Fast Food Restaurants - Product Aspects with a Positive or Negative Influence on Client Perceptions - Case Study Example

Nowadays, there are a lot of various products and services provided by an enormous amount of companies around the world. The most successful companies distribute their products in all continents. In order to sale a particular range of products world-widely, the company must represent an outstanding marketing activity. The reason is that people have literally to eager the variety of products promoted by a company. Therefore, organizations endeavor so as to create an appropriate product value. For example, McDonalds in a multinational corporation, which runs chains of fast food restaurants on a global basis. In order to facilitate this process, the organization applies a huge amount of special marketing tools. Therefore, this paper is aimed at an investigation and detailed analysis with regard to fast food restaurants, their products, and services in order to represent relevant marketing recommendations.

1) What product or service was evaluated? Discuss and point out several specific examples of the product or service based on the 4ps of marketing.

A fast food restaurant is a place where distributed food, which requires very little or no cooking before consumption. Fast food restaurants served food with a limited or standard menu. Often such restaurants have self-service systems and offer the same variety and quality of products across the whole country, and sometimes, in other countries. The main competitive edge of such a type of service is a prompt service rate and relatively low prices. It means that the target audience spends very few resources to satisfy own needs. It would be appropriate to use 4Ps marketing tool in order to evaluate the service properly. It means an evaluation of the services and products based on an analysis of Product and Service, Place, Price, and Promotion.

Product.

In general, customers are aimed at saving time and money attending fast food restaurants. In addition, they satisfy such basic wants as hunger and thirst. The most common examples of products distributed in fast food restaurants are complex products such as sandwiches, fried vegetables or meat, salads, coffee, soft drinks and bakery. People can consume these products directly in restaurants or take them out. The main feature of such kind of products is an extremely fast customer service. The most prominent examples of fast food, which represent this product and services by the most effective way are restaurants called McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King.

Place

The customers look for the products in the most overpopulated places. It means city centers, business centers, and other overcrowded places. In order to purchase the products, customers should access the main distribution channels such as branded restaurants and websites of the companies. In order to become familiar with a range of products, customers should attend special websites or restaurants. Therefore, gathering the information about the products is a sufficiently simple process for customers, which is accessible to everyone who wishes to do so.

Price

Most commonly, various fast food products such as sandwiches, French fries, salads and different drinks are considerably cheaper than meals in common restaurants. Therefore, along with a prompt service, it represents a perfect and comprehensive value for the customers. In addition, there is a vast part of customers who is sensitive to prices as their purchase these products due to their lower incomes. However, a small decrease in price would not gain companies extra market share. In turn, a small increase would be indiscernible and would help to gain extra profit margin due to the strong marketing activity of the companies and powerful brands popularity. In addition, the companies tend to apply various flexible systems of discount in order to attract the customers. In general, the average prices on the market are relatively equal.

Promotion

The target audience obtains a considerable variety of messages by means of the media including the Internet, TV, radio, outdoor advertising such as billboards and the like, or direct promotion of goods to the customers in the eye to eye contacts. The organizations distributing and promoting fast food products often spend a lot of money on the marketing activity and ad campaigns. These products are in the high demand all year round. Hence, the companies are constantly involved in promotion. However, there are often created special product lines with reference to a particular season.

2)What aspects of the product or service had a positive influence on your perceptions of your overall experience?

In terms of my personal experience, the aspects of the products and services represented by fast food restaurants that provide my perception and experience with a positive impact are fast cooking, ease of consumption and purchase, as well as low prices on the products. To be more specific, an overall process of order, obtaining and consumption of the products are usually takes from twenty to forty minutes. Hence, during lunch time, the customers can satisfy a need of food and drinks, and afterward, get back to work in time. The average price of a full-fledged and complex offer is $10-20 (Full Menu, 2016). Such an offer includes a sandwich, French fries, and drink. For instance, in McDonalds, people are able to purchase Big Mac menu, which perfectly meet customers’ needs in terms of time, taste and price. Besides, it can comprise some salad, dessert, and sauce. The main advantage of these products that they vastly affect customers’ perception suggesting comprehensive economy of time and money. Therefore, in working weekdays in the era of digital progress and information, an individual would rather prefer to eat in the fast food restaurants in order to save more money and valuable time. Furthermore, fast food restaurants work all day and night. As a result, the customer can access to the products and services anytime.

