Key Success Factors of fast food Essay

Success in the fast food industry requires mastery of different key competitive factors. Fast food entrepreneurs must emphasize on creating strong brand, improving operation efficiency, increasing speed and convenience. By paying attention and investing more on these elements of the business they can strengthen their competitive position in the market and make profit Branding KFC, Republic of Korea’s Lotteria, Jollibee are examples of extremely successful fast food branding. Their signs, logos and slogans are recognizable around the world. Customers of fast food want to know exactly what they are going to get before they actually have experience. Businesses try to provide consistent, easily recognizable and simple branding to reassure customers that nothing has changed. Simple slogans that lodge themselves in the brain are repeated endlessly on television and radio commercials, ensuring that when customers see the fast food outlet, they are primed to respond because the brand is already â€Å"inside† of them. Ranking brand names of fast food is showed on the Appendix A However, that is also the reason that makes domestic fast food business in Vietnam hard to compete and strongly develop. Kinh Do, Hy Lam Mon, Duc Phat, VietMac and the ABC that have not recognized brand names have many obstacle in domestic market. Pomchai thuratum – the manager of KFC in Vietnam said â€Å"I don’t think that international fast food is better than Vietnamese food but I’m sure that customers come with us because of brand. Sitting in Vietnam and eating American food. We are better because of our marketing campaign going along with brand†. (taichinh.vnexpress.net) Location Choosing location is very important. It should be in places that are easy to be identified like high-traffic areas to be convenient for buyers to come. Fast food isn’t considered a destination; customers won’t travel into the countryside for a bag of fries in the same way that they would for a special restaurant experience. By locating outlets in shopping malls and on busy commercial strips, fast food companies gain business and impulse purchases from customers who had no preplanned patronage of the restaurant. It is easy to find any fast food restaurants in big cities, supermarkets in Vietnam such as in Diamond Plaza, Parkson; ZenPlaza, Co-op Mart, Maximart, Big C and Metro. And fast food restaurants are opened more and more. After nearly 15 years of operating in Viet Nam, KFC has opened nearly 130 stores. Lotteria is also on the race with more than 120 stores. Lotteria has also made changes to catch up with the new habits of local clientele. They are opening stores that have large spaces and installing computers that have access to the internet. Pizza Hut now has 26 stores, located in Vietnam. ( vietnamnews.vn) Speed Nowadays, in the developing-country as Vietnam, people are always busy with their work, their children, so they don’t much time for preparing traditional meals and so Fast food is their best choice. According to a survey, 36 % people like fast food because it saves their time (Tieu luan Fast food). Of course, as its name, fast food industry strongly focus on delivery food as quick as possible and this makes customers satisfied with this kind of service. Setting up efficient and standardized kitchens and focusing on foods that can be cooked quickly are two of the ways that McDonald’s became so successful in this competitive industry, according to Business Week. Many people grab fast food on the way to work or to another destination. With people who work in office, sometime they have no time to go out for a lunch. They can eat fast food in their office. With students, they can use fast food in their school, in their break- time with their friends. Efficiency Fast food restaurants run on thin profit margins and make their money by selling lots of product, In this commercial environment, functioning efficiently is critical. This means minimizing food waste, hiring help at minimum wage and benefiting from economies of scale when purchasing supplies. Every dollar that is unnecessarily spent on operations is a dollar subtracted from profits. Because of high employee turnover in the industry, training for new employees need to be standardized, rapid and effective. Speed is another reason that fast food is considered as a efficient industry. The faster a restaurant can deliver the ordered food, the more labor costs they can save and the more space for other customers. â€Å"Fast food market heats up† http://vietnamnews.vn/Economy/231760/boom-time-for-foreign-fast-food.html 2009 â€Å"Tieu luan Fast food†, 2011 http://www.kilobooks.com/threads/12981-Fast-food Jagg Xaxx, Demand Media Key Elements of Success in the Fast Food Industry http://smallbusiness.chron.com/key-elements-success-fast-food-industry-24913.html http://taichinh.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/the-gioi/2012/12/kfc-lotteria-jollibee-chiem-linh-thi-truong-fastfood-viet-26006/