Taco Bell in
Malaysia
Emmaline Northcutt, Angela Ha, Kelsey Jones, Christine Yoon, Chris Foster
What is Taco Bell?
 Industry Type: Fast Food
 Mission: “We take pride in making the best Mexican style
fast food by providing fast, friendly, and accurate service.”
 Values: “At Taco Bell, we believe that you need to “Know
Mas” to Live Mas.”
What is Taco Bell?
 Distribution: Taco Bell serves more than 2 billion customers
each year in more than 6, 500 restaurants
 Promotional techniques in the US: Taco Bell’s marketing relies
heavily on humor to appeal to its consumers. Taco Bell uses a
mix of television advertisements and sponsorships.
 Top Competitors: McDonald’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen, KFC,
Subway
Background of Malaysia
 Population: about 30,073,353
 Religion: Islam is the majority, but other religions
include Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity,
and Sikhism
 Ethnicity: Ethnic Malay is the majority, making up of
60% of the population
Background of Malaysia
 Language: Malay is the official language of Malaysia, but
other languages include English, Chinese dialects, Tamil,
and Telugu
 Economy: Malaysia is considered a middle income country
 Lifestyle: Malaysian lifestyle shifts between rural and urban
depending on the area. Urban workers tend to work longer
hours than rural workers.
Background of Malaysia
 The Malaysian government strictly regulates the
advertising industry. The Malaysian Code of Advertising
promotes cultural sensitivity and prohibits any
suggestive content. Advertisements explicitly depicting
Western culture are also prohibited due to the belief that
Malaysian citizens are not ready to accept Western
culture.
 Fast Food in Malaysia: Due to a spiking urbanization
rate, the fast food industry has room to grow. Urban
Malaysians live busy lifestyles and therefore fast food
companies are focusing on “convenient dining” by
implementing the construction of drive-thrus as well as
home-delivery systems.
Hofstede’s 5 Dimensions:
 Power Distance: 100
 Individualism: 26
 Masculinity: 50
 Uncertainty Avoidance: 36
 Indulgence: 57
 Malaysia is a high-context society.
Advertising in Malaysia
 In 2008 the advertising industry moved from more
traditional media forms to more emerging new
media advertising in order to better reach audiences.
 Traditional mediums still hold a large percentage of
the mediums used in Malaysia with newspapers
representing 54% of media.
 Advertisers need to be aware of Malaysia’s very high
power distance and individualistic qualities.
Target Audience
 We are attempting to market Taco Bell to the younger, working, “fast
life” demographic who do not always have time to prepare their own
meals.
 Our primary target market specifically includes males between the ages
of 18-24, with lower incomes, and with no or little education, including
college education.
 We are targeting the lower and middle classes of populous cities such as
Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Klang, and several others.
Needs of Target Audience
 Drive Thru allows for those on-the-go
 Air conditioned, upscale dining room
 Affordable food to attract those of lower
incomes
 Dollar menu for quick snacks
 Delivery option for those whose time is
especially scarce
 A localized twist to some items on the
menu Tourists recognize the brand
Creative Message: #TACONOW
 ‘Taconow’ is a polite command, coordinating with the
masculinity of the country (with a score of 50). It also relates
to the primary target audience, the younger male population.
 The ‘#’ serves as a catalyst for social media trends. Because
technology and social media usage grows in the country, using
a hashtag will catch the interest of the younger population.
 Taco Bell is the only Mexican- style fast food restaurant in
Malaysia. It provides quality Mexican fast food for those on
the go, while also offering a sit-down option for a collective
dining experience.
“The Box”
 The “box” is a promotional container in which each
order will be handed to the consumer. Whether the
order is to-go, through the drive-thru, or a sit-down
order, every customer will be handed a box.
Consumers can keep from making a mess in the car
or use it in the restaurant.
Billboard
 The billboards will be located along streets and
highways of large cities. The target market will spend
time driving in the peak of the day, 12pm- 4pm. The
billboard provides a detailed picture of the product
at a glance, especially during lunch and dinner times.
Banner Ad
 Keeping the consistency of the previous
advertisements, the banner ad will preserve the same
tagline “#TacoNow.”
 The banner ads will be placed online, on the sides of
buses, and newspapers- thus making it our most
versatile medium
:30 Radio Spot
 Due to the high traffic in urbanized regions such as
the capital of Malaysia, it is impertinent to include a
radio spot as a part of the Taco Bell campaign.
 This radio advertisement will play during the peak
morning commute of 6 am to 10 am. The radio spots
will be featured on the top Malaysia Radio Stations.
These stations include, Capital FM 88.9, Melody FM,
and Labuan FM (Listen).
Media Plan
 Outdoor

Billboards, bus stops
 Digital

Banner ads, web searches, Taco Bell website
 Social Media

Twitter (#), Facebook
 $80,000,000
 Regional campaign starting April 1, 2015 and will run
until March 31, 2016
 70% emphasis on top 3 BDI markets
Media Plan
Conclusion
 Questions?
 Comments?
 Concerns?