Marketing Planning Evaluating Health Impacts

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Planning for Evaluating Health Impacts. Answer: Introduction: The international business in the fast food market incredibly requires product standardisation and adaptation process, due to the significant market competitiveness. In the words of Abascal et al. (2009), the product adaptation strategies are considered as the most influential aspect for the multinational fast food corporations. However, the recent theory says that the product standardisation improves the overall organisational performance, while, the fact is not true for all the cases. As a consequence, the standardisation and adaptation both are prioritised while managing the international fast food business. The contemporary MNCs operating in the global fast food industry strives to incorporate ingredients of both the approaches to managing long-term sustainability. Considering the fact, the question 4 evaluates the overseas performance of Jollibee Food Corporation (JFC). Also, the extent the rim can transfer its core competencies have also been critically assessed in the current study. A particular focus has been made analysing whether the firm requires modification of the customer-driven strategies to suit the foreign environments or not. The overall analysis has been done linking with the theoretical models and past literature. JFCs overseas performances: After experiencing business success in its nation, the firm JFC turned its business overseas. At the initial stage, the brand started targeting the Filipino populated regions in the international market to create the brand awareness. The operation in Hong Kong, Saipan and Guam, Vietnam, Brunet, Indonesia, Dubai and Kuwait had generated a remarkable business profit in its initial business process. Later on, the brand had entered the USA fast food market in the FY 1998 and targeted 2 million Filipino immigrants. The food quality and tastes have satisfied the customers, and the brand popularity increased. Dishes like fried chicken and Peach Mango Pie has been liked by the American customers as well. In this context, Abascal et al. (2009) stated that the reason behind the success in overseas business is that the firm tried to develop the JFC brands in regions where the supply chain can critically support the mass of stores in the selected international areas. Eventually, the company adop ted franchise mode in the US and gradually purchased a majority interest in Tokyo Teriyaki House, a Japanese restaurant located in California. The restaurant renamed as Tomis Teriyaki House. The location of JFC Group stores by brand has been given in the Appendix, Exhibit 1, which shows the success factor of JFCs international business expansion. After expanding three store networks in Vietnam in the FY 2004, the firm again signed an agreement to purchase almost 85% ownership of Yonghe King Chain. The innovation and quality customer services have enabled the company opening 12 more Yonghe King Brands within the third quarter of 2004. Most importantly, the sales volume had increased by 6% in the same year (www.jollibee.com.ph, 2016). However, in the same year, the brand closed almost 13 stores in its foreign locations, including Dubai, the USA and Hong Kong (www.jollibee.com.ph, 2016). Fitzpatrick et al. (2015) stated that although the brand concept is good, it fails to meet the international challenges in the context of changing customer preferences towards the fast food market. The rapid sales growth was used to come from the Philippine branches, while, the number of Chinese stores remained same and a few sales growth had been experienced by the firm. Although the internal expansion approach was satisfactory the overall performance has been found average, which still requires a lot of work to improve and manage brand sustainability. Evaluation of transferring the core competency to its overseas operation: The international operation of JFC Group includes the transfer of core competencies like to offer unique products as preferred by the Philippine groups. In the words of Gemina et al. (2013), the operational effectiveness and the deep organisational structure had enabled the firm offering tailor made the menu to the customers. This strategy has helped the brand reaching more international customers across its overall operations. On the other hand, hiring potential manpower is also considered as another core competency of the firm Jollibee. The core competency included a clear focus on meeting operational efficacy by utilizing productive resources. However, Jafari Momtaz et al. (2013) pointed out that the lack of core competency likes product diversification obscured the fact that each year some of the stores were closed. It was either due to the underperformance or because of being replaced by the larger stores in better business locations (www.jollibee.com.ph, 