Marrybrown UAE Brand and Product Repositioning Plan - Research Paper

Introduction

The fast food industry in the UAE has been experiencing substantial growth of around 25 per cent every year for the past three years. Despite the US dominating the industry comprising of over 90 per cent of the non-traditional market, out of the 3,100 restaurants in the UAE, 94 of them are fast food outlets that have reported good performance in the market (Moushumi Das Chaudhury, 2005). Besides, the fact that their exists many favourite fast food restaurants in the UAE market does not mean that the demand is anywhere near saturation as indicated by market sources who say that some fast food outlets in the UAE continue to achieve tremendous growth of up to 180 per cent which has made many of them to open up new outlets to reach the demand (Moushumi Das Chaudhury, 2005).

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Additionally, the fast food business has continued to receive a boost from the population of UAE which happens to be one of the largest worldwide and continues to grow tremendously as well as a large number of tourists and visitors to the country thus increasing the fast foods sales. The survey also proceeds to indicate that with the increased number of women entering the countries workforce, bringing prepared food home as well as dining outside has become a norm today. As a result, the UAE is set for a franchising boom with companies in the industry such as Marrybrown which offer free home deliveries and affordable prices embarking on serious business. However, there is a need for the company to begin on a severe product repositioning strategy to effectively compete in the new market as well as the new marketing mixes being undertaken by other fast foods companies.

Since Marrybrown opened its doors to the people of the UAE in the year 2000, the company has positioned its products fried chicken based on their slogan the "The Ultimate Chicken" ("Marrybrown | The Ultimate Chicken in UAE," n.d.). However, the company does not solely offer chicken to their customers as other fast foods such as beverages, burgers, desserts and other Malaysian local dishes such as seafood's, rice-based products, noodles and porridge. Having the slogan "The Ultimate Chicken" may be conducive to presenting the company as the best provider of fried chicken but eliminate those customers that may seek other fast foods within the premises. Therefore, the slogan needs to include another product or name that would change the perception consumers have regarding the products. This will put the company's products at a better position to compete with other similar products offered by its competitors as well as increase its market share as the consumer's understanding of their products will have changed ("US fast food brands to dominate UAE market," 2011). Additionally, Marrybrown's products need to be repositioned to change the consumer's understanding of them due to the changes in the target market for the fast foods as well as well as the need to change their market mix. All this will lead consumers to view Marrybrown as a company that offers diverse, fast foods apart from the dominant fried chicken.

Change of the target market is among the causes of the need for the company to reposition its brand as well as products because the market in the UAE is different from that in Malaysia where the company operated initially. As a result of the change in the target market, the company needs to adopt strategies such as consumer engagement whereby the company involves the consumers within the UAE in their brand with the aim of making them feel like part of the products (Green, 1991). Hence, Marrybrown ought to customize the products to fit current consumer needs by including Arab dishes in the menu to meet the local population needs within their new market ("Product Positioning Strategies," 2008). Also, the company need to have an understanding of their competitors within the UAE market to effectively reposition their brands and products with the aim of comparing their product's features to those of their competitors for them to point out their unique selling points that can be ideal to increasing their market share ("Product Positioning: Stand Out From the Crowd - Reload Consulting," 2018). Besides, understanding the changes in the environment and the shifting consumer preferences in the UAE are ideal to repositioning the products and brand as when this is done the perception that consumers have regarding the brand could change (Gammoh, Koh, & Okoroafo, 2011). Lastly, the changes in target market influences product repositioning as the company ought to provide products that match the needs of the new market and thus end up changing their perception about the products (Bolfing, 1988).

Besides, change in marketing mix at Marrybrown which with time has adopted different actions and tactics to promote their brand and products in the market. Among the strategies that will help change how the consumers view the company's products are aligning their company's identity with the products common in the UAE. By changing the company's slogan to include other products offered would improve the consumer's perception of the company as an entirely chicken selling point. Besides, the product reposition can be achieved by changing colour schemes to adhere to the culture of UAE as well as employing indigenous employee that would propel the product in the market (Dumitrescu, 2004). Hence, it will be important to tie all aspects of the product to give a unified identity that can be understood by the consumers. In addition, the company need to extensively advertise their products through the available advertisement platforms such as social media that have revolutionized product promotion with the aim of giving consumers an understanding of their products to change their perception of the products and brand (Rainey, 2018). If adequately utilized the company can reap a lot as it will gather market specific information as well as valuable product feedback that they can use to improve on their products ("Product Positioning: Stand Out From the Crowd - Reload Consulting," 2018). Thus, as a result of the changes in promotion methods, the company ought to reposition its brand by reaching out to many consumers through the readily available promotion platforms and thus change their perception on their brand and products. Moreover, the repositioning Marrybrown's brand and products to align with those of competitors will involve ensuring that prices are competitive with those of other outlets to avoid consumers viewing them as exploitative.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brand repositioning for Marrybrown in UAE is inevitable due to the changes in their market as well as their market mix. Failure to do this would render the company's products uncompetitive as compared to other products offered by other fast food companies within the UAE. Therefore, the repositioning at the company will aim at addressing issues regarding the company's identity, promotion strategies and customer engagement to transform the perception of consumers regarding their products from that dealing with fried chicken to that offering a wide variety of fast foods in the UAE.

References

Bolfing, C. P. (1988). Integrating Consumer Involvement and Product Perceptions with Market Segmentation and Positioning Strategies. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 5(2), 49-57. doi:10.1108/eb008225

Dumitrescu, R. (2004). Changes in product line due to product market repositioning. doi:10.22215/etd/2004-05966

Gammoh, B. S., Koh, A. C., & Okoroafo, S. C. (2011). Consumer culture brand positioning strategies: an experimental investigation. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(1), 48-57. doi:10.1108/10610421111108012

Green, P. (1991). Product design strategies for target-market positioning. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 8(3), 189-202. doi:10.1016/0737-6782(91)90026-u

Marrybrown | The Ultimate Chicken in UAE. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marrybrownuae.com/about-us/

Moushumi Das Chaudhury. (2005). UAE fast-food industry on threshold of fast growth. Retrieved from https://www.khaleejtimes.com/article/20050528/ARTICLE/305289983/1036

Product Positioning Strategies. (2008). Concise Encyclopedia of Professional Services Marketing, 120-121. doi:10.4324/9780203884713.ch67

Product Positioning: Stand Out From the Crowd - Reload Consulting. (2018, December 19). Retrieved from https://www.reloadconsulting.com/product-positioning-stand-crowd/

Rainey, D. L. (2018). Marketing strategies and methods: conceptualizing and designing the new-product marketing campaign. Product Innovation, 353-393. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511541230.012

US fast food brands to dominate UAE market. (2011, November 29). Retrieved from https://www.arabianbusiness.com/us-fast-food-brands-dominate-uae-market-432532.html