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In this report on Service Marketing, the purpose is to start a new service based company which will be a French Fine Dining Restaurant in the near future. The aim of this report will be to critically evaluate the main service which will be the focus for this restaurant and utilising concepts, tools and models of service marketing for the company to be successful. Here, a concise explanation on the strategic position of the company will be provided where explanation of the operating sector where the company will belong to, the name of the company, their present competitors as well as their competitive advantage will be presented. In addition to that an analysis of the target market for the company will be conducted along with the customer profile and identification of their expectations, needs and setting particular quality standards for the services. Lastly, an in-depth analysis of the decision relating to the marketing mix of the company will be emphasised on (Hole, Pawar and Bhaskar 2018).
The marketing mix concept has been developed by Neil H. Borden which is a developed version of the business executives’ concept of mixers of ingredients stated by James Culliton, where ingredients are being referred to the various marketing practices and features. Later Professor Jerome McCarthy had included the four key components namely, products, place, price and promotion which was named as the 4 P’s in the book of Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. The product mix consist of physical product or any service which is being offered to the consumer. It is considered to be the centre of the strategy and influences the other elements of the marketing mix.
The place mix is referred to the destination where the product or services are available, although it does not only referred to the physical location, it can also be considered as the virtual location as well where a proper distribution channel can be figured where the consumers and target audience can avail the product or service. The pricing mix, on the other hand, is referred to the value of the product or service which is asked from the customer in order to achieve the desirable return on investment. The promotion mix is referred to the direct marketing of the product or service along with public relations, advertising, in-store pitching and content marketing through which they can create brand or product awareness and customer engagement.
Later, additional 3P’s has been added into this concept namely, physical evidence, people and process which are majorly concerned with the service aspect. The physical evidence is referred to the customer experience during the customer journey process from the start to end, where from awareness to point of sales is achieved. People is referred to that marketing mix element which are individuals who are indirectly or directly associated with the business and is critical for service based companies, where employees and staff plays the major role for providing customer service. Lastly, process is referred to the manner which the business operates and is referred to the essential process which describes the fundamental elements and action for delivering the product or service to the customers.
SERVQUAL
SERVQUAL is referred to the multi-dimensional instrument for research developed for capturing the consumers’ expectations as well as their perception of the service through five dimensions which represents the service quality. The model is based on the expectancy and disconfirmation paradigm on the service quality where the pre-consumption expectations of the customers for quality are disconfirmed or confirmed with the actual perception of the experience for the service. The five dimensions on which SERVQUAL has been designed are reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness, which are majorly utilised for the research of service quality in several industries and geographical regions.
Gap Model
The Gap Model has been launched by A. Parasuraman, Leonard L. Berry and Valarie Ziethaml in the year 1985, for the business organisations to understand the customer satisfaction aspect. For the in-service industry, this model is utilised for understanding the different deviations within the process of service which are delivered to the potential customers. There are five major aspects with the GAP Model of Service quality for identifying the perceived services as well as the expected service. The gaps are namely, the gap between the management perception and customer expectation, management perception and service quality specification, service delivery and service quality specification, external communication and service delivery along with experienced service and expected service.
The company which will be formed is a French Fine Dining Restaurant in London, the United Kingdom and will be operating in the United Kingdom restaurant and food service based industry which has undergone a growth period before the COVID-19 outbreak in the year 2020 where their revenues have shown a rising trend over the past few year. After the pandemics, the restaurants are struggling for their survival. The marketing of such a full service based restaurant sector within the United Kingdom in the year 2021 was around 9495.9 million British pounds which is considerable decrease from their past year’s total of about 2360.4 million. However, the market size has been forecasted to reach about $20395.1 million British pounds by the year 2022 (Grönroos 2020). During the pandemic, the hospitality and restaurant industry has adapted to the altering rules and the part of temporarily closing the business which has reached from 81% in the year 2020 to 54% in the year 2021 during lockdown. The economic turnover in the year 2020 was about £1.2 billion in comparison to the larger improvement they made in the year 2021 which was £6.9 billion and the turnover from the restaurant industry in the year 2021 was 5.5 times higher compared to the turnover in the year 2020. The restaurant booking rate in the year 2021, after the restrictions were lifted increased by 32% in comparison to pre-pandemic in the year 2019 (Huotari and Hamari 2017).
