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 Contents 1.0 Executive Summary 3 2.0 Situation Analysis 4 2.1 Market Summary 4 2.2 SWOT Analysis 7 Internal strengths 7 Internal weakness 7 External opportunities 7 External threats 8 2.3 Competition and market share 8 2.4 Product (Service) Offering 10 2.5 Keys to Success 11 2.6 Critical Issues 12 3.0 Marketing Strategy 14 3.1 Mission 14 3.2 Marketing Objectives 14 3.3 Financial Objectives 14 3.4 Target Markets 15 3.5 Positioning 15 3.6 Strategies 16 3.7 Marketing Mix 16 3.8 Marketing Research 18 3.8.1 Research Objectives 18 3.8.2 Research Methodology 18 3.8.3 Data Analysis 19 4.1Controls 19 4.2Implementation 19 4.3Marketing Organization 20 4.4Contingency Planning 21 5.0 Conclusion 21 References 23 1.0 Executive Summary The report represents a marketing plan of a new restaurant food business named BiCE at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi UAE. The restaurant is a new start-up under the umbrella of BiCE restaurant group. The restaurant is renowned for serving authentic Italian delicacies. For developing a detailed marketing plan for a new business in-depth analysis and understanding of various environmental factors, competition, current internal situation, market analysis, target market and their consumption trend. Marketing strategies and implementation plan have been developed after conducting market analysis including market competition, SWOT analysis and consumer behavior analysis. This market plan also induces future scenario and action plan. Key findings from environmental analysis, market analysis, competition analysis in the target market and detailed strategies and implementation plan have been summarized as follows. United Arab Emirates has been enjoying modern, diversified and growing retail food sector over the years. Increasing development of new hypermarkets in last few years is the key driver for rapid growth in retail food sector. 90% of the total consumed food especially food ingredients s outsourced from markets and processed in this market. Therefore the domestic firm has huge opportunities in food market of UAE. Consequently, the people have high disposable income and for this reason they are very much reluctant to pay higher price for food if it is presented in a luxurious way and environment. Nevertheless, very few domestic businesses operate in retail food sectors as luxurious restaurant like multinational food chains present in this market. Therefore, future growth of this new business has been identified after detailed analysis of business environment, market trend and consumer behavior. The main objective its marketing strategy would be to position the brand as luxurious restaurant with a touch of western culture. To develop a brand the company also needs to offer varieties of dishes considering the domestic culture and food habits and also popular foreign recipes. 2.0 Situation Analysis 2.1 Market Summary Market of BiCE refers to the potential customers who would be interested in consuming high quality Italian food with premium services. The defined market also covers the purchasing power of the target customers and the product and service offered by the company are permitted by the laws and regulation. The company faces demand of its product and services from a niche market only then it can gradually work towards achieving greater market share by following the trends and demands of the market. According to the Economic Report of 2012-2013 of the UAE the Hotels and Restaurants sector held almost 1.7% of the market during 2010 and 1.7% in the following year. The sector was worth 22 Billion AED during 2010 and a slight increase in the value happened in 2011. Moreover the market exhibited a price increase in the eatery and non-alcoholic beverages segment which was 4.45% during 2010 and reached 5.87% during 2011 (Annual Economic Report, 2012). The service sector of UAE illustrated continuous decline throughout 2012, 2013 and appear to decline in 2014. The given diagram represents the same- The growth of the Oil sector has been assumed to slow down to 4.0% during 2013 and 3.8% in 2014. Since Oil business is the prime means of earning in the UAE therefore its fall might affect the income of the population. Further the banking sector is estimated to reveal a stronger borrowing trend which means that people cannot satisfy their needs with the support of their earnings solely. Thus loans seem to be a better idea. However among all the odds Abu Dhabi possesses the maximum oil and gas reserves along with 43 percent of the population and 87 percent of the land area. The hydrocarbon proceeds per national of Abu Dhabi is $232000, which is the maximum within the GCC. The per capita GDP of Abu Dhabi is almost $82000 which is greater than twice the average GDP of the UAE (UAE Economic Insight, 2013). This information has been displayed below- Therefore it can be said that although the market of UAE doesn’t seem to be promising enough for luxury restaurant business, still Abu Dhabi’s market represents a quite potential market which includes citizens who are financially much more affluent than the people of other parts of the UAE. Additionally a huge Restaurant like BiCE would require a broader area which is already present there at Abu Dhabi. Among the total 8.8 million populations of the Emirates, almost 89% of the people are expatriates and only 11% are the nationals of the UAE. Thus, it can be said that BiCE’s Italian dishes has a prospective market to serve as most of the people staying there are originally from foreign nations who prefer such cuisines. 