Foodies Hub: Analysing Services Through Service Theories

Brief the Ad agency on what they are trying to achieve for your firm and make recommendations for an integrated services marketing and branding plan to the agency

Background of Foodies Hub

Foodies Hub is an emerging food chain business that has been established in the year 2006 in New Zealand. The business operators and founder are X and Y. They are partners for life, and since their early school days, business was a hitting material that they targeted to operate. Food chain system and restaurants are always an attracting factor that people seeks for and need it. The idea of establishing of Foodies Hub came with that interest. Since the year 2006, the business started off with a minuscule unit and place in the New Zealand. Especially, the focus was on the street food items that will be an easy process to reach the most common people and their taste and preferences. From the small stalls to bigger restaurant units, the journey of both the partners had been amazing that involved high knowledge of research that business (Armstrong, 2009).

The partners targeted the general mass of people as their target market. Talking about the place, they tactfully sorted out units in front of schools, office, colleges and railway stations where they will be getting assured visitors to make them potential customers. Service positioning is a factor that involves high prioritisation to customers need depending on the marketing research. There exist formal studies of marketing to which such efficient partners and other managers commission to deal with specified problems and opportunities (Babin, B.J., Lee, Y.K., Kim, E.J. and Griffin, 2005)

Use service theories to analyse the current position of each of the 7Ps

The concerned company can be classified as complete service restaurant chain existing in New Zealand and other parts of Australia. The range of its services has been extensive that includes Grand parties, meetings, banquet facilities, weddings, special events and exquisite food categories for the customers.

The product categorisation has been seen into three levels that are core, supporting and facilitating products (Curran, J.M. and Meuter, 2005).

The core products at the basic product formations with simply acts as the main resource for the consumers while purchasing anything from the business unit. For foodies hub, the core products are exquisite food with proper arrangement of dining. The outside services are the additional facilities of products that generate an offer of getting a competitive edge in the concerned marketing place. 

Supporting products include services which are offered to get a competitive advantage for the business with the increasing of the value of core products. The supporting products which are provided by the concerned company are 24/7 table services, special offers for regular customers and other clients. Special facilities are avail for clients who desire to have ordered the special supporting facilities (Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, 2013).

Facilitating products are the part of services which assess the customers for consuming the core products. The biggest examples of facilitating products are bar counters, online reservation facilities and home delivery systems (Edvardsson, B., Gustafsson, A. and Roos, 2005).

Augmented product is considered to be a benefit for the business that includes core products and peripheral services. Augmented products that are offered by foodies hub are membership discounts?, luxurious dining facilities with exterior designs, high-class restaurant atmosphere with convincing ambience (Fisk, 208).

The ultimate objective of the companies to distribute the strategy of restaurants in the whole continent and even striving to operate their business overseas is backed up by the available products and the desire for it in specific areas. According to the records, the food chain business has already more than 250 units in the whole continent and 70 distributive channels. The company has conducted the distribution strategy usually depending on the information technology and the different Internet facilities. The official website serves to be an effective platform that shows the service distribution and supply range along with the capabilities the company is processing for its practical assistance to the customers. With the help of online activities, the customers can book the available services for events, meetings, weddings and other related materials. Apart from that, the services distribution of foodies hub is also facilitated by applications on mobiles which are available for Android and iPhone platforms. Social media is the most important place for the business to operate their functions because most of the population is found on social media sites and it is very easy to promote the business via online strategies. This is the main reason for selecting the Internet platform as the most important base because the wide distributive channels are mostly found in the virtual world rather than in the real world. The online services also facilitate the customers to buy their products in advance and collaborate with their frame worked schedules (Grönroos, 2007).

Service categorisation through service theories

The pricing strategy of the concerned company are categorised into four broad frameworks which is also known as pricing strategy matrix: economic, skimming, penetration and premium pricing strategies.

The economic pricing strategy includes selling of the products based on the basic features and traits of the consumers with a low budget.

The biggest factor in spreading the business and the motive of the services is advertising and promotion. Promotion is such a factor that acknowledges the quality of the services and makes it be a necessary element for the consumers who will get attracted to the services provided by the concerned company and will add to benefits for both the parties. The more and more people comes to know about the existing business, the more will be the connectivity which will benefit the customers with Quality Services as well as the company with enough potential customer base and economic development. Promotional strategies include advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, etc. Social media is considered to be the key communication tool for the company. Social media apps as a common platform to convey the message to the correct audiences with informative and appealing emotions (Hoffman, K.D. and Bateson, 2010).

