Business Strategy For Fast Food Industry

From the above discussions, the researcher is required to mention that as the number of customers and competitors is large enough to affect the industry of fast food in the UK, strategic decisions for this industry are required to be made by considering the factors like power of buyers. On the other hand, the researcher is required to mention that the fast food industry in the country also faces competition in the market due to the reason of existence of substitutes. On the other hand, the researcher is required to mention that the power of the buyers in an industry is closely related to the threats of substitutes. As stated by Johnsen (2015), substitute goods in an industry are to be considered as the result of the effective bargaining power of the buyers. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that frequent changes in the price level or increase in the price level could result in an increase in the threat of substitutes in an industry. The detailed discussion of the impact of the “power of buyers” in the fast food industry and the effect of the “threat of substitutes” in the same industry in the UK would be as follows.

Power of Buyers in the Fast Food Industry of the UK

The researcher is required to mention that the buyers in the fast food industry are infinite in numbers as the demand for fast food products in the UK is created internationally. In this context, Aiginger and Vogel (2015) opined that fast food chains in the UK are based on the international market and most of the food products manufactured in the country are either sourced from abroad or sold in the countries of the European Union. If the researcher is to mention the impact of foreign firms in the British market, it is to mention that the firms from the US, France, and Italy also do business in the UK to meet the domestic demand. Moreover, the domestic firms in the fast food industry in the UK is also to be considered as well developed as the fast food companies in the UK make up 9% of the GDP of the country (Gross Domestic Product GDP- Office for National Statistics. 2017). In this context, if the discussion is to be made on the power of buyers in the UK fast food industry, the researcher is to mention that as the fast food industry occupies a large portion of the UK economy, the firms indulging in the fast food industry could get affected by the change in demand structure of the buyers.  

Fast food companies like Five Guys, Nando's, Burger Kitchen, Domino's and KFC serve customers in the domestic market and in the international context. Therefore, the bargaining power of buyers could be considered as impactful for the manufacturers of fast foods in the country. As stated by Wu (2013), the power of buyers could be identified as the reason for product differentiation in the market of food and retail businesses. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the fast food industry could face high product differentiation and high price sensitivity along with segment-wise differentiation (Bartusková and Kresta, 2015). Therefore, the researcher is required to mention that the bargaining power of the customers of the food chains in the UK results in volatility in the price level. In other words, it could be said that if the power of the buyers enhanced in the fast food industry in the UK, customers could consider the price of the products as the base of their buying decisions. In this context, the researcher is also required to mention that the high product differentiation could also be an impactful effect of the increase in the power of the buyers. As stated by Murari and Tater (2014), management of the fast food companies are required to make proper planning in order to identify the demands of the customers to protect the company's interest from product differentiation.

Threat of substitutes

In the fast food industry, the strategic managers of the fast food companies could face the problem of the existence of threats in the market as the industry belongs to perfect competition. As opined by Blackman et al. (2013), fast food manufacturing firms offer products, which are similar to the competitive companies. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the existence of similar products in the market causes market risks to large-scaled firms in the UK. The researcher is to mention in this context that the substitution effect in an industry depends upon the quality of the products and the price of the products offered by the competitive firms. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the switching cost is also required to be considered as an important issue for making an analysis of the effect of the threat of substitutes in the fast food industry in the UK. As cited by Artiles et al. (2013), low switching cost refers to a high probability of purchasing substitute goods. Therefore, the strategic managers of the fast food manufacturing companies are required to consider the switching costs of the fast food industry to make strategic decisions.

The strategic managers of the fast food companies in the UK are to stabilize the impact of substitutes by considering the effective communication process as effective communication would be helpful in making proper relations with the customers. In this same context, Liao et al. (2015) stated that proper communication with the customers could help the strategic managers to aware the customers aware of the products of the company. As the fast food products industry is an example of a perfect competition market, the factor of availability of substitute products could not be ignored by the strategic managers Fuseini et al. (2017). Therefore, the strategic managers focus on the quality of the products that the firms offer to the customers.

