Taco Bell Marketing Mix (4Ps) & Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy of Taco Bell through marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).
Taco Bell Product Strategy:
Taco Bell is a leading Mexican snack food chain which is based out of US. Taco Bell has gradually expanded globally across many countries. The product strategy in its marketing mix is to offer high quality Mexican food at affordable prices with a good ambience. Some of the snacks offered are:
1. Tacos –Taco Bell sells mainly two types of tacos. One is a crunchy shell taco and the other is soft taco. While the crunchy taco is the traditional Mexican taco, the soft taco has a flour tortilla instead of a hard corn shell. A few of the items are Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos, Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos, Chicken Soft Taco, Grilled Steak Soft Taco, Double Decker Taco etc.
2. Burritos - Some of items sold by Taco Bell are Bean Burrito, 7-layer burrito, XXL grilled stuft burrito, smothered burrito, shredded chicken burrito, quesarito (which is a combination of burritos and quesadillas)
3. Quesadillas –They can be made in variety of ways starting from completely vegetarian to filling them with chicken and beef. They can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Taco Bell serves crispy chicken quesadillas, cheese quesadillas etc
4. Other items – Taco Bell serves other items like chicken chips, doubledillas, crunchwrap supreme, meximelt, cheesy gordita, gordita supreme, chalupa supreme, taco salad, various types of drinks like punch, freeze and lemonades etc.
Image: Wikimedia
This concludes the product strategy in Taco Bell marketing mix & strategy.
Taco Bell Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Taco Bell marketing mix strategy:
The pricing of Taco Bell is pretty competitive and value for money. It is a fast food chain that relies on volume sales rather than fancy costly delicacies.
The prices are such that it could be affordable to the middle class and working class people and families all around the world. Most of the items are prices between $1 to $4 and they provide 75% of their items in the menu between $1-$2 which can cater to most people’s breakfast and snack needs. They also have Taco Bell Express which are small shops that sell only few popular items from their menu and depend on volume sales. They are strategically located at areas which can be locations for drive-throughs and travellers passing by or families going on trips etc. They also have a section on their menu known as “dollar cravings” where they provide variety of items just for $1 which is easily affordable by all.
Read more about Taco Bell
Taco Bell Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Taco Bell marketing mix:
Taco Bell is present in Australia, India, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, UK and other countries. It mainly sells through exclusive stores and outlets in malls. There are also some drive-through and small shops under the Taco Bell Express chain which are primarily located inside convenience stores, truck stops, shopping malls.
Ordering online through tacobell.com is also available in most locations.
Taco Bell Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Taco Bell marketing mix is as follows:
Taco Bell uses all modes of communication and extensively uses multiple media channels to advertise its brand.
- In 2001 Taco Bell started a promotion campaign where they dragged a target into the middle of the Pacific ocean and declared that if a piece of the falling Mir Space station hits the target then they would give free tacos to everyone in USA
- Similarly during many sports events they set a definite target for the game which if realised they would give away free tacos to everyone
- Taco Bell sponsors many sports events where in they give coupons to people attending the event for free food items
- In 2009 Taco Bell went into movie theatre advertising for the first time and prepared a music video style ad campaign
- They also have full page print ads in newspapers and online advertising campaigns on Twitter and Facebook
- They also sell merchandise like t-shirts and hoodies on tacobelltacoshop.com which helps in popularising the taco culture and rope in new customers
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Taco Bell.
People:
Brian Niccol is the current CEO of Taco Bell. The current CMO is Marisa Thalberg. They provide customer service training to all their staff members. They have this “Tell the Bell” space where they collect feedback from the customers and try to improve the customer experience. Although the employees have job security they feel underpaid and have no set career growth path. One has to be of sixteen years of age to get a job at Taco Bell. They provide both full-time and part-time job opportunities.
Process:
Taco Bell serve Tacos through their outlets as well as drive-thru. They introduce new items from time to time and understand their customers. Their promotions on Facebook and Twitter are very down to earth and genuine. They appeal to the target customer base of 25-34 years who frequently use those apps. Their idea is to promote that fourth meal of the day with an affordable price. They have also started selling Taco Bell clothing in collaboration with Forever21. It has a fun and modern look with flashy colours. They have an innovation team and a development team who find inspiration and review thousands of new product ideas of which a very few end up in the national menu.
Physical Evidence:
One can order online from their website which has a purple and black dual tone design with attractive pictures of the food items they provide. It can help in attracting the youth and lead to impulse purchasing of extra food items. They have a presence in their customers’ lives through Live Mas Scholarships awarding $1 Million to young adults, Taco Bell wedding at their Las Vegas restaurants, helping out game developers and upcoming bands, college football etc. One can also buy Taco Bell merch from tacobelltacoshop.com. They have changed the logo to a simpler minimalistic look which can easily take on other skins for branding purposes. Hence this gives an overview of Taco Bell marketing mix.
About Taco Bell:
Taco Bell is America's largest Mexican fast food restaurant chain. It has over 6000 restaurants in 17 countries worldwide. It was founded by Glen Bell in 1962 at Downey, California. In 1964 retired Los Angeles policeman Kermit Becky became Taco Bell's first franchisee and opened a restaurant in Torrance, California. The company expanded and by 1967 they had 100 restaurants. In 1970, Taco Bell became a listed company with 325 restaurants in its chain. In 1978, Glen sold 868 Taco Bell restaurants to PepsiCo.
In 1991, Taco Bell opened the first Taco Bell Express in San Francisco. It’s a small restaurant with a menu where items were cost below $1. This was done to serve some basic types of dishes to large number of customers to increase volume and generate revenue. It also helped in attracting new customers to try out Taco Bell products.
They were primarily located inside convenience stores, truck stops, shopping malls, and airports where there was a greater chance of getting travellers and tourists who wanted a quick bite. Taco Bell also tried co-branding with KFC and Pizza Hut.
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