Introduction
The modern day world is faced with a number of challenges. In America one of the major challenges is obesity with a large portion of the population engaging in unhealthy eating habits (Man-tao 76). The risk of health can no longer be ignored and the need for responsible restaurants to take up the challenge and initiatives’ healthy eating ventures is more of a social responsibility that business.
The sight of workers rushing to and from their offices to get quick lunches is a common occurrence. However, what becomes a problem is the kind of food they take.
The world today is based on speed and this quite often sacrifices quality. Workers run from their offices to get a quick lunch and the food service market generally greets them with fast but unhealthy options. In the US, and world, obesity rates are rising (Man-tao 76). Unhealthy eating habits are creating a toxic environment where young children are being diagnosed with diabetes and heart disease. Tinapa Natura intends to offer a healthy eating experience to its clients that will not only live them satisfied but also healthy.
Problem
Overeating is not the only problem facing Americans. Consumption of the wrong kind of foods impacts negatively on the health of Americans. The typical diets of average person’s in America is mainly composed of plenty of saturated fats, high cholesterol levels, sodium and lost of processed carbohydrates (Man-tao 76). The high and lows of the bad diets has seen many Americans suffer diet related health problems including high blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels, diabetes and various types of diet related cancers.
In the US, a large percentage of the populations are estimated to have a weight related problem. In the American population, the number of persons suffering from morbidity obese is on the rises with every New Year that comes. This is mainly attributable to unhealthy fast foods availed to the population. Fast food billboards dot every part of America. However, the question arising is whether the foods provided within these premises are healthy for the population. Surprising this problem is even affecting children whose rates of suffering obesity have soared over the years. Healthy statistics worldwide indicating that America is the leading in obesity cases globally (see figure below).
Tinapa Natura is keen on offering organic foods which pose minimal health risks to the population instead providing increased health benefits to the population. This will be possible by ensuring that the foods to are well evaluated and appropriate dietary requirements taken into consideration by a health professional
Proposed solution
Our simple solution is to offer clients fresh organic products from the farm which poses minimal health risk. Our intention is to mainly provide quality foods at reduced prices and minimize the possible health effects that the clients may suffer. Our objectives will mainly include:
- To provide quality organic food stuffs to the locality.
- To modify the menu and other services with the change in consumer taste, market demand and competitors’ strategy (Menon et al. 43)
- To render an enlightening environment to enjoy food items.
- To extend the business in different locality if the acceptability of our cuisines meets our prior expectation (Armstrong 56).
- To maintain the costs and operation under tight managerial expertise so that the mission of our venture can be satisfied.
- To increase the average sales from year to year by materializing the above mentioned objectives
Benefits
Established of Tinapa greens are expected to be beneficial to the clients as well as the management staff of the establishment. Some of the expected benefits will include:
- Improved health to clients
- Change in eating habits from unhealthy to healthy
- Increase revenue to the establishment which is expected to lead into increased revenue to all the stakeholders involved.
Business analysis
This is a partnership business ventures. As it will be established in an aristocratic area, the name should be worthy to attract the attention of the customers. So, the entrepreneurs decided to name it as ‘Super Greens ’.
Tinapa Natura will range in size of 3000 square feet and will seat 100 guests at a time. In order to attract the target customers this restaurant will be located in Hudson area of New York City. The restaurant will be equipped with a state-of-the-art sound system that will allow our clients to choose their favorite songs free of charge.
Construction site selection criteria are based on the under-mentioned factors:
- Community size minimum of 50000 people within one mile (Eric et al. 89)
- Enhanced visibility to the prospective clients (Menon et al. 43)
- Availability of space for development of an easily accessible parking lot.
- Access of high officials during the working days.
- Reduced competition presence (Eric et al. 89).
These are in line with our goal of provision of high quality services to our clients at affordable prices. The consumers’ satisfaction on the organic menu and service would be the best form of marketing.
Restaurant business is a service oriented business (Eric et al. 89). The main objective is to provide the consumers an atmosphere of eating with pleasure, relaxation and satisfaction (Estelle 65), so, the service rendering is the main nature of the business. Still there is a portion of manufacturing involved in this business which acts as a backward linkage for the supply of raw materials in order to prepare the organic food stuffs. These are described in detail in the production plan of the restaurant.
