Food Fiend Experience - Book Report/Review Example

 Food Fiend Experience 1. Reasons Behind No Increase in Sales Food Fiend Experience is currently having some difficulty in attracting new customers t take part in its cooking activities. As this company only has one location that is not easily accessible to a great many people, it relies on either word of mouth advertising, or a strong Internet presence to gain new customers. At the current time, neither of these options are truly having any positive effect, even with an updated, contemporary, and user-friendly website. The new website is certainly rather informative, modern, and eye-catching to the new visitor. It is, however, lacking a few key components that are precluding the site from being a useful took in gaining new paying customers. This is reflected by the statistics that the company has shared in that the new website is generating new traffic, but is not leading to new customers. The objective of the company is to offer unique cooking experiences that families, friends, and groups can have together, while enjoying a good meal. There are numerous reasons why a website may gain an increase of traffic, yet not realise an increase in paying customers. To begin, with the prevalence of social media today, many of the new individuals visiting the companies website may not even be located in the United Kingdom (Agharmirian, 2013). One would need to look at the analytical statistics, but if Food Fiend is being promoted openly on social media, it is quite plausible to assume that many of the visitors may be directed there via a friend network located inside Sussex, even if they are not. As such, because the services of Food Fiend are obviously locally based, meaning that there is no mail order delivery available, anyone not located directly within a reasonable distance of the company itself would not be interested in its services. In addition, from looking at the website, there is no easily discernible method of booking the products and services that are offered by Food Fiend. The home page, for example, is literally just information about the company, with no actual mention of prices or how to order. In fact, pursuing the services page, a visitor is still not able to readily determine how exactly they would go about making a booking, nor what that process involves. Research does show that a website only have roughly 4 seconds to captivate a new visitor and turn them into a new customer (Allameh, 2012). From a cursory glance at the new designed website, it would appear that new visitors would simply take a look at the page and then move onto something else. In essence, we must remember that an increase in web traffic does not necessarily translate into increase revenue. In the days of traditional print based advertising, for example, it was discovered that distributing literally thousands of flyers of flyers in a particular region may result in only a few new customers coming through the doors, and after that there is no guarantee rather they would turn into new customers. The same principle holds true for Food Fiend and its system of web based advertising. It would appear that their primary objective of attracting new visitors to the site is being met, and this reflected in the reality that traffic to the site is increasing. This demonstrates that the new design is appealing to individuals, yet the sales needed to grow the company are still not being generated. It is quite likely that their efforts at social media and search engine optimisation are working, so now the focus needs to be placed on turning those visitors into purchasers (Appelbaum, 2010). This likely will entail being more focused on attracting visitors specifically located in and around the Sussex area who might be interested in the types of services that Food Fiend has to offer. In addition, making it more clear exactly how to order a course should be included on the home page of the website. 2. PESTLE Analysis on Food Fiend Experience Food Fiend is desiring to identify the possible problems that are currently preventing the business from developing and meeting its core objectives. Currently, they have three primary objectives that they want to meet in the foreseeable future. This begins with realising a sales target of 2 group experience sessions per week, which would generate sales between 250 and 500 pound each. Second, Food Fiend would like to hit an annual turnover target of 15,000 pounds, through any combination of experiences that are sold. Finally, they would like to acquire more solid leads through the use of e-commerce that will lead to actual sales. In order to identify areas of operation that Food Fiend should immediately address in order to meet these core objectives, the following PESTLE Analysis is conducted. 2.1 Political Food Fiend is primarily located with the Sussex region of the United Kingdom. They have no plans to expand to other regions, nor other countries. As such, they are only primarily concerned with the political environment of Sussex itself, which entails ensuring that it is paying proper food tax, service related taxes, and that the establishment itself is up to code. The food industry itself has a different set of regulations than would be applicable to other types of small businesses, so Food Fiend will need ensure that they keep that in mind as they begin their plan of attracting even more customers into their fold. The political scenario could begin to matter greatly if there was some type of civil unrest in the Sussex area, as this would preclude guests from being able to physically come to the location to take part in the experiences offered. This certainly does not appear to be a concern, however, as the United Kingdom currently has a peaceful environment that is infrequently wracked with much political upheaval or protest. 2.2 Economic The recent economic downturn that has affected most countries in the world certainly did not pass over the United Kingdom. As such, numerous companies have had to take a hard look at their sales and marketing campaigns in order to realign them with the needs of their current and potential customers. It is quite possible that in the short run Food Fiend will have to lower prices in order to attract new cutovers, further shrinking their already diminishing profits, and in an effort to further penetrate this speciality market. Economic conditions in a region do have a severe and well noticed influence on a small business, no matter what type of business they are in. Food Fiend appears especially vulnerable because their product is considered a luxury item that many people would not choose to purchase when financial constraints become an issue. 2.3 Social The industry that Food Fiend is in can certainly be classified as a niche market. It caters to individuals, families, and groups who enjoy cooking, want to learn more, and desire an interactive experience. While the market for this type of business might be limited, the company would be well suited to highlight the social atmosphere involved with the various activities that it offers. The experiences offered by Food Fiend all have a social component involved, so individuals can either plan this as an evening or day activity with friends or family, or choose to join an existing group experience and meet new people. Whatever the case may be, Food Fiend needs to draw more upon the social appeal of their product as they refine their marketing approach moving forward. 