HW 2: Localizing KFC

This essay is an analysis of a public sign/logo of a private business establishment. The essay has three objectives: 1) describe briefly the profile of the business establishment; 2) describe its sign/logo; and 3) show how the sign reflects local realities. Ultimately, I argue that even as the local business establishment uses the ‘global’ to its advantage, it still is able to assert its local identity by using the language of the local community in its sign.

The data are composed of the sign itself, interviews with the two service crew members of the establishment (on behalf of the unavailable owner) and interviews with seven random customers (male and female, ranging from 18 to 45 years old).

Business first . . .

            The Kanto Fried Chicken (hereafter KFC) is estimated to belong under Small & Medium Enterprise (SME). It sells fried chicken in different cuts (whole, drumstick, thigh, chicken skin) for a range of prices. Within just a year, it already has 15 branches scattered in 13 barangays and 2 villages. The specific branch discussed here is on Chorillo St., Barangay Barangka, Marikina City near my boarding house.  

            Barangka is a local community where one middle-class subdivision lies beside households of working class people. KFC is situated at the street corner leading to the entrance of Barangka. A tricycle terminal is just opposite KFC where tricycle drivers wait for passengers. The street corner lies along Marcos National Highway where traffic is very busy for the whole day as jeepneys and buses unload and load passengers mostly, local employees and students. Across from the street corner is a shopping mall where people can buy groceries and enjoy meals from most of the country’s most popular fastfood chain which of course serve fried chicken. This location seems strategic for KFC because it is near to the passengers’ terminal where it is easy for tricycle drivers and passengers to drop by and buy their viand for supper. It is also nearer and cheaper compared to the fatsfood chain in the nearby mall.

I saw the sign. . . 

            The sign may be described in terms of its semiotic resources, its purposes, and its target audience. The following description will be used in the analysis later on.

The semiotic resources utilized by the sign are languages and pictures. The English language and the Filipino language are both used in the sign. The words “The Original” and “Fried Chicken” are in English while Kanto (which means street corner) is originally a Spanish word (Spanish being the language of the Philippines’ colonizers) but was eventually accepted as an everyday Filipino word. On the left side of the sign is a round logo. In the logo are a drawing of a face of a man surrounded by the words “Arnoco’s Pritos”; the first word is the family name of the owner while the second is the Filipino word for fried. The crew identifies the face as a caricature of Mr. Arnoco.

            The sign has two purposes. The first is to bear the identity of the establishment. Any business establishment is incomplete unless it has a name. Usually, its name is bannered on a public sign, a logo. This sign becomes the identity of the establishment before the public eye as it will be the first thing to be noticed by the public and the name that people associate the business with as a whole. It may be a reflection of the business’s values and products/services. The second purpose is to call attention. The mere presence of a sign already means that something should be noticed. Thus, it becomes an important stimulus for the people to notice the establishment and what it offers.

            The target audience is the customers, especially the potential customers. Specifically, it

targets the local community which is , as discussed earlier, composed of mixture of households from the low-and middle-class families. That KFC targets this market is suggested in their price list and its list of products. Its products are food items which are commonplace in Filipino local communities and streets but are seldom found in high-end malls such as fried chicken skin and neck coated with breading mix. These items also cost a lot cheaper (Php 10.00 – Php 150.00)  than what is offered in fastfood chains. The crew also confirms that their customers range from bystanders to professionals who drive cars.

The wise ‘local’

            The terms ‘local’ and ‘global’ are not be used entirely in Canagarajah’s sensibility (2005) since these pre-existing constructs do not account for the ‘local’ and ‘global’ in economic business terms. For my purposes, the ‘local’ will be operationally defined as business establishments operating only in the local community while the ‘global’ refers to foreign business establishments which operate in different countries and have attained international prestige such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and McDonald’s; however, I am aware that specific nuances need to be done with these operational definitions which space does not allow. Here, I argue that the global business establishment’s identity is used by a local business establishment to its advantage yet the local still asserts its identity through local language use. The notion of visual grammar in the spatial organization of texts will be used in the analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen as cited in Taylor-Leech, 2011).  

             The local uses the global’s identity to the former’s own advantage. In this context, this means that the given local establishment purposefully uses the prestige of KFC (the global/ international one) to gain attention. The sign itself commands the reading public to associate it with KFC. The three capital letters K F C are placed in the center of the sign, in bold and the biggest characters. Given their placement, order, and size in the sign, these three letters may be the ‘new or more important information’ (Kress and van Leeuwen as cited in Taylor-Leech, 2011: 16). Also, on the left side of the sign is a male figure which was identified by the crew as their “kuya”, the owner Mr. Arnoco. This figure in the sign is an imitation of the KFC logo in two levels: a) putting Mr. Arnoco’s figure is similar with putting KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders’ figure on KFC logo and; b) the placement of both figures are on the left side. Overall, what these suggest is that the given sign is constructed purposefully so people readily associate it with the prestigious KFC and get enticed to buy its products.

