Brand Customer Experience

Howdy folks,

As we are assigned to analyse the Brand Customer Experience of TB, we would like to provide you a definition of the aforementioned. Into our opinion, the below given definition describes the Brand Customer Experience.

Definition of Brand Customer Experience

According to Pine and Gilmore, Brand Customer Experience evolves around well-articulated brands that are the lodestar of customer experience. In a world of competing alternatives, they provide guidance for customers and managers. Everywhere you look, the company's brand values are evident, such as selling the highest-quality products, satisfying and delighting customers and providing great hospitality; everything that reflects the brand, leading to a satisfying interaction for each customer.

SOURCE

Business Week - Jeneanne Rae - The Importance Of Great Customer Experiences... ...And The Best Ways To Deliver Them - November 27, 2006

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011429.htm?chan=search

xoxo

Gossip Girl

Interview Manager TB

Howdy folks,

Today we had an interview with the Manager of the Taco Bell. We have asked her questions about the following items:

- Target market
- Innovation
- Location
- Communication
- Market
- Culture
- TB Abroad

We are highly satisfied with the results of the interview. We will process the answers as soon as possible and will publish them on our weblog.

In addition we have prepared interview questions for TB's customers. We will undertake these interviews in the late afternoon and will also publish these results/conclusions as soon as possible.

xoxo
Gossip Girl

Results Interview Manager Taco Bell
On July 30th we had an appointment with the manager of Taco bell in Tempe, Marie-ann Gonzales.

The idea behind taco Bell is good service and great food. Those are the most important factors that make the company successful.

Target market
The average customer can be described as a white person or from Arabian or Mexican origin. Because this unit is located near ASU, many young people are customers. The average age in the States is between 30 and 40 years.

Innovation
People from Europe or Asia who have never been in the States and go out to grab something to eat will be surprised that that only have to buy a drink once. In 1988 Gen Bell came up with the idea to give everybody a free refill. Company’s around Taco Bell saw how successful it was and introduced it in their company as well. Nowadays, a customer can get a refill at almost every restaurant.

Innovation is not only led by the customer but there is also a team of professionals that work for the company and is in charge of innovation from the inside out.
Every month they come out with new products. Before the products can be sold, they will be tested on customers. The staff has a chance to experience the new product as well, so that they can share their opinion with the customer. Most of the new products are successful and will stay on the menu. One of their innovations was the Fresco style. This low calories program has been running for few years now.

Location
Besides new products on a regular base, the location is very important. Taco bell is almost always located on a corner in a city or centre. The reason for this is that many people will pass by this location. You will rarely find a Taco Bell next to a freeway.

Communication
With their slogan “Think outside the bun” they are trying to distinguish themselves from their competitors. It refers to “Think outside the box”.

They try to welcome the customer as a friend by saying “Hey, how are you today” instead of “Welcome to Taco Bell”. This is far more personal. Also good food, good service and a smile makes sure that customers will come back. This begins with hiring good staff. New empoyees need to take a couple tests and do an interview.
Customers can give their opinion about the service in a weekly survey.

The market
Taco Bell has quite some competitors as the fast food industry is really expanded in the United States. Taco Bells main competitors are Wendy’s and Del Taco.
Del Taco, Wendy’s and Taco Bell have had the same owner in the past which could explain the competitiveness amongst each other.
Taco Bell distinguishes itself from the overload of fast-food restaurants by offering freshly prepared, Mexican food. Customers like Taco Bell due to its Mexican style. Another aspect that makes people want to go to Taco Bell is the fact that almost everyone likes tacos. The word is international and therefore identifiable for all cultures and nationalities.

The manager of Taco Bell told us that the restaurant is the busiest between 11am and 2pm and between 23pm till 1am. So the main focus of Taco Bell is on serving people’s lunch and dinner. Some years ago, Taco Bell also offered breakfast, but due to disappointing sell results, the company decided to stop purchasing this service.

Culture
During our visits to Taco Bell we have experienced that the Mexican influence is very big. Even though the whole concept of Taco Bell is based on Mexican food, the concept is fully American. The concept was founded in 1972 in California by a man named Glenn Bell. The fact that the manager we spoke has a Mexican background was a coincidence.

Taco Bell abroad
The reason why Taco Bell is such successful is because of the promotion Taco Bell uses. The company is always focusing on marketing. Another aspect is the fact that the customer is always the most important of all. Taco Bell would do anything in order to make sure that the customers of the restaurants are satisfied.

Apart from Taco Bell in the United States, Taco Bell is also very successful in other parts of the world. The success of Taco Bell abroad is not comparable to the success that Taco Bell has it in the United States. The reason for this is primarily because of the American culture. Fast food plays such an important part in the culture of the Americans.

Taco Bell is not entirely the same everywhere in the world. The food is adjusted on the particular culture. To give some examples;
- in the USA, the free refill is very common. This was invented by Taco Bell in 1988. They were the first company that offered its clients the free refill. This would be odd in Europe.
- In India, the people eat way more vegetables than in other parts of the world. Taco Bell over there offers therefore products which contain a lot of vegetables.

