The year 2013
continuous to be promising as the
First to consider are the shifting demographics of consumers. They can be indentified into four (4) groups: The Millenials these are the generation born and raised of the internet as they begin their careers and raise their families; The Baby Boomers - They are “forever young” generation demanding for anything that might try to assure a better future for their health needs to retirement planning and even for the education of their future children. They are the ones that think ahead; The Seniors – They are when the Boomers age. Their demands would range from healthcare-related services to anything that would be useful for their aging bodies and lastly the Minorities – These are the different ethnicities that yearn to achieve their needs through franchising. They would invest in a franchise brand that they deem would present new opportunities that is focused on serving them. Each group contributes to the market where your product is competing.
On top of these ever changing market demographics, there are still many trends in franchising and few of them are:
1. Area Bombardment – The franchisors have realized throughout the years that instead of opening dozens of franchisees in a certain location, it would be more ideal to partner up with an overseas or area developer that is more knowledgeable of the culture and would hopefully lead to operating numerous units at once.
2. Refranchising – This strategic move is when a company sells its corporate owned-stores to franchisees. The reason behind this, as Kevin Burke -managing partner of Los Angeles-based Trinity Capital Management explains, "A franchisor's skill set is very different from the disciplines needed for a franchisee to run store operations. They want to have a line up of executives who are well-versed in policing brand standards, working on products and promotions and overall strategy. They don't need to be running the stores themselves. From a strategic point of view, companies are saying, ‘We want to stick to our knitting and what we're good at.'"
3. Healthier Fast Foods – One of the manipulative ways to convince consumers into purchasing more of their products is to sell it in such a way that would actually cause good to them knowing that fast foods have generally been known to be unhealthy. This is how they try to reinvent the brand.
4. Digital Aids – Or what we commonly known as “ads” or “advertisements”. They have discovered using the internet, several types of promotions, discounts and anything they can think of to draw in the attention of the consumers.
Binalot Fiesta Foods, Inc. has been embracing change since they started the business. In fact it is the very essence of Binalot, to have a break from the western fastfood who once flooded the metropolis. They didn’t stop at that, they have resurrected the traditional Filipino way of eating meals on a banana leaf; they have pioneered the use of eco-friendly material in the fastfood arena.
Today, Binalot catered to all market by having a wide array of menu from the globally known ADOBO to a very sinful pork sisig and talong w/ bagoong as side dish. Binalot also developed meals that are healthier and in season like their Lent Special “Fish be with you” Sizzling Bangus sisig and bangu BBQ. To share their advocacy for the environment and bring to as many consumers their ultimate cuisine, Binalot also launched “Area Development”. It is a partnership where the franchisee gets exclusivity of a certain area where he/she will put up several binalot branches.
Binalot did not stop from area development, once they have made one branch successful, they open it up for franchising so they can focus in implementing brand standards and general strategy. It may also be the other way around. When the store is not doing well, or as they coined it as ICU (Intensive Care Unit), Binalot takes over the store to turn it around then sell it.
Binalot is still a small enterprise and do not belong to the big boys of the fast food industry, they maximize the limited budget they have to do branding by taking advantage of the 3rd world media – The Internet. They are very active online and have established followers through time. All their on-ground activities are connected online, from announcement and invitations to post events/activities. To top it all even their advocacy and outreach activities are held online. Last August 2012, when Habagat heat our land, Binalot collected pledges of hot meals online and delivered them to evacuation centers. They have delivered total of 7,450 hot meals.
Binalot continuous to expand and adapt to the changing tides of the fastfood industry. Innovation is one word their CEO – Mr. Rommel Juan never gets tired of. In fact, Binalot employees eye him as an ultimate innovator. As Mr. Juan said in an interview, “You can expect many changes from Binalot in the coming months so be sure you're connected to us. All our innovations are created to improve the consumers’ experience”.
