Executive Summary
Sonic is the largest drive-in chain in the United States. Under the slogan "America's Drive-In," a Sonic features fast service by roller-skating carhops and unique menu items that cannot be found at McDonalds, Burger King, or Wendys. Sonic restaurants operate in 27 states so it is smaller than leading fast food chains however it is still a significant competitor. Founded by Troy Smith and Charlie Pappe in 1953, Sonic went from a single root beer stand to a popular franchise. In 1973, Sonic restructured as a franchise company and later became Sonic Corporation. The company experienced financial decline due to the lack of consistency from its franchisees so they were bought out by Sonic Corporation and restructured. In 1995, Sonic introduced "Sonic 2000," an aggressive multi-layered strategy to further unify the company in terms of a consistent menu, brand identity, products, packaging, and service. The campaign was successful and Sonic's brand recognition increased. Strengths include a strong competitive nature, flexible strategies, and employee/franchisor relationships. Weaknesses include lack of communication and domestic expansion. Threats in the external environment include company size, employee turnover, weak economy, rivals in similar industries, overseas expansion, and slow growth markets. Sonic can overcome these threats with opportunities such as global expansion, increase in the number of quick service consumers, and appealing investment opportunities. Alternative strategies and recommendations suggest that Sonic should concentrate on a low cost strategy and focusing on niches such as the health food market.
History and Strategy of Sonic Corporation
Sonic Corp. franchises and operates the Unit...
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...rget market Sonic could devote its energy into is the "health freaks" niche. There are those who pursue healthy lifestyles yet have a hard time finding fast food when they are in a hurry. Since Sonic has a reputation for serving unique items, they would have an easier time selling more healthy food products. McDonald's and Burger King have had a difficult time focusing on their niche since they have had a history of being a "greasy burger and fries" joint. This could give Sonic a competitive advantage to take on those industry giants. Sonic is a significant competitor in its core markets, and it beats national chains on service measures such as customer satisfaction and loyalty. With these strategic implementations, Sonic has the potential to put down competitors such as McDonald's because the market is always changing and one company cannot remain number one forever.
Despite the economically uncertainty Pret A Manger keeps on thriving in the U.S. fast food market. It’s growing fast, with huge success. Pret is proving to the world its a big threat in the sandwich industry. In 2011, U.S. sales up 40% from the year before, “the company’s overall profits grew by 37% in 2010, and annual workforce turnover is only 60%, compared to fast food industry averages of 300-400%.” (Smart Advantage)
The fast-casual restaurant is one of the most competitive and fastest growing industries in the world. Chipotle has thought to have reinvented this category and this has led to their explosive growth in the early stages of the company. As it has leveled off, however, one can see where mistakes have been made leading to the sharp decline in their sales and stock. Starbucks has continued to grow, but has also seen declines in their stock. Comparing these companies, one can see how each have went from standalone stores to market leading companies. They must continue to innovate otherwise they will be seen as just another restaurant and no longer see growth.
As a natural resources company, BHP Billiton is vulnerable to changes in the environment and policies regarding the environment. With each environmental downfall, profit is jeopardized, which can push growth and innovation back. BHP Billiton has been heavily affected with blackouts in South Australia that has been interrupting production in Olympic Dam since September 28 during a two-week blackout. Without power supply security, BHP Billiton is having difficulty keeping power prices affordable in South Australia. The total estimated profit loss of the power outages was $450 million. These obstacles have disturbed BHP Billiton’s ability to compete globally with electricity price rises.
For example, Sonic is well known for their “Two-Guys” advertising campaign, and if the Thunder could tie their way into that campaign, it could create great exposure for the Thunder. Sonic has a target audience of typically middle-aged people who still want that drive-in feel like they had when they were younger. The Thunder have a target market for families and generally millennial aged people, and heavily promote being a unified environment. If Sonic and the Thunder can mix their target audiences, it could create a large scale for both partners, but if not the partnership could be a risk for both
Resources are being classified into tangible and intangibles assets as the followings: *Resources of *Virgin Group Tangible Resources Intangible Resources Capabilities of Virgin Group are established by the integrated resources that assisted it to stay competitive and to outdo its competitors. Valuable capabilities will aid Virgin Group to effectively tap and explore spotted opportunities as well as to minimize threats in the external environment. Should capabilities are consistently and effectively utilized, they will turn significant and be difficult to be imitated or substituted. With the resources discussed above, 3 capabilities of Virgin Group are identified as follows: - *Capabilities 1: Unique C*ulture of *"Making difference and creating uniqueness"* (*Contributed Resources: *Financial, Organizational, Human, Innovation*, Technological*) Creativity, Innovation are the foundations to Virgin and Richard Branson’s success! Technology push is the spine for innovation and likely to simulate process innovation in how service is provided when looking into Virgin. Technology is more likely to simulate process innovation. Every turn and businesses Branson venture has been with some kind of innovation or creativity element if not something unique, something that has not been seen or heard of before in the relevant market. Virgin Group has achieved a competitive advantage among its competitors by uniformly followed its culture in all business in serving good value and service to the customers in different ways. The basic and the core competence of all Virgin Group's business ventures are to do things just a little bit differently from the rest. And also they always tried to add value by adding a little fun to the business. By differentiating in strategy itself to fit of the activities and the ways of doing business have also differentiated itself from the rivals and make it difficult to imitate Virgin’s strategy. Hence, they have established their business to an untouchable position. How would you characterize the corporate strategy of Branson's Virgin Group? The answer to that question will not be so different from the ones above. However to better understanding we can characterize the corporate strategy of Virgin Group as "Making difference and creating uniqueness" in any kind of customers' service. They are not stuck to any business field so that makes them flexible of thinking and creating new ideas for their customers and the whole consumers around the world who need (or will need) Virgin's service.
