An Assignment on

“Wendy’s: History and Life after Dave Thomas”

Course Title:Marketing Research

Course Code:MKT4154

Section:01

Submitted to

Aruna Anwar

Lecturer

Dept of BBA

Submitted by

NAME ID

Raju Mia 2015110000113

Submission date: 30-May-2020

 Chapter 1
Q1. Discuss the role marketing research can play in helping a fast-food restaurant such as Wendy’s
formulate sound marketing strategies.

In a highly competitive market similar to that of a restaurant business, each player has to keep a track on
the preference movements of the consumer and also have to closely watch what the competition is
doing. For each player there is only one chance to proactively implement a strong positioning before
anyone else does it. Therefore there arises a high demand of understanding the market before others.

Wendy’s is a distinctly positioned brand in the perception map of the user base, but due to changing
lifestyles, eating habits and choices change. McDonald’s and Burger King with their huge capital and
global presence have the capability of tapping this problem before Wendy’s can do. Therefore, there is a
tenacious need for Wendy’s to conduct market research to safeguard the position they have in the
mindshare of the consumers.

Through research, the management can identify the key points to service the customers with best
offerings. This will help them design an apt marketing strategy.

Awareness of competition and our brand:

Through a smart research design we can find what our consumer feels and knows about all the
competing brands in the segment; how they react to the advertisements/schemes/offers coming from
the market; how adaptive they are to the changes coming in the products/services offered by the
brands. Questions like this can be easily answered through research. The results will enable the
management to use the information as a tool against difficulties coming from the market.

Know what customer needs:

Marketing doesn’t end with a good branding and enhanced visibility. It also includes finding out what is
missing and what should be added in the offerings. With this research we can effectively find out what is
lacking in the menu which the target consumer looks for and bring it on the menu before any one in
competition does.

Customer demographics:

Having consumer base’s explicit details will certainly ease the process of designing the marketing
strategy. Managers would know exactly where to invest and how much to invest to grab more eyeballs
and thus big digits in the balance sheet.

Dining Preferences:

With every 100 miles (it is said that) people differ in personal behavior and preferences. To prove it, the
sales of different stores in different geographical locations with same offerings and identical
infrastructure are different. With our research we can find out from the masses what are the developing
tastes of dining in that particular geographical area. This will help us redesign the service encounter for
the users and change the platform of perhaps ‘eat-in’ to ‘drive-in’ as an instance.

Receptiveness v/s Culture:

Local culture also plays a major role in the way how people react to communications floated by the
brands. States like Alabama are more family-oriented and relaxed in nature, whereas people in Colorado
are fast moving and career oriented. If we happen to understand them more in detail, we can easily
design our advertising more effectively.

Chapter 2
Q1. Wendy’s is considering further expansion in United States. Define the management decision
problem.

Management Decision Problem: “Which geographic locations in the United States should Wendy’s
expand?”

Reason- For further expansion it is necessary to know which location Wendy’s should cater to as it
would require analysis on aspects such as cost of setting up a store , number of competitors, total
population in that geographic region.

Q2. Define an appropriate marketing research problem based on the management decision problem
you have identified.

Marketing Research Problem: Determine the customer preference towards consumption of fast food in
the determined location with respect to the competitors and the manner in which they would like to be
served. Reason- Based on the management’s decision to open a store it then becomes important to
understand the market situation in that region so as to create an efficient marketing plan for its
customers for appropriate positioning, featuring on the price points of their offering, their target
population and the mode of service delivery preferred.

Chapter 3
Q1. Formulate an appropriate research design for investigating the marketing research problem you
have defined.

RESEARCH DESIGN FOR WENDY’S EXPANSION PLAN:

Research design is a blue print of the research we wish to conduct as a company, to find out the reasons
of a failure or possibilities of progress. To understand whether Wendy’s will prosper or not by expanding
their stores PAN USA, we need to have a sharp research design.
Following illustration defines the plan:

Chapter 4
Q1. Use the Internet to determine the market shares of the major national fast-food chains for the
last calendar year.

Market Share of leading fast food chains in the United States

Major Fast Food Chains in U.S % of Mkt. Share in 2013

Mc Donald’s Corporation. 21.7

Yum Brands Inc. 8.1

Doctor’s Associates Inc. 6.7

Wendy’s International Inc. 5.5

Burger King Corporation 4.1

Other 53.9

McDonald’s held, by far, the largest market share of the United States fast food industry in 2013. Its
closest competitor was Yum! Brands - owner of popular chains Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Wing Street.
The top five brands accounted for just under half of the entire U.S. fast food industry, which, in 2013,
generated over 191 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. This revenue was forecasted to rise above 210 billion
dollars in 2018.

