Nandos Dining Restaurant Group - Case Study Example

Nando’s s Submitted by s: Introduction Nando’s is a casual dining restaurant group that was established in 1987 with a unique blend of Mozambican and Portuguese themes and has operations in thirty countries with more than one thousand outlets (Andrews, 2009, p. 19). The restaurant group mainly focuses on chicken dishes with lemons and herbs, mango and limes, and peri-peri marinades that range from medium to extra-extra hot. In some nations, the restaurant group has additional options for flavours that include Mediterranean among others (Moss, 2010, p. 299). The flame grilled chicken that is synonymous with Nando’s is served in various portions that range from quarter to full as well as breasts in the United Kingdom and other markets only. The restaurant also serves burgers, pitas, salads and wings while selling chicken liver and skewer chicken breasts as well as chicken and rice dishes that are served in a traditional Portuguese fashion. In the United Kingdom, the restaurant group is recognized for its rareness in terms of advertising and its budget towards advertisements is negligible when compared with other operators in the same industry such as KFC and Burger King but instead, it has inculcated lifestyle branding elements. The restaurant does not have to carry advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom as its customers are considered as the effective brand advocates. Social media platforms such as Twitter has been filled with individuals praising the restaurant, taking photographs of themselves having a meal at the restaurant, suggesting the restaurant would do deliveries and in some occasions criticizing it and voice alternative preferences such as KFC. Nando’s business model In 1987, a businessman named Robert Brozin and together with his friend Fernando Duarte visited a Portuguese takeaway restaurant that was called Chickenland in the southern parts of Johannesburg (Fick, 2002, p. 110). The chicken that had been grilled directly on flames at the outlet fascinated Brozin to the point that he proposed to his comrade that they purchase the outlet, which they consequently did. After the purchase, they change the name of the restaurant to Nando’s, which an abbreviation of Duarte’s first name and in a span of two years, the restaurant already had three outlets in South Africa and one in Portugal. The popularity and growth of the restaurant continued increasing the number of restaurants in the entire globe to over one thousand operating in thirty nations. This propelled Nando’s to become the most successful restaurant group to be exported from South Africa. The first branches associated with the South African restaurant group were opened in Britain in 1992 in the western parts of London to serve predominantly as takeaway restaurants. In the initial stages, the business struggled and was almost collapsing when the chairman at that time handed it over to his son who switched the focus from takeaways to a model that entailed mixed services. In this mixed service model, the actions of the customers are encouraged in a different manner with an element of responsibility that involves the customer going to the counter to make orders, picking his own cutlery, drinks and sauce, before the server can bring the ordered meal to the table. The movement in the outlets assisted in the creation of fluidity, a busy setting and an atmosphere that the customers would enjoy being part of. Each outlet was also made unique in terms of the design and décor in an effort to avoid uniformity that may give the restaurant chain a plain feel. The artworks that are displayed at Nando’s restaurants are commissioned by the restaurant itself and it also runs a global art project that allows artists from the local communities where it operates to interpret the business in their own local art forms. The restaurant group then profiles the artist together with the art, consequently transforming the wall of the restaurant into a gallery that showcases their work. The restaurant group owns the biggest assortment of art from South Africa in the United Kingdom; more than three thousand artworks being put on display in its outlets. The customized designs along with the mixed service concept have been proved to be an extremely effective formula. There were twenty nine branches in the United Kingdom by 2001, and the number increased to 114 by in the next four years. In 2012, the profits that were registered by the restaurant group were in excess of fourteen million pounds, having increased from seven million in the previous year. From this time, the love for the restaurant group has increased tremendously in the United Kingdom and the number of outlets all over the country has grown to more than two hundred and fifty. These outlets occupy a specific position within the food service sector that is referred to as “fast casual dining” and research has demonstrated that restaurants that operate in the same sector as Nando’s have an average “revisit intent” of eighty percent. These restaurants provide their services to people from all walks of life including happy families, various workers on lunch time breaks, teenagers as well as dating couples. The restaurants are safe for teenagers to visit unaccompanied and in an incisive marketing move; the restaurant comfortable in regard to its appeal to teenagers and even buoys it further through offering free refills for soft drinks. The restaurant group considers its customers as its greatest brand advocates