The Fast Food Industry: Positioning and Competitive Advantage

Unlimited, endless, fast food choices, and yet there are two that stand out above the rest. McDonald’s and Burger King are the two biggest burger fast food chains in the world. So let me ask you this, who has a better menu? Who’s Cheaper? And which one is healthier? This debate will once and for all come to an end, once all of these points have been met throughout my paper. McDonald’s vs. Burger King has been a long running argument. You will finally come to realize that McDonald’s is the better choice for you.

The way that Burger King and other fast food restaurant chains do business and markets their products to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Burger King and Taco Bell restaurants. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization has lead our generations toward a more a much more efficient lifestyle, with much less quality. From my observations and studies of these fast food resturants, several themes have become

McDonald’s Corporation are the most successful and popular fast food brand in the world, holding the largest fast food market share and being the leading fast food restaurant chain in terms of world sales (8%). They are the second greatest outlet operator with more than 34,000 outlets, serving worldwide to 69 million customers daily, across 119 countries. Their brand is the seventh most valuable and

The fast food industry is a ‘red ocean’ as it is already well defined where rivalry is intense. It is also a perfectly competitive industry as the barriers to entry are low and there are many rivals

This book discusses the fast-food industry and seeks to describe the impact of the industry on the U.S. economy and society. Also, it talks about the guys who has been investigating the fast food industry for many years. From his broad research, he has uncovered an abundance of little-known, frequently unsettling truths about the fast food industry.

From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers.

REFERENCES•www.mcdonalds.com, accessed on 18 July, 2008•www.mcdonldsindia.net, accessed on 18 July, 2008•en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's, accessed on 19 July, 2008•http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/263943/mcdonalds_strategic_marketing_mix.html?cat=4, accessed on 19 July, 2008•www.kfc.com, accessed on 25 August, 2008

The restaurant commits itself to franchisees and stakeholders in helping to achieve superior financial results and sustainable performance and development opportunities. Thus, the corporate mission and its core values are instrumental to the company’s success.

The fast food, or quick service restaurant industry (QSR), represents approximately 200,000 restaurants and $155 billion in sales in the U.S. alone, they are one of the largest segments of the food industry (Hoovers, 2011). This segment of the restaurant industry is “highly competitive and fragmented… number, size and strength of competitors vary by region, market and even restaurant. All of these restaurants compete based on a number of factors, including taste, quality, speed of service, price and value, name recognition, restaurant location, customer service and the ambience and condition of each restaurant” (Chipotle, 2010).

The fast food industry has been growing dramatically during the last few years. For this reason, we should try to find out what are the several factors why fast food consumption keeps growing among young people and adults. Therefore, as we have seen, the popularity of fast food is spreading rapidly among many people due to the following three main reasons: good taste, convenient time, and price. Personally, working for a fast food restaurant for a brief moment in my life, I can attest to this. Marketing also plays a big part to more people eating fast food. It’s in our culture in America to expect fast food companies to market and strategize their ways to make us, the consumers, to buy more food and consume more food so they can make more profit. Especially now with commercials and social media. The fast food industry has thrived in the modern era. It’s thriving so much, the industry is growing faster than the U.S economy, at

Threats: Strengths: Sonic is operating in a fast-food industry that is dominated by large competitors, but through it all Sonic stays on top as the nations largest drive- in chain.

The restaurant industry is said to be one of the oldest industries in the economy. As the economy and urbanization grow, so too does the industry of restaurants; it’s for this reason that the industry has been growing at a rapid pace. Even with the restaurant industry ebbing and flowing, there are still new entities entering the fray consistently. Some restaurants may close, but it will not be too long before a new restaurant opens in the place of the old one. Historically, the restaurant industry has contributed nearly 4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States (U.S.) economy. The most recent findings show that the restaurant industry employs more than 12.7 million people (which is approximately equal to 9 percent of the

As of now in the United States there are 22 fast food franchises. McDonalds was the first franchise to open in 1940 and since then they have been the leading and most successful franchise in America (“The Raw Prawn” n.p.). Other franchises include: Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, Arby’s, and Taco Bell. Each of which target young students and children. Most of them have a value menu where items to purchase are cheap and tasty but very unhealthy. Some fast food restaurants provide a toy for children with their meal which attract them to come again and again ( “Eating Yourself to Death” n.p.). In addition, some restaurants contain an indoor play ground which attracts small children even more. The fast food industry mainly brings customers for their tasty food and simple convenience, they attach a drive thru to their building making it faster for customers to purchase and collect their food which is also less time consuming. Recently in the past few years, fast food franchises have begun to change their restaurant and attempt to become healthier as a whole, in some fast food restaurants they have a nutritional menu to choose from which generally contain healthier food compared to the regular menu (“The Raw Prawn” n.p.).

If we look at the fast food industry today there is room for success. Based on RNCOS’ new US Fast Food Market Outlook 2010, fast food industry growth rate is strong. Especially, hamburger sales growth is reported at the healthy rate of 4.6% in 2008. The market is expected to grow to cross the $170 billion marks by 2010.It is believed that due to the economic meltdown, fast food industry is benefiting from people being more prices conscious. People who were enjoying nice means at fancier restaurants are now turning their choice of means to more economical ways.

• What measures could Burger King do to dethrone McDonald’s as well as hold off the challenge of a number of other chains that were growing in size and competitive power?