Restaurant's Marketing Mix and Today's Eating Trends - Assignment Example

 A case study on an UK based INN (it had been named) for its marketing purpose Introduction Product Strategy Pricing Strategy Place strategy Promotion strategy People Strategy Physical evidence Process Conclusion Work Cited Introduction The Marketing Mix is a term used to describe the combination of tactics used by a business to achieve its objectives by marketing its products or services effectively to a particular target customer group. It is also referred to as the 4 Ps - Product, Price, Promotion and Place, or the 7 Ps the 4 Ps with the addition of People, Process and Physical Evidence. Currently, the restaurant must target on grey market i.e. the couples that are the regular costumers and the family market i.e. two adults and there children who are the costumers during the high season . Due to the growing competition between restaurants, it is not surprising to see restaurant owners paying more attention to growing trends in eating habits. By following the minutest trend a restaurant could see a change in their market share and survivability. This assignment will look at five of the largest food service trends and how to adapt to a more contemporary marketing mix. Product Strategy By changing product lines to include healthy choices such as not fried baked, and alternative choices such as vegan, and gluten-free, Mildmay colours inn can target consumers with special diet restrictions or preferences. Also, fun new ways of eating foods can be incorporated to provide more variety and convenience as well. For example, menus can include wraps, which are hand-held and can be consumed on-the-go. One way to incorporate more multicultural foods is to add new flavors to sauces or seasoning packs. This offers an inexpensive way to test market different flavor mixes without an overhaul of the menu. As new flavors become popular, whole entrees can be based around the flavor mixes while still incorporating classical American ingredients and larger portions. The product component may also be manipulated to be tailored towards some of today's biggest spenders: consumers under the age of eighteen. Offering kid-friendly portions; fun, brightly-colored meals; and incentives such as toys included in the meal, should stimulate more business from younger consumers. Another avenue to pursue may be the "gross-out factor." This would include providing items such as green ketchup and gumballs that look like eyeballs for pint-sized consumers (Gilleran, 1993). Pricing Strategy Price generates profit so is an important element of the mix. You need to consider - 1. What your target group of customers will be prepared to pay for your product or service. It is important not to set the price too low as customers may think there is something wrong with the product. Equally, if you set the price too high, customers may think that it is too expensive for the benefits offered. Think about how you have positioned, your product in terms of quality. This will help you to assess how to price it. 2. What it costs you to produce it. This will show you what you need to charge and not what you could or should charge. However, if you do not calculate what it costs you to produce your product correctly, the more you sell, the more you will lose. When creating customer value, you need to add benefits that are worth more to customers than what it costs you to create them. These benefits don’t have to be overly elaborate or expensive. A benefit might be something simple, such as putting a special sauce on grilled salmon dish, making it a house special, and charging $2 more for the item. It might involve developing a specialty dessert at a cost of 75 cents and selling it for $5. Or it might mean developing a service delivery system that reduces your costs but does not reduce customer value. Consumers crave things such as convenience or kid-appropriate meals; the price of meals does not need to be adjusted if the product (menu) has already been modified. However, many fast food restaurant chains have felt compelled to offer special pricing based on bundling meal solutions together. Today, value meals are an integral part of the fast food marketing mix. Restaurant can charge higher prices if it provide an atmosphere of elegance versus a fast food outlet. In any business, it is perceived value that decides the price customers are willing to pay. Instead of thinking about value, you might want to focus on perceived value. It is critical to get inside the customer’s mind, to uncover his or her definition of “value” or “great value” or “mediocre value,” and so on. It’s not what we think, but what customers think that will make the difference. For instance, customers typically perceive a greater value if the quality of the products you sell and the services you provide are attractive and the prices are reasonable. But the perceived value would tend to decline if your prices are thought to be excessive. You will need to play around with the elements of quality, service, and price to develop the best possible combination that will exceed your guests’ expectations. In the end, you want your customers to say, “I got my money’s worth.” If they say that, they’ll be back. And they’ll make sure other people know about your restaurant. Place strategy Place in the marketing mix, is not just about the physical location or distribution points for products. It encompasses the management of a range of processes involved in bringing products to the end consumer. The Mildmay colour inn is