In developing the quality of the products, the strategic managers are to focus on health-related issues as well as the cost of production. As stated by Mkude and Wimmer (2015), KFC, Domino's and Five Guys use different techniques in order to develop the quality of products, which includes the use of fresh ingredients and chemicals. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that total quality management and total quality control are required to be considered as an important factor in response to getting rid of the problem of substitutes due to the quality of the products. On the other hand, the strategic managers are also taking care of the performance of the products in the fast food companies in the country. As cited by Lang and Heasman (2015), fast food manufacturers use core competencies to create new markets and to exist in the existing market. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the companies in the fast food industry often have a certain item, which could be differentiated from the products of other countries. For example, the researcher could mention that KFC is a specialist of chicken items (Mridul, 2017). On the other hand, the researcher is also required to state that Domino's is a leader in the market of Pizza. In this context, Fuseini et al. (2017) cited that creation of products, which could not be copied or imitated, creates core competencies. This kind of products could be found as helpful in getting rid of the threat of substitutes in the market Blackman et al. (2013). Therefore, it is to mention that the strategic managers are to consider the development of differentiated products in order to minimize the threat of substitutes in the market.                              

Consideration of the ‘Competitive Rivalry' force of Porter Five Forces AND consideration of the ‘Key Drivers of Change' developed from the PESTEL analysis

In Porter's Five Forces, business strategy development has been considered as the result of five factors, which include competitive rivalry among the firms in an industry. In this context, if the discussion is to be made on the effect of competitive rivalry in the fast food industry, the researcher is to mention that the market position of fast food is required to be considered as perfectly competitive as the number of buyers and sellers is infinite. On the other hand, if the discussion is to be made on the key drivers derived from the PESTEL analysis, the researcher is to mention that the economic and social factors of the fast food industry are required to be considered with importance as these two factors have direct impact on the fast food market of the UK.

Competitive Rivalry

From the above discussion made by the researcher, it could be mentioned that the firms in the competitive market like the fast food market require adopting proper strategic actions regarding the market capitalization. In the fast food industry of the UK, three factors could be seen as most impactful to the industry the factors are number of firms, the aggressiveness of firms in the industry and the switching costs (Sadhwani, 2017). In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the fast food market could be subdivided into three major parts by considering capital employment. Low capital-employed firms in the market face a high degree of competition in the market as the entry barrier in this particular industry is quite low. The medium-scaled firms also see the same type of opportunity as the small fast food manufacturers face. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that large firms like KFC, Burger King and Domino's belong to an oligopoly market as the number of large-scale manufacturers is lesser than the number of buyers in the market.

The fast food manufacturing firms of the UK consider foreign customers as one of the large sources of the demand for the products of the companies. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that large-scale fast food manufacturers develop strategies in order to reach the markets in foreign countries. As opined by Caraher et al. (2016), reaching in the markets of foreign countries results in the minimization of rivalry among the firms of fast foods. Dodds et al. (2014) opposed this by stating that the fast food manufacturers in the UK consider the foreign market as a way of becoming global and enhancing the demand for the goods. Therefore, it is required to mention that fast food manufacturers face competition in foreign markets along with the domestic market.

The above discussion suggests that due to the large number of buyers in the domestic and foreign markets, the number of suppliers has increased. Therefore, the competition level has also increased. In this context, the researcher is required to mention that the high number of competitors in the fast food industry creates a strong force that is required to be adjusted by the strategic management teams of the fast food manufacturers. As stated by Nestle (2013), the fast food market in the UK also faces the problem of a variety of firms due to the recent change in the demand structure of customers around the globe. This force of a high variety of firms in the fast food market could be considered as another strong force of competitive rivalry. In this context, the researcher is to mention that the low switching cost is an important feature of the fast food market as the market does not possess any kind of expenses for taking substitute products. In this context, Mkude and Wimmer (2015) stated that low switching cost is also required to be considered as a strong force that affects the fast food manufacturers in the UK as this factor forces the customers to move from one firm to another one.

The views of strategic managers in this regard are required to be analyzed to make discussion on the process of mitigating these factors or strong forces. The fast food industries in the developed economies is required to be considered as an important contributor of national income and therefore strategic development in terms of the competitive rivalry among the firms is required to be made by the strategic management of the industry players.

Key Drivers of Change' developed from the PESTEL analysis

The research on the business environments of the fast food industry in the UK is required to be analyzed by considering the PESTEL as this tool of strategic analysis helps the researcher to focus on the most impactful factors in an economy. The researcher is to mention in this regard that the PESTEL analysis for the fast food industry in the UK is not possible without the consideration of the factors that face the business managers to adopt change. In this regard, it is to mention that the economic factors of the fast food industry are required to be considered as important as this factor influences the economic structure of the country. Moreover, the researcher is required to mention that the economic activity of the fast food industry is related to the social view as the demand structure of an industry depends on the societal view of the industry product. In this context, the researcher is to mention that in the present context, the health-related issues affect the fast food industry to grow at a higher rate.

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