Brand Management - Nandos Fast Food - Case Study Example

Part I: The Performance, and Improvement Strategy, of Nando’s

Performance of the Nando’s Brand

The Nando’s brand as a quick service food outlet is not as strong as the other competitors. For one, nobody thinks of Nando’s as a food delivery outlet unlike the competition. Similarly none of the people interviewed thought of the establishment as a drive through. These feature, as noted by Fleischhacker, Evenson, Rodriguez and Ammerman (2011), are very common among fast food retailers and the customers’ perception of their non-existence works against the establishment and the quest to increase its brand visibility to consumers. Located along convenient routes and in strategic places, most fast food restaurants may also offer catering facilities; most people do not associate the Nando’s brand with either of these features. This could explain why only 2 out of 91 people interviewed thought of Nando’s as a fast food establishment. Also informing such a perception is the fact only 3 of the 91 people sampled associated the establishment with quick lunch, one of the hallmarks, according to Richardson, Boone-Heinonen, Popkin and Gordon-Larsen (2011), of any fast food outlet.

Nando’s quick service food is outdone by the competition in several fronts. For one, a great number of the target clients, 90%, do not think of the establishment as having any dine in facility. Another 90% out of a sample of 91 also does not view Nando’s as a joint that offers the takeaway option. Of the 91 respondents considered for this poll, only 8 confirmed associating the Nando’s establishment with good service. One of the key components of success in the fast food industry, quality of service, note Lang and Heasmann (2015), is irreplaceable in the quest for success in this competitive industry.

In terms of brand visibility, only 12% of the 91 respondents interviewed on the fast food industry confirmed having been aware of the existence of Nando’s. 30% of the sampled respondents associated Nando’s with something different other than fast food whereas 92.3% of the same sample does not know Nando’s for offering real food. The establishment does not rank favorably among its peers, only 1 of the 91 respondents admitted to having visited any Nando’s store in the last half year, down from the 3 who had visited the establishment’s stores in the past year. This, speculates Quenqua (2010), is not a good showing for any fast food establishment.

Strategy for Improving the Nando’s Brand

The incorporation of three key strategies would be important in the improvement of the Nando’s brand performance and perception. First, sustained advertisement and brand promotion of the establishment through various channels and media is necessary. This would be vital in helping increase the brand recognition and popularity among the prospective customers. It would also be helpful in improving the sales volumes at the establishment. Evidence of the importance of this strategy can be seen in the growth of Apple Computers Inc. from a small company to the giant it has become, beating seasoned corporations like IBM, as observed by Schneiders (2011). Two, the quality of service has to be improved at each of Nando’s outlets. This would improve the customer experience at the establishment and help promote brand loyalty.

Improving of the services offered at the Nando’s outlets will surely be crucial in helping the management to improve the brand perception among existing and prospective clients, as Wu, Yeh amd Hsiao (2011) note of service quality and private label brands. Good quality service, one of the key pillars of the global success enjoyed by both McDonald’s and Starbucks Coffee, assert Talpau and Boscor (2011), is vital for success in the fast food industry. It serves to set an establishment apart from the competition and helps to keep the customers coming back, in essence building and maintaining loyalty to a given brand. Improvement of quality also helps improve the value that customers get for their money, and is useful in positioning a brand over its competition.

The third strategy would involve the pricing of the products at the establishment. If the food products are priced too high they may drive away the few customers that Nando’s has, similarly, if they are priced too low the perception may be that the products are inferior to those of competing entities. As Keller, Parameswaran & Jacob (2012) note, the pricing strategy has to be done with reference to prevailing market trends and prices. A key strategy for growth of brands, pricing is important for any market penetration especially in an industry such as the fast food one where the demand for products is price elastic. Nando’s should carefully execute the pricing of its products in order to avoid price wars but ensure growth of its market share.

Part II: Choice of Strategy

The strategy that would be most suitable for growing the Nando’s brand would be product promotion. This should be carried in a multi-pronged approach, encompassing various means of increasing brand visibility.

One, the Nando’s brand can be promoted through the use of the internet which would help boost the visibility of the brand. As Keller (2009) notes, the use of this particular method of advertising is helpful in enabling a brand message reach a wider audience within a short frame of time. The method is also very cost effective for it only involves a fraction of the cost that the conventional methods of advertising do. The particular platforms to be used here shall be internet search engines like Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, Bing, and DuckDuckGo (Xu, 2013). Given the widespread use of the internet in the Commonwealth of Australia, this method would be sure to reach a wide audience within a short time. Given that the internet is crammed with information, there exists the risk of the message conveyed through it being ignored by the target audience.

