Formation of Competitive Advantages of the Foodtech Industry Organization by Means of Rebranding

Abstract

The reality is that markets and technologies are constantly evolving, transforming and changing, which forces enterprises to look for new sources and ways to obtain competitive advantages that determine the position of enterprises in a competitive environment. The company's activities should be flexible enough so that it can quickly adapt to changes in the external environment. In this regard, the rebranding does not lose its relevance. The development of FoodTech is driven by convenience and necessity. Because of the pandemic, attitudes towards living space have changed. By FoodTech in a narrow interpretation, online food delivery services from shops and restaurants are most often meant, although in a broad sense, the entire chain of farms, food production and sales can be attributed to this format. Some enterprises began to work on the dark kitchen model (kitchen production with an order delivery service and takeaway work). The purpose of the study: to assess the impact of rebranding on the perception of consumers in the food industry in the conditions of transformation of the external environment (on the example of a catering company N). In accordance with the goal, the following tasks are set: to investigate the essence of rebranding as a competitive advantage of the organization; trends in the food industry, such as FoodTech and dark kitchen; to explore the market of cloud kitchens / "dark kitchens" by region; to identify situations conducive to rebranding; to develop directions for rebranding, to justify the feasibility of rebranding in the organization. Constantly there are news that one or another large company has adjusted its positioning or changed its corporate identity using restyling, repositioning, rebranding. According to the author, the differences in these types of brand updates are as follows. Restyling – partial or complete aesthetic changes in the system of visual representation of the brand's communicative attributes. Repositioning – changing the position of a product or service in the perception of consumers, giving a new image, switching to another target audience. Rebranding is a comprehensive solution to change the strategy, ideology, format. Approbation of the evaluation model of the proposed changes during rebranding was carried out on the example of the food industry enterprise – restaurant N in the Moscow region. The changes taking place in the field of activity of enterprise N were the reason for the rebranding.