located in the heart of rural south devon, England. It is located at a place called Holbeton, which is approximately eight miles from Plymoth. Its placement strategy is perfect as it is near an area of outstanding beauty with coastal walks and mouthecombe beach which attracts holidaymakers throughout the summer season. Promotion strategy The marketing mix can be updated through promoting and advertising products. Promoting options that add convenience for the customer may gain new customers or repeat business. Offering services such as full-menu take-out from sit-down restaurants or reasonable packages for easy clean-up from quick-service establishments may be just enough to persuade a new customer to try a restaurant. Although a restaurant may be gaining business in take-out or drive-through marketing, it may also be increasing future in-house sales, especially in cases of sit-down restaurants with very long wait times. Alternative menu choices or expanded menus for restricted diets need proper advertising. Advertisements showcasing these options can mean bigger profits and happier customers. Also, restaurant reviews in newspapers and magazines can provide publicity for expanded menus. A well-crafted restaurant public relations campaign is a key ingredient for every restaurant’s marketing mix. There was a time when a good reputation alone – spread by word of mouth – was enough to create and maintain a successful restaurant. Those times; however, are long gone. More than it ever has been, positive public awareness is vital to a restaurant’s success – and this positive public awareness is today best achieved through a restaurant public relations campaign, versus traditional restaurant advertising. An effective restaurant public relations campaign that generates favorable exposure through newspapers, magazines, TV stations, radio stations and the Internet has a wider reach than word-of-mouth alone. And the public lends more credibility to articles they read and stories they hear about your restaurant than advertisements they read and see. A carefully crafted restaurant public relations campaign will raise both media and consumer awareness of your business. Simply put, the “buzz” about your restaurant begins and remains through the media. By cultivating positive relationships with the media and creating publicity via the media, restaurant operators enhance their chances for continued prosperity. You may have heard the saying, “Advertising you pay for, but public relations you pray for.” Though the adage is old, it is especially true today. The late entertainer Will Rogers once said, “All I know is just what I read in the papers.” PR generates news coverage, and news coverage builds credibility. People believe what they read in newspapers and magazines, what they hear on the radio and what they see on television. People are skeptical of what they see in an advertisement. It’s easy to toot your own horn. It’s more difficult to get someone to believe your claims through advertising alone. Compare the cost of a direct mail campaign or a display ad in a publication with the cost of writing and distributing a press release. There is no comparison. The cost of hiring a restaurant public relations firm to produce press releases and get them placed in media outlets is a fraction of what you pay for advertisements. In addition, the articles the press release generates may be viewed by a larger audience since consumers tend to pay more attention to stories than advertisements. To the typical consumer, an ad is like a butterfly. Its life span is short-lived. This isn’t the case with restaurant public relations. A well-placed story can reap benefits for an extended period. The fundamental restaurant public relations strategy is to place a story in one publication and move it up the ladder to another magazine or newspaper, or transfer it to another medium such as radio or television. Consumers often clip articles they read about a restaurant they would like to try or a destination they would like to visit. Also, a copy of the publication containing your article can be passed around, mailed or generally distributed to customers and other contacts. This is another way to "touch" customers and prospects; they typically like to be informed about special accomplishments and kept up-to-date on both you and your company. If the newspaper or magazine is noteworthy in your area, you can cite "as seen in" on all printed advertising, e-mail signatures and point-of-purchase marketing. "As seen in Palm Beach Illustrated" or even “The Boston Globe” can give you tremendous credibility and set you apart from your competition in a significant way. Of course, one public relations opportunity often leads to another. For example, assignment editors and reporters at TV and radio stations read the local and regional newspapers and magazines, and sometimes get story ideas from published articles they read. In addition, editors and reporters at newspapers and magazines sometimes get ideas from stories they hear on the radio or see on TV. The ultimate goal of a restaurant public relations campaign is to get you noticed, and to attract guests into your location. A flattering article in the local newspaper or regional magazine creates a celebrity status for the person or place profiled. This truly separates you from your competition. Chains of small weekly and daily newspapers, major metropolitan newspapers, city magazines, state magazines, local and regional women’s newspapers, local and regional senior lifestyle magazines, local and