Executive Summary
The Crepes shop will be established in a university campus located in a large college town in the south of France. The shop’s principal business will be the selling of French Crepes, but will diversify to provision of other services such as the sale of hamburgers and beverages.
The shop will have students as the key target market and will develop and employ its short term and long term strategies with the students in mind. This clientele will however be increased in the future to include members of faculty and other non academic staff in the university.
The shop will have a centralised management structure, and will employ an executive to manage the affairs of the shop. The several managers of the various divisions will work under the direction and supervision of the executive.
Social media will be the main platform of marketing the shop. This is because the target market is young and technologically savvy and most likely to be reached through this medi. However, traditional methods of advertising will also be employed in the marketing of the shop.
The Shop will operating a Crepes Shop, specializing in the selling of Crepes, which are French pancakes. However, the selling of crepes will only be the core business, and the shop will be involved in the selling of non alcoholic beverages and other fast foods such as French fries and hot beverages.
The shop will be located in the university campus of college town in the South of France. It will have the students of the university as the main target customers, and will seek to meet the specific needs of the students in terms of affordability and availability. The menu of the Crepes shop will be structured in such a manner that it will emphasize affordability while at the same time ensuring that the highest possible levels of quality are maintained both in the products and service delivery. This will ensure that the shop does not fall into the trap of compromising the quality of service delivery and products over affordability. However, the expected clientele will be expansive to include members of faculty, non academic staff, residents who neighbour the university and visitors to the university. The Crepes shop will work towards meeting the potential needs of these customers at all times, despite the fact the students will remain the principal target market for the business.
The business will be operational round the clock, and ideally the Crepes shop will not close. This is because currently, universities operate on a full time basis and holidays have been minimized. At any point in time, the university will be in operation, even if it means that only the core members of the campus are at work.
The Crepes shop will be offering deliveries to the students’ residential areas, the staff zones and the neighbouring residential districts. Also, it will be offering discounts to return customers and students who will choose to visit the office as a group. These will enjoy reduced prices compared to those that will visit the shop individually. To further create goodwill to its clientele, the shop will offer services to students and other customers who have special events such as parties and birthdays.
Market Analysis
Strengths
The shop will be operating in market which has a ready clientele. The university has a high population of students and faculty, and is located near a residential district. This means that it has an untapped market which it will cover should its operations pick up well and create goodwill and loyalty among these target customers. The university also receives a high number of visitors every day, and these will go further to grow the size f the market that the Crepes Shop will be targeting.
The level of competition in the University for the shop is very low. Currently, only university operated kitchens offer similar services, and these do not currently pose a threat since they offer the most basic services. This means that the shop has a higher opportunity for growth.
The shop has an advantage of dynamism. It has the ability to transform itself to meet the changing demands of its customers as regards to products and service delivery. The shop will be able to change its menu and service appropriately and offer those services that meet the culinary needs of its customers at any specified period of time.
Weaknesses
The management of the shop will be inductor. The top management will be composed mainly of individuals who do not have any past experience in the management of such similar enterprises. This will be a challenge that will be dealt with by ensuring that a few managers who have experience are hired to facilitate the management of the shop and drive it through the initial huddles.
The business will initially be small in size, in terms of human resources and level of operations. This may be a challenge considering that the business will be serving a large number of customers and the business may be unable to meet the demands of these high numbers of customers.
Threats
The shop operates in an industry characterised by well established multinational chains such as McDonalds and KFC. This poses a threat to the expansion of the shop because should they choose to operate in the same district, they would offer far cheaper services and products which would be very competitive.
The shop operates in a market which may be very difficult to grow. This is because universities take long to increase the number of students and faculty, and this may mean that the shop will achieve initial stages of growth and then reach a level of stagnation. Financing future expansion of the business may be very difficult in the future since growth prospects in terms of profitability and revenues may be very low.
Organization and Management
The organizational structure will be composed of several tiers. On the highest level of the organizational hierarchy will be the board of directors. This board will be composed of a maximum of six individuals and will be responsible for the development of policy issues for the organization. It is intended that the board will hold regular meetings to make an appraisal of the success of the policies of the organization and make adjustments and recommendations as appropriate. It will also be responsible for the appointment of high level managers of the business.
