Marketing Communication Manager for Local Chain of Fast-food - Assignment Example

Marketing Communication Manager for Local Chain of Fast-food Executive Summary Burger Hut was found in 1978. It has ineffective marketing strategy and marketing position. In order to develop its market share, new products have been developed so as to increase the market share of the company. For this purpose, increased sales revenue and improving brand image are two main objectives and strategies. Environmental Scanning SWOT analysis SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Lee and Johnson 2009 p.147). This tool has been applied to Burger Hut and its current market position. Strengths Brand image Burger Hut has been in the global market since 1978. This shows that the company has largely been successful for generating a stable market share in various parts of the world. For example, it can be easily extracted that the company has been existing and has been performance last 37 years, highlighting and authenticating that the company has largely been successful for stable market position in its home country (the United States of America) and in other countries where it has various franchises which are mainly controlled by the local owners. In Vast Industry experience Burger Hut has more than 37 year experience in the fast-food industry. The scale of experience signifies that the owners of the Burger Hut have proved that they avail benefit from the industry and the different strategies of the competitors. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that the fast-food industry remains the most competitive industry in the world and surviving and retaining the scale of business operations clearly hallmarks that the company and its senior management have been able to develop those skills, marketing strategies and other essential skills which are highly relevant for ensuring and retaining the existing market share of the firm. High potential for gaining market share Based on its vast industry experience, it can be easily extracted that the company is well set to avail the benefit from its experience. Various similar companies have not been able to sail through the tough fast-food market competition and consequently have preferred to withdraw from the industry. When this perspective is applied to Burger Hut, it can be said that the company’s top management has never decided to quit from the industry instead they have attempted to retain their position. As a result, this shows that the company is capable to gain additional market share in the global and national fast-food industry. Weaknesses Low marketing strategy Low marketing strategy remains a major weakness of the company. Till this point of time, the company has not been able to show an extensive presence and recognition in different countries and worse is that some indicators highlight that the company has restricted itself to its country of origin, reflecting that the senior management has not been able to attach more importance to its marketing strategy. In this regard, it is relevant to mention that the current market penetration unequivocally indicates that the company has no effective marketing strategy. And for this, there can be various reasons. It is possible that the company has failed to gauge the actual impact of competition in the industry and consequently they have preferred to remain within the country of origin. Ineffective marketing planning and implementation Ineffective marketing planning has also caused the company to experience the worst operational presence in different countries. In today’s highly competitive world, nobody would disagree that all companies, especially the fast-food companies, develop and implement their marketing planning in which they select different methods for either entering into a new market or taking additional measures to retain their market share. However, when this perspective is applied to Burger Hut, it can be easily deduced that the company’s marketing planning and its subsequent implementation have not generated the expected level of results. Opportunities Chinese market China’s growing middle-class population attracts many fast-food companies. Before entering into a new market, organisations scan the potential of the future market as this environmental scanning enables them to ascertain whether the proposed investment and new entry into market would generate an expected level of results in the form of high sales, and more volume. In other words, the prime objective of this assessment is to gauge the purchasing power of the people as this measure is directly linked to the sales. Moreover, such environmental scanning also measures the available market space in the potential market. When these factors are applied to the market of China, it can be easily deduced that the Chinese market has every potential that can attract the new comer in the fast-food industry. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that overall china’s market is exponentially growing and this means every new firm will be given an opportunity to enter into market with the higher chances of attractive return in the form of sales revenue. Threats Highly competitive market The Chinese fast-food market has also become highly competitive. The current competitors, such as KFC, Burger King and others are giving a tough competition to one another. Under this situation, it will be highly challenging for the Burger Hut to face the waves of this competition in the industry. Competitor analysis Market, contribution and limitation of competitors are central to competitor analysis (Sekhar 2010 p.67). And it is a systematic review of competitor’s activities for gaining competitive advantage (Harris 2009 p.24). KFC remains the most important challenger for the Burger Hut. KFC has spread across the world and has largely been able to open various branches and franchises in almost all countries, including in the mainland China. Furthermore, it has been observed that the KFC has largely been to retain its current market share in China. And its current market share and market position has largely been supported by various factors. Strong brand image KFC has strong brand image. Brand and quality are two words that are mostly used interchangeably. And when this is applied to KFC, it can be easily extracted that they collectively represent KFC’s image in the minds of its customer. