Japanese restaurant business plan sample

Running head: KAKUI SUSHI RESTAURANT MARKETING PLAN 1

KAKUI SUSHI RESTAURANT MARKETING PLAN 14

Kakui Sushi Restaurant Marketing Plan

Student’s Name

University Affiliation

Table of Contents

31.0 Executive Summary

3 1.1 Parameters of the report

3 1.2 Description of the problem

3 1.3 Methodology

4 1.4 Summary of findings and conclusions

4 1.5 Recommendations

4 2.0 Introduction and Background

6 3.0 Statement of the Problem

8 4.0 Methodology

9 5.0 Findings

9 5.1 Customer Satisfaction Levels

10 5.2 Customers Ideal Restaurant

11 5.3 Referrals to the Restaurant

12 5.4 Extra Services in Ideal Restaurant

12 6.0 Conclusion

13 7.0 Recommendation

14 8.0 Reference List

1.0 Executive Summary

1.1 Parameters of the report

The purpose of this report is to establish a problem that challenges the Kakui Sushi Restaurant and suggest recommendations that provide a strategy to rise above this problem for competitive advantage. The Kakui Sushi Restaurant is a tourist restaurant that mainly targets Japanese tourists. The hotel and tourism industry is increasingly growing competitive especially with new entrants in the industry coming in very quick and with different strategies to attract new customers. There is therefore need for the participants in the industry to flex their muscles especially when it comes to dealing with their weaknesses in order to raise their competitive advantage (Pascual-Fernandez., et al, 2016). This research aims at finding a weakness in the restaurant and using research to formulate a strategy that would increase the company’s competitive advantage.

1.2 Description of the problem

Achieving competitive advantage depends on a number of factors. One of the key factors in increasing the competitive advantage of a company is by being able to win customer loyalty hence retaining customers or having the customers bring in other customers. Winning customer preference is essential. This is only possible when their needs are satisfied. The problem facing the restaurant is that there are limited services offered to the tourists, hence failing to provide adequate satisfaction to the customers. This means, that amidst strong competition, the restaurant may suffer losses. There is therefore need for an immediate strategic solution to remedy the situation.

1.3 Methodology

The research intended to study various demographic and psychographic details mainly among Japanese tourists within the area of locality of the restaurant and determine how it they influence their satisfaction levels in restaurant facilities. As such, the research involved the use of questionnaire surveys directly sent to the respondents who were customers at the restaurant. Their results were analyzed, recorded and some important parameters tabulated.

1.4 Summary of findings and conclusions

The research revealed that most of the customers are not satisfied by the services. It was clear that most tourists would prefer walking into restaurants where they receive multiple services. As such, the company is to consider introducing new services based on recommendations made while avoiding to interfere with the core product and services.

1.5 Recommendations

The research concludes with recommendations made with the aims of improving the competitive advantage of the restaurant by providing the customers with satisfaction hence winning their trust and loyalty. The main recommendation made is to increase the number of services provided hence allowing the tourists to access multiple services in one location while still receiving the main service they came for, restaurant services.

2.0 Introduction and Background

Kakui Sushi Restaurant is a Japanese restaurant situated in Oakland CA. The restaurant serves Japanese dishes and a range of drinks while observing important factors of the Japanese culture and art. The restaurant prepares unique meals using fresh and locally available ingredients and their menu keeps changing with seasonal changes hence taking advantage of the available local abundance. In summary, the restaurant makes contemporary cuisine by putting together Japanese traditions and the other best things the Bay Area presents. Some of the most remarkable aspects of the restaurant include; a sushi bar which serves the freshest fish, traditional favorites and the restaurant’s own special menus, a menu that is diverse and complete with Japanese dishes, an open kitchen serving and a full and dynamic sake selection that is appropriately selected to accompany the other items on the menu.

The Hospitality and Tourism sector is rising at a very fast rate. Consequently, there is an increase in the number of business entities in the sector that seek to take advantage of the increase in tourists travel from one country to another (He, Li, Harrill & Cardon, 2014). Just near Kakui Sushi restaurant, are other restaurants such as Kotobuki Japanese Restaurant and Oni Sushi, which tend to offer almost the same kind of menu. This means that competition in the business is really high and to perform well, Kakui Sushi needs to come up with effective marketing strategies that would make her to have competitive advantage over these two main competitors.

This retrospect paper presents a research conducted with the aims of finding out different consumer needs in relation to the services provided by Kakui Sushi Restaurant. The findings obtained are fundamental in making important strategic decisions that would help the restaurant build on customer loyalty by providing them with customer satisfaction. It is important that this is done so as to ensure the restaurant maintains a sustainable flow of income and profitability for the benefit of the company. In any business, customer is king. Therefore, there is the need to understand their expectations in order to design effective strategies to meet these expectations.

