The Fast Food Industry: Positioning and Competitive Advantage
The Fast Food Industry: Positioning and Competitive Advantage
INTRODUCTION The fast food industry is an ever growing industry regardless of the concerns from many about the health and obesity risks. Despite these risks associated with fast food consumers continue to return indicating there is a high level of competition amongst several members of this industry. This paper will examine and discuss the five following major fast food restaurant chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Sonic. The all intensive purpose of this paper is to focus on the fast food restaurant industry by exploring the above mentioned chains, the competitive factors in which encompass the industry, the company level factors that capture the firm’s positions relative to others in the industry, and how each firm is able to sustain a competitive advantage. Ultimately, the intent of this paper is to convey a complete understanding of the industry and how they sustain their positions as well as competition.
Industry
The fast food industry seems to have a pull on all different types of people across the United States. To simply put it, for the average busy American it is fast, convenient, and easy. Not only does the fast food industry employ almost two million employees it also sells over $100 billion dollars worth of fast food every year (Naik, 2010). The above statement gives us a better picture of the impact the fast food industry has on the United States. Accordingly, we will begin to explore the following five restaurants individually: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Sonic. The next segment will give a small profile of each company describing each fast food restaurant.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is well known for their hamburgers and french fries. McDonald’s has a menu that is appealing to everyone from the health conscious person with salads and oatmeal’s to the preschool kid with happy meals and a toy. According to the McDonald’s website, “McDonald’s is the
INTRODUCTION The fast food industry is an ever growing industry regardless of the concerns from many about the health and obesity risks. Despite these risks associated with fast food consumers continue to return indicating there is a high level of competition amongst several members of this industry. This paper will examine and discuss the five following major fast food restaurant chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Sonic. The all intensive purpose of this paper is to focus on the fast food restaurant industry by exploring the above mentioned chains, the competitive factors in which encompass the industry, the company level factors that capture the firm’s positions relative to others in the industry, and how each firm is able to sustain a competitive advantage. Ultimately, the intent of this paper is to convey a complete understanding of the industry and how they sustain their positions as well as competition.
Industry
The fast food industry seems to have a pull on all different types of people across the United States. To simply put it, for the average busy American it is fast, convenient, and easy. Not only does the fast food industry employ almost two million employees it also sells over $100 billion dollars worth of fast food every year (Naik, 2010). The above statement gives us a better picture of the impact the fast food industry has on the United States. Accordingly, we will begin to explore the following five restaurants individually: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and Sonic. The next segment will give a small profile of each company describing each fast food restaurant.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is well known for their hamburgers and french fries. McDonald’s has a menu that is appealing to everyone from the health conscious person with salads and oatmeal’s to the preschool kid with happy meals and a toy. According to the McDonald’s website, “McDonald’s is the
References: 7 reasons wendy’s surpassed burger king. (2012, April 27). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0412/7-Reasons-Wendys-Surpassed-Burger-King.aspx Burger King Choi, C. (2012, April 2). Burger king 's new menu -- a lot like McDonald’s.AP news. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/burger-kings-menu-lot-mcdonalds-144416062.html Competitive advantage.(n.d.) Fast food restaurants have right menu for recession. (2009, July 30). Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/article/152544-fast-food-restaurants-have-right-menu-for-recession Holmes, D Mcdonald 's history. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html?DCSext.destination=http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcd_history.html McEwen, W Morris, S. (2010, July 08). Forecasting: 'fresh ' will take wend 'ys farther than new salad line. Retrieved from http://www.qsrweb.com/article/127220/Forecasting-Fresh-will-take-Wendy-s-farther-than-new-salad-line Sonic (n.d.) United States Census (2012). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/faqs/faqs.html Wendy’s (n.d)