Video Case 1: Chick-fil-A - Assignment Example

Marketing Strategies applied by Chic-fil-A Restaurants al Affiliation Strategies form the basis of organizations’success. This therefore is the backbone that drives businesses and careful steps should be taken towards implemented the strategies in order to achieve success. This paper focuses on marketing strategies, positioning strategies and competitive advantage for Chic-fil-A Restaurants Company in the US. Marketing Strategies, Positioning strategies and Competitive Advantage for Chic–fil-A Marketing a company’s products will require philosophical approaches.

Decisions made by marketers are based upon their chosen philosophies to their respective markets. Chic-fil-A has followed different philosophical approaches in order to reach and maintain a large number of customers. The first approach Chic-fil-A has relied upon is the marketing concept approach. In this approach the marketer develops a product offering and the entire marketing program to meet the customer base (Jain C, S. , Marketing, planning and Strategy). The marketing of Chic-fil-A is such that it employs its original and other innovative strategies to try and reach her customers.

The company has established a large number of restaurants in different locations and this help her reach a large number of customers. Chic-fil-A is well known for its practice of religious value in conducting the business and therefore establishing good contact with a lot of people by treating them accordingly at the company’s restaurants. The marketing concept approach is a philosophy that highly considers the way information flows from marketer to decision makers. Chic-fil-A has employed different marketing strategies that ensure she maintains and acquire a large customer base.

One of the strategies the company employs in order to market her products is through taking the initiative of handling the fee burden for needy students at WinShape College. Another approach employed by Chic-file-A in marketing her products is the systems approach. The approach view a product not as an individual entity but as one of the entities that satisfies customer needs (Jain C. , S. , Marketing, planning and Strategy). The company has established a religious practice in its business that of leaving out Sunday out of the days she conducts business.

This is to be able to respect and give thanks to God for enabling their continued success in the business. Chic-fil-A has used this to develop the slogan “eat mor chikin” except on Sunday therefore showing more respect to Godly time hence being liked by the supporters of such kind of policy. Strategic planning for a company requires logical thinking in order to establish a clear direction in which a business is taking (Cannon J.P, Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach).This influences the market to the advantage of the strategists hence seeking to change the competitive environment.

Positioning a product is the placing of a product in the market for it to have a better competitive advantage over competitors (Jain C. , S. , Marketing, planning and Strategy). The positioning of “chick-fil-A” in the US is such that it beats competition due to better positioning strategies the company has. The marketing and branding of the company has been made to withstand for long. The company opens branches of restaurants after some period of time in many parts of the country and this increases its customer base.

The company has unique marketing strategies; display of a well renowned graphic advert which appears on billboards and other forms of media. The company also offers scholarship worth US$ 32000 to fresh comers at WinShape College and also offers scholarship worth US$1000 to its restaurant team members as part of its branding. Positioning is meant to make a brand stand apart from competing brands, tell the customer how actually the product is. The Advert “eat mor chikin” is a slogan well known by the customers and identifies the restaurant in all the places they are located.

The distribution of “Chic-fil-A” restaurants within the US has been done strategically hence putting the company in a position to reap big profits. This is what ensures continued growth of these restaurants. Strategic positioning therefore distinguishes the product and services being offered and makes the brands of their own kind. This can be a very big advantage as the standing brand may reap benefits for a very long period of time. Those who participate in strategic position must be very good strategic thinker’s in order to position a product in a point where the sales will increase very rapidly since the money for business is time.

Sunday closing is a competitive advantage for Chic-fil-A Company since it uses that religious perspective to serve customers abiding to Christianity. Should Other Retailers consider closing on Sunday? Why? Why not? This will depend on several factors. First, if the coping of this culture adds more benefit to another retailer. For most people Sunday is time to relax and give thanks to God for helping them out throughout the week. People should not do activities only because others are doing. Though this is so, some businesses still need to be open on Sundays to serve those whose time off is not on Sunday.

Retailers who consider closing on Sunday just because “Chik-fil-A” closes on that day may loose profit and customers since this is not their norm. For Chick-fil-A it is a routine to close on Sunday and the customers are happy with it. Other companies’ beliefs in accordance with their strategies may not be the same as the ones for “Chic-fil-A” hence closing on Sunday may affect the companies negatively. The act may cause an opposite effect to the companies who might follow suit since it will be a direct copying of someone else’s strategy who has implemented for a very long time.

As a business company, closing on Sunday gives Chick-fill-A competitive advantage to her competitors since this has been her culture since the days the company was started. Some other companies trying to implement Chick-fil-A’s competitive advantage strategy may find herself in a very awkward situation since copying someone’s strategy may only cause harm to a company. This is so because the initial investors are the ones who managed to beat the odds to implement it and overcoming those odds without their advice might be difficult.

For somebody to acquire a competitive advantage your products should stand out uniquely and different from others (Jain C. , S. , Marketing, planning and Strategy). This is created through some sought of adaptation which might produce a better match between a product and local marketing conditions. In conclusion companies need strategies that when implemented result in certain unique branding in the market thus making them stand out uniquely. This enables such businesses to acquire competitive advantage over competitors.

References Jain C. S. , Marketing, planning and Strategy Perreault W.D., Cannon J.P., & McCarthy E. J. "Basic Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach" by (17th ed.).