3.1: The Living Aspect of Restaurant
- Page ID
- 22075
- Understanding a restaurant as a ‘living’ entity.
- Gain a working knowledge regarding customer evaluation.
- Understanding competitor diversity
- Understand the different types of competitors.
- Understanding the criteria to evaluate a competitor.
- Understand the importance of a competitor’s age.
- Understand the different ‘types’ of competitors.
- Learning to evaluate successful competitors.
- Learning how to evaluate the strength and weakness of a competitive environment.
- Understanding the competition evaluation criteria.
- Learning how to research your competition.
“The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.”
Colin Powell“But anybody who steps into the lane beside you is the biggest competition because they made it to the finals.”
Usain Bolt“It is nice to have valid competition; it pushes you to do better.”
Gianni Versace
Competition
The most important overarching theme a new entrant competitor needs to comprehend clearly is what it is that you are actually evaluating. First, competitors can disappoint their customers over time with poor or inconsistent food or service, aging facilities that look un-kept, a lack of imagination, or cleanliness, and so forth. In such cases that will, through their inability to provide for their customers, sent business to you.
On the other hand, operations can flourish through excellent food and service, pristine surroundings, an inviting physical environment - and a consistently fresh attitude where their customers are concerned. Such foodservice operations build barriers for their competition. When dealing with a perceptive competitor, you must market and pry customers away from them - because they give their customers no reason to leave or explore other operations. They set the bar high and defy your attempts to lure customers away.
The food and beverage industry is highly competitive both within and across dining segments. Whether the foodservice facility is a corporate or single-owner entity, an inability to constantly observe and negotiate the competitive terrain which quick reaction is most certainly a prelude to failure. Competitive intelligence can make the difference between being a leader in your trading area segment, or a follower. Said differently, proactive operations have higher success chances than operations that react to competitive occurrences in the marketplace.
The Living Aspect of Restaurants
Most restaurants are comparable to the human life cycle in terms of age and attention. They undergo a birth of the concept, a growth pattern, after five to ten years they reach maturity, the onset of senescence, and ultimately demise if the concept does not rejuvenate. Along this same line of thinking, think of human growth from the 'attention needed' perspective. At birth, a child requires virtually most of your attention, less but still an adequate amount of attention as it as it matures, to the point where, in old age, it requires a significant amount of attention again. Restaurants and concepts parallel this scenario. There is no mystery about the life cycle of restaurants, nor is there any absolute inevitability about a restaurant's senescence. Unlike human beings, restaurants can be ‘revived’ periodically.
Restaurant decline
A major reason restaurants decline over time is the changing demographics of the area in which it is located. Areas rise and fall and the restaurants within them are likely to follow the fate of the trading area. Fashions change, the colors and textures that are popular today fall out of favor as younger up and coming customers search for something new and exciting. Top- management ages, and the aging process influences operational decisions. They can engage in 'superstitious' learning, continuing actions and ways of making decisions that maintain the status quo - they do what worked until it works no longer. When they search for 'problems' to fix - in truth their focus is not the ‘problem’ that ails them. In reality, it is something they did correctly in the past that they continued to embrace for too long. The restaurant concept that excited the public when it first appeared becomes tired after several years, its power faded as newer concepts become available in the same community. Menus that were innovative at one time become no longer appealing.
Restaurant design and buildings that were novel and attractive when new lose their luster when compared with new, larger, more expensive designs. Over time, the cost of entry into a market place has risen, especially for a luxury venue. In the 1960"s a few hundred thousand dollars was enough to produce an imposing restaurant facility which, by the mid 1970's looked fairly uninteresting compared with restaurants with investments of one million dollars or more. The current bar is substantially higher for a large city luxury venue designed to attract an affluent clientele.
Fresh concept development has historically been an important issue in the restaurant industry, but in the twenty-first century, it is more vital than ever as restaurant rows are rising up in almost every community. Restaurant clusters today include family restaurants, luxury restaurants, and a whole variety of casual themes and fast food (QSR) restaurants as well. The old line of thinking was that restaurants compete among their business segment, but when one examines 'who' is located next door, it appears clear that the competition for consumer food dollars spans concepts and the QSR, casual, and fine-dining genres. A soon as a restaurant format begins to become stale, it must rejuvenate. Nearly every major chain operation is constantly undergoing renovation. They add color, changing its seating arrangements, perhaps adding garden tables, hanging plants, private booths, more current equipment based on the new technology of the day. The menu variety expands including more healthy menu options, dining personnel use different uniforms, and the expansion of products that make menu boards difficult to decipher thus moving the ordering of food in a restaurant closer to a form of 'rocket science' that can frustrate customers. After all, the primary goal is to 'counter the competition' which often occurs at the expense of 'considering the customer.'
New concept advice
When coming up with a concept for a new restaurant, do not be afraid to gather ideas from existing concepts in the market place. If you look carefully, you will notice that many similarities exist across concepts. Examine what you consider to be their strong points; look for their weak points; find a format with a successful track- record. Evaluate the entire 'system' of a known concept - then improve on that system.
Generally, there is no such thing as a completely new restaurant concept. There are only modifications and changes, new combinations, changes in design, layout, menu, and service. Consider the prudence of this advice as it relates to custom actions. People patronize what is familiar to them - they are excited about seeing a new perspective on a proven system. The style of service may be drawn from one, the method of food preparation from another, the menu could be a 'fusion' of ideas or cuisines, or, a combination of several successful operations plus one or two items that represent modifications in preparation, presentation, and service. The pricing policy could be similar to other pricing policies - policies well received by the consumers of the trading area.