Brand Restaurant (Part I)
The Delicious Restaurant Business

 BY JAGDEEP KAPOOR

One of the largest emerging categories in advertising spends happens to be the restaurant category whether in the form of fast food outlets, ethnic food outlets or western food restaurants. The restaurant business is booming and this trend would strongly continue in the next 5 – 7 years.

Radhakrishna Hotel is one of the best examples of pure vegetarian restaurants doing extremely well at an appropriate location in Mumbai. Functioning and serving consumers very well over the last 27 years, this Hotel Radhakrishna provides delight to many families. The Manager, Mr. Karunakar leads his team of dedicated people serving consumers. This landmark has another landmark opposite it. The first Shopper’s Stop at Andheri (West) Mumbai. So while consumer’s shop and meet, they also go to Hotel Radhakrishna and meet and eat.

From a consumer behaviour viewpoint, eating out and meeting out, has become an ever growing trend leading to the spread as well as the depth of restaurant business revenues moving very fast. Infact the younger consumers, who constitute a large proportion of the Indian population, find it appealing and cool to go to a restaurant and eat out with their friends and meet out.

What has happed to India suddenly? Why is this boom an ever growing one ? What are the brand marketing opportunities available to the corporate world?

The restaurant business has always been a personalised service business wherein tangibles like food and beverage and ambience are undoubtedly important, but what is gaining more importance is the expectation of world-class service and relationship with customers. This sudden change in expectations is making the restaurant business extremely lucrative for good brand builders and is depressing those who serve bad food and give bad service.

The reason the consumer goes to a restaurant is to have a pleasant experience and to be able to enjoy his meal, his drink and his company with his family and friends, It could even be a business lunch or dinner which gives rise to a different set of expectations from the customers. Brand marketeers have a great opportunity to understand the expectations of consumers and provide them with tangibles and intangibles which delight the consumers and make them visit the restaurant again and again.

Brand marketeers must follow the pure principles of brand marketing whether in the form of segmentation or brand positioning or whether in the form of communication and delivery or whether in the form of brand experience or customer service. All ingredients of a brand marketing plan are relevant in building up of restaurant business. It could be the product portfolio like the menu or it could also be the soft skills or training required by the staff. Each and every marketing ingredient needs to be handled in a sensitive and caring manner.

(For Part –II Click here)

Copyright © 2005, All rights reserved with Jagdeep Kapoor – Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
No part of this document may be modified, reproduced, stored, deleted or introduced in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (Electronic, Mechanical, Photocopying, Recording or Otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of the document.
The author is Jagdeep Kapoor, Brand Guru and Managing Director of the successful Samsika Marketing Consultancy.
Tel: (022) 28477700/7701 (022) 28470214/15 Fax:022 28477699
E-mail : jkapoor@samsika.com