Q2. What type of syndicate data will be useful to Wendy’s ?

Type of syndicate data to be used by Wendy’s could be taken from consumers who is an important stake
holder in a fast food industry. The methodology to be followed is to conduct surveys encompassing

1) The life style and psychographics of the consumers.-This would cater to the demographics and
preferences of the target population and further present a clear view in the segmentation process.

2) The advertising evaluation of Wendy’s competitors.- Since Wendy’s competitors always had an edge
over advertising Wendy’s needs to work on an appropriate advertising plan for efficient positioning
among the target consumers.

Chapter 5
Q1. Discuss the role of qualitative research in helping Wendy’s expand further in the United States.

Wendy’s is one of the leading fast food companies in United States with over 10000 outlets. Although
the company has substantial market share after McDonald’s and Burger King, it has to improve its
capacity to compete with these rivals. In order to further expand in United States Qualitative research
will be an important tool of survey. Wendy’s can select a group of 6 to 10 customers of different age
groups for a Focus Group Discussion. The moderator should conduct the discussion with an aim to
achieve the following:

1) To get a clear image of fast food industry in United States

2) To understand the customers’ perception towards other competitors (McDonald’s and Burger King).
This will help the company identify the area of expansion

3) To understand the customers perception towards its product and services. The qualitative study will
give a theoretical background and enhance the idea about customers’ perception of the brand

Chapter 6
Q1. Wendy’s has developed a new fish sandwich with a distinctive Cajun taste. It would like to
determine consumer’s response to this new sandwich before introducing it in the marketplace. If a
survey is to be conducted to determine consumer preferences, which survey method should be used
and why?

In order to determine the consumer preference for Wendy’s newly developed fish sandwich mall
intercept form of personal interview survey should be used. As in this form of survey the respondents
are intercepted while they shop in the shopping mall and they are tested. As Wendy’s is introducing its
new fish sandwich it will like to know that what is the consumer review on this sandwich and how
consumer take this sandwich and so this type of survey method will be best to take out their taste view
their size, sample, price view for this sandwich. Another important benefit of using this type of survey is
that it will not only give consumer’s preference but also it will act as a test market on its own and that
too here consumers are not paying for anything. As the survey is about food so physically testing the
food is very important and this survey method will give all that benefits and tasting of food will be
proceeded by small questionnaire in which customer can show their level of satisfaction or
dissatisfaction for this newly developed fish sandwich. Given below are the fact and findings from
various researches to substantiate the importance and advantages of using mall-intercept survey
method

A. Background

Mall intercept surveys are widely used and (theoretically) able to reach a large segment of the
population. In any given two-week period, about 2/3 of U.S. households shop one or more times at a
mall. According to a CASRO membership survey, about 25% of all marketing research and 64% of
personal interviews are conducted at malls.

B. Pluses and Minuses

The good things about mall samples are:

1) Experimental control.

2) Ability to see things.

3) Availability of kitchens, etc.

4) Minimal Cost.

C. Effect of Mall Samples on Results

1) For copy, concept, and product tests, data suggest that mall samples understate scores.

2) Ossip reported four studies that found lower top box concept scores for mall surveys compared to
door to door, even after controlling demographic differences.

3) Gannon reported study comparing mall and mail panel for a concept/product test. Mall study got
lower concept top box but higher product test attribute ratings.

D. "Ideal" Mall Sampling Plan

According to an article by Seymour Sudman, to achieve a very good sample via the mall intercepts
method. However, this is what can be done.

1) Randomly select states or regions.

2) Randomly select cities within region.

3) Randomly select malls within cities.

4) Post interviewers at randomly selected mall entrances.

5) Interview all days and all times mall open.

6) Count traffic so interviews are proportional to traffic based on day of week and time of day.

7) Determine frequency of mall shopping and weight sample so that frequent shoppers not
overrepresented.

Chapter 7
Q1. Discuss the role of experimentation in helping Wendy’s determine its optimal level of advertising
expenditures.

Wendy’s is the third hamburger chain by sales after McDonalds and Burger King. Although having a
major market share, it needs to brand itself in such a way that people are more drawn towards its
quality and optimal price. Wendy’s has introduced various new meals in their list which emphasizes on
higher quality, great taste and fresh and never frozen ground beef. So in order to study the customer’s
awareness of the competitors and how they respond to the new meals, Wendy’s can perform standard
test marketing for their new meals by introducing them to customers and collecting reports of what they
thought about the new meals. And if the initial findings are found successful, they can expand the same
test to different cities and also ask whether they would like to have any changes in the taste or quality or
price and act accordingly. It can also help in determining how the consumers rank Wendy’s in
comparison with its competitors.

