The Blue Lagoon
café n resturant
Naomi,Satawat,binay
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
2. Concept of the Experience
The basic concept of the experience is based on the combination of cool and relaxed environment with casual
style food and beverage experience with the blue sea theme. The concept is to create a restaurant that would be
totally different with own its own uniquiness in comparision to its competitors. It is so much a part of the sea,
hence the restaurant will be named THE BLUE LAGOON.
3.Servicescape of the Concept
4. Experientialization of Concept
This is the part when the concept is given the real form of experience. It is designing or creating the
conceptualised experience in a way that can be delivered to the customers in a memorable way. According to
Pine and Gilmore (1999), creating experience involves five experience design principle which includes theming
the experience, harmonising impressions with positive cues, elimination of negative cues, mixing in
memorabilia and engagement of five senses. Combination of these five principles ensures differentiation,
prevents commoditisation and adds customer value (Niekerk, Andre & Radder 2000). So putting all these into
mind, it is explained below how The Blue Lagoon has use the five design principles put forward by Pine and
Gilmore to create a memorable experience.
4.1 Theme of The Blue Lagoon
Themes are extremely important part of the experience. It forms the base of the experience and provides a
storyline to the experience (Pine & Gilmore 1999). Here, as per the concept, The Blue Lagoon have a theme to
its food and beverage experience. It will have a combined theme of food and undersea world. Its main storyline
will be’ an adventure to the world of living creature underneath us.
According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), a good theme should alter the sense of reality, should be cohesive,
should have multiple places within a place and it should fit the character of the business staging experience. This
restaurant concept has taken all this into account. The location of restaurant near water in Darling Harbour, the
given name, the use of aquarium, makes the theme coherent. Lastly, this theme goes well with restaurant
business as it gives the idea of dining in the world of food, water and sea creature.
4.3 Harmonisation of Impression with Positive Cues
Apart from theme, a business should also provide an unforgettable impression to their customer which makes
the experience memorable (Pine & Gilmore 1999). To create the memorable experience, business must
introduce cues that ensure the nature of experience to the guest. All the cues must support theme in a consistent
way (Pine & Gilmore 1999). Therefore, according to the concept, The Blue Lagoon will be trying to place the
positive cues to provide memorable impression of an experience to the customer. The name of the restaurant
itself will be a hint of theme to the customers. The exterior of the restaurant with its deep blue colour paint and
huge statue of Mermaid lying above the entrance door will give the impression of going to the Mermaid world.
The interior of the restaurant, which will almost be walls with different paintings will definitely make it feel as
the atmosphere under the sea.
4.4 Elimination of Negative Cues
Another design principle to create a memorable experience is to eliminate anything that diminishes, contradicts
or distracts from the theme (Pine & Gilmore 1999). The concept of building undersea food and beverage
experience has also taken this principle into consideration. For example, the restaurant will be soundproofed
and fully air conditioned, so that outside atmosphere and noise will not affect the theme.
4.5 Memorabilia
They are the things that people would take home as the reminder of the experience that one has undertaken,
hence, extending the experience (Boswijk et.al. 2007). It adds to the extra profit to the service provider and also
covers some aspects of marketing (Pine & Gilmore 1999). It also provides sentimental value to the customer, a
sense of belonging. Memorabilia may be souvenirs, photographs, clothes etc. Thus, realising the importance of
memorabilia, there will different section in The Blue Lagoon that would sell the items that reminds the guest of
the experience. It will be selling T- shirts, souvenirs inspired by sea creatures, bags, mermaid and other sea
creature like dolphin, starfish toys etc. Figure shows some of the examples of memorabilia that could be used to
sell in the shop of The Blue Lagoon. There will also be a section in the restaurant which will serve as photo
booth where children or adults can wear mermaid outfits and take picture for an extra price. The photograph will
also serve as memorabilia.
Figures 2: Examples of Memorabilia for The Blue Lagoon
Bags
Pen and Diary
Coasters
Toys
Photo frames
Chocolates
4.6 Engagement of Five Senses
It is a sensorial design where business designs the experience is such a way that it engages all the five senses
effectively to create a memorable experience (Pine & Gilmore 1999). It is also important that these five senses
are not too overwhelming and are coherent. The five senses should be integrated in such a way that it supports
the theme. So, how The Blue Lagoon will be engaging the five senses is given below:
4.5.1 Visual: It is the sense of sight. The Blue Lagoon will engage the sight through its interiors and exteriors.
The huge mermaid statue above the entry door will be eye catchy. The interior of the restaurant which will
include walls with different colours related to waves and water, furniture of the room inspired by sea will give
the illusion of being under the sea in the mermaid world
4.5.2 Hearing: The Blue Lagoon will engage the sense of hearing by the light instrumental music that would be
played in the background of the restaurant. Plus the rooms are sound protected.