2.2 SWOT Analysis Internal strengths BiCE will offer a complete package of Italian foods which will satisfy the variety seeking group of customers. The hospitality service will be premium and have advanced mix of national and western culture touch. There are very few existing restaurants that offer such kind varieties of food, beverages, service and environment. Internal weakness BiCE will position the brand as premium restaurant brand in Abu Dhabi which is business and commercial hub of UAE. Therefore, initial marketing and promotional cost need to be very high in order to develop a premium brand. Again, it needs to install advanced food processing instruments to offer fast service and also a luxurious environment for the guests. Moreover serving a niche market can prove to be harmful in the long run. External opportunities The international food businesses has increased the demand for specialised electronic food processing systems and this factor has increased the availability of these machines even at lower price. This is a major opportunity for small food businesses like BiCE. This business also can get global exposure in terms of new recipe from the international brands present in this market. Annual growth rate of retail food market has been 10% to 15% in since past several years. 85% of total consumed food in this market is manufacturing locally (TDAP, 2012, p.5). Increasing consumption power of people is another growing opportunity and retail food industry has been successful in grabbing this opportunity. External threats Emerging hazard in food crop production and food processing are major threats to the company. Again low priced food ingredients are highly used in this type of businesses and the company is also bound to use these to compete in the market in terms of price. The food habits of majority of domestic people are same and most of the families are traditional cultured. Traditional families and people generally do not prefer the patterns of western culture within their society and food habits (DIFSC, 2007, p.5). 2.3 Competition and market share Companies around the world are continuously fighting battle to acquire larger market shares than their rivals. In this attempt they look for several means to achieve the greater market share by the means of innovation and creativity. Efficient marketing strategies are explored by the marketers as a major tool for making higher revenues than their rivals. The rivalry is more obvious in the service industry which is experiencing a rapid growth throughout the world. The hospitality sector in the UAE, particularly Dubai, has gone through a prosperous growth phase over the previous decades. During 2006, for example, the UAE experienced more than 6 million tourist footfalls from around the globe. As per Philip Kotler, companies operating in a certain market are prone to differ in terms of their resources, size and purposes. Some firms are large, having ample resources and seek to gain the position of the leading player of the market. Whilst the small firms own narrow resources and wish only to endure the competition and survive. Based on the company’s resources, promotion expenditure, and market share, the restaurants of the UAE have been classified as- 1. Market Leader- These are the enterprises that owns the maximum market share. These include the luxury hotels like Starwood Hotels and Resorts and the Armani Hotel in Dubai. 2. Market Challenger- These are the firms that stands just after the market leaders. Prominent example is Anantara Hotel in Dubai and the Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts (Tourism Outlook UAE, 2011). 3. Market Follower- In the case of these firms the market share remains almost 20% since they tend to blindly follow the market leaders and market challengers thus gathering the success factors from both the leader’s and challenger’s strategies. 4. Market Nicher- These are the firms that serve only a small segment and get ignored by majority of the market. The “nicher” holds around 10% of the market share (Desai, 2013). BiCE holds a Niche market that serves only Italian delicacies. Thus the expected competition is less in this sector. Still as a newcomer, BiCE will face a certain amount of competition from the already established Italian restaurants of Abu Dhabi like Frankie’s which has a fun, light and cosy Italian ambience, Biancorosso offering a suitable atmosphere for a lunchtime gathering and Mezzaluna having an impressive interior with plush furniture and high ceilings. Therefore BiCE should always keep in mind the positive and negative factors of the leading Italian hotels at Abu Dhabi and should frame strategies accordingly. 