QUESTION 1

1. Identify the main target market (secondary target if any) and specify the positioning
strategy (POD, POP) for each brand. Briefly discuss how each brand attempts to
differentiate their brands from each other based on the positioning strategy.

McDonald’s KFC
Target Market Geographical Geographical
 It has been operating internationally  It has been operating internationally
and domestics. and domestics.
 Operate in urban and rural areas.  Operate in urban and rural areas.
Demographical Demographical
 Targeted to low and middle class of  Targeted to low and middle class of
people. people.
 Target to all gender and from kids to  Target to all gender and from kids to
adults. adults.
 Serves various backgrounds of  Serves various backgrounds of people
people such as students, employees such as students, employees and
and professionals. professionals.
Behavioural Behavioural
 Their product is cost benefit and  Their product is cost benefit and also
also time efficiency compare to their time efficiency compare to their
competitors. competitors.
 They focus more to the loyal  They focus more to the loyal customers
customers and the switcher of the and the switcher of the fast-food
fast-food customer. customer.
 User of this fast food is the regularly  User of this fast food is the regularly
eater and their personality will be eater and their personality will be easy
easy going and careless person. going and careless person.
Psychographic Psychographic
 Focuses on the lower, working and  Focuses on the lower, working and
middle class of social class middle class of social class
 The busy person in their life such as
the struggler, resigned person and
mainstream individual will buy
more products in this because they
want to consume the food which is
cost and time effective.
POD  Different variety of foods then  The foods only focused on the chickens
chicken.  Offers very less types of breakfast and
 Offer different variety of breakfast they does not have beverages.
and beverages such as McCafé  Their product not focused on the kids
which they provide coffee, cakes  They have very less outlets with drive
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and ice creams. thru services

 They focus on the family by  They do not provide free Wi-Fi for
providing fun and friendly their customers in most of their outlet.
environment for the kids in their  Most of the shop will be around the
outlet and also some of their product shop lots.
focuses for the kids such as happy
meals and others.
 Drive thru services in most of their
outlet.
 Provide good environment with free
Wi-Fi to their customers
 Have own outlets/ buildings.
POP  Origin from USA
 Global fast-food chains.
 Both serve fast foods to their customers.
 Easy and convenient.
 Price is affordable by everyone.
 Western style and franchise the brand.
 Variety of foods.
 Friendly and clean environment.
 Operates 24 hours in most of the places.
 Cater the product based on the country’s people preference.
 Certified halal in Malaysia
Differentiations McDonald has positioned their strategy KFC’s main positioning strategy is on
with their slogan of “All About feel good” it their slogan itself which is “finger
of positioning
differentiates their brands from KFC. The licking good!” It means that they
strategy slogan has conveyed that the message on emphasis on the food taste and price.
the feel-good food, feel good home, feel Their main goal is to unite family and
good home and feel good now in which that friends. Their product is all based on
they said that their food is good and rich in the chicken’s products. They have very
the ingredient. In term of their staff are unique recipe on their chicken because
friendly and also, they have incorporated all their food will taste similarly across
with the CSR programs. the country. This shows their brand
McDonald’s has strong positioning positioning compare to McDonalds.
strategy in which they tend to capture the Kfc will offer combo for their
younger generation such as the have a good customer in order to attract more
environment, provide fun and also customers has they also provide
customized their product for the kids. Their discount in if the customer buys in a
muscat also will be able to attract the kids. large quantity. The word “Kepci” is
They also customized the food based on very famous in the teenagers in the
the current trend such as introduce the Malaysia in which it is another name
Korean food when the youngster is more for KFC to attract the teenagers. The
addicted for the Korean dramas and k pop environment of the outlet will always
artist. They use buzz marketing in their attract the customer to buy more as the
business environment will have the smell of the

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fried chicken mostly.

2. Based on the information from Interbrand, briefly explain why brand X is ranked
higher than brand Y.

Based on the Interbrand official website McDonald’s has been ranked at the number 9 while
KFC has been ranked at the number 93. There is big gap in between both the brands. The
brand value of McDonald’s is $45,865m while KFC’s value is $5,428m

McDonald has higher revenue from outside of the brand’s home regions compare to KFC this
causes McDonald’s to have a high rank then KFC. McDonald’s “brand Strength Score” is
higher compare to KFC brand. McDonald’s has a strong geographic coverage in term of
emerging markets because they have been serving in 118 countries across the world. In the
Interbrand statistic, McDonald’s is the only brand that has been selected on the top 10 which
is from the fast-food industry. This show that the brand has stand out compare to all the other
fast-food industry in term of their growth also is increasing.

KFC was introduced in United Stated of American on the year 1952 much earlier 3 years as
McDonald’s has been introduce into the market. But McDonalds has gained the customer’s
popularity as they have variety food in term of beef, fish, egg and pork product in their fast-
food burger compare to KFC in which they more prefer on the fried chicken. McDonald’s
also cater their food based on the people preference on the particular country or area.