Taco Bell's history

Howdy folks,

Hereby we provide you with information with regard to Taco Bell's history.

The idea of Taco Bell started with Glen Bell; founder of the fast food chain. Glen was 23 when he left the Marine Corps in 1946: after World War II was over. He lived in the small agricultural town of San Bernardino. His original idea was to start off with a miniature golf course, but his financial situation didn’t give him the opportunity. So Glen Bell started with a small hotdog stand, Bell’s Drive-In, and it would be strictly takeout.

In 1952 he sold his first stand, and began building a perfected version. Back then, the menu existed of hamburgers and hot dogs only.

A strange coincidence was that the McDonald brothers also started their business in San Bernardino! That’s how Glen came up with the idea to introduce alternative menu items. Glen himself was an avid Mexican food take-out customer and well aware of snacks such as tacos because of that. He started to experiment with his new food items in a Mexican neighborhood. So if his tacos were indeed a success, potential competitors would write it off to the location and assume that the idea wouldn’t sell anywhere else.

Glen kept experimenting until he was satisfied with the taco ingredients and proportions. The next issue was how to introduce them. "There wasn't room for new items, or to diversify the menus in the little stands we built then, so I decided to sell 19-cent tacos from a little window off to the side," he says. "I'll never forget the first taco customer because naturally, I was really concerned about his reaction. He was dressed in a suit, and as he bit into the taco the juice ran down his sleeve and dripped on his tie. I thought, 'We've lost this one,' but he came back, amazingly enough, and said, 'That was good, I'll take another one!'"

With tacos selling well, and Glen ready to open a second stand in Barstow, it was no coincidence that he added shakes to the menu. A local ice cream manufacturer offered financing in exchange for carrying their product. Barstow was a ways away from San Bernardino, so he promised young Ed Hackbarth that he would lease him the stand so he could run it in Barstow. Ed took over the stand, and later was to become the founder of Del Taco.

Because of the tacos’ success, it was time to dedicate a complete stand to the Mexican food items. Because financing was still a roadblock Glen took a partner, and between 1954 and 1955 he built three Taco Tia stands in San Bernardino, Redlands and Riverside.

"It was 1956, I was 28 and we had three restaurants that were making $50,000 a year each. But I was willing to give them up to grow. It bothered me that we would slow down and others would move in. I had a great idea and I wanted to be the one to take advantage of it."

"We put in a commissary geared to run 100 units, and in 1958, in spite of a lot of newly acquired overhead, we did well. Our first Long Beach location had been open only nine months, the second six, and the last only a month or two. Each partner was drawing a salary and we had new commissary and office staff. There shouldn't have been any profit, but in that nine-month period, we came out with $3,000. At the first meeting of partners I was really high," recalls Glen. "But it's tough to share a dream. We were off to a great start, but I've always been independent and was ready to launch out on my own."

The first Taco Bell franchise was bought in 1964 by a former L.A. policeman and was an immediate success. A new era had clearly emerged for Glen Bell. No longer was it a case of providing the energy, determination and belief in an idea until it took off. Now, it was a matter of running a large company. "Once we got up to 100 restaurants, it changed for me. I hated the day when we had to start numbering the units. The business issues became financial, we had really won the war as far as I was concerned. The stock market began to smile on fast food, and we were on the road to success."

In 1978, Glen Bell sold Taco Bell's 868 units, to PepsiCo, Inc. The deal was some six months in the making and ended with Glen Bell as a major PepsiCo shareholder and millions richer.

Taco Bell has been booming ever since:
In 1977 the first international unit opened in Guam, the Drive-Thru took its start in 1984, in 1988 Taco Bell introduced the free refills of soda drinks in its restaurants. Taco Bell's compact carts, kiosks and in-line units begin appearing in airports, gas stations, retail stores, cinemas, stadiums, schools, etc. In 1995 PepsiCo Restaurant International (PRI) is the global management unit for the Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut international business. In March 2001, Taco Bell makes an out-of-this world offer: Everyone in the U.S. will receive a free taco if the Mir space station hits a floating Taco Target placed in the South Pacific ocean.

With all these developments in innovation of products, big marketing stunts and loyal customer offers over the past decades, Taco Bell is still getting bigger, better and more popular today. One thing is for sure: only time will tell whether Taco Bell can keep up with the customer’s needs and expectations that keep shifting in this new chapter of the world’s history.

xoxo
Gossip Girl

Taco Bell®

Introductie

Howdy folks,

Welcome to our blog. Let us first introduce ourselves. Our group consists of the following students: Jenna, Timo, Elise and Lindsay.

Coming September, Jenna, Elise and Lindsay will continue their studies and will (hopefully ;D) successfully finish their studies in June '09. Timo will start his studies at the NHTV.

The group has chosen to analyse Taco Bells' concept and its Branded Customer Experience.

Taco Bell Corp. is the nation's leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain. Taco Bell® serves more than 2 billion consumers each year in more than 5,800 restaurants in the U.S. In addition to the U.S. Taco Bell serves people worldwide in currently more than 278 restaurants operating in Canada, Guam, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Asia, Europe, and the Philippines.

xoxo
Gossip Girl