People are considered to be the company members who operate the business and are involved directly with all the functioning of the business. Here, foodies hub consist huge number of employees apart from the owners who strive to put in their best of efforts to clarify the dignified position of the company and increase their social and economic development. The owners, sales staff, managing directors, front office managers, chefs, waiters, suppliers, delivery person, drivers, security department and others members who are directly involved in providing the services and products to the customers are the people of the company. It is impossible to operate use and developing business without a proper group of people who will be encouraged to put all their efforts for the best outcome. Therefore the success of business hugely depends on the number of people who are collaborating with each other to make a single objective as a successful step (Kotler, P. and Armstrong, 2010).

Processes involved the delivery of service which is usually done to the customers to show the quality and approach of delivering the service. The way of providing service to the customers is an important factor on which depends the favourable options of availing the services for the customers. The technique of communicating with the customers, the way of serving the dishes, the decorations made with dishes to seek the attention of customers, and ultimately their service behaviour besides the procedures they adopt to solve their customer (Lovelock, C. and Patterson, 2015).

Pricing strategy of Foodies Hub

Every business and operational units include some physical materials that are tangible like an invoice, documents and any other printed materials. For this food chain business, the physical evidence consists of the invoices, order slips, home delivery papers, documents, advertising leaflets, etc.

Penetration pricing strategy on the other side includes the offering of high-quality products at low prices to increase the competitiveness in their existing market share (Henseler, J., Ringle, C.M. and Sinkovics, 2009).

Skimming pricing strategy is opposite to that of penetration pricing strategy offering higher price levels of the products and services than that of the competition. The main rationale of making skimming pricing strategy to be the choice includes the huge desire for the associated products and services with its quality and exclusiveness.

Premium pricing strategy includes charging higher level of pricing for the services and products which are considered to have excellent additional features and quality (Hoffman, K.D. and Bateson, 2001).

It is important to specify proper marketing strategies objectives and actions for the concerned company to promote their business and marketing activities and reach most of the people. Proper marketing strategies not only help the company to reach more and more people but also makes the company eligible enough to defend any rawsituations and stick to their primary objective (Lovelock, C. and Patterson, 2010).

Prioritise the content of marketing of the business- the motive of marketing the business is to promote its feature and facilities so that it can reach the most of the customers in an attractive an approach. The business is all about food chain that brings up a variety of street food items as well as luxurious dishes to serve every category of customers in the existing operational area.

Setting compelling contents as marketing objectives- the marketing objectives focus on reaching most of the customers and providing them Quality Services to increase their goodwill and reputation in the market as well as economic development.

Creating strategic content and documents of the marketing plan- it is important to deal with the need of the customers and therefore to analyse the different perspectives and desires of the market, primarily research is the main things that will carry forward the following steps to adjust and manufacture demanding services. Documentation of marketing plan is important so that the continuity do not message out and every member who is involved in marketing promotion could access fixed objectives (Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, 2014).

Marketing strategies for Foodies Hub

Developing compelling content as to convey core message- food comes in various form, but foodies hub are striving to provide their customers are a healthy source of eating in the form of delicious presentations. Being the social creature and Associates of the same platform, apart from thinking from a business perspective, it is necessary to think about the Wellness of each other, and therefore, the company are striving their best to bring more health to the society with an urge of good food varieties (Lovelock, C. and Patterson, 2015).

Determining target audiences- it is not so difficult to determine the targeted audiences, but then also, it is not that easy to determine the potential customers. Due to the variation of perspectives of each people, sometimes becomes hard for selecting the appropriate target group. However, keeping in mind the primary objective to serve everyone equally, teens, children, working people are considered to be the target audience. Food is loved by everyone, but many of them cannot enjoy the ultimate flavour of it. It is due to some health issues. Therefore, the company is focusing on healthy food categories and variations for the less fortunate foodies (Lusch, R.F. and Vargo , 2014)?. 

References

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Curran, J.M. and Meuter, M.L., 2005. Self-service technology adoption: comparing three technologies. Journal of Services Marketing, 19(2), pp.103-113.

Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, I.A., 2013. International marketing. Cengage Learning.

Edvardsson, B., Gustafsson, A. and Roos, I., 2005. Service portraits in service research: a critical review. International journal of service industry management, 16(1), pp.107-121.

Fisk, R.P., Grove, S.J. and John, J., 2008. Interactive services marketing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Grönroos, C., 2007. Service management and marketing: customer management in service competition. John Wiley & Sons.

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