Assignment Overview Recently, marketing databases have enlarged to include onlin

Question

Assignment Overview

Recently, marketing databases have enlarged to include online posts, comments, “tweets,” etc. In this task, you are to investigate the positions of one Philadelphia restaurants using blogs or consumer posts available on line. More specifically, after selecting one restaurant to investigate, find at least 10 posts (e.g., Yelp, etc.) regarding each, and then analyze these posts as a set.

The primary objective of this task is that you gain experience in dealing with qualitative marketing data in linking with quantitative forms; also, that you have an opportunity to write a research report pertaining to such data; and finally, that you develop an understanding of the concept of positioning.

Section 1: This section should present a description of the restaurant you have selected – i.e., type food, price range, location, clientele, or any other facet you think is important in communicating the character of each.

Section 2: Select, at least, 10 posts related to restaurant and demonstrate what criteria you use in the selection of restaurants (should be a random sampling). Present your analysis of the themes represented in those – i.e., their common thread, the position in consumer memory they appear to establish, key attributes of each restaurant they project, and any brand personality elements they portray.

Present your assessment of the degree to which the position of each restaurant connotes value added in the marketplace. In accomplishing the above requirements:

1. Depict the current location of each restaurant on perceptual/postponing maps, based on what you find important factors from the posts. This depiction should be placed into a figure and entitled.

2. Discuss how you determined these positions, based on how reviewers evaluate those restaurants.

Section 3: Why do you choose this restaurant? Describe what role, if any, the image/position of the restaurant played in determining your team’s choice? Demonstrate the role personal feelings played in your team’s choice?  

Section4: Explain which media vehicles each restaurant should use to effectively reach and favorably impact its target audience?

Explanation / Answer

Trouble in paradise…

We all love a good vacation. Especially when at home is the middle of winter and we get to escape to a white sandy, warm beach edged with palm trees, somewhere reminding us of paradise.

But even paradise can have it’s downsides. We could find ourselves in a brand-new place away from internet reviews and cell phone reception, yet, we still have to get our meals somewhere!

If you have traveled abroad before I am sure you must have experienced one small mistake in judgment which lead to some very unhappy moments in the bathroom….or if you were very unlucky even in the emergency room.

Maybe you will choose to stay confined in your hotel and play it safe. But what if there was a magical set of guidelines that would help you make the right choice at least 90% of the time and lead you to magnificent new experiences in the wide world of flavors and taste?

What if there was a guide to choosing the very best places to eat even if you knew nothing about them?

Well, I pride myself of having used my “secret” guide to how to choose the perfect restaurant over and over with a very high rate of success and satisfaction!

As you might know from reading this blog I am a lover of food, I am an acolyte of exotic flavors and a preacher of seasonings!

In short I love eating and I love GOOD food. Every country has good and bad food. Some more than others, but the trick is always to find the best places to eat!

Having traveled a lot all my life, and having been so lucky to professionally photograph restaurant food for many years, I got the opportunity to form an inner database of criteria that will consistently lead me to a successful choice of eating establishment!

1. Market Research

Before you do anything else for your restaurant site selection, you must do a market research of the location where you wish to open your restaurant. The area where you are going to open a restaurant must be scrutinized on all levels: right from the existing competition to your potential customers.

You must also do a demographic survey to understand and identify the potential customer base, and their eating preferences. For example, an expensive fine dining restaurant at an area majorly populated by students and youngsters is not going to do well.

It is also a good idea to identify your existing competition in the vicinity; if a competitor is doing well in that area, it means there is an established customer base in that area. You would now only have to figure out to funnel the customers from your competitor’s to your restaurant

2. Front Location

A front location can do wonders for your restaurant. A restaurant right at the front of the building has maximum visibility and generates the highest footfalls compared to the other locations. Customers usually choose the restaurant that is right in front of them. If your restaurant is not easily visible or requires customers to take a detour, chances are the customer would not go to your restaurant at all.

3. Upper floor or Rooftop Location

Upper floor locations should ideally be avoided during your restaurant site selection process. They have less visibility, and it is also difficult for customers to reach upper floor restaurant. If you must set up your restaurant at an upper floor, at least ensure that the building has an elevator.