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Other than that, McDonald also provides breakfast and Dessert for their customer compare to
KFC. All the McDonald’s outlet has Drive- thru services and they also provide service for 24
hours. This will attract more customers because it is easy and faster to get the food.
McDonald’s brand positioning is very strong as they have McCafé in which they offer drinks
and cake also will attract more Youngers. They also attract the kids based on their
environment and customize their food to attract the kids. As Malaysian, most of the business
people and families will choose McDonald’s as they provide good environment, affordable
food and free Wi-Fi.

3. Apply the marketing concept of “Means-end-Chain” for one of the brand.

Attributes Consequences Values

Food prepared Convenience Happy
Less time consumes Feel good
Good taste Wisdom
Variety of food Self-respect
Ingredient Good taste
Drive thru Convenience Feel good
Save time Happy
Happy meal, environment Convenience Feel good
Care Family happiness
Good taste for kids Pleasure
McCafé Variety of Menu Pleasure
Good taste Wisdom
Relaxation
Self-Respect
Feel cool
Packaging material Support Responsible with nature
recyclable Care
Coin container Care Responsible
Support
Online app/ kiosk Convenience Happy
Advancement technology Feel Good
As a fast-food industry, McDonald’s create attributes, consequence and also even value them
very well. It reached their target market around the globe through their good positioning
strategy.

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QUESTION 2

You are required to identify an example for each of the following marketing tools from
media. Explain the specific marketing objective or purpose for each identified example.
The related tools or advertisements must be attached. Do not provide examples that have
been discussed in class.

1. Buzz Marketing
Starbucks used Buzz Marketing as a continuous marketing activity in the form of “Word of
Mouth”. For example, Starbucks has introduced the concept of writing the name of their
customers on their cups, give loyalty cards to their customers, design their coffee houses in
the most comfortable way to their customer and also, they give free Wi-Fi in which it creates
buzz Marketing Effect.

When the Starbucks employee write the Customers name, they will write their name in a
unique way or wrongly in order to trigger the customer to post it in the social media. This
causes many Starbucks customers to be part of the Buzz Marketing activity by sharing their
Starbucks Cups on the social media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Below image shows an example of Starbuck promotion photo by Starbucks:

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The Marketing objective of this campaign is as follows:

 Let the customer feel a sense of the ownership on the brand.
 Two-way communication.
 Boost up the sales and income.
 Good buzz tool, especially when they write the customer’s name wrongly.
 Cheaper customer personalization tool.

2. Product Placement
The Malaysian movie ‘Istanbul Aku Datang’ has used ‘Maggie Asam Laska’ as their product
placement and it has been most well-known product placement that Malaysian is aware on
the product during 2012. They had multiple exposure of the product in the film. The film has
become a box hit success. Those people who watch the movie has been addicted to try the
‘Maggie Asam Laska’.
Below image shows an example of product placement in the movie:

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Maggie Asam Laska had been introducing the flavour into the market during the year. They
have used product placement in order to create the feeling to the Malaysian to try something
new flavour as the movie has been reach to the top. The tense of emotion that the actor shows
during the movie it can give the effective impact to the audience to try the product. The
product placement has strengthened the awareness of the product to the audience, and also it
boosts up the product sales.

3. Advertorial
Nivea in COSMO Magazine

This advertisement from the COSMO Magazine has it writing style. It also provides
information for the reader on how to use the product and its advantages. The readers tend to
pay more attention to it rather than just advertising that has been thrust into the reader’s face.

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Most of the woman will like the article in which it talks more about the product features
since they get useful information form the advertorial. It also allows the seller to get
opportunity to include more details about the product in the advertisement compare to the
traditional ads, in which it relays mostly on the image without written information.

4. Gateway Marketing
Nike brand has its own sportswear Nike kids, in the range from the shoes, and clothing’s for
the children’s.

The marketing objective of this gateway marketing is to catch the younger audience and also
to create the brand loyalty so that when the kids grow up since they have been using the Nike
brand since young. They will choose the Nike brand as their primary option as their
sportswear when they become adult. They are familiar to the brand and the quality. It will
create a nostalgic situation for the users. It has a long-term loyalty of this nature, but also
paid off rewards for the product. All the family members are attracting to buy the same
product when they can get the product for the kids for the similar design and colour.

5. Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal Advertising: Amazon

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The secret message that amazon logo has spelled out and with the smiley face underneath the
word has different meaning for it. Little more subtle on that the smiling mouth is also an
arrow which pointing from A to Z in which it hints that the brand has ability to carry about
anything that the online shopper are needs to buy. There is nothing unique about the logo but
it conveys about what the brand is all about in the logo itself.
The benefit of subliminal advertising is that the subconscious mind will always work as there
is always opportunity to provide the messages on the image without realizing it. It also helps
the ads, logo or another piece of marketing to convey the message for the audience. Other
than that, it appeals the marketing to an audience without being pushy.