            This notion is called “Perceived Brand Foreignness”, a marketing communication strategy “which involves a set of functional and imagery associations with non-local appeals [foreign culture appeals] of the product” employed by the local brands (Keller, Maheswaran, Papadopoulos as cited in Zhou et al., 2009: 3). It is believed that it adds “to brand value as perceived by consumers” (Shocker at al.; Pappu et al. in Zhou et al., 2009: 3) and is more pervasive in developing countries (Batra et al. in Zhou, 2009). Again in this context through the local business establishment’s name written on the public sign, it aims to increase the brand value of their local fried chicken by making people associate their product with the global prestige of KFC.  

Although the argument above is not supported by the owner’s views due to his absence at the time of my visit, the customers implicitly got the same impression as I did. Furthermore, they also find it effective. One said that “Noong una kung nakita ‘yun, KFC na agad ang naisip ko.(The first time I saw it, I immediately thought of KFC).” The same respondent said that “Madali siyang mapansin dahil sa three letters na KFC (It is easily noticeable because of the three letters, KFC.)”. Another respondent said that the sign is “cute dahil ginagaya nila ang KFC na ‘branded’, kilala. Eh, ito pang-street lang, gilid-gilid lang” (cute because they imitate KFC which is ‘branded’ and known while this business establishment is only for the streets).  

            Even as the local business establishment uses KFC’s prestigious global identity, it still is able to assert its own local identity: by using the word “kanto”. As explained earlier, public signs/logos are business establishments’ identities. In this case while the establishment tries to associate itself with the elite KFC, it also projects a local image by using the local language. Why is “kanto” a reflection of the local?

            Kanto (street corner), as a word and concept, has a special place in the Filipino culture and vocabulary. It can be a place where waiting sheds are built for students and bystanders and  small-scale eating and shopping business establishments are situated as a convenient venue for family members to spend quality time together and for employees to relax after a hard day’s work. No wonder, kanto is also an effective reference point for people to use if someone is asking for directions. One would just say “Diyan lang sa kanto” (Go to that street corner) to point a person to an unfamiliar location near the street corner.

Apart from the fact that it is ingrained into the Filipinos’ daily vocabulary and way of life, the word has also been used to index something as local. Examples are the phrases, “salitang kanto” (street language), “kwentong kanto” (street stories), and “kainan sa kanto” (small-scale restaurant at the street corner). Using “kanto” in the sign of KFC suggests that the language and language practices of the local community index the business establishment as ‘local’, that is, the sign tells the local people that it is for the masses even as it says that it offers world-class fried chicken.  

Localizing the global for the local

            Fried chicken, as a food product, is one of the best-sellers of global/international fast food chain in the Philippines, especially for KFC. It is more of a “status symbol” for families whose income allows them to avail of this food item. What Kanto Fried Chicken (KFC) does is that it somehow ‘closes the gap’ between fried chicken as a status symbol and the working class in the local community. This is done by making the food item more accessible by offering it for cheap and affordable prices in a place near their doorstep. It is sending a message to the local community that, given their meager income, fried chicken is within their reach. And central to the sending of this message is the role of language, the function of kanto in the sign. The word Kanto draws the local people in and tells them that there is fried chicken made and seasoned especially for them.

This signal seems to reach the local people as articulated by one of the customers. Marites (not her real name) clutches her freshly-bought fried chicken with her left hand and holds her little boy with her right hand, along with her old mother who is carrying Marites’s young girl. As we were walking away from the store, she cheerfully shared, “Kung may KFC sa mall, meron ding KFC na pang urban. Urban ba ‘yun? ‘Yung tipong squatter. Same fried chicken lang naman pero mas class nga lang ‘yung isa.” (If there is KFC inside the malls, there is also KFC here in the urban. Is ‘urban’ the right term? That type in squatter areas. All those fried chicken are the same anyway although the ones in KFC [the international] are of class.)

            Here, she may not have the appropriate terms to express her idea but it is clear that Kanto Fried Chicken (KFC) means something deeper to the local community, more than a business establishment beside their street corner.   

References

Canagarajah, S. (2005). Reconstructing local knowledge, reconfiguring language studies. In S. Canagarajah (Ed.), Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice (pp. 3-24). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Taylor-Leech, K.J. (2012). Language choice as an index of identity: linguistic landscape in Dili, Timor-Leste. International Journal of Multilingualism 9 (1): 15 – 34.

Zhou, Lianxi. (2009). Non-local or local brands? A multi-level investigation into confidence in brand origin identification and its strategic implications. Journal of Academic Marketing Science 38: 202-218.