Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

Term 4

Consumer Behaviour (DMKT403)

Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

Report submission for the course of Consumer Behaviour

By

Anuj Tyagi

DM22217

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

Table of Contents:

Serial Content Page

Number Number
1 Introduction 1
2 SWOT 1
3 Wendy’s from the lens of marketing mix 2
4 Tactics 3
5 Node Theory 4
6 References 4

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

1. Introduction:

“Man! I kind of feel hungry, let’s go grab something from Wendy’s!”, said no one ever!

Wendy’s launched in India in the year 2015, over the next five years, right before the pandemic

hit the world, it managed to open just 9 brick and mortar stores. To put this in perspective, a

top dog in the category, McDonald’s, has over 300+ outlets. But I hear your point, it’s not fair

to compare these two, McDonald’s entered India in 1996, almost 2 decades ago than Wendy’s.

Let me take a better example, Burger King, launched in India, just a couple of years before

Wendy’s in 2013, yet, they have 250+ stores. Do you get my point now? One of the major

reasons why this happened is, they never moved past Delhi NCR borders, but obviously, this

wasn’t what they wanted, they just couldn’t manage to appeal to Indian audiences in their years

of operations here. They got caught up in the “Underdog Effect” where they ended up being

at a disadvantage and are now expected to lose in comparison to the one with ample resources

in the category of sandwiches and burgers, and the overall QSR segment, i.e, the Clown and

the King, McDonald’s and Burger King.

Being at this disadvantage isn’t permanent though, there are ample examples who have turned

themselves from an underdog to a top dog today, some of these brands and companies are

essentially running the world as we know it; like Google and Apple. In fact, the top dog in the

same category, McDonald’s itself was in an underdog position when it started in 1996. They

came in with a concept to a country that over a billion people of the nation were oblivious to.

But, like the Micromax founder, Mr Rahul Sharma said in one of the articles published in

Business Standard, “Flexibility is the biggest asset of an underdog brand”. Audiences, in

general, does not have many expectations from you, they aren’t really rooting for your win

either, so buck up, and try to figure out ways you can appeal to them, because, what is being

done currently, isn’t amounting to much.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

Before discussing tactics Wendy’s can use to move from underdog to top dog, let’s see a SWOT

analysis of Wendy’s

2. SWOT:

1) Strengths:

a) Over 40 years of experience in the QSR industry

b) Global presence

c) Third largest burger chain globally

d) Financial stability

e) Effective marketing and advertising

2) Weakness:

a) Fast food is considered to be unhealthy

b) Franchise operations are difficult to manage

c) An extremely low number of outlets compared to competitors

Figure 1:Wendy's using social media to poke fun about their low number of outlets

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

3) Opportunities:

a) Expansion to other cities

b) Revising menus to local tastes

c) Cloud kitchens

4) Threats:

a) Popular for its taste and use of fresh beef in foreign nations

b) Highly competitive space, top dogs such as McDonald’s and Burger king present

c) People are getting conscious about their health and avoiding unhealthy fast food

3. Wendy’s from the lens of marketing mix:

1) Product: With a range of burger, wraps, fries, salads, frosty and beverages, Wendy’s have

a strong product line up in place for themselves. They have positioned themselves as a QSR

which can give them a taste and experience better than others.

2) Price: There is not much of a difference in pricing when compared to others in the market.

There prices changes as per market conditions. Wendy’s like other QSRs use a bundle

pricing strategy where consumers’ feel they get ample for the price they pay.

3) Place: This is a place of concern as the availability of Wendy’s in India is limited to Delhi

NCR regions which stops them from using India’s biggest potential, their population.

4) Promotion: The red hair girl though extremely popular mascot for Wendy’s abroad, is yet

to get enough traction in India. A lot of Wendy’s promotions are based on other promotions

running in the market. They use social media effectively to put across their points, but due

to limited availability, the promotions don’t pick up as much.

