Customer-driven Marketing Strategy

Discussion

The business opportunity we identified was in the restaurant industry. We concluded on this as we saw a lot of unmet needs. However, we focused on customer convenience. We will be supplying foods for people with special diets; those sick e.g. diabetic and those with cancer. Therefore we will require our customers to make orders with the kind of food they want, where to deliver and by what time. Orders will be made online or through a text message. There is not restaurant we know that have been doing this and that’s why we chose to focus on it. For the longest time most restaurants in the food industry have been proving food for the healthy people.

To meet the needs of these people we will focus more on traditional and natural foods rather than processed ones. Some of the ingredients we will buy include vegetables, fruits, natural spices, yams, sweet potatoes, millet, maize, and potatoes among others. Most of the sick people cannot prepare food for themselves and therefore we think we could help much. We will prepare food on order as people are sick differently and therefore their diets are different. With all that we will have met their needs.

Of course we will use targeting and segmentation so that we can focus better in our population of interest. The segmentation variables we will focus on are gender, age and the specific chronic disease the customer is suffering from. Men need foods with much energy compared to men and therefore we will help them in choosing the best foods. Most of the people with chronic diseases are old and different ages have different needs.

Finally diseases are different and therefore each has a diet for example foods taken by a diabetic are not similar to that of a person with high blood pressure.We do not expect already existing competition as there is no restaurant offering the same services as ours to the old and the sick. However, as soon as we start it people will copy our idea and start offering the same services as ours. We intend to make our customers loyal by offering quality foods as per their prescribed diets, we will include a nutritionist in our staff for advices and offering our services at fair pieces. By creating customer loyalty we will not lose our customers.We plan to differentiate our services in different ways as mentioned earlier.

First many restaurants are offering food their main focus being entertainment while for us we are focused on health. For this reason we will be focusing on natural and organic foods. Another way to differentiate us from the rest is that most focus on youths and those with families while ours will be the old and the sick a segment that no one focuses on. We also have a plan to employ a nutritionist who will be advising us on what kind of diet one is subject to take considering their special needs. Most of the restaurants have chefs but no nutritionist this therefore will give us an upper hand.

Finally we will provide our services at fair pieces considering our customers are the sick and the old who may not be earning a living. Our positioning statement will be; the only restaurant that offers healthy and organic foods for the old and the sick who want to be stronger and improve their health in this age of junks. We choose this as it communicates what we do, to whom and why and therefore will market our brand enabling us to get more sales and greater profits.

References

1. Auty, S. (1992). Consumer choice and segmentation in the restaurant industry. Service Industries Journal, 12(3), 324-339.Brody, A. L. (1999). Developing new food products for a changing marketplace. CRC Press.
2. Kandampully, J., & Suhartanto, D. (2000). Customer loyalty in the hotel industry: the role of customer satisfaction and image. International journal of contemporary hospitality management, 12(6), 346-351.
3. Lewis, R. C. (1981). The positioning statement for hotels. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 22(1), 51-61.