Marketing: Food Truck International SWOT and PEST Analysis

This report provides an insight into marketing in relation to Food Truck International, including a SWOT analysis and PEST analysis. It discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by the company, as well as the political, economic, social, and technological factors that impact its business.

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into marketing in relation to a company known as
Food Truck International (foodtrucksint.com, 2019). The company is a small business firm of
Canada that was introduced in the year 1998 and built innumerable trailers and food trucks. Food
Trucks International also specialized in custom fabrication and is known for the manufacture of
best trailers or trucks in the market. The food trucks have state of the art technology and are
made from quality raw materials. In fact, the products introduced by the company have been the
perfect blend of the innovation, imagination and efficiency. The products are primarily
manufactured for the entrepreneurs, school systems, universities, colleges, franchises and for
restaurant chains.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
Food truck has the capability of moving to newer locations. These trucks have the capability of
generating revenue in different ways. Also, the owner of the food truck can drive in the
populated areas during the lunch, breakfast and the dinner hours (Mokhtar et al., 2017). Another
benefit of operation of a food truck lies in providing catering services that can generate huge
profit for the companies. Besides, the barriers to entry for the aspiring are lower for an aspiring
food truck entrepreneur.
Weaknesses:
Over past 10 years, there has been an explosion in the popularity of the food trucks (Myrick,
2016). Various television shows along with media remains dedicated towards the quality of the
fare put across by the business. Companies like Food Truck International however face

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substantial competitive issues. These trucks also face regulations based on the food service
business that needs to be addressed on the ongoing basis.
Opportunities
Despite the popularity, the opportunities put across by the food truck operators are limited
(Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014). It is often found that, well known food truck business
capitalizes on its established brand name through establishment of fixed location restaurant.
Most of the food truck owners look forward in expanding the focus of the business by acquiring
extra trucks that would be responsible for servicing the populated metropolitan area.
Threats
The sole threat faced by the food truck business has been the enduring competitive issues
(Sadgrove, 2016 ). Presently, there exists no law that can have a negative impact on the ways in
which the food truck business gets conducted. Therefore, it is vital for the owners of the food
trucks in effectively differentiating themselves in the target market. The presence of both
strength and a weakness determines that the cost of starting a food truck business is lower.
PESTAnalysis:
Political Factors:
The political factor often remains related to the nature and level of intervention of the national
and local government in the economic and the business environment. Government policies and
the governance systems play a key role in the objectives and nature of policies (Lipset 2013). As
far as the regulatory practices are concerned, Food Truck needs to manage the diverse
regulations of the various markets. In the last couple of years, operations and technology have
witnessed an enhanced regulatory scrutiny. The government also introduces changing policies
and so the food truck manufacturers need to prepare for such an eventuality by changing its

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priorities (Rugman, 2013). It is also difficult for the food truck to infer changes in the resource
allocation. Besides, Food Truck International also faces enhanced global pressures of adhering to
the international regulations. It is often observed that the other stakeholders also have a critical
role in determining the technology and operations. Thus, food truck international need to closely
collaborate with the organizations for contributing towards the corporate goals.
Economic Factors:
The economic factors represents the stage of the economy of Canada, conditions of the labor
market, economic performance of Canada, inflation rate, taxation rate, exchange rate, disposable
consumer income and interest rate (Pomfret, 2013). The growing inequality of the society will
result in a downward pressure on the consumer spending thereby influencing the spending
behavior of the consumers. In addition, easy liquidity of the market post great recession will
result in the increase of the inflation rate in the food truck market that can have an impact on the
consumers. Besides, the efficiency of the financial markets and expansion of liquidity in the
equity market have an impact on food truck business. The investment plans of the food truck
business also get affected by the volatility of the exchange rate. On the other hand, liberalization
of the trade policy will help the food truck in making further investment into various regions
(Dahnil et al. 2014).
Social Factors:
The social factors would help companies like Food Truck International in better understanding
the ways of doing business and the customer preferences in the market in which it operates. The
social factors includes traditions, culture, demographics and the attitude towards particular
services and products, acceptance of the entrepreneurial spirit, health and the safety attitudes,

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gender roles, societal norm and roles along with leisure interest(Gifford & Nilsson, 2014). As far
as the leisure interest is concerned the customers of Fast Truck International have preference for
the experiential services and products. In such cases, the business requires to spend increased
amount of energy for meeting the expectations and the preferences. As far as the power structure
is concerned there has been a trend of the income inequality in one of the prominent market of
Food Truck International. Besides, the evolution of the gender roles allows the food truck
business in testing the various concepts and thereby catering to and supporting the evolving
gender roles of the market. Further, the access to the essential services has also had an impact on
the food truck business.
Technological Factors:
It can be said that technology is increasingly disrupting various industries. The technological
factors that are influencing the firm includes the population access to the technology, disruption
of the supply chain, innovation in the offerings of the product, innovation in the customer
service, access to the greater information, access to the mobile phones and the rate of the change
brought about by technology(Dunning, 2013). As far as the empowerment of the supply chain
partners are concerned, it has been found that technology contributed towards shortening the life
cycle of the product thereby enabling the suppliers in quickly developing newer products. This
created an immense pressure on the marketing department of the food truck international in
keeping the suppliers happy through promotion of a diverse product range. There has also been
dissemination and developments of the mobile technology that contributes in transforming the
expectations of the customers. Therefore, Fast Truck International, not only have to manage and
meet the expectations but also needs to innovate in staying ahead of competition. Besides, the
supply chain model of Fast Truck International is getting fast disrupted through technological

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innovation since it puts across greater access of information to the channel partners thereby
resulting in higher sharing of profits. The company needs to have a closer eye on the
enhancement and development brought in by the 5G and its potential with enhanced access and
speed. This would help in completely transforming the user experience. As far as the patents
protection and the intellectual property rights are concerned, Food Truck International will make
more investments into the research and development in case it has higher safeguards for the
International Property Rights (IPR). Further, updated technology based innovations put across
by the competitors of the company helps in providing a better insight into the thought process of
the competitors .
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that the small business of Canada faces various strengths,
weakness, threats and opportunities. The strengths and opportunities faced by the business
determine its business growth. The report also portrays various external factors like the political,
economic, social and technological factors and how it positively or negatively impacts the
business.

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References:
Brynjolfsson, E. & McAfee, A.,( 2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and
prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. WW Norton & Company.
Dahnil, M. I., Marzuki, K. M., Langgat, J., & Fabeil, N. F. (2014). Factors influencing SMEs
adoption of social media marketing. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 148, 119-
126.
Dunning, J. H. (2013). Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International
Business). Routledge.
foodtrucksint.com (2019). Retrieved from http://www.foodtrucksint.com/about-us/
Gifford, R., & Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro‐environmental
concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology, 49(3), 141-157.
Lipset, S. M. (2013). Continental divide: The values and institutions of the United States and
Canada. Routledge.
Mokhtar, R., Othman, Z., Arsat, A., & Bakhtiar, M. F. S. (2017). Brand equity and customer
behavioural intention: A case of food truck business. J. Tour. Hosp. Culin. Arts, 9(2),
561-570.
Myrick. (2016). Running a food truck for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Pomfret, R. (2013). The economic development of Canada. Routledge.
Rugman, A. M. (2013). Multinationals in Canada: Theory, performance and economic impact.
Springer Science & Business Media.

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Sadgrove, K. (2016). The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.