INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CASE

STUDY
Panda Express
-Rahul s
PANDA EXPRESS
 INTRODUCTION

Panda Express is an American fast food restaurant chain that

serves American Chinese cuisine. With over 2,200 locations, it is the largest
Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States. where it was founded,
and is mainly located in North America and Asia (in addition to other
countries and territories).Panda Express restaurants were traditionally
located in shopping mall food courts, but the chain now operates units in
many other environments and formats, including stand-alone restaurants, as
well as universities, casinos, airports, military bases, amusement parks and
other venues.
 HISTORY

The Panda Restaurant Group was founded in 1973 by Andrew Cherng and
his father, Ming-Tsai Cherng. Their first restaurant chain they opened up is
Panda Inn, in Pasadena, California. This was more formal, sit-down dining,
contrasting the fast food nature of Panda Express. The restaurants are also
only located in California.
In 1982, Peggy Cherng, Andrew's wife, joined her husband in the restaraunt
business. In 1983, through their connections with then-UCLA football
coach Terry Donahue, the manager of Glendale Galleria invited them to
make a fast food version of Panda Inn for the mall. Since then, Panda
Express has spread all over the United States, and even have restaurants in
Mexico, Canada, South Korea, and United Arab Emirate
 PANDA EXPRESS INDIA

JSM Corp. Pvt. Ltd, the company that runs Hard Rock Cafe and California Pizza
Kitchen, is all set for the launch of Panda Express in the country. Jay Singh, co-founder
and executive director at JSM said, “We will open two Panda Express outlets in
Bangalore next year.”
Currently, JSM has 26 outlets of six brands in its portfolio including restaurants like
Shiro, The Big Kahuna, Ginger Tiger and Asilo. Singh also said that they are introducing
a new restaurant format as well soon.
Hard Rock Cafe is celebrating 10 years in India and in line with that, the company is
hoping to add two more outlets of the restaurant chain in the country. HRC contributes
almost 40-45% to JSM’s overall revenues. However, Singh added that the growth had
slowed for the past few months. In April this year, JSM had announced that it was
planning to raise Rs. 200 Crore to expand the number of current outlets in India and bring
in new brands as well. But they’ve put these plans on hold and Singh added, “We were
trying to raise funds almost a year ago but we had to pull out our plans because of
unfavourable economic environment.
 BRANDING APPROACH

The Approach team focused local market efforts across five key categories
including, earned media, influencer engagement, community events, in-
restaurant fundraisers and food drops, all with the goal of creating brand
affinity and ultimately driving traffic.
We were able to leverage Panda Express’ new menu items, family-friendly
options, “Work Smart” meal options and timely food holidays to pitch and
secure media placements spanning TV, radio, print and online. Our robust
influencer program tapped local foodies, moms and lifestyle bloggers to
visit and share about not only the craveable menu items, but the convenient
and enjoyable dining experience provided by their local Panda Express.
 CONT…

Recognizing the importance of truly connecting with community partners,

we worked with each city to have a presence at key events to sample brand
favorites like Orange Chicken and win over families with activities like
Fortune Cookie decorating. Taking it a step further, Panda Express also
partnered with local schools and non-profits to host special in-store
fundraisers where 50% of proceeds were donated back to the organization.
Finally, strong social media campaigns tied everything together, amplifying
content from earned media and influencer placements and running geo-
targeted ads to reach customers within near miles of each Panda Express
location.
 STRENGTHS

1.  It is the largest American Chinese restaurant chain in the United States
2. It has close to 1,700 plus restaurants located across all different states in the
United States
3. Offers a variety of food along with combo meals
4.  Panda Express is among the US's 25 largest quick-service operations and Asian
quick-serve category
5. The chain was one of the earliest entrants into the supermarket arena
6. Strategically located in mall food courts and other non-traditional venues
including airports, college campuses, and theme parks
7. It has a successful track record of making Asian cuisine accessible to the masses
8. Strong following among Asian, Hispanic, and Caucasian diners
9. Leveraged lovable pandas in their name
 WEAKNESS

1. Restricted to one cuisine thus restricting its customer base

2. Specialty ingredients used in Chinese food might be difficult to source
and store
3. Restricted in a few geographies means lower brand recall
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