Marketing Management II: CASE III - The "Popeye's Chicken"
Marketing Management II: CASE III - The "Popeye's Chicken"
Section-B
Submitted to: Prof. Shyam Vyas, Ph.D. Submitted by: Group No.- 8
(Member Detail)
CASE SUMMARY
Jay Mary had been in the food business for many years. He worked in his family-owned
chain of supermarkets. In 1983, A National Chain decided to buy out the Mary Company, to
which the family agreed.
There were many reasons for the sale of the company. Prominent among them was that the
family had long considered moving from the supermarket business to the fast-food business,
as they had expected that the proportion of people who ate out was on the rise. Also, Changes
in consumers’ lifestyles and increased competition from the national chains made the Mary
Company less and less profitable through the years.
Mary had read in Industry publications that Sales in the chicken segment were excellent and
were predicted to increase by 20 percent on a year basis and fast-food chicken products were
demonstrating the most growth.
Mary decided that if research indicated that people in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area liked
hot-and-spicy Cajun-style chicken, he would purchase a Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken and
Biscuits, Inc. franchise which sold this uniquely prepared food.
In 1983 Popeye’s had about 400 restaurants in 30 states and in several foreign countries. The
typical Popeye’s’ customer was supposedly upbeat, young, employed, and equally male and
female and black and white. Marketers at Popeye’s claimed that Popeye’s’ hot-and-spicy
chicken had universal appeal. Popeye’s was the third-largest fast-food chicken company.
Although Mary was interested in purchasing a Popeye’s’ franchise, he had serious concerns
about whether a sufficient number of people in the St. Paul – Minneapolis area would react
favorably to the hot-and-spicy chicken. Unless he could comfortably predict that reaction
would be positive, he would not undertake the venture.
A survey of one thousand adults was conducted to gather information concerning their age,
sex, amount spent, and frequency of eating at fast-food restaurants; also the industry analysts
claimed that fast-food companies have a bright future.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Should open-end or closed-end questions be used? Does Mary have a need for a
marketing information system at this time?
Mary should use a hybrid questionnaire i.e. one containing both open-ended and
closed-ended questions. Thus a mix of both should be used as closed questions will
give us facts and open questions will provide us with opinions and feelings.
Yes Mary needs a marketing information system at this time as he is going into a new
business and he doesn’t have much information about it. The information he has may
not be relevant for him. It will provide the information necessary to develop
marketing strategy.
The Marketing Information System will enable the identification of emerging market
segments, and the monitoring of the market environment for changes in consumer
behavior, competitor activities, and new technologies.
Can you identify any businesses in Indian context that may be in similar situation as
projected in this case and may benefit from research? Please discuss.
Taking up a franchise of a retail outlet like Shoppers Stop in a B-1 Indian city. The
purchasing behavior of people living in the metropolitan cities of India and also of the
A cities is different from the purchasing behavior of B-1 or B-2 cities.
Consumer behavior is different as people of the metropolitan are more brand
conscious whereas the people of B cities care more about the value for money.
Market research would give all the information one would require before entering into
such business and would also help in taking better decisions like which brands to keep
or what the price range should be.
RELATIONSHIP TO CONCEPTS
Market Research: This case emphasises on the importance of market research. Mary needs
to know about the behaviour and preferences of the consumers before going for the franchises
and for that a good market research is necessary. It makes a lot of differences in success of
any business. The various marketing research tools, if applied correctly, can make any
business model successful.
Consumer Behaviour: The case talks about the eating habit of people across America.
People of different age groups, gender have different consumption habits. It relates various
demographical attributes to the buying behaviour of a consumer.