BENAZIR BHUTTO SHAHEED

UNIVERSITY LYARI

Benazir School Of Business BSB

FINAL PROJECT OF
Business Research Method

Topic
Impact of Public Relation On Consumer
Buying Behavior (A case Study Of KFC)

Under the Supervision Of

Dr. Nazia

Group Members
Urooba Ghani (B191133)
Syed Waseem Jaffri (B191127)

Dated: December 05, 2021

Introduction

Public relation is one of the significance way to manage the company reputation by building
good relation with its customers by providing favorable publicity, controlling unfavorable
rumors, or making good brand name and company good will. The Fast-Food industries are
facing comparative competition since the entry of several new Fast-Food blocks due to
globalization and a growth in franchise agreements, since new outlets are established on the
market initiating an increase in competition making it vital for each Fast-Food chain to
double their efforts to effective Public Relation strategies.

Consumer buying behavior is continuously changing due to change in technology, trends,

innovation, new products or availability of substitute that increases the competition in market.
Most of the world`s fast food chains spend a lot of money in advertising efforts but failed to
capture customers, Public relation is one of the tool that most of the chains neglect to use to
attract people. It is challenge for them to identify whether public relation has an effective
impact of consumer buying behavior.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a fast food chain which operates in the highly competitive
Fast-Food industry of the world which spend huge on marketing and advertisement activities
to capture peoples.

Research Problem

Consumer Buying Behavior.

Research Question

Is there any relation between public relation (PR) and consumer buying behavior (CBB)?

Objectives of the Study

To scrutinize the relation between public relation (PR) and consumer buying behavior (CBB).

Justification

This study show the impact of public relation on consumer buying behavior, where quality of
the product matters a lot, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is the fast food venture whose
customers puts stake at quality.

Limitations
This study is only limited to the fast food ventures and their response towards the quality and
hygienic product to attract customers and make strong relation with them.

Scope

The study will be beneficial in two aspects firstly it will deepen the knowledge of marketing
activities as it is linked with marketing and advertisement and secondly the results of this
research will allow a comprehensive judgment of the impact of Public Relations on
Consumer’s Buying Behavior within the local Fast-Food industry that will be beneficial for
KFC to evaluate its public relation.

Literature Review

Public Relation

Public relation is one of the significance way to manage the company reputation by building
good relation with its customers by providing favorable publicity, controlling unfavorable
rumors, or making good brand name and company good will. Public relation is the activities
that arranged by marketing group of the company to promote the company and protect it`s
goodwill and advertise the products of the company to change the consumer unfavorable
buying behavior.

Public Relations is a huge mass-promotion tool that is essentially used to make and maintain
good relations with the costumer of an organization. Public relation involves different variety
of programmers designed to advertise or protect a company’s image or its individual products
(Open University of Mauritius, 2014, p. 41).

Now a day`s fast food has become common and a significant part of meal. Kentucky Fried
Chicken (KFC) has been one of the most successful company in the fast food industry of
world. Kentucky Fried Chicken, is founded by Colonel. Harland Sanders, targeted on
providing the best and hygienic chicken. The Fast-Food industries are facing comparative
competition since the entry of several new Fast-Food blocks due to globalization and a
growth in franchise agreements, since new outlets are established on the market initiating an
increase in competition making it vital for each Fast-Food chain to double their efforts to
effective Public Relation strategies.

Publics of Public Relations

While planning to conduct Public Relations activities, a company must needs to formulate its
Publics in order to boost its relationship with them. According to Kayode, 2014, p. 286,
Publics are classified as being Internal public or External public.

 Internal Publics
i. Employees – They are like the hands and feet of the company. They may want fair
wages, good working conditions, promotion, and insurance and retirement
schemes and facilities.
ii. Shareholders – Shareholders are legal and partner owners of the company that
seek dividends, equity’s growth, and a fair return on their investment.
iii. Suppliers – Suppliers are the business associates of the company who provide raw
materials to the organization. They seek for fair dealings and a continuing
relationship with organization.

