Social Media Marketing - Case Study Example

Business Plan Introduction Jacob’s Grill is a small restaurant that serves a loyal s who go the restaurant every evening and weekends to enjoy custom meals. The main food is grill food and drinks, both alcoholic and non alcoholic. Strategy to compete with Jacob’s Grill Timely meals and drinks An observation of Jacob’s Grill indicates that one of the challenges that it faces is with regard to how they are able to serve their customers. They are not able to predict demand for the day and this means that they are not able to serve the customers effectively and fast. When a customer orders for a custom meal, the customer has to wait for too long and this means that customer satisfaction is low. Perfect Grill will use technology to solve this problem and thus make it easier to compete with Jacob’s Grill. A programmer will be hired to develop an app that the customers can install in their phones. The customers can use the app for the following; Placing orders The customer can place orders before arriving at the restaurant. This will mean that the kitchen manager can know the demand prior to the customers arriving to the restaurant. This will mean that the customers will not have to wait for too long after arriving at the restaurant. This improves the level of service and the customers will be happy with this. The customers will also be able to pay for their orders through the app. This will be important in that it will help in dealing with customers who may cancel the orders. If the customers are given the option to order through the app but not pay, the rate of cancelling the orders may be high and this is not be good for business. However, by allowing the customers to pay through the online app, the rate of order cancellation will be low. Access the day’s specials The customers can also access the day’s specials and know what to order. Apart from displaying the menu for the restaurant, the app will be able to help the customers to access the day’s special. This will be updated on a daily basis and the customers can be able to know what the day’s specials are even before they arrive at the restaurant. Once the customer places an order for a meal, the app will be able to determine if there are enough materials to make the meal for the customer. This will mean that the app will be linked to the inventory records of the firm. For instance, if a customer uses the app to order for a grilled chicken, the app will have to first check if there are chicken in the inventory which will be used to make the order. The customer will also have to give a timeframe of when he is expecting to arrive at the restaurant. This will help in determining when the chefs in the kitchen will start making the meal. Of course, some factors will have to be considered such as traffic jams. In a modern day like this, there are many resources that can be used to access data about traffic in a city (Gibson, 2012). The app will use this and try to access these resources to help the customers to be able to know how long it is going to take them to arrive at the restaurant. If the above strategy is implemented properly, it will be easy to compete with Jacob’s Grill in a way that the restaurant will curve its market niche. Part II: Business Plan Business Description Perfect Grill is a restaurant that offers its customers custom meals. Perfect Grill serves custom meals to its customers by allowing the customers to order a custom meal. This means that there will be both standard menus as well as the non-standard menus. The customers arrive at the restaurant and order what they want to eat. Most people are used to going to a restaurant where their choice of the meal they can eat is limited to the items in a menu. Sometimes the items (meals) featured in the menu are not necessarily what the customers want. As a result, allowing the customer to be able to order something they want will be a way to make sure that the customer can eat what they intend to eat as opposed to just being forced to be limited to what the restaurant offers. Perfect Grill will be able to have a competitive advantage over the traditional restaurant in that the customers will be served in the most personalize manner. Each customer need will be addressed individually. This is informed by the fact that people are different and every person has a different taste of things. People will appreciate the fact that they can order a perfect custom meal and have it prepared and served to them in just a moment. Market analysis The hospitality industry, especially the restaurant sector is a big sector. Many people are too busy to cook in the house and therefore prefer to eat outside, however, they are in most cases unable to get a place they can have a good meal that resembles a homemade meal at a reasonable cost. Mot people have the option to either eat in a fast-food restaurant or to eat in relatively expensive restaurants. Even when they choose to eat in an expensive restaurant, there is still no guarantee that they will be able to get a customized meal that suits their taste. These people will be all too willing to come to Perfect Grill and get the perfect meal at a reasonable cost. Organizational structure The structure of Perfect Grill will be a hierarchical structure. The firm will be headed by a CEO who will oversee the executive decision making in the firm. However, unlike a traditional business, Perfect Grill will not have a secretary. Below the CEO, there will be various managers. These will be as follows; Chief Financial officer The chief financial officer will be responsible for the financials of the restaurant. He will be in charge of managing all the accountants and the internal auditors who will be working for the firm. He will report directly to the CEO. Chief technical officer Technology has become a major component of any modern business. As a result, Perfect Grill will have to engage in using technology in all its operation in order to strengthen its strategy. A chief technical officer will therefore be needed by the business in order to aid it in have a good base. HR manger Like any other business, Perfect Grill will need a HR manager to coordinate the various human resources. He will report directly to the CEO and will be in charge of the subordinate employees. Chief Chef Being a restaurant, Perfect Grill will need a chief Chef. The Chief Chef will be in charge of the kitchen with regard to the operations of the kitchen and how the business is able to deliver to the customers. Chief Marketing Officer The chief marketing officer will be responsible for creating a proper marketing strategy for the firm and implementing it right from the start of the business until it has already been taken on. He will report directly to the CEO and will be responsible with the management of the marketing team. Marketing & Sales The initial marketing will take place through the following channels; Word of mouth Perfect Grill will be a local restaurant an many people within its locality are people who know each other. Word of mouth will be one of the most important tools that Perfect Grill will use to introduce itself in the market. Social media As Evans (2010) says, social media has become a very important tool for marketing, whether it is for big or small businesses. However, it will have to be used perfectly in order to be useful for marketing the business (Howley, 2010). The chief marketing officer will be responsible for that. Funding request The business will require funding in order for it to start up. The requirements for the business funds will be as follows; Marketing costs As a new business, Perfect Grill will need marketing for the business to be able to take off. The marketing cost will be about 10,000 dollars. This will cover advertising and promotion costs. Rental costs The business will be operated in rented premises. The renting funds will be needed in order to cater for this need. The cost of the rent is estimated to be about 2000 per month and there may be needed and upfront rent payment for about five months. Human resources costs This will cover salary payments for the first few months before the business is able to generate its own income to set off the salaries and wages. This may be a monthly wage bill of 10,000 dollars. Equipment costs Equipment will be needed for the business to start operating. This will include computing equipment for the back office and front office, kitchen equipment and other forms of equipment. This cost may be up to 2000 dollars. References Evans, D. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Gibson, P. (2012). Technology and Modern Busiess. Reaoing on Opportunties . Modern Journal fo Computing, 3, 24 , PP, 78-84. Howley, K. (2010). Harness the Power of Social Media: An Alternative Guide for Design & Construction Firms. New York, NY: ZweigWhite. Read More