Food Corner: A Small Fast Food Outlet In New York

Mission and Vision

Food Corner is a small fast food outlet located in New York. The business was started as a result of simple mission between two best friends to establish one of the well- known fast food outlets of the world. It was started in the year 2015 by Jack Wilson and Cody Russo. The aim of Food Corner is to establish a loyal customer base with the help of high quality food offered by the outlet. Strong market position is planned to be built by the business in the town as the partners have adequate financial support. The competitive climate in the area where the business is established is also mild so there are a number of opportunities present for the business. Food Corner aims to set the prices of food items in a competitive for the purpose of meeting the demands of middle to higher income residents belonging to the local market (Rudelt, French & Harnack, 2014).

Instead on focusing on a single food item, Food Corner has diversified its menu by offering a number of items such as French fries, hamburger, sandwiches, different types of chicken, soft drinks, desserts and breakfast items.

The location of Food Corner will range in size from 60- 80 meter square and has the capacity to seat 20- 25 guests. The first location will feature its originality in the form of brand building attributes and merchandise display. The outlet is equipped with modern furniture and aims at creating a clean and open environment. Other sites for opening the outlets are still in the process of selection.

The objective of Food Corner is to gain a market share in the fast food industry of New York and to become a popular fast food outlet. Moreover, the objective is to make Food Corner a destination spot for all the mall goers. Also, it aims at the expansion of the number of outlets of business by year three and sell the franchise to the bordering cities such as Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, etc. (Khan, 2014)

The vision of Food Corner is to become one of the most popular food outlets in New York and to be positioned as an international franchise with the help of their creative approach to detailed presentation and company’s image.

Food Corner strives to achieve its main goal by starting the business with one retail outlet in the biggest shopping mall of the city for determining the needs and wants of the customers and to test the market. The visitors of our outlet and website will get a fascinating experience of the new pop culture. The prime focus of the business is to offer high quality food to the customers at affordable prices (Evans, 2015).    

Target Market

The market research provides information regarding the target market of the business along with the identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Finch, 2016).

Food Corner intends to cater to youngsters and teenagers in New York. The selection of this group is made after taking into consideration a variety of reasons. It is believed that the objective of the business to become an extraordinary place for fast food by making brand building efforts among the primary age group (15 to 25).

The age group of 25 to 37 is the secondary target of the business as it is restaurant or heavy lounge user group. More flexibility in the budgets is noticed in this group and they seek more than price/value relationship.  Therefore, following market will be targeted by Food Corner:

Age- youngsters and teenagers enrolled in high school and colleges.

Family Unit- families, particularly young families with children will be targeted.

Gender- Both males and females will be the target of the business with a slight more focus on males as they pay low attention to dietary concerns.

Income- medium to high income individuals will be the target of the business. The prices will be kept affordable so as to expand their reach to people falling in the bracket of lower medium income also (Cao & Kim, 2015).

Strengths- the outlet of Food Corner is situated in the prime location which can be easily accessed from interstate. Moreover, the staff appointed by the business is also exceptional. One of the owners of the business has experience in catering industry and therefore has access to approved vendors. Due to the small size of the business, it is easy to offer exception quality by making hand selection of the market specials in comparison with the large size competitors. The same concept is followed in fulfilling the staffing requirements of the business i.e. they make the use of hand selection for providing unsurpassed services to the customers (Wellton, Jonsson, Walter & Svingstedt, 2017).    

Weaknesses- the main weakness of the business is that it is not able to recruit and retain quality employees for a longer time. Since the business maintains very tight margins in the food items offered, there is no room left for errors. There is still a requirement to appoint more employees as the number of customers per day is increasing at a rapid pace (Wolf, Fishman, Horton & Raman, 2015).

Location and Capacity

Opportunities- immediate business opportunities are available since there are only a few barriers for entering in the industry. The business can also offer catering services to the customers on the payment of minimal charges. Moreover, the industry offers the opportunity to take bulk orders for parties which have a high margin (Weng, Gotcher & Kuo, 2017).

Threats- the main threat for the business is from the competitors. Moreover, the mall in which the outlet of the business is situated also has the outlets of KFC, McDonalds, Subway, etc. which makes it difficult for a small business to continue making sales due to the attraction of the customers towards the brand.  Threat also arises due to the regulations of government relating to restaurant operation, safety of the workers, sanitation, etc. Inflation has resulted in the rising of operational costs leading to low margin for profits. Food Corner also faces threat due to the mindset of the customers that a restaurant does not prepare healthy food (Parsa, van der Rest, Smith, Parsa & Bujisic, 2015).