2016). Therefore, the lack of operational and brand management activity were the main reasons due to the failure of running all stores successfully. However, Gk (2009) stated that the customer support activity was one of the core competencies of the firm, which executed the corporate programs in a renewed enthusiasm and the greater commitment from the managers and the employees. The marketing and brand promotion activity is also found attractive enough to maintain sufficient brand value to its customers. Analysis regarding the need of modifying the consumer driven strategies to suit the foreign market: The current market competitiveness of the brand JFC can be analysed using the Porters five forces model. Eventually, an inference can be drawn to identify whether there is any need to alter the consumer driven strategies or not. Porters five forces model: Rivalry among the existing industry players: The rivalry competitiveness is higher for the current firm, as every year one or more new brand is replacing the stores of JFC Group (Wasowicz-Kirylo and Stysko-Kunkowska, 2011). The competitors like KFC, McDonalds and AW create a healthy rivalry among the other fast food providers as well. Supporting to this fact, Johnson and Weinstein (2012) stated that the brands like KFC, McDonalds are consistently providing more choices that range from the chicken to burger and snacks consists of both veg and non-veg items. On the contrary, the lack of product diversification or failure to meet actual customer demand also imposes higher sustainability issue to the JFC Group(www.jollibee.com.ph, 2016). The majority of the competitors of JFC is either equal or more than the size, power and growth in the fast food industry. Threats from the substitute products: The threat from the replacement products is also higher for the firm JFC Group. Since the brand concentrates mostly on the Philippine type of goods, the newly launched beverage or fast food products can lower down the overall brand identity (Kelaher et al. 2010). The 24-hour service of the other fast food brand can also be considered as a potential threat from the substitute facilities for the firm. Threat of new entrants: The market attractiveness of the fast food retailing is increasing gradually. In the words of Kim and Wemmerlv (2015), due to the low switching cost and the lack of product differentiation, the new entrants quickly penetrate into the fast food market. Therefore, the brand JFC Group can also experience an intense competition from the new fast food competitors. Also, the JFC Group also faces significant competition from the competitors like Carls Junior and Wendys, in the Malaysian market. Bargaining power of suppliers: The bargaining power of the JFCs suppliers is lower as compared to the rivals. Also, LindiÄ  and Marques da Silva, (2011) stated that the quality of the final product offered to the customers is largely dependent on the quality of the raw materials received from the suppliers. Supporting to this fact, Wasowicz-Kirylo and Stysko-Kunkowska (2011) stated that the potential power in the US and Australian fast food market is comparatively lower, due to the existence of standardised inputs and low switching cost. Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of the buyers is significantly higher for the firm. The customers of the current operating regions of FC Group demand greater quality product along with the delivery flexibility and terms of payment. The lower switching cost instigates the customer to shift into the brand like McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, etc. Also, the JFC Group fails to meet the changing fast food demand of the customers (Wasowicz-Kirylo and Stysko-Kunkowska, 2011). At the same time, the target market penetration has become a crucial task for the brand, due to the lack of product innovativeness. Hence, there is a greater chance of losing the existing customer base by the current brand JFC Group. Analysis: The overall analysis indicates that JFC Group needs to modify the consumer driven strategies to suit the foreign market. It can be done by managing strategic fit within its operational activities. Eventually, the unique selling proposition can be improved, and the brand can meet its sustainable competitiveness in the international business market. A Directional Policy model can be employed to improve the strategic market growth of the firm JFC Group. Modification of consumer driven policies by employing directional policy matrix: Table 1: Directional Policy matrix (Source: Created by author) Analysis: The above table indicates that the firm JFC group has given lesser concentration on the burger, pizza and other fast food item. However, the significant focus has been made on the chicken items and spaghetti, where the cost involved is also higher. While expanding the business into the international platform, the firm needs to move away from offering