The basic features that will constitute the business will include:
Enlightened Surroundings
The surroundings of the restaurant will be very enlightened so that the consumers can feel that our organic food stuffs would also make them luminous. This has been intended to remove the belief that unhygienic restaurants are lightened dimly.
High Quality Foods
The mainly served dishes at Super Greens include fresh meat, vegetables, crisps, salads, side dishes and desserts.
Opening and Closing Periods
The restaurant will remain open from 11.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. on the five usual weekdays. With a view to tackle the rush in the weekend days it will remain open from 11.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. so that the visitors can enjoy their meal in a serene atmosphere.
Dinner Buffet
As in the weekend days there would be more hurry than that in other working days, a special dinner buffet would be offered in Saturday and Sunday to keep the consumers in touch with the restaurant more frequently.
Affable Employees
Workforce is vitally important for the success of any business. In Tinapa Natura restaurant employees would be sufficiently trained before the inception of the operation of the restaurant. So, the front-desk personnel would amiably welcome the visitors and the waiters would serve the cuisine cordially upon their preferences.
Products and Services
The Menu
The menu is going to be very simple, yet exotic to attract our target customers. As we are opening an organic food restaurant the menu would be set keeping in mind that the guests will expect the food to be fresh and hygienic.
The menu will include different cuisines from different cultures. It would include all the cuisines that are generally served in the mainstream restaurants in New York and also some other different kind of dishes.
The dishes served would be for three persons and we will also have the option of set menu. The set menu can be served from different cuisines. The cuisines served would be Thai, Chinese, Indian, Continental and also some special dishes from European cuisines as our target customers though we will also include guests from foreign countries
Organic Ingredients
Organic food is, in general, food produced without the use of artificial pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (George. Kress & John 78). In common usage, the word organic can apply equally to store-bought food products, food from a home garden where no synthetic inputs are used, and even food gathered or hunted in the wild (George. Kress & John 78).
The organic food served in our restaurant will be produced in our firm (mostly) and the other ingredients will be collected from the local area market. We will produce all the vegetables that we will serve and also the meat and fish. All the sea foods, shrimps and the ingredients will be collected from the market.
Ethnic Ingredients
Our chef will have a responsibility of menu design from a variety of cultural backgrounds. We intend to build a strong menu based on ingredients’ from various cultures.
Interior design
People need to keep life interesting and our artwork will reflect the world influences that are core to the attitude of the chef of the restaurant (Koichi, 101). We will do the interior decoration keeping in mind that the overall view of the restaurant should reflect the objective of the restaurant that is fresh and hygienic.
The entrance of the restaurant will be soothing yet attractive because the first sight matters a lot. The next emphasis will be on the usage of light in the total environment. All the furniture used in the restaurant will be specially made for the comfort of the guests. The walls of the restaurant will be decorated with attractive paintings and there would use of green plants in decorative manner.
The internal planning of the building that means the architectural design will be done by an Architect from a well known firm and also the interior decoration will be done by the architect and one of our managers (Koichi 112). All design and construction costs are illustrated in table 1.
Sales records
Though, no sales literature exists as of now, we intend to publish them as soon as the restaurant begins operation. This is relatively inexpensive venture as it will be done in-house with the help of desk-top computers. Some of the pieces intended for production include:
- Table Toppers: will explain concept and differences between lunch/dinner, announcing job opportunities and other activities will be announced.
- Brochure: will be used to explain our event handling capability and approaches e.g. tea parties, large parties, and banquets among others (Lundberg 58).
- Direct: Mail Piece: will illustrate our business concept, our prices, and bear internal photographs of the restaurant.
Technology
We will invest in 3 computers (desktop) and high speed internet for fast and efficient communication. This will allow ease of manipulation of financial information due to the linkage to cash register. Further we will invest in hotel management software that will facilitate management operations within the restaurant. Our orders will mainly be placed online. Record keeping and management will be done via management software.
