SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION YSP524 INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION CAPSTONE PROFESSIONAL PROJECT Title: Research on consumer satisfaction of Dicos brand in China Student Name: Guo YanLan Matrix No: P-KOM0082/22 Supervisor: Dr. Sharifah Nadiah Syed Mukhiar Second Reader: Dr. Suriati Saad
I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful to all the professors and tutors for their guidance during my year of study at USM. This Capstone professional project was completed under the guidance of my first supervisor, Dr. Sharifah Nadiah Syed Mukhiar, and my second reader, Dr. Suriati Saad. Throughout the writing process, they guided me patiently, guided me to develop my ideas, answered my questions and encouraged me to be creative, so that I could develop a good research spirit and creativity during this precious time. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor and second reader. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and selfless love that made my studies possible.
I Executive Summary In recent years, China's fast food market has seen the rise of many fast food brands, not only driving the rapid development of the fast food industry, but also increasing the selectivity of consumers for fast food brands. Consumers are increasingly picky about fast food products, services and dining environments. Dicos is one of the fast food brand in China, a brand with certain development prospects and market share, but in recent years the development of the Dicos brand has been increasingly strained and the business is gradually going downhill. To help the development of Dicos this project proposes three strategies to promote brand sustainability. In this project, by understanding the history of Dicos and the problematic difficulties it faces, combined with a survey of the factors influencing consumer satisfaction, the authors will draw on the ECSI model to integrate consumer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, environmental factors and brand image into the consumer satisfaction index system to build a research model that is consistent with the Dicos brand situation. Using a questionnaire to survey consumers in various regions of China, the results show that consumer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, environmental factors and brand image all have a positive correlation to consumer satisfaction, with consumer expectations and perceived quality having a strong causal relationship with consumer satisfaction. Based on the research findings, this project designed three integrated marketing strategies for Dicos, namely defining and strengthening brand positioning, enhancing brand touchpoints and increasing awareness. Detailed tactical solutions were designed for each strategic objective to close the gap, integrate brand positioning and brand image into each tactic, and engage the consumer's senses and psyche. In addition, this paper also sets targets for strategic purposes based on the survey results, so that KPI can be measured effectively after the implementation of the IMC program. Finally, this paper provides a detailed implementation calendar and budget for the strategy, which is used to improve the efficiency and controllability of the whole plan implementation process.
Contents 1.0 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 China Fast Food Market ...................................................................................1 1.2 Research Case.................................................................................................1 1.3 Problem Statement...........................................................................................3 1.3.1 Consumer satisfaction defined.............................................................. 3 1.3.2 Analysis of influencing factors ............................................................... 5 1.4 Research Objective........................................................................................13 2.0 Research Method and Design...............................................................................14 2.1 Survey population...........................................................................................15 2.2 Sampling technique........................................................................................16 2.3 Survey tool......................................................................................................17 3.0 Discussion..............................................................................................................19 4.0 Strategic and tactical plans ................................................................................... 23 4.1 Strategy I Determine brand positioning.......................................................25 4.1.1 Brand slogan........................................................................................26 4.1.2 Streaming Media Platforms ................................................................. 27 4.2 Strategy II Reinforcing brand touchpoints ...................................................28 4.2.1 Packaging Design................................................................................29 4.2.2 Decoration design................................................................................31 4.2.3 Peripheral design.................................................................................32 4.3 Strategy III Increase visibility .......................................................................33 4.3.1 Cooperative Marketing.........................................................................34 5.0 Schedule and Budget............................................................................................ 40 5.1 Schedule.........................................................................................................40 5.2 Budget............................................................................................................ 42 6.0 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 44 References ...................................................................................................................46 Appendix ...................................................................................................................... 50
1 1.0 Introduction 1.1 China Fast Food Market With the accelerated pace of life, Western fast food is increasingly popular among consumers for its convenience, speed, labor-saving and delicious features. In 2021, China's fast food market size grew 10.4% year-on-year to 231.02 billion yuan, and in 2022 the Western fast food market size reached 320.12 billion yuan (Central Broadcasting Network, 2022). China has a consumer base of 1.4 billion people, with the increase in urbanization and the pursuit of food safety and fast and convenient access to food, the future of China's fast food market demand will continue to grow. The market size of China's fast food industry is expected to exceed 1.7 trillion yuan in 2027 (Foresight Economics, 2022), and the fast food market still has more room for development and potential in China. 1.2 Research Case The most famous trio in the Chinese fast food industry, McDonald's, KFC and Dicos, originated in Texas, USA and was acquired by the Chinese group Topsun in 1996, Dicos' first Chinese restaurant was founded in Chengdu, China in 1996, selling chicken-based fried chicken products. From 1999 onwards, Dicos officially opened its franchise services to the public based on its own expansion, and since then, Dicos has maintained an annual growth of 100 shops(Foresight Economics, 2022). The acquisition of Dicos is the first step into the service industry and the second
2 largest business of the group, with a vision of "customer satisfaction" and "becoming the number one Western fast food brand created by Chinese people". Dicos operates around 2,600 shops across China, employs over 70,000 people and has an annual customer traffic of 600 million (Blue Whale Finance, 2021). At the beginning of the brand's establishment, Dicos benchmarked itself against rival KFC and focused on expanding into first and second tier cities in China. However, lacking a first-mover advantage and insufficient market consideration, the competition was too strenuous. Dicos then changed its strategy, choosing to avoid competing with the two fast food giants, KFC and McDonald's, in China's major cities and began to expand rapidly into smaller cities and villages. With over 500 restaurants opening in 200 cities in China in 2005 and 3,000 shops by 2019, Dicos was a success (Sohu, 2022). But it didn't last long. For Dicos, whose products are not cheap, village shops could not meet the revenue and in 2016, it was too late for Dicos to mention its marketing strategy of entering first-tier cities again. Rival KFC has taken off on the road to a localised marketing strategy in China; McDonald's has also changed its marketing strategy to generate revenue in the form of meal accessories and real estate. To make matters worse, the Chinese Western fast food brand, Wallace, has expanded its chain in villages and towns using a low-price marketing strategy. Not only that, but KFC and McDonald's have also started to shift to the down market, with McDonald's planning to focus on developing a presence in the down market in 2022, with an expected coverage of 700 cities yet to be entered.