The target market group desires flavors and varieties in the food offered to them. Whenever the target market group visits a food outlet, they expect speedy service along with a fun and entertaining experience. People enjoy eating out in a friendly, clean and attractive environment. Therefore, the theme of the outlet is required to be changed from time to time in order to make it attractive to the customers. Earlier, the western chain restaurants were ruling the market such as Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, etc. But now locally owned brands have also attained the capability of leading the market and dominating the market share. The foreign chains attained success in the market as they were already established brands. Due to the popularity of New York as a tourist destination, these chains further gained strength in the market (Lee, 2018).

According the surveys conducted by the government, there has been a subsequent increase in the spending made by the people of New York on “eating out” and is expected to increase further. There are a number of factors which are considered to be responsible for such an increase in spending in the food service sector. Such factors include increase in affluence among the residents of the city especially those who are below the age of 40 years.  With the passage of time, the number of expatriate residents has also increased. Moreover, the young generation does not prefer having food at home and want convenient cooked food from outside.  The fast food outlets are found to be the most convenient options as the alternatives of convenient cooked food. Over the past 5- 8 years, there has been a noticeable upgrading in the fast food outlets. Now, the outlets are air conditioned and clean (Chen & Barrows, 2015).

Strengths and Weaknesses

The marketing plan is based on serving the market in the best possible manner. The first outlet has been started as a market tester. The number of outlets will be expanded in the future after gaining the requisite popularity. The prime focus here is on the maintenance of quality standards along with the establishment of a strong identity in the marketplace (Agarwal & Dahm, 2015).

For making the prospective customers aware regarding the existence of this business, advertisements will be made from time to time. Broader media will be explored only after the establishment of concentration of stores in the market. Attempts will be made to build the brand with the help of making the sales of supporting materials such as promotional items and merchandise similar to that offered by the competitors to increase the sales (Wang, Lin & Tsai, 2018).  

Here different marketing tactics will be deployed for the purpose of increasing the customer awareness regarding Food Corner.  The most important tactic to be used by the business will be in- store marketing and “word- of- mouth” (Jalilvand, Salimipour, Elyasi & Mohammadi, 2017). This will serve as the most effective and the cheapest form of marketing program due to high amount of traffic in targeted shopping locations (Tran, 2016).

Local store marketing will be the second tactic adopted by the business. This will be done in the form of low- budget plans that will create awareness of the facility and provide community support.  The local media will be utilized as the last marketing effort as it is very costly (McKeever, 2016).

For in- store marketing, the sources used will be wall posters, in- store brochures that contain philosophy and concept of the business, design concept, outdoor signage, in- store viewing of the process of the preparation of the fast food items offered by the business,  party catering, grand opening promotion, standing signage inside the lobby of the mall and merchandising items. The local store marketing techniques will involve advertising the business with the help of offering free t- shirts at the local events of the store and brochures that will expand the publicity of the outlet (Laikko-Roto & Nevas, 2014).

The advertising of the outlet through the local media will involve mailing the brochures to the residents of the surrounding address directly. Moreover, a web page will be set up which will provide the history, philosophy and latest news regarding the business. Such webpage will help the business to offer relevant knowledge regarding the business and the items offered. They will also be able to place orders online. Advertisements can also be published in the local magazines that also target youngsters and teenagers. Moreover, large ads can be placed in the newspapers for the entire month for the purpose of explaining the concept behind the business to the people residing in local area (Burns, 2016).  

Opportunities and Threats

The direct competition of Food Corner is with the fast food joints that are already established within the shopping mall in which the fast food outlet of the business is situated including Starbucks, Pizza Walker, McDonalds and Bread Talk.

Starbucks- Starbucks already has an established business in New York and has a great impact on the customers due to the services offered by it.  Starbucks is considered to be one of the first retailers of fast food that made “light and healthy” food popular among the customers such as lean sandwich and salads as an option for lunch accommodations.

Pizza Walker- Pizza Walker is positioned as a pizza joint in the form of a joint venture in New York. Most of the retail outlets of Pizza Walker are decorated with flowers or welcoming the ambience. It has also adopted the concept of a see through kitchen to maintain some degree of transparency. Youngsters and teenagers consider Pizza Walker as a destination for hanging out with friends. During the lunch hour, the place having the capacity of 55 guests is always full (Davis, Lockwood, Alcott & Pantelidis, 2018).    

