Business plan for a restaurant - Essay Example

? DBM MARKETING WORK Introduction The restaurant business is quite a competitive and challenging industry. It is an industry that demands careful planning before embarking on setting up the business. Restaurants thrive on demand from customers (Patti 2004, p.14). To be a success in the industry requires that the set up restaurant lures and captures customers while at the same time subduing its competition (Walker 2007, p. 55). With this, this paper will majorly focus on discussing the marketing strategy for a potential restaurant business at the London Waterloo station in nine months’ time. The marketing strategy will focus at discussing the vision, mission, goals, target market, menu, pricing, and the intended customer experience of the restaurant (Fullen 2005, p. 34). A perfect combination of the above mentioned points should help create a perfect marketing strategy that will lay an excellent foundation stone for the business to become successful in the long run. Mission The restaurant’s mission will be to sell remarkable, healthy and delicious food and drinks. That the foods and drinks the establishment shall sell will meet the highest standards of freshness, quality, and seasonality (Walker 2007, p.84). To consistently and constantly ensure that each customer gets prompt, friendly, professional and courteous service. To offer services at competitive and fair prices. To meet corporate social responsibility by ensuring that the restaurant maintains cleanliness for the guests and staff. To have every customer that comes through the restaurant’s door gets satisfied and impressed by the immaculate services offered and thrilled to come back again (Walker 2007, p. 60). Vision The restaurant’s vision shall be to become a leading and shining star in the hospitality industry around the Waterloo station. To meet the vision, the restaurant will focus on the following facets of its organization; customer service, management, employees, social responsibility, and finance. The restaurant shall strive to treat its customers with discretion, humility, and respect. The restaurant’s managers shall aim to make good and strategic decisions. The employees shall aim at treating each other with dignity, as well as the customers (Hatten 2011, p.198). The business should get to meet its financial targets and be aware of its financial position. The business should aspire to meet its social responsibility by running profitably, ethically and in accordance to the legislations and regulations (LLC 2010, p. 67). Goals The restaurants goals shall get tied to its mission and vision statements. The goals should be SMART; specific, measurable, realistic, achievable, and timely (Hatten 2011, p.88). The restaurant’s goals shall allow the business to plan and understand its point of success. The goals shall not become fixed as they will get updated with time as the business proceeds. The restaurant team should aim to achieve the business goals and assist to ensure they are met for the eventual success of the business (LLC 2010, p. 77). The restaurant’s goals shall be to provide impeccable and irresistible service by showing graciousness, warmth, efficiency, knowledge, integrity and professionalism. The restaurant also aims to improve the quality of life of the local community around the Waterloo station and beyond by conducting donations and fundraisers (Walker 2007, p. 75). Location The Waterloo station serves as a superb location for a restaurant business. The completion of the construction of a retail balcony at the station for retail and catering outlets, the station provides a fantastic location opportunity for a restaurant business (Walker 2007, p.116). The station provides a great strength for the potential business due to its strategic positioning, which serves a large number of passengers. For the restaurant to become successful, it will require a customer base, and this will be partly covered by its location at Waterloo (LLC 2010, p. 97). At Waterloo station, the restaurant will get located at the first floor. The decision to locate the business on the first floor will serve as a marketing strategy. Since the business is still new in the market, it is vital for it to get seen and be easily located by potential customers (Fullen 2005, p. 56). Placing the business on the first floor ensures that it gets easily visible by the passers-by. The first floor also ensures ease of access by customers who do not have to walk the stairways or use the elevators and lifts at the station. The first floor is also relatively busier compared to the second floor, it thus attracts more potential customers. The location of the restaurant will also assist potential customers to view the attractive menu that will get placed outside the business premise (Walker 2007, p. 85). Target market The overall target market for the business is the passengers who commute daily by the rail network services offered by the Waterloo station. The business aims to capture a share of this market by offering catering services to the commuters who eat out due to their busy schedule. The waterloo station served an estimated 91 million passengers between the months of April 2010 and March 2011. This is an impressive number that the business targets at capturing a share of. The restaurant will target all classes of people through competitive pricing. The business shall not seclude any individual as it intends at targeting through the social strata of the customers (Walker 2007, p.132). This will assist the business to have a large and wide customer base, which is vital for the growth, sustainability and success of the business in the long run. The business shall operate from 8am in the mornings till 10.30 pm in the night. This will assist the business to target a varied customer base dependent on the time of the