3 Dicos' positioning was uncertain, not knowing whether to go down or up, and the delayed decision resulted in no suitable track for expansion. Dicos is now in a dilemma as to which marketing strategy to use to help bring the brand back to life. Figure 1. Dicos brand unified stores in China 1.3 Problem Statement 1.3.1 Consumer satisfaction defined The role of branding in the restaurant industry cannot be overstated. Restaurants not only have to sell their products to their target consumers, but they also have to make consumers feel good about the restaurant brand, which leads to repeat purchases and continued promotion, and consumers form a consumer experience based on the restaurant brand, which is stored in their memory and forms the basis for future consumption decisions (Phillip, 2016). The importance of consumer satisfaction has been recognised internationally and Cardozo argues that consumer satisfaction is influenced by the price paid for the good,
4 the expectations of the good itself and the process of obtaining the good (He, 2020). Customers who are satisfied with a product or service will develop a degree of loyalty that will manifest itself in repeat purchases of that product or service or in recommendations to other customers, which can affect the value of the brand. Seybold (1998) argues that customer loyalty can ensure the basic survival of a business. Brands need to know how satisfied consumers are with them in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to compensate for them in order to grow steadily. According to the research literature on customer satisfaction, a large number of scholars have conducted empirical studies on this index system to measure the level of customer satisfaction from several perspectives, and have successively proposed consumer satisfaction models to explain the formation mechanism of consumer satisfaction. In 1989, a model of the Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) was developed in Sweden(Lin, 2007). Subsequently, many scholars began to pay attention to the consumer satisfaction index and conducted large-scale industry measurements. 1996 the United States established the American Consumer Satisfaction Model (ACSI), which was improved on the basis of the index model, adding perceived quality, and is a more complete system and the best application of a theoretical model of customer satisfaction (Hom, 2000). Subsequently, many scholars began to pay attention to the consumer satisfaction index and conducted large-scale industry measurements. 1996 the United States
5 established the American Consumer Satisfaction Model (ACSI), which was improved on the basis of the index model and added perceived quality, and is a theoretical model of customer satisfaction with a more complete system and the best application (Hom, 2000). Later, many countries established consumer satisfaction models suitable for their own consumers, and Europe established the European Consumer Satisfaction Model (ECSI), which is based on the ACSI, adding the perceived value measure to the comparison with rivals, and consumer loyalty to increase the possibility of cross-buying and recommending to friends, and also adding the influence of corporate image (He, 2020). Consumer satisfaction is an abstract feeling of customers purchasing a product or service, which is a kind of psychological reaction of customers and needs to be measured by some method for this abstract psychological feeling. 1.3.2 Analysis of influencing factors In recent years, Dicos' brand image has become increasingly blurred in the minds of consumers. Despite its ongoing efforts to rejuvenate its marketing strategy, it has stuck to signing up celebrities, social media and upgrading its shops, neglecting product innovation and brand upgrades, and Dicos' product range appears homogeneous and uninnovative compared to KFC's 25% annual menu update. In addition, the threshold for a franchisee to join a Dicos is not high, and compared to McDonald's franchise fee of up to US$2 million, Dicos is only one-tenth of it. The
6 lower franchise threshold has led to uneven operational standardisation and poor franchise management training at Dicos, resulting in no change in the business management philosophy of many franchisees, with most shop operators choosing to continually reduce the treatment of their staff to lower operating costs. In this working environment, the poor service attitude of shop salesmen and the lack of uniformity in the quality of each shop's products have led to fewer and fewer repeat customers and worse and worse word-of-mouth effects, forming a vicious circle. However, Dicos ignored the needs of consumers and used marketing strategies blindly, resulting in the brand losing many customers. Data published on the Dicos (2021) website shows that the number of Dicos shops in China fell by half in 2021. In an age of high-speed information, where the speed of information dissemination is increasing dramatically with each passing day, it is possible to approximate changes in consumer attitudes towards brands through information obtained via the Internet, and the researcher saw a large number of unsatisfactory comments from consumers about Dicos on several platforms. There were 541 complaints about Dicos on the Black Cat complaint platform, of which 518 had responses and 483 were completed (Black Cat Complaints, 2022). Among these complaints were problems with the food itself, such as undercooked food, flies found on meals and inadequate set portions, as well as service issues, such as poor service, difficulties in refunding membership fees, false marketing and inability to use coupons. Dicos reviews on the Meituan platform. There are 28 Dicos shops in Beijing, with the
7 Watertown Square shop having the highest number of reviews with 2,172 reviews. The overall rating is 3.9 out of 5, with a 4 for taste, 3.9 for service, 3.9 for value for money and 4.0 for environment. Of these consumer reviews, the most complained about issues were service issues, poor service, slow delivery and product quality. Most of the issues were not reasonably resolved, thus inspiring many consumers to be dissatisfied with Dicos. By understanding the public review platform, there are also many dissatisfied consumer reviews about Dicos. Apart from the product and service issues, Dicos has closed many shops as its revenue is not enough to support the operation of multiple shops, resulting in consumers being forced to choose other brands of fast food. Most consumers commented that one of the reasons they choose to eat fast food is the proximity and convenience of consumption. As there are few Dicos shops, consumers are not willing to spend the extra time to travel long distances to go to Dicos, so they choose other brands of fast food, and this has caused Dicos to lose many consumers. How can Dicos increase its market share in the highly competitive fast food sector? Understanding consumer needs and increasing consumer satisfaction are goals that the company should now pursue. Customer satisfaction is a key factor in maintaining customer loyalty, achieving positive word-of-mouth, avoiding customer withdrawal and ultimately achieving long-term profitability. The most fundamental aspect for a restaurant company to improve its core competitiveness is to serve every customer well, develop differentiated competitive capabilities, improve service levels and maximise customer satisfaction.
