Introduction
Wendy’s is a United States-based fast-food restaurant that was established in 1969 by Dave Thomas. It specializes in selling chicken and breakfast sandwiches, frozen desserts, salads, and hamburgers. The value of its assets is estimated at about $9.45 billion, according to a 2006 financial survey conducted by a New York-based auditing firm. This company employs about 80,000 employees and this figure increases during peak seasons when most of its clients are on holiday.
It attracts clients from different spheres, including students, office workers, travelers, and conference attendants that do not have adequate time to eat whole meals or travel to their homes for lunch or breakfast. Most economists rate this company as the third-largest after Burger King and McDonald’s. This paper examines the effectiveness of the operations strategy developed by Wendy’s and how to improve them to ensure the company generates maximum profits and satisfies the needs of customers.
Key Elements of Operational Efficiency
Wendy’s has successfully used various advertisement approaches like slogans, and videos to market its products. This restaurant does not have a specific brand of product that identifies it from competitors. However, it specializes in preparing common dishes in unique ways to ensure its clients differentiate them from others. This restaurant has had 38 slogans from 1969 to date and this means that it has used more than two slogans in some years.
Therefore, this shows that the approach of using slogans as an advertisement strategy has benefited this company compared to all other approaches. It is necessary to explain that most fast-food restaurants plan to attract their clients by appealing to their senses of smell, touch, and taste. However, Wendy’s has devised a new approach of using catchy phrases as slogans for promoting its products. In addition, it signs contracts with celebrities that are perceived to have huge followers. It is necessary to explain that most clients used by Wendy’s in its commercials have been involved in issues that force the management of this company to drop them.
The company did not mind the personal life of this character, but it was not going to sit and see its image tarnished by anti-gay crusaders. In addition, the existence and airing of this advertisement would have had negative impacts on the image of this company and thus it had to drop it as soon as the character declared her status (Liker 2013). However, this company has registered good performance courtesy of the provisions given to it by actors and humanitarian organizations.
Celebrities like Clara Peller, Morgan Smith Goodwin, and Luci Christian have appeared in different forms of advertisements aimed at promoting the popularity of the products of this company. Product placement in films, television shows, and other media avenues has enabled this company to advertise its goods and services. Lastly, this company has explored and used social media to advertise its products and believes that this is the best way of targeting youths.
Formulation of New Operation Strategy
Social media is a new avenue that can be used to advertise the products of this company and it has shown some efforts to do this (Reid and Sanders 2009). However, there is the need to ensure that the characters used in the advertisements placed on social media resonate with the targeted audience. This will improve the quality of its advertisements and ensure they attract clients from different spheres. In addition, this company has a weakness of not considering the impacts of a celebrity on the targeted audience, and this may be a serious letdown to the success of its promotion strategies (Goldratt 2012).
It is necessary to explain that majority of the celebrities that this company has used in its advertisements are known for different things and thus they should be used to advertise products that are related to their areas of entertainment. For instance, celebrities that are known to flirt should be used in advertisements that target youths and not people that are already married or old. This will be a new advertising strategy that may have significant impacts on the success of marketing the products of this company.
In addition, Wendy’s does not have a signature sandwich unlike its greatest rivals (McDonald’s and Burger King); therefore, it is very easy to sway its clients because they do not know how to identify its products. This means that its rivals can take advantage of this weakness and market their products by maximizing the gap of lack of identity created by this company.
Structure of Competitive Priorities and Infrastructure of Production Process
Wendy’s has not placed appropriate attention on the structure of its advertisements to realize maximum competitive advantages. It has focused on using traditional advertisement skills that do not seem to work properly to promote its products. In addition, it has a weakness of creating gaps in its production processes (Liker 2013). The presence of signature products is a plus for companies that seek to establish their names in the international market. In addition, this ensures they can be identified easily from the many similar companies in this sector.
This restaurant can make use of the following three enables that will transform its operations and give it a higher rating in the international market. First, it should invest in modern technology to ensure it produces of high quality. Technology and its positive effects are evident in almost all sectors of the economy. This company will save costs, time and improve the efficiency of its production processes.
Secondly, it should invest in training its employees to ensure they know how to relate with clients. The food industry is very delicate and requires workers that have excellent public relations qualities and those that understand the needs of their clients. Training employees is costly but enables them to acquire relevant skills in different fields. In addition, it wastes time, even though it enables them to know how to use modern technology to do their work (Reid and Sanders 2009).
Some employees may resign and seek employment elsewhere after gaining additional training; therefore, this company should ensure they sign contracts that force them to work for several years before leaving or paying for their training (Goldratt 2012). Lastly, there is the need for this company to invest in research to ensure it knows how to develop a signature product. Restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King are known just by mentioning the name of their products. Therefore, this restaurant should not shy away from establishing a signature product.
Conclusion
The production of healthy foods will help this company to achieve its targets; therefore, it has to invest in research to ensure it identifies products that are fit for human consumption.
References
Goldratt, E. M. (2012). The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. Massachusetts: North River Press.
Liker, J. (2013). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Reid, D. R. and Sanders, N. R. (2009). Operations Management. An Integrated. Approach. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.