The marketing plan

Introduction

The marketing plan is a document that outlines the marketing and advertising efforts of an organization in a competitive. The plan outlines the business activities which the organization will engage in to achieve the marketing objective of the organization. The plan describes the target market for the organizations, market strategies for the organization, among other vital concepts (A.Grier & Janell, 2010). The benefits of developing a marketing plan include setting the organization on the right path for marketing while aligning the marketing goal to broader organizational goals. A marketing plan enables the organization to acquire and command a market share within the marketplace. This is vital since it contributes to organizations’ prosperity as a going concern in the competitive environment.

Chick-fil-A is a fast food outlet that is based in the United States, which operates in 48 states in the USA. The fast-food hence anticipates expanding its operations in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom is the leading country with the highest consumption of fast food. This is because the country is renowned for having different cultures with different tastes and preferences (Lee, 2012). The primary players in the fast-food industry include sandwiches, Burgers kings, McDonald’s, and Indian and Chinese takeaways, among others. Hence there exists stiff competitions in the United Kingdom for food outlets due to the existence of many outlets. Like a consultant, I will conduct a thorough research about the market so as to understand the market dynamics. This will assist in developing a detailed marketing plan for Chick-fil-A is fast food that is anticipating to expand its operations into the United Kingdom (Santoso & Nelly, 2015). The market plan for Chick-fil-A is fast food that will entail micro and macro analysis, SWOT analysis, objectives, competitor’ analysis, competitive advantage, STP analysis, and market mix analysis using the 7Ps. Embracing this step will assist in developing a detailed plan for Chick-fil-A is fast food, which anticipates to opens a new fasts food outlet in the united kingdom.

Macro analysis

Fast-food outlet contributes tremendously towards the growth of gross domestic product for different countries. This is because of an increased desire for people to dine out, increased information exposure, and employment. The industry is usually affected by the external environment, which is beyond their control. The macro-environment is composed of PESTEL, which stands for the political, economic, social, technological, ecological, and legal environment. The fast foods are usually required to adapt to these environmental changes to survive in the competitive environment (F.Dollard & Karen, 2012). The market plan for Chick-fil-A fast food will focus on the following regarding the macro environment; political environment, the political factors that the outlet should consider they include compliance to a legal framework such as terms and conditions for employment, wages, and health and safety among others in the United Kingdom. This factor is essential since it will enable the food outlet to operate in harmony with the United Kingdom’s kingdom’s authority(J.Nawrotzki, 2012). This will assist in minimizing litigation issues with the authority, which can adversely affect the reputation of fast food. The other issue includes considering government expectations like putting healthier food items on the menu. This aims at minimizing lifestyle diseases linked to the consumption of fast food.

The economic environment, Chick-fil-A, is fast food that will consider the inflation rates, consumption levels, interest rates, among other factors in the United States. These factors are critical in establishing the consumption levels United Kingdom (Ihsan, 2012). Due to increased health cautious among UK citizens, it can affect the demand for fast food products. Chick-fil-A is fast food that will ensure that they include healthier products on their menu. This will aid in attracting a higher market base for fast food. The other economic factors that influence the fast food outlet is the pricing of products. The outlet will ensure the effective price of their products to attract the right customers. The social environment the outlet will consider the health and lifestyle trend, which are rising at a high rate they are affecting the demand for fast food foods. This will assist in offering the right package to its market in the United Kingdom (J.Nawrotzki, 2012). The other key issue the outlet will consider is diversity; this is because the United Kingdom is composed of different cultures from all walks of life. Different culture hence has a great influence on taste and preference for fast foods.

Technological environment, technology is an imperative force that is driving growth for fast food outlets. This is because it is changing the modes of production and delivery of fast foods. Fast food does not mostly depend on an attractive menu; they rely on customer convenience and service as a major driver for sales volumes(Ihsan, 2012). Chick-fil-A is a fast food will ensure they embrace the best technology to attract and retain the right market.

In the ecological environment, the outlet will anticipate ensuring the conservation of the environment. This is through the prevention and control of any form of pollution or deterioration in the environment. This will be achieved through compliance with corporate social responsibility initiatives in the United Kingdom. Legal environment Chick-fil-A is fast food that will ensure compliance to legal structure in the united regarding fast food outlet operations. This is a legal framework that has intense impacts on the demand for fast foods(J.Nawrotzki, 2012). The outlet should ensure compliance to health and safety law, competition laws; among others; this will contributes towards its prosperity as a going concern. Conducting PESTEL is vital since it has a great influence on the profits to be generated by the food outlet in a competitive environment. It also enables the fasts food to survive the stiff competition in the marketplace.

