Dairy Queen 1

DAIRY QUEEN’S ENTRY INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM:

First and Last Name

Name of the Class

June 11, 2023

1. Executive Summary

Dairy Queen (2022) is an American fast food and soft-serve ice cream restaurant

chain. Its parent company is Berkshire Hathaway. The company has operations in many

nations around the world, including the Middle East and Asia, but it is not yet active

within the United Kingdom (UK). This paper conducts a marketing analysis for Dairy

Queen’s entry into the UK. The paper considers many different aspects, including the

environment within the UK and the marketing strategy that Dairy Queen needs to

pursue to achieve success there. The paper concludes that Dairy Queen should leverage

its strong brand identity and its iconic soft serve ice cream product to distinguish itself

from its rivals and compete effectively within the UK market. The market for fast food

restaurants is largely saturated, and growing health-consciousness among the public

presents Dairy Queen with a challenge that must be overcome. The company should

focus on what makes it unique and engage in a somewhat playful marketing campaign

that focuses on the fact that it is finally coming to the UK after having been active in

many other parts of the world.

2. Environmental Analysis

A. The Marketing Environment

Dairy Queen falls within the fast food restaurant industry, which is an industry

that has been struggling with public perceptions in recent times. Bohlouli et al. (2021)

observe, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, that: “Fast food consumption

activates the intrinsic immune system and impairs adaptive immunity, leading to chronic

inflammation and impaired host defenses against viruses” (p. 203). The connection
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between fast food and poor health is the result of the typical nutritional profile of fast

food products, which tend to be high in saturated fats and other unhealthy compounds.

The pandemic generally had the effect of increasing health consciousness among the

public and leading people to focus more attention on habits related to exercise and

nutrition (Shaw, 2021). While such a trend is surely good for society overall, it is also

problematic from the standpoint of companies within the fast food industry insofar as

highly health-conscious people do not typically indulge in fast food consumption. As

Dairy Queen seeks to enter England, the company must thus ask itself how it can

cultivate demand for its products and encourage people to purchase its products.

The preceding analysis identifies challenges that face the fast food industry in

general, but Dairy Queen may also face challenges specific to the company itself. In

particular, while Dairy Queen has not yet become active in the UK, many other global

fast food brands have long been active in the region. McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger

King, for example, are all present in the UK (Jones et al., 2002). In this context, Dairy

Queen needs to ask itself: What is the distinctive value proposition that the company

brings into this environment? A company’s value proposition is the central appeal that it

makes to customers with respect to not only why customers should patronize it but

also, more specifically, why customers should prefer its products to the products of its

rivals (Barnes et al., 2009; Barnes et al., 2017). Dairy Queen needs to persuade its

potential customers both that they should purchase fast food products in general and

that they should specifically purchase Dairy Queen’s fast food products and not the

products of a rival such as McDonald’s or KFC.

B. Target Markets

The overall target market for fast food products broadly consists of the general

public. The nature of fast food is that it has universal appeal and that it is accessible to

everyone in society. More specifically, however, fast food products may appeal to

people who 1) lead busy lives and often eat meals outside the home and 2) live on a

relatively tight budget while doing so and do not wish to spend large amounts of money

on regularly eating out (Kara et al., 1995). Fast food restaurants may be an appealing

choice for such people because it provides them with an affordable way to eat meals

outside of the home. One of Dairy Queen’s main target markets can thus consist of

people of lower socioeconomic status. People with more disposable income may also

eat meals out of the home, but they would be less likely to regularly patronize fast food

restaurants insofar as their budgets allow them to indulge in more upscale meal

options.

Moreover, one must remember that Dairy Queen’s iconic product is its soft serve

ice cream, an image of which can be found in Appendix A. Indeed, in many stores in

markets such as the United States, Dairy Queen is only a dessert shop and does not

offer the full range of fast food items that are found at some of its other locations. Ice

cream treats typically appeal to children, which means that a key target market for

Dairy Queen consists of families with children. While other fast food companies may

also serve desserts, Dairy Queen is uniquely known for its desserts, with the company’s

very name fortunately reinforcing this association. Therefore, Dairy Queen can

differentiate itself by focusing on its dessert products and targeting families with
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children, since adults may primarily purchase products such as soft serve ice cream for

their children or when they are going out together as a family.