Rooftop restaurants are popular among customers, but there are a number of hassles involved in them. To get a trade license, the rooftop restaurant cannot have a kitchen on the top floor. Therefore, you need at to have another floor to set up the kitchen. This can turn out to be a little troublesome as you need enough staff members to send food on the rooftop.

4. Size

The size of the location is an important factor to be considered during the restaurant site selection process. The size of the restaurant does not just imply the dining space. The site should be big enough to accommodate all the kitchen equipment. Walk-in freezer, cooking stations, etc all require large spaces. Depending on your concept you can decide the size of the seating area, bar etc. A cramped up space to accommodate more customers often works the opposite and drives customers away because of the small and cramped dining space.

5. Access and Parking

Easy accessibility of the restaurant and the parking space around it is an important aspect of restaurant site selection that must not be ignored. If the customers are not able to reach the restaurant easily, they are more likely to choose a different restaurant to dine altogether. Parking is also an essential part of the location. If your restaurant does not have a designated space for parking, then customers would merely go to another restaurant where they can park easily.

6. Building Amenities

You need to check whether the building that you have chosen for your restaurant has the desired amenities or not. Complete power backups must always be present in the restaurant building. Having a bathroom is also a must in the restaurant, and must not be ignored during the restaurant site selection.

7. Budget

All the factors mentioned above decide the price of the property. Prime locations with better facilities cost more. A good location is important, however, it does not make sense to spend a fortune on the restaurant site. The cost of the site must never exceed more than 10% of your revenues. Choosing a restaurant site that fulfils all your requirements, and yet is cheap can be a daunting task, and is, therefore, one of the biggest challenges of setting up a restaurant.

SCR Corporation, a local family-run restaurant, has been used as the subject to study the service operations. It has many franchises that are located at several places in Sarawak, Malaysia. With the increasing number of customers, it is crucial for SCR to have an excellent operational performance. SCR Desa is highly populated with university students and residents from the nearby housing areas as it is one of the main choices for them to dine there. However, SCR Desa faces customer service problem that affects the image of SCR.

This problem is obviously shown during peak hours when there are many people who come for lunch. The slow customer service is related to the slow food delivery to the customers’ tables and less friendly customer service. 3. Causes of problems 3.1. Management Insufficient number of staff in this restaurant is one of the major causes of the problem. The workers sometimes can be seen rushing when taking orders from one table to another. At the kitchen, the kitchen staff are working very hard to get the orders processed as fast as possible, but it is hard to do so if there are only a few staff are doing the work. This will affect their work performance and contribute to the slow service.

Some workers are not well-trained in their job. They are not trained to greet the customers, take the orders from the customers properly to meet their demands, and deliver the food to the customers on t ime. Cashiers need training as well because they have to know how to handle the cash machine and generate the customers’ bill efficiently and effectively. There is also a supervisor who does not fully supervis e the workers. As a consequence, the workers do their daily work without putting their service quality as a priority. For instance, the kitchen staff need to be monitored in terms of the hygiene standards, good code of conduct and they should always wear kitchen uniforms.

There was a case in which the chicken served to the customer was not fresh and was half-cooked. When preparing the food, they neglected the customers’ order or do not arrange the orders properly. This was the main reason why customers who had arrived earlier were served later but those who came late were served earlier

Environment A positive perception of atmosphere can produce more positive emotions, which leads to positive beliefs about the restaurant and its services or products (Ha and Jang, 2010). The environment of a restaurant also can be affected by the neighbouring shops. Customers need a comfortable, peaceful and clean place to eat. A bigger space for the parking areas is also important for the customers to park their vehicles. According to Ellyn, Ulfig, and Venetucci (1997), a kitchen in a restaurant must consists of three main areas, namely the food cooking area, cooked food assembly area and cooked food buffer area.

Each area consists of the required tools and equipment needed for each processes. The area must be spacious enough for the kitchen workers to move around while conducting their operational tasks. A restaurant needs to provide a safe and comfortable environment for the customers to enjoy their meals. At the same time, it has to accommodate as many customers as possible to maximize the sales for each day. To do so, the furniture inside the restaurant needs to be arranged in order to fully utilize the space. Next, the position of the washroom causes the customers to think twice about the cleanliness of the dishes prepared due to the bad smell from the toilet. The restaurant also uses the same sink used by the customers for cleaning the utensils.

