Mktg 496 Eastern Classic(4 pages)

Running head: EASTERN CLASSIC MARKETING 1

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EASTERN CLASSIC MARKETING

Eastern Classic Marketing

Haixin Hu

Joselyn Lopez Morales

Javier Figueroa

Eric Newman Ph. D

Cal State University San Bernardino

Marketing 496

7.6.2019

EASTERN CLASSIC MARKETING

Company Information

Eastern Classic Thai Restaurant company with an American background. It is popularly known as General Motors. It has its headquarters at Redlands in Tennessee, California in the united states of America. Situated at the 300 Renaissance Ctr in the city and zip code 92373-8167. The business uses several business phones numbers with over phone communication dedicated to serving customers. The main phone number is +1 909-793-0150. The company operates using a business website, places.singleplatform.com, where company information is available to the customers. General motors company operates without a specific email address but uses contact forms to collect mailed information.

Industry History

Growth of restaurants has been mainly attributed to the growth of cities. The market demand that was created during trade functions back then in the Roman empire. The people who were bringing their goods to the market were in need of eateries where they would quench their thirst as well as feed. The rise of chain restaurants can be seen a steady rise since the 20th century (Khan, 2014). McDonald being the pioneer of fast food and chain restaurants. The target market of many fast foods being people from the middle class and upper-class members of the society.

In this industry, the pioneering restaurant companies are among the most popular worldwide in terms of market shares. McDonald's and Kentucky fried chicken are the fiercest competitors with them almost sharing spoils in the world market. In the industry, competition is mainly based around service delivery as well as good products. The strength of the competition is mainly determined by company branding. Each restaurant has its signature recipes that they offer to their customers. This helps their customers identify with the company's products.

Competitor strategies in the restaurant are mainly established through proper marketing to capture as many customers as possible. Customer retention also plays an important role in ensuring fast food restaurants compete favourably in the market. Fast food restaurants perform market analysis in order to establish market niches (Jogaratnam, 2017). You will find restaurants providing different meal packages so as to provide for the need in the market. For example, a breakfast package caters for customers who wish to have breakfast meals at their favourite restaurants.

Product History

Eastern classic Redlands is a restaurant offering recipes such as curries, noodles and other classic recipes. The setup of the restaurant is such a way that the recipes are served in a traditional setup. The main menu is made up of appetizers, Thai salads, gourmet selections, spicy selections, curries, spices and sour soups, seafood, fried noodles, eastern classics as well as general soups. In each of these categories, there are different signatures. The main dish is served with other components that are tailored to meet customer needs (Chung, Song, & Lee, 2017).

The various recipes are designed to fit various customer needs. Various soups offered at the restaurant are meant to act as appetizers before meals. The various Thai signature foods are offered as a method of capturing the population that values the Thai culture. Fried noodles, captures a wide range of people due to their signature as a cheap alternative that is familiar with most Americans.

Among the categories of products offered by Eastern classic restaurant, fried noodles are the best performing product attributing to 29% of total sales. Thai signature foods come second with a 15 % share of the product sales (Wank, & Farrer, 2015). Gourmet selections are also popular with their sales attributing to 5% of total sales. The rest of the products account for the rest of the product sales.

The restaurant has experienced a steady rise with the sales increasing year by year. Recently, as a result of the implementation of innovative technologies at restaurants has made customer service be more efficient. This has promoted sales as well as aiding in beating competition from other competitors.

In Tennessee, the Eastern classic restaurant enjoys at least 30% market share of the market with the rest shared across over ten other restaurants.

Company History

Eastern Classic Thai Restaurant is a family owned business owned by emigrants from Thailand. The restaurant was started in 1999 as a small food joint by ambitious pioneers. The food joint has since grown since then by implementing favourable business strategies (Mills, 2019). The company has at least seven business branches distributed across Tennessee. The annual sales of the company being 300 million dollars as per statistics of the financial year 2018. The company employs at least 100 employees across the entities it owns. The major changes that have occurred are that an online food ordering system has been put in place and the company is able to do home deliveries. This has revolutionized how the company performs its business. the company envisions to be the leading restaurant in service delivery in California. The company’s mission is to provide excellent services without doing away with the traditional touch of recipes.

Product/service problem

The man problem facing the restaurant is that of having a unique selling point for exclusive services such as dates. Customers nowadays are critical and want to identify the strengths of a restaurant in order for them to identify their preferred destinations. The restaurant currently has no designated places where the dates can be carried out. In the modern day, lovers gateways have become popular creating a demand for dating sites in restaurants.  The restaurant has faced the problem of losing even loyal customers as a result (Štiglic, 2017). The restaurant management, therefore, intends to change the fortunes of the company in this respect.

         As a result of this problem, there are several adverse problems that have been identified along. Beating competition from other restaurants has become difficult for the company as most customers are preferring environments they can have gateways over restaurants that are eateries alone.  This has affected the customers since the lack of these facilities fails to complement their love for the restaurant's unique and signature recipes offered. In terms of management, the company has experienced a decline in company revenue as a result of a company losing its customers. Customer retention has also been a problem for the company (Jang, Zheng, & Bosselman, 2017).

         It is important for the company to solve this problem for there are benefits of the company. Implementing dating facilities will provide several benefits to the company. This will diversify the business by providing an alternative way to offer a unique service.  By doing this, the company will boost its source of revenue. Revenues, in turn, will help improve the company's position in the business. A unique selling point will give the customers an opportunity to identify with their preferred restaurant. It gives the customers reasons to have a relationship with the restaurant hence boosting customer retention.

