Case Study about Marketing Communication

Integrated Marketing Communication Case Study  - Taco Bell

Taco Bell is an American chain of fast food restaurants based in Irvine, California and a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican and Tex-Mex foods that include tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and nachos. 

Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell, who first opened a hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In in  in 1962 in Downey, California. In 1967, the 100th restaurant opened at 400 South Brookhurst in Anaheim. Original Taco Bell's featured walk-up windows only, with no indoor seating or drive-thru service. In 1968, its first franchise location east of the Mississippi River opened in Springfield, Ohio In 1970, Taco Bell went public with 325 restaurants.

Taco Bell is one of the large restaurant chains under the Yum! Brands portfolio. A couple of other brands that fall under its ambit are KFC and Pizza Hut.

The Mexican-cuisine inspired fast-food chain, operates with over 6,650 restaurant chains and rings in ~46 million customers a week. 

Amongst the chains under the Yum! Brands portfolio, Taco Bell, was the most profitable. They had great advertising campaigns like the 'Yo Quiero Taco Bell' campaign that starred a Chihuahua with an attitude who grew into a pop-culture icon. The ads created the highest advertising awareness for the chain and positioned Taco Bell as a cool place to eat. 

However, Taco Bell's marketing approach changed after the recession.  By 2011 Taco Bell was coming off its 3-year slump when the marketers at Taco Bell decided to change things up. 

DraftFCB, Taco Bell's advertising agency designed an integrated marketing campaign to position TB as a multicultural experience of food.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eQ2Dry2R_8

Taco Bell's Integrated Marketing Communication  Approach:

Taco Bell launched a new campaign slogan, 'Live Más' (más is Spanish for 'more'), to make the brand attractive and relevant to young, and cross-cultural consumers.

The company rolled out new products and an upscale menu to penetrate the market of health-conscious customers. It co-branded with Doritos to launch the famous DLTs (Doritos Locos Tacos).

A huge buzz created by the integrated marketing effort made DLTs responsible for nearly a quarter of the Taco Sales. They consequently posted an 8% increase in sales.

Taco Bell's Integrated Marketing Communication Activities included:

• A commercial based on a Youtube video of a customer who drove 900 miles to try the DLTs. A montage of Instagram posts in which customers were trying the DLTs for the first time.

• Influencers were identified amongst the fans and were invited to try the DLTs which motivated them to spread the word about DLTs through their social media channels.

• The company launched a 60-second Super Bown Ad on the Live Mas theme featuring a bunch of senior citizens sneaking out of their retirement home to party. After a long night of crazy pursuits, they finish at Taco Bell for a bite before heading back. This ad received a lot of attention on social media and drove a lot of traffic towards the brand.

• A Taco Bell Mobile Ordering and Payment App was launched. 

• Taco Bell tested platforms such as Periscope to live stream launch of a new product to catch the attention of Generation Z.

Taco Bell has now started the Taco Bell Live Mas Scholarship supports innovators, creators, and dreamers who want to make a difference in the world.

Taco Bell's Integrated Marketing Communication Channels 

• Social Media   
• Television  
• Advertising at high profile events  
• Influencer marketing.  

Taco Bell combed through their social media feeds to find user-generated content that they broadcasted on their TV spots. It seamlessly integrated two channels which were until then believed to be incompatible.

Conclusion

From the above campaigns, we can conclude that traditional and digital channels are leveraged for their relative strengths. In a few situations, digital and traditional channels are also used to supplement each other through a campaign. 

The universal marketing mix  - Product, Price, Place, and Promotions. An integrated marketing communication plan executed by the above companies encapsulates all the above components of the marketing mix into a single well-ordered program.

SWOT analysis of taco bell

Taco Bell, the American fast food chain which serves Mexican food is the latest international fast food chain to enter India. It’s been operating an outlet in Bangalore since more than a year now. It plans to expand into other major cities and finally into the tier2 towns and cities, with an aim of setting up 100 outlets in the country by 2015. “Think Outside the bun” the tagline of Taco Bell takes head on other chains selling burgers.

The affordable pricing of its food items makes it easily accessible to the mass market in India and pits it directly against the Market Leader, McDonalds. It will be very interesting to see what strategy TACO BELL follows in India and whether it is able to replicate its success outside USA.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of taco bell

Taco Bell is an established brand in USA with more than 5600 outlets. It has the resources and the expertise at its disposal to create a strong brand image for itself in the Indian market despite all the challenges that this market poses. Additionally, Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Restaurants, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC. These two have more than 200 outlets between them in India. The experience of KFC and Pizza Hut will definitely hold Taco Bell in good stead and prevent it from making the same mistakes these two made. The success of any fast food chain depends on how it manages its supply chain and from where it sources it raw materials. Due to the experience of the Indian market with its other two brands, YUM! definitely has an edge in this regard. Taco Bell contributes around 66% of Yum Brands’ profits globally and surely will get all the support from the parent company.

The attractive pricing (Rs 18- 79) will make sure that a large number of consumers try out Taco Bell.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of taco bell

There is not much awareness about Mexican food in India. Tacos , burritos, quesadillas and the other offerings are virtually unheard of. Well there’s a huge board inside the Bangalore outlet which has descriptions about the food items( and thankfully their pronunciations too).However, they will certainly have to do more if they want to create interest about their product and penetrate into the Indian market.

It does not have a exceptional variety of Desserts. Presence of irresistible desserts definitely attracts the children, who nowadays have an important say and a big spending power. I don’t think the little ones will pester their parents to take them to Taco Bell like we used to do for McDonalds. I personally believe that an awesome dessert can really turn the tables for a fast food chain. Though I don’t have the figures to back it, I am pretty sure the introduction of CHOCO LAVA increased the sales of pizza too for Dominos.

Also, like a Taco Bell fan wrote in an article, Taco Bell is not exactly known for its “aesthetics”. He describes how he was always rebuffed by his grandparents for being crazy about a TACO, which looked so bad. I know genuine fans won’t care about how their TACO looks. However, it becomes really difficult to make genuine fans with people being preoccupied mouthwatering cheese burst pizzas and chicken buckets. Also, in the US most of Taco Bell’s items contain beef. Beef is not popular in India and they haven’t introduced it here. They have introduced vegetarian items with paneer, potato and beans as fillings but they will definitely have to be more innovative because vegetarians comprise a huge market in India, unlike the US and can’t be ignored.

For most Indian families, eating out means eating grand. However, Taco Bell’s products are far from that. In their own words, a tortilla resembles a chappati and as a friend pointed out, a taco looks like a rolled masala papad. So it’s highly impossible that TACO BELL will become that extravagant weekend family eating out place.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of taco bell

With the boom in IT and other industries, the disposable income of Indians has exponentially increased. People have started eating out more often and India’s $13 billion fast-food market is already growing 25-30 percent a year. With such a huge and growing market, the timing of Taco Bell’s entry is perfect.


REFERENCE
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco_Bell