Chapter 4:
The Strategic Value
of Knowledge
1
What knowledge will assist you in planning effective
Menus?
SWOT
Understand product flow/logistic
Understand what customers think
2
The Knowledge Needed For Effective Menu Planning
Internal
Strengths
Weaknesses
SWOT
Analysis
Threats
Opportunities
External
3
SWOT Analysis
Internal
Strengths
Positive attributes of your business:
What you do well, including your staff, your
access to ingredients, and knowledge of the
market .
4
SWOT Analysis
Internal
Weaknesses
Negative attributes of your business, what you
need to improve, e.g. the size of your business,
the consistency of the service delivery,
cleanliness, staff turnover, low productivity.
5
SWOT Analysis
Those things in the market that you can take
advantage of , e.g. increase sales volume,
reduce costs/expenses, or reposition yourself.
Opportunities
External
6
SWOT Analysis
Things that are typically out of your control,
e.g. the introduction of new competitors
and/or downturn in the economy. Food
scandals
Threats
External
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The Knowledge Needed For Effective Menu Planning
• Conduct focus group → your market
– Group discussion using scripted prompts
administered to a representative sample of local
residents
– http://www.uncfsp.org/projects/userfiles/File/FocusGroupBrief.pdf
• You must understand product/flow & logistics
of food and beverages
– To that end you must understand equipment
capacity, cooking times, holding times, and
balancing of staff workloads.
8
Customer Data
• Market vs. Individuals
• Understanding behaviors of persons
• Understand the markets they belong to.
• There are generalized sources for obtaining data
• Non-specific 4.1
• You can create your own databases by obtaining
information from your existing customers.
• loyalty clubs and/or social media
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4.1
4.2
4.3
Customer Database Report
The Menu Life Cycle
Assessing The Impact Of Competition
• Your competition : competitive set (also referred to as
peer set )
• The group of local businesses that represent
alternative choices to your business.
• Your objective is to position yourself to obtain the
largest % of their dining dollar as possible.
• Once you have identified your competitive set, you
must decide whether to provide similar goods and
services, or to differentiate your business.
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4.5
Competitive Set Comparative Study
Placeholder image
The Menu Life Cycle
Ingredient Availability, Market Prices, Vendors & Distribution
Channels
• A menu based on fleeting availability will
present challenges, stock outages, price
fluctuations, and the potential for customer
dissatisfaction.
• Distribution channels…
– How delicious is something that has been shipped
from halfway across the globe? (e.g. fish)
– Preserved to slow aging and degradation.
• The cost of transporting foods from faraway
must be factored into menu prices.
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The Locavore Movement
• Based on ingredients usually sourced within 100 miles
of you.
• Often grown and raised or processed without
additives, growth hormones, and chemicals.
• The locavore concept acknowledges seasonality.
• You can buy Florida hothouse tomatoes year-round,
however nothing will deliver the local flavor as an
ingredient harvested in your own region during its
typical growing season.
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4.6
Changes in Ingredient Availability
Placeholder image
The Locavore Movement
• Make sure your choices are logical.
• If you serve only local wines, you limit your
customers to selection of fine wine from
around the world.
• Make sure that your customers are looking for
items like grass-fed beef. They may be
unaccustomed to it.
• The key is: Base your product choices on
sound, customer-centered rationale.
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The Trends
It’s important to stay on the pulse of what people
are eating and how their tastes are evolving as a result
of global influences
Monitoring and understanding trends is an important part of the
research we do at Campbell’s Culinary & Baking Institute. It’s
our way of anticipating what our retail and foodservice customers
will want as tastes shift and demographics change, so that
we can deliver the next generation of iconic foods and
beverages that people love.
Source :http://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/
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1 Discovery Emerges with a limited but influential group /Cultural hot spots/up
market restaurants
2 Introduction Reaches a culinary minded audience/ food magazine/new
york times/ specialty grocers & outlets
3 Adoption Gains traction with larger audience /food net work channels/
celebrity chefs / full service chain restaurants TGIF
4 Main stream Accepted in many house holds/ main stream media/todays
show/ quick service restaurant
5 Established Reaches mass audience/ grocery retail
oullets / packaged
food
6 Expanded
Reaches global audience / internationally available
Group discussion and sharing
At which stage and how would you introduce new trends to your
Menu?
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http://www.quickservicecpa.com/dollars-andsense/entry/mcdonalds-focuses-on-global-trends-in2013
http://www.restfinance.com/Restaurant-FinanceAcross-America/January-2014/Will-McDonaldsMoves-Reverse-Sales-Trends/
http://nrn.com/food-trends/new-pizza-hut-units-featurepizza-slice
http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2013/06/18/howone-dead-brand-reanimated-their-business/2/
Read please and provide comments
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Distribution Channels
Broad line distributors
• Carry a broad and deep selection of items
• Resist carrying low demand items
• Provide their customers with commodity and market
data
• Most provide access to their online catalogs and
current price lists
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4.7
Performance Food Group Online Catalog Page
Placeholder image
The Menu Life Cycle
Spirits, Beer, and Wine distribution
• Is governed by state alcoholic beverage control
regulations.
• In most states, individual vendors hold exclusive
distribution rights for particular products (e.g.
Budweiser beer or Robert Mondavi wine).
• Spirits are most often purchased from state
government stores (“ABC stores”) and warehouses.
– i.e. a control state
• Other states allow spirits to be sold by vendors
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The Power of Information Technology
• Information technology can be applied
throughout the research and planning steps
of the menu development process.
– Excel,
– Access
– Specific Foodservice applications (e.g. Tracrite
Software, Micros)
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4.10
Digital Recipe Card from an Integrated Foodservice
Management Software Suite
Placeholder image
The Menu Life Cycle
The Power of Information Technology
The significant addition in Figure 4-10 is the criteria
relating the recipe to the point-of-sale function.
This level of integration enables tracking of perpetual
inventory , which allows for advanced inventory
control and comparison of theoretical costs
(planned) vs. actual costs.
If cost calculations are done for all food & beverage
items sold, they are added to produce a total
theoretical (planned) cost.
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The Power of Information Technology
How much data integration is dictated by your
information needs?
Most software is sold as a core POS (point-ofsale) system.
You can customize with extra software modules.
http://www.micros.com/Solutions/ProductsNZ/R
ESProductManagement/
http://www.foodsoftware.com
http://www.eg-software.com/en/
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The Power of Information Technology
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Point-of-Sale
Credit Card Processing
Loyalty Club/Frequent Diner Features
Remote Communications
Labor and Staffing Integration
Banquets and Catering
Cafeteria/University Board Plan Integration
Hotel Room Service Connectivity
Delivery/Call-in
Inventory Control
Menu Analysis
Accounting and Bookkeeping
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