Marketing Assignment

Running Heading: El’s Hell fire Kitchen Elizabeth Maidment 1

El’s Hell fire Kitchen Elizabeth Maidment 9

Marketing Plan

Student: Elizabeth Maidment

Professor: Dr. Karen Mountain

Course: Marketing Management (MKT 500)

Date: Saturday, July 19, 2014

Branding Strategy- Name, Logo, Slogan and Product Extension

EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen is a local, family owned restaurant. We are located in Murfreesboro, TN. We only serve items on our menu that are hot and spicy! We cater to college students, foodies and chili heads. If you are looking for something different for lunch, dinner or that after hour’s meal, this is the place to go. We have extended hours on the weekends to cater to those individuals who have had an evening of fun and frivolity and need to have some food that will get them focused! We have several different contests to help anyone who isn’t quite sure they can handle the spice. We also have a tasting bar for all of our different levels of heat. This will allow the customer to get a good idea of what they are getting themselves into. There is one exception; our “Atomic Bomb” spice is not on the tasting bar. In fact, you have to sign a waiver to be able to taste this spice! We do not recommend that anyone who has heart problems, pregnant or has digestive problems to attempt to taste this spice. Even if you are fully capable to enjoy this spice, know that you do so at your own risk! Remember our slogan is “Come beat the heat!” Here is our logo:

EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen is in the franchising business. Our product extension plan is to expand several different restaurants into different towns and states. We are currently working on a store in the area of Knoxville, TN near the University of Tennessee campus. We are open to other franchise locations. Come visit us on the web at www.beattheheat.com. We have information on how you can be the next franchisee!

Brand Strategy

EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen uses a secret combination of spices to get your palate watering. We do things a little different from our competition! First, we never freeze anything. Everything that you put in your face is fresh. This includes our spices! We roast and dry our spices ourselves. This gives us the ability to decide how hot we are going to make our vittles. Second, we are dedicated to only having items on the menu with spice. You may go to a restaurant that has one or two hot dishes on their menu, but when you come to our kitchen everything on the menu is spicy! This includes drink items as well. You can have our Mexican hot chocolate or our habanero chocolate shake. We also have desserts that have a kick. From our jalapeno cheesecake to our chocolate dipped ghost peppers.

Develop a Marketing Strategy with Execution Timeframes

EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen will develop a marketing strategy around our target market segment; males and females from 20 – 24 years old. They are Middle Tennessee State University students. Their attitude towards our product is a challenge!

Promotion

EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen will start our marketing strategy July 25, 2014. That is approximately one month before the Fall Semester for Middle Tennessee State University. This will help us establish our brand to our customers and create brand awareness:

· We will partner with Middle Tennessee State University to include our marketing material in the student orientation guides that are sent to the students one month before the fall semester begins. This material will contain a menu with a “first time” coupon attached that will expire on September 25th, our website information and directions to our location.

· These same pamphlets will be placed in student centers on the campus starting on August 25th when the semester begins. These areas will include the cafeteria, dorms and at the student center. We will partner with the student newspaper to print these coupons for the first edition that will be delivered on August 30th.

· We will use our Social Media: Facebook, YouTube, Pintrest, Twitter and www.beattheheat.com to promote our location. On our website we will have a calendar with upcoming events for August and September that will be published on August 1st.

· We will promote our first contest that we will be running for the year. To do this, we will partner with the campus radio and television stations. We will conduct an interview at our location and challenge the host or reporter to try our heat levels live on air on August 31st! Once we have sufficiently burned the host/reporter we will initiate a challenge to the students that are viewing/listening to the “Come beat the heat contest” on September 5th.

Additional promotions within the next 6 months:

· After the “Come beat the heat contest” on September 5th. We will put up our “Wall of Flame” for the year. The first winner will get an honorary spot with their picture and name framed. The next contest will be on October 31st.

· We will partner with the local television station and newspaper to do a story on the “Come beat the heat contest” and use this as advertising for our next contest. We will continue to partner with the university’s television and newspaper to promote the next contest on October 31st.

· We will enlarge our market segment by taking our literature to local high schools and bars in the area. We will theme the contest as the “Ghost Pepper” contest since this will be on Halloween October 31st. We will also offer a prize for the best “spicy costume.”

· We will be having our third contest right before the winter break on December 12th. By the time we have this contest, we should have a loyal following of students and bar crowd.

