White Castle
Situation Analysis of White Castle Systems Inc.
Introduction
White Castle is known as the original fast-food hamburger chain. The first White Castle opened it 's doors in Witchita, Kansas, in 1921. White Castle (WC) has since grown to 393 restaurants in 11 states (White Castle hamburger..., 2004) and is now expanding internationally. By analysing White Castle 's internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities, and external threats, otherwise known as a SWOT analysis (Kerin, 2005), Learning Team B was able to exam market demographics, company needs, trends, and market forecast as they pertain to White Castle. During the SWOT analysis Learning Team B (LTB) discovered the primary strategic marketing issue is in order to remain profitable White Castle needs to promote its unique product(s) and adapt its menu items in order to continue to appeal to the changing desires of today 's consumers. The same holds trues today as it did in 1998 when William J. McDonald stated "White Castle needs to continually reassess its marketing strategy, particularly its pricing and promotional activities to determine what approach will be most effective into the future."
Marketing strategy recommendations A major strategy in the element of marketing is generating and maintaining brand recognition. Attaining brand recognition in the target market is a critical milestone for any branding strategy. There are many cues in the brand recognition arsenal. Typically brand building begins with aesthetic cues, the design features in a graphic or logo meant to visually represent the brand. Color, shape, texture, style, typeface, and position are among the design attributes which can offer recognition cues, making a design visually distinctive. It 's the reason why, when a new logo is evaluated, recognition factors and design uniqueness are taken into consideration.
According to Kim Kelly-Bartley (2001), vice president of marketing and site development for the Columbus,
Introduction
White Castle is known as the original fast-food hamburger chain. The first White Castle opened it 's doors in Witchita, Kansas, in 1921. White Castle (WC) has since grown to 393 restaurants in 11 states (White Castle hamburger..., 2004) and is now expanding internationally. By analysing White Castle 's internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities, and external threats, otherwise known as a SWOT analysis (Kerin, 2005), Learning Team B was able to exam market demographics, company needs, trends, and market forecast as they pertain to White Castle. During the SWOT analysis Learning Team B (LTB) discovered the primary strategic marketing issue is in order to remain profitable White Castle needs to promote its unique product(s) and adapt its menu items in order to continue to appeal to the changing desires of today 's consumers. The same holds trues today as it did in 1998 when William J. McDonald stated "White Castle needs to continually reassess its marketing strategy, particularly its pricing and promotional activities to determine what approach will be most effective into the future."
Marketing strategy recommendations A major strategy in the element of marketing is generating and maintaining brand recognition. Attaining brand recognition in the target market is a critical milestone for any branding strategy. There are many cues in the brand recognition arsenal. Typically brand building begins with aesthetic cues, the design features in a graphic or logo meant to visually represent the brand. Color, shape, texture, style, typeface, and position are among the design attributes which can offer recognition cues, making a design visually distinctive. It 's the reason why, when a new logo is evaluated, recognition factors and design uniqueness are taken into consideration.
According to Kim Kelly-Bartley (2001), vice president of marketing and site development for the Columbus,
References: At long last, change. (2001, September). Chain Leader, 6(9). Retrieved April 9, 2006 from EBSCOhost Database. Elan, E. (2006, February). White Castle offers couples a Valentine promo with heart. Nation 's Restaurant News, 40(9). Retrieved April 9, 2006 from InfoTrac OneFile Database. Kerin, R., Hartley, S., Berkowitz, E., Rudelius, W. (2005). Marketing (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. McDonald, W. J., (1998). Case 6 White Castle System Inc., UOP Eresource, Retrieved April 8, 2006, from Eresource database. White Castle hamburger chain adopts DigitalPersona fingerprint authentication technology. (2004, Decemeber). Digitalpersona. Retrieved on April 9, 2006 from http://www.digitalpersona.com/company/news/releases/120804.php http://www.whitecastle.com/ Retrieved on April 9, 2006.