traditional Filipino meals and the stagnant foods that are already being provided by the existing players (Kelaher et al. 2010). Supporting to this fact, Zirfas (2013) stated that the fast food marketers need to prioritise more on the small investment and offering good quality unique products to the customers. Although the food products provided by JFC Group have created successful brand awareness in the home market, it failed to generate customer attraction in the international business market. Along with the offerings of chicken, jolly hot dog and French fries, the firm also needs to focus more on the burger and other pizza items as well. This strategy could help the brand maintaining diversified food offerings to the customers. The consumer-driven approach could be better suited for the current brand in the foreign market. Finally, even if the name becomes much less Philippine in nature, the food innovation and quality of the product offerings need to be modified to make the business strategy a customer centric one. It could help the brand equally competing with the new entrants, and the brand could safeguard the closure of the retail, fast food branches across the global operation. Business strength Weight JFC Group Raw Adjusted Asset and manpower 0.2 6 1.2 Sales growth 0.3 7 2.1 Market share 0.1 6 0.6 Products and technical specification 0.3 6 1.8 Reputation 0.1 6 0.6 Market attractiveness Weight JFC Group Raw Adjusted Market size 0.1 6 0.6 Market stability 0.4 7 2.8 Market growth 0.3. 6 1.8 Competition 0.2 6 1.2 As the brand has sufficient manpower the contribution made by the employees are found greater. Eventually, the sales growth and technical specification have been found higher. Thus, the competitive pricing and moderate brand reputation can be considered a potential element to maintain the overall brand sustainability of JFC group. Conclusion: The overall study indicates that brand innovation and employment of customer-centric business strategy is required to maintain sufficient brand competitiveness. Although the franchise business model has given adequate growth and success in the Philippine business market, the lack of diversification led to the closure of the stores also. Thus, to manage the future challenges, the brand needs to ensure the cost structure, especially in the support groups. This could help the brand sustaining a positive growth in the same-store sales value. The custom-centric value generation features can also be incorporated into the operational model to win significant foreign operations. Eventually, the brand could actually become a world class business. References: Abascal, E., Garca Lautre, I. and Mallor, F. (2009) Tracking customer portfolio composition: A factor analysis approach, Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, 26(5), pp. 535550. Corporation, J.F. (2016) Jollibee foods corporation. Available at: https://www.jollibee.com.ph/ (Accessed: 24 August 2016). Fitzpatrick, B.D., Nguyen, Q.Q.A. and Cayan, Z. (2015) An upgrade to competitive corporate analysis: Creation of A personal finance platform to strengthen porters Five competitive forces model in utilizing, Journal of Business Economics Research (JBER), 13(1), p. 54. Gemina, D., Andari, T.T. and Kusuma, I.C. (2013) Consumer behavior on the choice of typical regional food products based on external and internal factors, perception, attitude and consumer preference,International Journal on Advanced Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 3(2), p. 138 Gk, O. (2009) Linking account portfolio management to customer information: Using customer satisfaction metrics for portfolio analysis, Industrial Marketing Management, 38(4), pp. 433439. Jafari Momtaz, N., Alizadeh, S. and Sharif Vaghefi, M. (2013) A new model for assessment fast food customer behavior case study, British Food Journal, 115(4), pp. 601613. Johnson, W.C. and Weinstein, A. (2012)Superior customer value in the new economy: Concepts and cases, Second edition. 2nd edn. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor Francis Kelaher, M., Warr, D.J. and Tacticos, T. (2010) Evaluating health impacts: Results from the neighbourhood renewal stratgey in Victoria, Australia, Health Place, 16(5), pp. 861867. Kim, Y.H. and Wemmerlv, U. (2015) Does a suppliers operational competence translate into financial performance? An empirical analysis of supplier-customer relationships, Decision Sciences, 46(1), pp. 101134 LindiÄ , J. and Marques da Silva, C. (2011) Value proposition as a catalyst for a customer focused innovation, Management Decision, 49(10), pp. 16941708. Wasowicz-Kirylo, G. and Stysko-Kunkowska, M. (2011) Attributes of nutritional information Labelling that determine attractiveness of labels and correctness of inferences made about food Healthfulness, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, pp. 722728. Zirfas, J. (2013) Fast food and fun, Paragrana, 22(1), pp. 2026