Strategic Marketing Plan Fun Features Restaurant in Parramatta, New South Wales - Case Study Example

Strategic Marketing Plan Student’s Name Institution Affiliation 1.0 Introduction This is a marketing plan for a ‘Fun Features restaurant’ a full service restaurant in Parramatta, New South Wales. The restaurant will provide a community garden, themed dining areas, as well as complimentary services in a casual, comfortable, and relaxing setting. Complimentary services such as valet, taxi and babysitting services will be used to ensure repeat purchases. Both local and international cuisines, foods and drinks will be offered. In addition, the customers will be given a chance for displaying their talents in specially advertised evenings. The restaurant seeks to attain a market size of 6,000 customers and a projected sales growth prospect of 10% in the next 3 years. It also seeks to capture a large market share in the restaurant industry and become the market leader in the industry. Offering a unique restaurant experience will be the key driver of remaining competitive in the industry-the restaurant will be a prospector and will focus on growth through diversifying food product offerings and services. The value added services as well as diversified products and services will enable the restaurant to have a sustainable advantage over the already established restaurants. The restaurant has numerous growth opportunities for the restaurant and challenges that have to be counteracted in order to ensure profitability of the business venture. The restaurant industry is currently very competitive and as a result, there is need for good business strategies for ensuring that the restaurant remains competitive. In order to attract more customers, the restaurant will use various technological inventions such as self-service ordering points, digital displays and social media platform which will have a positive impact on the restaurant management. It will also focus on ‘green initiatives’ which will show the company environmental awareness in its operations. Generally, the restaurant seeks to offer varied food product offerings in a strategic location that is centrally placed to capture customers from both remote and urban areas. 2.0 Product Life Cycle The product offerings by the restaurant will go through the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline phase. During the introduction phase, the product offerings will be promoted in order to create awareness and to develop a market for the offered foods and services whereas in the growth stage, the restaurant management will seek to increase market share and build brand preference. During the maturity stage, the main objective will be to defend the market share whilst maximizing profits (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). The decline stage might be characterized by a decrease in sales because of new and better food products or services. The restaurant will use different options in dealing with the products or services in the decline phases. After the introduction of the product offerings and services, the restaurant will gain more and more customer as it grows and eventually the market will stabilize for some of these products and they will become mature. With time, some products might be overtaken by development or introduction of superior competitors and hence go into decline and eventually withdrawn by the restaurant (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). The figure below shows the different stages that the product offerings will go through In the introduction phase, food product offerings -local and international foods, cuisines, and drinks- and complimentary services-such as babysitting and valet services- will be launched into the market. The food product and services will be promoted to create awareness as well as to develop a market for them. Promotion will be undertaken through advertising via the Television, radio, newspaper, and the internet. The messages will also appear in publication and places that are targeted to the customer profile, for instance, since the restaurant main added value will be a children-friendly setting as well as family menus, adverts will appear in children stores, school newspapers and local day care centers. The adverts will have a strong headline which will clearly show the benefits of the restaurant to the readers. They will have headlines such as “Kids Eat Half Price on Weekends” or “A Free Cocktail When You Come on Date Night” or “A Successful First Date or Your Money Back” which clearly state the benefits of visiting the new restaurant. The product quality and branding level will be established at the introduction stage (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). The pricing will be low penetration to build the restaurant market share rapidly. Promotion will be aimed at early adopters and innovators and the marketing communication will seek to boost food offerings awareness and to educate potential customers about them. During the growth stage, the restaurant will seek to build brand preference and to increase market share as competition increases for similar products. The restaurant will ensure that the quality of food product offerings is maintained and additional features as well as support services are added. Value added products and services will ensure increasing demand from the customers. The pricing will be maintained as the restaurant enjoy increasing demand with no limited competition. As demand for the products and customer acceptance increases, the restaurant will hire more qualified staff to ensure that the customers are well attended to and receive quality services, which will prompt them to make repeat visits to the restaurant. During the maturity phase, the restaurant will defend its market share whilst seeking to maximize profits (Stark, 2011). The food product features will be improved to differentiate the products from those of the competitors. The restaurant will offer incentives to encourage preference for its produce over the competitors products. Promotion and advertising will lay emphasis on product differentiation. At the decline stage, there might be downturn in the market. The restaurant will introduce more innovative food products and will introduce food products that match with customer changing tastes and preferences. It will also rejuvenate the food product by adding new features. The restaurant will imaginatively reposition its product offerings so that it can change the way customers mentally categorize them. It will rescue products struggling in the maturity stage of the life cycle and get them back to the growth stage (Stark, 2011). In some cases, the restaurant will be able to take new products straight to the growth stage. When providing menu items to customers, the restaurant will pay particular attention to the customers’ choice. Customers normally have numerous ways of spending their money as well as places for spending it. As a result, the restaurant will place