INTRODUCTION

In September 1974, the late Shakkour AbuGhazalah renovated an old warehouse he was renting, and opened the first pressure fried chicken restaurant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was located on Old Airport Road, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The concept was new to the area, and business was slow at the beginning. He was serving not more than 100 customers per day during the first 90 days after opening. Within one year, long lines were starting to form outside his restaurant and there was no looking back.
Since ALBAIK continues to succeed in the western province , though it’s one of the most difficult areas for competition because of the ease of entrance , ALBAIK went through easily with it and formed a new concept of such a successful trust worthy Saudi local business.
ALBAIK has taken the market share over KFC and the rest of restaurants including Tazej and Poppeyes, and it’s spreading rapidly in almost every district in Jeddah , along with couple of branches in different cities in the western province , such as Taif , Madina and Makkah.
Such a success makes it obvious that it could also take over the market share in at least other markets in the GCC region, only if a strategy to go globally was formed successfully. So we chose Bahrain and Dubai to be our target, as these areas represent the door to the international market , and the easy entrance to their markets with the same competitors we have here in Saudi Arabia and in western province to be precise. http://www.albaik.com/
Therefore , such a business seems to be a potential success in the area and it would need exactly nothing but some consideration we are going to include in the next pages.

The Environmental Variables

There are a few environmental variables that can affect the international marketing activities for such business and turn a successful business failure or vice versa. One of the leading environmental variables is the governmental policies.

There are political advantages and disadvantages to globalization and international franchising. The advantages are getting access to materials, entering new markets and gaining knowledge. On the other hand, the greatest disadvantage is having the government taking indirect actions to hurt the business. For instance, here in Saudi Arabia Al-Baik took the market dominance from the American franchise KFC.

If Al-Baik were to open in the US, then the government wouldn’t want its local fast food chain to be taken away in the market from a foreign food chain. Even if Al-Baik becomes a success in the US because the consumers like it, the government might interfere with laws that may restrict its success and this could eventually lead to undesired ends for the business. This is because it’s for the government’s benefit to have a local franchise more successful in its homeland. To sum up , the beautiful part that keeps us optimistic is that , mainly the laws of Bahrain and Dubai are similar to those of Saudi Arabia in regards to food businesses.

Another variable is the culture of the society. In different countries, there are different ethnicities, cultures, traditions, and habits. Bringing a firm like Al-Baik to other countries can be an economical risk to the owner. For instance, if this firm opens in a country where people don’t eat chicken, then for sure the firm would not benefit and would have a great loss.

Strategic Planning and Positioning

One of the reasons behind the success of albaik in the western region of Saudi Arabia was the nationality of the business. Arabs in general started preferring local or non American products over American ones in a move to boycott American products gradually, especially when it comes to food. But when franchising ( Licensing ) Al-Baik to Bahrain or Dubai, the nationality of the restaurant will change some what to another Arab nationality , which will not change the consumers perceptions or their buying behavior.
The secrets of Al-Baik formulas can be sold to another Arab ( Bahraini and Emirate ) franchisors , which will extend the success and pay a decent amount of revenues using local better inputs in terms of cost and efficiency in order to make the highest possible margins with holding al-Baik’s value and quality fixed.

The Marketing Mix

In order to go beyond our borders, we need to think about the differences between us and the other countries, whether the different traditions, cultures or even consumer behavior exist or not. We might need to adjust or remove or maybe add a certain thing to the marketing mix, so it could perfectly fit the country we are going to.

Product:

Al- Baik’s products are chicken, shrimp and fish distributed on the menu as




follows:
1. ALBAIK® Chicken 8pcs (Mild or Spicy)
(8 pieces, Fries, 4 Garlic Sauce, Bread)
2. ALBAIK® Chicken 4 pcs (Mild or Spicy)
(4 pieces, Fries, 2 Garlic Sauce, Bread)
3. Chicken Fillet Nuggets 10 pcs (Mild or Spicy)
(10 pieces, 2 Nuggets Sauce, Fries, Bread)
4. Chicken Fillet Nuggets 7 pcs (Mild or Spicy)
(7 pieces, 2 Nuggets Sauce, Fries, Bread)
5. ALBAIK® Chicken Fillet Sandwich (Mild or Spicy)

see food menu :

1. Jumbo Shrimps Meal
(10 jumbo pcs, 2 Coleslaw Salad, 2 Cocktail Sauce, Fries, Bread)
2. Value Shrimps Meal
(10 butterfly pcs, 2 Cocktail Sauce, Fries, Bread)
3. ALBAIK® Fish Fillet Meal
(6 pcs of fish fillet, 2 light tartar sauce, Fries, Bread)
4. ALBAIK® Shrimp Sandwich
5. ALBAIK® Fish Fillet Sandwich






1. Hommos
2. Coleslaw Salad
3. Corn on the Cob
4. French Fries
5. Jumbo Fries with Garlic
6. Cocktail Sauce
7. Jumbo Garlic Sauce
8. Bread (2 pieces)
9. Ice Cream
(Chocolate/Strawberry)

Since Bahraini’s traditions and taste in food are very similar to Saudis, then we won’t have to make a big change in the products. Especially that many Saudis from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia visit Bahrain on a continually or even daily basis, so a large percentage of the consumers will be Saudis. However, the only thing that they could think about changing is some names of the products, so it becomes easily understood by the consumers.

In Dubai, It is known that the level of diversity among nationalities is higher than this in Bahrain. So it will be really hard to customize or satisfy all nationalities. So still, Al- Baik should be positioned as a high quality chicken fillet or chicken fillet restaurant. But at least we know that a large percentage of the people living in Dubai are Indian, and it is known that Indians are into spicy food more than many other people in the world. The spicy food already exists in Al-Baik chicken products, but an option here is either to increase the amount of spices, or add spices to other products of Al- Baik, or make a spice sauce that could be added by the consumers to the food.