Executive Summary The millennial generation, born between 1981 and 2000, is coming of age, and businesses of all types must develop strategies to market to this growing demographic. Wendy’s is a proven innovator and product developer in the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry, and it is safe to believe they will be among the first movers to appeal to millennials. Competing in the QSR industry is no easy task, as the aggressive low-cost providers McDonald’s and Burger King use Wendy’s innovations to their benefit. However, Wendy’s has managed to maintain their core competencies: their reputation for quality, competitive prices and customer service, while maintaining the second-highest market share in the burger industry. By introducing new products that are healthy, gratifying, and convenient, Wendy’s can be the first to appeal to the target market of millennials. The Slider Combination and the Chicken Chili side will provide consumers with quick, cost-effective products of superior quality, thus keeping in line with Wendy’s core competencies. By using social media promotion, awareness will be generated more swiftly among the target market. The product will be introduced using a penetration pricing strategy in order to encourage more sales during the introductory phase of the product. Finally, hours will be extended even later into the night in order to make the products more convenient and accessible to millennials. Through this strategy, Wendy’s will once again lead the drive for innovation in the quick service market. Demographic Needs Analysis
will implement a price penetration strategy. This is when we will increase the prices gradually, to eventually reach $6.00 for just the sliders, and $7.49 for the combination meal. The Chicken Chili will be offered on the value menu for $1.00 for a small, and $2.50 for a large. This price will remain constant because it is on the value menu. Promotion (Awareness) The use of social media will be prominent in advertising the Wendy’s Slider Combination. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram will all be used to reach out to millennials. These mentioned websites will bring awareness to the slider combination. Twitter and Instagram will allow us to keep track of the buzz created through word of mouth and photos. It’s a great way to see how customers feel about the sliders coming out, and later we can use Twitter and Instagram to see if expectations were met. We will use Facebook to introduce and promote the new products to those who’ve already liked the Wendy’s Facebook page. This way we’re able to develop our products by further reaching our current target market and possibly stealing shares from our competitors. Facebook will also be another outlet for customer feedback. Along with social media, we’re going to use radio and television advertisements. By using channels, such as MTV, BET, local channels and targeted radio stations, we will be able to reach the most saturation of our target market. For promoting our new products, we will use slogans to attract millennials. The Wendy’s Slider Combination advertisements will use “Don’t let these sliders slide past you!” as a slogan. “A new way of chillin’- Wendy’s Chicken Chili”, will be the slogan used to advertise the new Chicken Chili. Both slogans will be used for radio and television commercials. Also, hashtags