2.4 Product (Service) Offering BiCE offers an entire Italian experience to its visitors. Italian rock music can be heard often in the lounge area. The surrounding of the restaurant has been decorated by terracotta structures and Etruscan bronze statues. The range of cuisines include a wide range of dishes starting from appetizers like Fritto di calamari, gamberi, zucchine e carciof, Carpaccio like Carpaccio di aragosta con composta di mango piccanto e salsina al caviale,Salad like Insalata Cesare con crostini all’aglio, soup like Zuppa di orzo e gamberi, Pasta like Penne all’arrabbiata, Risotto like ai funghi Porcini, Main Course like Filetto di tonno rosso, in crosta di sesamo con caponata Siciliana, and Side orders like Mixed salads, Sautéed spinach- Sautéed mushrooms - Steamed vegetables, and Grilled vegetables - Mash potato - Grilled asparagus - Grilled asparagus. Apart from offering exquisite Italian dishes the restaurant also provides accommodation facilities. But the accommodation service is available during the peak seasons when most of the tourist visits the UAE for shopping and spending their holidays. The upstairs of the restaurant has 15 rooms in total out of which 5 are luxury suits meant for the elite people and the rest 10 are for regular visitors. These suits are often hired by people visiting the emirates for business purposes. The restaurant is frequently booked for throwing parties and for occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. There are two swimming pools at the backside of the restaurant and a lawn attached to the garden. A children’s park is also there for the recreation of the kids. The house-keeping team maintains the hygiene & cleaning services on a regular basis. The foods are cooked and served with high quality assurance and the restaurant also has renowned Italian cooks from across the world. The front desk service executives offer multilingual options to the visitors that include Arabian, English, French, Italian and Japanese. The resort premises have two ATMs of leading banks of the UAE. Also the resort offers tour guides for a better travel experience. It also has a large seminar hall for arranging business meets and conferences. 2.5 Keys to Success Financial- Financial resource is the most essential and important resource for a new business. The business structure of BiCE is offering premium multi-cuisine restaurant service with western environment. Since the parent brand of BiCE funds all the financial needs of the restaurant therefore it proves to be an essential success factor for BiCE, Abu Dhabi. Time- Time is another important factor for new brand development. Efficient time management and proper estimation of required time are very important for marketing plan implementation to develop a new brand. BiCE Abu Dhabi was founded during the winter season of 2012. As it is the holiday and festival time for most regions around the world, therefore the opportunity was exploited reasonably and in a calculative manner. Skills- Skills of management and employees are important factor for sustainable growth of this business. The employees of BiCE are well educated and well experienced. A few trainees are there who get properly trained by their supervisors and teamwork helps them to learn their job in an efficient manner. Multilingual options- This option encourages the people from other countries to visit BiCE and try the Italian delicacies. Accommodation- Accommodation facility allows people to visit Abu Dhabi with family and stay there for longer period of time. Customer care- BiCE offers a customer friendly environment where people won’t feel uncomfortable or out of the box. The staffs of the restaurant are at the customer’s service 24/7. Loyalty points- The group offers loyalty points to regular visitors and on accumulating 500 points these customers can redeem the points from any store (as specified on the loyalty card). 2.6 Critical Issues The foremost critical factor to be considered is supply chain. Supply chain in food industry includes many players or intermediaries. Supplier of crops, vegetables and fruits are the main players in supply chain of food industry. According government’s report on food industry, 85% of total food ingredients are imported and processed locally for making retail foods. . UAE food market size is $5 billion and US is the major supplier of food products in this market (Ameinfo, 2012, p.1). Therefore, foreign suppliers of food ingredients are the main the main players in UAE food supply chain. The local retail food manufacturing companies do the final processing part and present the products to the customers for ready to eat. Other critical issues include- 1. Legal- This company will operate restaurant food business which is very much sensitive category of business. Legal policies imposed in comparatively higher extend in food businesses than any other businesses in any economy. As a food processing business, it needs to follow the rules and regulations imposed by the government authorities regarding ensuring quality food to the people of the country. 