Economic pressure on hospitality industry

Economy is the running machine that keeps driving the currency and stocks exchange. But in this era this

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statement doesn’t justifies the economic condition undergoing crisis in Europe and in debt united states. Whole world depends on the united states stock exchange but in past period of time every thing tumbled down , big corporation Q1 , Q2, Q3 Q4 went down with the job losses suffered adding to its on going unemployment condition.Hospitaly and tourism industry being hit the same way worldwide has cause the major suffering due to economic impacts in different parts of globe.

I was reading on “CNN website” related topic of economic downturn caused by the hospitality and tourism industry. “The economic down turn has taken a huge hit on the travel & hospitality industry with the corporate sector getting into serious cost cutting measures” now explaining on that line which was used by “CNN website

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” to clearly explain different sectors on hospitality industry being refrained from economy pressure. Worldwide problems on lowering the budgeting of the airlines has resulted in cutting the jobs thus leading to increment in unemployment rate , referring back to the air Canada strike employees validated strike because of company’s low offerings and not meeting their demands. There was a definite gap between the board of directors and its flight attendants that resulted in strike . Labor Minister Lisa Raitt also tried to block the immediate strike of flight attendants as that would result in hampering the public airline service according to “the star.com”. In hospitality industry , employees are losing job and the reason being addressed in the budget or the profit went below estimation

Hospitality and tourism industry is experiencing numerous challenges as a result of the global economic crisis. According to “Fin crisis Bulletin” , there has been a decreased discretionary income spending both by corporate and individual consumers , discretionary incomes being highlighted from “Reid chapter 4 market segmentation” . There has been a consecutive quarterly shrinking capital market impact on hospitality industry in 2010 in Europe, in addition to it the same declining trend growth continues for airlines, corporate travel that resulted for 18 percent of

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airline revenue has got reduced substantially worldwide. Aside the economic meltdown of global economy , the political pressure is also hampering the growth of economy through hotels, for example in asian countries lie pakistan , india and Sri Lanka; after elections people elect new leader and possibly new majority and so that party changes its own emendations and rules that leads to different consequences and results like in india some communities has some sacred land and they don’t want to lend that land to other multi national companies for future projects, even after government orders So that leads to some serious action that is not a benefit for either economy of country or for the people.

This economic distress had melted down the tourism sector , affected the emerging capital of hospitality industry too.

Mucho makes it on SWOT analysis

Mexican Cuisine is the finest spicy cuisine and to make it even more special I made my tip with Clara Kingston to mucho burritos . They are known for their freshness, mexican music and their world-famous burritos !!

In order to savour it more and write about it more , we went there to taste the delightful mexicans cuisine. We were dying to go inside as the mexican music was the reason itself to attract us in their premises. Stepping in lead us to see their exorbitant modern styled furniture used by Mucho to add a glorified glare to their ongoing distinguished representation of mexican flavor in competitive market.

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This will give you a better idea of what type of texture they have bought in that gives there fast food firm Porsche finish . It’s a definite eye-catching pleasure for a guest like me who is the fan of mexican cuisine. Talking about the interior artwork they had used symbolizes the mucho burritos franchise and in addition to it is not that helpful for a guest to get an overall image of what is mexican cuisine like.As you all can see from the image, it is clear that the visit was in afternoon so the lightning could not be judged ,the clear big ambient windows was giving the pleasurable dining experience.

Hungerness made us stand in a long line up as we were already perished by its looks now was looking forward to their kitchen surprise , menu was so long that made Clara clicked my this pic

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. 4 workers were assigned in preparing orders and the 5th one on cashier. So that shows that they were well prepared for the busy time of the week. Here begins the research for the right item , ordered 2 vegetable tacos and a 10 inch quassedilos . They had variety of meats including fish ( really impressing job) , the beans were fresh .Wait time of about 2-4 minutes clashes with the McDonald take out service. So they were good on that part. Addition of kids menu WOW . This is where ian’s marketing course plays the role in , means they were attracting families . They had all items offered in junior sizes for kids and even the price was not that hefty neither for kids nor for the regular order.

There were a few negatives too , that I would like to address in SWOT . The delicious tacos and quessedalos taste were keeping us busy in eating and our chatter in regards to the appropriates and in appropriates things going around the world kept us that resulted to Clara to take a pic holding mucho’s napkin busy while eating the delight.

