Hungry Jacks Research Essay Example

government agencies, trade associations and local chamber of commerce.

It is important to know that marketing research is often done in 2 different ways which are either by Target market ; consumer marketing research and business to business marketing research, or by methodological approach; qualitative and quantitative marketing research. Hungry Jacks is now, a famous fast food company which actually is a franchise of the Burger Kings Corporation, and is owned by Jack Cowin. It has today over 300 locations all over the Australian continent, and it is the second largest franchiser of Burger King n the world. It first opened in the city of Adelaide, in April 1971, so now more than 30 years. The main products this company sells are sandwiches such as the “Whooper” and the “Tendercrisp”, and also any kind of hamburger, veggie burgers etc. Hungry Jacks has a huge competitor on the market that everyone knows all over the world as THE fast food restaurant: Mc Donald’s. But it’s proven of course that they have many close competitors, which are the places offering the same kind of services, products and at the same price.

First of all, in a marketing research, we have to define the problems, so we will state the marketing objective of Hungry Jack’s, which seem to be three main things: They have to keep the sales growth, maintain their quality, and increase their market share, they also have to increase the frequency of customers visitations to Hungry Jack’s, moreover, their key customers. And finally, they have to enhance the perception of consistency and service and product quality amongst their target group.

The restaurant claims that they are serving the

most freshly prepared salad ingredients, a big choice of ingredients of a great quality, some bigger and better burgers at great price ( as their slogan says “ The burgers are better at Hungry Jack’s), and their grilled meat is prepared to perfection. This is basically what they think is mostly attracting their customers to visit their restaurants. Also they want to keep on opening new restaurants in Australia. To define its problem, Hungry Jack’s had to involve discussion with the decision makers, and managers. Interview the food industry experts, and make some analysis about secondary data.

It is really important to define the problems correctly so the research can be drawn and made properly. For reaching their main objectives, Hungry Jack’s uses different marketing researches that we are going to state and explain below: Hungry Jack’s had to make the SWOT analysis which means that they had to analyse the internal marketing strength of their organization. For this they had to identify the strength and weaknesses so the right marketing strategy is decided upon the results, and after they have to combine them with the opportunities and threats in the market place.

After the analysis is done, the company is able to determine what it needs in order to make the chances of successful marketing higher.

In this analysis they will include the following components:

• Which are the available financial resources to spend for marketing;
• What are exactly the products and if they are appropriate for the future of the business
• What systems are used and if they are efficient for the customers satisfaction.
• The quality of the employees and which training is provided so they can
  

offer the best service to customers.

Here is a SWOT ANALYSIS made for Hungry Jack’s restaurants:

STRENGHTS: The products are better than the competition in any aspects such as the taste, size, ingredients, cooking methods, and value for money, fast service. Hungry Jack’s has the “Australian Image” that Mc Donald’s doesn’t have for example. They own distinctive brands such as the Whopper sandwich

They offer customized food called “Have it your way” which offers more and more choices to customers They have a growing market share

WEAKNESSES: The company’s operations seems not to be perceived to be higher, superior to the competition They are perceived on the market as being the number 2, after Mc Donald’s, they are then considered as followers, not as the leaders They have a poor distribution and high costs of entry They aren’t able to nationally, arrive to be equal in the share of voice with the competition.

OPPORTUNITIES: The increasing free time, or leisure time of customers will lead to a greater use of fast foods, people will spend more “quality time”, enjoy a diner outside, etc. As well as the increased flexibility in working hours of customers will make the company busier in the previously quiet part of the day, for example, on breakfast of late at night. The “Burger Market” is still growing and being strong. People still want to purchase burgers.

THREATS: Mc Donald’s competition is still growing The continuing improvements of convenience foods for home use Home food delivery service industry growth such as pizzas

The trend of “diet and light foods” may decrease the

level of demand for non dietary products. So here, was the marketing research that Hungry Jack’s conducts to analyse its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The other aspect that Hungry Jack’s uses for its market research is the way to meet the needs of its customers. It is essential to retain people once they have become your customers since many studies show that it costs more to try to get new customers than to try keeping the existing ones.