Competition
Hudson and New York in general have a large number of hotels. However, our main competitors will include BareBurger, Organic Avenue, GustOrganics, Quartino Bottega Organica, ABC Kitchen, and The Green Table (Barclays Commercial 43). Though some of these competitors offer services comparable to ours, most lack the unique and reclusive environment that we intend to offer. The services provided by these restaurants are quite satisfactory. Additionally, the unique approach to service we intend to adopt will attract clients to us.
Target Market
The production of organic food is costlier than producing it in inorganic way. That’s why; the food served in our restaurant will be a little costlier than any other restaurant. Because of this reason our target customer will be persons willing to pay more for quality.
Conscious person
Persons, who are conscious about their health and also what food they are taking, will be our target customers, because our restaurant will serve foods which will be mainly produced in our firm. Other food items and spices will be collected from such sources that the food served before the guests will be fully organic.
Families
Now days in our country, the awareness for healthy food and healthy environment of restaurants have been increased. That’s why; the families want to go to restaurant where the food will be hygienic. So they will be our target customers we believe that our restaurant will be able to cater their needs properly.
Officials
That is the last customer pool who in offices and they need to take their food outside. It is not that much healthy for them. So if we can serve food which can fulfill their needs and even match their price range and satisfaction level, then they will come to our restaurant.
Foreign Visitors
A large portion of our target customer will be foreign visitors. The foreigners are generally more health conscious and they prefer taking organic food. But in our country they don’t get restaurants or even markets where they can get organic food or food items. So if they get restaurant in our country serving organic food they will definitely come as our guests.
Client growth forecast
As our target customers will be offered with variety and health conscious services through our menu, we can expect that there will be growth in the demand for the cuisines. The following table shows the growth rate of customers in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Although we hope that the officials, couples and other visitors might not grow in 2009, families and foreigners will grow to a great extent. These projections are based on a Barclays report on New York hotels (Barclays Commercial 34).
Market segmentation
Our market has been segmented according to our specialized services. Our menu will attract the conscious citizens at large.
Our targeted marketed segments are based on age, gender, income classification, and occupation (Lundberg 65). Age will involve seniors, couples with kids, health conscious aged population. Gender will cover both females though much emphasis will be on fat females who are on vegetarian meals. With regard to income, our focus will mainly be on the middle class and high income group of the population. Occupational segment will cover white-collar workers, young professionals and families.
Pricing strategy
In pricing the products of our restaurant we are going to use Premium Pricing Strategy (Sullivan & Steven 23). This strategy is used to produce high quality product and charge the highest price.
As the production procedure of organic food is costly, the higher price charged in the restaurant will be reasonable and the higher value paid by the consumers will get back to them as we are going to serve them with quality foods that are promised by us (Armstrong 32).
(In our survey we have found that out of 76 respondents 70 of them are in favor of organic food restaurant and they are also willing to pay higher for the quality cuisine. So, we have sufficient Endeavour for the initialization of the business
Advertising and Promotional Plan
The advertising procedure of the restaurant will be comprised of
- Setting advertising objectives
- Setting the advertising budget
- Developing the advertising strategy
- Evaluating the advertising campaigns
Setting advertising objectives
The first step is to set the advertising objective. An advertising objective communicates the specific tasks with reference to specified audiences and time duration.
Our advertising objective will be firstly to inform the consumers and after a certain period of time it will be reminding. Now the rationales behind the objectives are:
- As we are introducing a new line of food in the market, our advertising will be informative. The primary objective is to build public demand.
- We will also do persuasive advertising by saying that we are serving the best quality food (Lundberg 59).
- Reminder advertising is important for mature products-it keeps consumers thinking about the product (Eric et al 76). As we are going to run a restaurant it will be very important for us to remind the consumers that we are there to serve them with quality food which will value their money.
Setting the advertising budget
As we are starting a totally new venture, we have to set an advertising budget that is large in size ($500,000). Because we have to build awareness and gain consumer trial, the market share also impacts the advertising budget as we have to build a market for our product and also take share from the competitors.
Developing advertising strategy
Advertising strategy consists of two major elements.
- Creating advertising message.
- Selecting advertising media.