4.5.3 Touch: The sense of touch will be engaged by the feel of sea creature inspired furniture and other décor
used in the restaurant. The cutleries, crockery, glasses also inspired by sea creatures give sensation of touch.
4.5.4 Smell: The smell of fresh air in the restaurant will give the feel of freshness due to the sea air. Also, the
smell of food in the restaurant can be used to engage the sense.
4.5.5 Taste: The smell of fresh air in the restaurant will somewhat also give the taste of freshness to ones taste.
Furthermore, the food and drinks that will be served in the restaurant will also engage the sense.
(Designing the experience, theme of the experience, environment, enrichment of experience) and servicescapes)
3. Design Strategies for the Experience
After the concept is set, one should look into the steps that should be taken to give the concept life and to put the
concept into work. Design strategies set the path and provide focus and aim for the concept (Wirfs-Brock 2008).
The part of design strategies also look at the operating environment and considers various macro factors such as
demographics, economy, political condition etc. and micro environmental factors such as competitors, suppliers
etc. that could affect the design and operation of the firm in both short and long term. Thus the operating
environment can influence the choice of business on target market, location, menu and price.
Since the business is planned to be opened in Australia, one need to look at Australian economy, demographics,
regulatory bodies, political conditions
Target Market
Planning to whom the restaurant would be serving is very important. Targeting the market from pool of
customers makes it easier to market itself to the particular market. This will save money and other resources like
man power of the firms. Since The RESTAURANT is casual style restaurant, it targets the people with average
income or higher.
Location
Location of an experience is very important part of a design strategy. It is because location plays an integral part
in determining the success and failure of the business (Hayes 2003). And that is the reason, choosing right site
and location for the experience requires significant amount of research which includes the examination of
demographics, accessibility, traffic counts, visibility, parking and various other factors (White 2008). Hence,
after considering the various factors, the ‘Restaurant’ is planned to be located at Darling Harbour in CBD area
of Sydney City. There are numerous reasons behind it, first Darling Harbour being the one of the most popular
tourist attraction in Sydney. Also there are so many things to do in Darling Harbour that even locals cannot stay
away from this location. Darling Harbour is the location for Sydney Aquarium, Australian National Maritime
and Powerhouse Museum, IMAX cinema, Star City Casino, Lyric Theatre, Chinese Garden etc (Things to do
n.d.). So, Darling Harbour is the prime location that attracts many people and if RESTAURANT is located in
such location it will build the prospect of having lot of customers. It will also be the part of attraction of Darling
harbour itself due to its new unique restaurant experience. Darling Harbour also serves as the best location
because it is a harbour and restaurant location near water supports the underwater theme of the experience.
There could be huge range of potential target market for this area. Darling Harbour is part of Sydney
City; therefore, it is important to look at the demographics of Sydney City and Sydney Metropolitan as
a whole to look at the possible target market for this project. This is presented in Table 1, 2 and Chart
1,2 and 3 below. From the given analysis, it can be noted that the Darling Harbour can have number
of potential target market for its hospitality businesses ranging from Sydney residents of various age
group, income level and family status to domestic and international travellers both.
City of Sydney
1996
2004
2009
Residents
105000
150000
180000
Businesses
20300
20800
22000
Workforce
310000
345000
365000
Hotel Guest
19053
23923
25000
Daily Visitors
370000
400000
415000
Daily Shoppers
70000
75000
80000
Table 1: City of Sydney Profile, 1996-2009 (City of city strategic plan 2006-2009 n.d)
Sydney City
Sydney Metropolitan
Median Age
34years
37years
Average Weekly Income per person
$717
$518
People Living in Family household
55%
68.1%
People Living Alone
25%
21.6%
People Living in Shared House Holds
20%
3.9%
People born in overseas
50%
39.9%
Table 2: Comparison of Sydney City and Metropolitan in terms of Age, Household Status and
Average Weekly Income per Person (City of Sydney 2010)
Chart 1: Domestic Overnight Travel in Sydney City (Tourism New South Wales 2010)
Chart 2: International Overnight Travel in Sydney City (Tourism New South Wales 2010)
Also, analysis of target market for surrounding hospitality businesses: Darling Harbour and The Rocks
could be helpful in determining the type of target market this site could cater for. It could also aid in
determining the type of hospitality businesses that could be added or dropped in current development
plan. 13, 708,247 people visited The Rocks and 25,069,263 people visited Darling Harbour in 2010
and are in increasing trend (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority 2011). Chart 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 gives
the current data on Darling Harbour and The Rocks for year 2010 (Detailed Analysis in Appendix III).
