Analysis Of External Factors Impacting The Business Operations Of Grill’d: A Fast Food Company In Australia

External Factors Impacting the Business Operations of Grill’d

Discuss about the Marketing and Management of Grill’d Company.

The business environment serves as marketing team and it is explained as factors or forces that impacts capability of a company in developing and sustaining a successful relationship. The external environment factors consider the outside factors which imposes drastic impact on the company in carrying out such function (Ambat et al. 2017). The report has an objective to analyze the external factors that impacts the business operations of Australian fast food company named Grill’d that is positioned as specialist in making superior quality burgers. Moreover, the report will also offer an analysis of the company’s marketing goals and strategies in attaining sustainable competitive advantage internationally. The world is observed to be changing and with such change, global competition within the market is increasing as several businesses are getting associated. All the organizations need to develop effective strategies that can facilitate the organization in attaining such goals and objectives (Armstrong et al. 2015).

This is the cause for which most of the organizations is carrying out activities of external environment evaluation, opportunities along with threats on an Australian company Grill’d. The report will reveal that the organization might make utilization of innovative technology in dealing with competitors. The report will also indicate that the organization might attain the opportunity of attaining success and growth.

Grill’d Company was initiated in the year 2004 by Simon Crowe in Melbourne, Hawthorn. The company opened 5 restaurants in the year 2005 and since then the organization initiated opening more outlets (Baker and Saren 2016). There were more than 35 restaurants within the year 2010 and this increased to 125 restaurants in the year 2013. The organization falls within the beverage and food industry that operating regularly from previous few years. The organization is not having the global outlets for it is available within local areas of Australia. Target market segment of Grill’d are the young generation, family, teenagers along with adults who prefer consuming healthy burgers along with ensuring that this can serve as competitive advantage for the organization. The company has targeted men as well as women. In addition to that, the organization offers services and products at moderate prices and this is the cause for which the organization believes in targeting the high and middle income group people (Bresler and Lubbe 2014).

The food industry in Australia currently is dominated by Hawker Food centers. Moreover, profit increase in the Australian food service sector is highly stable. This indicates there is increased opportunity for the fast food companies in extending business for newcomers along with previously established companies. Analysis of the fast food industry in Australia indicated that entry within the fast food service segment generally entails less funds (Chernev 2014). Moreover, self-governing food service outlets can sustain as sole proprietor outlets. Australian fast food industry has experienced a drastic growth over the past decades as residents are making dining-out a part of their life. In the recent years, 1.64 billion meals and takeaways are observed to be offered by the food joints. Moreover, the autonomous outlets represented 44% of all the meals offered within the business food service division.

Marketing Goals and Strategies of Grill’d

PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL framework is employed in conducting macro-environmental analysis of Grill’D and for revealing the environmental scanning aspects of strategic management (Ekpo et al. 2015). These factors are explained under:

• Political- The political factors encompass the government policies, obligations and plans. In addition, the political factors impacting Grill’D Company also includes taxation law, licenses and environmental law. There is an increasing need to follow the government policies and regulations (Elenkov 2014). As the food chain uses beef within their dishes and claims that they use superior quality animal products, the company makes sure that it uses superior quality meat that is directly derived from the farms. However, the company might have to deal with certain restrictions from the government which might affect the business of the food chain along with impacting its international expansion decisions.
• Economical- The key economic factors encompass deflation and inflation rate, consumer purchasing power, unemployment rate and a few more. Stability and economic growth has an impact on the business (Foxall 2014). The Australian fast food industry has been observed to be highly flourishing that has facilitated Grill’D to attain growth in the market. GDP per capital of the country is $56,135 signifying that the country’s purchasing power is moderate. Moreover, due to GDP growth the living standard of people is rapidly improving. Certain variances in the living standard impacted the company’s salary slabs as it has to pay more to its staff.
• Social- Increasing demand for fast food is observed in the Australian market. On the other hand, consumers are turning out to be highly knowledgeable as they prefer consuming healthy food (Goryushkina et al. 2016). This has resulted in the company’s increase in food product sales as Grill’D promised its consumers to offer healthy food options. Certain variances in the preference of the consumers might impact company to provide burger that is as per their preference or else they might switch brand. Frequent changes in weather conditions might also impact the company’s products as the consumers prefer to consume drinks rather than a burger.
• Technological- Grill’d Company considers using the advantage of technological advancements for marketing the products. For instance, the company might attain the advantage of the internet for diversifying the services and products and such internet medium can include Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn (Gummesson 2017). This facilitates Grill’D in boosting its sales and revenue and moreover the company must also make use of advanced technology in preparing innovative dishes. This can further increase its sales, growth along with attaining them certain competitive advantages.
• Legal- Certain legal and regulatory concerns is deemed to impact the expansion and growth of Grill’D Company’s business. The company is making strategies for expanding its business within the potential market (Hutchinson et al. 2015). However, because of the legal concerns, the fast food chain might have to reconsider all its expansion plans. Grill’D might also have to experience certain obligations regarding the fact that they are employing certain non-biodegradable elements in order to offer superior quality products to the consumers.
• Environmental- For decreasing the concerns of health impacts on the consumers, Grill’D has focused on maintaining tight quality control rules for maintaining their environmental sustainability. For instance, the fast food chain maintains efficient control on all its suppliers that ships solidified propertied hamburger within its eateries (Ingenbleek, Meulenberg and Van Trijp 2015). Moreover, the company also focuses on maintaining strict determinations for all its sourced potatoes. The company makes sure that they are maintaining effective environmental standards through sustainably sourcing all its food products.