and cautiously nurtured a number of ingenious branding dynamics while cleverly revealing the names of the famous people who have gone into the restaurants including David Beckham the footballer as well as Jay Z the musician, on a blog that appears on its Facebook page that has more than thirteen million followers. Advertising Age placed Nando’s among the top thirty most influential marketing brands in the globe in its 2010 ranking. The restaurant group is renowned for their advertisements and has utilized humorous, clever and sometimes controversial marketing campaigns in their promotions (Salzman, Matathia and OReilly, 2003, p. 140). The restaurant has created it brans in such a manner that it goes beyond food, and has employed the use of humour as well as political satire in the creation of popular advertisements that vary from being predominantly controversial to humorous. Adverts that are created for promoting the restaurant can go viral in a matter of minutes but in some instances, it has landed the restaurant in trouble because the satirical adverts make comments that touch on social, cultural and political issues in an off-beat way. Derisive and viral marketing campaigns associated with the restaurant include The Last Dictator Standing, and the 2012 diversity advertisement, that took a contentious position in regard to racial intolerance in South Africa, and was swiftly proscribed by various broadcasters. Nando’s and PCW started a working partnership that was intended for the development of its online propositions in 1998 when the restaurant group was just beginning online operations and operated five restaurants in the United Kingdom. Nando’s brand has grown and developed in the same way that the website supporting technology, marketing, human resource and online shopping among others have developed. PCW has been integral to the development through providing support, management and representation as the brand’s ambassador. In 2009, the Nando’s UK website experienced further evolution and its focus and strategic outcomes involved the establishment of a leading edge presence that would create elements of engagement such as widgets for customized choice of contents, social media, sharing, blogging and integrating with twitter, together with an enhanced design and database outputs. The association between Nando’s and PCW as an essential partner continues to inspire success and growth in regard to the brand along with its character as it expands to other areas of the United Kingdom, Ireland and also the United States where success is quantified in regard to spending, market penetration, effect and returns. Online value proposition (OVP) The main offering at Nando’s is the delicious flame grilled Peri-Peri chicken accompanied by a broad collection of salads, appetizers and other dishes (Hayes, 1993, p. 285). Nando’s also serves wonderful options for the customers who are vegetarians that include salads and burgers. There is also a specially considered menu for the children that offer the same options as those for adults but in portions that are smaller. The customers are also allowed to choose how hot they prefer their peri-peri sauce with ranges from mild lemons and herb to extra hot (Tassiopoulos, 2008, p. 86). The peri-peri has always remained as the main differentiator and unique selling proposition for the restaurant, therefore, it has included the range of choices for how hot it should be in its website when a customer is ordering his or her food online. This is because the recipes that are involved in the creation of peri-peri sauces have been the main source of pride for families and have been passed down generations. Nando’s considers its peri-peri as blends of old-world mystery and aggressively safeguarded secrets. These secret recipes exhibit themselves in the renowned Nando’s peri-peri ranges, its cooking sauces together with marinades and the renowned chicken it makes. Nando’s also considers those who are health conscious and provides them with information concerning how it cooks it meals through its interactive website. The chicken that is made at Nando’s is never deep fried, instead, the chicken is grilled perfectly on an open flame that is situated at a point where the customers can be able to see so that they can be sure that the chicken they are eating has been freshly prepared. During the grilling process, they are basted in the flavours that have been chosen by the customers, and trimmed to remove the extra fat in the chicken to make sure that the final meal has a low fat content putting them among the leanest chicken in the market. The restaurant group considers research and best practice as critical aspects in the process of designing user experiences when the brand has the engagement of a great audience. Nando’s initially considered the manner in which the customers would wish to order for their food when they entered its outlets prior to beginning the process of mapping out the journeys the customers take that replicated the in-restaurant atmosphere that is preferred by its customers. The in-restaurant experience did not culminate at the strategy, and the restaurant group integrated the atmosphere that was in their physical restaurants with the appearance of its website. This creation was then developed into wireframes that were tested by the users throughout every phase. At the end, the site was developed in such a manner that had integration with the restaurants’ backend ordering system that allowed the delivery of an end to end solution. Even