8 Based on the information reviewed, it appears that the problem Dicos is currently facing is a lack of understanding of consumer needs and consumer satisfaction with them. This study summarises previous work on consumer satisfaction indicators as a guide and draws on the ECSI model to establish a customer satisfaction indicator system that fits the case of this study. The impact on consumer satisfaction is analysed in five areas: consumer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, environmental factors and brand image. As all five variables are latent variables and cannot be measured directly, the researcher needs to further quantify these latent variables into measurable measured variables. The impact of consumer expectations on consumer satisfaction Consumer expectations are the expectations that consumers have about the desired product or service prior to the purchase decision process. Throughout the purchase process, consumers will hold a sense of expectation about the brand based on information from a number of sources, including past purchase experiences, price levels and current product or service quality(Churchill Jr, 1982). Consumer satisfaction with a brand declines if the product or service offered does not meet consumer expectations, which measure the three aspects of marketing, product and service that consumers measure prior to purchasing Dicos. For consumers, the higher the expectations prior to the purchase decision, the lower the satisfaction generated tends to be. Most fast food chain locations engage in marketing techniques such as promotions, discounts or memberships to pull in consumers. According to the previous section, many consumers complain about the inability to use coupons and
9 the discrepancy between the promotion and the actual event, which greatly leaves consumers feeling disillusioned and losing trust in the brand. Therefore brands should pay attention to the consumer expectations link, be realistic, not false propaganda, and honour the marketing content advertised by the brand to consumers, so that the actual experience of the consumer's feelings and the brand's expectations are on par or even exceed them, and achieve a satisfactory rating. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis. H1: Consumer expectations have a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The impact of perceived quality on consumer satisfaction Perceived quality is used to measure the ability to meet customer needs. From the consumer's point of view(Luo, 2007), it is an overall judgment of the quality of a product or service. Therefore, perceived quality in the restaurant industry is measured in terms of both product and service quality, and some researchers have demonstrated through empirical studies that perceived quality has a significant impact on consumers' willingness to buy (Yang, 2011). Product quality, consumers buy fast food is the purpose of eating, product health and safety is the most important, if food safety is not guaranteed, then consumers will lose trust in the brand. At the same time, if the taste of the product can meet the taste of consumers, then consumers will certainly produce satisfaction in their hearts. In addition, service quality can be understood as the characteristics of the services provided to meet the potential needs of consumers, which means that the brand provides a certain degree of service to meet some of the needs of consumers, which
10 will also increase consumer satisfaction with the brand. Service quality in the fast food industry includes three main aspects: pre-sales service, mid-sales service and after-sales service. Pre-sales service includes the speed of food preparation and the attitude of answering questions and solving problems; in-sales service includes the various services that can be provided during meals; after-sales service includes the handling of complaints, refunds and other services. An increase in perceived quality will have an impact on consumer satisfaction. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed in this study. H2: Perceived quality has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The impact of perceived value on consumer satisfaction Perceived value is the consumer's subjective perception of the benefits he or she receives from a product or service after combining the quality and price of the product or service. Perceived value is the consumer's overall evaluation of a good or service after comparing the benefits they feel they will receive with the costs they have paid in the process of receiving the good or service(Kondo, 2001). In this paper, perceived product value and perceived service value are used as antecedent variables, while perceived value is the outcome variable. Product value, for the fast food industry the packaging of the product, the portion size and the variety of food items will affect the consumer's satisfaction with it. A high product value makes consumers think they are getting good value for money and will have a positive feeling about the brand. The fast food chain industry has been expanding with the requirement of
11 standardisation. Consumers in different areas enjoy a unified standard of products or services in any of its shops, then consumers will have a higher level of satisfaction with the brand. In addition to measuring the degree of standardisation of the chain's products, consumers are also becoming more price sensitive. Regardless of the industry, consumers expect good value for money products and services, and reasonable prices increase consumers' willingness to buy, thus increasing consumer satisfaction. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed in this study. H3: Perceived value has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The impact of environmental factors on consumer satisfaction Environmental factors refer to people's perception of the quality of hardware that a brand can offer when making purchasing decisions(Cronin Jr, et al., 2000). For the fast food industry, environmental factors encompass two aspects, the dining environment and the location of the restaurant. A comfortable dining environment can bring consumers a good dining process, but also to enhance consumer satisfaction with the brand, the layout of the restaurant decoration, corporate facade and the provision of auxiliary facilities (baby tables, disabled aids, sufficient supply of paper towels and hand sanitizer, etc.), comprehensive service is to customer needs as the centre, to meet the common needs of customers on the basis of providing personalized or special needs and the same hunger point, to provide customers with the corresponding number of services, can allow consumers to enhance satisfaction with the brand.