For the advertising of the restaurant we are going to use billboards, banners and poly sign as the media. We will hire a billboard at Hudson circle. This billboard will hold the main reason for opening the restaurant; that is the organic food will value the money of the guests as well as give them a good appetite. This is also the advertising message.
The banners will be used in all the main roads of Hudson, Broadway, Upper Brook St, and West Street. We will use the banners especially in front of all the embassies, high commissions, multinational corporations, NGOs, and in other main office areas.
The poly sign will be used in front of our restaurant.
Evaluating advertising campaign
We have to evaluate both the communication effects and the sales effects of advertising regularly (George, Kress, & John 56). Sales effects are also affected by many other factors like product features, price, satisfaction etc. But the communication effects solely depend on the advertising (George, Kress, & John 56). After opening the restaurant the number of guests coming each day and the frequency of the guests’ visit will give evidence of effective communication.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Fresh market
The market of organic food is fresh in our country. We launch our product in a market in which there is no direct competitor. People who prefer organic food will be a large portion of our potential customer.
Fully New idea
The most important strength of our venture is the concept of organic food restaurant is increasingly being adopted worldwide to promote best eating habits and hence improve health fitness. There number of restaurants offering such services in New York is currently limited.
No dependence on raw materials
We do not depend on external sources for our basic raw materials (such as chicken, fish, egg, milk, meat, vegetables etc). Rather we produce these products in our own firm. This will ensure continuous supply of raw materials at a lower cost.
Organic elements are ensured
If we purchase our basic raw materials from outside suppliers, we can not ensure our customer that the food stuffs we supply are fully organic. As we produce the raw materials in our own firm and we ourselves monitor each and every steps of the production process, we can ensure our customer that our products are fully organic.
Customer satisfaction
As we can ensure the organic element in our food items, this will satisfy our customer to seek for organic food and helps us to retain old customers and create new customers.
Strong staff resources
Our five entrepreneurs are directly engaged in the management of the business. This will ensure the proper monitoring of the business. Also at every stage of production and operation we employed sufficient staffs and workers.
Modification of menu
Our menu is not fixed. We will change our menu and add new items in our menu to attract new customers and to give customers a good experience in dining.
Own transport
We use our own 1.5 ton truck to carry raw materials from our firm to our restaurant. Thus we need not rely on outside transport and our transportation cost will be substantially low.
Advertising
Not all restaurants in our country advertise. But we know the strength of advertisement and we go for it. Our billboard will definitely inform the potential customer that a new way of restaurant is being opened for their experience. Poly signs and banners are also helpful in promoting our advertising process.
Secured source of capital
Our restaurant has raised its capital from internally generated funds mainly. Some portion would be provided by an investor in the venture. So, the sources of capital are quite secured.
Modern technology
We have adopted some modern technologies keeping facilities online contracts with the customers. Moreover, we welcome the guests to use their credit cards or debit cards in the payment of the bill.
Attractive interior
Our restaurant would provide some attractive interior arrangements with soothing environment which will be enlightened and dirt free enough to please our guests. Moreover, our rhythmic sound system would pace up the entertainment at a large scale.
Proper management
Five of our entrepreneurs are directly engaged in management. They will work with their best effort and this will ensure a proper management system.
Proper planned organizational structure
Our organizational structure is very simple. Senior management is under the supervision of the partners which would ensure the proper planning and implementation of the decisions.
Weaknesses
Very unfamiliar concept
As the concept of organic food is not so familiar with our present customers, some customers may not be interested with the idea or they may not belief the credibility of the food items to be organic fully.
Cost-sensitive project
Since the production of raw materials is somewhat costlier than producing other ingredients for this line of business, offering organic food is really a cost-sensitive project.
Small dimension of the restaurant
The dimension of the restaurant is not too large to accommodate more than 100 visitors at a time. Moreover, some other restaurants are offering more spacious arrangement for serving the cuisines.
Amateur senior management
The senior management of our restaurant is quite amateur because they don’t have any prior realistic experience of maintaining and controlling the operations of business. Thus, this may appear as a weakness for the well-functioning of the restaurant.
