The Coop Marketing Research

The company of restaurants started in 1946 when Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant in Georgia. They are credited with inventing the Chick-Fil-A’s boneless breast of chicken sandwich. In the 1960’s, he pioneered the opening of the restaurant in different malls in Atlanta. It has grown to become the largest quick service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on their domestic annual sales and with over 1900 branches countrywide. The restaurant is privately held and family owned and has been progressing in the delivery of exclusive services to all their customers. The mission of the restaurant is to give identity and value to their clients and the vision is to be America’s best service quick restaurant.

For this discussion, I have chosen a company that’s a lunchtime favorite in my office—Panera Bread Company, a steadily-growing national restaurant chain headquartered in Sunset Hills, Missouri. Ron Shaich, the creator of Panera Bread, joined with partner Louis Kane, the founder of the bakery-café chain Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. (ABP). In addition to ABP, Mr. Shaich started a “fast casual” sandwich shop that he eventually named Panera Bread, and once ABP was sold in 1999, Mr. Shaich focused on growing the Panera Bread brand. Within the next 15 years, Panera Bread practiced a slow but steady growth pattern and there are now more in 2,300 Paneras in the United States (Panera Bread Company, 2017).

In light of an evolving market, faced with new competitors, and after a careful analysis of their current customers, the Vanguard Group (hereinafter referred to as “Vanguard”) realizes it must rethink its entire marketing strategy. However, in order to protect and leverage their competitive advantage, which is their low management fees, and to optimize the loyalty that their customers continuously demonstrate toward their organization, they must now target the most profitable segment for them, and develop the best way to serve and delight these customers.

How may I serve you? This is the greeting everyone gets when they dine at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. The company's relentless pursuit to build relationships with its customers goes beyond chicken sales. As a leader or manager, scanning your organizations external environment for opportunities and threats will assist in keeping employees motivated and the customers loyal during turbulent times. This paper will evaluate the external environment of Chick-fil-A, determining the extent to which opportunities exceed threats, or threats exceed opportunities.

In the paper titled “Factory Farming: The Truth about the Poultry Industry” by Jessica Stopa, she informs readers about the malpractices of chicken livestock in the food industry in comparison to how traditional agriculture practices were previously before the industrialization age. Her paper was intended to speak to American food consumers and bring to light or inform about the severity of industrialized farming practices. The writing was prompted by one of Ms. Stopa’s english classes and the intention of this work is to rhetorically analyze her credentials. She incorporates a heavy amount of logos into her work to backup her own logic, but also includes bits of pathos about the treatment of chicken and ethos by referring a figure who operates a local farm.

1. As a marketing consultant for a chain of hair salons, you have been asked to evaluate the kids’ market as a potential segment for the chain to target. Evaluate the kids’ segment against the four criteria for successful market segmentation.

Chick-fil-A does not have any distinct or visible technological advantages that can distinguish the company from its competitors. The company does, however, have processes in place which gives Chick-fil-A an advantage in both profitability and customer service. First, Chick-fil-A’s smaller menu offering, compared to its competitors, contributes to the company’s large profit margins. Secondly, Chick-fil-A has stringent guidelines and goals concerning service time for customers; customers should wait no more than one minute for service. The combination of these two

The Mc Donald brother’s created a revolutionary idea of how to run a restaurant. They brought the factory system to the back of their restaurant, training employees to do just one thing. Kenner is effective in engaging his audience when he shows viewers an animation of animals coming into a farm house from an assembly line. Kenner was hoping that people would be alarmed with how our food is now be raised and produced. Take the Tyson Company who is the biggest meat packing company in the world. The food industry because of mass production has changed how a chicken is raised. Kenner provides a logical visual example showing his viewers that birds are being raised and slaughtered at half the time they were 50 years ago. The visual demonstration of redesigning the chicken to make the breast larger was meant to draw on his viewer’s emotions as well as bringing a sense of urgency to the cause. Kenner went on to explain how “farmers today don’t own their birds, a company like Tyson owns them from the day they are dropped off until they are slaughtered”. Kenner wants to come off authoritative and interviews Richard Lobb, from the National Chicken Council. Lobb provides sufficient information on how big companies like Tyson have taken over the industry. Lobb says, “in a way we are not producing chickens, we are producing food” (Food Inc.). He goes on to tell us, how the system is highly mechanized and all of the

in Chapter 3 most closely fit the competitive approach that Panera Bread is taking? What

This case analysis evaluates Chick-fil-A. It is designed to show the Strength, weakness, opportunities and threat. It delineates how the founding principles have guided the company over the years, and how it has responded slowly to change over the years. CFA has grown to be a force to reckon with in the industry with strength in customer experience and sandwich trademark. However, the emerging markets, social changes, economic issues and intense rivalry will continue to pose threat to this strong cultured company. At the end of the case analysis, we would have been able to

Kroger competes with its rivals by having good product quality, product variety, and customer services. Kroger insisted that product quality is crucial in building consumer loyalty and brand image. Great companies do not just get new customers, they want customers come back for more. Customer loyalty brings long-term sales, and Kroger did a very good job on this. Kroger’s outstanding private brand products had earned the market share. “Consumer research, the finest ingredients, and our rigorous testing produce the quality behind our corporate brand” (Kroger, 2015). Kroger is able to monitor the production and distributions of their products; it has developed one of the strictest inspection and specification systems in this grocery market. According the research, the quality of beef is checked by some tests such as USAD Choice, Certified |Angus USAD Choice, and Natural Beef Select. Kroger also promised that their pork is 100% natural and poultry products are grown organically and locally. Seafood, vegetables, and fruits are guaranteed to be fresh. All products in Kroger are held to the same high standards. Because of its time efficient systems and distribution systems, Kroger can stock new and fresh products every

Chick-fil-A is known for their famous Chick-fil-A sandwich, but also for their private, family –controlled ownership structure, philosophy on management and biblical principles. Chick-fil-A uses the differentiation strategy to set them apart from other fast-food chains. Chick-fil-A mission was “To glorify God by being faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive attitude influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A”, and to be “America’s best quick-serve restaurant.” One of their strategies they use to set them apart was focusing on people. This strategy included interview process, golden rule, consistent

The corporation uses benchmark to position themselves in the industry. Competitors such as McDonalds are staring to be more conscious about the health of their consumers and are changing their image to retain

The Costco strategy for getting into the wedding gown business is to have a set of touring trunk shows at its Western stores during the season where people are planning their weddings. Costco's typical pricing strategy is to undercut competition and make up for this with high volume sales. The company applies this strategy to the wedding gown business as well. Costco offers one of the lowest prices of any company on its wedding dresses. The company's business plan ensures that the details have been fleshed out, and that has led to the unique distribution strategy for wedding gowns.

The article I chose for the assignment is about the Shake Shack IPO (Initial Public Offering) and the environment in which is was released. The restaurant’s stock launch was a major success, as the price per share skyrocketed at a growth of 119% from $21 to $45.90, in one day of trading. With the intense growth that Shake Shack experienced, the chain of 63 restaurants was valued at $1.6 billion, which had investors pouring in. While it was expected for Shake Shack to be a success on the launch of their IPO, their valuation and continued growth has shown the shift in the market of restaurants. Society has moved from the fast food era, to a new adaptation, “fast-casual”. Restaurants such as Noodles, Chipotle, Garbanzo, and many others have capitalized on the shift from value to quality based desires.