more emphasis on developing a menu that customers want. To prevent the products from reaching the decline stage, the restaurant will gauge the products depending on customer preferences. Information will be obtained from the customers on what they would prefer to be included in the menu. Market research will establish exactly what the customers want, nonetheless the customer preferences usually change over time and what may considered good today may be discarded tomorrow. As a result, marketing will constantly monitor the consumer preferences (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). In order to meet these changes, ‘Fun Features Restaurant’ will introduce new products and phase out old ones and will continue to do so. However, care will be taken not to negatively affect the sales of one food product through introducing a new product that will cannibalize sales from the existing ones (trade off). The restaurant will take into consideration the fact that menu items usually vary in popularity and their capacity to generate profits will vary at different phases in the life cycle. The marketing activities undertaken as well as the amount invested by the restaurant will be different and will depend on the stage that the products have reached (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). For instance, the launch of the new food products will basically entail television as well as other advertising support. The restaurant will have a portfolio of food offerings and services each in a different stage of the product lifecycle at any particular time. Whereas some food offerings will be at maturity stage, others will be growing in popularity and at the introduction and decline stage. 3.0 New Market Entry The restaurant will enter new markets in order to attain increased sales, build brand awareness and to ensure business stability. New market entry will take the form of introduction of new product lines and repositioning (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). The restaurant will introduce new products and services in order to remain competitive, for instance, the restaurant may opt to introduce all cuisines from the Asian region or open a coffee shop in its establishment. When it comes to services, the restaurant may choose operate other activities such as movie theatres, rodeos and seasonal events that are seasonal in nature as the restaurant occupies a large piece of land. Secondly repositioning will bring new life into products. For instance, offering a menu with health high quality food instead of unhealthy fast food if the customers from the region are conscious about the food they eat and their health. The products will be repositioned using advertising and sales promotion (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). Product reposition will enable food products and services in the later stage of the product life cycle-the decline stage- back to earlier stages, if possible the growth stage. It will help to keep the profit margins steady. Advertising will be the most effective marketing method of gaining customer attention as well as sending them a message. It will help in informing the consumers about the new life of old food products. Promotions will be used to encourage the customers to try food products, which they had disregarded. Sales promotion will be the most effective method of enticing customers to act on the new information obtained from advertisements. Free samples and temporary price discounts will help to re-enforce the new brand images that the restaurant convey to customers whilst also stimulate word of mouth advertising. 4.0 Pioneer Strategy The restaurant will use the pioneer strategy, as it will be the first of its kind in the region. The first move advantage and pioneering will be achieved in various ways-through using new food product offerings, new services, and entering a new market. As a pioneer, the restaurant will create new market demand for its food products and services and will continuously satisfy this demand before other businesses penetrate the same market (Thomson & Strickland, 2003). First move advantage will be created using new advertising campaigns, adopting new services for entertaining the restaurant customers, and adopting new value added services such as new forms of customer service. The restaurant will own a positive image as well as reputation of being a pioneer and will create a base of loyal consumers. It will have adequate resources, size, and competency to take full advantage of its pioneering position and maintain it when facing intense competition (Mittal & Swami, 2004). The restaurant will use the mass-market penetration and niche penetration strategies. The mass-market strategy will entail maximizing the number of consumers adopting the restaurant products and services with a marketing program that will focus on aggressively building product awareness and motivation to purchase among a wide cross-section of potential consumers. It will also make it easy for the customer to try new products and services on the assumption that they will try it, like it, develop loyalty as well as make repeat visits to the restaurant (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). The niche penetration strategy will keep the restaurant market efforts clearly focused on the targeted segments in order to ensure its survival. 5.0 Growth Strategy-Fortress or Position defense strategy and contraction/strategic withdrawal The fortress defense strategy will entail continuously improving the satisfaction of current customers as well as increasing the attractiveness of its product offerings and services. The restaurant will mostly focus on quality food offerings and services. It will also continuously improve, and modify them to ensure repeat visits or purchases to the restaurant. In order to encourage and simplify repeat purchases the restaurant will start a customer loyalty program, which will capitalize on customer data, encourage customer engagement, establish a two-way value proposition, address customer desire for fairness and choice and develop strategic partnerships. In addition, the restaurant products and services will be consistent to ensure that the customers depend on the restaurant to provide a reliable experience. Customers, both children and adult, will also have fu and social activities to look forward to. Social media will be used to build a personal connection with the customers. The restaurant will also offer great service and encourage honest feedback from the customers. The contraction strategy will entail reducing or abandoning various segments, which are not doing well to concentrate on areas that the restaurant enjoys the greatest relative advantage or those with the greatest potential for future growth (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011). 6.0 Shake-out, Mature and Declining Strategies In the shakeout stage, the restaurant will employ cost-effective operation methods while still maintaining the quality of food product offerings and other services. In the mature market, market product differential as well as operation excellence for reducing cost methods will be used (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al. 2011).The restaurant will depend on diversified strategies in diverse value added and quality products and services. It will hold on to the existing customers to preserve an important competitive advantage, which will play an important role in ensuring continued customer satisfaction as well as loyalty. The restaurant will focus on achieving and sustaining the perceived product quality and customer-service superiority (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al., 2011). The profits and investments during the decline phase will range from low to moderate levels. In the declining phase, the restaurant will emphasize product and services differentiation and feature diversification to increase and maintain the restaurant market share. The profits and investments during the decline phase will range from low to moderate levels. 7.0 New Economy Markets The emergence of digital products and changes in customer service and support mechanisms will greatly affect the restaurant operation. Digital products will make dining out far more enjoyable for the customers. Customers will be able to sign credit card bills on touch screens and use apps to place orders while wireless headsets will enable the staff to communicate smoothly, this will make the whole dining experience run smoothly. Touch screen food vendors such as the MooBella Ice Creamery Machine will produce about ninety-six cool treats variations in forty seconds. This means that the digital products will make work easier in addition to making the customer have an exemplary dining experience. The restaurants will use flexible ipad application for providing real-time views of tables; catalog the menu by ingredients or selection name, send orders to the kitchen, process delivery tickets, and sales. This means that there will be changes in the way customers are served as the service will be more digitalized and effective. The digital products will also serve as support mechanisms and improve the way the businesses do business. 8.0 Organizational structures An appropriate organizational structure will enable the restaurant to succeed. The restaurant will adopt the line and staff structure. Authority will originate at the top and move downward (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al., 2011). A general manager will head the company. There will be different assistant manager to head the different sectors in the restaurant and the employees under these sectors. An executive chef will control and monitor the day-to-day operations (back of house operations). The front of the house managers will be responsible for the dining area in the restaurant. There will be staff departments for support as well as specialization. Every manager of the line and staff will have authority over their subordinates (Walker, Gountas, & Mavondo et al., 2011). This organizational structure will lead to less operational wastage and increase productivity, enable the employees to perform at a faster rate, and enable line management to concentrate on the tasks. 9.0 Marketing Plans SWOT Analysis Strengths A large variety of entertainment options- the restaurant will diversify its food products and services and hence will offer something more than the local restaurants that just serve foods. Partnership with the already established local businesses Good food quality, customer service and setting Weaknesses New restaurant in the area thus customer loyalty will have to be build from the ground upwards The restaurant will offer a wide range of services which might be spread too thin Opportunities The restaurant location is near a movie theater Opening up more community involvement Using the customers to decide the new innovative food products and services that should be added Some nearby restaurant will be forced to close because of a road expansion project Threats Competition from nearby restaurants High taxes on real estate in the city Fluctuations in food prices Competition from nearby supermarkets (seafood and meat suppliers) The restaurant benefits will outweigh the costs. 10.0 Marketing Metrics and Marketing audit Return on marketing investment (ROMI) will be one of the most important marketing metric in the restaurant. It is calculated as follows: “ROMI (%) = [Incremental Revenue Attributable to Marketing ($) x Contribution Margin (%) – Marketing Spending ($)]/Marketing Spending ($).” This metric can be used in determining whether investment in a band is generation adequate returns. With the incremental revenue at $1000, contribution margin at 38%, marketing spending at $400, ROMI is -5% “ROMI (%) = $1000 x 38% - $400]/$400” “ROMI=-5%” The negative ROMI figure shows that the restaurant should use other metrics for supporting the fact that the band is not worth the restaurant money or time. Profitability analysis, activity based costing, customer satisfaction and sales analysis are important as they are relevant in determining the profitability of different ventures. 11.0 Marketing audit The restaurant management will perform market environment audit and strategy audit. The strategy audit will be important in arming the restaurant management with information, tools, and commitment for assessing the degree of advantage as well as focus afforded by the employed strategy (Della-Piana, Low, & Lyman, 2005). The audit will also generate the data required to evaluate whether a strategy change is required and the exact changes that should be made. The strategy audit will also be important in evaluating the actual direction of the restaurant and will compare that course to the direction needed in succeeding in a highly dynamic restaurant industry. The market environment audit will enable the restaurant management to determine how the restaurant fit into the wider marketplace. It will play an important role in the design of a market plan for marketing the restaurant in a particular market and will also be useful in designing a market plan. This audit will be part of the management audit that will include financial audit, personnel audit, operations audit and marketing audit. Various tools and techniques will be used on conducting the market audit-internal environment and external environment analysis. References Della-Piana, V., Low, M. & Lyman, K. (2005). The Business Strategy Audit. Axminster: Cambridge Strategy Publications. Mittal, S. & Swami, S. (2004). What Factors Influence Pioneering Advantage of Companies? Vikalpa, 29(3), 15-33. Stark, J. (2011). Product Lifecycle Management: 21st Century Paradigm for Product Realization. (2ed). Springer. Thompson, J. & Strickland, A. (2003). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. McGraw- Hill/Irwin Walker, O., Gountas, J., Mavondo. F., & Mullins. J. (2011). Marketing strategy: A decision- focused approach. (2ed.). North Ryde: McGraw-Hill. Read More