12 In addition, one of the selling points of fast food chains is that they are quick and convenient. In order to make it easier for consumers to buy, brands try to open their shops as close as possible to consumers' lives, so the location of the shop is also very important to consumers. In such a competitive fast food industry, most consumers are not willing to spend time and travel for a fast food meal. If the location is advantageous, then consumers will naturally choose a fast food brand that is closer to them many times, thus increasing their perception, so this study proposes the following hypothesis. H4: Environmental factors have a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. The impact of brand image on consumer satisfaction Brand image is the impression that people have of a brand through its iconography, which is acquired through the transmission of the human organism (Oliver, 1993). Brand image reflects the position of the brand in the mind of the consumer and influences the choices made by the consumer, and the relationship between brand image and customer satisfaction is positive (Keller, 1993). Consumers evaluate the perception of an organisation through memory. The more consumers remember a brand's image, the more selective they are about the brand and the more loyal they will be. In addition to the catering industry through advertising, promotion and other media to increase consumer memory, brand identity plays a very important role in enhancing consumer association, consumers want to buy fast food, through the brand logo or emotional association, associated with Dicos, prompting consumers to make a
13 purchase, thus enhancing consumer will be on increased satisfaction, consumer satisfaction will tend to repeat purchase and to others to recommend a brand with a good image because they believe that the brand can provide high quality products and services, which is a brand guarantee. Therefore the following hypothesis is proposed in this study. H5: Brand image has a significant relationship with customer satisfaction. Figure 2. Hypothetical model 1.4 Research Objective The catering industry is an important service industry, directly related to people's health and standard of living, but also an important industry for the country's active economy, prosperous market and promote the development of related industries. The fast food industry is a sunrise industry and high-frequency demand, and its importance in today's society cannot be overstated. The rapid development of many overseas fast food brands has hit the local Chinese fast food brands very hard. In
14 order to be able to stand firm in the Chinese market and continue to develop, Dicos needs to improve its competitiveness and needs to have enough understanding of consumers in order to target and improve its services and products to attract more customers and retain customers. By summarising the experience of previous studies and introducing the concept of consumer satisfaction to the actual situation, a realistic evaluation system is developed, which is used to improve consumer satisfaction and increase business profits. This study will provide the researcher with an intuitive understanding of the fast food industry and, by studying the case of the Dicos brand, will strengthen the fast food industry's understanding of 'customer focus' and enable companies to focus on their customers and their wants and needs. This study analyses the Dicos brand case to understand consumer satisfaction with the fast food industry, to find out what consumers really think, to help Dicso understand customer needs and to improve the problems it faces in terms of customer loyalty. The consumer satisfaction evaluation will help the researcher to better propose a sound IMC plan for Dicos, which will help Dicos to increase its market share. In addition, this study also hopes to confirm the influential relationship between consumer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, environmental factors and brand image, and to gain insight into the main factors that drive consumers' purchasing decisions. 2.0 Research Method and Design
15 Table 3. Research Methodology Summary Table Research Methodology Desk research Quantitative research Figure 3. Research Methodology Summary Table The collection of secondary data will help the researcher to quickly understand the research theory and methodology and to gain insight into the development of the Dicos brand, the subject of the study. This study therefore uses a secondary data collection method, reviewing a large amount of literature and information used to help understand the significance and value of the research topic. In addition, this research was completed by using quantitative analysis methods for descriptive research. Data was collected on consumer satisfaction using the questionnaire method, and the data collected was regressed in SPSS software to draw final conclusions. 2.1 Survey population Research needs to identify a reasonable target population for the survey to be meaningful and in customer management theory, it costs 5-6 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one and an existing customer contributes 16 times more profit than a new one. (Phillip et al., 2016). Based on the current profitability of Dicos and the extent of lost users, it is important to focus marketing on the regular fast food consumer. The answer to the question can be clearly obtained by investigating the satisfaction of Dicos among these people who already eat fast food,
16 so the target group for this thesis is frequent fast food eaters. According to a set of data released at the 23rd China Fast Food Industry Conference 2019: fast food consumers are 50% male and 50% female, with those born between 1980 and 1989 accounting for 50% of consumption, those born between 1990 and 1999 for 28% and those born before 1980 for 22% of consumption (SouHu, 2019). Thus, those born between 1980 and 1999 are the main consumers of fast food, with 78% of fast food consumed by them during the year. In addition, those born between 1980 and 1999 are now in the age group of 23 to 42 years old, and are part of the mainstay of society, and have the financial means to support their dining choices, so the target group for this study focuses on Chinese consumers born between 1980 and 1999 who have the ability to consume. This study wanted to survey a target audience of Chinese consumers in the age group 23 to 42 years old and with the ability to consume a questionnaire. 2.2 Sampling technique The questionnaire requires an appropriate sample size and in order to make the study implementable, a Raosoft sample size calculator was used to calculate the size of the sample. A margin of error of 5% is the amount of error that can be tolerated in this study. The Dicos brand is the third largest fast food brand in China with over 50,000 customers and a population of over 20,000 is not a significant change to the sample size, so 20,000 was used as the base figure. According to Raosoft, the sample size was calculated to be 200.
17 This study uses a simple random sampling method, in which n units are drawn as a sample, either randomly or one by one, from a sampling frame of N units overall, with each unit having an equal probability of being sampled. This method is suitable for use when the overall number of units is limited and not large. Therefore, this study is small in size and the differences between the overall units are not significant, so this method works better. 2.3 Survey tool Consumer satisfaction is mainly assessed using quantitative attitudinal methods and is generally measured using Likert scales. Due to The COVID-19 epidemic, there is no free access to public places in the Chinese region to facilitate the field distribution of paper questionnaires. To address this difficulty, the investigators chose to use an online questionnaire to distribute and collect the questionnaires. The questionnaire was designed and produced using a third party platform, Questionnaire Star, to design and produce the electronic questionnaire. The questionnaire design was drafted as follows. Table 4. Structure of the survey questionnaire Subjects Type of problem Projects Demographics Classification and behavioural issues (closed questions) Gender Age
