Global Relationship Marketing essay

MKT9115M Chloe Baker - 11215989
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Global Relationship Marketing
Lincoln Business School
Postgraduate Master Programme
Module Code - MKT9115M
Consultancy report for ‘Nando’s’: German Market
Submission Date: 27th April 2015
Chloe Baker - 11215989
Word Count: 3721

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Contents:
Page 1: Introduction
Page 1 – 8: Task 1. Outline the strategic importance to your organisation of
adopting a stakeholder perspective for business activity in global markets and
the country of your choice.
Page 8 - 12: Task 2. For the vast majority of marketers, a key relationship that
needs to be built is with customer markets. Drawing on conceptual frameworks
from the first part of the module, you are asked to propose and justify a strategy,
or strategies, designed to build customer retention in your chosen market.
Page 12 – 15: Task 3. Identify the other key relationships that will need to be
built in your selected country. These relationships and networks relate to
concepts from the second part of the module. Analyse the reasons why you have
selected these organisations and indicate the ways in which you intend to build a
strong presence in your business network.
Page 15 – 15: Conclusion
Page 16 – 18: Reference List

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Introduction
Companies are always looking to expand, whether it be in the country they
already have firms in or whether their plans are bigger and they are looking to
expand across seas. Companies can expand internationally but it costs a great
deal therefore it is important that companies put in the time a commitment to
the project at hand. (Hollenson, 1998) Countries are developing greater
openness to international trade since the 1960’s, so it is becoming an inevitable
way for businesses to grow. (Uncatd, 2012) Moving into other countries means
that businesses will gain more trade, have more customers and in the long run
gain a larger profit. Companies will first have to make the decision of whether
they want to internationalize, decide which markets to enter, decide how to
enter the foreign markets, design the global marketing programme and the put
the programme into action. (Hollenson, 1998) Alongside this, globalisation may
lead to other resources and new business ideas. In this report, I will be
discussing the best way for the company, Nandos, to expand into Eastern Europe,
specifically Germany, where Nandos is not currently available.
Task 1:
Nandos is a chain company that is becoming very popular in the countries that it
is currently available and they have already internationalised. They sell
specifically chicken, along with sides, but their main selling point is the chicken
and the sauce that comes alongside it. In 1987 two South African men founded
the company, and this is where the first restaurant opened. Although being
founded in Africa the food is Portuguese, and the sauce that comes along side the

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chicken is the ever-popular peri-peri. (Nandos, 2014) The sauces that are
available which are known for their distinguished flavour and are only available
under the Nando’s branding, are not only available in the restaurants now but
also supermarkets, along with flavourings and salts. The restaurant uses a
service of being seated, however when ordering the food the customer is
required to go to the counter and order their chosen meal, then help themselves
to cutlery, a drink, and a selection of sauces. This method of service has been
labelled ‘fast casual’ and means a much quicker visit by each customer, meaning
the customer turnover is greater than that of a restaurant with a full service
method. More customers per day therefore result in a higher intake of capital.
(Brown 2013) When entering the restaurant, customers are asked if they have
been to Nandos before, if not then the way the restaurant works is explained.
(Nandos, 2014) This method that Nando’s uses is considered very modern but
evidence in recent years says it works. A report by a market research company,
The NDP group, in 2014 said that the growth of these types of restaurants in the
US went up by 10% over 2013, also stating that there was only a 2% growth in
total restaurants. There are also a greater percentage of customers revisiting
these types of restaurants with 69% of customers going back and specifically to
Nando’s, 80%. (NPD, 2014)
Nando’s current most popular stakeholders are mainly the younger generation.
Many reports say that when walking into a Nando’s it is filled with 18 to 25 year
olds. It seems to be a trendy place to eat as well as selling unique food, with
many celebrities being spotted at the restaurants and tweeting about their
experiences. (Rawstorne, 2013) Nandos can currently be found in 14 countries,

