There are four dimensions of marketing that are given particular attention by marketers--product, price, placement, and promotion. These are called the four p's. They constitute a marketing mix which serves as a guide to the thinking of the marketer, telling him or her to channel energies into specific areas so as to address the needs and wants of the consumer. Placement refers to the way the product is positioned in the market and placed before the public. For both these chains, placement involves decisions as to regional positioning, specific locations, design of store, and special placement for particular markets.
Taco Bell and Del Taco target the same basic market--people who want Mexican fast-food at a low price. Each chain has stores with the same basic structure--a dining room with seats for those who wish to eat at the restaurant, an outside window for people who walk up and request items, and a drive-through for people who do not want to get out of their cars.
In terms of the four p's, the two restaurants are alike in their marketing strategy up to a point. Their products are similar if not identical, though the menu for Taco Bell is more varied than that for Del Taco. Both, however, make the same basic products--tacos, burritos, and related items, all of which can be classified as fast-food with a Mexican flavor. Neither is truly authentic in the way the products are produced--these are Americanized versions of tacos and burritos, produced in an assembly-line method using hard and soft shells pre-made and distributed to the franchises. These products have shown that they have an appeal in the marketplace, especially in the cities of the West and Southwest where the Hispanic population is large and where all consumers have long been exposed to these food products and where a sizable constituency has been developed for them. People in cities tend to be more experimental than people in rural regions when it co...