Equipment / material Inventory management can help to optimize customer’s satisfaction, supplier capability, and production scheduling. Poor inventory management will cause insufficient raw materials for daily operations. This may happen during the peak hours where people go out to seek for express lunch and dinner. If the raw material is in short supply, they cannot prepare enough ingredients for every dish that the customer order. There is no modern and automatic machine that can ease the daily operations. For example, they still need the staff to clean up and wash all the cutlinary manually. If the restaurant is full of customers, especially during peak hours, they will have inadequate staff to serve the customer (e.g. taking orders, cleaning the table and helping in preparing food). Thus, they need machine and equipments in order to minimize their jobs and to leverage their service. Other than that, a limited number of kitchen equipment results in insufficient time for the chefs to prepare food. Consequently, inefficiency in food preparation can delay the serving time.

Method / procedure Slow service was also caused by poor food scheduling. The kitchen staff should have prepared the ingredients before the restaurant is opened. The main ingredients such as onions, garlic, and chilies have to be prepared before cooking. Meanwhile, the ingredients must be sufficient to run the business for the whole day. Failure of early preparation will require more time to prepare food. Hence, the customers have to wait longer. Poor food scheduling might be caused by the unavailability of fixed interval time of preparation and service. They did not follow the fixed time for food preparation. Ideally, the restaurant could have set the time for the chef or assistant chef to prepare food for their customer.

Why do you choose this restaurant? Describe what role, if any, the image/position of the restaurant played in determining your team’s choice? Demonstrate the role personal feelings played in your team’s choice?

Some people apply for a job in a restaurant because it offers certain level of flexibility. You can start anytime, and you can leave when you want as well, becasue there will always be another restaurant where you can try your luck in the interviews.

And some people take this job as a temporary solution, until they find something better, or graduate from the school.

Nevertheless, neither the first nor the second one is a good interview answer (a good lesson to learn right now–you do not always have to tell the truth in your interview).

When they ask you about the reason why you apply for the job, you should show them that you care also for their business, and not only for your life. Talk about your skills and abilities as a waiter (cook), and the value you can bring to the team in their restaurant. You can also emphasize your love for the job, and your motivation to do it well. Let’s have a look at sample answers.

Section4: Explain which media vehicles each restaurant should use to effectively reach and favorably impact its target audience?

An advertising agency needs to consider several factors before launching an advertisement campaign. This includes taking into account a client’s budget and the expected impact of an Ad. This calls for undertaking a cost benefit analysis associated with various advertisement media i.e. print media which includes newspaper, magazines, pamphlet, brochures handouts, broadcast media which includes television, radio etc. and modern media which includes Internet and mobile etc.

Reach- Reach is the percentage of different audience exposed at least once to a given media vehicle or advertising message in a given time period. Media planners identify the communication objectives of a media plan using the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency. Reach is one of the most essential terms in media planning and it has three characteristics. First, reach is a percentage, even though the percentage sign is rarely used. When reach is stated, media planners are aware of the size of the target audience exposed to the media plan.

Frequency- Frequency basically means average number of time the receivers or individual is exposed to the media vehicle in specified period of time. Objectives of a media plan often call for some arrangement of reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible because that means advertisement has been exposed to most of the people, which should lead to more customer loyalty, brand awareness, sales, and so on.

Effective frequency refers to the minimum number of media exposures for a communication goal to be achieved, while Effective reach represents the percentage of a vehicle’s audience reached at each effective frequency growth. This concept is basically based on the assumption that a single exposure to the advertisement may not be enough to convey the desired message and no one knows the exact number of exposures required for an ad to make an impact. Fewer than 3 exposures considered as insufficient reach while more than 10 exposures is considered as overexposure and ineffective reach.

Gross Rating Points (GRP): GRP is also referred as programme ratings. It is a numerical indicator that determines the percentage of potential audience of specific media vehicle that may be exposed to a series of commercials in relation to the total population in target market. GRP’S are the total number of exposures that the media schedule is able to provide during a specified period of time and they are the estimation of duplicated reach both internal and external. Therefore, it is the multiplicative value of reach and frequency which would be expressed in equation form as:

GRP= reach X frequency

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