Issues faced by Irie Caribbean Restaurants and Caterers

Discuss about the Interaction Effects of Level of Positive Ambient.

The position of restaurants, their layouts and even their online presence play important role in the enhancing customer satisfaction. The researcher would study these aspects in the light of a case study, which mentions an arbitrary restaurant called Irie Carribbean Restuarants and Caterers.

Irie Carribbean Restuarants and Caterers was situated on the College Street near the St. Georges Campusof the Toronto University, a position which was highly advanatgeous. The restaurant did not use a lighted signboard advertising its name and its intrenal layout needed renovation. The biggest issue was the weak competitor analysis and startegy, which included not considering online food ordering platforms as important business aspects. The issue would form the primary problem, which would require the management to decide alternatives and implement measures to enforce them (Choi & Oyunbileg, 2016).

An analysis of the case study reveals several issues in the operations of Irie, which would imapct its customer satisfaction enhancement and profit generation. First, the restuarant in spite of being sitauted on the advantageous position on the College Street did not use illumated signboard. The customers were not able to locate the restaurant, which caused inconvinience to them. Second, the layout of the restaurant was that of a pizerria with not sitting arrangement. Moreover, the customers had to wait in the narrow passage, which caused inconvinience to the other customers (Doub et al., 2015). The biggest issue was the competitive startegy, which did not consider the increasing importance of online food-ordering portals. This was the most serious issue of the three because lack of online presence actaully curbed the capacity of the restaurant to accept orders and process them to generate revenue. Moreover, the restuarant did not consider the supremarkets, which sold ready-to-cook restaurant preparations as its secondary competitors. Considering the increasing trend among the Canadian customer base to use services of online portals to order food, it can be inferred that the competitor restuarants had online presence. This lack of online presence of Irie resulted in less revenue generation, which aggravated the issue (See-Kwong et al., 2017).

The competitive strategy of Irie required urgent decision-making right at the apical management level to include online presence and its own ready-to-take range of items as parts of its competitive strategy.

The following are the two alternatives, which the apex management of Irie can consider as the solution to its grave third issue:

The top management of Irie should consider opening account on online food ordering system like Oddle (oddle.me, 2018). The strategy would require huge initial investment to enter into contract with online food order-processing companies and change in technology to accept orders online.

The case study does not mention the supermarkets, which sell packaged ready-to-cook food items as the secondary competitors. The apex managent of Irie requires considering these super markets as secondary competitors. This is because the restuarants sell ready-to-cook packaged food, which customers prefer in order to avoid waiting at the restaurant counters. Thus, these supermarkets deserved consideration in the competitve strategies of the restaurants. Irie in response to this competition from super markets should sell its own range of ready-to-take way dishes at its counter (Kraak et al., 2016).

Alternative strategies to improve competitiveness

As pointed above the key decision criteria which Morrison can consider are entering the online food ordering platforms and offering its own range of ready-to-eat food items. The third option is revamping the restaurant premises to meet the requirements of the customers like extended waiting area. The apex management need to decide between the different options by comparing the cost they attract and the benefits they would bring the organisation.

The analysis of these two alternative strategies, which Irie can consider, can be studied through the following frameworks:

The online food service is a fast developing market globally which is backde by increasing prferences of customers order food online. The advancement of science has enable customers to view and order food from various restaurants even while travelling. Moreover, food portals are available on diverse digital divices like laptops and smart phones. These factors have led online food portals emerge as profitable markets, which is generating high revenue (Hurwitz et al., 2016). This growing market demand has placed online food portals in the star position as shown above.

Market growth rate	High	Star(Online food portal)	?
Low	Cow (Inhouse dining facilities )	Dog (Ready made restaurant items)
	High	Low
Relative market share

Figure 1. BCG matrix showing position of online food ordering systems compared to takeways and traditional inhouse dining

(Source: Author)

The graph below shows that increasing GDP per capita in Canada which means that the people in the country have more disposable income. Canada is technologically very advanced which means the people in the country have more access to online food order placement portals using their mobile phones. These favaourable economical and technolpogical factors have encouarged most of the restaurants to invest in online food ordering portals to enhance their competitive advantages (Novatorov, 2016).

One can recommend the following changes in the light of the above analysis:

Irie must open account on online portal to be able to accept more orders for its food items. This would enable the restaurant generate demand among customers in other localities as well which boost its revenue generation. The online portal would also enable the firm to promote its products before a large number of customers simultaneously. The restaurant would as a result strengthen its revenue generation and goodwill by extending its online presence.

The necessity to strengthen competitiveness requires the firm to renovate its premises since it plays important role in the marketing of the firm. The present premises of Irie was had the design of a pizza outlet with no sitting arrangement. The premises had insufficient space for large number of customers, which caused inconviniece to customers. The firm should renovate its premises or acquire a new premise with sufficient space for customers. This would also enable the firm to market its business and maximum customer satisfaction, thus generating more profit.

The following are the actions, which the apex management of Irie would take to implement its strategy of extending its presence on the digital online portal:

The management of the Irie should allocate funds towards opening an account with online food ordering portal.

The restaurant would then open an account with an online order proccessing portal. This would require both the restaurant and the portal owner enter into contract, decide on the menu which the portal to make available to the customers and decide on various other business terms.

The company must update its present website and make this online food ordering information available to all customers. The firm should also extend its presence in form of applications, which would be accessible to customers on their smart phones.

The company on regular basis should monitor and review the profit generated after the adoption of online food ordering portal. It should kepe on revamping the features and presentations on the portal available to customers to stimulate more business gemeration.

Conclusion:

One can conclude from the discusion that Irie should extend its presence on the online food-ordering portal. This would extend it to process more orders and generate more revenue. However, adoption of the startegy would require alllocation of funds and training of staffs to operate in the new way. The restaurant should also renovate its present premises to enhance customer convinience and satisfaction. The firm should align its appeal with its business objective and increase its revenue generation.

References:

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Canada Gross National Product | 1961-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar. (2018). Tradingeconomics.com. Retrieved 16 March 2018, from https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/gross-national-product

Choi, N. H., & Oyunbileg, T. (2016). Interaction Effects of Arousal Level of Positive Ambient Emotion and Advertisement Type on Product Evaluation. Asia Marketing Journal, 18(1), 37-53.

Doub, A. E., Levin, A., Heath, C. E., & LeVangie, K. (2015). Mobile app-etite: Consumer attitudes towards and use of mobile technology in the context of eating behaviour. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(2), 114-129.

Hurwitz, L. B., Morales, E. D., Montague, H., Lauricella, A. R., & Wartella, E. (2016). Mobile marketing to children: a content analysis of food and beverage company apps. Public health, 141, 241-244.

Kraak, V. I., Vandevijvere, S., Sacks, G., Brinsden, H., Hawkes, C., Barquera, S., … & Swinburn, B. A. (2016). Progress achieved in restricting the marketing of high-fat, sugary and salty food and beverage products to children. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 94(7), 540.

Novatorov, E. (2016). Marketing social innovations concept: an appeal for methodological pluralism.

Online Ordering System Built for Restaurants | Oddle. (2018). An All-in-One Food Ordering System. [online] Available at: https://oddle.me/our-product [Accessed 16 Mar. 2018].

Podoprigora, M. G., & Nazvanova, I. A. (2015). Territory Marketing: Its Notion, Specific Features and Implementation Stages. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(3 S4), 165.

See-Kwong, G., Soo-Ryue, N., Shiun-Yi, W., & Lily, C. (2017). Outsourcing to Online Food Delivery Services: Perspective of F&B Business Owners. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 22(2).