Introduction Wendys aim is to achieve international success by expanding its operations globally whilst pursuing its notions of superior

quality and competitive prices. In order to do this, it must take into account the needs, attitudes, culture as well as many other determinates of consumer behaviour to be able to penetrate the market and gain market share over its competitors. Wendys will need to consider which factors are most important to its target market in influencing their purchase decision and strive to gain a competitive edge in the market. This essay will analyse Wendys marketing strategy in its international expansion and in particular, into Germany by identifying the decision making process and determinates that contribute to the attitudes and behaviour of its potential customer base. Wendy's
Wendy's cash scale application in QSR/Retail Wendys International, Inc. is the worlds third largest hamburger/restaurant chain. The handling of cash is a critical but time consuming element of restaurant operations. Company operations asked the Loss Prevention Department to explore opportunities to reduce the time that management and cashiers spend handling cash at the restaurant and to improve accuracy of cash handling during all day-parts. This included the testing of cash scales in company restaurants with a potential roll-out to the entire system. As a result of this request, the requirements included: Find a cash scale that was robust and reliable for a QSR environment Ability to interface with POS systems for future technology expansion A measured reduction in time spent handling cash National roll-out with a seamless transition to scale use with training systems and customer support ROI of twelve months or less RFPs were prepared and three companies were selected to perform market tests of their respective cash scales in company markets. The tests lasted for three months. During the tests, key learnings about each machine allowed Wendys to update specifications and requirements that would be needed to produce a Wendys designed machine. This allowed Wendys to conduct a thorough needs analysis that involved in-put from Operations, Finance, IT, and Loss Prevention. Initially, the thought process behind the introduction of cash scales was to reduce management time counting cash. While successful in saving approximately an hour per day on this function, cash scales also allowed a reduction of time that it took cashiers to count register and bank off their tills. Wendys also experienced a reduction in attempted scams from customers who said they were short-changed by operators, as the scales allowed a manager to accurately count down a register in a minute or less and resolve any dispute with customers. During market tests, Wendys measured time saving on all cash functions that included:

Setting up registers Banking on/off cashiers Cash pulls Audits of registers Shift change Store bank counts

All of the above time savings were converted into employee hourly pay because managers were still required to be in the restaurant even though time savings were realized. Cash scales proved to be a product that yielded an ROI within five months. This was a conservative figure because the actual time saved was more than the hour that was removed from the labour guide when cash scales were rolled-out to the system. The training and functionality of the scales are simple and efficient. Once trained on the use of scales, managers were reluctant to revert back to any type of manual system. All Wendys corporate stores and the majority of Franchisee stores have scales that are now part of the standard equipment package.

Wendy's Case Study Wendy's International operates a chain of fast food restaurants, primarily operating under Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Tim Horton's and Baja Fresh brands. The company has about 9700 restaurants in 20 countries. Wendy's has also been included in Fortune magazine's list of top 500 US companies. It is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio and employs about 58,000 people. The company recorded revenues of $3635.4 million during the fiscal year ended December 2004, an increase of 15.4% over 2003. This increase is primarily attributable to higher volume sales. The operating profit of the company during fiscal 2004 was $226.6 million, a decrease of 45.8% from fiscal 2003. The net profit was $52.0 million during fiscal year 2004, a decrease of 78.0% over 2003. Wendy's guiding mission is to deliver superior quality products and services for their customers and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships. Wendy's vision is to be the quality leader in everything they do. REMOTE ENVIRONMENT Wendy's did show a lot of new ideas as far as the remote environment was concerned, for instance it established stored abroad, in the national expansion the franchisee agreement was for the area, a region and not for a store. Here she made agreements for time, area, technical associations and royalty. There are different problems that she has faced like inflation, energy problems, increasing labor cost and increasing beef price. Even though the sites were remote there were site approval procedures for locations, on-site inspections and evaluation, counseling in buildings, training for franchisees at Wendy's headquarters, advice on suppliers, staff representatives to help open each restaurant and ongoing support. Even currently Wendy is expanding into the European and Japanese markets. The US, Wendy's largest geographical market, accounted for 68.1% of the total revenues in the fiscal year 2004. Revenues from the US reached $2,475.2 million in 2004, an increase of 12.7% over fiscal 2003. Canada accounted for 31.3% of the total revenues. Revenues from Canada reached $1138.6 million in 2004, an increase of 21.8% over fiscal 2003. Other international operations accounted for 0.6% of the total revenues. Revenues from other international operations reached $21.6 million in 2004,