Various demographic and psychographic factors have affected the decisions made by tourists and other customers about their menu preference and food behavior. These factors have gradually resulted in the adaptation of new modern trends in the tourism sector to cater for the customers’ needs. Some of the new trends being embraced in the industry, for example, include; focusing more attention on preparation and serving of healthier foods and drinks, finding new ways of reaching the consumers without necessarily having them to come to the restaurants due to their busy schedules and offering extra services in the restaurant apart from only the food in the menus in order to attract more customers among others.

If the consumers’ needs are ignored then the customers may not be satisfied by the services received hence making it hard to win their loyalty or attract more customers. It is therefore important that Kakui Sushi Restaurant conducts a market research to identify the consumer needs in order to design effective marketing strategies and gain more competitive advantage over the competitors.

3.0 Statement of the Problem

Kakui Sushi Restaurant mainly requires that the restaurant customers only come to the restaurant purposefully for the meals and drinks offered on the menu. On the other hand, however, the restaurant also provides catering services and can organize and plan for events such as parties where food is involved. As such, serving Japanese cuisine is the core product of the restaurant that has for a long time contributed to its growth. However, with more and more competition arising, there is need for the restaurant to come up with a new strategy, especially revolving around the services in order to win more customers.

The focus on one product and service in this case, can be limiting. Recent research has revealed that most tourist enjoy visiting some expensive restaurants and hotels because of the variety of service they receive in such places. Most tourist enjoy visiting places where they fully utilize the services available and in such cases they are most likely to refer other people there (He., et al, 2014). In Japan, for example, there are the public bathrooms which are known as ‘onsen’ (Seaton & Yamamura, 2015). These are places where most Japanese spend time relaxing in pools of hot water while cleaning themselves. In the recent years, one major development that has taken place is that, wherever these bathrooms are, the owners have also incorporated either some snack shops services or joint it with some restaurant services, spa or massage services. What this means is that any customer visiting the place, receives more than just one service and are most likely to leave the place fully satisfied.

Such services are lacking in Kakui Sushi Restaurant. This becomes a problem that in the rise of major competition can seriously hurt the business. This problem is very important because once solved, it can really help to improve traffic at the restaurant hence making the business more profitable (Nieves & Segarra-Cipres, 2015). It will be an important strategy in providing customers with multiple services hence increasing their levels of satisfaction, thus winning their trust and confidence, which is important for customer loyalty. Loyal and satisfied customers are more likely to come back to the restaurant or even refer their friends and relatives, which is important for the business (Mok, Sparks & Kadampully, 2013). This is a problem that is currently experienced by all the competitors. However, having discovered the problem, Kakui Sushi Restaurant can use the opportunity to raise the competitive edge over her competitors.

This research therefore would seek to find out among other things some of the most important services that Japanese and other tourists would like to enjoy in their convenient restaurant. As such, the findings will be useful in making necessary recommendations that would help the business improve and advance the services offered.

4.0 Methodology

It is essential that before any strategy is implemented, enough research is conducted in order to ensure that the strategy is guided by reliable findings. This way, the strategy will be considered to be effective since it addresses specific challenges. As such, for this research, the method used in collecting the data needed to make strategic recommendations was the use of questionnaire survey.

The questionnaire was designed to have relevant questions all seeking to establish what kind of things the consumers, who are mainly tourists, would want to find in their ideal restaurant. The questions used were both close ended and open ended. The close ended questions mainly aimed at getting the demographic details in order to provide insights into the key demographic details of most of the customers and potential customers for the restaurant. The open ended questions allowed for the respondents to give their personal opinion and views especially regarding the services they would expect to receive in their ideal restaurant.

The main target market for the business is Japanese tourists who visit the bay in Oakland. However, it is notable that the restaurant also attracts a significant number of tourists from other Asian countries such as Korea, China and UAE as well as a small number of locals. The respondents were therefore mainly from these groups, but mainly the Japanese.

The respondents were randomly selected from a sample of customers that visited the restaurant in three consecutive days. The research collected results from 50 different respondents. The questionnaire was administered to these customers through Survey Monkey Website, hence providing the customers with the convenience of filling in the responses at any location as they went on with their day to day activities. The data collected was mainly qualitative, since it mainly involved getting views about the extra services tourists would wish to find in their convenient restaurant. The quantitative data collected mainly involved the tabulation of numbers of responses that were similar in a particular type of preference.

5.0 Findings

The findings of the research were tabulated for easier analysis and interpretation. This section presents a sample of the very important findings from the research that will be key in the designing of the marketing strategy. The findings are represented and explained based on the responses that were being sort for in the research.

5.1 Customer Satisfaction Levels

The research intended to find whether the customers who had visited Kakui Sushi Restaurant were fully satisfied with the services and products they received. Out of the fifty respondents, it was noted that only 2 said that they were fully satisfied and 9 were simply satisfied. The majority, 25 were only a little satisfied and 14 were not satisfied a lot. The finding for this section revealed that most of the customers were not satisfied by the products and services, which meant that it is important to find out the problem that limited the customer satisfaction rates in the restaurant and design a strategy or strategies that will help in providing this satisfaction to the customers.