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that it is prime contribution of KFC brand image that has enabled the company to retain its market share in China and in other countries where it is currently operating. Effective marketing strategy It would not be incorrect to say that effective marketing strategy has also played its role for making the KFC brand image more competitive and unique as well. The KFC has adopted different marketing strategy in which it gives more importance to all those methods which enable the company to penetrate the different markets. For example, in some countries, the KFC has opened up its branches and in other countries; it has issued the franchise ownership to the local investors. In other words, the KFC’s overall marketing strategy is to spread its presence in different countries so as to gain more market share in the international and national markets. Statement of problems Weak brand image remains the major problem for Burger Hut. Inadequate marketing planning and marketing strategy are two fundamental causes making it hard for the company to avail its potential. For example, the company has no or limited presence in different countries and this could be contributed by the weak brand image attached to the name of Burger Hut. Competitive market is an external threat and external problem to Burger Hut. In this threat, both internal and external factors have mainly contributed. For example, weak brand image, ineffective marketing planning and inadequate marketing strategy are some of those factors responsible for the existing problems which are being faced by the company. Inadequate marketing and advertisement focus is also a central problem for the company. Fast-food is an industry where marketing and advertisement are two fundamental pillars which are highly required for attaining and retaining the market share. And this is mainly caused by the presence of fierce competition in the national and international fast-food industry. History of Burger Hut (operational details, number of staff, country origin + imagination Burger Hut is a fast-food company. In 1978, the company started this business from California and the company has been purely owned by a family and its philosophy is to provide quality fresh food especially at the reasonable prices and overall outlook is that they want to provide family atmosphere at the Hut (Burger Hut 2015). Statement of Marcomm Objectives To Improve the brand image through quality and To obtain more market share To increase sales of new products, such as Bulgogi Burger, Curry Buger To expand advertisement and marketing through a new marketing strategy To control business cost 4. Recommendation & Implementation of IMC Tactics: IMC Tools Strategy Youth, teen and kids will be the main customers for the proposed products. The fast-food products are mostly consumed by the youth, teen and kids as they are the one who give more preference to such products. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight fast-food products are more common in students as they always want to save time and that saved time can be further used for their educational purposes. Within this context, consuming burgers does not take much time. Additionally, there will be two types of proposed burgers which will be prepared in a way to satisfy the expectations of the potential customers. Why and how Brand positioning refers to those unique features that capacity to improve sales (Panda 2008 p.285). In this positioning, the customers’ satisfaction is central (Rajagopal 2009 p.335).The new products will be designed in a way to catch the attention of customers. And this attention can only be obtained through providing more quality and inexpensive products. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that the customers always expect that the quality and cost of burgers should be within their reach. As a result, the proposed products will be prepared by keeping in view this perspective. Furthermore, both chicken and meat burgers will be offered to the potential customers. It has been observed that the chicken burger is more common in the youth as it has more taste than the meat burger. As a result, it has been proposed that the prime focus will be given to the preparation of chicken burgers and the secondary focus will be given to the meat burger. In this regard, the size of both burgers will be considerably different. For example, the chicken burger will have less breadth whereas more breadth will be given to the meat burger. Similarly, the chicken burger will have more width and less width will be enjoyed by the meat burger. The positioning strategy is about developing a marketing mix for appealing to the targeted customers (Dahlstrom 2011 p.111). And it is also referred to the selection of target market segment (Greenhalgh 2003 p.145; Dayal et al. 1996 p.10). Additionally, it is a desired position in the mind of the customer (Nykiel 2007 p.19). Price remains the most part of a marketing strategy. Customers attach a considerable significance to quality and price of burgers. After assessing or knowing the quality, they consider burger price and if this price is within