Micro analysis-porters 5 forces

The move by Chick-fil-A is fast food to establish an outlet in the united will experience stiff competition among the existing players in the industry, among other forces. Porter 5 forces are an integral model for evaluating the industry environment(Oswald, 2018). The models identify five forces that shape the competitiveness nature of a single industry. The forces they will comprise of supplier power when suppliers have high bargaining power, this will increase the intensity of competition in the marketplace. Chick-fil-A is a fast-food will be required to work in partnership with suppliers to aid in minimizing the bargaining power of the suppliers. Buyer power, the buyer powers for fast food, is usually high. This is because of increasing changes in tastes and preferences for the buyers. Chick-fil-A is a fast-food that will be required to ensure continuous changes in its products to serve the needs of their targets. Threats of substitutes this threat is high due to stiff competition in the fast-food, especially in the United Kingdom where they exist diverse culture. Customers hence have a wider choice for fast food. Chick-fil-A is fast food that will focus on product differentiation to attract and retain a high market share in the marketplace(D.Fitzpatrick & Zafer, 2015). The threat of entry; Chick-fil-A is fast food that will be a new entry to the marketplace in the United Kingdom. Hence this will result in diluting profit for the existing players. Hence this can result in the existing players embracing a hostile strategy to increase barriers to entry. Chick-fil-A is fast food that will invest heavily in a marketing campaign and ensure compliance with the legal framework in the United Kingdom. This will assist the fast food outlet to easily penetrate the marketplace and command a high market share in the competitive environment(Meysam Jafari & Meysam, 2015). This will result in company prosperity in the marketplace. The other force is rivalry among the existing market players; this is because of intense competition in the marketplace. Chick-fil-A is fast food that will experience stiff competition from McDonalds, burgers kings, among others. Hence the outlet will embrace the best generic and growth intensive strategy to survive the stiff competition in the marketplace.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is an essential tool that assists an organization or company in developing strategy. The strategy is essential since they offer the roadmap for the organization towards the realization of its strategic goals in the competitive environment. SWOT is an abbreviation for strength, weakness opportunities, and threats. The organization is usually required to capitalize on their strength and opportunities and deal with any form of threats and weakness, which can hinder the attainment of the strategic objective for the organization(Tatyana, 2015). Strength and weakness; hence, they are internal to the organization while opportunities and threats are from the external environment. The organization is required to take advantage of opportunities that they emanate from the external environment and counteract threats.

The strength of Chick-fil-A is fast food is brand image due to its increased innovation of products and embracing product differentiation, which aims at producing unique products as compared to competitors. Chick-fil-A is fast food that has a strong financial position, which is gauged in terms of profitability and liquidity position. The outlet is currently operating in 48 states in the United States. Emphasizing employee training is essential since it leads towards imparting the staff with the necessary skills that are required in the job market. This, in return, has resulted in offering quality services to the target resulting in their satisfaction and spread of positive word of mouth(Evgeny & Tatyana.Drozdova, 2018). The weakness of Chick-fil-A is a fast food include high prices for their products, low innovations which affects the profitability of the fast food. The company will capitalize on its strength, i.e., customer services and work on its weakness. This will assist the outlet to penetrate the United Kingdom market.

The opportunities are the avenues that an entity can capitalize on to increase its returns. Chick-fil-A is fast food that can capitalize on the following opportunities entering into the international market like United kingdoms, diversifications, capitalizing on the issues of health cautious due to increased issues of lifestyle diseases. Capitalizing on these opportunities will enable Chick-fil-A is fast food to penetrate new markets and command a higher market share in the market place in the United Kingdom’s kingdom’s resulting in entity prosperity as a going concern. Chick-fil-A is fast food facing stiff competition from McDonalds and KFC and the rise in the price of raw materials(Evgeny & Tatyana.Drozdova, 2018).). These threats affect the performance of the outlets, but the entity has employed the best strategies to remain relevant in the marketplace. A SWOT analysis will be critical since it will assist in an effective understanding of the United Kingdom market and how to penetrate the market and command a high market share.

