Applying Tactics, Actions and Control Planning System on Chicken Cottage Restaurant - Essay Example

Applying Tactics, Actions and Control planning system on Chicken Cottage restaurant Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Tactics 4 Marketing Mix (7P’s) 5 Action 8 Control 9 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction Among all the fast food restaurants in UK Chicken Cottage International is one of the well known fast food restaurants. It is the master franchisee and also the owner of Chicken Cottage brand in UK. The taste that is been used in this restaurant is by using the blend of South Asia and also the blend of Southern US is been used. The company has spread its outlets in most parts of UK and has opened around 115 outlets in the whole of UK. The company was opened in 1994in Wembley. The main objective that the company had in the starting was to create a unique logo, a good brand name in the market by creating a unique taste which is different from other fast food restaurants. They wanted to create a logo which can be memorable for all and also create brand recognition for the company in the mind of the customers. The company was been founded by Mohammad Khalid. It has 115 outlets in UK and outlets in the other countries like Dubai, France, South Africa, Libya, Algeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Sweden. It is also planning to expand its business in other parts of world in certain other countries like Canada, china, Australia and India. In this report the Tactics, Action and Control strategies of the company will be seen which has helped the company to grow in such a huge manner and achieve such good amount of success in such a loess time and the way they are helping the company to achieve its goal. The main goal that the company has set up is to become the leading local fast food restaurant in UK. Discussion Chicken Cottage restaurant since the time of starting in 1994 has kept on growing at a constant rate. The company has made serious attempts to expand the business operations and take it to a higher level. The company has been able to open 115 outlets in the whole country and get a good visibility among the customers (Chicken Cottage, 2014). It has also been able to create a good brand image in the mind of the customers. But because of the presence of huge number of competitors present in the fast food restaurant industry in the UK market it has been a tough journey for the company and it has not been able to get the position of the market leader capturing maximum market. To help the company in increasing their market share SOSTAC model is been used to analyze. Among all the 6 factors which are situation, control, action, tactics, strategy and objectives the main three factors that are been used in this case are the Tactics, Action and Control. Tactics In this section the objectives and the goals of the company is been seen and based on the goals and objectives the concept of marketing mix using the 7P’s it can be understood how the company can achieve its goals and objectives and which among the 7P’s are more necessary for the company. The main objectives for the company are been listed below. Increase the range of chosen targeted audience in order to reach more customers by (20-30%) in the next 6 months. 10% yearly increase of sale from the previous year. Be one of the best local fast food restaurants in some UK cities. Focusing on more customer satisfaction. Business expansion in other countries across the globe. Marketing Mix (7P’s) As the company is into service sector so the marketing mix used in this case is 7P’s. All the 7P’S is been analyzed below. Product The company is into providing fast foods to the customers like burgers, wraps, grilled chicken, barbeque, classics, sides and desert items. It has to make sure \that all the items that are been provided to the customer is of the best of quality and also are fresh. The meat and the vegetables that are been used for the preparation of the dishes must be fresh and also of the best of quality and also good in taste. The products must have a unique identification in the way it is been served or been prepared to get a certain level of differentiation from the other existing companies (Jain and Ahluwalia, 2008, pp. 34-37). It should also focus on the factor of providing healthy food items to the customers to attract more customers as the trend for healthy food is been increasing among the customers. Price The price of the items does play a major role because of the presence of high number of competitors in the market. Thus the company should look to have a competitive pricing strategy providing the products top the customers at an affordable price allowing them to have the best quality food item at the cheapest rate in the market. Place To expand the business in other parts of the world and also in UK the company needs to open more outlets or provide more franchisee. This will help the company to have more number of outlets in different countries to get more visibility among the customers. The areas to be chosen for opening the outlets must be chosen very careful taking many things into considerations. The area must be a good locality and should have more number of visitors on daily basis like shopping malls; markets etc. and also the costing for opening the outlet must not affect the business of the company (Kurth, 2011, pp. 23-27). Promotion Chicken Cottage restaurant must have an extensive promotional campaign making sure that the right message is been conveyed to the customers in a proper way and the customers are able to understand the exact value they can get from the restaurant. The company can look to promote using various platforms like advertising through food and other popular magazines, by conducting events from time to time in the restaurants, by allowing customers with the facility to book for parties, by advertising through television media and also by distributing pamphlets. It can also take the route for social media by conducting events and also by expressing the messages through facebook and twitter (Smith and Taylor, 2004, pp. 56-64). Chicken Cottage can come up with certain offers on weekly basis by providing certain offers over the products on a particular day in every week. Process The company needs to have a good process in the way it serves the items to the customers. The process should be efficient enough that they provide the right order to the right customer in quick time without any defects been caused. Serving the customers at a quick time will help them to reduce the long queues and also by opening more number of counters in every outlet the queue will be reduced to a good amount. Apart from this the process involved in preparation of the food items and also the supply chain management should be maintained in a good an efficient manner to make sure that the lead time between the supply of the materials and also in the cooking of the food items will be reduced. This will also help the company to utilize their resources in very optimum way and make sure that there is no wastage of resources. Physical Environment The physical environment refers to the ambiance that is been created in the outlets. This must be good enough to attract more customers as customers do prefer to have a good ambiance and a good place to have their food. The outer locality should also be good enough so that the outlet is not affected by the external locality in any way. The outlets must be providing a soothing affect to the customer’s to make them feel good and also compel them to come again and again. People The employees working in the company must be given with the best of training so that they behave well with the customers and also provide the service to the customers in the best way. Customers are considered