Now let’s discuss what can be done right.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

4. Tactics:

a) New markets: India is a very big market for so many brands, just because of the sheer

population numbers. Bit, what we see in the past few years, the spending power of an

average Indian has been increasing constantly at a rate of over 4% every year. Wendy’s

has held their ground till now and has not expanded much. Indian population is no more

unaware of the burgers and sandwiches concept, but, a large population is yet to

experience it. Instead of fighting it off with top dogs in major cities where people are

now set with their preferences for years, changing habits could be a challenge. But

moving t tier 2 and tier 3 cities could open many more avenues for the brand as they

are more likely to be open to trying new experiences. Aggressive marketing to tap these

markets by proper campaigns, taglines, etc, can make for a good brand image and recall

among these audiences.

b) Comparison: Being an underdog, a direct comparison to market leaders help their

cause as we have learned in Market Research. They can position their stores next to

McDonald’s and Burger King and revamp themselves to provide better taste, services

and ambience than them. Marketing themselves on these points directly to these top

dogs can put them in the consumers’ minds. This can be done along with some

additional fun activities, like Make Your Own burgers, and transparent kitchen

windows where people can see how their food is being prepared, from the article,

“Making routine customer experience fun”, it is quite evident how tweaking concepts

slightly to provide a better experience to consumers will fetch better results. This can

instil more trust in the heart of consumers’ for the brand.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

Figure 2: Showcasing themselves as better than competition

c) Be different: QSRs in general have both utilitarian and hedonic aspects to them,

Wendy’s needs to incorporate more and more hedonic aspects to themselves. They need

to be different from what pretty much everyone in the market is offering. As per the

ELM model, Wendy’s offerings can be considered as a low involvement product, here,

Wendy’s should follow the peripheral route and educate the consumers. Since they

know what a typical burger is, they generally have a low incentive to change their

preferences, the company should break the conventional modes of consumption that

have been prevailing for a long time. Attaching more local taste while maintaining their

western tasting dishes can help.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

d) Leverage technology: With increasing social media reach, food aggregators and food

delivery platforms, there is no limit for the reach. If not Brick and Mortar stores,

Wendy’s can get on the bandwagon of cloud kitchens and accelerate their plans to reach

all corners of the nation. With exciting promos running throughout the year on such

platforms, it makes it a lucrative purchase for Indian audiences.

e) Create Affect: Wendy’s needs to position itself in a way that consumers relate to it in

a certain way. They came up with a nice way of saying how they relate to happiness

but it came via just one post as a meme on their Instagram handle. They can increase

the reach with the same message and get something great out of it.

Figure 3:Wendy's instagram post

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

f) Make them try it: The above-mentioned tactics can work, only if consumers get to

first-hand experience the products. Having experienced it first hand will always have a

better impact than showing them benefits as it’s a sensory experience. Only after

experiencing it, Wendy’s can make consumers shift to their products from that of top

dog’s. Using promotions targeted towards youth coupled with effective advertising can

reap several benefits in the coming time for them. Food vloggers, reviewers,

competitive eating stars, competitions can increase visibility and word of mouth. Who

can eat the most burgers, does make for an interesting competition.

Figure 4:Wendy's can promote competetions this way

 Being a low involvement product, what Wendy’s can do to enhance consumer memory

a) Rehearsal: Wendy’s can work on advertisements that can be related to the products,

experience and the company. Catchy jingles can be made that will help in brand recall.

Celebrity endorsement to give peripheral cues could also be a way to go.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

b) Encoding: “I’m lovin’ it”, “Have it your way”, “It’s finger-lickin' good”, all these

taglines are enough for us to understand what brand they belong to.

c) Unique value proposition: Offering some products that are Wendy’s exclusive can

help them differentiate themselves and give an incentive for consumers to try them

instead of any other QSR.

5. Node Theory:

McDonald’s

Burgers
Burger King

Wendy’s

Basis Node Theory we can easily understand that when a consumer thinks of Burger, they don’t

think of Wendy’s. It, in fact, has a considerable psychological distance that can easily be

changed.

Changing communication strategy should be an overall priority to make customers aware of

what Wendy’s India can offer.

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Wendy’s- How to go from an Underdog to Topdog: 101

6. References:

https://www.business-standard.com/article/management/flexibility-is-the-biggest-asset-of-an-

underdog-brand-rahul-sharma-112101500079_1.html

https://knoema.com/atlas/India/topics/Economy/Inflation-and-Prices/Purchasing-power-

parity

https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/17575-wendys.html

https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/food-and-beverages/3065-wendys-company.html

https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-upside-of-being-an-underdog

https://www.instagram.com/wendys_india/?hl=en

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