.

The "Spice In Your Life" slogan has moved over for "Live The Real Tasty Life".

The two partners hope the move will help create a perception of the fast-food chain as offering many choices of healthy dishes instead of only fried chicken. The new image is expected to double customer visiting frequency to twice a month and attract more patrons in their twenties.

That would translate into 15-per-cent sales growth at KFC this year.

To build wide awareness of the new cooking system and the uniform change, KFC will place advertisements through media channels like television, use building and Skytrain wraps and arrange marketing events.

Managing director Sran Smutkochorn said the focus of the new cooking system was not on reducing raw materials and operating costs in the long run. The company still had to see customer feedback to find out the best proportion of fried and non-fried offerings and study the market potential of any new non-fried selections to be brought out after this. Then it would have to see what raw materials would be needed for those menus.

Thailand is the fourth market to install the new oven, after China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, the new uniform was designed for the Thai market only but the chains in other countries can also apply the concept if they are interested.

Families with kids account for 40 per cent of KFC's customers here, followed by those in their twenties at 20 per cent, adults aged 30 and over at 20 per cent, and teens aged 15-19 at 10 per cent.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation