Han Dynasty Restaurant - Case Study Example

MANAGEMENT 0 Introduction In the modern world of business operations, the ability of any organisation to create a powerful brand that adequately addresses the needs of the consumers is the most significant factor that determines the performance of the organisation in the industry. This dissertation, while using Han dynasty as a case study, will describe the best means of coming up with an influential brand that meets the needs of consumers adequately. The experiential marketing theory as well as the customer satisfaction theory will be very important to assist in coming up with the best conclusions. 1.1 The hotpot restaurant industry The restaurant industry in Hongkong faces a great risk from food contamination as well as claims on liability from consumers. Various types of food such as sauces, eggs, sea foods and vegetables can sometimes contain harmful substances to the health of consumers. Any reports regarding contamination, claims of low standards of cleanliness and hygiene, unfavourable publicity coming from publications of findings of industry or research report regarding any food ingredient used by a particular restaurant will hinder the confidence of the public regarding the products offered by the restaurant (George 2000). This has an effect of reducing consumption leading to low performance. This is a major trend that greatly describes the industry in the country. Recently, there has been a very harmful publicity regarding the restaurant industry in the country. For example, there were allegations that some of the beef sold by restaurants had some pork in it. Legal implications can be present in cases a restaurant offers food that is not in its natural condition, or not of the proper ingredient indicated by the seller or is not of the exact quality asked by the consumer. Competitive advantage in the industry depends on the ability of offering quality products, creativity in the design of the venues and the ability to rapidly change according to the habits, tests, expectations as well as consumer choices and preferences (George 2000). Constant introduction of new concepts and rapid changes in consumer preferences are the most important characteristics defining the industry in the country. Therefore, performance will depend on the ability to rapidly introduce new products that adequately meets the expectations of consumers. 1.2 Han dynasty restaurant The management has the responsibility of ensuring that the business does not remain behind its competitors. The business must be able to outwit competitors in terms of introduction of new products and services that appeal to consumers as well as creation of a strong brand that will enhance confidence in them (Chow 2004). The management has the burden of incurring additional costs in surveying and carrying out research concerning the trends of consumers to enable quick and early preparations to match the coming changes. The future success is largely dependent on the continuous services as well the performance of core personnel of the management. The restaurant is facing the challenge of high competition in attracting and maintaining skilled personnel with the proper leadership skills needed by the business. The increased demand for restaurant personnel means that the business will have to incur high costs in attracting and maintaining skilled personnel necessary for invention and innovation that will help create a highly influential brand that in turn leads to high performance and sustained domination in the industry (Chow 2004). 2.0 Literature Review The increase in competition in the industry calls for the management of the business to establish a set of new strategies placing more emphasis on consumers to be able to gain a competitive advantage and hence perform well. Nowadays, differentiating the business with only ordinary elements like the product, quality and price does adequately, help the business to gain competitive advantage. The customer experience is currently the best weapon for winning the war and becoming the dominant player in the industry. The demands of consumers have changed meaning that they now have additional interest in self-indulgent gratifications inside the context of the society rather than simply maximizing their own benefits. Consumers are currently seeking for products that stimulate emotions and sensations rather than just satisfying their wants (Schmitt 1999). This calls for the relevance of application of the experiential to assist in building a highly influential brand that matches consumer needs and desires. 2.1 Experiential Marketing The ever increasing influential function of experience in the evaluation of brand requires brands to make use of various approaches from the indigenous advertisement to establish a critical meaning in the minds of consumers. Fragmented advertisement in the media is no longer powerful in enhancing the persuasion as well as the practices, which focus only on customer satisfaction. The marketing campaign should therefore aim at establishing a structure of brand value that coincides with the expectations of consumers as well as their aspirations (Bobbitt et.al. 2000). These include the social, affective and the cognitive levels. Additionally, the experiences that relate to the products, according to this theory, must connect to the needs of the individuals, the dreams as well as the motivations (Battarbee & Koskinen, 2004). Generally, the perception of the individual concerning the product comes clear through the process of interaction of the environment and the mental faculties. 