American Fast Food in Chinese Market: A Cross-Culture Perspective : The Case of KFC and McDonald's

Culture differences play a significant role in the international marketing, which has drawn many researchers‟ attention. This dissertation will focus on how the cross-cultural environments influence the choice of marketing strategies. The theoretical framework of this study mainly contains cross-culture theories and 4P marketing strategy. These theories are put together in an analytical model where a connection between the two theories is explained that will be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical findings. The qualitative research strategy is employed in this dissertation. Utilizing the multiple case studies, we choose two sample companies both from USA. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews on the telephone. Data was also supplemented with secondary data such as company web pages and scientific articles. The conclusion can be drawn from this study is that culture differences influence the 4P marketing strategies in both of the companies in different ways. Language, value and customer behaviors of a national culture are main factors to affect the implementation of marketing strategy in the international markets