to be the form of God in any business and same goes even for this company also the employees should treat the customers in the form of God and look to achieve maximum customer satisfaction with the service (Burrow, 2011, pp. 76-78). Thus the company being in the restaurant industry and looking to have a continuous growth in its business and also for expanding its business must look to concentrate on all the 7P’s. As all the 7 factors are very crucial for the company to achieve its objectives and also for making the customers more satisfied from the service that the company provides on daily basis in all the outlets at all the locations in UK and also in other countries. Action In this the leadership and also the way the company has got its culture is been seen. The leadership skill and also the organization culture does affect in a huge way the company performs. There is a huge difference between a good performing company and a non-performing company based on their leader and also the way they maintain their organizational culture. Chicken Cottage restaurant must make sure that the company maintains a good culture in its organizations making all the employees work as a single team and also work together for the company’s growth. Working in as a team is very important for the company to achieve its objectives as all the members will come together to provide the best quality service to the customers (Arnold, 1992, pp. 176-184). The leader of the company is Mohammad Khalid, who needs to make sure that all the employees in the company work as a single unit. He needs to keep motivating the employees on a constant basis in a way that they keep working in more efficient way. The performance of the employees must be recorded based on many factors like the way they have made the service, the number of mistakes done in the service and other factors (Kotler, 2001, pp. 123-129). Based on these factors the employees should be provided training programs to make sure their skills are been enhanced and they are able to work in more efficient way by improving their skills. Thus the training programs will help the employees to grow in a good way. This will help the company to have a constant growth in this business process and thus expand its business in not only in UK but in other parts of the world as well. Mohammad Khalid as the leader of the company has to make sure that he world in an efficient manner and takes the right decision in the right time which will help the company to grow in a good way. The performance of the employees must be monitored on a continuous basis based on which the rewards must be given to them. These reward system based on the performance will make sure that the employees are been highly motivated to increase their performance level. This system will help the company to increase its productivity and thus enable it to achieve its goal and objectives in a successful manner (Keller, 1998, pp. 76-84). Control For Chicken Cottage restaurant formulating the strategies and the tactics is not enough. The company needs to have a good control over the entire process in a good way. It should have a control over the way the decisions are been implemented which might bring certain changes in the way the company operates. The company needs to have a good control over the performance of its employees and also the strategies to see that they all are been implemented in a successful and efficient manner thus increasing the profitability of the company. The reports and the data are been submitted to the managers must be scrutinized in a proper way to make sure that the problems present in the process are been identified. This will help the company to rectify the problems and also make the improvements in a proper way such the company is able to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. The control over the way the employees work does helps in keeping a good track over the growth in the efficiency of the employees. Thus any required improvements that are needed to be made in the performance of the employees can be made and the efficiency of the employees can be enhanced by improving their skills. Even the tactics that the company implements with respect to the product quality, price, promotions, the process, physical environment should also be controlled in a proper way to make sure that the return on investment is good and the company gets a good profit margin (Pride and Ferrell, 2011, pp. 145-152). The promotional activities must be kept under control to make sure that the right message is been conveyed in a proper way to the customers and they customers are able to understand the exact value that the company creates for them. In the same way the product price must also be set up in such a way that the company gets a good percentage of profit and also provided the items to the customers at a competitive price which is very much affordable for the customers. The product quality must also be maintained and should be kept in control to make sure that the items needed for making the products should be fresh and also of the best quality. For this the company needs to have a good control over the suppliers to make sure they get good quality meat, vegetables and other items (Wenderoth, 2009, pp. 54-59). Conclusion Looking at this case it can be seen that the company Chicken Cottage restaurant to become a leader in the fast food restaurant in UK has to implement the best of strategies and also make sure that the right decision is been implemented in the right time. It needs to have a good team work and also a good leadership skills will help the company to be motivated in a good way and make sure for them that they can achieve their objectives in a successful manner and create a huge brand image in the global market capturing a good market share. This will also allow the company to achieve its goal and also provide a huge amount of competitive advantage to the company. It will make them to work in more efficient way and with lots of motivation to become successful thus continuously increase the market share of the company. It will make them to attract more number of customers over the previous year and also achieve higher level of customer satisfaction. The overall process and also tactics must be kept in a good level of control to make sure that they work in an efficient manner and also achieve their goals and objectives in a successful manner without much of problems. This will also provide a good competitive advantage to the company over the other competitors present in the same industry and help them in becoming the leading local fast food restaurant in UK. Thus by using the three factors of SOSTAC the way the company can achieve its objectives and goals can been seed and understood in a clear way. References Arnold, D. 1992. The Handbook of Brand Management. London: Century Business. Burrow, J. 2011. Marketing. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Chicken Cottage. 2014. About Us. [Online]. Available at:< http://www.chickencottage.com/about.php>. [Accessed on 10 May 2014]. Jain, G and Ahluwalia, R. 2008. Marketing Communications Industry: Entrepreneurial Case Studies. New Delhi: SAGE Publications India. Keller, K. L. 1998, Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. London: Prentice-Hall. Kotler, P. 2001. Marketing Management. London: Prentice Hall. Kurth, S. 2011. Molson Coors to launch “clear beer for women”: Campaign Planning and Development Individual Assignment. Germany: GRIN Verlag. Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. 2011. Marketing. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Smith, P and Taylor, J. 2004. Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Wenderoth, M. 2009. Particularities in the Marketing Mix for Service Operations, Berlin: GRIN Verlag. Read More