2. Technology- Technology is one of the important macro enviro9nment factors which have substantial impact on this food business. Use of advanced technology in business process and activities stimulate the output and potentiality of a business which also help to compete with the intonation companies in the same market. Again familiarity of advance technology among the people of the target market will help the company to efficiently communicate to the target audiences of this business 3. Ecology- Ecology is one important environmental factor of food business. Ecology controls the production and consumption food product in geographic region. UAE import more than 80% food ingredients from foreign countries and therefore, ecology of this region does control the production but it has substantial impact on post consumption stages of food products. 4. Socio cultural setting- UAE has become the cultural hub of many people from different countries. It has become business destination for multinational business to operate businesses in many other Middle East countries. A major change in the food habit of people has been identified and it seems likely followers of western food habits. Therefore, the people of this country enjoy global cultural exposure especially in the areas of food, clothing and entertainment. This changing trend in food habit of people is positive micro environmental factor for this restaurant food business. 3.0 Marketing Strategy 3.1 Mission Mission of BiCE is to offer a diversified portfolio of high quality hygienic foods and beverages with premium service in an advanced mix of national and western cultured environment. Vision of the company is to become most preferred destination of younger people and families for food and recreation in wherever it presents. 3.2 Marketing Objectives Marketing objective is the first and most important stage of marketing planning process. BiCE is a new restaurant brand of UAE, initially located at Abu Dhabi. The long terms vision of the company must be reflected along with its mission in the marketing objectives. First marketing objective is to develop premium restaurant brand so that it can be positioned as the leading multinational retail food chains present in this market. Second objective is to make this brand popular among its niche target segment of people who wants to get food and recreation from a domestic brand that offer wide range of foods in a environment with integrated mix of western and national culture. 3.3 Financial Objectives The main focus of the business will be to maintain a balance between the resources exploited and the revenue generated. For this the firm needs to maintain a good professional relationship with all of its major stakeholders like creditors, suppliers, employees and customers. It will also concentrate on liquidity of the business to ensure flawless supplier and creditor management in the long run. 3.4 Target Markets BiCE will offer varieties of dishes including popular foreign recipes along with major categories of food and beverages that have higher demand in the local market. The objective of this business is to develop the brand as premium brand and a major competitor of multinational food chains present in this market. Therefore, the company focuses on the youth segment who more likes to have food outside with their friends and family. It also targets the families which poses advanced mix of domestic and western family culture. Overall the customers segment is quite wide and the age group ranges from kids to senior citizens. 3.5 Positioning It has been analyzed that there exists a huge demand for Quick Service, Casual Dining and Fine Dining categories and with change in consumer’s taste and preference. The fast food centers have gained a huge attraction and are expected to grow globally in the near future. Product life cycle of food product is very small because the customers do not stick to a particular food product for a longer period of time. Recent trend in food market of UAE shows that taste and preference of the people in this area changes frequently especially for the food products. So, BiCE, the leading restaurant operator in UAE region also needs to make changes in their positioning strategy for each of its franchised restaurant business. Pricing of products is one of the most important areas of the positioning strategy. It needs to be changed with the change of each stages of product life cycle i.e. from introduction to growth followed by maturity and decline stage. Also the restaurant should position itself as an authentic Italian food hub made for everyone. However since it is a luxury restaurant, the consumers should be made aware that the dishes will be costly at BiCE. The positioning strategy of the firm might include a tagline like, “The fine dine in an Italian way”. 