McDonalds- McDonalds is the fast food company from America which was founded in the year 1940. It is the largest restaurant chain in the world by revenue. McDonald offer fast food items at the most economical prices which is the main reason behind its popularity. The brand name is capable enough of attracting the customers without making any advertisements or promotions.

Bread Talk- Bread Talk is one of the most successful franchiser and is increasingly gaining competency in New York. It has become a threat for most of the fast food retailers due to its established brand name. The outlets of Bread Talk generally have a large see- through kitchen, sufficient number of cashiers for eliminating delays with trays available for the customers so that they can easily handle the ordered items. In other words, the outlet is appropriately managed (Stroh, 2014).

However, Food Corner has a number of advantages over its competitors. Food Corner has gained popularity for the type of dipping sauce prepared by it. A unique fusion concept is followed in its preparation. Moreover, the energetic and youthful culture of the business is reflected in the enthusiasm of the friendly staff. The brand building of the business is supported by way of offering merchandise items to the customers. Frozen fries are used by most of the fast food outlets. However, Food Corner makes the use of fresh potatoes. The dipping sauce sis prepared without the use of preservatives. In order to make the experience of the customers more entertaining, innovative packaging is used (Lee & Moon, 2017).

Marketing Plan

A number of costs will be incurred for the purpose of meeting the day to day requirements of the business and to make it popular over a period of time. Therefore, it is important to track the expenses of business. Many of the expenses can be deducted by the owners of the business from the gross income. Such costs and expenses for a year include general operation expenses, costs of supplies, materials, marketing and advertising, costs of hiring staff, etc. (Storey, 2016)

The two owners of the business will act as the initial investors. Some funds will also be invested by the friends and family members of the owners. Moreover, a loan has also been approved by a commercial bank on the goodwill of the owners. Initially $ 400,000 has been contributed by each of the investors. The start- up requirements of the business can be easily covered with the help of such investment. It has been more than two years of the successful running of the fast food business and therefore, there is a possibility that a number of investors will be willing to make investment in the business such as institutional investors, venture capitalists, etc. (Scarborough, 2016)

This action plan is for the initial months of the year 2018. This plan provides that in the month of January and February Food Corner will perform the detailed analysis of the requirements such as the quantity and quality of material required for meeting the standards. After the detailed analysis, the business will go for gathering the requirements identified previously. However, such gathering will take place as per the requirement for the entire year. The business belongs to a dynamic industry therefore it requires to meet the standards and trends of the industry. It also requires changing the arrangement of the seats from time to time along with the creation of a pleasing setup and environment. This will be done in the month of February and March. In February, a credit card machine will be obtained for facilitating credit/ debit card payments by the customers. In the month of March, the required staff will be recruited both for the purpose of preparing food and for directly handling the customers. The staff recruited will be trained for two months i.e. in the month of April and May so that they understand what is expected out of them. This training period will make them aware of their duties and work.

Marketing Tactics

The menu of Food Corner will be upgraded from time to time for the purpose of including the trending dishes among the youngsters. Before including them, they are appropriately tested so that they meet the quality standards. Such testing takes place in the month of May and June. Some contracts are entered into with the suppliers so that there are no delays in the supply of required materials. The finalization of contracts takes a lot of time i.e. from January to April. In the month of May, software is developed for keeping the record of the sales made along with the software for tracking the timings and recording the salaries of the employees (Lopez, Tan, Villasin, Zarzoso & Torregaza, 2018). Furthermore, the business will take steps to organize the process of distribution of food in the outlet along with the home deliveries in the month of June and July.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the business plan of Food Corner has the capability to attract a number of investors. The initial plan is to open different outlets in the city. Later on the business is aimed to be expanded in the neighboring countries such as Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, etc. The business basically targets the youngsters and teenagers belonging to medium to high income group. Exception talent has also been employed in the business for providing the best services to the customers. “Eating out” has become a trend in the recent years so this is a wonderful opportunity for the business to gain a share in the market. Food Corner will advertise its services and business with the help of in- store marketing and local media. However, it faces severe competition from the already established businesses such as Starbucks, Bread Talk, etc. The total financial needs for a year amounted to $320,000. The action plan of the business has specified the number of activities to be performed in the initial months of the year.

References

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