Levels of Satisfaction with the services at Kakui Sushi Restaurant

Number of Respondents

Fully satisfied

2

Satisfied

9

A little satisfied

25

Not satisfied

14

5.2 Customers Ideal Restaurant

In order to provide the best services and products, it is essential to understand the rating of the customers on what exactly they find attractive in their ideal restaurant. These are mainly the things that once they get they tend to be satisfied by the services and products, hence likely to win their trust and loyalty. Out of 5, the respondents were required to rate a number of factors that may attract them to their ideal restaurant. The results were averaged by totaling the rating and dividing by the number of respondents who gave the rating. In this case, it was evident that most customers prefer receiving a variety of services and products in their ideal restaurant.

Factors considered attractive to customers in their ideal restaurant

Average rating by Respondents out of 5

Service and Product Quality

4

Variety of Services and Products Offered

5

Health consciousness

2

Proximity to temporary place of residence during vacation

3

5.3 Referrals to the Restaurant

One way of determining the success of a business is by evaluating the number of customers satisfied by the services and products. Such customers tend to be loyal and would either come back to the business or refer other people to the business. This question was another way of trying to establish the levels of customer loyalty through satisfaction provided by our services. The respondents were therefore asked whether they were referred by a friend or relative or whether they would refer a friend or relative to the restaurant. Notably, only 19 out of 50 respondents had been referred by friend and relatives. This meant that the rest had just been there for the first time on their own, probably to try out. The most alarming result was the smaller number of customers, 17, that would refer their friends and relatives to the restaurant, which was a clear indicator of lack of satisfaction and low loyalty. As such, there is need for a strategy that would solve this problem.

Were you referred to Kakui Sushi Restaurant by a friend/relative

Number of Respondents

Yes

19

No

31

Would you refer a friend/ relative to Kakui Sushi Restaurant

Yes

17

No

33

5.4 Extra Services in Ideal Restaurant

At the point of the research, it had already been identified that there is a new consumer preference regarding their ideal restaurant. That is, a number of people prefer going to restaurants that offer more than one service. The most important question, however, is what kind of services would be appropriate for a restaurant and would attract a high number of customers without interfering with the core business. In this case, the respondents were allowed to write down their own preference of services. The largest number of respondents wrote spa and massage services. The rest of the services respondents not accounted for in this table made different choices that only appeared once.

What are some of the extra services you would like to receive in your ideal restaurant

Number of Respondents

Live entertainment e.g bands

6

Spa and massage

14

Exercise Facilities

6

Foods and Drinks only

5

6.0 Conclusion

From the research and the findings, it is clear that despite the potential of the Kakui Sushi Restaurant to do well, its limited services prevent the restaurant from giving their customers satisfaction. This therefore affects the way the restaurant does business, hence limiting the profits. This problem can even grow bigger and be felt more especially with the levels of competition from other Japanese restaurants in the area. Kakui Sushi is at a point where it can not only rely on meals on its menu to win over customer satisfaction and attract customer preference. This is therefore a problem that the company needs to immediately solve in order to beat the competition and be more profitable.

7.0 Recommendation

From the findings and conclusions in the research, several recommendations could be made. These recommendations mainly provide the important strategies that once implemented by the restaurant would go a long way in boosting and improving the customer satisfaction levels in the restaurant.

The main recommendation to aid in solving the problem is to diversify the services offered by the restaurant while making sure that the core business is not affected. The restaurant can consider utilizing its available space to introduce extra services that most tourists find exciting in their ideal restaurant. This can be done in phases. For example, the restaurant may consider beginning with the introduction of spa and massage services as a pilot strategy and monitor the implications on customer satisfaction. This is certainly expected to bear positive results by attracting more customers to the restaurant who will not only utilize the spa and massage services but also purchase from the restaurant menu. The rest of the services can be gradually introduced one after another based on the interests and responses of the customers.

8.0 Reference List

He, L., Li, X., Harrill, R., & Cardon, P. W. (2014). Examining Japanese tourists' US-bound travel constraints. Current Issues in Tourism, 17(8), 705-722.

Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge.

Nieves, J., & Segarra-Ciprés, M. (2015). Management innovation in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 46, 51-58.

Pascual-Fernández, P., López-Sánchez, J. Á., Reynoso, J., & Santos-Vijande, M. L. (2016). Innovativeness and Market Orientation as Forerunners of the New Service Added Value and Performance in the Hotel Industry. In Rediscovering the Essentiality of Marketing (pp. 925-926). Springer International Publishing.

Seaton, P., & Yamamura, T. (2015, January). Japanese popular culture and contents tourism– introduction. In Japan forum (Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1-11). Routledge.

.