¶ … business I want to start is a food truck. This food truck will serve comfort foods like macaroni & cheese and meatloaf. The food preparation will be done in a kitchen off-site, and the food will be heated in the truck's ovens. The food will be more innovative than the names suggest, such as with specialty cheeses and unique meats. The truck will be mobile in its location, so spending daytimes in busy job sites or on campus, and nights in entertainment areas.
The food truck industry is high growth, and the nation's cities in particular have embraced the concept of high-end mobile food (Ruggless, 2011). The trucks have lower overhead costs in comparison with fixed-location restaurants, and their temporary nature makes them well-suited to social media marketing. The high growth rate of the concept makes this an attractive option, as long as the local politicians are willing to grant the truck a license and some rights to favorable locations.
There are a number of competitors...
In the most general sense, the truck would compete against any food service business, including grocery stores. Every person has to eat, and they have a number of options at their disposal, any number of which might be in competition with one another. In a more focused sense, food trucks can either be seen as competing against each other, or competing in the quick service space.
Thus, the competition is intense. The market for quick service meals is very large, but the competitors range from all fast food outlets to takeaways, and the competition even spreads into the low-end in-house dining establishments. The menu of a food truck puts it in competition as well with higher-end restaurants that do the same kind of innovative fare. The truck must be able to carve out a niche against all of these competitors. The key to doing that is by focusing on location. The mobility of the truck is its first competitive advantage. The old adage "location, location, location" applies…