 External Publics
i. Customers – Customers want a dependable and reliable supply of quality products,
good service and good prices.
ii. Financial Community – The Financial Community seeks for accurate and sufficient
information on the company in order to advise investor’s about the firm’s records,
progress and capabilities.
iii. The Press – This communication media seeks for open hand of communication with
the company, fair, reliable and honest treatment.

The Role of Public Relations

Harris (1991) highlighted that Public Relations plays an important role in the following tasks;

1. It helps in the launching of new products.

2. It also Helps in assisting the repositioning of mature products.

3. Create interest in a product category.

4. Influences specific target groups of customers.

5. Protect and defend products that have encountered public problems.

6. Make corporate image in a way that reflects favorably on it products.

Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer Buying Behavior is a newly arrived issue in marketing but it has grown
significantly over the recent years. The study of consumer buying behavior has been revealed
as very significant because intentionally or unintentionally each and every consumer. As
stated earlier, with most industries, organizations and sectors combined, today’s marketplace
has become dynamic and rapidly revolving. A professor of Marketing, Roger Blackwell
(2005) said, “The 21st century is the century of the consumer”. Thus, in order to succeed in
any business, it is important for businessmen to know everything about consumers over
aspects such as what they want, they have, they think, how they work, how they spend their
money and time (Open University of Mauritius Buyer Behavior Manual, Mrs V. Gooria, p. 2)

Types of Consumers/Buyers

There are two fundamental types of consuming entities: Personal consumer and
Organizational consumer.

 Personal Consumer

Personal Consumers are those consumers who buy goods and services for their personal use.
That is the product or service is bought by an individual who is considered as being the end
user in most of the cases. For example: buying a pair of Nike shoes for wearing or buying a
apple mobile phone for personal usage. Engel, Blackwell and Mansard (2005) stated that
“consumer behavior is the actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and
services for personal consumption”.

 Organizational Consumer

Organizational Consumers are those consumer who purchase products and services in order
to run their respective organizations. Organizational consumers are categorized as either
being profit organizations like erion, Ferrari etc. or non-profit organizations such as schools,
prisons, hospitals, NGOs among others. Compared to personal consumers, organizational
consumers are more risk adverse as they are much more involved in making decisions for the
particular purchase of product.

Types of Buying Behaviors

In the economic point of view, human wants are unlimited but the resources available to
satisfy these wants are limited. Thus, it is important for any consumer to think rationally and
marginally before making any decision. Buying behaviors vary from one purchase to another
purchase according to the product or service being bought. For example; the buying behavior
triggered when purchasing a car is different than the one associated to the purchase of a
motor bike. This simple example demonstrates that the more expensive the purchase is, the
more information the consumer requires before purchasing.

Henry Assael (2005) identified four types of consumer buying behavior which are basically
based on buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands and values while
purchasing any product. The types of consumer buying behavior are;

 Complex Buying Behavior,

 Habitual Buying Behavior,
 Dissonance Buying Behavior,
 Variety Seeking Behavior

Consumer Decision Making Process

A consumer is capable to purchase several kinds of different products; the latter still goes
through decision process. The consumer decision making process includes 5 steps which
have been identified as those through which a consumer passes through when considering
making the purchase of a good, product or service (Engel, Blackwell and Kollat 1968). Each
stage is an important one for a marketer as analyzing them that will help to better understand
what surrounds and influences the purchase of a product or service and decision making of
consumer.

As the purchasing behaviors and attitudes of the consumers are not the same and vary with
each aspect, most of them have different purchasing patterns. Generally speaking, most
consumers follow the 5 stage buying process in the case of expensive and highly sensitive
item. However, when it come about daily necessary products, consumers rarely follow all the
stages of the process (Peter and Olson 2005 p. 168).

