Food Entrepreneurship

From Wiki Entrepreneur WikiEntrepreneur

1 Intro
2 History of Wendy's Success
3 Brand as a Symbol
4 Generating A Unique Idea
5 Related Links
6 External Links

Intro

Food Entrepreneurship is beginning a business endeavor with a unique concept or service. Most of the time the idea is original and seems to give the endeavor somewhat of a bonus since no one has come up with it yet. Originality or a new twist of services already available is a major factor on the success of a business. If everyone offered the same service or product then there wouldn't be much choice or flair to separate one business from another. Some food businesses advertise that their food is cooked with healthy ingredients or cooked differently, and that gives them an edge in today's food market because the demand to lose weight is high, so healthy food is high in demand.

There are many aspects to starting a food business including what kind of food you want to sale, what are the different types of regulations, and other things that must be addressed before creating a successful business. Here is an interesting article on "Buying a Restaurant Franchise".

Food entrepreneurship is a huge topic. There are so many aspects to cover. One of the main focuses will be brand and the effect it has on the product and the success of a business through the name. A brand can comvey many thoughts or impressions about a company or product. Such as Lexus and Toyota. They are relatively the same company, yet Lexus has the prestigious name. Anyone would take a standard package Lexus over a decked out Toyota car. Not that Toyota is a bad brand, but Lexus has the higher quality level.

"There are many different types of business format franchises, but when most people think of a franchise business, their first thought is of food. The success and growth of the many big brand-name fast-food franchises makes this a logical first stop in the thinking process." -Jeff Elgin "Buying a Restaurant Franchise"

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History of Wendy's Success

Wendy's International, Inc. is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation Wendy's International, Inc. There are over 6,600 Wendy's restaurants worldwide.

The chain is famous for its fresh, (as opposed to frozen) square ground beef hamburgers, which are made to order at the time of purchase. It is also known for its Frosty dairy desserts and its chili. Wendy's has recently begun experimenting with a breakfast menu in some of its stores. Unlike most fast food chains, Wendy's historically did not serve breakfast, except for stores in Puerto Rico. Wendy's tried serving breakfast once before in the mid-1980s, but the endeavor failed.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Wendy's also offered the "Superbar", an all-you-can-eat buffet. These buffets were reasonably-priced and generally consisted of three "pods": a salad pod, a hot items pod with spaghetti, tacos, burritos, garlic bread, etc., and a dessert and other cold items pod. These buffets, while economical and somewhat popular, did not fit into Wendy's fast-food oriented mindset. Most restaurants stopped featuring the buffets around 1998.

Wendy's combo meals originally featured french fries as the side item, but currently a number of options for side items are featured, including salads, chili, baked potato chips, and a baked potato.

In June 2006, Wendy's removed their classic "Biggie" and "Great Biggie" sizes in favor of a more traditional sizing system; "Small", "Medium", and "Large".

In July 2006, Wendy's introduced a new vanilla flavor of their famous Frosty dessert.

Wendy's was founded by Dave Thomas and Robert Barney in 1969 and named after Dave's 8-year old daughter, Melinda, who had the nickname of "Wendy" (originally "Winda", stemming from the child's initial difficulty saying her own name). The corporate headquarters is located in Dublin, Ohio. The first Wendy's restaurant was opened in Columbus, Ohio on November 15, 1969, and grew rapidly to open over 3,000 stores by 1985. However, by the mid-1980s some Wendy's restaurants became underperforming and closed. By 1989, Dave Thomas came out of retirement and started doing commercials for Wendy's and helped rebuild the restaurant until his death on January 8, 2002.

Thanks to "Wikipedia" for the information provided on the history of Wendy's.

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Brand as a Symbol

Wendy's has had an enormous amount of success over the years. Some historical information about the Wendy's franchise can be found on wikipedia. One of the reasons Wendy's has been so popular over the years is they stay true to their brand, "Old Fashioned Hamburgers". There hasn't been an ad campaign yet from Wendy's stating they are the new hamburgers. Their long standing name gives them the reputation for being around a long time, so therefore it is a trusted brand.

Coca-Cola Ups and Downs (Coca-Cola is not necessarily an entrepreneur frachise, yet this section will focus on the influence of brand names)

Coca-Cola had a campaign a couple of years ago where they changed the label on their soda cans and pronounced the new product "New Coke". Consumers did not accept the new product and the Coke brand took a major hit.

New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter drink introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship soda, Coca-Cola or Coke. Properly speaking, it had no separate name of its own, but was simply the new version of Coke, until 1992 when it was renamed Coke II. Public reaction to the change was devastating, and the new cola quickly entered the pantheon of major marketing flops. The subsequent reintroduction of Coke's original formula led to a significant gain in sales. Although the company insisted, and the historical record suggests, it was an unplanned reaction to the perceived rejection of New Coke, many urban legends and conspiracy theories that continue to circulate claim it was planned all along and offer various reasons for it.

In the short run the reintroduction of old Coke saved Coke's sales numbers and brought it back in the good graces of many customers and bottlers. Phone calls and letters to the company were as joyful and thankful as they had been angry and depressed ("You would have thought we'd cured cancer", said one executive). But confusion reigned at the company's marketing department, which had to come up with a plan to market two Cokes where such plans had been completely off the table mere months before. Classic Coke didn't need much help, with a "Red, White and You" campaign showcasing the American virtues many of those who had clamored for its reintroduction had pointedly reminded the company it emobodied. But how to sell what was still just Coke? "The Best Just Got Better" could no longer be used. Marketers fumbled for a strategy for the rest of the year. Matters were not helped when McDonald's announced shortly after the reintroduction that it was switching over to Classic Coke at every store across the country.

See "Coca-Cola Franchise"

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Generating A Unique Idea

One of the key things in starting a successful food business is coming up with a unique strategy, whether it be a unique style of food or a unique atmosphere. Some strategies of well-known food chains include unique ideas or marketing such as In-N-Out's burger chain to have a simple menu and serve fresh potatoes. This is most likely a response to other fast-food chains serving frozen potatoes and so fresh potatoes have the impression of being higher quality and healthier.

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