Service Industry: Global Branding, Target Markets, Entry Strategies

This report explores global branding and target market strategies within the service industry, focusing on companies like Marriott, Accor, McDonalds, and Five Guys Burgers. It discusses how global brands establish recognition across different countries through consistent brand positioning and quality of service. The report also examines the importance of identifying and catering to specific target markets, as well as the various modes of entry businesses use when expanding internationally, such as franchising, licensing, and joint ventures. Case studies of the mentioned companies illustrate how these strategies are applied in practice, highlighting the balance between global consistency and local adaptation to achieve success in diverse markets. Desklib provides students with access to this report and many other solved assignments.

Service industry
Business strategy

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Global Branding..........................................................................................................................................3
Target market and modes of entry...............................................................................................................4
Marriott group of hotel................................................................................................................................5
McDonalds..................................................................................................................................................7
Accor group of hotels................................................................................................................................10
Five Guys Burgers.....................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................15

Introduction
Marketing is one of the most important functions of any organization. Today businesses have
adopted a strategic marketing strategy in order to reach out to the targeted consumers of the
brand in an effective manner. Various leading businesses from different industries have broken
boundaries and spread across the globe. Today we have various leading brands which have left a
significant mark on various geographies of the world (Strizhakova & Coulter, 2015). This report
throws light on two important strategies adopted by various brand. These two strategies include
global branding and target marketing. This report also lays emphasis on various modes of
strategies used by leading brands to travel across the globe and enter different countries.
Global branding refers to brands that are recognized across the globe. Any business starts from
the scratch but there are few businesses which spread across different parts of the globe into
various countries. These brands like Apple Inc., Google, McDonalds, Starbucks, Marriott, Pepsi
Co., and Samsung etc. are all global brands owing to their wide presence across different
countries (Steenkamp, 2017). Target market involves those set of consumer whose needs the
particular business wishes to fulfill. These are the customers who are specifically targeted by the
brand.
Every time, any business wishes to enter another country, there are various modes of entries that
can be adopted by the business to ensure maximum reach and increased profits. Most common
entry modes are franchising, licensing, exporting, and wholly owned subsidies as well as joint
ventures. This report throws light on leading marketing strategies adopted by businesses from the
hospitality industry as well as fast food industry.
Both these industries form an important part of the service sector of any economy. Service
industries believe in providing an experience to customers rather than a tangible product. For this
particular report, the organizations in light are Marriott group of hotel, Accor group of hotels,
McDonalds and Five Guys Burgers are global brands which have left a significant mark in the
electronics industry. They are well known by people across all geographies. McDonalds and Five
Guys Burgers on the other hand, have spread across different countries through effective modes
of entry. Their target markets are discussed in the following part of the report.

Global Branding
Global branding refers to brands which are known globally. If any business is renowned across
different parts of the globe, then the strategy adopted by the business is that of global branding.
There are various aspects of the business that play an important role in making any brand a
global success. Besides the quality of products and efficiency of service, brand positioning of the
business plays a vital role in making the brand global (Alden, Chen & Zhao, 2017). Brand
positioning throws light on the positioning that the brand holds in the minds of its consumers.
This position is built brick by brick through the brand’s logo, identity, colors, key people and
promotional strategies used.

Target market and modes of entry
Target market includes those set of customers whose needs the brand wishes to fulfill or attempts
to fulfill. Understanding the target market is crucial for any business to be able to understand the
product offerings that are desired by its consumers. It is recommended that businesses decide
their target markets in the early years of operation so as to make sure that the business fills some
gap that exists in the business.
Every time any business moves across different countries and decides to expand to varied
geographical boundaries, it is essential that the mode of entry into a new country is
predetermined. This helps businesses in ensuring maximum profit and larger acceptance in a new
market (MacInnis, Park & Priester, 2014). There are various modes through which businesses
can enter into a new country. These modes are as given below:

Marriott group of hotel – Global Branding
Marriott international is a group of leading hotels that was founded in America. It is a reputed
chain of hotels spread across 110 countries. The group has over 6000 properties throughout the
world. At the moment, there are 1.2 billion rooms that are owned and operated under the
Marriott brand name (Wong & Wickham, 2015). The group as a whole has a strong position
across the globe and is a perfect example of global branding. Marriott hotels run using various
brand names like Bvlgari, Courtyard, Renaissance, Westin, Tribute, Le Meridian, Sheraton and
St. Regis etc. Hotels across the globe have a similar look, feel, quality of service and staff
orientation. This makes it easy for customers to adopt to the hotel. People have started
considering Marriott hotels a safe place to go to. This is especially true for international tourists
who are reluctant to try local hotels. The high reach of consumers through different countries has
made Marriott a truly global brand.
All the 30 brands have different logos as depicted in the image above. These 30 brands target
different set of customers. Some have segmented their customers on the basis of income and
lifestyle while some have segmented their customers based on geography and demography
(Vrkljan, Bartoluci & Čižmar, 2017). Marriot group of hotels caters to different customers need
across the globe and this is what makes it a global brand. These customers include couples on

their honeymoon, Luxury clients from income groups of the society, people who travel
frequently for work, families on vacations, business professionals, corporate clients for
conferences and meetings, young people for leisure and families for luxury weddings.
Marriott as a global brand is well known to a large number of people. The brand has ensure
effective advertising and unique promotions strategy (Lee, Kim, Seo & Hight, 2015). Individual
brands under the Marriott group have also become global brands owing to their wide reach and
top quality customer service.