though the online ordering and takeaway was initially launched as a pilot across the main restaurants in the United Kingdom, the response that was given by the customers was fantastic and the restaurant has considered rolling out the service throughout the rest of the United Kingdom. Customer relationship management of the Nando’s Nando’s restaurants are renowned for their cult-like following in regard to the loyal customers all over the United Kingdom as it is a brand that commands respect with a natural formality that has been envied by other businesses in the same sector. In efforts towards of acknowledging the loyalty of their main customers, the restaurant executed a paper-based loyalty card program that encouraged the customers to collect stamps every time they ate and these stamps could be redeemed at a later date for meals. Nando’s identified a missed chance in not implementing an eCRM system that could allow the restaurant to monitor or inspire the behaviour of the most vital customers while watching the costs of redemption that were quickly escalating. The problem was solved through engaging ‘Tangible’ which assisted the restaurant group to strategically scope and execute a pilot of a newer and more vigorous eCRM loyalty scheme whereby the magnetic cards that were issued had the capability of capturing data and awarding points that were referred as chillies, to the customers that used them. These cards acted as the foundation from which Nando’s constructed and encouraged individual communications that created an overall change in behaviours. ‘Tangible’ and Nando’s operated as true partners in the support of strategic development as well as the construction of the programs website, creation of the entire eCRM database and developing the extremely personalized communications to the customers who were part of the loyalty scheme. Even though the infrastructure that was used was extraordinarily technical, the communication between the restaurant and the customers remained simple and exciting while delivering additional brand tastiness for the Nando’s customer. The pilot that was implemented has been successful and the eCRM program has already entered the rollout stage all over the United Kingdom. Since this concept is new to Nando’s, Tangible provided the restaurant with key management through a simple and potent data platform that has the capability to display info-graphics as well as significant behaviours of the customers. Presently, the restaurant group is ahead of Dominos, TGI Fridays and Starbucks in the UK in terms of social media as it has instigated creative social media campaigns that have stood out. Promotions that include the “Finger Selfies” campaign have encouraged customers towards more involvement with the brand which in the process enables them to share their Nando’s experience thus spreading the words to the online community. Nando’s is hopeful that this campaign will act as a source of encouragement for the customers to continue streaming into its outlets. Suggestions/recommendations Nando’s developed applications for mobile devices that ran on the android and iOS platforms and has already made improvements to this application several times so that it can be able to provide its customers with tasty menus. Nevertheless, the restaurant has not been able to successfully integrate the Nando’s card into the application so that customers may be able to obtain discounts on the meals they order and free dishes if they make repeated visits. Also, the restaurant took too long to include the Blackberry and Windows platforms into the application as it makes developments for the most popular smartphone platforms founded on technology trends and statistics that it acquires on its website. The mobile friendly version of its website is a step in the right direction as it can be able to deliver full menus and directions to the customers looking for the Nando’s outlets that are closest to their locations. The restaurant should ensure that the application is integrated with social features that will allow users to post their views on social media platforms directly through the application. The restaurant should focus on the social part of the initiative as social media has become a huge phenomenon, and in so doing, the customers will have an easier time finding and getting directions to the Nando’s outlets that are in their proximity, met with friends and check in through Facebook along with other activities such as the ability to share and save the favourite Nando’s outlet. The restaurant should make sure the functionality that will be associated with it subsequent improvements of the smartphone applications incorporate the same functionalities that are available on its website to make sure that the customers get the same full experience. The application and website should also be able to direct the customers to the Nando’s outlets that are nearest to them even if they have travelled to areas that are further than their localities. Bibliography Andrews, S. 2009, Sales and marketing, Tata McGraw Hill Education, New Delhi. Fick, D. 2002, Entrepreneurship in Africa, Quorum Books, Westport, Conn. Hayes, S. 1993, Whos who of Southern Africa, Whos Who of Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg. Moss, S. 2010, The entertainment industry, CABI, Wallingford, UK. Salzman, M., Matathia, I. and OReilly, A. 2003, Buzz. J. Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. Tassiopoulos, D. 2008, New tourism ventures, Juta, Cape Town, South Africa. Read More