As we were busy in our own world, my eyes gleaned through the window and found out their existing competetors like second cup on left , Chinese restaurant across the street and Tim Horton next to the Chinese restaurant.

Referring to the above information , the SWOT analysis would be a good highlight in summarizing it so as to get a better understanding of the business perspective of Mucho burritos baseline branch.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

• Location scores here, they are located in front of Wal-Mart, across the baseline road and even the bus stop is 2 minutes’ walk. They have the best location;
  

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  every kind of customer would just jump in to see what they offer.

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  Menu choices They have a huge menu selection sorted out nicely for vegans and non-vegans, kids menu adds blowing advantages to Mucho’s catering Mexican flavor for families, and even they have soups (great for people who doesn’t like Mexican food).

• Big and little Now this is the term that I am going to use for their big offering of food for little. Let me show you and Clara’s purchase
  

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  , this would make more sense.
• Distinguish – Mucho is taking a step ahead in marketing their cuisine in a different style and dynamics. Like, they have the luxurious feeling to the dine in atmosphere, the music just attracts the consumer, the presentation is way different from other Mexican restaurants ( A+ advantage).

WEAKNESS

• As mentioned in this post about the negatives, their positioning didn’t made sense. washroom were hidden; neither signs nor directions were posted. washroom location was in appropriate as it was totally opposite way of the long line up, so you have to break the line-up in order to get to washroom.
• Few tables The moment I entered, my eyes saw a long line-up left side of the customers for placing order and right side of tables. I have to address that this is organized positioning but the amount of tables they had were few looking to their target market of families, they should have added tables.
• Bar For me it seems as the weakness to and opportunity too for this growing fast food chain. I would love to go and order margarita enjoying it with Mexican spicy tale; even they would make huge revenue through the drinks as people love to have glass of red / white wine with their spicy food.

OPPORTUNITY

• Bar as opportunity gainer Mucho would be the first fast food Mexican restaurant to serve alcohol. This implementation would be a great add-on for the winter time as the wines are just a perfect drink for cold winter period.
• Fireplace would be a great. Everyone in winter likes to sit near fireplace and have their dinner. This is what McDonald is doing for their target market and same should be reflected by Mucho’s to their catering target market of families.
• Separate place for kids Mucho should start looking forward as this would be a great benefit for their dine in customers, there could be a play area designated or they could design and offer some play toys In order to engage them.

THREATS

• location Even the location being the most favored part of SWOT analysis it still brings the pros of being a threat to its emergence. At the same location exists second cup, Tim Horton’s, fine dine in Chinese restaurant. They are offering quick service, different taste to the clientele.
• noise Now this threat pops out of my mind from the Reid textbook. The place was becoming louder as the people were coming in, families were a great add-on to that. I had to be loud in order to reply to Clara’s answer.

McDonald , Tim Hortons or Starbucks? which will brew more coffee for canadians

When it comes to coffee , canada is the only country in the world who has the most number of coffee drinkers. Guys , this country is blessed with rich coffee makers like Tim hortons, McDonald and Starbucks . These three are the leading brands in term of coffee brewers while McDonald being the only newest one to enter in this captivating market with McCafe  Brand.

There is intense competition brewing around between tim and McDonald to be the choice of Canada in upcoming season . McDonald is “positioning” its McCafe coffee brand in order to compete with ever-growing demand of Tim hortons Coffee and its other related products. According to the “reid”, term positioning refers to the different variables used by a firm to compete differently in same target market under consumer perceptions. This exactly should be the objective for Mr John Belts president and chief executive of Macdonald. The market is huge, this text reminds me of the one of the factors essential for segmenting the market according to author in “reid”. Well Canada has one of the worlds largest coffee drinkers target market and so accordingly fast food companies are throwing themselves in this treasure of delicious hot beverages catered to customers at their convenience.

Now let’s go ahead and do some serious talk regarding what new are these fast food companies are up to in this battlefield?

McDonald and Tim Horton  both are going head to head by launching new product-service mix like tim newly announced their lattes, coming up with espresso coffee machines to provide richer taste. Both companies are following product market strategy, Tim Horton brand image is the biggest advantage over McDonald due to that people love trying their new product every time thus the product market strategy works fine for tim whereas McDonald charm ends there so that’s why they are always trying to promote their product by giving away coupons in flyers across Canada and also engaging customers into their product …the most essential part of traditional hospitality product service mix highlighted by “Reid” author. Now how McDonald does that is by before launching the product they give the customers a free chance to enjoy their offerings. I like that strategy by McDonald’s marketing management and even “Ottawa citizen” cited that John Betts is going to offer 95 percent Canadian households a free cup of their premium taste coffee through coupons.