Consumer Decision-Making Process The consumer decision-making process is a series of steps which a consumer will go through before, whilst and after purchasing a product. The first step is need recognition, where the consumer realises a need that needs to be resolved. This need is often stimulated by advertisements or sighting a product. Consumers go to Wendys to satisfy their need for food, which Wendys aims to satisfy with its menu. In Korea, Wendys restaurants are located in high-traffic, prime visibility locations that keeps the store in the public eye which may stimulate latent needs of consumers. For example, a consumer who was not overly hungry may decide to drop into Wendys to grab a quick snack just because he/she saw the large attractive signs. Next is information search, whereby customers search for information through their evoked set of recognisable brands. The relevant ones in this case study being McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and of course Wendys. In order for Wendys to gain an advantage in this stage, it must differentiate itself from its competitors and it tries to do this by perceiving itself as a higher quality, more health conscious alternative to its main rivals. However, for fast food products, the main determinate in whether a store enters a consumers evoked set is the amount of advertising that is done, thus to ensure success, Wendys should make sure that enough advertising is done to promote its brand. It must then carry through the promises it makes about the quality of its products and stores to gain customer loyalty and hopefully generate positive word-of-mouth and hence increased brand recognition. Alternative evaluation is where the consumer evaluates the particular product against its competition. Because Wendys products are in the fast food category, and thus very low involvement, a typical consumer will not go through a long search process, as the

benefits of search are not worth the effort involved. For a potential customer of Wendys, all they want is a quick efficient product that symbolises the American lifestyle that Wendys is meant to portray. The product itself is low importance and low risk as consumption is usually swift and US hygiene standards are of a high level, thus these are not factors which usually comes into a consumers mind when they are deciding where to eat. Generally, a customer will usually just go to the most convenient fast food outlet that they have heard of and trust. Thus for Wendys to have maximum success, they should place emphasis on advertising to let its brand name be known to consumers. It should particularly emphasize its main business proposition of being number one in quality and service in the advertisements as this will influence a customers understanding of perceived benefits when visiting a Wendys store. Placing its stores in strategic locations where customers are must likely to frequent, whether it be near office buildings, discotheques or shopping centers etc depending on the countrys culture, will also ensure that there will always be large traffic into its restaurants. Once a customer has selected Wendys as their place of hunger satisfaction, it is then up to Wendys to ensure that it carries out its promises and fulfills the desires and perceived benefits from visiting the store. Determinants such as store hygiene, experience and friendliness of staff, speed of service, product selection etc can all influence whether or not a customer is satisfied with their visit. This in turn will determine whether or not the visit will leave a positive view of the store in their mind, if it doesnt then the customer is unlike to return to the store in the future. The post purchase evaluation stage should confirm that the customer has made a correct selection in choosing Wendys and that their overall experience with the restaurant was a positive one. This means that all or most of their expectations were satisfied and that Wendys truly does represent a high quality American style meal. If this is so, then the marketing strategy of Wendys has been a success and it should ensure customer loyalty and repeat purchases. Individual Determinants of Consumer Behaviour By understanding and analysing what drives a customer into its stores and eventually buys its products, Wendys can start to understand the individual determinants of consumer behaviour. These attitudes include consumer resources, motivation, involvement, knowledge, attitudes and personality/lifestyle, each of these will be discussed below. Consumer resources will affect what decisions the decisions that they make, whether it be economic, temporal or cognitive. A potential Wendys customer is likely to want a cheap, quick yet tasty meal. They are not likely to do much research into what they are buying and unlikely to stay in the restaurant for a long period of time. Wendys must therefore take all of these factors into account whilst planning its marketing and sales strategy. The prices must be affordable, delivery time quick and must still be of good quality if these criterion are not met, a customers actualised experience will be lower than their perceived experience and will therefore be unsatisfied and unlikely to rate the brand favorably. The amount of resources a consumer has may also affect their motivations towards purchasing a product. Motivation is the state of drive or arousal that pushes behaviour towards a goal-object (Widing et al, 2003). The motivation of a potential Wendys customer can range from a simple hunger which needs to be satisfied to someone wanting to enjoy an American experience, which they seek to find at Wendys. In order to influence customers motivations, Wendys will need to ensure that their stores fits what motivates its customers and satisfy their needs whether they be basic, ie hunger, or more complex, ie the need to satisfy self-esteem by purchasing the higher quality Wendys products over its alternatives. Because fast food is such a low involvement product, temporal resources motivate consumers much more than economic and cognitive ones. If a customer gets what he/she desires in a timely manner, and it is priced reasonably, they will usually be content. The knowledge aspect is an important determinate that Wendys needs to capitalize on if a person does know about Wendys or know what kind of products they serve, then they are far more likely to go somewhere that they are more accustomed to. Wendys must focus on getting its brand name out to potential customers en mass. Not only must they deliver their brand name, but they also have to let consumers know their value propositions and how they differentiate themselves from their rivals such as McDonalds or Burger King. Their management specifically focuses on a higher quality product with their slogan the best hamburgers in America being their main advertising gimmick. In European cultures, consumers see going to Wendys as an American experience; thus advertisements and promotions should promote their slogan strongly in order to tell consumers that Wendys represents the experience they are looking for and also happen to offer the best product available. Similarly, these marketing campaigns are likely to affect a persons attitudes towards Wendys. Attitudes are learned predispositions to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistent manner (Widing et al, 2003). Consumers attitudes towards Wendys will be affected firstly by advertisements and related marketing campaigns these will influence the brand belief of the consumer and create an expectation of the brand. If this is a positive expectation, then the consumer is likely to go to the restaurant for a meal and

