Services are an integral part of our everyday lives. Therefore effective service marketing becomes imperative to the success of the business. Services are often intangible in nature and aim at delivering an experience rather than a product (Lovelock & Patterson, 2015).
Restaurants are one of the most common forms of services availed by individuals. People visit restaurants in order to enjoy a meal with their friends or family. They can offer a buffet or an ordering by menu (A La Carte). Personally, I visit restaurants for food almost twice a week. There are several restaurants spread across the city. Recently, I visited Chin Chin restaurant located in Flinders Lane. Chin Chin serves Thai and Asian food. This report highlights upon the critical success factors that are important for a restaurant service. The marketing of a service would be different from a product (Manhas & Tukamushaba, 2015). The difference between the marketing of a restaurant service at large and marketing of a FMCG product has been discussed.
There are several highly critical factors that are responsible for the success or failure of a restaurant. The first factor would be the quality of food. This is the primary offering by the restaurant and hence it is important that the food served by the restaurant is good. This includes the taste of the food as well as the quality of food served. Secondly, the hygiene of the place is a highly critical factor in the success of a restaurant (Boo, 2017). The food served at Chin Chin was delicious and served well. Cleanliness of utensils, tables, washrooms and other areas of the restaurant is a must. The washrooms must be regularly cleaned, utensils must be washed and the entire area must be effectively sanitised. Chin Chin’s washrooms were not very clean and this was the major issue faced. We requested the manager to get the washroom cleaned and he immediately did the same.
Thirdly, pricing strategy adopted by the restaurant also plays an important role in the success of the service. Chin Chin has adopted a premium pricing strategy wherein services are priced higher than industry standards. This is done to create a positive positioning in the minds of customers (Gummesson, 2014). Timely service is also essential for the success of a restaurant. This includes the time duration within which a steward takes the order and serves the food. If there is any problem with the food, the management must be quick to address the issue. After placing the order at Chin Chin, we got our food within twenty minutes which is a fairly decent amount of time taken to prepare food.
Fourthly, value added services also add to the success of a restaurant by creating more value for customers (Aras et. al., 2017). Therefore the restaurant can offer additional services like valet parking, welcome drinks on the house, live music, Wi-Fi, making special arrangements for celebrations like birthdays or anniversary.
The ambience of the restaurant is an important success factor. An interesting interior décor, great lighting, comfortable seating and use of innovative props around the restaurant are efficient ways of enhancing the experience of a customer. Recent trends dictate the restaurant ambience to be Instagram friendly.
The variety of food available at the restaurant significantly adds to the success of the business. This is because a restaurant offering a wide range of cuisines can target a larger customer group. Making arrangements for food that is gluten free, vegan or friendly for lactose intolerant people can also add to the success of the restaurant.
The brand’s positioning is a critical element for the success of a business. With the advent of internet and the growth of social media, people read several reviews before visiting a restaurant. It is the entire experience of a restaurant that eventually matters to the customer. In order to enhance the number of positive reviews, it is essential to improve upon the quality of service provided by the restaurant. This would inculcate ensuring a great quality of food, beautiful ambience, quick service, effective pricing and value added services.
A fast moving consumable good is widely used in our everyday lives. These include packaged food, beverages, toiletries, cosmetics and over the counter medicines etc. The marketing of a FMCG product is highly different from that of a restaurant. In order to understand the same, the marketing mix of the restaurant is as below:
Product: The product offered here is a service. It is more of an experience with limited tangibility. FMCG on the other hand offers products that can be taken home and used.
Price: Price of a service like a restaurant can vary among several brands. For FMCG goods, the price of a similar product will be relatively similar across all brands. Premium priced restaurants can run because people do not visit a restaurant every day and can hence sometimes spend on a meal.
Place: The major difference between a restaurant service and FMCG products is that these goods can be bought online. Food can be purchased online but it will surely not be the same experience as dining at a restaurant.
Promotions: Promotion strategies adopted by FMCG products would tend to target customers on a daily basis (Hamzah & Sutanto, 2016). Digital marketing tools would also be used by the restaurant to reach out to customers and enhance awareness about its presence.
Reviews are an interesting strategy to promote a particular service. A major different between a service and a product is that customers frequently post reviews about their experience at a restaurant. Most of the promotional strategies adopted by FMCG brands are relatively long term in nature. For example, if they start selling extra 20% free on a shampoo bottle, then they would ensure that bigger bottles are manufactured and a large amount of shampoo is sold in order to just recover the cost of promotion. On the other hand, restaurant can offer 20% to all customers on a single day and not continue it the next day.
Service marketing is aimed at selling an experience while marketing for FMCG goods is aimed at selling the product (Nagaraju & Thejaswini, 2014). Both the product and the service encourage repeat purchases and increased usage. However, Garnier can adopt package selling wherein the brand can give away one free bar of soap with a pack of four. This would ensure that at least those five bars of soap are sold. However, a restaurant cannot sell food in advance.
It is important to note that most of service marketing is related to the non-tangible attributes of the service. On the other hand, FMCG products are sold as tangible products.
Conclusion
Service marketing requires consistent effort and innovation. The players within the service industry need to adapt to the increasing competition by consistently delivering great quality of service. There are several factors behind the success of a service. The overall experience of the customer is what matters. It is essential for marketers to ensure efficacy of all the factors impacting the service. For a restaurant service, these factors are food quality, taste, hygiene, ambience, pricing and value added services. Service marketing is different from the marketing of an FMCG product because the product is more tangible in nature.
References
Aras, M., Syam, H., Jasruddin, J., Akib, H., & Haris, H. (2017, July). The effect of service marketing mix on consumer decision making. In International Conference on Education, Science, Art and Technology (pp. 108-112).
Boo, H. V. (2017). Service environment of restaurants: findings from the youth customers. Journal of ASIAN behavioural studies, 2(2), 67-77.
Gummesson, E. (2014). Productivity, quality and relationship marketing in service operations: A revisit in a new service paradigm. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), 656-662.
Hamzah, S. B., & Sutanto, J. E. (2016). The Role of Marketing Mix (7P) for Consumer Buying Decision Pastry Cake in Malang City.
Lovelock, C., & Patterson, P. (2015). Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Manhas, P. S., & Tukamushaba, E. K. (2015). Understanding service experience and its impact on brand image in hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 45, 77-87.
Nagaraju, D. B., & Thejaswini, H. D. (2014). Consumers’ perception analysis-market awareness towards ecofriendly fmcg products-a case study of mysore district. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(4), 64-71.
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