Product characteristics

         The intended product and services intended to be tailored to meet the user customer needs as well as solving the problem at hand. The company intends to implement a facility where their personalized dating packages are offered. The company intends to build cottages for these services. These services will be unique in the sense that the plans that will be put in place will be subscribed through online services.  Online bookings will help customers access services at the comfort of their backyards. The market demand for these services is big and therefore this product and service will have a sustainable market considering that cottage dating functions have become a style (Chung, Song, & Lee, 2017).

 Since the target market of this product is young people, the costs of these products are intended to be average according to the prevailing economic situation.  The cost of the product could, however, vary from time to time depending on the prevailing conditions. When the demand is high the cost of the product could go up (Heo, 2016). These are situations like when the festive period is in play. However, the costs of the product will be tailored in such a way that the target population can afford it.

 The product will be offered at the company's main outlets. This will be in line with providing a unique selling point.  The services will be market through various advertising media. This will help in sensitizing the target market about the product as well as providing them with information on how to access the product. 

SWOT Analysis 

Strengths · Affordable prices · High rating on yelp (food & service) · Extensive take-out menu · Well established family-owned business	Weaknesses · Non-existent website; only menu available · No social media presence · No outdoor seating · No delivery · Yelp places Eastern Classic at #16 in “Best Chinese Restaurants in Redlands”
Opportunities · Partner with Ubereats, grubhub, doordash, etc,. · Emphasize family run business · Offer promotions through yelp (like check-in) to raise awareness	Threats · Similar restaurants in the area (Garden Thai Cuisine, Thai Bowl Cafe, R Thai Cuisine) · Lack of “date night” look and ambiance could attract young couples

Competitive Analysis Worksheet

FACTOR	The Business	Competitor A (Garden Thai Cuisine)	Competitor B  (Thai Bowl Cafe)	Competitor C (R Thai Cuisine)	Importance to Customer
Products	S/W	S	S	S	2
Price	S	S	S	S/W	1
Quality	S	S	S	S	1
Selection	S/W	S	S	S	3
Service	S	S/W	S	S	1
Reliability	S	S/W	S	S	1
Stability	S	S/W	S	S	2
Expertise	S	S	S	S	1
Company Reputation	S/W	S	S	S	2
Location	S/W	S/W	S/W	S/W	2
Appearance	S	S	W	W	3
Sales Method	W	S	S	S	3
Credit Policies	S	S	S	S	4
Advertising	W	W	W	W	3
Image	S	S	S	S	2

Competitive Advantages

Eastern classic is one of the best restaurants for a homemade meal. A quick meal to go through the day or one that fills that desire for Thai. It is a family owned restaurant. Which has the best quality of food compared to others. However, the others seem to be more of a franchise type of business. Where they more of a selection to pick of and the yelp reviews show good ratings. Eastern Classics has an advantage of the expertise since it is a family home cooked based Thai restaurant.

Competitive Disadvantage

Eastern Classics has plenty of other competitors around them. If they don't live up to the expectation of its customers they will be going to the other restaurants near it. The other disadvantage is the plate, these other restaurants seem to have a better presentation when it comes to serving the plates.

Group Members Contribution:

· Haixin Hu 34%

· Joselyn Lopez Morales 33%

· Javier Figueroa 33%

100%

References

Chung, N., Song, H. G., & Lee, H. (2017). Consumers’ impulsive buying behavior of restaurant products in social commerce. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(2), 709-731.

Jogaratnam, G. (2017). The effect of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and human capital on positional advantage: Evidence from the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 60, 104-113.

Khan, M. A. (2014). Restaurant franchising: Concepts, regulations and practices. Apple Academic Press.

Mills, M. B. (2019). Cookbook confidential: global appetites, culinary fantasies, and Thai food. Food, Culture & Society, 22(1), 26-44.

Wank, D. L., & Farrer, J. (2015). In the new millennium, Japanese cuisine has become a truly global cuisine (see Cwiertka 2001; Imai in this volume). Alongside French, Italian, Thai, Chinese, and Mexican cuisine, Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous on every continent. Megalopolises such as Shanghai, Jakarta, and New York each have close to one thousand Japanese restaurants, while smaller cities such as Copenhagen, Pittsburgh. The Globalization of Asian Cuisines: Transnational Networks and Culinary Contact Zones.

Chung, N., Song, H. G., & Lee, H. (2017). Consumers’ impulsive buying behavior of restaurant products in social commerce. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(2), 709-731.

Heo, C. Y. (2016). Exploring group-buying platforms for restaurant revenue management. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 52, 154-159.

Jang, Y. J., Zheng, T., & Bosselman, R. (2017). Top managers’ environmental values, leadership, and stakeholder engagement in promoting environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 63, 101-111.

Štiglic, M. (2017). Models and solution algorithms for the ride-matching problem: facilitating the matching process in ridesharing systems (Doctoral dissertation, Univerza v Ljubljani, Ekonomska fakulteta).

“Eastern Classic Thai Restaurant.” SinglePlatform, places.singleplatform.com/eastern-classic-thai-restaurant/menu.

T., Sothy, et al. “Garden Thai Cuisine - Redlands, CA.” Yelp, 12 Jan. 2019, www.yelp.com/biz/garden-thai-cuisine-redlands.

“Top 10 Best Chinese+Food in Redlands, CA - Last Updated July 2019.” Yelp, www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Chinese%2BFood&find_loc=Redlands%2C%2BCA.

W., Ty, et al. “Eastern Classic - Redlands, CA.” Yelp, 21 June 2019, www.yelp.com/biz/eastern-classic-redlands.