this will leave another impression on their mind. This impression will then affect future attitudes towards the brand, if their experience was a positive one then it will leave a good impression and a positive attitude and the opposite if their impression was a negative one. A persons attitudes towards a brand or product is perhaps the main determinate in whether or not a product is purchased in order to maintain a positive attitude by its customers Wendys must not only promote itself as a great place to eat, but must also carry out this promise.

External Influences of Consumer Behaviour Lastly, we shall look at the external influences that contribute to the behaviour of consumers. These include such factors such as demographics, family, culture and social class. All of these factors will affect certain characteristics within consumers and may determine whether or not they will purchase a product. Wendys will need to research all of these influences, especially in its international expansions to learn about the different cultures and way of life of the different consumers in order to gain maximum market share. The main change in culture and demographics all over the world is the increasing number of women who are working full-time. This of course means less time to cook at home and hence families are eating out a lot more. Wendys can take advantage of this trend by establishing itself as a nice place where the whole family can come in and enjoy a meal. As the case study suggests, Wendys is looking to expand its market share globally, especially in reentering the German market. In order to do this, they must fully understand and analyse the German culture, way of life and what motivates German consumers to buy fast food products. Germans see Wendys as a relatively cheap and convenient way of getting some fast food. They consider Wendys quality of food as a large incentive to go there they also value taste and nutritional quality of food as well as cleanliness and environmental friendliness of the restaurants. Hence Wendys must make sure that they comply with the German expectations of their restaurants if they are to be successful at penetrating that particular market. Conclusion In order for Wendys to continue its success in the domestic market and create success while expanding into international markets, it must fully analyse the ways consumers behave. Each country will have different cultures, values and demographics and Wendys will need to market its brand name and products accordingly. Research into the attitudes and motivations of the different market segmentations will greatly increase the probability of prosperity for the company. Because fast food is such a low involvement and the market is very saturated, the best Wendys can do is create convenient and efficient service at reasonable prices while still providing a high quality product for the consumer. This way, the perceived benefits of the consumer are met and the are satisfied with their experience, which will most likely result in a positive attitude and repeat purchases in the future. In conclusion, by building a good brand image and exceeding expectations, Wendys will go a long way in meeting the explicit needs and creating customer satisfaction. ]

Discretionary Industry Research Report

When to Buy Each Industry
1.Staples 2. Discretionary 3. Health Care 4. Financial 5. Telecom 6. Industrial 8. Technology 9. Energy 10. Utility 11. Material

Discretionary Industry Profile _ (edit/improve)The consumer discretionary industry includes companies that respond to discretionary higher spending. Discretionary income (also called disposable income or play money) is gross income taxes - necessities. Higher discretionary income leads to greater purchases of items that are outside the scope of necessities. These items may include new cars, a second home, restaurant meals, jewelry, games, vacations, and the likes. This type of spending is the first to drop when consumers have to save money. Companies that rely on discretionary spending often have very volatile stock prices and revenue changes. Discretionary Industry Analysis: The consumer discretionary industry includes companies whose sales come from consumer discretionary income purchases. Discretionary income = gross income less taxes and necessities such as rent, mortgage and food. Discretionary Trading Strategy: The consumer discretionary industry tends to be very sensitive to economic cycles. Look for undervalued discretionary investments during economic recessions when stock prices are low and sell discretionary investments during the late stages of a bull markets when stock prices are high. The global economy is currently in a recession, therefore, it is the perfect time to purchase consumer discretionary investments. Upward sloping stock charts and financial news may indicate a selling opportunity while the opposite means that stocks are becoming undervalued.
Among Wendys International, Inc. founder Dave Thomas many quotable quotes, there is one that perhaps best captures both the personal and business philosophies of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) pioneer. You earn your reputation by the things you do every day, said Thomas, who opened the first Wendys Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. Thomas, who passed away in 2002, led by example: To fulfill his childhood dream of running the best restaurant in the world, he actively nurtured a corporate culture designed to ensure that Wendys reputation would always be synonymous with quality. ABSTRACT This real world case examines Wendy's from its emergence in the fast-food restaurant business to its acquisition. The case is appropriate for marketing, finance, strategic management, and integrative management.