C. Current Marketing Objectives and Performance

Dairy Queen’s overall current marketing objectives primarily pertain to

maintaining its market share relative to rivals in the regions where the company is

active. The Dairy Queen brand is well-established, and although the brand is not

currently active in the UK, most people in the UK are probably familiar with the brand,

nonetheless. An equilibrium generally exists within the fast food industry, such that

essential large-scale players are well-established and primarily spend money on

marketing to keep up with each other and not lose market share over time. Dairy

Queen cannot dominate the fast food industry, but it must also ensure that it is not

dominated by others, especially by rivals such as McDonald’s or Burger King that have

significantly broader business operations around the world (Leybourne, 2020).

D. SWOT Analysis

Dairy Queen’s main strength is the uniqueness of its product offerings, including

its iconic soft serve ice cream and frozen treats such as the Blizzard (Thakkar, 2022).

Dairy Queen is known for its deserts in the same way that McDonald’s is known for its

Big Mac or Burger King is known for its Whopper. Therefore, if Dairy Queen leans

heavily into its unique menu, then it could easily differentiate itself from rivals in the UK

fast food industry. Indeed, Dairy Queen may wish to not even offer its full range of fast

food products within the UK and instead focus exclusively or near-exclusively on its

dessert menu. Again, such a move would not be unprecedented, since many Dairy
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Queen stores in other markets already only serve dessert items. The present student is

familiar, for example, with an instance in which a Dairy Queen dessert-only store was

directly adjacent to a Subway, such that people typically purchased meals at the

Subway and then desserts next door.

One of Dairy Queen’s weaknesses is its relative lack of universal brand

awareness when compared to fast food giants such as McDonald’s and Burger King.

Dairy Queen has not been broad as these rivals in its scope of business operations, as

one can see from the very fact that the company is not yet even active in the UK in the

year 2022. The company may thus need to cultivate its brand strength and work harder

to generate broader awareness of the brand and its unique product offerings. This

weakness is not insurmountable, but one gets the sense that Dairy Queen has thus far

not committed to truly competing against its rivals at such a major scale of operation.

Rather, the company has largely been content with conceding that broader terrain and

functioning at a lower tier. This dynamic may need to change if Dairy Queen is to

achieve adequate market share within the UK fast food industry.

Turning to opportunities, a main one for Dairy Queen is that people may

generally have a renewed interest in eating out at restaurants in the post-pandemic era.

Restaurants were among the establishments hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic

and associated shutdowns as people had to remain at home and refrain from gathering

in public spaces (Hakim et al., 2021). Along with restaurants in general, fast food

restaurants in particular have also seen growing business in the aftermath of the

pandemic (Chen, 2022). Dairy Queen is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend and
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acquire market share within the UK by appealing to the desires of customers who are

ready and willing to eat out at restaurants again.

A significant threat, however, consists of the fact that the general public is

growing more conscious of health-related matters, which has resulted in a turn of

opinion against the fast food industry. Books such as Fast Food Nation and

documentaries such as Super Size Me have provided the public with vivid accounts of

the problems associated with fast food consumption (Schlosser, 2012; Spurlock, 2004).

In this context, Dairy Queen may struggle to convince people within the UK market that

they should in fact spend their money on the restaurant’s products. This threat is

somewhat mitigated, however, by Dairy Queen’s focus on dessert products. People are

generally aware of the fact that ice cream is not a healthy food, but they nevertheless

continue to consume it, often precisely with the intention of indulging in an unhealthy

treat. Whereas customers may opt to purchase a healthy sandwich instead of a fast

food sandwich, no similarly easy substitute exists for ice cream. People purchase

dessert products when they are in the mood to indulge themselves, which suggests that

Dairy Queen may have a built-in market base even in times of growing general health

consciousness.

3. Marketing Objectives

Dairy Queen’s marketing objective is to establish a presence within the UK and

develop a reasonable market share within the fast food industry in the region. Market

share is an essential driver of profitability (Buzznell et al., 1975). Dairy Queen must

seek to capture market share within the UK from the starting point of currently not
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having any. Dairy Queen can quantify its marketing objective in terms of achieving X

percent market share within the UK fast food industry within a timeframe of Y years. In

addition, another marketing objective for Dairy Queen is to successfully differentiate

itself from rivals and make a unique value proposition to customers that will lead them

to patronize Dairy Queen instead of spending their money on other available fast food

options.