3.6 Strategies The strategies of the firm should be framed keeping in mind the price of the competing restaurants offering the similar kind of products. If the price at BiCE is set at a slightly higher range then it should compensate its customers with services worth the higher price. BiCE has already made arrangements for recreation of the consumers visiting the restaurant. This value addition should be done for every aspect of the marketing mix which will be discussed in the next section. The firm might also introduce some other types of cuisine apart from offering Italian delicacies. Various kind of product extension and some kind of new product development would help the firm to achieve a greater market share apart from acquiring its niche market. 3.7 Marketing Mix Product- BiCE would focus on rendering a diverse array of food menus to meet the tastes and food demands of people pertaining to various nations pertaining to China, Thailand, Arabic, and other European countries like Germany and France. Similarly the restaurant would also tend to meet the food needs of other expatriate population coming from United Kingdom and United States to United Arab Emirates. The food packages would be enhanced through the rendering of other beverage drinks and also of alcoholic drinks like wine and others. Moreover the restaurant would also focus on encouraging the people to enjoy their socializing activities through helping them savor on the food and drink products in an eat-out zone with adequate seats attached for gossiping. Similarly the rendering of a Wi-Fi facility would further contribute in meeting the needs of the expatriate people in the country to effectively socialize after business hours. Price- BiCE would need to focus on differentiating its product package from other competitors through a differentiated pricing strategy. The differentiated pricing strategy would largely incorporate both the elements pertaining to penetration and pricing mix into its business structure. More specifically, BiCE would tend to largely penetrate the consumer market for fast foods through the use of Price Penetration Mix where average price depending on marketing and economic conditions would be used for pricing the different food products. However where the consumer would tend to avail additional offerings like alcoholic and other beverage oriented drinks along with game and Wi-Fi connection for entertainment the same would be priced on a Premium note. Promotion- BiCE to effectively promote the restaurant to the target market for eating out in the Abu Dhabi region can effectively take resort to strategies like print and broadcast advertising. Print advertising rendered in popular magazines dedicated to promoting tourism and fast foods and also through the use of television programs would contribute in attracting the larger masses. Further the company needs to design its website and take use of other social marketing networks like Face book and LinkedIn to gain further market penetration in the Arab Emirates market. BiCE can also dedicate special evenings to special menus like ‘Pizza Nights’ or ‘Chinese Nights’ to thereby cater to the interests of niche groups in the Abu Dhabi market. Place- Relating to location parameters the restaurant would be located in the vicinity of business and tourism centers in Abu Dhabi. Locating the restaurant in such areas would amount to attracting a huge flow of tourists and other business groups to the restaurant. The residential population in Abu Dhabi is mainly characterized with high amount of disposable income and assets. Owing to the high amount of disposable income the people would tend to go for luxurious consumption pertaining to food and other leisure segments that counts as a point of attraction for BiCE. 3.8 Marketing Research 3.8.1 Research Objectives The research would aim at knowing the tastes and preference of the general people regarding food and beverages. Furthermore, the research would also focus on knowing people’s feedback regarding the Italian food available at BiCE and at other renowned restaurants of Abu Dhabi. This would simply make BiCE aware of the rectification needed to be done in its marketing strategies and promotional part. Additionally BiCE would come up with new strategies and implement those for attracting a greater share of the market. 3.8.2 Research Methodology Primary research would prove to be ideal for the present scenario. In case of primary research, the researcher who is trying to gather data and relevant insights focus on information gathering mostly through the process of application of a survey instrument like a questionnaire. Also the data that needs to be collected by the researcher for the conduction of the research can be either qualitative or quantitative in nature. In this case quantitative data seems to be more suitable. While gathering quantitative kind of data for research purposes, the researcher tries to observe and measure the effect and influence of the assumed variables on the main theme that is supposed to be covered by the research topic (Thomas, 2000, p.2). 