Tim has segmented the coffee market by providing valuable quality and affordable price (price being the crucial attribute in segmenting market) whereas according to my perceptions Starbucks is doing the same thing but their price is on downside due to this reason they are losing their market share to their competitors. McCafe elevated its brand by providing espresso coffee rich taste at good price , Mc Cafe positioning products was the most important aspect in elevating brand image as of now. Thus due to positioning they were able to sell more than 200 million cups (according to Ottawa citizen), McDonald’s is giving new looks to its restaurants across Canada to target families and also increase their breakfast business , coming to Starbucks just announced that they are coming up with new line of juices so i guess that they are primarily changing their target market and hence getting out of competition of coffee makers. McDonald has affected the sales and market share of tim hortons according to a research firm NDP , tim is still the leading breakfast provider across Canada proving their dominance by taking 45 % of breakfast market whereas from nowadays the competition is getting more tight on beverage market that accounts for 16%. I am going t

o highlight that in my map by comparing Starbucks , tim hortons and McDonald quality and the price they are charging for the quality and the service medium.

So Starbucks as they are changing their target market and providing a new product line will change their focus in this battle but the cost remains the downside of Starbucks quality. McCafe just elevated their brand name by repositioning their products, coming with different market strategy and more customer oriented gives them a unique position in my map as their quality thus stated in “Ottawa citizen” makes me put them on par with tim hortons leadership attributes such as price and quality .

I would like to end this by highlighting on the fact that Mccafe is emerging brand  and tim hortons has to do something unique, opening a single restaurant worldwide would not help them ,  they are providing themselves opportunity and threat too from the competitors like McDonald’s . They have to think some thing different. McCafe is going to be the top competitor among the breakfast and coffee provider .

Boston Pizza-An undeniable pathetic dine in

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Guys you would have got the idea about the post  from the above headline. Exactly Boston Pizza ? and pathetic. No way, yes but it is true in my case. I am sure that what i am going to write here is solemnly prior to boston pizza . So friday evening  heading  to boston pizza with my friends to celebrate exams fever day off. Exam week is the hectic time for me , and now its over , i was ready to rock on the floor for the summer starting with an exciting dinning night at boston pizza . I never had been to boston pizza, so I was expecting exceptional “customer service” and thus “Total Customer Satisfaction” but it was something else. The experience at boston pizza is going to be the main highlight topic in the post.

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Friday night , thrilling night plus great weather and ready to get drunk . So the show was set in boston pizza. We all were held off by the exclusive never seen decor in boston pizza calgary south location. Now that made our night more excited with that decor and the welcome reception received , so summarizing all above in this para comes to a great experience. Upon getting the table , the party of four were ready for ordering and here comes the part that made this pleasurable delight into disastrous night of the week. The waitress came to take our order ,she was so rude with my friends , skipping the order of my friends turned over to me i ordered pasta for myself and then she left. That example corresponds to the boston pizza servers service quality and the service delivery according to “Reids, wrong approach, no recovery strategy|, no apologies, it just cant get worse than that. I told manager about that but he just gave us new waiter thats all !!!! no compensation nothing at all. Referring to” Reids(2010), this is the perfect and opposite example about customer DISSATISFACTION , ritz carlton front line employees are given $1000 to satisfy the customer bad experience” but boston pizza restaurants nothing but rude servers .” The service element of their product service mix” of the american chain fails to lavage canadian culture.

Boston pizza is not good at the management level, the above example is proof of that. So after having the pizza and pasta which I would rate 8/10 , we left for some good service in heart of calgary (Downtown).

Moxie’s Classic Grill- Trendy experience !!

Guys I love going to different moxie’s grill every time. SO this exceptional experience comes live with quality

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entertaining time spent on awesome chilling FRIDAY night with party of four great entertainers “MY BUDDIES”. After having scary watch “Nightmare in Elm street”, eyes were searching for delicious food. Went and drove by the hill to moxie’s corner situated cornered by Hotel Sandman

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Guess what fellows , that moxie actually got some “great variables for segmenting the market if necessary according to the geographic(location) variable plus mixture of segment offered by Sandman Hotel guests described in “Reids”.