The name which will be suitable for the French Fine Dining Restaurant is La Vie French Restaurant, which will be located in London, the United Kingdom, where they will be offer food and drinks menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner options, although there are no separate children’s food menu. Their main offerings will be quality service along with food and drink. La Vie French Restaurant will be fine dining eating place which will be a combination of intriguing and comfortable atmosphere with high quality food and drinks. The mission of the company will to provide high quality food to the customers along with friendly and efficient services as the customer satisfaction is the paramount for the business. The business will be aim to become the first choice for different types of customers, starting from male or female, families or singles and young or old (Hansen 2019).
Some of the competition for La Vie French Restaurant in London, the United Kingdom will be in the Iberian Penisula where the French restaurants are offering wide variety of food, bread, wine and cheese to the customers along with OTT desserts where the ambience is both modern and ancient. Medlar, Claude Bosi at Bibendum, Chez Bruce, Sinabro Restaurant, Le Gavroche and The Ritz London will some of the major competition for La Vie French Restaurant. There are more than 42,070 full service based operating restaurants in the United Kingdom and the food and drink industry has been providing formal employment to more than 487,848 people within their business (Mahajan 2017).
The fine dine restaurant businesses are highly competitive and often operates in a tight margins and their success and failure are heavily dependent on the business’ ability to develop their own competitive advantage in the market or industry, where the customers will be receiving such values which they would not receive from the competitors. La Vie French Restaurant’s staff will be an effective competitive strength for the business where they will be efficient and knowledgeable about the different cuisines and menu options along with providing exception customer service (Andreassen et al. 2016). Through their seamless service they will be providing a high quality customer dining experience. The French cuisines will be another competitive strength of the business which will be of the highest quality and exquisite in nature along with that the ingredients will be derived direct from the source of farms. The branding of French Restaurant will land them into a niche category which will attract both the regular and new customers who are aiming to try new forms of cuisines. Lastly, the business will be sustainable and an environment conscious fine dine restaurant where they will be avoiding genetically modified foods and will composite the waste along with utilising recyclable packaging (Jermsittiparsert 2019).
The market for La Vie French Restaurant will be for both the customers who are French as well as locals and foreigners customers who are aiming to try new forms of cuisines or have a certain preference towards French cuisines. Here the customers’ will be belong in the age group of 20 to 60 years old group, both male and female who will be belong in the higher income range and are educated in different forms of cuisines. As per psychographics segmentation, the attitude of the customers will be open minded and will belong from a high class society with high values and aspirations. The consumer base will even have a higher purchasing and spending habit (GÜREL and AYDIN 2016).
Name: Anna King
Demographics:-
Psychographics:-
Behaviours:-
SERVQUAL is referred to the instrument for multidimensional research which has been created for the measurement of the services’ quality by gaining the expectations and perceptions of the customer through five dimension of the service quality. Reliability of La Vie French Restaurant is their ability to be able to perform the promised service accurately and dependably, which they will be performing considering that their staffs and employees are highly trained as per the industrial regulations and norms as well as will be delivering the promised services which the customers are making payment for. Assurance, which is referred to the knowledge as well as courtesy of the employees and their capabilities to convey the confidence and trust, which in this particular case is high as the business will be a fine dining restaurant where employees and staffs are highly trained for delivering high quality services to the customers (Subramanian 2017).
The third dimension is tangibles which is referred to the appearance of the physical facilities, personnel, equipment and communication materials which is in this case will be the restaurant property, kitchen equipment and machineries as well as an accounting system and telecom system for communicating from within the kitchen to the operational area (Huang and Rust 2017). The fourth dimension is empathy which is referred to the provision of caring as well as individualised attention to the customers, which in this restaurant, a personal attender will be assigned to each table or customer who will be providing special attention to the customers’ requirements for the time periods. The last and fifth dimension is responsiveness which is referred to the willingness towards helping the customers and providing them prompt services, which will be performed by the individual attender assigned to each table as well as other available staffs and employees in the kitchen (Chattopadhyay 2019).
