Introduction
The present marketplace is made of thousands of companies. New companies continue getting into the marketplace while others are exiting the market. The market is dynamic and is characterized by many players competing for the same customers. When a new business is formed, the founders or owners have to develop a comprehensive marketing plan that highlights how the business will go about in the marketplace. Founders of a new business have to have in mind and put the company goals in mind, both long term and short term. This marketing plan is about a hypothetical restaurant that will be set up in Texas in the beginning and the branches later spread to other areas like Florida because they have the largest populations of African American. The rationale used for settling for Texas as the first physical location for the restaurant is because Texas is home to the largest black population in America according to the pew research center.
The name of the business will be HealthBack Eateries that will be a restaurant offering rich African cuisines that are healthy, vegetables, cereals, fruits, among other organic foods. This paper will explore HealthBack Eateries comprehensive marketing plan encompassing the mission statement, the main goals that the company seeks to achieve in the short and long term, as well as the relevant metrics that will be used to measure the goals. The plan will also explore HealthBack Eateries environmental analysis by looking at the competitive, economic, political, legal, sociocultural and technological forces in which the business will be operating, and the SWOT and needs analysis for the products and services that the restaurant will offer.
Mission Statement
A mission statement is an organization reason for existence. Kotler (1) says that a thoughtful mission seeks to answer basic fundamental questions: what is our core business who are the customers. What something of value will the business provide to the customer, as well as what the business should be. Kotler further highlights that a thoughtful mission statement should be established collaboratively with and shared with managers, workforces and often clients, and that is should provide a shared sense of purpose, direction, and opportunity.
HealthBack Eateries mission statement will be “We exist to provide our customers with healthier food options that are served in the best manner possible to ensure the wellbeing of our clients at friendly prices.
Goals
Goals are the objectives that the business seeks to achieve in the short term and in the long term. HealthBack Eateries main goal is to provide healthy food products for create African American communities in Texas and America at large. People of African American descent have been topping in the list and statistics of obese people in America. The centers for disease and control reports that the rates of obesity in America has increased in the recent past and is now 42%. Out of these worrying statistics, the proportion of African Americans suffering from obesity was 40.7% in 2019, and these statistics are even more for African Americans with states like Alabama having the prevalence of obesity among African Americans at 46.2% in 2020 (Statista, 3). The second realistic goal of HealthBack Eateries is to provide healthy food offering to black populations geared to bringing down the rates of obesity among the targeted group. It is possible to achieve healthy populations by 2027 when the impact of continuous healthy eating is realized.
Short Term
HealthBack Eateries short term goals are achieving increasing market share, increasing customer awareness of the brand and the product it offers, increase adoption rates, as well as promote customer engagement. Being a new business, the main objective for HealthBack Eateries will be promoting and populating the business in order to reach as a broad audience as much as possible. In the modern age of social media and social networking, the business will use contemporary promotion tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to make customers aware of its existence. Customers cannot buy something they are unaware exists. Thus, making the HealthBack Eateries brand known will be the main short term goal.
Long Term
Once HealthBack Eateries has gained market traction and customers are now aware of the brand, the next objective will be to increase product adoption rates in a bid to increase sales and profit margin. The business will also register a website in its name alongside having a social presence in the other social networking sites to promote interactions with customers. HealthBack Eateries will have an active social listening to be aware of what customers are saying in the market and act accordingly in a bid to grow and increase customer value. Another long term goal will be customer retention whereby the business seeks to maintain old customers while attracting new ones to form a community of customers who are concerned about health and wellbeing.
The methods that will be used to evaluate whether HealthBack Eateries is achieving both short term and long term goals are social engagement whereby the company will look at how actively it is engaged in the social networks (Kotler, 1). Google analytics will come in handy in generating website visitor traffic, customer profiles and other details that will be important to help me design promotions.
Environmental Analysis
Environmental analysis explores the external forces that have a major impact on the success of HealthBack Eateries. This section will look at competitive analysis to identify the direct and indirect competition; the economic analysis to assess the economic concerns that are bound to have a bearing on the business. The macro-environment also entails political and legal analysis that focuses on how government regulations and legal factors affect the business environment, technological analysis to identify how technology will positively or negatively impact the introduction of products and services in the marketplace, as well as the sociocultural forces analysis that explores how cultural limitations, lifestyle attitude, education and customer demographics.