18 Figure 4. Structure of the survey questionnaire The questionnaire is divided into four main sections(See appendix for full questionnaire). the first of which is the demographics of the respondents to understand their basic profile. The respondents' age, gender, income and family situation were determined. The second part is the personal consumption experience, which is used to understand the respondents' habits and frequency of purchasing fast food, and also helps to understand their habitual consumption behavior. Since the target audience of this study is people who have experience in consuming fast food, the questionnaire needs Occupation Monthly income Family situation Personal consumption experience Understanding respondents' spending habits Identify respondents with experience of Dicos consumption Consumer satisfaction Attitude problems (Likert scale option) Customer expectations Perceived quality Perceived value Environmental factors Brand image Consumer satisfaction Consumer impressions Attitude questions (open-ended questions) Consumer impressions Consumer Suggestions
19 to identify the respondents who have experienced Dicos' products and services to ensure that the final data derived is more meaningful. The third part is the crucial part, which combines ECSI theory to measure six latent variables from Dicos' consumer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, environmental factors, brand image and consumer satisfaction. The data from this part will enable the researcher to get a specific quantitative satisfaction evaluation. The fourth part is an open-ended question to understand another aspect of consumers' perceptions, attitudes and relationships with the Dicos brand, helping the researcher to understand the brand connection between Dicos and consumers. 3.0 Discussion In this project, on the one hand, the correlation analysis determined that the correlations between consumer satisfaction and the other five factors were all positive, confirming the five hypotheses put forward in this project, namely that the five factors of consumer expectations, perceived value, perceived quality, environmental factors and brand image all have positive correlations with consumer satisfaction. Afterwards, a regression analysis was conducted on these six factors and it was found that only two factors, consumer expectations and perceived quality, had a positive relationship on consumer satisfaction in the regression analysis. On the other hand, the researcher has identified the needs and feedback of fast food consumers on Dicos based on the characteristics of the data, and has learnt what consumers really think. It is hoped that this paper will provide some insight into the
20 future operations and development of the fast food industry, reinforcing the understanding of the 'customer-centric' aspect of the industry and enabling companies to focus on the wants and needs of their customers. The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for Dicos using consumer satisfaction ratings, which will help Dicos increase its market share. The researcher makes the following recommendations in response to the findings. Increase product variety A well-run brand will not just stay where it is, it will go on exploring and trying to bring different surprises to consumers, making them look forward to it. This is especially true for the catering industry. Caterers should have unique products, and in the competitive market environment, products are the most important thing to catch consumers, and meeting consumers' demand for more brands and having their own characteristics is the capital of business competition. The empirical analysis shows that the evaluation result of perceived value is low, in which consumers think that the small variety of Dicos is an important factor affecting consumer satisfaction. Fast food brands should increase their own product features and have their own unique product variety to be important. Improving the quality of service Based on the data of perceived quality, we know that consumers are not satisfied with the service quality of Dicos, including the speed of meal preparation and after-sales attitude scores are low and need to be further improved. Fast food is called fast food because it is prepared quickly and people do not need to wait, saving time for
21 consumers. According to the data, Dicos has a low score for speed of meal preparation and needs to focus on improving it. In addition, after-sales service should also be taken seriously. As a service-oriented restaurant, the better the service attitude, the happier the consumer will be. Dicos can enhance the training of employees, improve the training mechanism, strengthen the management of franchisees, and develop a reward and punishment system to improve the entire business from the root. service attitude. Defining its own positioning According to the researcher, Dicos does not have an accurate market positioning yet, and with a vague brand positioning, consumers are certainly not able to understand the brand, let alone follow the brand's values. To get to the root of the problem, Dicos needs to start by positioning itself, sorting out and finding market gaps, building a brand image that is relevant to the target time and making the product occupy a special place in the minds of consumers. Therefore, Dicos has to find its own positioning and market segment and then adjust its strategic objectives to increase its competitiveness. Reinforcing brand touchpoints Not only is service a brand touch point, but for brand packaging, restaurant environment, and sensory are all brand touch points. According to the research results, consumers scored the lowest on Dicos' product packaging and restaurant environment, which means that consumers already have negative emotions when they come in contact with the brand.
22 Not only that, Dicos' brand positioning is vague and consumers do not associate the brand with the product, much less think of consuming it. So strengthening the brand impression and brand association is an important bridge to increase the communication between the brand and consumers. It is recommended that Dicos adjust the overall brand image and integrate the brand positioning into the product packaging and restaurant environment, so that consumers can immerse themselves in the message conveyed by the brand. Improving brand reputation In satisfaction ratings, consumers perceive that others have given poor feedback about Dicos and that brand reputation is low. To improve word-of-mouth not only takes a lot of time but also requires efforts from all sides, and Dicos needs to focus on improving the brand from the point of contact. When the brand is fully presented to consumers as a unified image after integration, it will change consumers' bad perception of the brand and improve word-of-mouth over time. Increase brand awareness Most of the subjects thought that Dicos was not well known and that because the brand image had not formed a certain level of recognition in the minds of consumers, consumers thought that its products were too expensive and that the brand did not have a price premium. Lowering the price of the products will only lead the brand into a whirlpool of internal consumption, and once the price of the products is lowered, it will not be easy to raise the price again in the future. Therefore, it is recommended to maintain the existing product prices and use other marketing tools to increase brand
23 awareness. When consumers psychologically believe that Dicos brand image is higher than other brands, the brand premium becomes a natural thing. 4.0 Strategic and tactical plans According to the survey results, the following is a summary of these insights 1, Most respondents do not even think about eating fast food, they consume fast food too little, on average, only once a month to six months. 2, with the changing times and consumer aesthetics, consumers are demanding more and more beauty and paying more and more attention to the design elements in life. The decoration of the restaurant is like the first meeting between people, the first impression is important. Respondents are the least satisfied with Dicos' store decoration, which is one of the most important contact points between the brand and consumers. 3, product packaging is an important part of the product. Often the packaging determines whether the product can attract the attention of consumers, greatly increasing consumer interest in the brand's products and promoting more people to choose and buy products. And good packaging design will also inadvertently increase the number of points for the enterprise, better publicity for enterprise products will also improve the visibility of enterprises and market reputation. According to the survey data, consumers are not satisfied with Dicos' product packaging. It is suggested that Dicos should strengthen its packaging design, integrate its brand positioning and convey its brand image to consumers to enhance satisfaction and brand value.
