Wendy's Creative New Products Paper

The location of my new Wendy's Restaurant Franchise will be located in Gilbert, Arizona. I chose this location, because I recently purchased a home in Arizona and realized the need for fast food restaurants in the neighboring area. The limited number of fast food chains made it ideal to position my franchise to potentially dominate the fast food industry in Gilbert, Arizona. One of my target demographics will be women, who make up 49.9% of the total population of Arizona. The population as a whole has increased by 20.2% from April 1, 2000 to July 1,2006, which means the market niche (women) population has increased exponentially as well. My second demographic will be persons under 18 years of age, which represent 26.6% of the total population.

Target Market #1 Scenario

Three product differentiations appealing to my first target market of women are:

1) Baked Potato Bar (offering every topping imaginable) - which will cater to the baked potato enthusiast.

2) Salad Bar (Using the same toppings from the baked potato bar) - catering to carb conscious salad aficionados.

3) Burger wraps Ð'- targeted to the calorie counting consumer.

My new and improved products offered to Wendy's menu selection will target the female consumer who wants fast food but not fat food. In today's society, diets are still the craze. And we are inundated with low fat and low calorie frozen dinners, diet programs, weight loss television programs, and no-carb energy bars. So, positioning my new Wendy's products above the McDonalds and Sonics fast food chains that currently reside in Gilbert, Arizona today should not be a difficult undertaking.

Positioning strategies will include offering unlimited fixings on potatoes and salads which will rival Arizona competitors such as McDonald's or Sonics. Currently, they only offer the pre-packaged versions that lack freshness and taste. Wendy's will still offer the current packaged salads for the drive-thru customer, but in addition will offer its' "make your own" potato and salad for the fastidious dine-in consumer. The "make your own" potato and salad bar will include ample toppings such as: broccoli, cottage cheese, tomatoes, various cheeses, onions, fresh bacon bits, cauliflower florets, jalapenos, chili, shredded grilled chicken and salad dressings galore. Since chicken, turkey, tuna, and vegetable wraps are the new sandwiches of the "21st Century", it's a wonder why hamburger franchises had not yet already come up with the notion of burger wraps or "wrapburgers". In my opinion, buns and breads covered-up the taste of the burger anyway. Of course in order to make the wraps able to support the meat and fixings, the famous square hamburger must be cut in half and the fixings neatly placed between the half patties. The new Wendy's burger of the future will be the "Wrapburger" perhaps making buns and breads a thing of the past.

The promotional mix element that will be used is Advertising. First, we will introduce the "Baked Potato and Salad Bar" to Gilbert, Arizona by displaying a billboard sign over the Gilbert interstate that says Welcome Wendy's to Gilbert. After driving a mile down, another billboard sign will say, "introducing" Wendy's New Baked Potato and Salad Bar- "the bar is now open". A catchy funny slogan that should entice Arizonians especially my intended demographic, just as it did in 1980 with the Wendy's commercial, "Where is the beef".