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these countries however do not seem to cover Eastern Europe, (Nando’s, 2014) I
have therefore chosen Germany as a worthy country for Nandos to expand their
company into.
My first thought for the expansion of Nando’s to Germany was because it is not
currently available in Germany or any many European countries for that matter.
The only European countries Nando’s can currently be found in are Ireland and
the UK. (Nando’s, 2014) In the European countries that Nando’s is currently
available, the company in recent years has done very well. Opening in the UK in
1992, by 2012 Nandos took a profit of £419.5 million (Brown, 2013) and now
have 315 restaurants across the country. Germany is one of the biggest countries
in Europe and central to other European countries. Germany has a huge tourist
base. Places such as Berlin see millions of overnights stays, a report by visit
Berlin in February of 2014 stated that there was 26.94 million overnight stays
and 11.32 million guests. (Koschell, 2014) Having these sorts of figures means
the demand for places to eat out is greater, as when visiting other countries
either on holiday or as a traveller, people need places to eat, as usually, cooking
is not a common way for tourists to go about eating. With Nando’s being in other
countries already, the name is recognisable, and tourists may find comfort in
eating somewhere they are familiar with. Berlin as of late also seems to be a
trendy place to travel, with younger people often visiting for sights of the Berlin
wall and other attractions that the city has to offer as travelling markets such as
‘interailing’ are growing popular. Young travellers are often also on a budget.
With Nando’s offering food consideredbetter than the fast food market at not
that higher of a price, the food is affordable and decent. Having Nando’s in Berlin

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therefore brings together the market of young travellers, as they tend to be the
same as the younger people that have visited Nando’s before.
Germany is an MEDC. Its cities such as Berlin are popular places for both
business conventions and science and politics meetings. On average 354 events
are held in the city each year, resulting in 10.6 million participants taken from
statistics in 2013. Following this, it is now seen as one of the leading convention
destinations in the world. (Visit Berlin, 2013) Not only does this follow on from
the reasoning’s to supply Nando’s to people visiting Germany, but demonstrates
the rising economy of the country and the flourishing of it’s businesses and
residents. In 2013 their gross domestic profit was $3.730 trillion with a
population of over 80 million and it is seeing a steadily growing capita. (The
World Bank Group, 2015) Nearly 50 million of that population is in employment.
(Statistisches Bundesamt, 2015) Having a large number of people in employment
means a greater circulation of capital. Bringing Nando’s to Germany where
people are earning and therefore spending will more than likely result in a surge
of customers who want to eat out. Proof of this comes from statistics that say in
2012 the top 100 chain restaurants in Germany saw a 3.1% sales increase. (Van
Til, 2013) Of the 80 million that make up the population of Germany, 6 and a half
million of these in 2013 were able to use the Internet. (Internet World Stats,
2014)
It is worthwhile to take into account not only customers but also employees.
Nando’s makes a huge deal of their employees, and in 2010 in the UK they were
labelled the best big company to work for. (Nando’s, 2014). On their official

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website it says, ‘We have a saying at Nando’s and it’s simply this: “Nando’s is not
just about the chicken. It’s never been just about the chicken. It’s about the people
who make the chicken.’ (Nandos, 2014) There are now over 8000 people
employed by Nandos solely in the UK, most which also fit into the other popular
stakeholder bracket of being 18 – 25. (Brown, 2013) Nando’s seems to boast of
the importance of their employees and with their being so many it would be
apparent that they are one of the main stakeholders of the business.
Another reasoning for the choice of Germany was a personal matter and where
the idea stemmed from. At University I currently live with German students who
have a greater network of other German citizens. After discovering that Nandos
was not available in Germany, I advised the people I knew to try out the
restaurant and report back. Being the perfect candidates for the research, as
young students are Nandos primary customers, the experience would be taken
into great consideration. The feedback was very positive and the people who
visited the restaurant wished the restaurant were available in Germany. This
was a renounding response from the German students and other German
students they know who now visit Nandos on a regular basis.
The current market for fast casual restaurants in Germany is as follows. Firstly,
they are becoming increasingly popular. ‘The real growth in the ranking came
from the 14 fast-casual brands on the list. Collectively, these 14 brands grew sales
an impressive 13.5 percent over 2011, with units up 9.5 percent’. (Van Til, 2013)
There aren’t however any Piranesi restaurants available. After researching, there
are chicken restaurants available, but none that are popular along with being

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specifically Pyrenees. Most of the restaurants on offer that sell chicken seem to
be the more common style of American and none of these have adopted the fast
casual way of service. There are three fast casual restaurants that keep popping
up after researching that seem to be the most popular, two being Italian and the
other being a bakery. (Van Til, 2013) This therefore suggests that there is a gap
in the market for a Pyrenees style of restaurant that will coincide with the
growing popularity of fast casual restaurants in Germany. There are also no
hugely dietry or religious requirements of Germany that would mean the food
could not be sold of have the opportunity to be consumed in said country.
Task 2
Stakeholder loyalty is of great importance. Retaining customers who visit a chain
and are loyal to the company is crucial for the success of a business that wants to
spread. Relationship marketing concentrates on out of all the company’s
stakeholders, mainly its customers. (Bruhn, 2013) The word ‘relationship’ is of
most importance when considering this method. The company wants to build
one with its customer. This is of importance when often now we see a great
majority of businesses, especially with a recognised name, receiving a large
percentage of their customers being ones that have visited before. This section
will be covering how Nando’s can continue its already successful customer
retention in the restaurant industry when entering Germany using relationship-
marketing techniques.
The strategy that I propose Nando’s uses when entering Germany is to introduce
a loyalty scheme. The first step of doing this is ensuring that the customer has

