Wendy Faces at This Point.

¶ … Wendy faces at this point. The first is a PR problem that derives from the imagine that the company has gained as an organization that puts profits above the interest and health of its consumers. The second problem is a legal problem, since it is out in the open and could face potential lawsuits from customers claiming that Wendy was responsible for their obesity, as well as for their poor health because of its products and the way these are made.

The PR problem stems from a series of different campaigns launched by the media, notably the movie "Super Size Me," in which the filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eats for a whole month at McDonald's, which resulted in his becoming overweight, with high cholesterol and significant liver problems. Despite the fact that this should have impacted only that respective company, the reverberations were felt at the level of the entire industry, mainly because all companies in the industry served similarly unhealthy products. This PR campaign often led to judicial action, examples being a recently closed case in which McDonald's was sued by a group of teenagers, accusing the company of being the cause of their obesity.

The causes of Wendy's problems are two-fold. First of all, it is the internal production of what is being sold. Due to the need to constantly be cost-competitive on the market, Wendy uses things such as the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of the trans fat-free oil, because of a lower price and the fact that it takes longer before it needs to be changed. On the other hand, this also makes the French fries tastier, given them a recognizable flavor that consumers enjoy.

An indirect factor that influences this is an external factor: the continuous competition on the fast-food market. It is reasonable to understand that often the difference between a fast-food company and another is given by (1) the diversity of the products, which is significantly limited, given that they all turn to similar products to compete and (2) the way these products taste. The pressure of competition does not allow Wendy to turn to trans fat-free oil, because that would mean altering the taste of fries for which customers turn to Wend for.

The second internal factor that needs to be taken into consideration is the lack of information and, especially, the lack of communicating information to customers. One of the significant variables that may get Wendy into legal problems is the fact that it does not list the number of calories and grams of fat that each product has. This may lean in the future to legal actions from consumers claiming they had not known that the food was not good for their health because the company failed to take the necessary means and inform them.

The situation at hand implies recommendations targeting the problems previously mentioned. First of all, the lack of information about the products can be easily remedied by actually placing that information next to each product. The case study argues that such a measure will actually reduce the number of consumers that currently purchase Wendy's products. I don't believe that is true.

First of all, there have been numerous articles, media information and stories that show that fast-food products are not healthy and encourage obesity, but people still stop and eat in such outlets. The fact that the information will actually be posted next to the hamburger or French fries will not make the customers turn around and go purchase a salad in the restaurant next door. Most likely, the targeted customers are people who either don't have time to eat or who simply enjoy the food that companies such as Wendy sell. Showing the food composition information will not change their buying habits.

On the other hand, such a measure could be an excellent way to prevent potential law suits. Another important measure would be to actually act in terms of the products used in making the burgers and fries, for example. The case study mentions that changing the oil would cost a Wendy's restaurant as much as $19,000 a year. However, how is this comparable with the millions in legal costs that the company can incur, even in the happy case it actually wins the law suit?