Competition for Breakfast: McDonald's vs.Taco Bell

Ever since Taco Bell decided to extend their product line by offering breakfast items, the heat of the competition has risen. The breakfast market is huge in America, especially breakfast on the go. Chains are competing with one another trying to capture the market share of the fast paced early morning risers headed to work. Taco bell launched an advertisement that is very creative and clever featuring "Ronald McDonald", and no it is not the Ronald McDonald from the worlds largest hamburger chain that most of us are familiar with.

As a result, the international  major fast food chain restaurant, McDonald's decided to do something in response to this advertisement. They recently just announced that they will be offering free coffee for 2 weeks (March 31st-April 13). I was ecstatic to hear about this because i am a coffee guru and a poor college student, and free coffee is up my alley. But then i started to realize, wow this is a marketing weapon that they are utilizing to try to retain their customers during the early morning hours while trying to attract new customers. For a long time they have dominated the morning category, and they are not about to lose out to a chain restaurant that specializes in tacos in my opinion. McDonald's has held market share in the morning category for quite some time and consumers, like myself, are familiar with McCafe and the famous Egg McMuffin on their breakfast menu.

However, the motive behind this decision is to give something away for "free" to lure in traffic, in hopes that "other" purchases will be made from the menu. This marketing idea will not only get existing customers to come back more frequently, but it will reach out to customers who don't necessarily go to McDonald's on a regular basis. Where would you rather go eat breakfast? Taco Bell or McDonald's?

Marketing Fail: Inconsistent Messages

In class we are discussing the topic Integrated Marketing Communications, and how important it is to have a creative and consistent message for the consumers. There are a total of six steps in the marketing communication process: create awareness, provide knowledge, create a favorable impression, attain a preferred position in the customers mind, create a purchase intention, and finally make a sale. The message should be clear and consistent throughout each of these steps. It all starts with knowing who your customer is and what they want. Marketing research will help the manager of the company learn what stage the targeted customer is in and how to entice them to make a purchasing decision.

There are many ways to communicate to the customer. A business can communicate through mass media, direct mail, web, and sales.No matter what communication vehicle is chosen, the message must be consistent from packaging, point of sale displays, promotion materials, to the website. All of the activities involved in the communication process must be steady. It is a major challenge for marketers to effectively reach their target market through the messy sea of advertisements. This clutter creates an opportunity for managers to creatively formulate marketing messages for their customers. The last thing that a manger would want to do is to confuse the market by changing the messages in different contexts. Make sure the the sales person is communicating the same message as the social media and advertisements.

Benefits of Event Marketing

Events such as festivals, spring break destinations, concerts, business meetings, college campus days, and fashion shows all have two things in common; lots of people and good times. When people are generally happy and are having a great time, they are more inclined to make positive purchasing decisions and notice marketing messages.  Events offer many opportunities for a business to expose its products and services. Below are some examples on how a company can utilize different marketing techniques at an event.

Promotions -Sampling, interactive displays, and coupons can all be used as promotional material for events.The key point here is to offer an incentive through the promotion of the product or service for the consumer. Although this technique requires some sort of persuasiveness, it will help increase product recognition and enhance brand identity.

Trade-shows- Setting up a booth at the event with information about your business is an effective marketing strategy when you need to increase your email marketing contact list or just simply create awareness for your company. This is done through collecting customer data through a product giveaway by having them fill out a simple form requesting information such as name, phone number, email, and address. This information collected is very important for future marketing for the business.

Sponsorship's- This technique is used to generate publicity and obtain a wider audience that your budget can afford. The increase in exposure through pr/media will help brand loyalty as well.  During an event try to be one of the main sponsors, this can easily be done through donating product to the event.

Product Placement- Strategically placing your business's product in the premises of the event is another way you can effectively market your product and services. This gives you the opportunity to show the value of your product instead of giving away a free gift. Placing your product in events such as charity fundraisers will help your brand gain positive recognition. This technique is widely used on popular television shows, where celebrities use the product.  

Guerrilla Marketing- Sticker bombing, flash mobs, and street art are types of guerrilla marketing that is low cost and unconventional that requires high energy and imagination. In an event type environment this approach to marketing is the easy and fun.

Models- Hire young and energetic employees to model your products at an event can lure in new business for your company. This is because people tend to influence other people. It is good when positive energy is associated with your product through another person. Have models where your product and walk around the event and pass out samples.

Marketing Fail: Undefined Target Market

When formulating a new business idea or plan, the most common thing that entrepreneurs tend to forget is defining the target market. This is mind boggling for me to even comprehend on why CEO's forget this sacred step in creating a business. The target market, otherwise known as your customers that are willing to buy your product or service, essentially is the reason that you are in business. If your target market is not defined, then it could cause confusion for yourself and the customers. Sure, your product or service may obviously portray your marketing messages, but your company and its revenue will be much more profitable if you knew exactly who you were targeting and why.

Say that you have a product that caters to multiple segments, such as shampoo. This is a great example, because everyone uses shampoo. Knowing who uses shampoo, and why will help you differentiate your product to better fit the needs of the consumer. In turn, this will assist you in creating the perfect marketing messages towards them. After defining your market, it will be much easier for you to tweak your message and communicate the benefits in a more efficient manner.

For example, women who desire hair that is voluminous, vibrant, stronger, shinier, and softer should be targeted differently than a man who just simply wants clean and thick hair. As you can see, these target markets have two complete different reasons on why they choose to use that particular shampoo. Therefore, knowing the desires of the different types of markets is an essential key for success. Crafting the marketing messages specifically for those targets is important for a product as simple as shampoo. In the end, do not forget to link the customers needs to the marketing action through three simple steps; segment, target, and position.