3.8.3 Data Analysis The data collected must be analyzed by the application of strategic tools like histogram and pie charts. Moreover for supporting the analysis and gaining further knowledge on a particular domain it is essential to evaluate some secondary data and theories available online or in some published journal. 4.1 Controls 4.2 Implementation The primary responsibility of the restaurant business in Abu Dhabi is to render the best possible service to the customer base in terms of timely rendering of food supplies that would be of highly rated both along the parameters of quality and taste. Another prime responsibility of the restaurant business is to sustain the consumers in the light of potential competition through enhancement of variety and incorporation of recreational facilities. Similarly the internal people or the staffs also need to be effectively motivated and made focused to work in a more loyal fashion in helping the business earn more revenue and profitability. Thus the strategies discussed already can be implemented by- 1. A suitable training program for the employees 2. Introducing a blend of Middle Eastern and Italian culture 3. Adding some more variety of food and beverages apart from Italian cuisines 4. Running the operations with the help of technology 5. Introducing themes like “pizza night” or “Arabian nights” 4.3 Marketing Organization Previously BiCE used to be a customer based marketing organization catering to the needs of only those who prefer Italian food. However since the players in the market in a similar profile are increasing on a day to day basis, therefore BiCE is now planning to introduce itself as a Matrix Structure with a wide variety of foods and beverages to entice a greater number of people towards paying a visit to the restaurant. The organizational structure has been shown below- Operations Managers Functional Managers (Marquis & Huston, 2009, pp. 267-274) 4.4 Contingency Planning An effective contingency plan needs to be set by BiCE restaurant to safeguard the business losses emanating at times of recession when the flow of tourists and other expatriate population would get reduced. Similarly the restaurant manager is also required to keep an eye on effective storage and management of data relating to consumers and employees working in the concern pertaining to its different branches. Effective backup of data relating to these electronic records is required to be maintained at the forecast of emergence of system and technical errors contributing to data loss (Childs and Deitrich, 2003, p.86). 5.0 Conclusion It can be concluded that BiCE, despite of serving high-end sectors, feels a need to expand its market share since the maximum profit from the hotel sector is attracted by the market leaders leaving a minimal part of the niche marketers. Restricting the products within a particular range appears to be the greatest weakness of the firm and therefore even though BiCE offers additional services like accommodation, children’s park, ATMs, swimming pool etc. Still it finds it difficult to gain a significant return on investment. Moreover these services affect the firm’s profit in a negative manner. In order to tackle this situation the firm conducted a SWOT analysis and considered all the crucial factors present in the environment. Also a research plan has been prepared and the data obtained from the findings of the research will be further analyzed. Based on these analysis the marketing strategies must be formed which will help the firm to make some product extension and consequently it would draw greater profits for them. References 1. Annual Economic Report. (2012). UAE Ministry of Economy. 20th Issue. Planning and Decision Support Department. Retrieved from http://www.economy.ae/English/Documents/Annual%20Economic%20Report%202012-en.pdf 2. Childs, D. and Deitrich, S. (2003). Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide. John Wiley and Sons. 3. Desai, S. (2013). An Analysis of the Competitive Marketing Strategies of the Hospitality Industry in UAE. IUP Journal Of Management Research,12(1), 22-32. 4. DIFSC. (2007). Food Safety Conference 2007. Retrieved from http://www.foodsafetyAbu Dhabi.com/prevconf/files/DIFSC01.pdf. 5. Marquis, B. L & Huston, C .J. (2009) Leadership Roles and Management Functions in nursing: theory & application (6 ed) China: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 6. TDAP. (2012). Agri-Food Sector Profile United Arab Emirates. Retrieved from http://www.tdap.gov.pk/doc_reports/TDAP_Report_on_Agro_Food_sector_in_UAE.pdf. 7. Thomas, R.M., and Brubaker, D.L., (2000). Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Research, and Writing. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group. 8. Tourism Outlook UAE, (2011). VISA. Retrieved from http://corporate.visa.com/_media/visa-tourism-outlook-uae.pdf 9. UAE Economic Insight. (2013). QNB. Retrieved from http://www.qnb.com.qa/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1355486404313&ssbinary=true 10. Ameinfo. (2012). Middle East's retail food sector undergoing major consolidation. Retrieved from http://www.ameinfo.com/249433.html. Read More