Competitive Analysis
The modern workplace is characterized by intense competition that is sometimes known as bloody competition. HealthBack Eateries will be operating in the restaurant industry that is characterized by bloody competition because there are many sellers chasing for the same customers (Kotler, 1). As such, competition is stiff as each market player seeks to retain its market share and get additional market share from the competitor. The fast food restaurants that are a source of direct competition are such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Chipotle, Domino’s, Jack In The Box, Papa John’s, Whataburger, Firehouse Subs, Wingstop, Five Guys among others (Restaurant Business, 4).
Other restaurants that that apart from fast food restaurant that are direct competitors are such as Red Robster, Bob Evena, Darden Restaurants, Charleys, Panda Express, Waffle House, Carrabbas, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s among others. Some of the indirect competitors are such as supermarkets like Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods Inc (Restaurant Business, 4), among other retail outlets that sell take-way foods. Both direct and indirect competitors are a significant source of competition because they have been in the business for years with some popular restaurant chains like white castle being a century old, dairy queen has 81 years of experience while others like KFC, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s having market presence for more than seven decades (Restaurant Business, 4).
Political and Legal Analysis
Legal forces in the restaurant industry cannot go unmentioned given that the government through various legislations and legal bodies impose restrictions and requirements such as through the Foods and Drugs Administration that looks at the wellbeing and the safety of people since HealthBack Eateries will be dealing with products and services that need to be certified in terms of safety. Also, in the wake of COVID-19 and the new normal, the government has instituted safety regulations such as reducing the number of people who can be accommodated in a certain space because of the social distancing rules. Also, the government requires businesses to set up hand washing stations as a means of sanitary hygiene, as well as temperature checking stations. Such requirements were non-existent before the outbreak of the pandemic. As such, HealthBack Eateries has to understand how such regulations impact the business and adhere to them.
Technological Analysis
The current times are referred to as the age of information and technology. That implies that technology is dictating the way people live and interact. The revolutionary changes have made information sharing seamless. As such, people are able to share information through the various social networking sites and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channels, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, and TikTok among others. The internet has penetrated most parts of the globe thereby allowing the world to become a global village. Technology has also made it possible to have institutional mobile application such as having a mobile app known as HealthBack Eateries whereby customers can install on their phones and access the services that the business offers including placing orders online. Technology has also revolutionized how marketing communications are done it is now possible to carry out integrated marketing communications through omnichannels whereby the same marketing information can be shared in different channels to appeal to customers using different channels.
Sociocultural Forces Analysis
The target customer for HealthBack Eateries African Americans who are characterized with unhealthy lifestyles such poor vegetable and fruit eaters. They are also attributed to having high obesity levels due to their genetic predisposition. As such, HealthBack Eateries hopes to provide healthier options to this group of customers in a bid to provide them with a solution as a customer group, and to the nation as well.
SWOT and Needs Analysis
This section will look at the internal environment of HealthBack Eateries in the form of SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is an internal analysis tool that helps to determine a firm’s ability to get into the marketplace by identifying the existing strengths that the business has, the opportunities it can exploit, the threats that hinder its success, as well as the weaknesses that hinder the business from realizing its potential.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Unique and differentiated products
Responsive to Changes in customers’ tastes and preferences
Digital marketing expertise
Weaknesses
Low barriers to entry
Strong existing competitors
Inadequate market knowledge
Opportunities
Map out and target the steps in the customer journey
Develop quality products to target new segments
Acquire key competitor
Threats
Consumers becoming more demanding
Disruptive new and old competitors
Limited brand image
Note: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for HealthBack Eateries
Strengths
One of HealthBack Eateries strengths is that the restaurant will offer differentiated products that customers can identify with. Secondly, the business has strength in digital marketing strength since owners are prominent in digital content. Finally, HealthBack Eateries has strength in being responsive to current changes in customers’ tastes and preferences. The modern customers is increasingly becoming aware of conscious of their health status. As such, they are demanding for healthier options. HealthBack Eateries comes in to provide customers with healthier food options such as cereals, roots, and whole meals.
Opportunities
HealthBack Eateries has the prospects of merging or acquiring with an existing competitor who has been in the industry, and one who knows the market better. The business may also continue offering quality products and keep on improving in accordance to kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement. The company has an opportunity to establish itself as a customer centered business by mapping out the steps in the customers’ journey. As such, if the business gets it right from the start and do customer relationship management well, it is better placed to know how to go about getting new customers.
