What Is Sonic's Competitive Advantage?

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

Dick’s Drive-In uses the facets of external forces to market their focus on being a part of Seattle’s community. In a Forbes article written by Julie Pham’s called, Dick’s Drive-In Scores Extra Business with Seahawks’ Wins, Dick’s Drive-In has benefitted from external analysis since it was founded by Dick Spady in 1954. Julie states, “Back then, he sold his burgers for 19 cents while the burgers at his competitors were going for 30 cents,” (Pham, 3). Dick Spady based his pricing on the competitive environment of Seattle and cut his prices by nearly thirty percent in relation to his rivals. Their competitive pricing still holds true today

Established in 1953, Top-Hat Drive-In, now known as Sonic is the largest drive-in fast food chain. It is known for its 1950’s style and wide variety of food, shakes, and drinks. This sets Sonic apart, giving it a competitive advantage over the other fast food chains (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell, 2009).

Throughout all of human history, mankind has searched for the ultimate food. To our enjoyment, in 1950, the world was given the answer: Whataburger. Whataburger has taken the hearts of Americans by storm by by serving classic southern style burgers, fries, and shakes. Despite it’s humble beginnings in Corpus Christi, the franchise now boasts over 750 locations and has even secured the 2016 title of “Best Burger in America”. In an effort to understand why this small burger chain became so successful evaluating this legendary business in three different aspects: price, quality, and customer service.

The fast food industry in the US is witnessing the increasingly fierce competition among Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Jimmy’s egg and KFC. In addition, consumers increasingly favored foods clean and healthy. Foreseeing this need, numerous popular fast food restaurants sprung up promptly. The first Chipotle restaurant is opened in 1993 by Steve Ells in Colorado. On the contrary, McDonald’s is founded by McDonald’s family with a long history as well as one of the oldest brand in America. My paper will explain the similarities and differences in their three characteristics between Chipotle and McDonald’s, both of them are large enterprises in the fast food industry which have large market shares. Then, I also give opinions to differentiate

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.

Even though McDonald’s and Burger King are really similar, they are also really different. They both try to have good advertising but McDonald’s is, most of the time, ahead. Their food seems to have the same condiments, but again, they are far away to be the same. They appear as the two most famous fast food restaurants around the world, but each one of them has their own

Amazon focuses on global reach, putting customer first,, and extensive selection of products through its vision which is “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Gregory 2016).

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).

Opportunities: Strengths: Sonics financial performance has had a great growth in the economy. From 1992-2001, net sales increased annually by 27%,19%,25%,22%,21%,20%,17%,8%,and 18%. And on March 22, 2003, Sonic reported net income of $12.6 billion and revenue increased by 19%. Another opportunity is Sonic is very product differentiated. Sonic is known for its unique made-to-order menu items. Sonic continues to support menu innovations, such as its breakfast menu, Sonic Summer Nights, toaster sandwiches, extra-long cheese coneys, and frozen and fountain favorites. Hamburgers are made to order and served in aluminum foil, preserving the heat and drinks are served in Styrofoam cups to preserve the cold.

“To better understand consumer preferences in fast food products and the services provided by Wendy’s and the industry as a whole’”

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.).

Providing an exceptional product or experience to the client which gives an added value may be termed as Differentiation Strategy. Differentiation does not just mean the way the final product shows up or the features it gives, but advancement and imagination may be integrated in everything the organization does from the raw materials to post-sales assistance in a manner that the clients may derive value from it. Considering Theme Restaurants as an example, at present the theme restaurant brand which leads the Restaurant industry with its competitive advantage is Hard Rock Cafe on the grounds that they offer a “Dining Experience” which is found nowhere else and is remarkable in every aspect (Heizer & Render, 2013, pp. 72).

While McDonald’s and Burger King have fought over a percentage of the same market share, each company has a unique strategy with which they’ve approached the market. McDonald’s aims to deliver an inexpensive, standard, quality meal with high level of uniformity both in burger structure and in delivery times. Burger King also strives for an inexpensive, quality meal, but focuses on allowing the customer a degree of flexibility in the menu – a goal reflected in their long-time slogan, “Have it your way.” This difference results in distinct objectives for each restaurant that resonate

• 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?