24 4, Dicos has low visibility in the minds of respondents, consumers think that the overall perceived value of Dicos does not match the money and time they pay, so there is no premium space for Dicos in terms of product price. When the brand awareness is improved, consumers will not feel that the product price is too high, so the most urgent task should be to improve the brand awareness as soon as possible. 5, The general respondents think that Dicos has a poor reputation. It is suggested that Dicos should base on internal staff reorganization and service training, while improving external brand contact points, marketing and other factors to fully show the integrated and unified image to consumers, which will change consumers' bad perception of the brand over time. In addition, it is suggested that the brand should take more corporate social responsibility in the case of surplus funds. 6, According to the survey results, the group of fast food eaters is young, and Dicos does not have a high market share in China, so it is suggested that the target customers should be Chinese fast food eaters and familiar customers. Therefore, this IMC plan is to carry out strategic planning with the young and middle-aged fast food eaters in China as the core audience. By compiling the above, we will find that Dicos' brand issues are interconnected. The purpose of this strategy is to determine the brand positioning, increase the frequency of user consumption and enhance brand awareness in 3 directions. Implementation of the IMC program is expected to achieve visible results for a total of 5 million exposures, and increasing sales by 20% in stores nationwide, and the implicit results of improving consumer satisfaction by 20% and increasing brand buzz
25 by 20%. Integrating the brand positioning within the strategy, 3 strategies with detailed tactical solutions are recommended to address the above research gaps. Strategy I：Determine brand positioning Strategy II：Reinforcing brand touchpoints Strategy III：Increase visibility Scene positioning method Brand slogan Streaming platform—Tencent video Visual Communication Design Packaging design Decoration design Peripheral design Co-Marketing Mobile Game Platform - League of Legends Figure 5. Strategic and Tactical Plan 4.1 Strategy I Determine brand positioning Brands wanting to establish their position in the market need certain marketing tools. This time, the scene positioning method is used to allow the brand to intervene in the life scene more accurately and bind the life scene inherent in consumers' memory with the brand, so as to enter the users' brains more quickly and eventually occupy a favorable position in the consumers' mind. The core of scene positioning is to make a strong connection between the advantages of the company and the life of the user. The only way to associate and have a relationship is for consumers to remember the brand because it is beneficial to them, and ultimately for the product to create a sales miracle because it attracts attention. The strategy increases the frequency of consumption by shaping the consumption scenarios in life. In the survey, we learned that most fast food consumers are between
26 the age level of 23-42 years old, they consume fast food for random consumption reasons and do not consider fast food as a regular meal, so it is suggested that Dicos fast food products are no longer categorized as regular meals and use the snack category as the brand positioning. Dicos' most attractive products are "crispy pistol legs", "spicy chicken wings" and other fried chicken products, so this strategy is aimed at leisure and entertainment scenes, to highlight the brand characteristics that consumers can quickly perceive, not only to increase the frequency of consumer consumption and brand impression. This strategy not only increases consumers' consumption frequency and brand impression, but also captures the market gap to seize the market segment. The strategy uses two tactics to create a consumer mindset of "Dicos for leisure and entertainment", use design brand slogan + streaming media platforms to shape the consumer scene. 4.1.1 Brand slogan Brand slogan has a very important role and is a distillation and summary of brand positioning. A good brand slogan can quickly make consumers understand the brand, and will infect the consumer's mind, thus leading consumer behavior. In order to make our customers feel the brand tone of "Dicos play with you", we created a slogan for Dicos, combining the brand name with the slogan "Dicos play with you", to create a dominant consumer mind and make consumers think and choose Dicos when they want to have fun and relax.
27 4.1.2 Streaming Media Platforms With the rise of the new generation power, the young group has become the main force of the streaming media platform. Data show that Tencent Video ranked first in China with 385 million monthly active users in June 2020. Among them are 122 million paying users, which also ranks first in China in terms of number (Mihu Finance, 2020). This shows that China's Tencent streaming platform has high user loyalty and high traffic volume, and is the platform of choice for this strategy,. Tencent Video patch ads, with strong exposure, efficiently convey the brand concept in the short term; exclusively occupy high user attention and release greater marketing value. The display position of this activity is to insert the advertising video in the credits of the most popular serials or variety shows, and appear in the Tencent Video content in the form of video clips. The highest daily exposure can reach 1.1 billion. The content of the commercial was created around the theme of "Dicos play with you" and combined with the brand slogan "Dicos play with you" and the overall logo color to create a TV story commercial. We created a brand positioning and demand creation to create a consumer scenario and strengthen consumers' association with Dicos and create an atmosphere. Details of the commercial script are as follows. Duration: 1 minute Background music: Bright, upbeat, rhythm-heavy music Theme: Dicos play with you
28 Scenes Screen Sound Shooting techniques Ski Resort Follow a man skiing down the mountain and into the rest area Ambient sound for skiing Follow the camera Ski Resort Friends in the outdoor lounge area waved his hand and asked him to join him for Dicos fried chicken Laughter Middle View Mountain Road Convoy of cyclocross bicycles, close-up of the face of one of the female members Gasping for breath while riding Special Features Mountain Road The caravan, standing at the top of the hill eating Dicos' fried chicken, shouted happily to the bottom of the hill Shouting in celebration Medium view over long view Living room Many young people are playing TV games Playing the game of mutual exchange of sound and the sound of the game Middle View Living room A man ran into the living room from the door, carrying two large bags of Dicos in his hands, and said how can you play games without Dicos? Scramble to eat Dicso's fried chicken Medium view over long view Special effects Dicos bags, from top to bottom, put fried chicken and burgers and game consoles, snowboards, bicycles, etc. into Dicso's bags Logo and slogan Dicos play with you appeared Sidenote: Leisure and entertainment on Dicos, with Dicos to play with you, more enjoyable！ Special effects shots Figure 6. Commercial film script. 4.2 Strategy II Reinforcing brand touchpoints Companies that successfully manage their brand touchpoints can gain valuable opportunities and great returns (Dun &Bradstreet, 2018). Based on the survey data, it appears that consumers are very dissatisfied with restaurant decoration and product packaging, implying that consumers have a bad impression when confronted with a Dicos brand message scenario. When a brand's message is rejected by the
29 consumer through a touch point, it is futile to do anything else, just like the first meeting of a person, where the other person's face, physical appearance and demeanor affect the impression of each other. Obviously, the current touch points of Dicos do not have the expected effect, but rather will not allow consumers to clearly identify the core connotation of Dicos when receiving and experiencing brand-related messages. Through these two touch points, we can find that Dicos has not highlighted its personality and characteristics in its own brand identity, and has not left a rich brand association and its own characteristics in the consumer's mind. It was imperative to upgrade the brand image, and the strategy sought to reshape Dicos' brand image through visual communication design. Improving the effectiveness of the contact information between the brand and the consumer. This upgrade adjusts the consumer's perception of Dicos' positioning and the unreachable product value by focusing the output of the brand message and retaining the original brand tone of nature and freshness. The visual communication design of this strategy contains 3 tactics to achieve, packaging design + decoration design + peripheral design. 4.2.1 Packaging Design For the catering industry, in addition to maintaining the taste of food, it is important to pay more attention to the packaging of food. Packaging design belongs to one of the most intuitive forms of design, connecting the information exchange between the
30 brand and the consumer. Excellent food packaging not only enables consumers to quickly identify the product and actively consume it, but also conveys the brand concept and the characteristics of the product, influencing consumers' desire to buy from several aspects. Based on the design concept of the Dicos brand logo, the packaging was upgraded in a comprehensive manner, incorporating the latest fashion sense and interesting design ideas to deepen consumers' sensory stimulation of the brand logo, with the aim of accurately conveying the brand message and concept to consumers. Figure 7. Packaging design synthesis chart
31 4.2.2 Decoration design Dicos is a national chain store, involving thousands of stores, and it was impossible to change the decoration of all the stores instantly, so in order to save costs, we planned to open one experience store or renovate the decoration of one store in Beijing, China, as a pilot store. In the interior decoration style, combined with the brand slogan “Dicos play with you” and the brand personality of youth, free tone, catering to the preferences of the target audience, the use of technological sense of gray as the main color, outdoor wall placement of a large brand logo decorative plate, to highlight the brand name. The low brightness of the gray background and the bright and lovely LOGO formed a sharp contrast, enhancing the visual effect while not being too eye-catching and discordant, so that customers can see from afar and can immediately attract the eye. In addition, we also put a lot of cute stickers on the glass door surface, superimposed on the translucent stickers of brand advertising slogans. Appropriate embellishment makes the door not boring, and at the same time distinguishes from the fancy cartoon style, reflecting the sense of class.