regional family publications and local and regional dining and entertainment newspapers are among the media outlets that are ideal targets for stories on your restaurant. Remember, the goal of a restaurant public relations campaign is to create and maintain a buzz about your restaurant, build your credibility, position you in the market place and save you money over traditional advertising. There are lots of media outlets within your reach if you have a well-crafted plan, and the right restaurant public relations firm to execute it. People Strategy The people employed in your organisation will determine the quality of service your customers receive. This is truer for services, but also impacts on businesses making tangible products. Happy, skilled and motivated staff make happy customers. They are more likely to think about the customer and deliver good customer service if they are well trained and are recruited for their positive attitude to customers. You can achieve a competitive advantage over your competitors through offering a high level of pre-sales and after-sales support and advice. Again, this can impact on the price you set, as customers are likely to be prepared to pay more for the service they receive but there may be a higher cost for you to take into account. Identify those staff who come into contact with customers, either face-to face or by phone. 1. Carry out a task analysis of what they do in terms of customer contact. 2. Involve your staff in setting standards for customer service. 3. Prioritize training needs for these staff and provide appropriate training. The service delivered by your employees is a very important element of value. It is also an area where you can distinguish yourself. If you do it well and do it consistently, you will also differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd. To be successful at marketing, you must create a service culture in your organization. Your culture should be focused on serving and satisfying your customers. All employees should embrace this culture, which means you must recognize and reward employees who help create value for your customers. Physical evidence Physical evidence is a term used to describe the type of image that your business portrays through its physical presence, namely its premises, the appearance of its staff, its vehicles, etc. When customers do not have anything that they can touch, see or try before they buy, they are more likely to assess you by the image you put across. It is therefore particularly important if you offer services rather than tangible products. 1. How tangible is the product you market? 2. Ensure that the image portrayed by your restaurant is consistent with the type of product or service you offer. 3. Look at your reception area, your car park (are there spaces for visitors near to the entrance), the appearance of your delivery staff or customer service staff, that condition of your vehicles, etc. For instance, some guests may be attracted to your operation because of its unique atmosphere, the convenience of valet parking, or the extended hours of operation. Process The processes involved in delivering your products and services to the customer have an impact on the way in which your customers perceive you. 1. Look at all the processes involved in getting your products to the customer. Start with the identification of prospects and work through to after-sales support. Does any stage cause a delay? How can you improve this? 2. Are your customers kept informed about what is happening? 3. Do your staff keep their promises to customers? 4. How effectively are you handling customer complaints? Conclusion This paper focused on several ways to update a restaurant's marketing mix to meet today's eating trends. It is imperative to keep up-to-date in today's foodservice marketplace. With people becoming more mobile and pressed for time, more peoples are eating on-the-run while still being concerned about healthy foods. Modifying product, promotion, place, and price to mirror trends eating habits may ensure restaurateurs of a prosperous future. Above all, Mildmay colour inn should remember that variety and convenience are keys to success. Work Cited Dumagan, Jesus C. and John W. Hackett. U.S. Trends in Eating Away from Home, 1982-89: A Survey by Eating Occasion, Type of Foodservice Establishment, and Kind of Food. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, 1995. Gilleran, Susan. Kids Dine Out. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1993. Hedden, Jenny. Unwrapping the Latest Food Trend. Restaurants USA, January 1997.http://www.restaurant.org/rusa/1997/january/9701p26.htm. Mills, Susan. A Cultural Melting Pot. Restaurants USA May 2000. The Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2004, viewed 6 May 2007, http://www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/10_minute_guides/10_min_Marketing_Mix.pdf Gillian Folkes and Allen Wysocki, Current Trends in Foodservice and How They Affect the Marketing Mix of American Restaurants, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences , Viewed 6 may 2007, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/RM007 Jim Moore, Founder and Leader, Moore Ideas, Inc., I N T R O D U C T I O N : W H AT A M I G E T T I N G M Y S E L F I N T O ?, viewed 6 may , 2007 http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/70/04712262/0471226270.pdf Quantified Marketing Group, 2007,The Value of Restaurant Public Relations, viewed 6 may ,2007 http://www.quantifiedmarketing.com/learning_center/value_pr.php   Read More