Absence of occasional discount
Even though we are opening a new arena of restaurant business in New York, we won’t provide any occasional discount system on food stuffs whereas other competitors would provide these opportunities to the potential customers. Our conception is that such discount might reflect a negative attitude on the customers regarding the quality of our cuisines (Hill & Westbrook 56).
Opportunities
Opportunities arise from the circumstances of external environment. As the entrepreneurs we expect the following opportunities that our venture can confront in future:
Taking over of competing firms
Since our operation would attract the potential flavor of customers and the number of circumspect consumers might increase keeping the consideration of quality and hygiene of the food stuffs, we hope to take over other competing firms in future; which is an imperative opportunity of our restaurant business.
Impressive relationship with suppliers
Though, most of raw supplies would come from our farm, it would be ideal to hope to work without any supplies. Cooking appliances and other non-farm produce will have to be obtained from various supply stores. As some of our raw materials for the preparation of food items would be collected from the suppliers, we hope to maintain an effective relationship with them. This would ensure the quality materials. A good relationship with the stores is paramount to our success. We will not only expect them to act as our good ambassador but also to be able to avail products when we need them either on cash or credit terms.
Cutting costs
In order to ensure organic nature of our food items, we won’t use any insecticide or chemical fertilizer in our production unit lands. Our own generated manure from dairy and poultry would be used in those lands. So, this will cut our cost to some extent.
Threats
Sometimes the opportunities may not appear with regard to the expectation so; some threats might affect the venture at large. Our restaurant business might face the following threats:
Competitors’ change in action
In quest of tackling our business strategy, the competitors might change their course of action. For example, they can also open this organic branch of operation that might lead our market capture. Again, they can also introduce new diversified mechanisms (Hill & Westbrook 78).
Change in consumer taste
Since the consumers always transform their taste or preference in any commodity, we might face a lower consumer demand under that situation. The rationale behind this is the over abundance of restaurants in the organic line of food ventures.
Financial Analyses
Break-even Analysis
The break analysis diagram is based on sales projections and financial commitments.
Sales Forecast
The sales forecast are expected to grow by the years according to a report released on the current hotel market trends (Barclays Commercial, 2010).
Table 2: Sales Projection Figures
Monitoring Procedures
Monitoring process our plan is paramount to its success. Lots of logistics are necessary and therefore a strong monitoring and evaluation team will be put in place. The team will be expected to adhere to strict deadline dates and report any planning variations early enough to the management.
A marketing audit will be performed to ensure that the budget allocated for the activities are being used in the right direction and not wasted by the responsible people This is increase the trust of share holders and investors in our company and will be very helpful to our company in terms of finances This trust will create a loyalty for our customers and consumers towards our brand and our products. In audits, our advertisement revenues will be monitored. Our all finances will be monitored which will be used in the growth of the company to ensure that the finances are utilized in the right direction.
Personnel plan
Appendix
Restaurant Layout
Works cited
Armstrong. Menon. Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice (10th edition) London: Freeways. 2006. Web.
Barclays Commercial. New York Hotels review. Web.
Eric, Steve Et al. The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 1993.
Estelle, Mitchell. “Demystifying Competitive Intelligence” Ivey Business Journal, 7, 4, (2006): 45-57. Web.
George Juniper., Kress Timothy. & John, S. Forecasting and Market Analysis Techniques: A Practical Approach. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.1994.
Hill, Tyler. & Westbrook Ramon. “SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall”. Long Range Planning, 30, 1 (1997): 46–52.
Koichi, Shinoka. Advertising Theory and Strategies. Tokyo: Souseisha Book Company. 2009.
Lundberg, Derrick. The Hotel and Restaurant Business, Boston: Cahners Books. 2006.
Man-tao, Leo. “Eating and Cultural Stereotypes”, Eat and Travel Weekly, no. 312, (2007): 76.
Menon, Albert et al. Antecedents and Consequences of Marketing Strategy Making. Journal of Marketing, 63, 2(1999): 18–40.
Paul, Joseph & Lyons Kennedy. Nanotechnology: The Next Challenge for Organics, Journal of Organic Systems, 3, 1, (2008): 3–22
Sullivan, Audrey & Steven Michael. Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2003: 29