2.1.1 A focus on experiences of consumers Contrary to the thin focus on the functional characteristics and the benefits, the business has to focus on the experiences of consumers. The management must understand that the experiences occur as a consequence of undergoing, encountering or living via things. The experiences will provide emotional, sensory, behavioral, cognitive as well as relational values, which will substitute the functional ones (Chang & Chieng 2006). Figure1. Features of Experiential marketing 2.1.2 Focus on the consumption, a holistic experience With this characteristic, it means that the management of Han dynasty has to understand the products that fit well in the consumption condition and the manner the products, the packaging, the advertisement that comes before the consumption can help in enhancing the consumption experience of the consumer (Chow et.al. 2007). This comes through thorough examination of the consumption condition followed by a sketch of the various categories of boundaries and the level of competition. This eventually, leads to a radical swing in thinking regarding the opportunities in the market, which will move the market thinking high and higher. This is because; this type of thinking is going to widen the perception of category and enable thorough examination of the meaning of the particular consumption condition in its wide cultural and social context. In this manner, the business will be shifting from thinking regarding an isolated brand along the vector of cultural and social consumption into the wide space of consumer meaning. 2.1.3 Rational and emotional consumers The management must understand these important characteristics of consumers in order to be able to come up with the best strategy. Consumers are simply, rational and emotional meaning that when they often engage in rational choices, they are mostly influenced by their emotions since their consumption experiences direct them towards the search for fantasies, fun and feelings (Holbrook & Hirschman 1982). During the development of the strategy it is thus very important for the management to think about customers as being individuals that the mental and physical apparatus as well as the feelings come from the natural selection to resolve the challenges that their ancestors faced. This will greatly help the management to come up with a very influential brand that is compatible with the feelings of consumers. 2.1.4 Eclectic methods and tools Contrary to the quantitative, analytical as well as the verbal methods of the ordinary form of marketing, the tools and the methods of the organisation have to be diverse as well as multi-faceted. This means that the business should not restrict itself from a single method of ideology. It is eclectic a portion of the tools and methods can be very quantitative or analytical like the method of eye movement to assess the effect communication (Gentile, Spiller & Noci 2007). They can also be qualitative or intuitive like techniques that focus on the brain for understanding the idea of creative thinking. They can also be verbal, well designed questionnaires or interview and also take the traditional funned of a particular group of consumers. They can also take place in an artificial laboratory environment or any other place like a bar in which consumers are watching television and taking beer. It has mostly to be ideographic where it becomes customized for the condition prevailing rather than the provision of the same funned standard to all the respondents (Tsaur, Chiu & Wang 2007). The management must understand that in this case there is no dogma but all happens to comply with the goals and objectives set. In this way, the best methods and tools will help in producing the best results. 2.2 Strategic experiential modules (SEMs) These are modules that the management will use in creating various kinds of consumer experiences for the consumers. These will enable the management to focus on the various domains of the brain as well as the behaviour of consumers (Yu & Ko 2012). Here, the management will have to manage sensory experiences, experiences that are affective, creative cognitive experiences, lifestyles and behaviours, physical experiences as well as experiences related to social identity that relate to culture of reference group. Each and every SME will assist the management to achieve a specific objective that will help in the establishment of a very strong brand. 2.2.1 Sense This module will appeal to the senses with the aim of helping the business to establish sensory experiences, via sight, touch, sound, smell and taste of the products. This strategy will enable the management to differentiate the company and its products, with the objective of motivating consumers and adding value to its products such as through excitement and aesthetics (Schmitt 1999). The core doctrines of this approach is cognitive or sensory variety, which means that it will provide an underlying conception that can be clearly, detected but in all times it looks new and fresh. This means that the management will be constantly combining a single concept or underlying idea with new executions. 2.2.2 Feel Here, the business will be appealing to the internal feelings as well as the emotions of consumers, with the aim of establishing affective experiences, which vary from mildly positive moods connected to the brand to powerful emotions of pride and joy (Wu & Liang 2009). The management must understand the stimulus that is capable of triggering specific emotions and the willingness of consumers to participate in empathy and perspective taking. The management should therefore, target the feelings of the consumers during consumptions. A clear understanding of the culture of consumers is necessary since the willingness to empathise in any given situation is a function of the culture. This consideration is greatly, going to assist in the creation of a highly influential brand. 