Heartwood Vegan Restaurant: Communication Marketing Analysis - Essay Example

Communication Marketing Analysis Communication Marketing Analysis Heartwood Vegan Restaurant Product Heartwood Vegan Restaurant is a Canadian vegetarian restaurant located in Halifax, NS. Its products consist of vegetarian organic menu and offers gluten-free meals on request. Heartwood, however, do use some little dairy on some products, which is also indicated in the menu. Everything is made within Heartwood, with quality, fresh ingredients. The business makes their own requirements: they grow their sprouts and bake their sourdough bread. Their menu is broad, with almost every vegetarian delicacy from vegan cheezecakes, scratch veggie burgers and kamut-crust vegan pizzas normally served gluten-free on request. Heartwood Vegan Restaurant uses a remarkable communication marketing to help in the establishment of brand awareness. They emphasize on the attribute of their products to translate information into perceptions and position itself in the larger food industry and market. Heartwood Restaurant also practices communication marketing in help retain the present customer base and enhance customer referrals. Their communication marketing strategies are driven toward cementing relationship with supplies and customers. Therefore, communication marketing of the business is to disseminate product information and develop brand awareness (Smith et al. 2009). The restaurant also provides soft drinks for its customers. In-house-made natural juices are also a major component of the restaurants menu; drinks remains normally served after meals. The variety if the food products supplied by the company positions it well in the industry. Heartwood Vegan Restaurant serves the local populace of Halifax, NS. The restaurant has expanded its operations in the region through opening of new outlets across the state. Target Market All demographics are served in the restaurants. The debate of health and the food humans eat is a trending issue in the world today. Health concerns associated with some kinds of food has alerted suppliers and providers. Therefore, hotels and restaurants have changed their strategies and menu towards preferred market targets to attain a larger market share. Heartwood Vegan restaurants’ foods are not restricted to specific demographics, in fact, their foods are suitable for all age groups. At least every age group and gender has a place within the restaurants. They are all catered for, with exemption of non-vegetarians. Some of Heartwood Restaurant products contain little dairy, which makes the restaurant ideal for lacto-vegetarians. Many people are normally restricted from the consumption of meat by religion. The restaurant targets believers of these faiths. Islam forbids believers from consuming meat that has not been slaughtered by a fellow Muslim, which is declared haram. Canada is a predominantly Christian nation, which hikes the probability of a Christian slaughtering meat in the country. For this reason, they are a part of the restaurant target market. The primary target market for Heartwood restaurant is made of the vegetarians. Due to health concerns, many people have changed their diets and less meat products are consumed nowadays. To attain competitive advantage in the market, restaurants specialize in the production of vegetarian dietary in order to target the vegetarians, lacto-vegetarians and strict-vegetarians (Gillis et. al., 2009). In perspective, this target has the majority of consumers in the country, which makes it appropriate and necessary for the survival of the restaurant in the stiff-competitive market. Competitor Analysis Even though Heartwood Vegan Restaurant has established appropriate marketing strategies and has positioned itself well in the market, in a democratic society and perfect market competition. The restaurant faces competitions from other restaurants. The threat of new entrants does not affect the business much, but the already available competitors set the restaurant on toes. In this analysis, three restaurants existing in the same geological description looked into such as En Vie A Vegan Kitchen, Fruition and Wild Leek restaurants. These competitors are all vegan and, therefore, poses as direct competitors to the company. The chief competitor in the region is the Envie A Vegan Kitchen, which is reputed by many as a favorite and happy place to visit. The restaurant provides a great atmosphere and variety of vegan food products that satisfies the whole base of vegan consumers. It is situated in the trendiest area of Halifax. The restaurant offers stiff competition of the Heartwood Vegan Restaurant given that it provided similar foods and targets the same market, with great customer service. Some of the brunch products offered by the restaurant are French toast, Vegan Caesar, Philly Cheese Steak and Waffles. Its menu consists of delicious drinks and dishes such as GMO-free soy latte, lentil burger, caulipower alferedo pasta and various desserts. One of the attributes about the restaurant that has stolen the hearts of many consumers is the great atmosphere of the place. Another competitor that thrives in the market is the Foggy Google. It offers a reatively stiff competition because of its varied menu. It makes almost every kind of vegan food. However, it is located in a busy pub, which makes it an ideal place for drinkers. Its vegan pub food, however, do not appeal much to the