Hungry Jacks Research

Before launching or expanding a business venture, there needs to be an understanding of the industry, its competitors, and its customers. Market research is vital in assisting companies in the decision-making process and their marketing direction. Data from marketing research is important because it provides companies with ways to identify opportunities, identify market potential, minimize chances of loss, devise effective marketing strategies, gauge customer satisfaction, and serve as an evaluation tool.

Marketing research is the method/methods that connect the clients, buyers and users to the marketer through data found from research to find and outline marketing opportunities and dilemmas. The general aim of marketing research is to recognize and evaluate how altering the marketing mix which is comprised of 4 features: product, price, promotion and place, influences customer behaviour.

Fast food popularity has grown tremendously over the years. People spend more time trying to save time in today’s world and in

Market research consists of information collection regarding the prevalent market situation, and its analysis. “We define marketing research as the systematic design, collection, analysis, and

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.

Marketing research is what informs business’s make decisions by helping it to understand the changing dynamics of its market. This involves finding out more about customers, competitors and the overall marketing environment.

The restaurant industry in the United States had annual sales of $ 631.8 billion and employs 12.9 million people in 2012. Even in times of recession there is little evidence that this industry has seen a decline especially in its fast food and quick service segment. But with a depressed economy with no immediate upward trend in the near future, majority of the customers indicated that they would either curtail their spending on eating or best maintain its current level which is certainly going to affect the future of many restaurants in the industry. Chipotle is part of the fast casual segment of the U.S industry with over 1,600 restaurants.

Explaining just about one quarter of the United States population eats fast food every day , he claims that fast food restaurants have “not only [changed] the American diet, but also our landscape, economy, work force and popular culture…and the consequences have become inescapable regardless ” how often you eat it ( Schlosser, 2004, p.3). According to DATAMONITOR a market research firm’s Fast Food Industry Profile,” [in] the United States fast food market grew by 0.2% in 2009 to reach a value of $71.4 billion. And, the compound annual growth rate of the market in the period 2005–09 was 3.7%” showing even years after the book was written, fast food continues to take a greater market share of consumer’s food dollars (“Fast Food Industry profile”,2010, pg. 12).

Marketing is a mix of business activities that work towards a bigger goal of building a brand and creating lasting relationships to capture value from customers. Implementing a marketing strategy is vital as it examines every aspect of a business by identifying customer needs and meeting these in a better way than competitors (Armstrong et al. 2015). McDonald’s and Hungry Jack’s are examples of companies with excellent customer-driven marketing strategies, strategically deciding which customers to serve (segmentation and targeting) and how (positioning & differentiation). Using this as a guideline they’ve incorporated the marketing mix consisting of; product, price, promotion and place to produce the response it wants in the target market.

M1: Explain, with examples, how different market research methods are appropriate to assist different marketing situations. Looking back at the market research methods that could be used to collect information, methods such as questionnaires/ survey, observation, focus groups, experimentation, internet, website monitoring etc. I am going to select 3 primary and 3 secondary methods of research from the ones I have written about. I have chosen 3 primary researches which are: •

I have chosen the company named by Mc Donald’s for my assignment topic as it is a worldwide and well-known fast food company covered in Asia and Europe countries .

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.

The marketing research services provided by the company are intended to address most industry segments. This strategy is oriented towards reaching large customer segments that can provide important incomes. These services are provided by competitors also. However, most competitors are specialized only in some of these services, and cannot provide a combination of marketing information services in comparison with this company. Therefore, the fact that Marketing Solutions provides different services intended to satisfy different needs of customers can create competitive advantage.

Marketing has been defined as “…an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders” (American Marketing Association, 2004) and “…a total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote, and distribute want-satisfying products to target markets in order to achieve organizational objectives” (Etzel, Walker, Stanton, Pandit, 2010: 7). Based on these definitions one can assume that Marketing is referred to those actions that firms must take to create value and exchange it with potential customers, and in this regard Marketing plays a strategic role in the organization (Silk, A J, 2006: 3). Marketing research on the other hand is “…needed before a product is introduced to the market and on a regular basis throughout its life. Research is not limited to products; it is conducted to answer questions about potential market segments, entire stores, brand names, advertising, prices, and every other aspect of marketing.” (Etzel, Walker, Stanton, Pandit, 2010: 181)

Market research plays an important role in this industry since understanding the needs and requirements of the customer is paramount for making the topline.