As per the Gap Model of the Service Quality, it identifies and addresses the five potential service gaps namely, the gap between the management perception and customer expectations, between the service quality specification and management perception, between the service quality specification and service delivery, between external communication and service delivery, and between experienced service and expected service (De Luca et al. 2021). In La Vie French Restaurant, the gap which will required close emphasis is the gap between the service quality specification and service delivery where the gap can arise in present situation which might occur because of improper training, unwillingness or incapability when it comes to meeting the set service standards maintained by the business and which the customers are expecting from the restaurant. It can arise out of lack of inappropriate compensation system and evaluation where ineffective recruitment can be another gap (Ok et al. 2018).
The main product which La Vie French Restaurant will be offering to their customers which be through their food and drinks menu. Their products will be value for money to the customers along with the high quality customer service which will result in return visits. The food and drinks menu will be created at highest standards which will keep updating as per the Head Chef’s recommendation, which will be matching the authentic French cuisine. There will be options and different menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There will be separate menu for children as well, which will portray the restaurant to be a family restaurant as well. There will be special breakfast plus lunch menu for the weekends in order to attract large customer groups towards the business (Vargo et al. 2017).
The prices of the offering made to the customers are required to be competitive, although they will also portray the quality and value which if offered to the customers. Their lunch menu is stated in their website which is states £9.75 for two course meals as well as £11.75 for three course meal. These prices are considered to be reasonable in comparison to the other French Style restaurants in the United Kingdom. In relation to this wine menu which La Vie French Restaurant will be offering, they have the cheapest white and red wine at £13.75 and £17.95 to the expensive ones at £27.60 and £61.75 (Bowen 2016).
The place mix is referred to the element from where the consumer can receive easy access to the offering. La Vie French Restaurant will be situated at the central place in London, the United Kingdom, which will be offering higher level of exposure from the regular and potential customers, either at a walking distance or through vehicles. La Vie French Restaurant will be located at The Marketing Building, London, the United Kingdom which will be offering petite and quaint French flair. Since, the location is situated at the centre of the city, there will be lack of parking sports or the consumers will have to pay a high fare for vehicle parking. Improvement relating to the car parking aspect can help in increasing the consumer traffic for the restaurant (Grönroos 2017).
The promotional mix consist of means and method through which the business communicates with the consumers relating to their offerings and making them aware of the benefits and values which are being provided. La Vie French Restaurant will be utilising two popular means of promotion for regular basis which are billboard advertisement and local search optimisation. The restaurant will be promoting their business through billboard advertisement which will be landing impact and create awareness among the consumers for a longer time period. It is an expensive means of promotion, although it will result in increased consumer traffic into the business. Further adding the website link to the advertisement will help in increasing their online traffic as well. Secondly, through local search optimisation, the restaurant can be added to the local directories and local listing for the creating awareness among the local people (Eletxigerra, Barrutia and Echebarria 2018).
People aspect for La Vie French Restaurant consist of the employees, management and customer as well as the business owner who will play a crucial role for the success of the business. The restaurant will be requiring highly qualified chefs and staffs who are attend to the customers by providing them quality French cuisine. The restaurant’s website can consist of an employees’ profile which will provide details on their chefs and employees who will be providing the customers with high quality services. Further, the business will have to hire employees and staffs who are hardworking, friendly and enthusiastic who can easily navigate through a busy environment and work under pressure (Hoffman and Bateson 2016).
The physical evidence aspect for this particular restaurant will be the experience which is provided to the customers through their offerings and services. For instance through pamphlets and brochures, the restaurant can promote their offering to the potential customers and make sure that the consumer is aware of the quality and services which will be provided to them. Further, the ambience of the restaurant can be set in such a manner that it will represent authentic French restaurant vibe where the furnishing will be of the highest quality and will portray a comfortable dining space. The arrangement of tables can be conducted in such a manner that family seating can be implemented as well (Gummesson 2017).
