Wendy’s revitalizing strategy.
Introduction
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group is a worldwide leader in hamburger sales in restauraunts, fast
food joints and hotels; it can only be rivaled by McDonalds and maybe Burger king. The
company boasts of over $12 billion in sales turnover in 2008 and owns more than 10000
restaurants in franchises. They also deal in French fries, chicken, salad, deserts, sandwiches,
baked potatoes and soft drinks.
Dave Thomas, the founder and owner of Wendys, named after his daughter, begun the
business in 1956 in Knoxville, Tennessee where he opened his first restaurant. The restaurant
were beautifully decorated, and in 1970 he begun to franchise his operations.
Revitalizing Wendy’s strategy is a well researched method of rejuvenating and gaining
control of Wendy’s past glory and repositioning itself for even higher growth and expansion than
before.
The main purpose of this research is to bring forward ideas and methods of expanding
Wendy’s restaurants and franchising business so as facilitate growth in sales and increase its
market shares.
Wendy’s revitalizing strategy 2
This paper shares the ideas and methods of improving sales and market penetration to
areas it has not reached out to in the past. It involves extensive marketing and advertising in
ways that can have the greatest impact on its consumers and other potential clients.
Qualitative research is a way of inquiry in other disciplines like economic and social
sciences. It is an in-depth method of analyzing the understanding of human behavior. It
investigates how, why and when decisions are made (Franklin, 2012). It stresses the need of
looking at variables and research outcomes in the natural setting in which they occurred.
Detailed and accurate data is gathered through open ended and not guarded questions that require
only yes or no responses. This is different from quantitative research that gathers data by
objective criteria to give information about comparisons, open relations and forecasts. The main
role of qualitative research in Wendy’s expansion in America is the criteria to be used in making
a decision on one of the many alternatives available to benefit and support Wendy’s growth
prospects. The following research methods can be used in determining the best option for this
particular case. The data can be collected orally, that’s by storytelling or in any narrative form. It
can also be collected through interviews, physical observation, from various published texts,
photographs and other sources (Triantaphyllou, 2000).
The main questions in the event of using a questionnaire to collect data would be the ones
dealing with the theme of this research, which is Wendy’s revitalizing strategy. The following is
a sample of the questions that should be included in the questionnaire.
Where do you eat when you are away from the house? Why do you prefer to eat
……here? How many times in a week do you eat in these joint?
Wendy’s revitalizing strategy 3
How much do you spend in one meal? What is your favorite food? When was the last
time you ate there? Do you like the place? Why do you like eating there?
If there is an alternative place with similar food only better but with more alternatives and
slightly expensive would you eat there?
What’s your final comment?
The basic questions like age, name, residence and possibly contacts should be the ones to start
the conversation.
The workers should be selected in accordance with gender and age. The researchers
should be able to control their emotions and reactions. They should choose an environment that
the interviewees feel comfortable and relaxed. There are people who are comfortable when in the
company of their gender and possibly age group. The interviewers should be trained to be good
listeners and to record accurately. The researchers need to be flexible in their approach and
should consider group interviews in their initial stages. Qualitative research provides major
research input. It is the researcher’s duty to clearly interpret the answers of the subject. The
researchers or interviewers should make a draft that will allow easy recording of data before
going to the field. They should be candid and not waste a lot of time on personal feelings and
reactions (Wolcott, 1990). They should also include the primary data in their final reports as
readers need to see the basis of the conclusions made. They should also listen to criticism in
order to present a balanced report between what their conclusions are and the alternative
perception.
Wendy’s revitalizing strategy 4
The research attempts to analyze the best method that can return Wendy’s dwindling
fortunes back to where it was initially. The main lesson learnt is that with proper planning and
working with the right people it is possible to achieve the objectives and goals projected.
Wendy’s management should concentrate on restrategizing and repositioning themselves
aggressively to recapture their dominant position in the fast food industry again.
References
Franklin, M. 2012 ‘ Understanding Research: Coping with the Quantitative-Qualitative
Divide ’. New York. Routledge
Triantaphyllou, E. (2000). Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A Comparative Study .
Dordrecht. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers (now Springer).
Wolcott, H. (1990). Qualitative inquiry in education: The continuing debate