4. Marketing Strategy

A. Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Dairy Queen should segment its market in two main ways. The first way consists

of focusing on the parameter of socioeconomic status and appealing to customers who

want to eat out on a budget. A significant correlation exists between fast food

consumption and socioeconomic status, such that people in lower socioeconomic

classes are more likely to consume fast food products (Zagorsky and Smith, 2017).

People in higher socioeconomic classes may also indulge themselves on occasion, but

even when they do so, they may be less likely to consider patronizing fast food

restaurants. Dairy Queen should thus focus on customers of more modest means.

Secondly, Dairy Queen should focus on families with children. Again, this market

segment is justified by the observation that treats such as soft serve ice cream appeal

strongly to children, and adults are most likely to indulge in such treats when they are

accompanying children. Dairy Queen should thus position itself within the fast food

market and thereby appeal to customers who wish to eat out on a budget, and it should
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also position itself specifically as a dessert shop and thereby appeal to families with

children.

B. Marketing Mix

The four elements of marketing mix are product, price, place, and promotion

(Borden, 1984; Ferrell et al, 2021). In the UK market, Dairy Queen should likely forego

its full menu and instead focus only on offering its dessert products. The UK fast food

market is largely saturated by giants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC, and it

is not clear why UK customers would choose to purchase a fast food sandwich from

Dairy Queen when they could just as easily purchase one from these other well-

established companies. Indeed, given Dairy Queen’s name, many customers may not be

aware of the fact that many stores even have a full menu. Dairy Queen should

differentiate itself within the UK fast food market by focusing exclusively on its dessert

products and establishing itself as a dessert shop.

Dairy Queen should also ensure that prices for its products are kept low and in

congruence with standards for the fast food industry. Again, one of the main appeals of

fast food products is that they are affordable and allow people to eat out without

spending large amounts of money. In terms of place, Dairy Queen should sell its

products at its own shops, as is typical for fast food restaurants. One does not, for

example, find Burger King products and locations other than Burger King restaurants.

Dairy Queen should adhere to the standard fast food model in this regard. Finally, Dairy

Queen should promote its products using television and Internet advertising. This

strategy is congruent with the company’s general need to appeal to the general public
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at large. Television marketing is still relevant today and provides companies with a

means for raising brand awareness among large numbers of people (Crawford, 2021).

However, given that people also spend large amounts of time on the Internet, Dairy

Queen should also maintain an online presence through paid advertisements and social

media profiles. Most successful companies today have social media accounts, and this

type of marketing engagement is essential in these times (Tuten, 2021).

5. Marketing Action Plan and Implementation

A. Marketing Organization

Dairy Queen needs to engage in three main marketing actions. The first is to

develop and distribute television commercials within the UK market, the second is to

purchase online advertisements with companies such as Google, and the third is to

implement a social media marketing strategy that builds hype around Dairy Queen’s

dessert products and the fact of the company’s UK debut. These marketing actions are

distinct, but Dairy Queen must also ensure that they are well-coordinated and that

messages across the different channels reinforce each other and strengthen brand

identity.

B. Activities, Responsibility, and Timetables for Completion

Dairy Queen should assign each of the three marketing actions to a designated

marketing task force. The timeframe for this marketing plan consists of 9 months,

including 3 months prior to Dairy Queen’s official entry into the UK market and 6

months after the company’s entry. Appendix B displays the activities, responsibilities,

and timetables for the completion of this project. The timeframe spans both the period
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before and the period after Dairy Queen’s UK entry because the purpose of the

marketing plan is to build and reinforce awareness and hype. Therefore, marketing

must commence prior to entry and then proceed through the early phase of UK

business operations.

6. Budget, Evaluation, and Control

A. Performance Standards and Financial Controls

Dairy Queen should establish a quantitative performance standard for each of its

marketing actions. The company can evaluate television advertising using metrics that it

can access from broadcasting stations, it can evaluate online paid advertisements in

terms of clicks, and it can evaluate social media engagement in terms of number of

followers, likes, and shares. The overarching purpose of this marketing plan is to raise

awareness within the UK market regarding the Dairy Queen brand and its imminent

entry into the market, and the selected quantitative metrics will provide Dairy Queen

with the necessary means for evaluating whether the plan is succeeding on these

terms. Appendix C displays the budget for each of the marketing actions.

