Subway Sandwiches Jakarta - Consumer Behaviour

Introducing "Subway sandwiches" into "Jakarta, Indonesia"

Indonesia consumers and their perceptions towards food products

According to the "US Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook", Indonesia is the world's fourth most populated country (Jakarta Globe, 2013). Indonesia is a very attractive market for fast-food chains because there exists a fast growing population with a high rate of middle-class market with limited income (Jakarta Globe, 2013). Currently half of the population in Indonesia is under the age of 25 years old and 30% of the population is under the age of 13 years (Market Analysis Report, 2012). In the recent year a change in the food pattern has been observed, where individuals have started preferring prepared food products, fruits and vegetables instead of staples such as wheat and rice (Market Analysis Report, 2012, pp.2). This proves that there is an increase in urbanization and that Indonesians now prefer food that is easily available and offers more variety than regular food.

(Source: Euromonitor, 2010)

According to the GDP growth rate, it can be said that the income of individuals seems to increase by every passing year and therefore the purchasing power also increases. The demand for packaged food is increasing rapidly and therefore there is a requirement for modern retail stores in this area (Market Analysis Report, 2011, pp. 6). With the increase in urbanization and the adaptation of modern food habits, it can be said that fast-food products would be widely accepted in this region.

Further as seen below, Indonesians spend a huge amount of their income on purchasing food products:

(Source: Euromonitor International, 2010)

It has been mentioned by Koene (1996), that Jakarta has an enormous number of supermarkets and western-style influenced food choices. It consists of a mixed market and also consists of the inexpensive streets (Market Analysis Report, 2011, pp.18).

Social media

It has been noticed that the younger generation has the maximum number of likes and posts on the "Facebook" webpage, endorsing brands, such as, KFC (Market Analysis Report, 2011, pp.20). This proves that there is a potential market for other fast food brands to emerge in the Indonesian market.

"Subway sandwiches"

"Subway sandwiches" is an American franchise that specializes in healthy sandwiches and salads. It is also one of the fastest growing companies with over 37,881 restaurants in 98 countries (Subway.com). As compared to one of the most popular fast-food chains in the world "McDonalds"; "Subway sandwich" has gained the title of being the world's largest fast-food company (Jargon, 2011). In the year 2011, "Subway sandwiches" owned 33,749 restaurants all around the world, whereas "McDonalds" owned 32,737 (Jargon, 2011). "Subway sandwiches" opened 1,000 outlets in Asia, and has been very successful so far (Jargon, 2011). Therefore, it can be proposed that the brand should be introduced in Jakarta to. It has been noticed that in the recent years, the majority of people in Jakarta are raising their awareness on health issues and therefore "Subway sandwiches" could be a very good option to be introduced in the food sector, as they offer a variety of fresh vegetables and meat sandwich offers.

Market Segmentation

It is very important that before the launching of any product, the marketers should do a proper research to find out "what the customer preferences are?" and "how successful the product would be?" To do so marketers usually segregate the consumers into three categories, namely, lifestyle, attitudes and characteristics (Lo, 2010). If all these three characteristics fit into place for the required product and customer, then the venture would be a complete success. When considering attitude, we refer to the "ABC Model of Attitudes", which mainly consists of three elements, "affect", "behavior" and "cognition". Affect refers to 'how a consumer feels towards an attitude object. Next, behavior mainly refers to the consumers' intention to take an action about it. And, lastly cognition, which refers to what the consumer beliefs to be true about the attitude object (Solomon, 2013). This model portrays that a market cannot simply satisfy customer needs by just knowing in what he/she believes, but by considering all three aspects mentioned above to fulfill any objective of selling or purchasing (Solomon, 2013). In case of Jakarta, individuals come from different social statuses and therefore the marketers need to keep in mind that the launching of "Subway sandwiches" is suitable for the aimed target market.

The next question that arises is as to "what are the buyers" level of involvement in Jakarta to buy the "Subway sandwiches?" There are mainly four kinds of "consumer buying behaviours", namely, 'routine response', limited decision making', 'extensive decision making', and, 'impulse buying' (Yo, 2010). And in case of the individuals in Jakarta, the "Subway sandwiches" would involve more of 'routine response', because they have a very fast life style and would need to buy the sandwich quickly.

Marketers need to know that every individual has a different buying pattern. Both internal and external factors influence consumer behavior patterns (Hawkins, Mothersbaugh & Best, 2007). Social status, culture, demographics, family, etc. are some of the external factors that influence the consumer behavior. Whereas, on the other hand memory, perception, emotions are some of the factors that come from the individual within, influencing the consumer behavior (Sagara & Darmayanti, 2009). Next, the marketers segment their market into different groups in order to save time, money and energy and focus their attention on introducing the product to the potential customers to gain maximum results (Sagara & Darmayanti, 2009). Following are some of the types of segmentation which marketers often use, in order to gain perfect results:

* Demographic

* Geographic

* Psychographic

* Psychological

* Use-related

* Benefit

* Usage-situation,