Abstract

ANDRADE, Nancy  and  MORALES, Mariher. Offer of Value as a Differentiation Strategy in Fast-Food Franchise Establishments in the Municipality of Maracaibo . Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.2, pp.303-317. ISSN 1315-9518.

As the number of service enterprises grows, investors make an effort to offer distinctive characteristics and develop comprehensive strategies in different branches of this sector. In this context, the objective of this article was to “analyze the offer of value as a differentiation strategy in fast food franchise establishments in the municipality of Maracaibo,” emphasizing the theoretical contributions of Zeithaml and Bitner (2002) and Lovelock (1997). The research was descriptive with a non-experimental field design, whose main source of information came from interviews carried out with 12 managers of establishments registered in Profranquicias and located in malls of the municipality. Results indicated that the most-offered tangible product is the hamburger (26,1%). The service that adds value is having a varied menu with attention to the client (91,3%), while the factors complementing sales are diverse forms of payment (47,8%). The main elements that offer value are speed of service and product quality (82,6%), respectively, while service quality (52,2%) is the strategy making it possible to achieve a competitive advantage and differentiation in the franchise system. Conclusions were that the offer of value these establishments present is attractive, because it functions as a strategy for differentiating oneself from the competition and positioning oneself in the market, satisfying the greatest number of consumers possible and maintaining a successful business.

Keywords : Offer of value; fast food franchise establishment; differentiation strategy; quality of service; competitive advantage.