The food and beverage industry is divided into two main categories: production and distribution. Within the industry there are a few companies specific leaders that exemplify to other companies what they should be doing. For example, SYSCO, US foodservice, and McLane Company are leaders in the distribution segment of the market. PepsiCo is a leader in the processing segment, along with Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper-Snapple, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, all according to Global Edge, a leader in business education and information (Food)
For example, the food industry is segmented in various ways. Subway segments the market by cost and customer. It advertises to people who are health-conscious and want a cheap alternative to fast food. Subway markets to all ages and all ethnicities. McDonald's on the other hand, though target consumers who want greasy, cheap fast food, have recently been targeting a more health-conscious consumer market. They target little kids, by using Ronald McDonald and happy meals. McDonald also segments their products by geography; the food changes from country to country.
Nestle is the worlds largest food and beverage company. Nestle is divided into eight units, all of which are very successful. The beverage segment, has over 400 factories around the world, and is able to specialize its products by what the locals prefer which is a perfect example of geographic segmentation. Nestle's nutritional, milk products, and ice cream segmentation focuses on making its product healthy for babies, and people with health concerns, an example of customer segmentation
(Nestle).
The F&B industry is huge and there is a lot of competition, making it so companies have to target specific markets of people in order to be successful.
Works Cited
"Food and Beverage: Background." Food and Beverage GlobalEDGE: Your Source for Global Business Knowledge. Global Edge. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://globaledge.msu.edu/Industries/Food-and-Beverage/background>.
"Nestle (NSRGY)." Stock: Nestle. Wikiinvest. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. <http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Nestle_(NSRGY)>.
Just pointing out again that restaurants are not in your industry. Also be careful when coming up with segments. McDonalds is not necessarily targeting people who like greasy food, but rather people who need a cheap and fast meal.
ReplyDeleteAs for nestle being broken down into 8 units it would be interesting to see how they enter a new market. How did they pick those areas? What research do they do? How do they chose that type of food / beverage over another? Why do they think they can provide that good more efficiently than the competitors in the market place?
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