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the best experience possible when first visiting a chain; a first impression is the
most important impression. This can firstly be done via internal marketing.
Employees that supply excellent service are likely to obtain greater customer
satisfaction. Having employees that work for a large company on a minimum
wage perform to their best however is difficult, but with reward schemes this is
possible. Having staff meet targets and then being rewarded for meeting such
targets can be very effective, not only with the staff but the management also.
(Donaldson, Toole, 2002) The staff can be given goals, which if reached are
rewarded. The chain with the most goals reached can then have their
management be rewarded. Encouraging this will not only ensure a livelier and
happier working environment, but positivity results in a greater customer
experience. Using the companies own products as prizes is a hidden advantage
with this method, as the employee may invite guests along to enjoy their prizes
with them, which could potentially result in the gaining of another loyal
customer. The employees need to feel appreciated, and rewarding them is a
sound and cost effective way to do so which results in them being more
enthusiastic and happy in front of the customer. It can be found on the Nando’s
website that employees have their own specific section and account, as well as a
commemoration page. (Nando’s, 2014) This is an online method that should be
brought to Germany as again, better treatment of employees results in greater
customer service.
When ensuring that a customer’s first visit is excellent, the most important
aspect is the quality of the product itself. (Donaldson, Toole, 2002) With Nando’s
the product is food, which often is the easiest product to get wrong. Ensuring

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therefore that staff has a knowledge of the product on sale is crucial. The chefs in
the kitchen should cook the food with care and the front of house staff should
know when a dish is not up to the correct standards. This will insure that when a
dish eventually reaches a customer, it is to a standard that they would enjoy and
desire to eat the food again. Satisfying a customer will result in them not looking
for a similar product elsewhere. (Hougaard, Bjerre, 2003) Having a higher
quality product will also improve the enthusiasm of the staff, if the employees
enjoy the product they will be more inclined to sell it to others. A good customer
experience also affects referral markets. Referral markets is the consideration
that the expansion of a company will come about due to word of mouth. With
that word of mouth being positive, the company will grow. (Marketing Schools.
Org, 2012)
Once the customer has enjoyed their first visit to Nando’s and plans on returning,
it is then of importance to build on that fresh relationship. This can be done with
rewards, promotions and offerings. Loyalty cards are a fantastic way to bind a
customer to a business. (Hennig – Thurau, Hansen, 2000, 54) Once they have
been advised to take a loyalty card and have done due to the satisfaction of their
visit, having the loyalty card may speed up the time in-between their next visit
and also increase the number of visits. Most loyalty cards work in the fashion of
when purchasing a product, you receive points, these points then enable you to
purchase that product again for free. The more often the customer visits, the
higher amount of money spent, and the quicker that customer is going to receive
free products, which in hindsight should persuade them to visit to company
again and feel rewarded. Loyalty cards such as this work well when the product
is consumption. If using a loyalty card when buying a car, the customer would

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buy that car once and more often than not, they won’t be buying another in the
near future. When selling food the product has gone before the customer has
even left the facility, unless the establishment offers take away. This means
therefore that the customer is able to purchase the product over and over again,
yet will never have too much of it.
Using loyalty cards have an added bonus of getting to know your customers,
providing a company with the ability to monitor customer behaviour. A company
is able to see which customers are spending more, which are bargain hunters
(some can cost the business rather than benefit it) and what are the most
popular products. (Marketing Donut, 2015) Requiring this information can help
the company offer more to their most loyal customers and also improve their
stock. If a dish is being brought into the company yet it is proven unpopular, the
business can discontinue that product and replace it with something they can
advertise as something new for old and new customers to try. Loyalty cards also
give businesses an opportunity to be more personal with their customers. The
details of each customer with a loyalty card are taken when registering the card.
This supplies the company with the customer’s mobile number, home address
and email address. Having these details means the company can personally
promote to these customers, using their details to send them advertisements and
promotion offers in a friendlier, less aggressive manor. Being able to address the
customer by their name makes the customer feel special, more so than if they
were to watch an advert of television. These methods of advertising are also
hugely cost effective, especially when using someone’s email.

