Business fundamentals and applications

Business Plans

My industry is the fast food industry, located in South Florida. Our company is a hamburger restaurant, but we have dabbled in the past with broadening our reach by extending our product line beyond the core products consumers expect from a hamburger stand. We do this to try and differentiate ourselves from the many other hamburger chains in the U.S.

The upside down pyramid is a tool used to assess the market, with the objective of determining opportunities within that market. The levels of the pyramid are the environmental and demographic trends; the industry trends; the local trends in our industry; the local competition analysis and finally the firm analysis (Hisrich et al., 2005)

The first level of the upside down pyramid is the great environmental and demographic trends. We have noticed that within the U.S. population, the percentage of Hispanic people is increasing (Cisneros, 2009). The Hispanic community is also increasing its economic clout as more members join the mainstream U.S. population. The spread of Hispanics is also increasing, such that they are no longer concentrated strictly in a handful of regions, but now are dispersed throughout the country.

The second level of the pyramid is the set of industry trends. The industry is entering the maturity phase. Although firms within the industry are still growing, much of this growth comes from international markets. The domestic market is largely saturated at this point. Firms compete largely on price but are increasingly seeking to differentiate themselves based on product line as well.

Locally, we have noticed that food culture is expanding. More consumers from the mainstream are becoming conscious of what they eat. For some, this manifests itself in organic products, for others it merely signals an increased exploration of the broader world of food. International restaurants are becoming not only commonplace, but popular with citizens from all ethnic groups.

The penultimate layer of the inverted pyramid is taken up by the local competition's strengths and weaknesses. We have noticed that many of our local competitors do not expressly cater to ethic markets. While many of these markets are increasing in size and buying power, they are reliant on their own communities to supply them with familiar tastes. Few local chain outlets have tailored their menus to meet the needs of the changing demographics.

Lastly, we have our own market positioning and objectives. We believe that we offer a superior value to our competitors. Although we have low prices, we also feel that we deliver superior food, with greater variety. For us, this is our main point of differentiation and we believe this is why people choose us over more conventional fast food establishments.

Based on this assessment of the market conditions, we feel our most competitive product is our new Abodo Pork Burger. This product appeals to the traditions of three ethnic groups in our area -- Cuban, Filipino and Mexican -- because of the use of pork and the spicy, chocolaty flavors of the adobo sauce. It also is expected to have significant crossover appeal to mainstream audiences, given the familiarity of the core flavors.

Our company is a mass market firm, so we view this product as having mass market potential. Initially, however, we will focus our marketing efforts on the Cuban and Mexican communities. The target consumer for this product will be a male, aged 25-50, which is not only our core audience but is the most likely consumer of such a meat and spicy heavy product. This consumer will be lower to middle class. He will live in either the suburban or rural areas, especially inland areas away from the beach, which we view as having a different demographic.

To reach this consumer, the channel of distribution will be our usual stores, but with special emphasis on our inland stores. These stores serve middle class communities and a few service rural communities as well. These stores tend to be located in Spanish-speaking areas, according to the United States Census Bureau (2009). We feel it best to use this channel of distribution because it not only allows us to reach our target market better, but it also allows us to streamline our marketing by focusing solely on Spanish-language marketing channels.