Question

An industry is a group of companies producing similar products or services (e.g., fast food, higher education, automotive, etc.). An industry is not limited to a small geographic area. Your Industry Analysis should consider the entire industry within the United States in which your company belongs. Include additional information about regional factors if appropriate.

The following subheadings are suggestions for organization of your memo (followed by sufficient and well-cited analyses):

• Industry Size and Growth Trends
• Maturity of the Industry
• External Economic Factors and their Effect on the Industry
• Seasonality
• Technological Factors
• Regulatory, Political, and Legal Concerns
• Competitive Environment and Changes in the Competitive Environment
• Key Challenge(s) Facing the Industry
• Company’s Steps to Meet One Key Challenge

You must use information from at least five unique sources as part of your analysis. Published sources that you might consult include trade journals, industry publications, and U.S. Department of Commerce publications.

Answer 1

Fast food restaurants, along with fast casual restaurants, make up a segment of the restaurant industry know as Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). This segment accounts for more than 50% of sales in the entire restaurant sector. While Quick Service was once dominated by fast food, fast casual continues to gain market share.

The concept of fast food is generally associated with urban development. Fast food outlets today are elaborate quick service outlets. The franchise operations have generated restaurant chains that offer standardized meals across the globe. On account of a low capital requirement and popularity of fast food, fast food restaurants and drive through outlets are common throughout the world. Also known as sit-ins. These restaurants cater to the dry food demands of the younger generation, extremely tight adult work schedule.

One of the major marketing strategies is market segmentation. Researching the market will facilitate the identification of consumer’s needs, wants, demands, goals and values as they relate to food and beverage products there are many different ways to segment a market such as; geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural segmentations.

Social responsibility

Recognizing social responsibility and being responsible for the welfare of the society can be ultimately a good strategy as there will be support from the society to keep the organization which has set a code of business and social ethics.

Social responsibility

Safety of products Working conditions Honesty Equal opportunities Pollution

Fast Food Industry Challenges

The fast food industry will face a slew of challenges as consumers prefer to order and consume food within the comfort of their homes. Factors such as weather conditions, traffic problems, lack of time, and longer working hours will give momentum to alternative options such as meal delivery services, convenience foods like ready to eat meals and ready to cook products.

Technology, Drive-Thru, and Demand for Home Delivery

The food industry is increasingly embracing technology, social media, and internet-based mobile applications to reach their potential customers and drive sales and create revenue opportunities. Technology in the food industry has transformed everything right from ordering food, pick-up, and meal delivery. Fast food restaurants are also adopting tech-driven and web-enabled mobile applications to entice customers with a wide range of payment options.

Apart from such trends, the fast food industry faces challenges such as lack of fresh ingredients, increase in consumer demand for healthy food, rising competition, and quick food options such as ready-to-eat meals and products, which can wreak havoc and result in narrower margins for the restaurant owners.

Labour Costs

Many fast food workers receive hourly rates at or slightly above the national minimum wage. Activist groups across the country are fighting to raise the minimum wage, claiming that employees cannot live on such low pay even working 40 hours a week. If a sharp increase in employee pay is mandated, this could result in a drastic hit to fast food company profits,menu, price or both.

Economic Decreases

Economic downturns affect the restaurant industry, but fast food restaurants are less impacted because many people substitute fast food restaurants for more upscale choices. In 2010, "The Economist" reported that fast food chains were able to handle the 2008 recession better than pricier competitors. Many consumers opt for more affordable dining options during a recession, to better fit a smaller budget.

Price of Key Ingredients

When the price to purchase necessary ingredients to make fast food menu items rises, restaurants usually absorb the costs, as increases are often temporary. This can majorly impact bottom line profits even if high prices only last for a short period of time. However, if increases show no signs of dropping, many companies are forced to raise menu prices for customers.

Seasonality in fast food industry

Every business has a busy season and a slow season in addition to fluctuations due to the economy. However, the restaurant industry is particularly prone to seasonal variations for a variety of reasons.

Here are the top three factors that will affect most restaurants throughout the year.

Seasonal changes particularly can have an impact on business in the restaurant industry, which forces many restaurant owners to increase or boost their marketing campaigns, cut back on stock or adjust staffing levels.

5 Things To Know About Restaurant Seasonality

Forecast Your Sales

Train Your Staff

Understand Your Community

Assess Your Marketing Campaigns

Review Your Menu

Technological Factors in fast food

Technological. Technological factors are an important force driving the growth of fast food industry. The fast food sector does not depend only on the attractiveness of its menu and food quality. Customer service and convenience are also major factors affecting sales.

Placing an order for hot food that was ready to eat in a very short matter of time was an exciting wave of the future. Fast-forward decades later to the Age of Information. The explosion of mobile technology and smart phones is reshaping the way fast food restaurants serve customers. In turn, customers are also changing the way they do business with fast food restaurants.

Latest technological advantages to hit the fast food restaurant industry

· Customers love their mobile devices.

· Workers receive "assistants."

· Management gets automated help, too.

Seeing as how fast food restaurants were created to expedite the delivery of food to customers in a hurry, it seems fitting that technology has stepped forward to make that service even speedier. Fortunately, many of today's younger restaurant workers are already in tune with recent technological tools and, therefore, are well equipped to learn and use the latest technology that has entered fast food restaurants.

How do you feel about the rise in technology in the fast food industry? Do you think it's a step in the right direction? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

The U.S. has earned worldwide admiration for its food system, which provides its citizens with a wide variety of economical, safe, convenient and high-quality food products. Part of this success emanates from the government’s monitoring of food wholesomeness, labelling and safety. Regulations on food safety have been an integral part of the U.S. for nearly a century. The implementation of these laws lies in the hands of several agencies, which make use of various regulatory methods to ensure the objectives of the regulations are realized.

Objectives of Regulations - Legislation and implementation of food regulations aim to suppress unfair competition, safeguard public safety and health, and avoid consumer fraud.

Studying overall industry trends - probably more. Make sure you understand the local economic situation and cultural context. Here are some examples of the types of questions you should be asking:

· Is fast food a fit for the people of my community?

· Are they likely to explore new types of food? Or will they eat burgers 7 days a week and twice on Sunday?

· Is this a particularly health conscious community?

· Are there specific regional flavours that resonate with the locals?

· What does the area “need”? What other types of restaurant options are nearby?

· What is the local labour force like?

CONCLUSION

The success of fast foods arose from the changes in our living

conditions:

 Many women or both parents now work

 There are increased numbers of single-parent households

 Long distances to school and work are common

 Usually, lunch times are short

Today, only 30% of young college-age people eat lunch at home. Chiefly, but not exclusively, teenagers and young adults use fast food facilities when they need to catch a bite on the go. The large chains have pulled out all the stops of modern marketing, targeting young consumers. They entice their potential customers with TV spots, children's parties, gifts for small children, and an ambiance that is generally child- and teenager-friendly. Large distributors, bakers and butchers, snack bars, and so on, also exploit the fast food trend and offer more take-out products. It's obvious that these campaigns are at the expense of traditional home dining culture.