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Many people are now owners of smart phones, especially young people, Nando’s
most common customer. With smart phones we have the use of apps. These apps
can be used in coalition with the loyalty card. Customers are able to link their
loyalty cards with the app on their phone, meaning the points they have available
are visible. Apps are also able to send notifications; therefore if a customer has
points to use, the app can send them a reminder. This could help with not only
retention of customers but also the bringing back of older customers who
perhaps haven’t used the company for an extended period of time.
Task 3
As well as customer retention being of importance there are other key markets
that need to be taken into consideration. Diagram 1 is a model that shows these.
In order for
Nando’s to work
effectively when
expanding to
Germany it
should consider
these markets as
of the same
importance of
that of the
customers, even
when the
Diagram 1, The Six Markets Model, Christopher et al, 1991

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customer is the sole of a successful business.
The first of these markets is the supplier/alliance market. This can be extremely
beneficial to a company, especially when the supplier is a well-known brand.
(Wakeam, 2003) If the company researches thoroughly what companies they
would like to approach to be their suppliers it can result in a business boom and
also take away the opportunity for competitive businesses having a popular
brand as their suppliers, reducing competition. (Wakeam, 2003) A supplier can
hugely affect the efficiency of a company, with the purchasing of goods being the
most dominant form of expenditure, and if the reliance of a supplier is not
received it could damage the companies daily business affecting their reputation.
(Ford, Gadde and Hakansson, Snehota, 2011, p.73) Companies need to be careful
that their suppliers will not betray them however. An example of this happening
was with Heinz and McDonalds, after working together for 40 years, Heinz was
bought by 3G Capital who control Burger King in 2013. (BBC, 2013) Burger King
now having what is considered the most popular sauce brand in the world,
meaning they have an advantage over McDonalds. When running a large-scale
business that supplies food and drink it is probably one of the easier businesses
to acquire alliances of popularity as the supplier has a constant outlet of sale. The
most popular soft drink company in Germany is Coca – Cola, they are also the
suppliers of Fanta, a brand that was born in Germany (The Soft Drink, 2015) It
would then be my advise that when entering into Germany, Nando’s sets out to
form a relationship with Coca – Cola, requesting that they are able to sell the
brand in their restaurants.
Having previously mentioned internal markets and their importance when
strategising the customer market, and also referral markets in relation to this, a

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company needs to also take into consideration its influence markets. Influence
markets relates to influences having an impact on action. Whether it be from
politicians, family or celebrities, the influence of one person to another could
lead to the purchase of a product. (Brown, 2013, pg.1) More commonly these
days, influence is seen on the web, therefore requiring businesses to use online
communities as a strategy. When relating this to influence marketing most of the
influences stem from social networking. (Brown, 2013, pg.2) On social
networking sites such as twitter, the common public are able to view live feeds
from celebrities, politicians or people they have a general interest in. This
results in fans feeling as if they are closer to the people that they follow, as they
are even able to reply to the well-known people’s ‘tweets’. Nando’s, as mentioned
earlier, have many celebrity endorses, who often take to twitter to report on
their time at, or comment on how much they would like a Nando’s. It is
important therefore that Nando’s have a twitter site, so when celebrities are
mentioning them, a link is given to their page, and Nando’s also have the ability
to tweet back. This sort of behaviour however may not be purely because a
group of celebrities all like Nando’s coincidentally. Nando’s offer what is referred
to as the ‘black card’. This card means that it’s owner and their five friends are
welcome to unlimited free Nando’s. The card has been give to the likes of David
Beckham, Jay Z and Ed Sheeran. (Bond, 2013) With these sorts of celebrities
being followed world wide, the importance of their influence on other customers
is crucial, and as long as it’s a positive one it will increase Nando’s business. Not
only does this card create influences from celebrities, but celebrities are seen to
include Nando’s in there work, with Jay Z including Nando’s with his rider at the
Brit awards and Ed Sheeran and Example creating a video that was put on

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YouTube that used the Nando’s name and received thousands of views. This is a
free, and extremely effective means of advertising, especially with it not being
limited to one country. A suggestion would therefore be for Nando’sto offer
these cards to well known celebrities in Germany who have a strong social media
following. It is also worthwhile taking into consideration the high amount of
Internet uses in Germany relating to the population, as I mentioned earlier.
Conclusion:
After much research it would firstly seem that Germany is a very suitable
country for Nando’s to expand into. The population enjoy eating out and a high
percentage of them are earning, therefore money can be spent on the products
that are on offer. A high percentage of the population also have access to the
Internet, the main source of Nando’s customer retention and advertising
methods. I feel that opening two branches in Germany’s more popular cities,
Berlin and Munich, would be a good way to start. The restaurants would be
popular not only with locals but with tourists and passers through also. With
Germany having a high employment rate I am confident that recruitment will be
an easy process as my research shows that Nando’s has already proved itself to
be an excellent company to work for. I feel that many of the marketing strategies
that are already in place by Nando’s work well, therefore these should be
continually used when globalising.