2.4 Technological We are certainly in an enhanced technological age that continues to evolve quite rapidly. As such, it is important for companies such as Food Fiend to integrate themselves completely with all relevant and available technology in their industry, particularly in terms of keep up with all of the recent changes that have taken place. A growing trend in recent years, particularly for small businesses, is to turn increasingly toward social media outlets as a means of promoting services and products offered to both existing and potential customers. This explosion in social media options can certainly pay dividends for Food Fiend, as they are struggling to get noticed and find new customers. Social media can also produce real time results where customers can be directed to the website to immediately book their experience. This is an important use of technology that Food Fiend must begin to better utilise if they are to meet their existing objectives of reaching new customer targets in the coming year. 2.5 Legal There are certainly numerous legal implications placed upon the food industry in the United Kingdom, particularly in terms of food preparation. The company will want to ensure that it meets existing food safety regulations within the Sussex region, that all customers are afforded the privilege to a clean and sanitary cooking environment, and that all relevant licenses and permits have been granted. 2.6 Environmental Environmental factors do not necessarily impact the business environment and marketing strategy of Food Fiend, other than from the perspective of serving food that is considered to be healthy and sustainable to the environment. One such avenue to explore is to offer organic options, where available, in order to attract the growing segment of the UK population that is increasingly concerned about the use of pesticides and various other chemicals in the growth of food, not only from a health perspective, but from an environmental one as well. 3. Outline for a Research Proposal Currently, Food Fiend has been in operation for almost three years, with modest sales being actualised. The company is facing a challenge in attracting new customers, particularly considering the reality that the population in and around the area of Sussex is limited, and that the experience cannot be offered virtually. Small to medium sized enterprises have a unique opportunity to offer personalised experiences to customers, but they also face a challenge is successfully getting the word out that their products and services actually are available for purchase. While all areas of the company except one have seen increases in revenue in each of the first three years, this increase has been rather modest, and is likely negligible given inflation and other associated increases in the cost of running this type of business. One area, Yeast Networking, has actually decreased each year, to the point now that there are no customers to report in that area. The Chef On Call Experience has not seen one customer since the business opened in 2012. The potential, however, is certainly there and the owner of this business certainly has the desire to redouble her efforts and attempt to focus in the coming year on ramping up marketing efforts to attract a steady customer base (Borges, 2007). In order to effectively accomplish this objective, the business does need to conduct a quick research study in order to determine where efforts need to be focused upon in order to realise the stated objectives in this case study. Currently, the business does have some capital that it can use to begin to turnaround sales via a more aggressive marketing campaign, but much planning should be done in order to ensure that such an effort is targeted at the right people and will result in an increase in sales (Doole & Lowe 2012). The first objective of this proposal would be to conduct a survey of existing customers over the past three years to determine what they enjoyed about the experience, and what they would want to see enhanced in order to make it even more effective in the future. In addition, research needs to be conducted to determine if all of the experiences are really worthwhile and can become profitable, or if the business should consider eliminating some of the experiences in order to focus on those that are profitable. As the PESTLE Analysis reveals, the social aspect of the business is something that should be capitalised on. If this is the case, it may be that the YEAST networking and Chef on Call services and products simply are not necessary given the clientele that the business is marketing to. Currently, these two services are not yielding any customers, yet much of the website and marketing efforts are devoted to the promotion of these experiences alone. Research should be conducted to determine if these services are actually viable. If they are not, then they should be cut in exchange for a renewed focus on the other experiences. Another aspect that this research proposal must focus on is technology. Currently, it appears the much effort has gone into redesigning the company website, yet little has come of it in the way of enhanced revenue. While traffic is up, the customers that Food Fiend desperately needs are no materialising, likely as a result of the website visitors being from out of the area. Research should be conducted about how to more effectively utilise the website to translate into new customers (Gibbert & Leibold 2012). Currently, the site is more focused on information about the business, which is certainly valuable, but it stops short of actually closing the sale. In addition, as mentioned previously, there might simply be too many options for such a small business, such that customers become overwhelmed with the information they must siphon through in order to determine if any of the experiences are of value to them. Social media can also become effective to this end. Currently, most social media sites allow for marketing efforts to be extremely target to a specific region, which is exactly what Food Fiend needs. This can also lead to enhanced visibility on the Internet by increasing its placement on search engines. In addition, social media can make better use of the extremely small staff at Food Fiend by enhancing their customer service capabilities. As opposed to having to service potential customers one by one, social media allows small businesses throughout the globe, including the United Kingdom, to swiftly respond to customer comment, questions, or concerns in a way that actually give prospective customers immediate access to a wealth of knowledge about the company via the Social Media site. In addition, social media is becoming an even more effective marketing tool than a simply website due to the multiplier effect (Dibb & Carrigan 2013). Social media affords small businesses the opportunity to have their message spread across vast networks of friends within and throughout the Sussex region that the owner would never have access to otherwise. This is important for the owner to begging to immediately capitalise upon, so this research proposal must address ways of specifically addressing this area of need within the Food Fiend organisation. This can being by focusing on existing customers that have been satisfied with the cooking experience received and asking them to become a ‘friend’ of the social media sites that Food Fiend chooses to be a part of. The company can then begin to be visible on those sites, thereby promoting their experiences to an entirely new audience almost immediately. This solves the existing problem that Food Fiend is having in terms of realising an increase in web traffic, yet no new customers to speak of. They must begin to develop more solid marketing efforts directed right within the Sussex region, and they will need to make use of existing technology to do so. This also address the economic reality that the company has limited funds available to make all of this happening. 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