day. It will target the early and late night passengers. Menu development and pricing The restaurant will focus at adopting Italian cuisine for its customers. This is so because the Italian cuisine is among the most popular worldwide (LLC 2010, p. 37). This cuisine will provide a good starting base for the business as it will get to attract a variety of customers. Modern restaurants base their roots on the Italian culture to ensure they are bountiful (Walker 2007, p.146). This means that the restaurant menu shall encompass a whole variety of meals. The Italian meal offers a greater variety of servings from the appetizer, pasta, meat to dessert. It also offers a variety of cheese and sausages. The restaurant shall ensure that its food gets prepared by sourcing the best fresh and natural ingredient from Italy where possible (Patti 2004, p.28). The restaurant’s Italian menu shall get to cater for children, adults and the elderly. The menu shall be nutrition conscious. Diabetic, vegan, and low fat diets will get provided as they have become common among modern day customers. The menu shall cater for breakfast, first courses, main courses and desserts. A drink menu shall get provided, and it will encompass soft drinks and a variety of wine from Italy. New dishes shall get added dependent on customer requests and demand. During the first couple months of operation, the business shall test various dishes to create an attractive menu. The menu shall also pay attention to the existent weather seasons so as to determine what dishes get suited for respective seasons (Patti 2004, p.24). The menus pricing will be fair and competitive. As a policy, the restaurant aims to attract customers across the social strata and thus serious consideration will get placed on the prices. The pricing should get to attract customers as well as ensure that the business remains competitive and profitable in the long run (Hatten 2011, p.48). The management will review the prices offered by its competitors and aim to provide customers with decent, affordable meals. The business goal is to offer delicious meals and offer a competitive edge. Customer experience The restaurant will aim to create an unparalleled customer experience that will help create and build on its brand at the Waterloo station. For the restaurant to create a perfect customer experience, the employees will go beyond seating customers, bringing menus and serving tasty food (Fullen 2005, p. 322). The restaurant management shall undertake training for its employees so that they get to take action and create value for whichever customer walks through the restaurant’s doors (Patti 2004, p.34). The restaurant shall also develop a suggestion drop box and SMS services for customers who might have suggestions or complaints. The suggestion drop box and SMS services will assist the restaurant to fix what is wrong and or improve on areas that need fast action (Walker 2007, p. 110). The restaurant will also create a Customer experience program. This will help the restaurant to identify its satisfied customers and ask them to recommend the brand to other potential customers. The program will also assist the restaurant to determine what attracts customers to their premises. SWOT analysis For the restaurant business to become successful, it is vital to carry out a SWOT analysis for it. The SWOT analysis will assist the business to identify its strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats (LLC 2010, p. 27). Strengths The restaurant’s strength lies on its location. The Waterloo station provides an appropriate site to gain a customer base from the train commuters. Its location on the first floor of the station also ensures that it is easily visible and accessible to potential customers (Odies 2010, p. 24). The business other strength will lie in its pricing. The restaurant plans on offering prices for its services that are slightly lower to its competitors present at the station (Patti 2004, p.44). The other strength lies in the fact that the restaurant shall focus on Italian cuisine. This cuisine is popular and caters for a variety of meals that will attract a wide customer base. Weaknesses Since the establishment will get located at the first floor, there is a slight chance that customers might shun it. Some customers want a quiet place to have their meals and this cannot be promised at the first floor where the movement is relatively high to the second floor. Opportunities The business opportunity lies on the completion of the construction of the retail balcony at the Waterloo station. This makes the restaurant among the first establishments to grasp the retail spaces offered (Griffin 2011, p.265). The other opportunity lies in the restaurant’s menu. The restaurant’s plans on offering diabetic, vegan, and low fat diets makes it standout with the few restaurants offering such services at the station (Odies 2010, p. 84). Threats The restaurant faces stiff competition from older restaurant establishments at the station. Some establishments have already developed a devoted customer base, and it will be difficult to lure such customers away (Odies 2010, p. 94). Reference Fullen, S. L., 2005. Opening a Restaurant Or Other Food Business Starter Kit:. Florida: Atlantic Publishing Company. Griffin, R. W., 2011. Fundamentals of Management. New York: Cengage Learning. Hatten, T. S., 2011. Small Business Management:Entrepreneurship and Beyond. New York: Cengage Learning. LLC, G. B., 2010. Railway Stations in Lambeth:. Memphis: General Books. Odies C. Ferrel, M. D., 2010. Marketing Strategy. New York: Cengage Learning. Patti J. Shock, J. T., 2004. Restaurant marketing for owners and managers. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Walker, J. R., 2007. The Restaurant, Study Guide:From Concept to Operation. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More