The five steps of the buying decision process are as under (Quester, Pettigrew,

Kopanidis and Hill, 2014, p. 20):

 Problem Recognition
 Information Search
 Evaluation of Alternatives
 Purchase
 Post-Purchase Evaluation
Factors affecting Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior is a complex and a dynamic processes of deciding what product
to buy and when to buy, how among others. All of these are depended on these several
factors

which are basically uncontrollable. These factors is also known as determinants of consumer
buying behavior affect the buying behavior of consumers often. Marketers have the duty to
analyze and understand the influence of these factors on people so that they are able to make
sustainable and effective marketing plans and strategies to appeal to their target customer
therefore “The marketer has to know which type people are involved in the buying decision
and what role each person is playing, so that marketing strategies can also be focused at these
people”(Kotler et al, 1994).

Impact of Public Relations on Consumer Buying Behavior

Public Relations is known to be a powerful and effective promotional activity to interact

consumer’s buying behavior effectively. According to Brown, buying behavior means the
decision making process that we had observed. This means that Public Relations is an
effective and efficient way of influencing the buying behavior of consumers as well as for
making strong relationships between the company and consumers. This is supported by
Fortunato who reported that Public Relations and promotional strategies play a major role in
selecting and arranging mass media content that could change public opinion and behavior.

Public Relations is the activities are done and directed to specific target consumer groups
such as customers, distributors and competitors. Tom Alstyle condone that consumers are
motivated by Public Relations and that their way of actions are changed which turn them to
be the loyal consumer of the entity and this is the reason why Public Relations is the most
effective and efficient indirect mode of communication. This is also supported by Destrin and
Iskandar who stated that a loyal consumers make frequent purchase of same items of same
brands. Thus this means that effective Public Relations results on the development of entity
goodwill and mutual understanding between consumers and entity.

3. Research Methodology

Research Philosophy

Research Philosophy is one of the important element which a researcher needs to consider
when conducting the research. Research Philosophy refers to the way in which data about a
particular phenomenon needs to be collected, analyzed and used. There are four main
research methodologies As Ontology, Epistemology, Positivism and Interpretivism that are
used for conducting a good research .

Research Design

In this study quantitative research is used as research design where the data is collected in
numeric form.

Qualitative research method is used to explain, describe, explore and interpret a particular
analysis about a particular observation. Qualitative research also gives the opportunity to
make theories about a particular observation.

For example for this specific research, qualitative research will help to describe, explain,
explore and build theories over whether Public Relations have an impact on consumer’s
buying behavior within the Fast-Food industry (KFC).

Procedure

The data is collected in the form of questionnaire that will be filled by the people who are
regular consumer of fast food product of KFC and analyze their thoughts.
A questionnaire is a research instrument tool which is consists of many questions related to
the topic of the research for the purpose of collecting information from respondents. There
are many methods through which a questionnaire can be carried out.

For example; a questionnaire can be a type of written interview, carried out face to face, post
or via telephone and computer or written feedback.

Population

The population is student of Benazir Bhutto shaded university lyari.

Sample and Sampling Methods

Questionnaire are distributed among the people by convenient sampling technique and collect
the most accurate data.

Instrument selection

Likert scale is used to measure the data in the form of numeric data.

Variables

The student of BBSUL who consumers fast food are the variable for the research report.

Hypothesis

There is a relation between public relation and consumer buying behavior.

Plan of Analysis

The statistical analysis tool which is selected for this research is SPSS. SPSS statistics is a
software that is used for interactive or batched statistical analysis. The free-trial version will
be used for the analysis of the data collected.
 REFERENCES

https://www.britcham.org.sg/static-pages/consumer-watch

https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy/careers-advice/what-pr

http://www.eclosia.com/en/activity/kfc-pickneat

https://kadamb.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/impact-of-public-relations/

https://hubpages.com/business/PR-Campaign-of-KFC

https://www.inc.com/robbie-abed/kfc-just-handled-a-public-relations

https://www.lexpress.mu/article/327286/cancrelat