Impact of brand image on the customer retention in the UK fast food retailing sector (GC01407)
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.
2.0 Background of Research.
3.0 Research problems.
4.0 Research aims and objectives, and research questions.
5.0 Literature Review.
5.1 Brand Image.
5.3 Brand Awareness.
5.3 Brand Experience.
5.4 Brand Loyalty.
5.5 Customer Satisfaction.
5.6 Customer Retention.
5.7 Impact of brand image on customer retention.
5.8 Theoretical model
5.0 Hypotheses.
6.0 Research design.
6.1 Research philosophy.
6.2 Research approaches.
6.3 Types of research.
7.0 Data collection methods.
7.1 Sampling methods.
7.2 Research instruments.
7.3 Data analysis techniques.
8.0 Research consideration, ethics and rationale.
9.0 Full research timetable.
10.0 Conclusion.
Bibliography.
1.0 Introduction
This paper develops a research proposal, where the research topic is to analyze the impact of brand image on customer retention in the UK fast food industry from the perspective of McDonald’s, UK. This paper, first, discusses the research backgrounds and research problems along with research aims and objectives. Then, this paper conducts literature reviews on the research areas. Next, the research design and data collection methods are discussed. Following these, the research instruments and research ethical issues are disused. Finally, the full research timetable is outlined with commentary.
2.0 Background of Research
Because of globalization and the rapid development of technologies every industry (including the fast food industry) is moving fast to meet the changing demand and expectations of customers. According to Dudovskiy (2016), the fast-food industry is booming across the world including the UK because of cheaper prices, high-speed delivery, and convenience of consuming, healthy and quality food offered by providers. Humphries (2010) said fast-food culture has been well embraced by the UK population. This industry employs more than 200000 staff, serves about 1.5 billion meals per year in over 20,000 outlets. In terms of size, the UK food industry is double and three times the size of Germany and the French Market respectively. A study by Hardwick (2014) disclosed that people in the UK spend over £30 billion on fast food and takeaway in a year.
McDonald’s is the leading fast-food brand across the world. It serves more than 40 million customers per day in its worldwide chain of 30,000 restaurants. Over 75% of Mcdonald’s is operated as well as owned by local people, whereas 80% of its revenues come from the US, UK,, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Canada, and Brazil. The greatest achievement of McDonald’s is it has been able to create a strong brand image among the customer’s minds through customer care, hygiene care, and delivery speed (McDonald, 2018). According to Warsinske (2017), McDonald’s brand promise to customers, values, effective systems and process has ranked it as one of the most visited restaurants and the 6th most famous brand across the world. The key strategies of this branding success are segmentation, testing, secret sauce, global product marketing, innovation and collaboration. Euromonitor International (2017) stated that Mcdonald’s dominated the UK food industry in 2016with 6% of foodservice values and differentiated foods (Euromonitor International, 2017).
Fast food giants in the UK need to develop review and monitor their strategies on regular basis to gain competitive advantages in the market and retain customers for longer time periods, even for life-long periods. As upholding and maintaining the brand image to retain consumers are the key challenges for the UK food industry, it is now an essential factor for fast food brands to differentiate their products and brands from competitors to attract and retain the consumers. As the brand image has perceived values and influence towards customers, the exiting brands like McDonald’s need to look for new strategies to sustain in the market with high customer retention.
Brand image refers to the perception of customers towards products that provides positioning the brand in the market. The brand image includes a set of faiths and beliefs of customers towards products (Kotler et al., 2015). Brand image is an effective influential factor of business success because it impacts the customer’s minds. Customer retention is the action and activities taken by businesses to reduce customer defection. The main aim of the customer retention program is to retain the customer as much as possible through brand loyalty and customer loyalty strategies (Galetto, 2017). There is a positive relationship between customer retention, customer satisfaction, brand commitment and future use of products (Kotler et al., 2015). Brand image has a significant impact on customer retention in the UK food industry. Kotler and Keller (2016) said brand image significantly affects customer preference and satisfaction in the food industry of the UK. However, very poor researches have been done on the impact of brand image on customer retention in the UK food industry. Therefore, the proposed study aims to study how the brand image is affecting customer retention in the UK food industry.
3.0 Research problems
According to King (2013), the UK fast food industry has been growing up with value sales, transactions, outlets, revenue and profits. Eromonitor International (2017) stated that the fast-food industry in the UK is expecting to reach its revenue of £17.8 billion by 2021. The main fast brands in the UK are McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway, and Greggs. A study by Dudovskiy (2016) disclosed that 95% of UK people heard about Pizza Hut and McDonald’s brands, 90% of people in the UK have eaten in Subways, KFC, Starbucks, and Burger King. McDonald’s is leading the market with more than one-third of value sales. However, many well-known fast-food brands (including McDonald’s) are now facing challenges in holding and maintain their brand images to retain customers. McDonald’s is facing challenges in outlet share of 13%, whereas its competitors-Greggs and Subway-are sharing 18% and 16% of outlets respectively. A study by Statista (2017) showed that McDonald’s has been the leading fast food restaurant in the UK, whereas survey results show 57% of UK people visit McDonald’s and 42% of people visit KFC……………………..
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