Taco Bell SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Taco bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands Inc. It is recognized as of the best Mexican fast food chains in the United States of America with a specialized quick service approach. The Taco Bell offers a Mexican-style menu including tacos, burritos, gorditas, quesadillas, and nachos. It has a total of about 5,600 restaurants in different locations across the United States and as many as about 250 outlets in about 20 countries of the world. Taco Bells distinctive feature is that its units can be seen operating as free standing units in the shopping malls, convenience stores, airports etc. It serves more than 2 million customers annually.
Success story of Taco Bell’s is a result of top down approach to change. The change in the management and organizational structure trickled prosperity in Taco Bell’s overall set up. The addition of the new job position “Market Manager” with enhanced responsibilities and a highly crucial role pushed down the decision making to a great extend. The key strength as appears from this new organizational structure is the self-sufficiency, increased employee motivation levels and efficient customer services.
Taco Bell adopted a healthy trans-fat free formula recently in 2007 which is a key competitive advantage of the company over other competitors who has not yet switched to the healthier recipes.
Taco Bell has been the partner of ESPN during promotion and sponsorship of FIFA World Cup, 2006.
Weaknesses
Taco Bell suffered a number of losses and lost its goodwill when in November 2006, twenty two of its customers were hospitalized due to traces of E.coli bacteria. Likewise in February 2007, Taco Bell Manhattan was reported to have rodents. The whole scenario was made public and was shown by the media which lead to closure of a number or Taco Bell’s outlets throughout the United States.
Taco Bell faced huge protest from its workers during March 2005 specially when Coalition of Immokalee Workers boycott the Taco Bell for human rights.
In 1998 a lawsuit was filed against Taco Bell when it failed to pay payments to Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks who have worked with the company in marketing department. The men were paid a heavy compensation of about $30.1 million plus about $12million additional interests.
Opportunities
There exists extensive opportunities for market growth to expand in he new as well as penetrate in the currently existing market segments. New flavors and new recipes specially focused on more health friendly ingredients should be introduced by Taco Bell in its menus.
Threats
Fast food Industry as a whole faces some crucial risks which are also a risk to the Taco Bell. Firstly this sector is highly labor intensive which increases the subjectivity involved in the delivery of services to the customers. Secondly the new researches and the raised awareness among the publics about the harmful health impacts of fast food consumption is a threat to Taco Bell’s fast food menus. The trans-fats, sugars, oils and salts which are ingredients of the fast foods being offered, are thus consumed in low proportions by the aware and educated consumers.
2 Responses to “Taco Bell SWOT Analysis”
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Hey man gr8 analysis but iam looking for something i can reference. Do you reccomend anything?
Its good to hear that you like it. We are working on our referencing. We will provide links from which we have excerpted the info at the bottom on all SWOTs. Thank You. Hope to serve you better in the future.