B. Monitoring Procedures

Dairy Queen can monitor the marketing plan by tracking the quantitative metrics

that this paper has delineated above. The company should establish specific

expectations and targets regarding each of the metrics, and it should use those metrics

and benchmarks to evaluate the implementation of the marketing plan on a weekly

basis. If Dairy Queen is achieving its targets, then that would mean that the plan is

going well and that no alterations are required. In contrast, if the targets are not being
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met, then Dairy Queen would need to identify the reasons for this failure and correct

course in accordance.

7. Conclusions

Dairy Queen can succeed in the UK market, but in order to do so, it must

leverage its brand identity in a savvy way that enables it to overcome challenges within

the fast food industry. In particular, Dairy Queen faces two main challenges. The first is

that the general public is growing more health-conscious, with the result that fast food

has gained a bad reputation over time (Bohlouli et al, 2021). The second is that the UK

fast food market may already be saturated by giants such as McDonald’s, Burger King,

and KFC (Jones et al., 2002). Dairy Queen thus needs to both overcome the stigma

associated with fast food and develop a unique value proposition that differentiates it

from its rivals. This paper has suggested that Dairy Queen should forego its full menu in

the UK market and focus exclusively on its dessert products. By doing so, the company

can both differentiate itself from rivals in the industry and position its products as an

indulgence and not a healthy meal option. The company should target people in lower

socioeconomic classes, which is the natural market for the fast food industry (Zagorsky

and Smith, 2017). The company should also target families with children since they are

a natural market segment for ice cream and frozen treats.

8. References

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proposition: Managing customer experience for profit. London: Kogan Page.

Barnes, C., Blake, H. and Howard, T. (2017) Selling your value proposition: How to

transform your business into a selling organization. London: Kogan Page.

Bohlouli, J., Moravejolahkami, A.R., Dashti, M.G., et al. (2021) ‘COVID-19 and fast

foods consumption: A review’, International Journal of Food Properties, 24(1),

pp. 203-209. DOI: 10.1080/10942912.2021.1873364

Borden, N.H. (1984) ‘The concept of marketing mix’, Journal of Advertising Research,

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of-marketing-mix.pdf (Accessed: 5 December 2022).

Business Insider India (2022) I ate soft serve from 7 major fast food chains, and the

winner surprised me. Available: https://www.businessinsider.in/DAIRY-QUEEN-

SMALL-CONE-VANILLA-SOFT-SERVE-2-99-Dairy-Queens-claim-to-fame-is-its-soft-

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69932488.cms (Accessed: 5 December 2022).

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December 2022).
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Chen, M. (2020) ‘Fast food industry in the post-pandemic era—A case study of KFC’,

E3S Web of Conferences, 218, 02005. Available at: https://www.e3s-

conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/abs/2020/78/e3sconf_iseese2020_02005/

e3sconf_iseese2020_02005.html (Accessed: 5 December 2022).

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reach consumers in 2021. KCTV5 Marketing Blog. Available:

https://www.kctv5marketing.com/blog/why-tv-advertising-is-still-the-most-

effective-way-to-reach-consumers-in-2021 (Accessed 5 December 2022).

Dairy Queen (2022) Our story. Available: https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-us/about-us/

(Accessed: 5 December 2022).

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services brands: A case study of the three major fast food retailers in the UK’,

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10.1108/01409170210783359
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Kara, A., Kaynak, E. and Kucekemiroglu, O. (1995) ‘Marketing strategies for fast food

restaurants: A customer view’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality

Management, 7(4), pp. 16-22. DOI: 10.1108/09596119510146823

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now very much a digital company. Hospitality and Catering News. Available:

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health-conscious-22017026 (Available: 5 December 2022).

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includes 3 new Blizzards. Taste of Home. Available:

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December 2022).

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9. Appendices

A. Dairy Queen’s Soft Serve Ice Cream Cone

Image retrieved from Business Insider India (2022).

B. Actions

Activities Responsibility Timetable

Develop and launch Television task force 9 months (3 months prior

television advertisements to UK entry, 6 months

after)

Purchase online Internet task force 9 months (3 months prior

advertisements to UK entry, 6 months

after)

Pursue social media Social media task force 9 months (3 months prior

engagement to UK entry, 6 months

after)
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C. Budget

Marketing Activity Budget

Television advertising $500,000

Online advertising $700,000

Social media engagement $200,000