Positioning Statement

There are several restaurants in our area (approximately 450). You can have Greek food, southern soul food, Italian food, Mexican food, French cuisine and even Ethiopian food in Murfreesboro, TN. But there is only one restaurant where you will find a way to heighten your palate and ignite your feast; EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen! We are the only restaurant that has a spice in every item on our menu. Other restaurants can offer you one or two menu items that have some spice. Even with those selections, they do not offer the volcano of flavor that you will experience on our menu. We simply ask, “Can you beat the heat?” We have several contests throughout the year. Will you be on our “Wall of Flame” or on our “Wall of Shame?”

Perceptual Map

Examine the relevant consumer behavior for your target market. Explain the main reasons why the brand name, logo, slogan, brand extension, as well as the positioning statement and marketing strategy are right for the identified target market

“Increasing guest satisfaction can lead to increased guest loyalty, which ultimately leads to increased revenues and profitability” (Parsa, Gregory, Self, & Dutta, 2010) In other words, if your guest enjoys their experience they will come back to your establishment. Customer can be picky and fickle. What works for one customer may not work for another customer. Understanding your customer’s behavior will help you get those customers back in the door. Not everyone wants to eat at Applebee’s restaurant. We have chosen our brand strategy to fit into those customers that are looking for something different, something more for dinner.

There are several different things that a customer will rate their experience on. There are hard targets and soft targets. “Hard standards can be counted, timed or observed. Soft standards are opinion based, so we could use the standard of “was your server friendly and polite?” (P.Neil, 2014) These hard targets are things like; how long it took to get seated at a table, was the food cooked properly, was the bill correct and was the restaurant clean. Soft targets are things like was the server polite, did the manager handle your issue properly and was the menu diversified. Knowing what your customers want will help get them back in the door. But being able to pinpoint everything a customer wants is impossible. That’s why the strategy of a restaurant needs to be to cater to a mass market instead of the individual. This is where soft targets come into play and are most effective. You may have a menu for the masses, but the server or manager gives you a unique experience. However there is more to creating a desirable restaurant than just having a smoothly run operation. An atmosphere that the target market wants to participate in is needed for repeat business.

Our customers are the fun loving, experience seekers of the college campuses. By building interactive contests our guests will challenge each other as well as spread the word to other heat seeking customers. The promotions will make our food affordable, and the late night atmosphere will fit in with their night life. Our name “EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen” and our “Come Beat the Heat” challenges spark a sense of throwing caution to the wind. It is this type of participatory experience that college students seek. Expanding to other college campuses will allow for challenges between colleges, upping the fun ante.

Company’s Mission Statement and Introduction

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to create a unique dining experience for our customers by igniting their senses with spice in an exciting atmosphere charged with heat.

Company Introduction:

Welcome to EL’s Hell Fire Kitchen! We are a family owned and operated restaurant located at 536 N Thompson Lane in beautiful Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We specialize in extremely hot and spicy food to melt your face. All of our menu items are fresh, never frozen and carry a unique heat. We have bi-monthly contests to test the degree of endurance of our patrons. If you come “Beat the Heat,” you can be immortalized on our “Wall of Flame.” But be weary, if you do not complete the competition you will end up on our “Wall of Shame.” Our hours of operation are 10 am - 2 am Sunday through Thursday and 10 am - 4 am Friday and Saturday. “Come Beat the Heat!”

References

Bureau, U. C. (n.d.). American Fact Finder. Retrieved 2013, from United States Census Bureau: http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_5YR_DP05 Jurasky, D., Chahuneau, V., Routledge, B. R., & Smith, N. A. (2014). Narrative framing of consumer sentiment in online restaurant reviews. Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago . Murfreesboro, TN - The Official Website-Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from Murfreesboro, TN - The Official Website: http://www.murfreesborotn.gov/index.aspx?nid=515 National Resaurant Association. (2014, June 30). Retrieved from National Resaurant Association website: http://show.restaurant.org/Connect/Blog/June-2014/Restaurant-Performance-Index-Rises-to-Highest-Leve P.Neil. (2014, February 20). Wordpress.com. Retrieved from Wordpress.com: http://pneil52.wordpress.com/ Parsa, H., Gregory, A., Self, J. T., & Dutta, K. (2010). CONSUMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY and to Patronize According to Major Restaurant Attributes. THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH JOURNAL, 1 - 10. States, S. A. (n.d.). Statistical Abstract of the United States. Retrieved from census.gov: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/12statab/business.pdf Wings, B. W. (2014). Buffalo Wild Wings Menu. Retrieved from Buffalo Wild Wings Menu: http://www.buffalowildwings.com/menu/wings/

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