SMART Objective

The establishment of an objective requires an effective analysis of the environment and conducting of SWOT analysis. This assists in the formulation of SMART objectives. Chick-fil-A is a fast food will ensure their objective are simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely(Chalida & Trine, 2015). The main strategic objective for the outlet will be to offer quality customer service to the target customers within the primary objective of meeting and exceeding customer expectations. The other objectives include provision affordable wholesome and diverse fasts foods, and to focus on retaining their market share in the competitive environment. Embracing SMART concepts will assist the outlet to embrace this objective in the United Kingdom. This will contributes to outlet penetration into the market place, thus commanding a higher market share. Chick-fil-A should conduct effective research about the United Kingdom market; this is because of diversity that exists in the United Kingdom(Pooja & Ajmer, 2017). This will contributes towards an effective understanding of the market, thus resulting in the effective formulation of SMART objectives that will enable the outlet to survive stiff competition.

Competitor analysis

Competitors are firms that sell the same products in the marketplace. The activities of the competitors usually affect the firm’s firm’s performance in the marketplace. The firm hence, should factor in a competitor during formulations(Arkadiusz, 2013). Chick-fil-A fast food will address the following issues related to competitors, identifying their key competitors such as McDonald, burger kings, and KFC. Identify the competitor’s competitor’s system, their marketing strategies, performance in the United Kingdom market, and the competitor’s scompetitor’s capabilities in terms of their strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat, among other key issues(Arghya & Hodaka, 2012). Competitor analysis will assist the Chick-fil-A fast food in formulating viable strategies tailored towards outshining their competitor in the marketplace. This will have tremendous impacts on Chick-fil-A fast food outlets, especially on returns generated, thus enabling the outlet to survive the stiff competition in the marketplace.

Competitive edge

Competitive edge refers to the firm ability to stay ahead of the competition in the marketplace. This is achievable through conducting a SWOT analysis. This assists in filling the gap that will act as a source of competitive edge for the company(Kathrin, 2017). Chick-fil-A should embrace the following mechanisms to gain a competitive edge; the use of cost leadership strategy, innovation strategy, and differentiation strategy. The use of these strategies will contribute to outshining competitors in the marketplace(Kathrin, 2017). The company will embrace strategies that the competitor cannot copy are imitate to assist in gaining of competitive edge by the entity. This will contributes towards entity prosperity as going concern concept in the marketplace.

Segmentation, targeting and positioning and perceptual map

Segmentation involves dividing markets into smaller groups; this is because the organization cannot serve the whole market. Segmentation enables the organization to target the right market in a competitive environment. Chick-fil-A fast food will utilize the following criteria to segment the United Kingdom market, demographics which will comprise of income, age occupation, etc., behavioral and psychographic(Najafizadeh, 2012). This will assist in effectively segmentation the market and targeting the right market. Targeting is vital in fast food since it assists in establishing the target market in the segment. Hence this is essential since it contributes towards the effective positioning of an entity in the marketplace. The position entails the selection of the right marketing mix that fits the target customer segment. Positioning is achievable through the manipulation of the 7 marketing Ps. Chick-fil-A fast food has effective brand positioning which aims at maxim sing the profits for the entity(Najafizadeh, 2012)

. Chick-fil-A fast food will embrace its brand positioning in the United Kingdom. This will results in its penetration into the perpetual marketplace map will also be utilized to aid in establishing the perception of the customers in the United Kingdom. This is because it has a significant influence on the positioning of the business in a competitive environment.

Marketing mix 7ps

The marketing mix is vital since they emphasize the companies brand. Chick-fil-A fast-food marketing will focus on the marketing mix, product, price, promotion, and place. The other Ps that fast food will focus on include people, physical evidence, and process. Product; fast food offers breakfast lunch and dinner as part of their marketing mix. The outlet will ensure their provision of this product in the new market, i.e., the united kingdom. Price; the outlet’ soutlet’s charges prices higher than their competitors(Basrah & Ketut, 2019). This aims at targeting high-income earners. The outlet will ensure the effective pricing of the product to penetrate the UK market. The place is essential since it influences the distribution of the product. The outlet will be strategically located and embrace promotions techniques to command a higher market share in the markets. Chick-fil-A fast food will utilize the Ansoff matrix model to aid in penetrating the marketplace(Basrah & Ketut, 2019). The model documents the following strategies that an outlet can embrace product development. Market diversification and penetrations, among others. These strategies are essential in enabling an entity to gain a competitive edge.

Conclusion

A marketing plan is an important document for the organization; this is because it documents the prerequisites that are required by an entity to succeed in a competitive environment. It documents environmental analysis, competitor analysis SWOT analysis, among others. These concepts are essential since they usually enable the entity to penetrate the market and command a high market share resulting in its prosperity as a going concern concept.