Company Capabilities, Experience and Gap Analysis

Grill’d restaurant is observed to have existence in every territory all over Australia other than the Northern Territory. This has been possible because of numerous capabilities attained by this fast food chain. On an average, all the stores of the company have more than 30-50 employees and it selects franchise partners relied on the range of attributes and criteria (Johnston and Marshall 2015). The food chain employs partners with increased experience in employee management and those have previously run a department or team previously, business or a huge scale project.

Along with the business acumen, Grill’d Company’s partners is needed to have a great passion for the company’s brand, interpersonal skills along with attaining the capability to follow the policies and procedures of the company. Gaps those are adversely impacting the international expansion strategy of the company include comprehensive knowledge gap (Keller and Kotler 2016). Tertiary qualifications within the finance, business management, human resources and marketing management pose a gap in the company for attaining successful international business expansion. In order to address the gap among the Australian and Australia markets, Grill’D might require to consult with the local business experts in understanding its local business environment before searching for franchisees.

Market Segment Structure Analysis

Primary Target Market

The primary target market of Grill’d Company includes the consumers between the age group of 16-30 years (Kerr and Patti 2015). This consumer groups prefers to eat out frequently along with enjoying innovative foreign food delicacies. This target market is responsible for attaining maximum revenues for the company. These consumers will generate an increased amount of profitability for this features consumers those enjoy experiencing fast foods and are highly social. The consumers belonging to the younger generation also presents increased opportunity for the company in developing a strong consumer base and might regularly visit restaurants in the present and future years.

Secondary Target Market

The secondary target market of Grill’d includes the consumers those belong to the age group of 30-40 years, belong to the high income group and often prefer eating out. This target segment offers the company with medium profitability level (Mullakhmetov et al. 2016). This consumer group is targeted by the company considering the fact that they are highly time conscious and are financially sound to afford outside eateries on a regular basis. For Grill’D to be highly profitable from such target consumers, they might be capable to effectively market the company as an offering. The company caters to the consumers those have busy schedule and prefers eating healthy food (Kotabe and Helsen 2014).

Strengths ·         A clear and focused brand strategy that is deemed to be profitable within the Australian market and has facilitated strategy expansion ·         Superior quality and healthy food products that are being offered to health conscious people ·         Positioned as a renowned western brand that offers alternative food offering to people ·         Managerial experience in Australian along with franchising brands

Weaknesses ·         Grill’d brand recently just operates domestically within Australia. For this reason, the company does not have increased international recognition or prior experience in expanding within global market. ·         The company should find a franchisee that has important business skills and experience who agrees to take on Grill’s brand ·         Product offerings are mostly western and must be adapted as per local tastes that needs research and development.

Opportunities ·         Advancing Australian market with having the highest per capita GDP internationally ·         Effective food culture and residents are likely to eat numerous times a week ·         Favorable attitude of Australia government regarding foreign investment and tax incentives for foreigners in establishing the business ·         Strategic location of Australia offers opportunity to expand within the Asian markets ·         Negative publicity regarding all the competitor fast food chains

Threats ·         Domestic food competitors those include hawker shops that specializes in making Australian foods ·         Fast food competitors includes McDonalds that attains considerable market share ·         Relatively small market size in comparison to Asian markets ·         Restrictions on freedom of speech that can affect the marketing strategies ·         Increased rent expenses impacting the business and the households that likely impacts the disposable income ·         Increasing labor expenses and decreased labor productivity

PESTEL Framework Analysis

International marketing goals and objectives has been developed by Grill’d that can facilitate the company in establishing itself as a brand within Australia market. Such goals and objectives can facilitate the company in tapping all its growth potential for global expansion (Kerr and Patti 2015). The company considers important to explain the goals that must be communicated to its target consumers recognized within Australia market. Moreover, such review must be communicated to the target consumers as a part of international marketing plan. The marketing objectives and goals set by the company are explained under:

• Manufacturing a superior product quality in comparison to the competitors
• Sustaining consistent along with effective consumer service
• Developing high levels of consumer satisfaction
• Maintaining stronger reputation with the consumers than the rivals

The foremost marketing goal of Grill’d Burgers in the first year of its expansion is to attain 25% of the target consumers through a specific level of promotional activities stated to announce arrival of a brand (Kleinaltenkamp, Plinke and Geiger 2016). This goal is anticipated to be attained at the end of first year and will be implemented by specific media channels including social media networking.