In promoting the visibility of the Nando’s brand, the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and Google Plus would be vital. These sites attract several millions of users each day in Australia. With such huge traffic, the sites would be a great advertising avenue for the Nando’s brand. Pavlou and Stewart (2015) observe that the use of these particular platforms tend to cut across age groups. In this regard, the use of the social media sites for brand promotion would be useful in aiding Nando’s reach several consumer demographics and thereby increase brand recognition. Popular blogs, particularly those dealing with food and nutrition matters would provide a great platform for the promotion of the Nando’s brand name and products. In using blogs, the brand would be using a targeted market segment, increasing its brand appeal among a key market demographic (Schumann, von Wangenheim and Groene, 2014). The use of online platforms may however exclude the segment of the target population that is not technology savvy.

In order to further increase brand visibility among consumers who may not be avid users of the internet and web services, conventional media may also be used in order to promote Nando’s products and brand name. Mass media platforms such as television, print media and outdoor advertising may be important in increasing the visibility of the Nando’s brand. As Danciu (2010) affirms, the use of conventional methods, especially alongside new methods, is useful in helping to widen the reach of advertising efforts and subsequently improving brand visibility, recognition and loyalty. These conventional methods of advertising, however, tend to be more expensive than the newer methods of product promotion (Dahlen, Lange and Smith, 2010) and therefore may be less appealing for sustained brand promotion efforts.

The Best Strategy

Of the three options provided to grow the Nando’s brand over the next 12 months, the one that provides the best opportunity for the company is the sponsorship of The Voice on Australian television. This method of promotion would be of advantage to the brand because the program is a favorite of the television viewership in Australia. With an audience of 1.4 million viewers as of May 2nd 2016 according to TV Tonight (2016), the program is currently the most watched show in the Commonwealth of Australia. This would guarantee the Nando’s brand a great audience and a perfect chance to increase the visibility of the brand.

Sponsorship of the program would also be seen as an endorsement of the quick food establishment by the producers of the popular show. This is likely to increase to a great extent the customer base of the Nando’s food establishment. Avid followers and viewers of the popular television program would also endear themselves to the quick serve fast food establishment and therefore create loyalty for the Nando’s brand.

Due to the popularity of the TV program, The Voice, the cost of sponsorship may be very high and therefore not within the comfort level of such a brand as Nando’s. The sponsorship of the program may cause budgetary strains for the quick serve fast food establishment as a result. It is also not very clear whether or not the sponsorship of the program will result in an immediate inflow of customers to the Nando’s stores; this time lag may not be suitable for the operations of the company given the huge spending on this particular advertising effort.

Part III: Brand Growth Campaign (500 words)

At present, the Nando’ brand lags behind the competition in almost all fronts; in terms of the quality of customer service, customer numbers, sales volumes, store location, and even variety of products offered. In terms of customer base, Nando’s attracts those in the lower income segment of the population, most with fixed incomes such as students, as opposed to McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut which attract more people from the upper and middle income segments, as observed by Thornton, Bentley and Kavanagh (2011). Other fast food establishments such as Starbucks, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s tend to market themselves as dine in facilities where people can meet with friends and family (Flamholtz and Randle, 2012), most of the people polled don’t believe that Nando’s has dine in facilities. If Nando’s were to include such facilities in its portfolio, along with sustained product promotion, its customer base would be sure to grow and it just might be able to compete against giant global corporate brands like McDonald’s or Domino’s or KFC (Patterson, Scott and Uncles, 2010).

Because of services such as take away options, certain brands such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Domino’s Pizza are likely to share customers more, note Roper and Fill (2012). This is because of the near homogeneity of the products. A little differentiation however, comes in in terms of the quality of service as regards the delivery time, the packaging and the pricing. The products offered by these entities may also be differentiated in terms of additional services such as free Wi-Fi for sit in customers assert Yusoop, Tiong, Aji and Kasiran (2014). The Nando’s brand would be better served by offering additional services such as this one in order to add value to the services offered to customers. This would help position the fast food better in relation to its competition.

Summary

In order to grow the Nando’s brand it would be important to take heed of the following changes and improvement;

The promotion of the establishment needs to be increased through sustained advertising in both new and conventional media. The promotion of popular shows would go a long way in achieving this particular goal.

Better quality services should be offered to customers in order to help boost the customer experience and add value to the customer satisfaction levels.

Additional services such as free Wi-Fi and delivery should be included in the portfolio of the Nando’s products. These would help attract and retain customers.

Dine in facilities and take away options should be included in order to broaden the services offered by the establishment.

In opening up new stores, strategic location along busy highways and passages should take center stage in order to boost brand visibility and help attract more customers.

Prices should also be set competitively in order to favorably compete with the established brands in the industry and help increase Nando’s market share.

Reference List

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