Marketing Nuances of the Famous Company - Essay Example

Thoroughly discuss the company’s competitors, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. And why? The primary product that 360UP provides is food.The company has the unique business proposition of being a mobile food vendor. 360UP faces lots of competition from different segments. An influential segment that attracts lots of customers due to the fast service and low prices is the fast food industry. The biggest competitor for 360UP within the fast industry is the market leader McDonald’s. The reason McDonald’s represents a major competition for 360UP is due to the fact that McDonald’s has so many establishments in the United States and abroad. McDonald’s has over 14,000 stores in the United States and 32737 overall (Jargon, 2011). One of the strengths of McDonald’s is its wide variety of food items in the menu. The second strength McDonald’s has is its outstanding financial performance. In 2010, McDonald’s generated total revenues of $24,075 billion and net income of $4,946 billion (Aboutmcdonalds, 2011). The third strength of McDonald’s is its outstanding customer reach. McDonald’s serves over 64 million customers daily. The main weakness McDonald’s has is the high fat content of most of the items in its menu. The second major competitor in the food industry is Subway. Subway last year surpassed McDonalds as the fast food restaurant with the most franchises worldwide. Today Subway has 36,671 stores across 99 countries (Subway, 2011). Subway has multiple strengths that have made this franchise a complete success. The organization has a tremendous executive management team. During the last decade the franchise has been growing at an outstanding rate. The second strength of Subway is the quality of its food. Subway meals are low on calories and low on fat. The third strength of Subway is the fact that company lets its customers customize its sandwiches. The fourth strength of the company is its outstanding advertising. The weakness of Subway is its limited menu. The third source of competition to 360UP is pizza food truck vendors. There are thousands of pizza truck vendors in the United States. Most of them are privately owned. Three pizza truck vendors are Bartollo’s Pizza, Streetza Pizza, and Sals Pizza Truck (Boutell-Butler, 2009). The major strength of pizza food trucks is the product’s appeal. Pizza is the favorite meal of Americans. The average American eats 46 slices of pizza each year (Mamadelucaspizza, 2007). The second strength of pizza trucks is competitive pricing. The con of the food cooked in pizza trucks is its extremely high fat content. 2) Thoroughly discuss how you plan to differentiate your company from the closest competitor and why? The closest competitor to 360UP is pizza truck vendors. 360UP will utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate the business. One of the most important strategies that the company will utilize to differentiate itself from mobile pizza trucks is having a gourmet quality product. 360UP is a mobile fast food restaurant serving cuisines with tricky flavor combinations - American-Asian cuisines, Mexican-Asian food, Thai-Mediterranean and so on. The unique blend of different flavors all over the world will be served in affordable and easy to eat meals. Unlike pizza, the food served at 360UP is healthy and nutritional. A second differentiating factor that 360UP will utilize to outperform the competition is innovative marketing practices. The advertising initiatives of 360UP are going to help the company reach its marketing goals because more potential customers are going to realize of the existence of the firm’s products and services. 360UP will utilize social websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to communicate with its customers. Whenever the truck moves to any location, fans will be able to follow the movement of the food truck through Twitter. 360UP will implement socially conscious promotions, such as offering all senior citizens a 20% discount from the entire menu. Senior citizens have high disposable income because they receive pensions. The elderly population in the United States is growing at a faster rate than other demographic groups. 3) Thoroughly, discuss the company’s intention to be a leader or follower within the industry and why? The intention of 360UP is to become a leader in the food trucking industry. The company has long term plans of expanding its business beyond the United States. The firm has to establish a market presence in order to build its brand value. It is the responsibility of the managerial staff and the employees of 360UP to demonstrate loyalty to its customers by offering great service, low prices, and value in every food purchase. 360UP has to allocate an adequate marketing budget in order to attract customers. The customer service of the company has to be superb in order for the company to establish a loyal customer base. To become a market leader, 360UP has to invest money to develop its human capital. “In a study by Accenture that measured the overall business impact of investment in learning found those companies who did had a higher performance and produced higher” (Momen, 2007). 