Threats
Being a new business, HealthBack Eateries has a limited brand image in that it is little known to the market. Secondly, possibility of disruptive competition from old and new competitors is possible, thereby weakening the market power that HealthBack Eateries counts on. Customers are increasingly becoming more demanding because of the availability of choice and substitute products.
Conclusion
The above marketing plan explores internal and the external environment of HealthBack Eateries, which is a restaurant business operating in the restaurant industry. The business will be affected by environmental factors including political and legal forces such as the need to observe social distancing rules following the new normal, sociocultural factors such as the changes in customers’ tastes and preferences and the need for healthy food choices. Other external forces are such as the economic forces, and technological forces. HealthBack Eateries internal strengths are such as the opportunity to learn the customers’ purchase journey and expertise in digital marketing. Weaknesses are having an imitable business model and lack of market knowledge. HealthBack Eateries can acquire an existing competitor who is knowledgeable in the marketplace and develop new products to attract new customers as the available opportunities. Nonetheless, HealthBack Eateries has to grapple with the threats of cutthroat competition from old and new competitors, demanding consumers and limited brand image.
The present marketplace is made of thousands of companies. New companies continue getting into the marketplace while others are exiting the market. The market is dynamic and is characterized by many players competing for the same customers. When a new business is formed, the founders or owners have to develop a comprehensive marketing plan that highlights how the business will go about in the marketplace. Founders of a new business have to have in mind and put the company goals in mind, both long term and short term. This marketing plan is about a hypothetical restaurant that will be set up in Texas in the beginning and the branches later spread to other areas like Florida because they have the largest populations of African American. The rationale used for settling for Texas as the first physical location for the restaurant is because Texas is home to the largest black population in America according to the pew research center.
The name of the business will be HealthBack Eateries that will be a restaurant offering rich African cuisines that are healthy, vegetables, cereals, fruits, among other organic foods. This paper will explore HealthBack Eateries comprehensive marketing plan encompassing the mission statement, the main goals that the company seeks to achieve in the short and long term, as well as the relevant metrics that will be used to measure the goals. The plan will also explore HealthBack Eateries environmental analysis by looking at the competitive, economic, political, legal, sociocultural and technological forces in which the business will be operating, and the SWOT and needs analysis for the products and services that the restaurant will offer.
Mission Statement
A mission statement is an organization reason for existence. Kotler (1) says that a thoughtful mission seeks to answer basic fundamental questions: what is our core business who are the customers. What something of value will the business provide to the customer, as well as what the business should be. Kotler further highlights that a thoughtful mission statement should be established collaboratively with and shared with managers, workforces and often clients, and that is should provide a shared sense of purpose, direction, and opportunity.
HealthBack Eateries mission statement will be “We exist to provide our customers with healthier food options that are served in the best manner possible to ensure the wellbeing of our clients at friendly prices.
Goals
Goals are the objectives that the business seeks to achieve in the short term and in the long term. HealthBack Eateries main goal is to provide healthy food products for create African American communities in Texas and America at large. People of African American descent have been topping in the list and statistics of obese people in America. The centers for disease and control reports that the rates of obesity in America has increased in the recent past and is now 42%. Out of these worrying statistics, the proportion of African Americans suffering from obesity was 40.7% in 2019, and these statistics are even more for African Americans with states like Alabama having the prevalence of obesity among African Americans at 46.2% in 2020 (Statista, 3). The second realistic goal of HealthBack Eateries is to provide healthy food offering to black populations geared to bringing down the rates of obesity among the targeted group. It is possible to achieve healthy populations by 2027 when the impact of continuous healthy eating is realized.
Short Term
HealthBack Eateries short term goals are achieving increasing market share, increasing customer awareness of the brand and the product it offers, increase adoption rates, as well as promote customer engagement. Being a new business, the main objective for HealthBack Eateries will be promoting and populating the business in order to reach as a broad audience as much as possible. In the modern age of social media and social networking, the business will use contemporary promotion tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest to make customers aware of its existence. Customers cannot buy something they are unaware exists. Thus, making the HealthBack Eateries brand known will be the main short term goal.
Long Term
Once HealthBack Eateries has gained market traction and customers are now aware of the brand, the next objective will be to increase product adoption rates in a bid to increase sales and profit margin. The business will also register a website in its name alongside having a social presence in the other social networking sites to promote interactions with customers. HealthBack Eateries will have an active social listening to be aware of what customers are saying in the market and act accordingly in a bid to grow and increase customer value. Another long term goal will be customer retention whereby the business seeks to maintain old customers while attracting new ones to form a community of customers who are concerned about health and wellbeing.
