Pasta Restaurant Marketing Plan

Sigmund's Gourmet Pasta

Marketing Strategy

Sigmund's advertising budget is very limited, so the advertising program is simple. Sigmund's will do direct mail, banner ads, and inserts, with inserts in the Register Guard likely to be the most successful of the campaigns.

Lastly, Sigmund's will leverage personal relationships to get an articles of Sigmund's in the Register Guard. Previous friends who have had their restaurant featured in the Register Guard has seen a dramatic increase of sales immediately after the article was published in the RG.

Sigmund's Gourmet Pasta's mission is to provide the customer the finest pasta meal and dining experience. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

1. Maintain positive, steady, growth each month.
2. Generate at least $40,000 in sales per month.
3. Experience an increase in new customers who are turned into long-term customers.
4. Realize a growth strategy of one store per year.

1. A double-digit growth rate for each future year.
2. Reduce the overhead per store through disciplined growth.
3. Continue to decrease the variable costs associated with food production.

The market can be segmented into three target populations:

• Individuals: people that dine in by themselves.
• Families: a group of people, either friends or a group of nuclear relatives dining together.
• Take out: people that prefer to eat Sigmund's food in their home or at a different location than the actual restaurant.

The Sigmund's customer are hungry individuals between the ages of 25 and 50, making up 53% of Eugene (Eugene Chamber of Commerce). Age is not the most defined demographic of this customer base; all age groups enjoy pasta. The most defined characteristic of the target market is income. Gourmet pasta stores have been very successful in high rent, mixed-use urban areas, such as Northwest 23rd in Portland. These areas have a large day and night population consisting of business people and families who have household disposable incomes over $40,000.

Combining several key demographic factors, Sigmund's arrives at a profile of the primary customer as follows:

• Sophisticated families who live nearby.
• Young professionals who work close to the location.
• Shoppers who patronize the high rent stores.

Sigmund's Gourmet Pasta will position itself as a reasonably priced, upscale, gourmet pasta restaurant. Eugene consumers who appreciate high-quality food will recognize the value and unique offerings of Sigmund's Gourmet Pasta. Patrons will be both single as well as families, ages 25-50.

Sigmund's Gourmet Pasta positioning will leverage their competitive edge:

• Product. The product will have the freshest ingredients including homemade pasta, imported cheeses, organic vegetables, and top-shelf meats. The product will also be developed to enhance presentation, everything will be aesthetically pleasing.
• Service. Customer service will be the priority. All employees will ensure that the customers are having the most pleasant dining experience. All employees will go through an extensive training program and only experienced people will be hired.

By offering a superior product, coupled with superior service, Sigmund's will excel relative to the competition.

The single objective is to position Sigmund's as the premier gourmet pasta restaurant in the Eugene, OR area, commanding a majority of the market share within five years. The marketing strategy will seek to first create customer awareness regarding their services offered, develop that customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals.

The message that Sigmund's will seek to communicate is that Sigmund's offers the freshest, most creative, health conscious, reasonably priced, gourmet pasta in Eugene. This message will be communicated through a variety of methods. The first will be direct mail. The direct mail campaign will be a way to communicate directly with the consumer. Sigmund's will also use banner ads and inserts in the Register Guard. This will be particularly effective because the Register Guard is a popular local paper that is consulted when people are looking for things to do in Eugene.

The last method for communicating Sigmund's message is through a grassroots PR campaign. This campaign will leverage personal relationships with people on staff of the Register Guard to get a couple of articles written about Sigmund's. One will be from the business point of view, talking about the opening of the restaurant and the people behind the venture. This is likely to be run in the business section. The second article will be a food review. In speaking with many different retailers and restauranteurs, significant increases of traffic followed articles in the Register Guard. Because of this level of effectiveness and low/zero cost, Sigmund's will work hard to get press in the Register Guard.

Sigmund's marketing mix is comprised of these following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

• Pricing. Sigmund's pricing scheme is that the product cost is 45% of the total retail price.
• Distribution. Sigmund's food will be distributed through a take out model where customers can call in their order and come to the restaurant to pick it up, come into the restaurant, place the take out order and wait for it to be completed, or come in and dine at the restaurant.
• Advertising and Promotion. The most successful advertising will be banner ads and inserts in the Register Guard as well as a PR campaign of informational articles and reviews also within the Register Guard.
• Customer Service. Obsessive customer attention is the mantra. Sigmund's philosophy is that whatever needs to be done to make the customer happy must occur, even at the expense of short-term profits. In the long term, this investment will pay off with a fiercly loyal customer base who is extremely vocal to their friends with referrals.

During the initial phases of the marketing plan development, several focus groups were held to gain insight into a variety of patrons of restaurants. These focus groups provided useful insight into the decisions, and decision making processes, of consumers.

An additional source of market research that is dynamic is a feedback mechanism based on a suggestion card system. The suggestion card system has several statements that patrons are asked to rate in terms of a given scale. There are also several open ended questions that allow the customer to freely offer constructive criticism or praise. Sigmund's will work hard to implement reasonable suggestions in order to improve their service offerings as well as show their commitment to the customer that their suggestions are valued.

The last source of market research is competitive analysis/appreciation. Sigmund's will continually patronize local restaurants for two reasons. The first is for competitive analysis, providing Sigmund's with timely information regarding other restaurant's service offering. The second reason is that local business owners, particularly restaurant owners, are often part of an informal fraternal organization where they support each other's business.