Several marketing strategies are developed by Grill’d in attaining competitive advantages within Australian market, attaining consumer satisfaction and for expanding to the international markets. The effective marketing strategies of the company are explained under:

• A marketing strategy of Grill’d that is deemed to attain success is its superior in-store experience along with the exceptional skills and capabilities of employees. From the location of its restaurants, interior design, leadership team and employees, the company observes its product-centric drive to be increasingly powerful than any other communication channel (Kotabe and Helsen 2014).
• Another effective marketing strategy of the company is its increased online existence. The brand is observed to boast a small group of online followers. The company also focuses on maintaining on date developments along with trends within the food industry.
• Experimentation and right segmentation is also an effective strategy that has contributed to the success of Grill’D. The company deeply evaluates that with having a diverse consumer base, it is highly successful in implementing its advertising and marketing campaigns of distinct nation’s cultures (Kotler 2015). Constant innovation and experimentation regarding products and services can be maintained by the company in developing exceptional and iconic items that can facilitate in attaining successful business expansion.
• Launching low carb burgers in the international market for making sure that the target consumers of the company are aware of them. Moreover, the company also focused on communicating the major promotional campaign messages that incudes low carb superbun. This is made from all the natural ingredients and for this reason, the company is deemed to offer heathy burgers to the Australians. The company makes sure that all its target consumers can superbun any grilled burger and enjoy a low carb meal option that contains less than 10% carbohydrates (Pasquier and Villeneuve 2017).

From analyzing the financial position of Grill’D it is observed that the recent financial data reported the 1^st year sales for such franchisee. The recent financial data for Grill’d is not available publically. In order to calculate the sales for the first year regarding the franchisee the company have taken $125 million annual revenue for the company in the year 2015 (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). This provides an appropriate value of more than $1.81 million turnover for specific restaurant of the company all over Australia. This offers an approximate value of $ 34,838 a week. This figure is employed for the first year of sales. With an average price of $ 11. 24 for Grill’d sandwiches, burgers, sales, salads and chips. This includes the primary product offerings for Grill’d that has resulted in 161, 157 goods sales in the initial year.

Such number is observed through computation of the break-even. An anticipation might be computed as per the rough financial data presented by the managing director and founder of the company. Weekly earnings of the company are observed to be around $15000 per week. Through comparing this with $ 30,000 each week the revenue figures are observed to be same in the year 2016. Moreover, revenue growth is observed to be 13% more than the revenue of the previous year (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). Australia is observed to indicate a high growth in the fast food industry. For this reason, over the years, revenue of the company increased over 20% as the restaurant turned out to be highly established within the region and attained repeat consumers.

Strengths of Grill’d

In case Grill’d desires to attain a competitive position and expand its business in the international market, it must focus on the total performance improvement and better reputation. Implementation plan and control strategy of the company is explained below (Wagner and Eggert 2016).

Marketing Plan to be Implemented

In a situation where Grill’d desires to develop a suitable marketing plan they have to work towards improvement of its top hierarchy. This can offer suitable guidelines to all the departments of the organization (Grill’d, 2017).

Objectives to Attain

If Grill’d wishes to attain its objectives, then they have to consider the overall financial position of the company. This will include market share, profit, budget, sales and evaluations of all divisions along with decisions of the company. After all the objectives and strategies of Grill’d is evaluated, the marketing plan can be surely executed in a better manner and the company can attain success (Ekpo et al. 2015). The company has to work better on marketing communication, research departments and other channels.

Contingency Plan

In case Grill’d is not able to attain all its marketing objectives it will be deemed that their values are not associated with the marketing plan and the company needs to develop new option for the contingency plan. Therefore, the company will have to set additional aspects within its marketing plan and will have to review all aspects such as new products, services and business locations (Ekpo et al. 2015).

Conclusion

The report revealed that the organization makes utilization of innovative technology in dealing with competitors. The report indicated that Grill’d brand recently just operates domestically within Australia. For this reason, the company does not have increased international recognition or prior experience in expanding within global market. However, the organization might attain the opportunity in obtaining success and growth. It is gathered from the paper that international marketing goals and objectives has been developed by Grill’d that can facilitate the company in establishing itself as a brand within Australia market. Such goals and objectives can facilitate the company in tapping all its growth potential for global expansion. The company considers it to be important to explain the goals that must be communicated to its target consumers recognized within Australia market. It is also revealed that in case Grill’d desires to attain a competitive position and expand its business in the international market, it must focus on the total performance improvement and better reputation. Moreover, constant innovation and experimentation regarding products and services can be maintained by the company in developing exceptional and iconic items that can facilitate in attaining successful business expansion.

Weaknesses of Grill’d

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Grill’d,, 2017. Grill’d, viewed on 6^th January 2018, https://www.grilld.com.au