The next level in the hierarchy of the business will be the management level. This will be tasked with the day-to-day management of the operations of the shop. They will also be tasked with ensuring that the other levels of operations of the shop have the proper allocation of human resources. The chief duty of the management will be to ensure that the shop has the required resources, both financial and otherwise, ad make sure that these resources are allocated in the most optimal manner possible. These level of management will be divided into three main categories; finance, human capital and operations. Each will be expected to work seamlessly with the others and systems of integration will be put into place to ensure the achievement of this goal.
Below the shop’s management will be the operational staff. These will be tasked with ensuring that they act on the decisions of customers so as to deliver quality service to customers. Under this, there will be people operating in different sections of the crepes shop; chefs, waiters, cashiers, cleaners and delivery people. Their role will be to ensure that the needs of customers are met to the highest level of satisfaction possible.
The organizational structure will be reviewed at the end of every financial period. This will be with the intent of carrying out an objective analysis of the performance of the organization against the current structure and identify the areas that need improvement and those that need to be done away with. In this way, the shop will scrap away positions which do not add value to the organization and to its customers and create new positions which will further the achievement of the objectives of the shop.
Service and Product Line
The principal service the will be offered by the shop will be the sale of French Crepes. The shop will develop and seek new ways of making its French Crepes to the highest standard possible through hiring the best chefs in the industry and developing new recipes for the Crepes. In this way, the shop intends to build a long lasting reputation for that particular product, and it will be the flagship offering of the shop for the Crepes shop in the university.
The shop will also offer in its shop other varieties of fast foods such as French fries, hamburgers and non alcoholic beverages. These will not be the core products, but will be offered as auxiliary to crepes. As such, sales of these products will be dependent on demand, and the shop will make no effort to sell these products as the principal items as sold in many fast food shops. By offering these products, the shop will be intending to ensure that it has the ideal products and services for every occasion, from a breakfast to a late night bite.
The shop will be offering delivery services to the residential halls of students and other customers. Making orders through calls will be possible, and deliveries will be made to the particular residence of the customer. This will be in an attempt to meet all the needs of the customers, wherever they are. The cost of the delivery system will be borne by the shop and customers will not be charged.
The shop will develop a division to offer catering services at a low level for events for students and other customers on a need basis. The shop will cover events such as student association parties, birthday parties for students and sporting events within the university. This will form a revenue stream which will be away from the normal operations of the business.
Marketing and Sales
Since the market for the organization will be limited in geographical size, the mode of marketing that the shop will adopt will be limited to cover this area only to avoid wastage of financial resources. The shop will employ only those modes of marketing which will enable it reach the target market. The marketing function will be a division under operations, and will be the responsibility of a marketing manager. The resource allocation for the marketing function will be decided by the chief executive officer in consultation with the marketing manager.
Marketing the services of the shop will be done through several medium. The intent of the initial marketing campaign will be to create awareness among the target customers about the existence of the shop within the premises of the university campus. This will be done through intensive advertising in the radio in the local area and in the local student fm radio station.
Advertisements will be placed in the main university publication. This will be done as a way of clearing awareness to the student body and give details of location, pricing and the benefits of visiting the shop. After this initial advertisement move, regular advertisements will be place in the publication as an ongoing marketing strategy.
The shop will also employ advertising through the use of medium sized billboards which are found within the university and in the streets in the districts around the university. These will involve the use of graphics, making very colourful displays of the foods that the shop has on offer and the pricing. This will be a long term marketing strategy since the cost of such is low and the lifespan is relatively longer than other models.
The shop will employ social media as the major platform of marketing its services. This is informed by the fact that most university students are technologically savvy and it will be possible to reach them through these mediums. Twitter and Facebook pages will be created to target these customers, and the shop will employ a full time employee to monitor action on this front. Through its Facebook and Twitter page, the shop will market its services on a personal basis, will be able to handle requests for deliveries and will receive and respond to complaints and compliments received from the customers. Using social media will be the major platform for the operation of the marketing strategy for the shop.
Conclusion
The Crepes shop will be operating in a university environment, and it is expected that the major huddle to its success will only be the financing of its initial operations. The environment is low on competition, and it this situation is not expected to change in the near future. The market for the shop is also definite and to a large extent measurable. The shop will be able to make resource allocations to its various functions more objectively as a result. With proper marketing, it is expected that the shop will perform and meet all expectations in terms of profitability and revenue generation.
References
Pinson, L. 2004. Anatomy of a Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Business and Securing Your Company’s Future 6th Edition. : Chicago, IL, Dearborn Trade
Siegel E., Ford B., Bornstein M. 1993. The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide. New York: John Wiley and Sons
