Analysis of the Service in Fast Food Restaurants - Coursework Example

Analysis on Fast Food Restaurant Introduction Fast food restaurant is a completely different type of restaurant that is majorly known for its minimum table service and its unique fast food cuisine. This restaurant is also known as quick service restaurant. These restaurants form a part of a franchisee or restaurant chain with some standard ingredients or supplies to each of the outlets using a controlled supply chain. Most well known fast food chain that has been able to open outlets across the globe is McDonald’s. The company was founded in the year 1940 and was operated by Maurice and Richard McDonald as a barbecue restaurant and later in the year the business was restructured to form a hamburger stand and it used various principles of production lines. The McDonald’s Corporation headquartered in United States is the world’s largest fast food chain of hamburgers, and currently gains profit margins of $5.5 billion and serves 68 million customers across the globe and has its operations across 119 countries. Evaluation of the service based on 4Ps of marketing The service that is being evaluated is of fast food restaurants. The trend of fast food outlets has grown in the recent times because of the uniqueness in the cuisine and its fast service of ordered products. There are various fast food outlets and each have its own specialty. For example McDonald’s are famous for its hamburgers, Burger kings are also known for its unique taste of burgers, Subways are known for its customize products, KFC is known for its fried chicken, Wendy’s is famous for its different sandwiches, french fries, etc. 4Ps of marketing helps in evaluating the different aspect of this industry. Like for instance the product factor for all of the fast food restaurants would be different, for McDonald’s its products comprise of BigMac and various other hamburgers, McCafe, Happy Meal, French Fries, etc., on the contrary for Burger Kings it would be its various sandwiches, hamburgers, salads, juices, fries, shakes, etc (Richter, 2012) .The price factor is very important in an industry where the competition is high. McDonald’s uses the strategy of offering happy price menu on a specific day in a week so as to attract more customers and the pricing strategy that is adopted by the fast food restaurant is to set competitive prices or lower prices for its products in the industry. The same strategy is adopted by maximum of the fast food chains in the same industry and this result into price wars, where Burger Kings also comes with the same strategy and offers even summer drinks at $1 so as to give tough competition to the drinks offered by McDonald’s (Doole and Lowe, 2008). The promotion factor is very essential as to help to reach out to the customers with the products and services being offered by the fast food restaurant. The common form of promotion techniques adopted by McDonald’s is in the form of billboards, logos, mascot figure, its unique packaging and constant upgradation of its branding so as to stay appealing to its customers. The most innovative approach for promotion is taken by Burger Kings where it offers a platform known as talent show to its customers so that people can come up and show their talent and this even helps in reinforcing the brand through the customers. The place factor of the fast food chains relates to its presence so as to reach to its customer base very quickly. McDonald’s has been able to expand its chain across the world and operates in across 119 countries through franchises. The company has even opened up its outlets in remote locations and even in highways so as to reach out to the maximum of the target market (Handlechner, 2008). Other fast food chain such as Burger Kings has different strategy for its place factor of marketing where it locates its outlets near airport and railway stations mostly. Fast food restaurants mainly opens up its outlets or franchisee stores where there is less of fast food outlet and more of consumer demand which proves to be very advantageous as it was in the case of McDonald’s Corporation. Aspects of the service that had a positive influence The common perception that is developed in respect of this kind of fast food outlets is that they offer the products the pre-prepared so whether they would be hygienic to consume or not. The fast food outlets in order to deliver the products at the least time possible focuses on self service and prepared food items that are just heated up before delivering. However McDonald’s has been able to remove such perceptions to a great extent where there is more importance given to deliver quality food and service to the customers (Pahl and Richter, 2009). The fast food outlet even comes up with unique combinations of items so that its customers can save money and even enjoy their meals at McDonald’s. The supply chain of the company is so well structured that there are least issues regarding delivery of its products on time. The company has been able changed the perception that lower prices means compromising on quality, on the contrary it delivers the best food in terms of quality as well as taste over the years at an affordable rate. Aspects of the service that had a negative influence The factor that has caused a negative influence on perception towards the service offered by McDonald’s is that at times the delivery lead times of the product is more and even there is less of seating arrangements in some of its outlets which makes it difficult to enjoy the meal properly. The fast food chain has also not been able to diversify its product line to a great extent in comparison to other fast food chains and it has even introduced a section for drinks and coffee at a very later stage. In weekends there is a major rush in the outlets of McDonald’s and this result into a lot of inconvenience firstly in terms of self service as the queue is large and even at times there is unavailability of the products being demanded for by the consumers. Such loopholes in the supply chain results in creating a negative impact on perception and more tendency to switch over to some other fast food outlets as the switching cost is low and options are more. Aspects of physical evidence involved in the purchase of service Physical evidence is a very crucial element for all the companies that operate in service sector. Some of the factors that are included in this element of 7Ps of marketing include the seating arrangement of the restaurants, ambience and cleanliness of the utensils that are being used to deliver the products (Allen, 2006). The physical factor of McDonald’s includes the ambience of the restaurant and the hygienic factors that are well taken care of by the company so as to give a pleasant experience to its customers every time they visit any McDonald’s outlet. McDonald’s has a pleasant ambience and even the utensils are kept very clean. The company takes measures of allocating a separate team to keep the outlets clean and offer a comfortable experience to the customers which triggers people to opt for products or services at McDonald’s. Recommendations The fast food restaurants needs to continuously innovate new product range and place its products at attractive prices so as to attract maximum consumer market. Fast food restaurants are not only about delivering the best of products but also giving best quality customer service. The customer service forms the main differentiating factor that separates one fast food outlet from the other. The services offered by McDonald’s have been able to build a strong brand reputation for the company over the years. However with the rise of tough competition in the fast food industry it is highly recommended that the company comes up with certain changes so that it is able to sustain in the market place. Firstly the company needs to set up an extra team who would look over that the customers taking their meals at McDonald’s has any kind of issue or not and if they have as for instance ordering something extra then the staff should bring it to the guests instead of the customers going and queuing up in the counters which results into a lot of inconvenience at the consumer end. The other factor that can be incorporated to enhance customer service would be to keep additional stock at peak time so that customers do not leave the outlet as per unavailability of their preferred menu items. The company can also extend its product line and incorporate different cuisines so that the consumers get all kinds of food items under one roof. Conclusion Fast food restaurant has been proved to be a growing industry with large number of players and it has grown importance for some factors like people having less time to cook, smooth and fast delivery of food items and a pleasant atmosphere to dine at an affordable price. With growing competition there has been a need for all the companies operating in this specific industry segment to deliver best quality customer service and at the same time come up with new innovative product ranges without rising prices. This industry requires proper monitoring of all the four Ps of marketing so that the market share is maintained and even a strong competition is offered to the existing players and even pose a strong barrier to any new entrants in this sector. References Allen, M. (2006). Analysing the Organizational Environment. UK: Select Knowledge Limited. Doole, I., and Lowe, R. (2008). International Marketing Strategy: Analysis, Development and Implementation. Canada: Cengage Learning EMEA. Handlechner, M. (2008). Marketing Strategy. UK: GRIN Verlag. Pahl, N., and Richter, A. (2009). Swot Analysis - Idea, Methodology and a Practical Approach. Germany: BoD – Books on Demand Richter, T. (2012). International Marketing Mix Management. Berlin: Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH. Read More