The methods that will be used to evaluate whether HealthBack Eateries is achieving both short term and long term goals are social engagement whereby the company will look at how actively it is engaged in the social networks (Kotler, 1). Google analytics will come in handy in generating website visitor traffic, customer profiles and other details that will be important to help me design promotions.
Environmental Analysis
Environmental analysis explores the external forces that have a major impact on the success of HealthBack Eateries. This section will look at competitive analysis to identify the direct and indirect competition; the economic analysis to assess the economic concerns that are bound to have a bearing on the business. The macro-environment also entails political and legal analysis that focuses on how government regulations and legal factors affect the business environment, technological analysis to identify how technology will positively or negatively impact the introduction of products and services in the marketplace, as well as the sociocultural forces analysis that explores how cultural limitations, lifestyle attitude, education and customer demographics.
Competitive Analysis
The modern workplace is characterized by intense competition that is sometimes known as bloody competition. HealthBack Eateries will be operating in the restaurant industry that is characterized by bloody competition because there are many sellers chasing for the same customers (Kotler, 1). As such, competition is stiff as each market player seeks to retain its market share and get additional market share from the competitor. The fast food restaurants that are a source of direct competition are such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Chipotle, Domino’s, Jack In The Box, Papa John’s, Whataburger, Firehouse Subs, Wingstop, Five Guys among others (Restaurant Business, 4).
Other restaurants that that apart from fast food restaurant that are direct competitors are such as Red Robster, Bob Evena, Darden Restaurants, Charleys, Panda Express, Waffle House, Carrabbas, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s among others. Some of the indirect competitors are such as supermarkets like Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods Inc (Restaurant Business, 4), among other retail outlets that sell take-way foods. Both direct and indirect competitors are a significant source of competition because they have been in the business for years with some popular restaurant chains like white castle being a century old, dairy queen has 81 years of experience while others like KFC, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s having market presence for more than seven decades (Restaurant Business, 4).
These competitors do well in areas of market knowledge whereby they have vast experience about the market forces and trends because seven decades is not something to be underrated. Nonetheless, the weakness that these competitors might have is having an imitable business model whereby they sell near or similar substitutes. Moreover, competitors in the first food industry have a weakness of selling unhealthy food options and junk food that is attributed to be one of the leading sources of obesity in the United States (CDC, 2).
Economic Analysis
The economic topics that are bound to have a bearing on the business are the economic growth that is being experienced in the country following advancement in the scientific and medical profession of covd-19 jabs. The jabs serve as a source of hope for the nation, thereby sparking the awakening of economic activity. The global economy including the United States of America had plummeted following the wake of COVID-19 that destabilized the economy. There was a decline in economic activities as the situation seemed to get out of hand yet the world and the scientific community was prepared to handle the disaster. That resulted in a sharp decline and a long recessionary cycle as people curtailed their spending because of the anxiety that prevailed in the marketplace.
Economic Analysis
The economic topics that are bound to have a bearing on the business are the economic growth that is being experienced in the country following advancement in the scientific and medical profession of covd-19 jabs. The jabs serve as a source of hope for the nation, thereby sparking the awakening of economic activity. The global economy including the United States of America had plummeted following the wake of COVID-19 that destabilized the economy. There was a decline in economic activities as the situation seemed to get out of hand yet the world and the scientific community was prepared to handle the disaster. That resulted in a sharp decline and a long recessionary cycle as people curtailed their spending because of the anxiety that prevailed in the marketplace.
Political and Legal Analysis
Legal forces in the restaurant industry cannot go unmentioned given that the government through various legislations and legal bodies impose restrictions and requirements such as through the Foods and Drugs Administration that looks at the wellbeing and the safety of people since HealthBack Eateries will be dealing with products and services that need to be certified in terms of safety. Also, in the wake of COVID-19 and the new normal, the government has instituted safety regulations such as reducing the number of people who can be accommodated in a certain space because of the social distancing rules. Also, the government requires businesses to set up hand washing stations as a means of sanitary hygiene, as well as temperature checking stations. Such requirements were non-existent before the outbreak of the pandemic. As such, HealthBack Eateries has to understand how such regulations impact the business and adhere to them.