2.2.3 Think In this consideration, the management will be appealing to the intellect as a means of establishing cognitive and problem solving experiences, which engage consumers creatively. The management will thus appeal to the convergent and the divergent thinking of consumers through intrigue, surprise as well as provocation (Schmitt 1999). This strategy is very useful during the design, communication and selling of the products to help enhance the reputation of the business in the minds of consumers. 2.2.4 Act This idea will enable the management to enrich the lives of consumers by showing them alternative methods of doing things and addressing their physical experiences. Another means is by showing consumers other alternative lifestyles as well as interactions (Hyun 2010). The management can apply the rational models of behaviour change such as the theory of reasoned action among other theories in the implementation of the strategy. Changes in behaviour and lifestyles are obviously, very motivational, emotional and inspirational in nature and mostly receive motivation from role models. 2.2.5 Relate This strategy is an amalgamation of features of sense, think, feel as well as act marketing. In this case, the management will extend to beyond the personal and private feelings of an individual to a thing out of his or private status (Williams 2006). The management will have to appeal to the desires of an individual for self improvement. It will appeal to the needs perceived by other individuals such as one’s colleagues, peers, girlfriend or boyfriend. It will relate the person to a wider social system or culture. 2.3 Customer satisfaction theory Satisfying the customer should be one of the most important issues of the management of the business. This should be the marketing framework for the performance of the business (Bennett & Rundle -Thiele, 2004). This is because; there are high chances that a satisfied customer is going to remain loyal to the business and continue buying the products of the company as well as passing information to others. Satisfaction of the consumers is simply an indication of the response of the consumer towards the products and the services offered by the business (Oliver & Sarbo 1988).satisfaction will provide a measure to the management that the products or services have provided a pleasurable degree of consumption in terms of fulfillment of the needs of consumers. In this case, the management will have to focus on the effects of the products and services on the expectations of consumers, performance, disconfirmation of their expectations, affect as well as equity on their satisfaction (Churchill & Surprenant 1982). The expectations of consumers are simply, beliefs of consumers before they test the product. These beliefs will then form the standard of measurement for judging the performance of the product (Olson & Dover, 1979). This calls for the need of the management to investigate about the beliefs of consumers concerning a particular product before introducing it to in the market. The management must have the knowledge that consumers acquire satisfaction when the product or service performs better than their expectation. They are dissatisfied when the product or service performs less than the expectation of consumers. Neutral satisfaction occurs when the product performance is equal to the expectation of consumers. To build an influential brand and acquire a good competitive advantage, the management must always ensure that the characteristics of their products and services are higher than the expectation of consumers by a reasonably high degree (Bearden & Teel, 1983). The other dimensions that are very significant to watch include the quality of the product or service, the perceived value of the product or service, the service hospitality experiences design, the customer relationship gains as well as the image of the business (Koo 2003). The management must consider all these factors during the determination of the specifications of the products and services to supply in the market. The response of satisfaction reflects through the degree of affection for the product or service (Jacoby & Chestnut 1978). The consumers at the affective stage will develop a good attitude regarding the brand of the business or will like the brand because of satisfactory and repetitive consumption over a long period (Oliver 1999). Therefore, the management has the responsibility of maintaining the required characteristics of the products all the time if it is to win the loyalty of consumers and build an influential brand that is going to earn the business a competitive advantage (Atwal & Williams 2009). With these strategies put in place, Han dynasty is capable of gaining the greatest market share in the industry. 3.0 Conclusion Building an influential brand is a very important step in the industry in which Han dynasty operates. The changing consumer needs and modes of consumption calls for the significance of adopting a customer experience approach in the process of building a strong brand and matching the needs and preferences of consumers. The experiential theory provides the best guidance on the manner the management of the organisation can best interact with consumers and understand how they think, feel, sense and act about the business brand. Customer satisfaction comes when the product or service offered by the business exceeds the expectations of consumers. The expectations of consumers emanate from the beliefs the consumers have before they test the product or service hence the need for research prior to introduction of a new product or service. To build a strong brand and win the loyalty of consumers maximally, the business must be capable of maintaining the quality and the good characteristics of the product or service ever and ever without notable fluctuations. 4.0 Bibliography Atwal, G., & Williams, A. 2009, ‘Luxury brand marketing–the experience is everything!’, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 16, No.5, pp. 338-346. 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