QUESTION 3

Conduct an in-depth interview with 2 consumers who are loyal to I phone and another 2
consumers who are loyal to Samsung in the smartphone product line. All the 4 consumers
must come from the same income group, ethnicity, gender and age group.

1. Kindly attach the photos for all the 4 interview sessions as evidences. Please also
provide the email addresses of all the 4 consumers.

 [email protected] (Samsung user)

 [email protected] (Samsung user)
 [email protected] (iPhone user)
 [email protected] (iPhone user)

2. Compare the 3 main factors that contribute to the satisfaction towards each brand:
iPhone versus Samsung.

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Based on the interview, the iPhone user is satisfying with their brand because they have a
unique attribute in which embraced an outward-in approach to developing new products by
meet or exceed the needs of the customer. Other than that, iPhone have perceived their
product attributes such as good quality of the camera, storage capacity, the speed of the
processor, battery life, and ease of use all. The last factor is that iPhone able to keep the file
secure and safe to use the main reason for the iPhone user being satisfaction on use the
smartphone.
On the other hand, 3 main factors contribute to satisfaction on Samsung brand that has been
informed in the interview is that Samsung is a user friendly in which the smartphone is easy
to use and faster. Second factor is that the user able to multi task in the phone where it is easy
compare to iPhone. Third factor that has been discussed by the interviewer is that Samsung is
easy to transfer the document from android to another android without any hassle of
information transfer.

3. Compare the 3 main factors that contribute to the loyalty towards each brand: iPhone
versus Samsung. Make sure that these 3 factors are different from the factors listed for
question 2.
Three main factors that contribute loyalty to the iPhone brand by the user is because of the
brand image. IPhone has high brand reputation in which customer prefer to have the product
because of the reliability of the product reputation on the user’s mind. Second factor of
contributes on the loyalty is brand trust which is user trust the iPhone brand since they have
been using it for many years it has confidence in the reliability on the brand on the ability to
perform its stated function. The final factor of the user being loyal to the product of iPhone
brand is that they establish a connection with the user.
On the other hand, three main factor that contributes loyalty to the Samsung brand is also
brand image are its uniqueness while compare with its competing products. The uniqueness
of the product may differ from the competitor as its colour, packaging, weight, design,
texture and others. Second factor is brand experience reinforces positive feelings and
sentiments of user towards the brand. The consumers having a positive brand using
experience also it led to the user consumption of the same brand. Lastly, the third factor
contributes to the brand loyalty is the price of the smartphone is reasonable.

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4. Based on the question 2 and 3 above, briefly explain how the factors contribute to the
satisfaction is different from the factors that contribute to loyalty.
Based on the previous question the factor contribute satisfaction is different to the
contribution of loyalty of the product because customer satisfaction is more focused on
measuring customers’ current attitudes, while customer loyalty focusses on predicting
customer behaviour and attitudes. Customer loyalty is a long-term process where is affect the
user in term of their emotion and psychologically. But customer satisfaction is a short-term
benefit which it is more based on the functionality of the brands towards the user.
On the other hand, customer satisfaction may lead to customer loyalty on brand. Cultivating
loyalty is an extremely important skill to gain more customer or user for the particular brand.
The user will satisfy when the performance is more that the user’s expectation and it is also
with trigger to the positive word of mouth for the brand. The more the user satisfied of the
user, the more they will be loyal towards the brand.

5. Based on the findings of the interviews, how the purchase decision making processes
(evaluation of alternatives) are different for the 2 brands – Compensatory or non-
compensatory model?
Based on the finding from the interview, the user of iPhone uses compensatory model as they
are loyal to the smartphone brand because even, they get know that the brand is expensive in
the of price and not easy to transfer the document freely to other type of phones and few
other disadvantages. They still want to use the brand because the advantage of using the
phone is more and compensate the disadvantage, and also the users are very loyal to the
brand.
But Samsung brand uses compensatory model because the user might change, they
preference to another brand of android smartphone. If the user is not satisfying with the
smartphone brand or feature, they can change it because the document is easy to be transfer
to another android.

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6. List all the questions that you asked the consumers to obtain the inputs for question 2, 3
and 5.

Interview questions on the loyalty of iPhone and Samsung smartphone user.

1. What type of smartphone brand are you using currently?

iPhone brand
Samsung brand

2. How many years have you been using this particular brand of smartphone?
1-3 years
4-6 years
7-9 years
More than 10 years

3. Briefly explain 3 main factors that contributes to the satisfaction on the smartphone brand
that you have been using in term of product functionality.

 ________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

4. Briefly explain how does the smartphone brand consistently influence the user
emotionally and psychologically to be loyal for many years?

 ___________________________________________________________________

 ____________________________________________________________________

 ____________________________________________________________________

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5. Will you take consideration into the particular below during making the decision on
buying the smartphone brand?
Will not buy the brand if you are not satisfied with one of the product features
Will buy if the brand has more advantage than disadvantage on the features.
Will buy even if you know the feature is not in align with what your
preference
Will buy because you are a loyal user
Other reason: ________________________________________

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

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