Chapter 8
Q1. Illustrate the use of primary type of scales in measuring consumer preferences for fast-food
restaurants.

Scale Basic characteristics Consumer preference

measurement use

Nominal Numbers identify and classify Dish name, numbering of dish,

objects Food categories, Store name

Ordinal Numbers indicate the relative Preference ranking, quality

position of objects but does not ranking, customer satisfaction
indicate the relative difference in ranking, food quality ranking,
their magnitude service quality ranking

Interval Difference between objects can Preference ranking, quality

be compared ranking, customer satisfaction
ranking, food quality ranking,
service quality ranking

Ratio Zero points is fixed, ratios of Age, income, cost, frequency

scale can be computed
 Chapter 9
Q1. Illustrate the use of likert, semantic differential, and staple scales in measuring consumer
preferences for fast food restaurants.

Answer: LIKERT SCALE : This scale is a widely used rating scale that requires the respondents to indicate
the degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a series of statements about the stimulus object.

Disagree Disagree Neither Agree nor Agree somewhat Agree completely

completely somewhat Disagree

Choose one response for each statement

1) I try to stay current on the latest health and nutrition information.

2) I read nutritional labels on most products I buy.

3) I consider the amount of fat in the foods I eat at fast-food restaurants.

Semantic differential: This is the 7-point rating scale with endpoints associated with bipolar labels that
have semantic meaning.

Please rate the restaurants you, yourself, have eaten from in the past three months using a 7-point
scale, where 7 means you think it is perfect, and “1” means you think it is terrible.

Terrible (1) 2 3 4 5 6 Perfect (7)

Stapel Scale: A scale for measuring attitudes that consists of a single adjective in the middle of an
evennumbered range of values, from -5 to +5, without a neutral point (zero)
 FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT

+5

+4

+3

+2

+1

High Quality

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Chapter 10
Q1. Develop a questionnaire for assessing consumer preferences for fast-food restaurants.

Questionnaire for assessing consumer preferences for fast-food restaurants.

1.Age

 5-12
 13-16
 17-23
 24-32
 >32

2. Gender

 Male
 Female
 Other
3. Ethnicity

 Asian
 European
 American
 South American
 African
 Australian

4. Occupation

 Student
 Working Professional
 Other

5. What is your annual income?

 Below 2 lakh
 2 lakh – 5 lakh
 Above 5 lakh

6. Relationship status

 Single
 Recently married
 Married and staying with children
 Married and staying with children

7. How often do you visit a fast food restaurant?

 Daily
 Once a week
 Occasionally
 I don’t like fast food

8. Rate the following in a fast food restaurant which would influence you to visit a fast food restaurant
from 1 -5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)

 Food
 Ambience
 Comfort
 Cost effectiveness
 Healthy food
  Quick service

9. Which food are you likely to order in a fast food restaurant?

 Chicken Burgers
 Beef Burgers
 Ham Burgers
 Potatoes
 French fries
 Sandwiches
 Shakes
 Deserts

10. With whom do you usually like to visit a fast food restaurant?

 Family
 Friends
 Someone special
 Alone

Chapter 11 & 12
Q1.What sampling plan should be adopted for the survey of chapter 6? How should the sample size be
determined?

Since i'm considering mall intercepts as one of my sampling techniques, it would fall under the category
of probability sampling. Since i have no control over which customer to be considered, the probability of
every customer to be chosen would be equal.

Typically for testing new products, a minimum sample size of 200 is considered while the range of
sample size would be between 300 and 500. The appropriate sample size of a particular study can be
determined using both qualitative and statistical factors. The qualitative factors include the importance
of the decision, the nature of the research, the number of variables, the nature of analysis, resource
constraints etc. The statistical approach would involve determining the sample size based on the
construction of the confidence intervals around sample means and proportions.

"Ideal" Mall Sampling Plan

1) Randomly select states or regions.

2) Randomly select cities within region.

3) Randomly select malls within cities.

4) Post interviewers at randomly selected mall entrances.

5) Interview all days and all times mall open.

6) Count traffic so interviews are proportional to traffic based on day of week and time of day.

7) Determine frequency of mall shopping and weight sample so that frequent shoppers not
overrepresented.