MEMORANDUM
Re: Proposed changes in the marketing strategies.
Recommendation:
Avail the opportunities optimistically and with sustainability.
Increase market share of Bakery Segment.
For Dinner segment, come up with innovative ideas for the food items, ambiance of restaurants, and services in the restaurants.
Come up with new and unique food menus frequently.
Opportunities Available
Panera Bread (PB) designs its strategy in such way that its brand becomes the best for selling fresh bread. Panera Bread is also popular as a casual restaurant with fast food. It provides high-quality food in a distinctive dining environment. The company managed to design extensive differentiation strategy that helped it in growth and profitability of the business. The rivals of Panera Bread find it difficult to compete with its uniqueness.
The company aims to make strategies that provide the finest cafe and bakery experience to the suburban inhabitants and urban workers. The strategy makers of the company tend to differentiate broadly in consumers’ segment. Furthermore, they incorporate their buyers’ desired features in the products of the company. The management of Panera Bread performs a cross-country marketing research before implementing any new or distinctive strategy.
Panera Bread operates in a highly competitive industry. All the large food companies including Wendy’s, Applebee’s, Burger King’s, and McDonald’s are the competitors of Panera Bread. Moreover, some well-known cafe worldwide includes Au Bon Pain, Atlanta Bread, Chipotle, Starbucks, and New World Restaurant Group Inc. are also the major competitors of it. Panera Bread is not in the industry for a long period as compare to its other rivals. Therefore, it has enough room for opportunities that will excel its growth and make it a stronger brand.
At present, the economic conditions worldwide can act as opportunities for some restaurants and at the same time as a serious threat for some restaurants. It is shown by Panera Bread that it is in a position to take advantage of the economic conditions. The company grew remarkably in the last seven years without taking any long-term debt. However its continuous and sustainable growth cannot exempt the potential opportunities, threats and problems. Furthermore, the alternative path and distraction may represent and issue for the management of the company if it desires the expansion without scanning the market efficiently.
The company can grow significantly and can build up a stronger brand image if it avails opportunities optimistically and with sustainability. In this concern, the company needs to do market scanning on a continuous basis. Also, it needs to use it low long-term debts strategy in future for avoiding the risk of financial downturn.
Increase Bakery’s Market Share
The food items of Panera Bread that differentiate it from the competitors are the deli style and bakery sandwiches. The company found a distinct niche in the fast food and restaurant industry that requires better quality food by a growing pool of customers. It will be a strategic mistake if Panera Bread keeps an eye on its one specific competitor because it has competitors in many different segments and all need to be considered for competing them effectively. For instance, McDonald’s is a competitor of Panera Bread in the fast food segment, Starbuck is its rival in the chill-out segment, Au Bon Pain is its crucial competitor in the bakery segment, and Applebee’s is its major competitor in the dinner segment. In addition to the major competitors, there are some other rivals that compete with Panera Bread to some extent. The market share of these small competitors is important and notable, but the segment overlap is not a serious threat to the business of Panera Bread.
The bakery segment of the company may become more profitable by availing the opportunities of increasing its market share. At present, the bakery market of Panaera Bread is not expended much as compared to the competitors. Furthermore, the financial strength of the company also shows that Panera Bread can increase its market at a quick pace in the present economic period. The company can expand its business more aggressively without solid financial ratings and debt. By providing more online food ordering service, Panera Bread can target a larger chunk of the market that will boost up its market position.
Increase Market Share of Dinner Segment
The company applied its fast casual dining strategy after performing a comprehensive market research that determined that the customer could become excited about a high quality fast dining experience. It is considerable according to some research outcomes that the behavior intentions of customers depend on not only on the ability to enhance the level of customers’ satisfaction but also relies on the perceived vales ad favorable image of the company. Fast food restaurants put efforts in focusing on the relationship among the customer satisfaction, restaurant’s image, and the perceived value to strengthen the customer intentions towards buying the services more.
There are eight marketing activities that can affect a fast and casual restaurant’s image. The marketing activities include menu variety, the appearance of the staff, interior and décor design, prices of products and services, store location, cleanliness, food quality, waiting time of the meals. Therefore, it is essential for fast and casual restaurants to magnate these eight marketing activities efficiently and effectively.
For the dinner segment, the company needs to come up with innovative ideas for the food items, ambiance of restaurants, and services in the restaurants to compete effectively with the competitors. At present, Panera Bread’s Restaurant services are remarkable and notable. The company needs to show efforts in innovating new ambience for competing successfully with rivals.
Bring Attractive Food Menus
The company also aimed to offer differentiated products to achieve a competitive advantage that its rivals could not afford to match. In this concern, Panera Bread’s core competency and competitive advantage are to provide fresh, delicious, and handcrafted bread daily and to serve in an attractive environment. The differentiated strategy also allowed Panera Bread to set a benchmark and charge high rates for the products and services
It is highly recommended for the company to keep coming up with it distinct and differentiated products and services to maintain its competitive potion in the restaurant’s and cafe’s market. In this concern, both the cafes and restaurants of Panera Bread always need to be perceived attractive and distinctive by the customers. The uniqueness of a product makes it efficient and market grabber. Food menus play an important role in creating desire among the buyers to try each of the items mentioned in the menu. Therefore, the company needs to come up with new and unique food menus frequently in the restaurants and cafes.
Panera Bread Case Answers
1-Panera Bread (PB) designs its strategy is such way that its brand becomes the best for selling fresh bread. Panera Bread is also popular as a casual restaurant with fast food. It provides high-quality food in a distinctive dining environment. The company aims to make strategies that provide the finest cafe and bakery experience to the suburban inhabitants and urban workers. The company also aims to offer differentiated products to achieve a competitive advantage that its rivals could not afford to match.
2-It is identified that how can the company strengthen the competitive advantage in the highly competitive industry. The existing strengths of the company show that it enjoys its core competency and competitive advantage in delivering hand-crafted and fresh bread and serves its food in an inviting environment.
3-The activity ratios illustrate its effective strategies in the fresh and quality food. The leverage and solvency ratios show that the company has a policy of no long-term debts. The sustainability in the ratios of the company shows that the company grows efficiently and uses effective strategies for its market growth worldwide.
4-Panera Bread operates in a highly competitive industry. All the large food companies including Wendy’s, Applebee’s, Burger King’s, and McDonald’s are the competitors of Panera Bread. Moreover, some well-known cafe worldwide includes Au Bon Pain, Atlanta Bread, Chipotle, Starbucks, and New World Restaurant Group Inc. are also the major competitors of it
5- It is considerable according to some research outcomes that the behavior intentions of customers depend on not only on the ability to enhance the level of customers’ satisfaction but also rely on the perceived values and favorable image of the company. Moreover, the alternative path and distraction for customers may represent an issue for the management of the company if it desires the expansion without scanning the market efficiently.
6-The bakery segment of the company may become more profitable by availing the opportunities of increasing its market share. By providing more online food ordering service, Panera Bread can target a larger chunk of the market that will boost up its market position the company needs to come up with new and unique food menus frequently.
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