their limit and purchasing power, they would not take much time for buying the burger. At the same time, currently numerous competitors are already offering various types of burgers at a very competitive price. Keeping these factors in mind, it has been proposed that both burgers (chicken and meat burger) will be sold at 5 Yuan. Within this context, it is relevant to mention that currently KFC sells the burger at 6.5 Yuan. And there are some complaints that the current market price is considerably higher. As a result, this situation offers a lucrative opportunity to the management of Burger Hut to provide an economical price to both proposed products. Recommended IMC Tools: advertising, personal selling, selling promotion Prime time television advertisement will be the most effective way for the purpose of advertising the new proposed products. Television has become an effective advertisement tool as it gives voice and picture to an advertisement. And through this inclusion of both aspects, the advertisement receives more attention. In this regard, it is important to note that prime time television programmes are those which are mainly watched by the youth and teens. As a result, this will be the most productive way to access to the potential customers. Road shows and sponsorships will also be employed. The youth mainly represent those who are mostly students and students have school coming and school leaving time. And this time will be highly relevant to promoting the advertisement through road shows. For this purpose, the marketing team will select and propose those academic institutions which run in the morning and in the evening as this information will enable the team to develop schedule for arranging the road shows. At the same time, in the road shows, lucky draws, burger-eating contest, and sponsorships will be offered to the participants. Initially, the lucky-draws will encourage the participants to avail this opportunity as it has higher chances for winning sponsorship and academic awards as well. Moreover, the burger-eating contest will have higher chances for attracting more customers. In this context, the participants will be given burgers free of cost and they will be required to contest in the event and the winner will have an opportunity to earn an academic scholarship. In other words, this single opportunity will be the best way to eat and to enter for the subsequent academic scholarship lucky-draw. Social media remains the most popular medium among the youth. The burgeoning growth of numerous social media websites has enabled the youth to find new friends and chat with relatives and others as well. Because of its popularity among the youth, it will be highly lucrative to use this platform for accessing to a number of potential customers. Proposed Methods of Control & Evaluation Sales revenue (linked to market share) Evaluation will be carried out in a numerous ways. Sales revenue which has been linked to the market share will highlight whether the marketing planning and strategy have generated the expected level of sales. In this context, it is worth highlighting that this evaluation method is highly significant as it provides whether the different channels of marketing are effective and whether the proposed and implemented marketing strategy is satisfying the objectives. These will be the main issues that will be evaluated through this single benchmark. New inclusion of customers (to expand advertisement) The new inclusion of customers will highlight whether advertisements are sufficient enough to attract the potential customers. The overall objective of the proposed products is not only to increase revenue but also to expand the market share and this can only be assessed through the inclusion of new customers. In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that the inclusion of new customers will not be the prime focus of this strategy but the retention of the loyal and old customers along with the new one will be mainly and chiefly observed. Cost benefit analysis (To control business cost) Controlling business cost is important. And this can only be carried out through the process of cost benefit analysis. Each month sales and marketing budget will be allocated and each month the inclusion of new customers will also be observed. If the sale and marketing budgets have been met and 50 percent additional customers have not been reported, this would indicate that more cost is consumed than generating the required level of sales revenue. Customer feedback (to improve brand image) Brand image can only be improved through the customer feedback. This feedback process will be carried out through the counter where the customers will be given a feedback form on which they will be required to select the required option mentioned in the form. References Burger Hut 2015, About Us, viewed 10 December 2015, http://www.burgerhut.com/about-us Dahlstron, R 2011, Green Marketing Management, Ohio: South-Western Dayal, R, Zachariah, R & Rajpal, K (eds.) 1996, Marketing Management, New Delhi: Mittal Publishing Greenhalgh, B 2003, Practice Management for Land, Construction and Property Professionals, London: E& FN SPON Harris, D 2009, Enterprise Management: Managerial Level Paper E2, London: CIMA Publishing Lee, M & Johnson, C 2009, Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective, 2nd edn, London:Routledge Nykiel, R 2007, Handbook of Marketing Research Methodologies for Hospitality and Tourism, London: Routledge Panda, T 2008, Marketing Management: Text and Cases Indian Context, 2nd edn, New Delhi: Excel Books Rajgopal, 2009, International Marketing, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing Sekhar, S 2010, Business Policy and Strategic Management, New Delhi: I.K. International Publishing Read More