3)What aspects of the product or service experience had a negative influence on your perceptions of your overall experience?

The aspects of the fast food products and services that provide my perception and experience with a negative influence are the harm to health, exceeding desire to consume more products due to its taste, smell and price. Moreover, if an individual consumes the fast food products for a long time on the regular basis, he or she would definitely get used to eating such products. In the course of time, such an addition can cause various diseases and disorders such as obesity, heart diseases, as well as different disorders of the esophagus. Therefore, there are a lot of adverse publicities that harm to a reputation of the brands and representing products. The reason that different organizations and institutions tend to discredit fast food product spotlighting its harm to health. Consequently, an individual would think twice regarding visiting a restaurant and consumption of unhealthy products.

To clarify, it causes advertising wars that signify competition among various influences on people’s minds and desires. For instance, drawing on Statista, McDonalds spend $1.4 billion on advertising in order to convince people to purchase its products (2016). Fierce competition forces the company to start informational wars, as well. For example, in France, McDonalds launch an ad campaign against Burger King spotlighting absurdly lengthy driving directions to the nearest Burger King drive-thru. “The point, of course, was that McDonald's is located in 5 kilometers away from that particular location. It is always there when you need it while BK is not locating in 258 km away” (Nudd, 2016). Consequently, such disadvantages of different fast food restaurants provide a perception and experience of people with an extremely negative effect.

4)What other aspects of the physical evidence were present in the purchase of your product or service?

According to Marketing 91, “McDonalds strictly focuses on clean and hygienic interiors of is outlets and at the same time the interiors are attractive and the fast food joint maintains a proper decorum at its joints” (2014). The reason is that a physical evidence appearance of McDonalds influences not only the impression outsiders have of a business; however, all the way that business functions. Staff members are the not less important physical evidence of the company. The polite and careful approach of McDonalds’ stuff to serving customers contributes a lot to attractiveness of the brand and its products.

For example, KFC pays a huge amount of attention to location and appearance, as well. The company applies “a perfect design of the building itself, signage around the building, and parking at the building, how the building landscaped and the environment that surrounds the building” (Hussain, 2012) Moreover, the company makes a usage of the red color, which is most attractive. KFC does it best by means of using it as the basic theme for all of its outlets. The restaurants are perfectly illuminated with sufficient lights that go very well with the atmosphere (Hussain, 2012). Therefore, the results of outstanding positioning and representation of the brands products depend on the physical evidence such as location, appearance, stuff, colors and the manner of serving customers.

5) What recommendations would you make to improve the overall product and customer service experience?

Primarily, it would be appropriate to fast food companies to more diversify their product lines with healthier products. It signifies focus on the implementation of new ranges of organic food meals in order to bring to naught the prerequisites for enemy organization and competitors to conduct an antiadvertising campaign. For example, in the fullness of time, Coca-Cola Co. launch dietary products with the lack of sugar called Coca-Cola Zero and Coca-Cola Light. The vast majority of fast food companies have already had similar products such as different salads and dietary sandwiches; nevertheless, their main products that appear to be the face of their brands are considerably unhealthy. Hence, these companies should promote healthier products. It would certainly facilitate an increase in the overall sales.

In addition, in spite of the outstanding customer services represented by the main fast food companies such as KFC, McDonalds, and Burger King, it would be suitable to enhance some aspects of this side of marketing activity. For example, it terms of KFC, the company can implement special rooms for kids. It enables the customers to consume the products in a more relaxed atmosphere while making children excited. Burger King can increase the number of the restaurants in the more convenient for customers’ areas in order the target audience has more access to their products. Such a move would protect the brand from implemented by the competitors antiadvertising emphasizing the lengthy driving directions to the restaurants of Burger King.

In conclusion, the paper represented the investigation and detailed analysis with respect to the fast food restaurants, and their products and services. There was conducted the 4Ps analysis of a particular variety of fast food restaurants in order to evaluate their products. In addition, there was explained some aspects of the products and services that provide the experience and perception of the customers with positive and negative impacts. In order to support the analysis, there was introduces appropriate examples. Eventually, there was represented some recommendation describing how the companies can enhance the overall product and customer service experience.