And knowing that customers are all different, it is important to conduct market research focusing on the different types of customers. So, to find this out, Hungry Jack’s used some surveys, some testimonials, employees and customers feedback, and a lot of observation. They found out that they have 5 typical kinds of customers who seem to be the followings:

• Parents visiting with their children ;
• to give their kids a treat

The teenagers or students visiting Hungry Jack’s with their friends; internet access is free, and very cheap food can be purchased. The business customers; during a busy working day, service is fast and to take away, can be eaten anywhere, in the car, in the office

• The children who want to visit Hungry Jack’s;
• it is a fun place to eat for them
• Single people;
• who don’t cook and enjoy eating in fast-food.

But these are only few examples on the list of potential customers. Each of these customers have different reasons of visiting Hungry Jack’s restaurants, that’s thanks to those researches that Hungry Jack’s can adapt its products and services. More precisely, Hungry Jack’s can define then what is their Target Market...

For this, they can conduct researches

to answers questions such as:

• What is the age range?
• What are the demographics of the areas?
• Are the customers single or married?
• Do they have children?
• Are they mostly males, females or both?
• What are their lifestyles, their hobbies?
• What are the average revenues?
• What type of food do they eat?

Etc By doing online, phone or on the web surveys. They can also put a suggestion box in their stores, or ask questions to people passing by in the street, they have to use once again a lot of observation.

Hungry Jack’s has to segment its market and to make it effective companies have to make sure there segmentation is

• Measurable; easy identification of who is in the segmentation, and ease to measure potential customers in each segment.
• Meaningful; segments showing the different preferences and needs, variations in market behaviours.
• Accessible; leading the company to easily reach the selected target market with their marketing efforts.
• Substantial; large enough to be economically served.

During the segmentation, they need to include the geography (segment in different areas) demography, which refers to sex, age, income, class etc. For hungry Jack’s Site selection for new stores depends more on overall numbers of residents within a reasonable distance from the site (usually 3km) or traffic flow more than actual demographics. Once market segments have been identified, the task is to assess these different market segments. This means that each segment should be viewed in terms of its overall size, projected rate of growth, actual and potential competition, nature of competitive strategies and customer needs.

Finally, when this is all done, the company has to make the marketing mix, which is made of

the “four P’s”:

• Price
• Product
• Promotions
• Place

This basically assists the company to implement the marketing strategies.

THE PRICE: The customers’ perception of the value is really important to determine the prices charged. What is dangerous about using low prices is that the customers might think that since it is low, it means the quality is low as well.

THE PRODUCT: It is important to offer choice to customers. They are here to spend their money and they want to be able to choose what they really want. Also, customers requirements change with the time, so it is important thanks to market research to be aware of it and adapt your products. For example, Hungry Jacks tries to introduce new products, and also, keep the original and famous ones.

THE PROMOTIONS: The promotions aspect basically covers all the types of marketing communication. The methods used are; TV, radio, cinema, internet, newspapers, magazines, flyers etc.

The best way to make it efficient for the company is to use several of these tools, so the message will go through more easily. Also, you might let people have a sample of the product you sell, so it will encourage them to buy and they will enjoy your marketing effort.

THE PLACE: It’s about the area but also the way you will bring the product to the customer. Moreover, the company had to a lot of data collection which means that they had to collect a lot of important data to keep on record, to then be able to make decisions about any important issues.

For collecting data, they used the 5 most known ways to collect data which are:

• Reporting ( provide information without being
  

asked any question)

But it is also important to understand that : Segmentation variables should be examined in detail, especially new segments. These should then be authenticated in terms of viability and potential profit. Targeting investigates specific segments in terms of how they should be approached and positioning relates to how the product is perceived in the minds of consumers and a suitable marketing mix should then be designed.

References used to build my research:

1. http://www. allbusiness. com/marketing/market-research/1287-1. tml
2. http://www. smetoolkit. org/smetoolkit/en/content/en/196/Market-Research-Techniques
3. http://sbinfocanada. about. com/cs/marketing/a/marketresearch. htm
4. http://managementhelp. org/marketing/market-research. htm
5. http://www. ehow. com/how_14781_conduct-market-research. html
6. http://www. entrepreneur. com/article/217345
7. http://www. writework. com/essay/marketing-9
8. http://www. monash. edu. au/lls/llonline/writing/business-economics/marketing/3. 3. 2. xml
9. http://www. hungryjacks. com. au/
10. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Hungry_Jack's