It could be analysed that the variety of people come to these areas and use variety of hospitality
services. But it can be noted that most of them were below 40 years and from Sydney and mostly
used restaurant and café services. These data identifies that Darling Harbour can either target the
markets which are more likely to visit the area based on the facts of Darling Harbour and The Rock or,
it can focus on targeting the other groups of people which the immediate neighbouring area had given
less focus.
Chart 3: Visitor Origin for Darling Harbour and The Rocks for year 2010 (Sydney Harbour Foreshore
Authority 2011)
Chart 4: Average Expenditure Per Visit for year 2010 (Sydney Foreshore Authority 2011)
Chart 5: Activities Undertaken in 2010 (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority 2011)
Chart 6: Group Structure of People Visitng in 2010 (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority 2011)
Chart 7: Age Group Visiting in 2010 (Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority 2011)
2.4 Competitor Analysis
For possible competitors for The Blue Lagoon, it is necessary to look at its immediate competitors in
surrounding area: Darling Harbour and The Rocks. There are large number and range of hospitality
businesses in these areas ranging from small scale and basic standard to large scale and high
standard. They included hotels, shopping centres, pubs, night clubs, bars, café, restaurants, inns,
taverns, fast food outlet etc (Figure 5, 6 and 9). All these hospitality businesses cater for customers of
different age, culture, family status and income level.
The following table 4 shows some of the figures for hospitality businesses in Darling Harbour and The
Rocks. Detailed version of Table 4 with examples is given in Appendix IV.
Hospitality Businesses
Darling Harbour
The Rocks
Restaurants
39
45
Cafes
18
13
Take Away Shops
22
14
Accommodation
26
13
Pubs, Taverns and Bars
16
22
Leisure Activities and attraction
Less than 5
Less than5
Table 4: Number of Range of Hospitality Businesses in Darling Harbour and The Rocks (Darling
Harbour 2011) & (The rocks 2011)
Table 4 reflects that the number of restaurants, café and other food outlets altogether is larger in
number in both areas. This matches the information from Chart 4 where, huge number of visitor in
The Rocks and Darling Harbour came in the area for eating out. This also informs that Barangaroo
immediate competitor composition is mostly in the form of restaurants, cafes and takeaway shops.
Number of Range of Hospitality Businesses in Darling Harbour and The Rocks
Hospitality
Darling
The
Businesses
Harbour
Rocks
Names of Some Hospitality Businesses
Darling Harbour
The Rocks
Zaaffran, Bistro 80,
Quay Restaurant,
dining to casual
Hurricane Grills, Thai
Waterfront
dining style)
Phoon, The Little Snail
Restaurant,
etc.
Pancakes on the
Restaurants (fine
39
45
Rocks, Wildfire
Sydney etc.
Cafes (basic to high
18
13
standard)
Hard Rock Café, ,Gloria
The Rock’s Café,
Jeans, Jamaica Blue,
Tara Tea Room,
Festival Café and Bar etc.
Café Danilie, MCA
Café etc.
Take Away Shops
22
14
Oporto,
McDonalds,
Gelatissimo, Wok on
Pakwaan, KFC, Sushi go
Inn Noodle Bar,
Around etc.
Subway etc
Four Seasons (5 star),
Star City (5 star),
(luxury hotels,
Shangri-La(5 Star), The
IBIS hotel (3.5 star),
motels, serviced
Observatory Hotel (5
Fraser Suites
apartments, inns)
star), Park Hyatt (5 star)
Sydney (5 star),
etc.
Radisson (4 star),
Accommodation
26
13
Novotel ( 3 or 4
star)etc.
Pubs, Taverns and
16
22
Bars (basic
Cohi Bar, The Loft, La
Glenmore Hotel,
Cita, Docks Hotel etc.
Cruise Hotel, Harts
standard to high
Pub, Lobby Lounge,
standard)
Hero at Waterloo etc.
Leisure Activities
and attractions
few
few
Sydney Aquarium,
Cruise/Boats,
Sydney Wild life World,
Museums/ Bridge
Chinese Garden, IMAX,
Climbing.
Maritime Museum,
Cruise/Boats
Menu
Price
6. Customisation of Experience
Time
10. Staff Roles
11. Costuming
11. Guest Roles and their Transformation
Customer plays an important part in the experience because experiences are more than