non-drinkers because of the environment. Its only competitive power lies on the diverse menu, which has every kind of vegan option including vegan pizza, quinoa burger, Thai peanut bowl. Foggy Google pizza usually has vegan pesto, caramelized onions, nutritional yeast, sundried tomatoes and mushrooms. Finally, the Wooden Monkey is another aggressive competitor in the market. The restaurant has two outlets: one in downtown Halifax and another in Dartmouth. The restaurant provides tons of vegan options. Their supplies are 100 percent local farmers. They also use local anglers since they also provide food and services to their non-vegan targets consumers this variation gives them the market power and competitive advantage. The restaurant’s key goal is to a healthier, local and sustainable food system in Nova Scotia. The restaurant’s vegan dishes include lentil burger, vegetable curry, vegan cheese and seitan donair pizza. These are the few restaurants in the Halifax food market that competes with Heartwood vegan restaurant. Heartwood has to work on the quality of its food products in order to attain the strongest competitive advantage since most of the products and customer niche are the same. Each of the restaurants is best at particular recipe. For instance, Heartwood restaurant is the best in making pizza. Proportional Opportunities Heartwood restaurant has various promotional opportunities that can result in its success in the industry. Vegan food has taken a positive trend in the international community. Internet technology has enhanced communication and can be used by the company to market the restaurant to a global platform. Tourists can have prior information regarding the restaurant, which equips them with relevant clue on how to locate the restaurant and what to expect. For an hospitality business like Heartwood restaurant, use of the internet is crucial to attaining a larger base of operation: the global platform. It has the promotional opportunity to grow and extend its products and services to the rest of the world, which has been typical with international companies in the hospitality industry like McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC. Some other promotional opportunities a restaurant can exploit to enhance sales is the offering of free-samples that dominates in instilling a sense of togetherness in customers, especially during the festive season (Keillor, 2007). After sales services such as proper packaging and offering free drinking water after meals are other promotional opportunities that the restaurant can adopt to attract customers. Provision of entertainment to the customers while they are eating such as playing soft music or showing television reduce boredom and is necessary for retaining customers. To enhance customer referrals, the restaurants train the employees to offer the best services, which would boost customer satisfaction (Percy, 2004). SWOT Analysis Strength Heartwood restaurant provides efficiently made vegan delicacies. This broadens the customer base on a daily basis and promotes customer referrals. It provides a variety of food products, which ensures that most of the customers have a chance to get what they prefer; hence, enhancing customer satisfaction. The fact that the restaurant has specialized in the production of vegan food gives it the competitive advantage over other restaurants that do not appeal to the lacto-vegetarians and strict-vegetarians. Weakness The restaurant should offer more vegan foods like the competitor, Foggy Google, which provides almost all vegan options. Management of the restaurant need more visionary team to ensure that the restaurant work toward its visions and into the larger global market like the McDonald chains of restaurants. This would require funding, as opposed to the finances the restaurant currently holds. Opportunities Heartwood restaurant has the opportunity to grow to the global level. It can increase its customer base by engaging in the production of some other variety of vegan delicacies. With the current technology, there is an opportunity to boost sales through online marketing. It also has the opportunity to utilize internet technology to provide first-class restaurant services like door-to-door deliveries and booking reservations. Threats Even though Heartwood restaurant can possess all the opportunities and strength, like any other business, it has weaknesses. In its location, there are numerous other restaurants that offer the same products and services; hence, subjecting it to the threat of stiff-competition (Yeshin, 2012). Given that vegan food is becoming the order of the day in the contemporary society, Heartwood restaurant faces the threat of new-entrants in the vegan food market. References Gillis, B., Mobley, C., Stadler, D. D., Hartstein, J., Virus, A., Volpe, S. L., & ... McCormick, S. (2009). Rationale, design and methods of the HEALTHY study nutrition intervention component. International Journal of Obesity, 33S29-S36. doi:10.1038/ijo.2009.114 Keillor, B. D. (2007). Marketing in the 21st century. Westport, Conn: Praeger. Percy, L. (2004). Understanding Integrated Marketing Communications. London: Routledge Smith, P., Smith, P. R., Berry, C., & Pulford, A. (2009). Strategic marketing communications: new ways to build and integrate communications. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Yeshin, Tony. (2012). Integrated Marketing Communications. London: Routledge Read More