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Reference List:
 BBC, (2013) McDonald’s to stop serving Heinz Ketchup [online] London:
BBC. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24692392
[Accessed April 24th 2015]
 Bond, Anthony (2013) After Prince Harry's Nando's visit: Ten things you
need to know about the mysterious High Five black card. Mirror, 17
March, 8:30.
 Brown, Danny and Fiorella, Sam (2013) Influence Marketing: How to
create, Manage and Measure Brand Influences in Social Media Marketing.
USA: Que Publishing.
 Brown, Mick (2013) Nando’s nation: the chicken that conquered Britain
[online] London: Telegraph. Available from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/restaurants/9902231/Nando
s-nation-the-chicken-that-conquered-Britain.html [Accessed 20th April
2014]
 Et a, Christopher (1991) Relationship Marketing. London: Heinemann.
 Ford, D. I., Gadde, L. – E. and Hakansson, H. (2011) Managing Business
Relationships. United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons.
 Hollensen, Svend (1998) Global Marketing. A Market-responsive approach
Hampshire: Ashford Colour Press ltd.
 Internal World Stats (2014) European Union [online] Worldwide:
Miniwatts Marketing Group. Available from:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm [Accessed on 26th April
2015]

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 Koschell, Phillip (2014) Tourism figures for 2013: Berlin sees faster growth
than Germany as a whole [online] Berlin: Tourismus and Kongress GmbH.
Available from: http://press.visitberlin.de/en/news-release/tourism-
figures-for-2013-berlin-sees-faster-growth-than-germany-as-a-whole
[Accessed 21st April 2014]
 Marketing Donut (2015) Customer Loyalty [online] Atom Content
Marketing. Available from:
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/customer-care/customer-
loyalty [Accessed on 24th April 2014]
 Marketing Schools (2012) Referral Marketing, explore the strategy of
referral marketing [online] Available from: http://www.marketing-
schools.org/types-of-marketing/referral-marketing.html [Accessed 24th
April 2014]
 Nandos, (2014) How it all began [online] Worlwide: Nandos. Available
from: http://www.nandos.com/our-story [Accessed 20th April 2014]
 Naomi, Van Til (2013) Fast Casual Chains Fueling Restaurant Growth in
Germany [blog entry] 15 March. Location Not Available: Technomic.
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restaurant-growth-in-germany/ [Accessed 20th April 2014]
 NPD, (2014) Fast Casual is Only Restaurant to See Traffic Growth in 2013,
Rerports NPD [online] US: The NPD Group, Inc. Available from:
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/fast-
casual-is-only-restaurant-segment-to-see-traffic-growth-in-2013-reports-
npd/ [Accessed April 20th 2014]

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 Rawstorne, T, (2013) Why Nando's chicken isn't as wholesome as you
think: Celebrities love it. To the middle classes, it's guilt-free fast food. If only
they knew the full story... [online] London: The Guardian. Available from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362445/Why-Nandos-
chicken-isnt-wholesome-think-Celebrities-love-To-middle-classes-guilt-
free-fast-food-If-knew-story-.html [Accessed 20th April 2015]
 Statistisches Bundesamt, (2015) Key Figures [online] Holland:
Statistisches Bundesamt. Available from:
https://www.destatis.de/EN/Homepage.html [Accessed April 21st 2015]
 The Soft Drink (2015) Soda Market in Germany [online] Available from:
http://www.the-soft-drinks.com/soda-germany.html [Accessed April
24th 2015]
 Unctad. (2012) Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures. [online]
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Available from
http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webgdsdsi2012d2_en.pdf
[Accessed 20th April 2015].
 Visit Berlin, (2013) Tourism figures for 2013: Berlin sees faster growth
than Germany as a whole. [Press Release] Not Dated. Available from
http://press.visitberlin.de/sites/default/files/tourism_figures_for_2013-
berlin_sees_faster_growth_than_germany_as_a_whole.pdf [Accessed 21st
April 2014]
 Wakeam, Jason (2003) The Five Factors of Strategic Alliance. Ivey Business
Journal
 World Bank (2014) [online] The World Bank Group. Available from
http://data.worldbank.org/country/germany [Accessed 21st April 2014].

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