Technological Analysis
The current times are referred to as the age of information and technology. That implies that technology is dictating the way people live and interact. The revolutionary changes have made information sharing seamless. As such, people are able to share information through the various social networking sites and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channels, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, and TikTok among others. The internet has penetrated most parts of the globe thereby allowing the world to become a global village. Technology has also made it possible to have institutional mobile application such as having a mobile app known as HealthBack Eateries whereby customers can install on their phones and access the services that the business offers including placing orders online. Technology has also revolutionized how marketing communications are done it is now possible to carry out integrated marketing communications through omnichannels whereby the same marketing information can be shared in different channels to appeal to customers using different channels.
Sociocultural Forces Analysis
The target customer for HealthBack Eateries African Americans who are characterized with unhealthy lifestyles such poor vegetable and fruit eaters. They are also attributed to having high obesity levels due to their genetic predisposition. As such, HealthBack Eateries hopes to provide healthier options to this group of customers in a bid to provide them with a solution as a customer group, and to the nation as well.
SWOT and Needs Analysis
This section will look at the internal environment of HealthBack Eateries in the form of SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is an internal analysis tool that helps to determine a firm’s ability to get into the marketplace by identifying the existing strengths that the business has, the opportunities it can exploit, the threats that hinder its success, as well as the weaknesses that hinder the business from realizing its potential.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Unique and differentiated products
Responsive to Changes in customers’ tastes and preferences
Digital marketing expertise
Weaknesses
Low barriers to entry
Strong existing competitors
Inadequate market knowledge
Opportunities
Map out and target the steps in the customer journey
Develop quality products to target new segments
Acquire key competitor
Threats
Consumers becoming more demanding
Disruptive new and old competitors
Limited brand image
Note: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for HealthBack Eateries
Strengths
One of HealthBack Eateries strengths is that the restaurant will offer differentiated products that customers can identify with. Secondly, the business has strength in digital marketing strength since owners are prominent in digital content. Finally, HealthBack Eateries has strength in being responsive to current changes in customers’ tastes and preferences. The modern customers is increasingly becoming aware of conscious of their health status. As such, they are demanding for healthier options. HealthBack Eateries comes in to provide customers with healthier food options such as cereals, roots, and whole meals.
Weaknesses
HealthBack Eateries is operating in an industry that has no barriers to entry. As such, entry and exit to the market happens seamlessly. The industry is characterized by numerous competitors; big and small and all weaken the firm’s position in the marketplace. Finally, the business has little knowledge about the market, unlike established competitors like Darden Restaurants who have been in the market for decades.
HealthBack Eateries is operating in an industry that has no barriers to entry. As such, entry and exit to the market happens seamlessly. The industry is characterized by numerous competitors; big and small and all weaken the firm’s position in the marketplace. Finally, the business has little knowledge about the market, unlike established competitors like Darden Restaurants who have been in the market for decades.
Opportunities
HealthBack Eateries has the prospects of merging or acquiring with an existing competitor who has been in the industry, and one who knows the market better. The business may also continue offering quality products and keep on improving in accordance to kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement. The company has an opportunity to establish itself as a customer centered business by mapping out the steps in the customers’ journey. As such, if the business gets it right from the start and do customer relationship management well, it is better placed to know how to go about getting new customers.
Threats
Being a new business, HealthBack Eateries has a limited brand image in that it is little known to the market. Secondly, possibility of disruptive competition from old and new competitors is possible, thereby weakening the market power that HealthBack Eateries counts on. Customers are increasingly becoming more demanding because of the availability of choice and substitute products.
Conclusion
The above marketing plan explores internal and the external environment of HealthBack Eateries, which is a restaurant business operating in the restaurant industry. The business will be affected by environmental factors including political and legal forces such as the need to observe social distancing rules following the new normal, sociocultural factors such as the changes in customers’ tastes and preferences and the need for healthy food choices. Other external forces are such as the economic forces, and technological forces. HealthBack Eateries internal strengths are such as the opportunity to learn the customers’ purchase journey and expertise in digital marketing. Weaknesses are having an imitable business model and lack of market knowledge. HealthBack Eateries can acquire an existing competitor who is knowledgeable in the marketplace and develop new products to attract new customers as the available opportunities. Nonetheless, HealthBack Eateries has to grapple with the threats of cutthroat competition from old and new competitors, demanding consumers and limited brand image.