32 Figure 8. Decoration effects 4.2.3 Peripheral design Dicos, as a mediocre brand, underwent a brand upgrade as an event that could attract consumers' attention, and it was important to seize this opportunity to increase exposure and deepen consumers' impressions as much as possible in a short period of time. Therefore, it is important to make the brand image extend to all kinds of peripherals. For example: staff uniforms, bags, cushions, masks, square towels, etc. In the peripheral design, we focused more on the brand positioning of "Dicos for leisure and fun". We integrated the brand slogan into the life of consumers and made it a walking symbol.
33 Figure 9. Comprehensive peripheral product design 4.3 Strategy III Increase visibility With the fast food market is now increasingly narrow, the competition between brands is increasingly fierce. In this case, brand awareness is particularly important, after all, as long as there is awareness, the product will be purchased, and more people will buy the brand premium, consumers will think that the product price is not expensive, but will think that the value for money, the brand turnover and sales will naturally rise. Want to quickly improve brand awareness there are many ways, the strategy uses cooperative marketing tactics to exposure, combined with the brand image and brand
34 positioning planning marketing activities. 4.3.1 Cooperative Marketing League of Legends is a heroic online MOBA game developed by Riot Games and operated by Tencent Games in mainland China. The game has hundreds of individual heroes, a ranking system, a rune system and other special systems. The game has more than 200 million players in China, which is a huge size. The highest number of monthly active players in League of Legends is 67 million, a figure that no game can surpass at present. According to incomplete statistics, the age distribution of League of Legends players is about 30% under the age of 18, then about 50% between the ages of 18 and 35, and less than 20% over the age of 35. Both in terms of Dicos' brand positioning and Dicso's target audience, choosing this game platform for the marketing campaign is the most helpful for Dicos' visibility. The purpose of this integrated strategy was the need to increase Dicos' awareness, fusing brand positioning options to take advantage of the game platform's resources to synergize marketing communications, brand building and product promotions, thereby increasing awareness to gain brand premiums. The biggest benefit of this strategy is to obtain a greater marketing effect with less cost, relying on the loyalty of League of Legends game players to achieve Dicos' brand reputation expansion. League of Legends hero skin is a game prop, players can have different display effect in the game by purchasing different game character models and special effects, and the sales of hero skin props have been the highest in the history of the game.
35 There is a big difference between skin props and no skin props, when the player enters the interface, there is a skin is able to display the picture of the skin and the quality of the skin. And the model of the game with or without skin props is also different, generally with the skin model is better looking, and in the release of skills have better looking special effects, so this is the reason why players are keen to buy hero skin props. Figure 9. Activity QR code scratch card The tactical plan is to carry out the "Eat Dicos to win League of Legends hero skins" campaign. The campaign consists of a QR code card with a chance to win League of
36 Legends skins for every purchase of Dicos products with a purchase of CNY113 or more, and each order is limited to one QR code, which is revealed by scratching off the scratch film covering the QR code after the consumer gets the card. Figure 10. Dicos' app prize redemption flow chart Then you can scan the QR code through Dicos' app to display the winning information. If you don't win the prize, it will Show thanks for your patronage. If you win the prize, it will show you the code, and you can enter the code in the voucher section of the League of Legends game to get a random hero skin.
37 Figure 11. Hero skin prize redemption flow chart The most important reason for the campaign pricing of CNY113 is based on the measurement and analysis of Dicos' product prices, for example, the price of one pistol leg is CNY31.5 and the price of a pistol leg package for two is CNY100. A package for at least two people and more. Of course, the whole store products can participate in the activities, consumers can choose a larger range of products they make purchases will be the more, when consumers reach the amount of activity required to get a win League of Legends skin scratch card. Consumers will also get the opportunity to win after buying food is a big
38 attraction for consumers. On average, consumers need to purchase two or more packages at Dicos to participate in the campaign, which has a high probability of giving consumers access to game props, making it worthwhile for consumers. In addition, the average price of hero skin in the League of Legends game is about CNY100, and the game platform launched a year-long S13 season campaign in January 2023, with campaign pricing of CNY113 in line with the season logo to help partners promote the season campaign. The tactic is planned to be a year-long marketing and promotion campaign based on poster promotion. On the one hand, it will cultivate consumers' purchase intention and consumption habit in the long term, and over time the brand will occupy the mind of consumers who eat Dicos when they have leisure and entertainment, on the other hand, it will be closely combined with the seasonal activities of the game platform, and at the same time, it will be able to establish the brand positioning of Dicos play with you. When the brand awareness increases, consumers will not consider the price too high when buying brand products in the future, which will also give the brand the ability to have a premium price.
