Sonic resturant competitive analysis

Sonic Restaurant Competitive Analysis
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Sonic Restaurant Competitive Analysis
Currently of all industries that exist the industry that is growing at a very high rate and having a high competition from the already established dominants. Unfortunately, Sonic restaurant is in existence during this time and hence it has to put into place strong strategies to compete in the market. Sonic is a company in the United States competing in the fast food industry by offering the so call ‘eat in your car service’ that has seen it establish its niche. The main competitors of Sonic include McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendys. This paper is going to analyze the strategies of McDonald’s compared to those of Sonic Drive-in. Further, the study will focus on the future of the competitor.
McDonald is a the United States fast food company that has grown worldwide having more than twenty thousand franchising stores in over 100 countries. With the increase in the number of companies into the industry this retailer must have competitive strategies which will see the business continue its going concern policy otherwise dynamism will lead to closure. Therefore, McDonald has many competitive strategies one of them being an innovation of its menu. This strategy includes the introduction of ‘offers’ which give the consumers an extra choice in the menu. For example, the offer called ‘happy meal’ gave the children an opportunity to enjoy chicken and a fruit juice.

With such offers, more new customers are attracted to the restaurant. In response to this strategy, Sonic established a dollar menu that made its menu look attractive to the consumers too. This gave Sonic an opportunity to hold on to its niche in the market (Grant, 1991).
McDonald has also come up with a strategy to make its environment appealing to its customers. In the food, industry environment is one of the major factors that make customers attracted to the company because they always look for a place more like their home for relaxation and leisure. This retailer has taken the initiative to accomplish such a need by relocating to more conducive places and renovating the existing buildings. Sonic Restaurant has not been left behind, but it uses one of its major strongholds in its environment by offering a lot of drive-ins making the consumers get accommodation including their cars as they take their food. Such a strategy makes it ahead in the market by offering the comfort of its clients at all times. In addition, McDonald has focused its strategy to improve the happiness of one of its major customers, the children. They believe that children can lead the whole family to visit their shops. Therefore they have introduced computers filled with games for the children. They have also put into place children offers and toys which make children attracted to their products. Such a strategy builds loyalty for the company in the children making them future customers. On the other hand, Sonic has maintained its strategy of bringing food to clients by carhops building a trust that can see the clients become loyal in future (Lei & Slocum, 2005).
Due to the change in technology and innovation, McDonald has taken the step position itself by introducing wireless internet services in the restaurant. This attracts the youth and also professionals who have to keep up with their work. On the other hand Sonic restaurant has increased its range by offering a wide variety of drinks which attract customers who want to relax without having food. Due to the wide range of market McDonald has, it enjoys the advantage of large economies of scale hence becoming a cost leader by utilizing the Porters model. This makes it reduce their prices attracting customers. On the other hand, Sonic has a strategy of offering a happy hour during which customers get their drinks at half the price hence winning more customers to their restaurant. In a different case, McDonald has the strategy of penetrating new market through franchising especially in America and in Europe where it has a large share of the market. However Sonic uses comic advertisements to communicate its quality and to catch the attention of people especially the young and old customers. All consumers look for quality assurance, and this is what makes Sonic restaurant maintain its market share (Grant, 1991).
The McDonald and sonic strategies are similar in a way in that they both focus on the future of the business by putting in measures that see the company maintain its market share. Additionally, the strategies put in place concentrate on making the customers happy and considering their needs. Although there are similarities in the strategies, there are also some differences. One difference is that McDonald in internationally focused and tries to make strategies for all its consumers while Sonic is local market oriented hence the strategies are different. McDonald has a cost advantage over Sonic hence it can make strategies to reduce prices, unlike Sonic which has to find a strategy without having to reduce its prices. Sonic has the strategy of delivering food to customers by carhops, unlike McDonald. Sonic retailer uses drive-ins to gain the advantage of serving customers at a fast speed while MacDonald uses its customer service techniques (Lei & Slocum, 2005).
In conclusion, the future of McDonald looks promising. Due to the strategy of creating loyalty in children makes the retail assured of clients in future. Their position in the market as a cost leader gives them the advantage to restrict the entry into the market by lowering prices a bit. In the case of inflation in one country MacDonald is not affected greatly since it has its operations in many countries giving it a large market share. Finally, its initiative to put measures to counter change makes it future-oriented more so, in the current technology world. Therefore, Sonic restaurant should adapt to the changing environments in the fast food industry and align its strategies ahead of the competitors.
References
Grant, R. M. (1991). The resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for
strategy formulation. California management review, 33(3), 114-135.
Lei, D., & Slocum, J. W. (2005). Strategic and organizational requirements for competitive
advantage. The Academy of Management Executive, 19(1), 31-45.