Competitive Advantage and Positioning Evaluation for Ribs & Burgers

Running head: MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
Marketing assignment
Name of student
Name of university

1MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
5.2 Competitive advantage and positioning evaluation
In China, the key competitors for Ribs & Burgers are KFC, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut.
These world renowned brands have already penetrated the Chinese fast food industry, and thus
the concerned company would need to gain competitive advantage in order to improve market
performance and profitability. In order to establish itself as a forerunner in the market, the
company would have to adopt a suitable and well devised marketing and advertising strategy.
The Chinese fast food industry is saturated at present with a number of top brands being the
premium choices (Shen and Xiao 2014). In such an industry, the company would have to come
up with unique features and attributes which separate the brand from its competitors. For
instance, the brand would have to introduce certain new products or a unique selling proposition
(USP) which sets the brand head and shoulders above its competitors. The company will have to
be positioned as an authentic ribs and burger fast food joint, which provides unique and
exceptional flavors to its customers. A large number of local and international companies
provide the same food items to the Chinese customers. In order to gain competitive advantage,
the Ribs & Burger company would have to introduce certain new flavors. For example, apart
from simply producing western fast food dishes, the company could also incorporate certain
Chinese flavors to appeal to the local citizens.
In order to attain competitive advantage, a differentiation strategy will have to be
followed. A differentiation strategy is one that provides a clear competitive edge with respect to
other companies. In this kind of strategy, the company is expected to focus on a few specific
attributes of the product as sold by the company (Ray Gehani 2013). In this case, the company
will focus on these attributes – price, quality and brand familiarity and authentic flavors. A

2MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
Differential Importance Matrix on a scale of one to ten (with one being the least and ten being
the maximum) has been prepared as shown:
ATTRIBUTES KFC MCDONALD’S RIBS &
BURGERS
PIZZA HUT
PRICE 5 6 7 4
QUALITY 7 5 5 5
BRAND
FAMILIARITY
8 9 4 7
AUTHENTIC
FLAVORS
7 5 7 3
Thus, one of the most important attributes which distinguish Ribs & Burgers from its
competitors is the price. The company offers all its dishes at affordable prices, which makes it
appealing to the target audience. The main target audience for the brand would be the younger
generation. This generation in China prefers to eat outside and would rather indulge in junk food
and fast food outlets than eat home cooked food (Xu 2014). As such, affordable fast food options
would be appealing for these categories. Moreover, Ribs & Burgers, which is an established
brand in Australia, would have to localize its products in order to lure in the local populations.
For instance, burgers and ribs are the chief products of the company. The company could include
some new authentic flavors which cater to the local populations (Xie and Marchant 2015). Also,
the company would have to improve its quality of service and customer care in order to compete
with the big names in the industry. For instance, KFC and McDonald’s both offer home delivery
services. To compete with this, Ribs & Burgers should provide home delivery and online