360UP has to invest money in training and development to improve the skills and capabilities of the staff. An area that the company has to focus on is customer service. The fast industry raised the customer service standards for all food establishments. It is important for 360UP to establish consistency in its food servings. The quality of the food at 360UP is a differentiating factor that the company has to exploit to achieve success. An aggressive growth strategy should be implemented to increase the market share of the company. The company has to expand and built many food trucks to be located in the United States and other international locations. The organization seeks expansion to two Asian markets. Hong Kong and Singapore are the first two international location that 360UP will penetrate. These countries have good economies and have high rates of tourist visitation. 4) Thoroughly assess the macro-environmental issues (legal, technological, social, and economic) trends with which your business must contend and why? The macro-environment affects the operations of 360UP. The company has to comply with a variety of legal issues, such as income tax filing, sanitary regulations, sales tax collecting, and compliance with codes and regulations. As the company grows the firm should seriously consider going public. If 360UP becomes a public corporation, the company has to comply with the legal mandates of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In its advertising efforts the company has to uphold high ethical standards. The senior discount is an example of socially responsible conduct by 360UP. Technology is a critical factor that 360UP has to pay close attention too. The company has to purchase the latest cooking equipment in order to improve the efficiency of the kitchen. A way for the company to collect credit card and debit card payments is by using an iPhone to process the transactions. The firm must aggressively use social media websites to advertise the company. The firm should also utilize online advertising to increase the exposure of the company. Online advertising is a $71 billion industry (Plunkett Research, 2011). In the fast pace working environment of the 21st century, the majority of workers eat lunch outside their home daily. The market for restaurant food is gigantic. The projected restaurant food sales in the United States for 2012 are $493.5 billion (Plunkett Research, 2012). There is a social trend towards people eating healthier meals. 360UP is a great mobile restaurant that offers its customer gourmet quality meals at affordable prices. Social media websites are a hot trend especially among the youth. Facebook has over 800 million users. The state of the economy will affect 360UP. A good trend in the U.S. economy is the decrease in unemployment in recent months. The unemployment rate as of January 2012 was 8.3%. Another recession would negatively impact 360UP because people during recessions reduce their expenditures. 5) Thoroughly identify the most significant trend to impact your business and discuss how the company intends to minimize or capitalize on this trend and Why? The most significant trend that affects the business is people’s preference towards healthier food. 360UP has a combination of healthy foods, gourmet quality meals, and affordable prices. The company can exploit its healthy restaurant quality food to obtain corporate contracts to serve its food at different types of business events. A reputation in serving healthy meals is an attribute that the market leader in the fast food industry, McDonald’s, does not have. 360UP has a competitive advantage in terms of product due to its ability to provide its customers healthy meals. The firm should capitalize on this trend by creating marketing campaigns that emphasize that the menu at 360UP is healthy. Capitalizing on this opportunity can help build the brand value of the company. The company will also be able to increase its total revenues by focusing on this trend. A good way to show the customers the nutritional value of its meals is by including the amount of calories of the meals within the menu. The company should add to its menu offering different types of salads. The company should do primary research to compare the level of satisfaction of eaters when given a 360UP meal and a pizza. The gourmet nature of the food offerings and the fact that the meals are healthier should reveal that customers prefer 360UP food offerings than pizza. References McDonald’s Annual Report: 2011. (2011). Aboutmcdonalds.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/C-%5Cfakepath%5Cinvestors-2010-annual-report.pdf Boutell-Butler, M. (2009). GQ names Streetza Pizza one of America’s best food trucks. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles/gq-names-streetza-pizza-one-of-americas-best-food,31816/ Jargon, J. (2011). Subway Runs Past McDonald’s Chain. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.subway.com/storelocator/default.aspx General Sales and Consumption Statistics. (2007). Mamadelucaspizza.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://mamadelucaspizza.com/AllAboutPizza/tabid/221/Default.aspx Momen, M. (2007). Human Capital Value. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.namariuz.com/Human%20Capital%20Value-110907.pdf Advertising & Branding Industry Overview. (2011). Plunkett Research Online. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.plunkettresearchonline.com/ResearchCenter/Statistics/display.aspx?Industry=14 U.S. Food Industry Overview. (2012). Plunkett Research Online. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.plunkettresearchonline.com/ResearchCenter/Statistics/display.aspx?Industry=16 Find a Store. (2012). Subway.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012 from http://www.subway.com/storelocator/default.aspx Read More