The process aspect consist of activities which are to be performed in order to deliver the offerings to the customer. La Vie French Restaurant’s staffs collect their raw materials directly from the source which ensures that the quality of their offering is high. There are several other processes which will be taking place such as ambience, music and lighting, restaurant signage, furnishing and restaurant decors, table setting, and restroom areas and cleanliness which is one of the major process taking place backdoor and they will be assigned by the manager and supervisor to the staffs and employees (Cronin 2016).
In this Service Marketing report, a French style fine dining restaurant by the name La Vie French Restaurant will be established. Here, the strategic positioning of the restaurant is discussed within which the sector in which the restaurant will be operating, the name of the restaurant, their competitor analysis as well as competitive advantage is evaluated and analysed. Further, the target market of the restaurant is determined along with the needs, expectation and quality standards for the business by using the frameworks of SERVQUAL and Gap Model of the Service Quality. Lastly, rational for the company’s marketing mix is provided which consisted of product, price, place, promotion, people, psychical evidence, and process elements.
References
Andreassen, T.W., Kristensson, P., Lervik-Olsen, L., Parasuraman, A., McColl-Kennedy, J.R., Edvardsson, B. and Colurcio, M., 2016. Linking service design to value creation and service research. Journal of Service Management.
Bowen, D.E., 2016. The changing role of employees in service theory and practice: An interdisciplinary view. Human Resource Management Review, 26(1), pp.4-13.
Chattopadhyay, P.R.I.T.A.M., 2019. A study on the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty with reference to service marketing context: Theoretical approach. IRE journals, 3(1), pp.89-96.
Cronin, J.J., 2016. Retrospective: a cross-sectional test of the effect and conceptualization of service value revisited. Journal of Services Marketing.
De Luca, L.M., Herhausen, D., Troilo, G. and Rossi, A., 2021. How and when do big data investments pay off? The role of marketing affordances and service innovation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(4), pp.790-810.
Eletxigerra, A., Barrutia, J.M. and Echebarria, C., 2018. Place marketing examined through a service-dominant logic lens: A review. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 9, pp.72-84.
Grönroos, C., 2017. Relationship marketing and service: An update. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 27(3), pp.201-208.
Grönroos, C., 2020. Service marketing research priorities: service and marketing. Journal of Services Marketing, 34(3), pp.291-298.
Gummesson, E., 2017. From relationship marketing to total relationship marketing and beyond. Journal of services marketing.
GÜREL, E. and AYDIN, S.?., 2016. PUBLIC RELATIONS IN SERVICE MARKETING. Journal of International Social Research, 9(45).
Hansen, A.V., 2019. Value co-creation in service marketing: A critical (re) view. International Journal of Innovation Studies, 3(4), pp.73-83.
Hoffman, K.D. and Bateson, J.E., 2016. Services marketing: concepts, strategies, & cases. Cengage learning.
Hole, Y., Pawar, S. and Bhaskar, M.P., 2018. Service marketing and quality strategies. Periodicals of engineering and natural sciences, 6(1), pp.182-196.
Huang, M.H. and Rust, R.T., 2017. Technology-driven service strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(6), pp.906-924.
Huotari, K. and Hamari, J., 2017. A definition for gamification: anchoring gamification in the service marketing literature. Electronic Markets, 27(1), pp.21-31.
Jermsittiparsert, K., 2019, September. Service marketing mix and service value: a way to increase customer satisfaction. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Business and Information Management (pp. 52-58).
Mahajan, P., 2017. Incorporating 11 p's of service marketing mix and its impact on the development of technical education. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 20(2).
Ok, S., Suy, R., Chhay, L. and Choun, C., 2018. Customer satisfaction and service quality in the marketing practice: Study on literature review. Asian Themes in Social Sciences Research, 1(1), pp.21-27.
Subramanian, K.R., 2017. Impact of packaging in self service marketing. International journal of scientific progress and research, 93(1), pp.60-66.
Vargo, S.L., Lusch, R.F., Akaka, M.A. and He, Y., 2017. Service-dominant logic: A review and assessment. Review of marketing research, pp.125-167.
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