Whetting the Indian Belly - Part 3

In this third and final post on the topic, we talk about the 'Place' portion of the 4Ps framework. After Indianizing their product offerings with suitable pricing and an extensive promotion strategy, fast food restaurants have enticed the Indians good enough to consume their products. But, the question remains as to how to ensure that these seemingly awed and drooling consumer base get to consume these products with ease.

McDonald's 1st store at Basant Lok, Delhi

When McDonald's opened its 1st store on a windy October the 13th in 1996, no one would have predicted that within 15 years the same brand would wind up in over 235 locations in India. This journey has been made possible due to its Joint Venture with Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (for the Northern and Eastern Regions) and a Development License with Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (for the Western and Southern Regions).

McDonald's 2nd store at Bandra, Mumbai

So, after opening its first store in Basant Lok, which was essentially a SBD (Secondary Business District), McDonalds opened another store in a similar location in Bandra. Thereafter, more McDonald's sprung up in SBDs and near office spaces (including the 1st drive thru at Sector 16, Noida in a Hotel which was also the 1st disabled friendly store) and eventually into Malls like Ansal Plaza, Delhi in 1999. By this way, McDonald's expanded into Tier-I cities with new outlets opening at Railway Stations (including the one at New Delhi Railway Station that operates for 24 hours a day), Airports, Metro Stations and Petrol Pumps.

McDonald's store at Kashmere Gate Metro Station, Delhi

However, this expansion was not just limited to bigger cities and McDonald's opened its outlets in  Tier-II and Tier- III citiles like Nasik, Indore, Baroda, Vapi, and Surat in the West and Dehradun, Jaipur, Agra, Patiala and Chandigarh in the North. These smaller cities have become the target markets for fast food restaurants like McDonald's who are aiming to generate larger revenues from these untapped markets with a huge population of aspirational customers. It also opened restaurants on Highways with extended operational hours and the availability of the Breakfast Menu (introduced in 2008). McDonald's also introduced Dessert Kiosks in malls which separated themselves from the traditional McDonald outlets through separate billing counters and in some case by being located in a different area in the mall.

McDonald's Dessert Kiosk

Though McDonald's was able to reach a large customer base through its outlets (dine-in customers), there was still a large number of customers who couldn't (or didn't wanted to) reach the stores. Thus, McDonald's came up with its McDelivery service in 2004 which helped it to serve the farthest corners in the big cities (where this service is available). A unique initiative was also undertaken by McDonald's  in this regard in the he crowded streets of Chandni Chowk, Delhi where they introduced bicycles for this service. This McDelivery service has since then has been expanded to the online format as well, in which customers can register on the McDonald's India website and Log-in to order their meals.

McDelivery using Bicycles at Chandni Chowk, Delhi

McDelivery option is now also available through online registration

With high growth in the fast food industry and rapid launch of new outlets by all the players, it remains to be seen how these companies expand their business in both the somewhat saturated big cities and the untapped and emerging smaller cities.