This strategic capitalises on weaknesses since will decrease the cost of coffee beans/beverages but also Starbucks operating cost which they regularly ship across the world to various stores. Starbucks can capitalise on this weakness to improve their brand options. It adds value in the inbound logistics activities, operations and procurements. Starbucks should consider this option since it will decrease their operating cost and therefore will reduce the prices on their menu. The attractiveness is the exact same as mentioned in option 1.
For many years, IBM succeeded in holding a very good market position. In fact, the company achieved a very high market share and huge profits. However, this situation did not last forever. In 1990, IBM experienced its first quarterly loss of $2billion due to some unexpected accounting charges. However, revenues increased from $62.7 billion in the previous year to $96 billion. In 1991, the c...
Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japan based company, whose headquarters are located in Aichi Prefecture. The company was founded by Kiichiri Toyoda in 1937. Currently the company’s CEO is Akio Toyoda. Toyota is basically into cars and it is one of the top players in the world in this industry. Toyota also owns two other brands namely Lexus and Scion, which gives the company a lot of advantage over it’s other competitors. Toyota manufactures sedans, saloons, suvs, muvs, pick-up trucks and buses. During the year 2013 Toyota had approximately 333,498 employees, who were working globally. In March 2013, Toyota was ranked as the thirteenth biggest organization globally in terms of its revenue. In the following table we can see the financial report of Toyota Motor Corporation in the year 2013-
Overall, how satisfied are you , with [PRODUCT/SERVICE]? Please answer using the rating scale where (5) means "extremely satisfied" and (1) means "very unsatisfied."
Vitamin B-12 is essential for energy production as well as influencing the way your body uses carbohydrates.
This particular case is about the implementation of the popular fast-food chain, Burger King, into the Japanese market. Despite its’ strong market position in other countries, Burger King has some difficulties to face within the Japanese market. In this report, my team and I will analyze Burger King’s current situation and problems and suggest alternatives.
McDonald’s has proven over time that the business practices they utilize work well and have led them to obtaining the title of the largest food retailer in the world. The founder of the company made a tactical decision in franchising the idea of providing fast food at a cheap price. Today, fast food has become a staple of not only American life but a viable food option all over the world. For McDonald’s a critical factor in them reaching the level of growth they currently experience has been franchising. It can be assured that McDonald’s will continue to grow through the usage of the franchising techniques as new food markets continue to develop all over the world.
While thinking in terms of collaborating with new speciality partners, we have to take care that the brand does not get diluted. Taking the case of McDonald's specifically, there are many factors that need to be considered. Looking at the pros of the proposal, we can see that you can potentially increase the customer base through this collaboration and the brand awareness may increase among the people that come to McDonalds . It might help us in targeting the youth segment that has been proving elusive in the other campaigns. But seeing the other side of the coin, there is a possibility of brand dilution when collaborating with McDonalds because there starbucks coffee might become a secondary product. The association of coffee with burger is not a popular one as burger with coke. So there the starbucks brand will not get the desired visibility. Another point being that the type of consumers who come to McDonalds is different from those who come to Starbucks coffee bars.
In today’s market, McDonalds faces numerous challenges such as fierce competition, a more health conscious customer, and the continual need for improved customer satisfaction and menu. McDonalds needs to go through some changes in order to remain ahead in the fast-food industry.
On the other hand, most factors prove otherwise. The retail industry does not have high Economies of Scale to be exploited in general . Yet, it is impossible to run department stores like Metro on a small scale . A large retail space, inventory, and warehouse are necessary to host a specialized portfolio of brands and products to better attract both customers and suppliers. Heavy capital requirements and operational expen...