Executive Summary: Sophia’s Ristorante is a traditional Italian Restaurant that serves home cooked Italian food, located in a small shopping center. Sophia’s Ristorante has been in business not for long. LikeRising Phoenix from ashes Sophia’s Ristorante has risen from obscurity into a running business within a year. College educated Sophia Manderino is the sole owner and operator ofthe business. Sophia is no novice in restaurant business. She has brought in her experience ofsix years in operating a successful restaurant prior to opening Sophia’s Ristorante. Although business growth has been reasonably slow and there are few nationally recognized franchise operating in local market but many are missing; Sophia has been contemplating between transforming her place into one of the missing franchise or to continue her sole proprietorship with some new twist in the strategy. In order to keep things into perspective Sophia would like to implement some new strategy that may begin by becoming a champion in customer service. Services that may include things like knowing her customer by their first name or knowing the birthday/ anniversar y ofher most exclusive patrons. A knowledgeable, well experienced group of servers along with an excellent chef who is all about his culinary art can become the second building block of Maria’s successful venture. In essence what Sophia would like to build is a competent well organized team which would only require some minor adjustment in her present team. Li ke any successful bus iness strat egy , pri ci ng of the foods and servi ce has to be well competitive. In short Sophia’s patrons should get the following subliminal message, “Quality need not be expensive.” Core of any strategy is communication, without it the most successful strategy would fail. The most effective communication is the word of mouth. However, the “others” may include the uses of all major medi a li ke news pap er, radio and local TV ad. Sophi a has bee n effecti vely spreading the words about her restaurant through radio and newspape r. The result is evident in her weekly gross, which has jumped up as much as 50 % in a recent review. Therefore it would be highly recommended to continue the strategy that has been effective so far and at the same time incorporate the new ones along with it. If all else fails , some of the nationally recognized franchise can always be an option to fall back.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Presently, “Sophia’s Ristorante”- the fairly large restaurant, is located in a small
shopping center. The customers are mainly the middle-income Americans. Since there
are virtually no competitors around, therefore Sophia needs to have a winning strategy
to lure in these customers into her place.
• Product Description
Foods served at “Sophia’s Ristorante” are basically home cooked Italian dinner. An
average American family likes to have home cooked lasagna at least once in every
two weeks. Similarly “Chicken Alfredo”, “Pizza”, “Egg plant parmesan” are all
signature Italian home cooked meals that if present in the menu can always bring in
any sample of crowd not necessarily Italian ethnicity. Since Sophia’sRistorante is
situated in a heavily traveled major traffic route therefore, people from all
backgrounds and lifestyle can be potential patrons.
• Competitive Review
Sophia’s Ristorante at present can be qualified as a “Large Restaurant” judging by the
floor area. She has few local restaurants and franchisors as competitors near her.
Franchisers are an established brand name with greater financial muscle in terms of
reaching customers through advertising, an efficient supply chain and a tried and
tested product. Hence, she would have to establish her own brand name and offer
something that is unique or perform better than her competitors.
Current Issue:
Sophia’s Ristorante has a fairly new construction which means it will not face any structural
damage in the near future. Sophia has a ten years lease on the place with ten years of
extended option which provides her significant advantage on rent control. Her five
waitresses and one cook employee team qualifies her to be in the small business tax bracket.The business has spent substantial sum of money for renovation and at present has less then
pricing could be introduced. An example would be attaching trailing ‘9’s’ to a price ($39.99),
can make any dish look like a “value meal”. Cost structures of variable and fixed cost should
be closely scrutinized so that overhead costs are controlled.
Communication Strategy:
Sophia has to promote her restaurant aggressively. She can do this by approaching local T.V.
channels, newspapers and magazines to review her place based on her product, service,
environment and lastly pricing. Reviewers tend to show up in total obscurity. This means that
her winning team has to provide premium service while maintaining optimum product qualityin order to receive a five star review from the independent panel, at all times. In this way, she
is building good public relations by consciously appealing to media, to review her work.
Sophia could promote to the masses at events like homecoming football games. She could
provide free cappuccino to people in small cups with labels showcasing the restaurants name.
She could rent vehicles that are especially meant for advertising. These
“advertising” vehicles are constantly on the move and
carry billboards in the back, where “slides” with product
information’s are being displayed. The purpose is to
advertise as extensively as possible in any particular area of a
city. Sophia could ‘place an ad’ with one of the service providers
followed by instructions on which areas of the city she wants the vehicle to be
strategically placed. Since, her restaurant is located in a heavily traveled street she could also
contemplate, investing in high billboards on the road. These billboards will display messages
like “Kids Eat Free” campaigns or “Take Away Dinners” and should provide enough
incentive to draw the “family” crowd.
Sophia could have certain “pull” schemes like “Kids eat free”, that can be used wisely
depending on slow weeknights and “Price Packs” that offer meals at reduced price like
“Single Parent Family Discounts” (as mentioned in “Market” description) for takeaway
dinners. Sales can be increased through other promotional pricing, like “Invite a Guest” plan.
In such a plan, a list of loyal customers are encouraged to bring along a “guest” ,to try out
Sophia is a protagonist, a fighter and an experienced campaigner in her line of work. Her
restaurant is situated in a neighborhood, populated with people of Italian descent and a
hotspot for traffic. She has a fairly large floor area for a restaurant, a lengthy lease period aswell as an improving streak of sales. Sophia needs to position her restaurant as a place where
families can enjoy great authentic Italian food in the midst of outstanding hospitality. Good
value pricing will have to be her pricing strategy. She needs to promote her place through
more T.V. & radio advertisements and witty sales promotions, develop good PR through print
media, and also be “socially responsible” by conducting charitable events. She should look to
make as many personalized customers possible, create brand equity and strive for excellence
in food quality and service.
The main areas of debate on strategy have been outlined, but it all comes down to what works
well for Sophia in the business environment. By adopting the strategies, and a “just in case”
back up plan if things don’t go according to plan, Sophia’s Ristorante should be able to
provide a product that will be a collision of graceful, original Italian flavors and a ‘service’