Introduction to Café Havana
Coffee is considered to be one of the popular beverages among the Australians. In fact, with the growing tourism industry coffee becomes a part of tourism in Australia. Therefore, a significant value the Coffee and beverages industry has across the country with lot of competitiveness.
As a mystery shopper it is part of my job to carry out investigations into different outlets and cafeteria and get in touch with the products and services of that specific outlets. This time I had chosen the Café Havana cafeteria in the CBD regions and tried to find out the insights of services and quality of products in the Café Havana.
As far as the Products of Café Havana are concerned, they come up with a rage of diverse products. Coffee and tea are the primary products that the company is offering. In this context, there are numbers of flavours and roasted coffees that are strictly focus on the health orientation of the customers. The coffee products of the company cover up 70% of the total sales in Australia because of not only its product diversification strategy but also having healthy coffee. Besides this, Café Havana also provides variety of fresh food items like snacks and burgers. The high quality of coffee espresso are also considered to be an important product for Café Havana to incorporate into its menu course. Therefore, it is obvious that the company puts focus on the coffee blends and types more extensively. However, the company recently tries to diversify its products by selling gift items and accessories like coffee mugs, books and gifts, cookies and chocolates and so on.
The places chosen for the Café Havana outlets are very significant and have business importance strategically. As a matter of fact, it can be stated that the company tries to develop its market more effectively in the Central Business District areas of Australia. The purpose of choosing such a place is to maximise the customers because those region are very busy due to commercial and business purposes (Luo, Roach & Jiratchot, 2015). Those outlets are mainly company operated stores circled around five important sites of the country. Across the country there are more than 100 outlets and most of those outlets are located near important sites. For an example, around 15% of the outlets are situated in the CBD region. Besides this, 75% of the outlets are located in the major tourist spots. In addition to this, 10% of the outlets are belonged to the local residents and outskirts of the cities. Based on this, it is unarguably a threat for the Café Havana to face severe competition in the Australian market.
In addition to this, the price of the Café Havana store is based on both the premium pricing and psychological pricing strategies. As far as the premium pricing is concerned there are some selected food and beverages items that are linked with the high prices because of its special status. Generally, a cup of coffee in Café Havana costs USD 4.50. It seems to be an average price for all the coffee and beverages company across Australia. Based on this, the Café Havana management tries to differentiate products in order to maximise customer loyalty to a great deal of manner. As the Australian coffee market is highly volatile therefore it becomes an important aspect for Café Havana to set strategy for sustaining in the Australian market. As a matter of fact, it is related to the psychological pricing strategy as well where the moderate pricing of the products will help to deliver a psychologically effective penetration for the customers (Khan, 2014). The customers are attracted with these not so high pricing strategies whereas some special items are identified high in price with a cost of $8 to $15.
Products of Café Havana
In this regard, the promotional strategies also facilitate strategic advantages to the sustainable business activities. It can be asserted that as the Australian market is identified as the primary market for Café Havana therefore the promotional strategy also circles around the Australian market only. Henceforth, besides the conventional and digital marketing Café Havana also puts focuses on different promotional strategies based on the push and pull promotional strategy. This strategy leads to use of the promotional offers for specific products. It can energise the customer attraction and at the same time help to formulate a better understanding of the customer behaviours. Furthermore, Café Havana also organises a Wednesday offer of flat 50% in order to expect customer maximisation in special days.
My observation towards the process in Café Havana is associated with the business function process. As a customer it was easy for me to get accompanied with the customer service of the company. In this context, most of the revenue of Café Havana generated from the Central Business District region. Therefore, professionalism is considered to be one of the major aspect that can create huge difference between Café Havana and other competitors. In fact, the most effective way to develop the professional approach of the employees is by increase the service quality (Harrington, Ottenbacher & Fauser, 2017). Moreover, it can be argued that the effective interaction with the customers is also an important aspect in this regard.
The concept of people in Café Havana is associated with the idea of having a dynamic workforce. Based on this understanding, it can be opined that the company emphasises on the diverse workforce in order to entertain more accuracy and effectiveness in the workplace (Oflac et al., 2015). It can also be argued that Café Havana relies on both service and product manufacturing. Therefore, it is important to balance between the two predominantly. Moreover, the practice of workplace diversity is also identified a sustainable measure that help Café Havana to retain and develop its business in the high competitive market of Australia. Training and development are also part and parcel of the company policy to check the efficiency and gaps in the service and manufacturing of products. Nevertheless, Café Havana has to depend on a third party agency to make a progress exclusively.
In response to this, the physical environment of Café Havana highly and firmly resembled with the atmosphere of the outlets that is suitable for both the aged and the young people. A next-generation approach is always very played significant role that reflects the pro-active nature of the company operatives. A local flavour increases the image of Café Havana more intensely by not only incorporating the local communities but also exposing the beauty and diversity of Australian community that adds up more colour into the business performance of Café Havana.
Based on the above discussion, it can be stated that the Café Havana has a strategic advantage in doing business inside Australia. There are several aspects that the company exploits in order to establish a better market capitalisation. For an instance, Café Havana provides training for the employees in order to enhance the quality of products and services. Besides this, there are proneness towards installing a sustainable approach in terms of workplace diversity. In fact, selling different types of products such as different types of coffee and snacks and gift items support the ‘go ahead’ policy of Café Havana. As a result of that it helps the company to become one of the most important and successful coffee and beverages companies in Australia.
Reference
Harrington, R. J., Ottenbacher, M. C., & Fauser, S. (2017). QSR brand value: Marketing mix dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), 551-570.
Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of’marketing mix’and its elements (a conceptual review paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), 95.
Luo, A., Roach, S., & Jiratchot, C. (2015). The effect of the 7Ps of the marketing mix on air freight customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Journal of Supply Chain Management Research and Practice, 9(2), 28-36.
Oflac, B. S., Dobrucal?, B., Yavas, T., & Escobar, M. G. (2015). Services Marketing Mix Efforts of a Global Services Brand: The Case of DHL Logistics. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, 1079-1083.