39 Figure 12. Campaign Poste
4 5.0 Schedule and Budget 5.1 Schedule Timeline Strategy Tactics January Febru ary March Apr Strategy I Determine brand positionin g Brand slogan Audit Use Use Use Streaming platform Making Audit Put in Put Strategy II Reinforcin g brand touchpoin ts Packaging design Design Audit Making Put Decoration design Design Site Selecti on Audit Dec ratio Peripheral design Design Audit Making Put Strategy III Increase visibility Co-Market ing cooperat ion & Making Audit & Publicit y Publicit y & &Put in Put
0 ril May June July Augu st Septe mber Octo ber Nove mber Dece mber e Use Use Use Use Use Use Use Use in Put in Put in Put in Put in Meas ureme nt in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in co on Open Open Open Open Open Open Open Open in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Put in Measu remen t
41 The two tactics in Strategy I are planned to be prepared starting in January 2023 by developing the brand tagline and brand positioning and having the client review them that month, and then the tagline can be placed in the other tactics if they are approved, and this tactic is planned to be implemented for 12 months. The second tactic of streaming media branding, need to shoot the advertising film in January, shooting locations involving 3 scenes, one of which is in the ski resort, so need to rush in the winter time to shoot the advertising video, February the client to review the video, after the audit can be placed in the streaming media platform. This tactic is planned to be launched for 6 months, and KPI analysis and summary of this tactic will be done after the launch. Strategy II contains 3 tactics that are used to improve the brand touch point plan. The package design, decoration design and peripheral design need to wait for the brand tagline of strategy I to be determined. It is planned that the three design tactics will be designed in January, the client will review and choose the location of the decorated store in February, the design will be printed and decorated in March, and the design packaging and perimeter will be fully launched in the market in April. Strategy III is a full-cycle implementation of a tactic, plans to start talking with partners in January, after reaching an agreement on the production of cooperative marketing, in February the need for customers and partners to review the content of activities, posters, digital redemption channels, etc., the audit is expected to start in late March after the full implementation of the market, the activities end on December 1, 2023, in December to carry out activities KPI analysis and summary.
42 5.2 Budget Campaign Period Marketing strategies Budget(CNY) Tota(CNY) January-August Streaming platform—Tencent video (Video Commercials) Making—CNY 10000 Put in—CNY 25000*6 months=150000 CNY 160000 January-December Packaging Design—CNY 10000 Making—CNY 100000 CNY 380000 Decoration Design—CNY20000 Decoration—CNY 150000 Peripheral Design—CNY 10000 Making—CNY 100000 January-November Co-Marketing Cooperation—CNY 10000*10 months=100000 Publicity—CNY 10000 Making—CNY 50000 CNY 160000 Total Budget CNY 700000 In order to achieve the marketing plan, a specific budget should be allocated in order to run the marketing campaign thoroughly. Therefore, a budget proposal is made before the implementation of these three strategies. Dicos advertising on streaming platforms in Strategy I , The video ad needs to be shot, the script has been given in the text, then we need to revise and improve the script and find the right actors, directors and venues to shoot the video, and later on we need to edit the video with voiceover, etc. The overall video production cost will be CNY10,000. Subsequently, Tencent Video streaming media was selected for placement. The
43 location chosen for placement was the title of a popular drama series with a video length of 1 minute, and the total number of exposures is expected to be 3 million in 6 months. According to Tencent's official offer, the cost per thousand exposures (CPM) is CNY50, the total monthly advertising cost is CNY25,000, and the streaming media project is expected to be divided into three phases for a total of 6 months, with a total cost of CNY150,000. Budget for Streaming platform(Tencent video Ads) Campaign duration monthly budge（t CNY） Cost-Per-Mille （CPM） Expected number of exposures Expected lead turn into customer (%) Total Budget(CNY) March-April 1000*2 months=8000 CNY50 800000 40 40000 May-June 1000*2 months=8000 CNY50 1000000 50 50000 July-August 1000*2 months=8000 CNY50 1200000 60 60000 The product packaging and peripheral design in Strategy II are mainly design-based. According to the Chinese market, the quotation range of design companies in Beijing is between CNY5000-CNY20000. Since Dicos has its own mature logo and brand slogan, the design company only needs to enlarge the brand theme in the design, so the product packaging design budget is set at CNY10000 and the peripheral product design budget is set at CNY10000. In addition, the cost of decoration and design is set at CNY20,000. In order to meet consumer expectations and consumer dining comfort as well as the reasonable use of
44 store area and space, the design company needs to simulate the site and design effect several times to finally achieve good results. The cost of decoration is the total budget of materials, labor, water, electricity and tools for CNY150,000. Strategy III is a cooperative marketing project, which requires negotiation with partners, It is expected that the campaign "Eat Dicos and Win League of Legends Skins" will last for 10 months and the budget is CNY10,000 per month. Since the production and promotion of the event poster was mainly based on the Internet, the cost was set at CNY10,000. The physical scratch card, DicosAPP development code redemption function and League of Legends game development redemption function in the campaign require a total of CNY50,000. The three strategies are expected to take 12 months from planning to implementation, and then to the final analysis and statistical KPI. The expected visible results are to achieve 5 million exposures per month and increase sales by 20% in stores nationwide; the hidden results are to improve consumer satisfaction by 20% and increase brand buzz by 20%. The total budget for this strategy is CNY700000. 6.0 Conclusion Successful integrated marketing is analyzed by understanding the brand over time, trends and competitive advantages of the brand. You can analyze the current problems and weaknesses of the brand by understanding the audience and the internal staff and management of the company, find the root cause of the problem and
45 the goals that need to be accomplished, and make and implement a targeted marketing plan. The benefit of this is not only that the brand can spend the least amount of money to get the best marketing results. The Dicos brand has been in an awkward position in China's fast food market, due to its own unclear brand positioning and low consumer satisfaction, resulting in the brand always remaining in a dangerous position. With the emergence of more competitors, Dicos is marketing without knowing the consumers and the resulting turnover is getting worse and worse. The IMC marketing plan is based on the results of consumer research, in which the strategic plan and the selection of communication channels are integrated advantages to unify the brand positioning, unified brand image and unified brand voice. This complete IMC marketing plan will give Dicos the upper hand in the minds of Chinese consumers. Although this one plan will not put Dicos ahead of KFC and McDonald's, it will at least help Dicos stabilize its current market share, attract the attention of its target audience and increase sales.