Accor group of hotels – Global Branding
Accor group of hotels are well known across the globe. It is leading name in the hotel and
hospitality industry. Accor group of hotels at present has operations in over 95 countries (Sen &
Kaushik, 2016). The group is a global brand with its ever increasing set of loyal customers and
continued expansion programs carried out throughout the globe. The brand has more than 3700
franchised hotels under the Accor brand umbrella. Accor hotels are well known for the quality of
their service, efficiency of their customer relationships and creativeness of their promotional
strategies. This is what makes Accor group of hotels a truly global brand in all aspects.
Accor group has customers throughout the globe. Different brand have different categories of
loyal customers. Accor hotels are divided into three segments including economy, midscale and
upscale. This division allows the brand to cater to a wide set of customer needs throughout the
globe. This huge customer segment, extensive promotions and the uniqueness offered by each
brand makes Accor group of hotels a global brand (O'Neill & Mattila, 2010).
Accor group has a wide presence across the globe. There are over 4000 hotels in various
countries of the world. According to recent statistics, the number of Accor hotels are as below:

Region Number of Hotels Number of Rooms Number of countries
South America 287 45490 9
Europe 2853 321268 31
Middle East 104 31660 12
Africa 95 14034 17
Asia Pacific 778 157184 21
These hotels are spread across different parts of the globe. Catering to numerous customers every
day, through 4113 hotels across different countries of the world, Accor group of hotels is truly a
global brand.

McDonalds – Target markets and modes of entry.
McDonalds in one of the leading players of the fast food industry. The McDonaldization of the
world is not an unknown concept. The brand is spread across over 100 countries of the world.
The business has adopted the strategy of Glocalization (Crawford, 2015). This is an
amalgamation of the words global and local. The brand has been successful in identifying it
target segment since the initial stages of the business. This is also evidenced by its wide reach of
customers and presence across varied boundaries. At present, McDonalds is serving over 69
million customers every day. This has been possible owing to a presence of over 40000 outlets in
different parts of the world.
McDonalds has targeted its customers so effectively that most of its customers are fiercely loyal
to the brand despite where they go. This is because of the similarity in the menu, taste, customer
service, look and feel of the outlet throughout the globe (Elena, Cecilia & Chiara, 2016). It is
important to note that the menu across different countries is not same, but it is highly similar
with a touch of the local flavors. This strategy has helped the brand reach the pinnacle of success
today. McDonald’s logo is one of the most well-known logos in the world. The colors chosen by
the brand are also yellow and red which are easy to locate from a distance. More than the logo,
the official mascot of McDonalds also known as Ronald McDonald is renowned throughout the
world. Ronald is especially famous among children and is placed outside all McDonalds outlets
irrespective of the country of operations (Bragg, Roberto, Harris, Brownell & Elbel, 2018).

McDonalds has a wide presence through different countries. The mode of entry chosen by
McDonalds is franchising as well as wholly owned subsidies. The idea behind using this
strategy was to ensure that the look, feel, taste, décor, ambience, logo and outlet structure of the
brand remains the same throughout the globe. Franchisee pays a fixed fee to the franchisor every
year depending upon the terms of their contract. McDonalds has become a global brand due to
many franchisees as well as wholly owned subsidies of the brand that exist in different parts of
the world. McDonalds earns a large part of its business through its franchise fees given the large
amount of franchisees that exist.
Target market of McDonalds is very clear and strategic. McDonald’s targets office going
professionals who are always in a hurry and are looking for a quick snack. McDonalds’ Happy
meals are targeted to attract young children and families with children. The competitive pricing
strategy adopted by the brand targets youth as well as school and college students. Lastly, decent
seating arrangements inside the outlets target people who wish to enjoy a snack. On the other
hand, ‘drive through’ areas outside the outlets target people in a hurry.

Five Guys Burgers – Target markets and modes of entry.
Five Guys Burgers is a growing name in the fast food industry. The brand was founded in 1986
by Jerry Murrell, his wife and 5 sons. They started with a business of selling burgers and fries.
Despite few adaptations, the business idea has remained the same since then. Currently the brand
operates in US and UK but has been planning its expansion in Asian markets (Burke, 2012).
However, before the brand’s entry in these markets, the brand has already made a significant
mark in the minds of the people.
At present, the brand operates through 1040 stores. These stores are either franchised or
company owned. For its Asian entry, the brand is looking at getting into joint ventures.
Franchising allows the business and the brand to maintain its crux irrespective of its country of
operations. Five Guys Burgers has complete control over all its franchises and the owners
personally visit these franchises to ensure brand name protection. The brand has a renowned
identity and has a set of loyal customers. Joint ventures help any brand to tie up with a local
brand before internationalizing into that country.
Five Guys burgers target office going professionals who are looking for a quick snack. Families
with children visit their outlet because of small gaming zones in the outlet. Young children as
well as school and college students are lured to Five Guys Burgers owing to its competitive