Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior - Assignment Example

Marketing Assignment Table of Contents Introduction 3 Analysis 3 Company and Marketing Strategy 3 Marketing Environment 4 Competitors 5 Characteristics affecting Consumer Behavior 6 Buying Decision Behavior 6 Brand Personality 7 Conclusion 7 References 9 Introduction Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as several leading organizations in this world are trying to capitalize on potential opportunities in business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages. Bahrain fast food industry is achieving significant growth rate due to growing market demand and needs of target customers towards the fact food products. This assignment will produce a marketing report for a particular fast food product named “Beef burger”. It is one of the popular and highly accepted product lines. McDonalds is one of the leading fast food producing organizations across the globe. The organization is quite popular in Bahrain due to its products of high quality and introduction of differentiated fast food products. Beef Burger has been produced by McDonalds in Bahrain. The organization has gained huge popularity among the people of Bahrain due to the high quality aspect of Beef burger. This assignment will discuss about several marketing and branding aspects of McDonalds regarding its mentioned Beef burger. Analysis This part of the assignment will analyze the organization and marketing strategy for this particular brand. Company and Marketing Strategy McDonald’s is one of the largest and leading fast food producing organizations across the globe. The organization has effectively implemented global business expansion strategy in business operation process. Bahrain is another country in which McDonalds has successfully adopted and implemented global expansion strategy. McDonalds has implemented the combination of cost leadership and product differentiation strategy in business operation process. It is true that, each and every leading multinational organization has implemented unique business level strategies in business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages. Similarly, the management of McDonalds has adopted and implemented the combination of product differentiation and cost leadership strategy in Bahrain in order to gain potential competitive advantages over its competitors in Bahrain fast food market. Implementation of cost leadership business level strategy has helped McDonalds in Bahrain to reduce the business operation cost in order to offer products in economic price level. It is true that recent financial crisis and economic slowdown has affected the purchasing power of people. Therefore, the cost leadership strategy has helped the organization to support the purchasing power of people in Bahrain (Parameswaram, 2006, p.95). On the other hand, demand for differentiated fast food products among the people of Bahrain is increasing significantly. Introduction of Beef burgers in different ingredients and taste can be considered as an effective example of product differentiation strategy. Therefore, the adoption of product differentiation strategy has helped the organization to meet the current demand and needs of target customers in Bahrain. These are the major marketing strategies that have been implemented by McDonalds in Bahrain to increase the sales growth rate of Beef burger, which is considered as one of the popular fast food happy meals under the brand name of McDonalds. Marketing Environment Bahrain fast food market is highly competitive and saturated as several leading multinational and domestic organizations are operating within the industry. Each and every organization within this industry is trying to develop and implement competitive strategies in business operation process in order to gain competitive advantages over their competitors. It is true that, demand for differentiated and high quality fast food products is significantly increasing among the target customers. Most importantly, each and every individual is trying to consume the fast food products in economic price level due to low disposable income and reduced purchasing power. Recent economic downturn has affected the global economic environment. It has also affected the economic environment of Bahrain. Therefore, each and every organization within the Bahrain fast food industry is trying to involve in the aggressive price war in order to meet the market demand and needs of target customers. This specific business environment in Bahrain is motivating each and every organization within the fast food industry to develop and implement unique strategies in business process in order to maintain their competitive market position. Competitors It has been mentioned earlier that Bahrain fast food industry has become highly competitive as well as saturated due to the presence of different leading multinational as well as domestic fast food brands. It is true that several organizations are trying to adopt and implement unique competitive strategies in business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages. McDonalds is not only the global leader, but also has gained huge popularity and familiarity in Bahrain due to its adoption and implementation of cost leadership and business level strategy. KFC and Subway are the major competitors of McDonalds in Bahrain. Apart from these leading multinational organizations, there are several domestic brands that are posing real threat to McDonalds. But several organizations are failing to grab the market share of McDonalds as it is the only organization that has adopted both cost leadership and differentiation strategy. It is true that the burgers of KFC and Subway can be considered with the Beef burger of McDonalds in terms of quality of the burgers. But, these two organizations can lose the battle regarding the price of the products as KFC and Subway always implements cost based premium pricing strategy. On the other hand, the burgers of local fast food organizations can be compared with the beef burgers of McDonalds. But, they cannot be compared with McDonalds in terms of quality of the products, Therefore, it can be stated that implementation of combination of both the cost leadership and product differentiation strategy has helped McDonalds to gain potential competitive edge over its competitors (Batra, 2009, p.348). Characteristics affecting Consumer Behavior There are several negative aspects of this fast food product that is affecting the consumer purchasing behavior. Slowly and gradually, the demand for high quality and healthy food items has been increasing significantly among the people of Bahrain. It is true that, fast food products can be considered as junk food that can harm human body. Obesity, high calorie level and overweight are the major consequences of the consumption of unhealthy fast food items. Due to these health issues, the people of Bahrain are avoiding the havoc consumption of fast food items (Milne and McDonald, 2001, p.123). This is the only characteristics of McDonald’s particular food items that are affecting the consumer purchasing behavior of Bahrain. Buying Decision Behavior There are four types of buying decision behavior that have been defined in this part of the assignment. These are complex, variety seeking, habitual and dissonance buying behavior. In complex buying behavior, the consumers are highly involved in consuming and there are significance differences between different brands. In dissonance buying behavior, consumers are highly involved in buying but there are limited differences between brands. In habitual buying behavior, there is low consumer involvement in purchasing and there are quite limited differences between brands (Anandan, 2009, p.138). In variety seeking buying behavior, the aspect of consumer involvement is quite low in purchasing process and there are huge differences between brands. In this case, according to the characteristics of products, consumer behavior and competitors’ profile; dissonance buying behavior can be fitted perfectly. It is clear that the consumer involvement in the purchasing of burger is high but the differences between the brands are quite low. Therefore, the implication of dissonance buying behavior can be justified perfectly. Brand Personality Brand personality can be defined as a particular element, to which the target consumers can relate. Moreover, personality of a particular brand can help the brand to increase its brand equity by availing a positive and consistent set of personality traits (Verma, 2009, p.64). This particular aspect generally adds value that can help the brand to earn huge brand recall from the target customers. It is clear from above discussion that McDonalds is one of the leading organizations around the globe. In Bahrain, the organization has effectively implemented cost leadership and product differentiation strategy in business operation process. Most importantly, the organization gives huge importance to the activities of research and development team of the organization in order to ensure high quality beef burgers for the people of Bahrain. These specific aspects enhance strong brand personality of the product as well as the organization. This strong brand personality increases brand loyalty that helps to maximize sales growth rate. Conclusion It can be concluded from above discussion that constant development and implementation of unique strategies in business operation process has helped McDonalds to gain potential competitive advantages over its competitors in Bahrain. Beef Burger is one of the popular fast food products that have been presented by McDonalds to target customers. Economic pricing and high quality of the product are the two major growth drivers that have helped this product as well as McDonalds to gain huge popularity and acceptability in Bahrain. Most importantly it is the brand name and high brand recognition of McDonalds that has helped to win the trust and preference level of the target customers in Bahrain. Despite of several leading and potential competitors, strong brand personality and implementation of unique strategies helped the organization to retain its competitive market position in Bahrain fast food market. References Anandan, P., 2009. Product management. London: Routledge. Batra, R., 2009. Advertising Management. London: Kogan page. Milne, G., and McDonald, M., 2001. Marketing management. London: Cambridge University Press. Parameswaram, M., 2006. Building Brand value. London: sage. Verma, R., 2009. Brand management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Read More