Stepping  in I was taken off by some great eye catching decor , modern lightening, romantic atmosphere that fostered my perceptual that this place is going to gift in next 24 hours,  makes me remind of trendy pathology followed by moxie’s  trendy” Hospitality product – service mix”. Next thing that blowed myself was their positioning , as I entered through the main door , warm treatment by beautiful lady in black suite, on left side was bar operation and right side dinning NOW ISNT THAT EXCELLENT POSITIONING MARKETING. Author said outlining in “Reids” that main point of hospitality industry is service and customers satisfaction , thats what moxie’s is doing. They have segmented their clientele into two categories one going to the lounge for cocktails and second going for authentic dinning experience. The customers wouldn’t be salvaged by the fellows getting drunk in the bar.

Moving ahead in the blog, a cute waitress came to us and helped us finding a beautiful location for the amazing dinning experience. Seated across waterfall and enjoying light music with a chat, nothing could get better than that. Onto my right  a birthday party in action was a great mode of “noisy environment” . Now that reminds me of Ian telling about how noise can make a perfect dinning experience disaster. I told the waiter about that distraction and she immediately act on it  by moving them to different isolated space specially designed for parties now thats called ‘recovery strategy” employed on spot( Impressed) . Here comes the first entry ordered called double cheese nachos umhhhh yummy , skipped on the salad part as no one liked to have that.

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Drinks here comes the main part of enjoyment , glass of red wine and  soft drinks. The nachos were delicious finger licking good in addition to it good serving amount too. A great start to this manifesto. Main course time , ordered chicken + ribs with maple glazed salmon . The server description to the main course was in detailed really great” knowledge gap” , so far so good. after 10 minutes wait main course arrived, chicken ribs and maple glazed salmon with rice pilaf. As mentioned above , serving amount no comments. With the light music going  symbolizing romantic night out for the couples sitting out there, main course arrived with three servers bringing them. That could me described for my group as “moment of truth”. Placing the dishes on the tables, smiles on their faces they left to let us enjoy our time. Presentation was just mind exorbitant that makes their’ product service mix” count important . Overall the food was delicious standing on the “classic” term used in their name. Such a great night with friends , thanks to the moxie’s classic grill pleasurable expierence.

Thank you for reading my blog and please comments are must!!!!

Successfull Marketing voyage-Shiva Mango ?

According to the definition of marketing in Reids “Marketing is all about delivering solutions in accordance to the customers need and tackling the solutions in friendly way”. So in order to get that done there should be an approach reapply marketing concept in restaurants. According to the statistics eighty percent of restaurants in Ottawa goes bankrupt, left twenty percent prevails and works on the marketing concept but the other thing that strikes my mind is that the restaurants that does understand marketing concept “how well they capitalize on  business with the use of marketing concept OR perfections brought in by marketing concept affected there business”.  Various factors pertaining to the marketing are employed in making business run, some factors that plays vital role were discussed in class thoroughly and practically too through in class activities.

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So talking about those factors,I have been to some restaurants in Ottawa and outside ottawa too. My travelling experience is nourished by some bad restaurants and good too. The hot discussion topic that has been the most important aspect in restaurant’s success is “MARKETING MIX”. I went with my friends for dinner in an fine dining indian restaurant  Mango Shiva in downtown calgary located in town famous Stephen Avenue. Very traditional decor attained by the modern amended management was the first thing that blazed my eyes the time I stepped in. There was no one assigned at the door , well that was quite interested due to the fact that this fine dining restaurant is one of the most adorable place in city centre calgary. It was not busy as it was thursday evening probably due to flames games night , so I was anticipating throttling welcome by management but that failed to match my” desired needs as stressed in Reid as: “one of the external factor that influences consumers decision making procedure” Reid(2010).”

So moving forward , stepped in with my friends to this fosterness for some delicious indian cuisine taste. We ordered two appetizers to start for now , the waiter was not that informative about the recipes in menu so we were given hard time by that gentleman in making decisoin prior to the main course order. But still we managed to pull out from our knowledge wonder and order three dishes with some vegetable rice and naan bread.

Now was the

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time for drinks,  stick to mango lassi and soft drinks keeping in mind the hepty price

tag they were dealt with. The menu itself was a bit favouring tasteless in concern to prices next to following dishes in menu. Well that could be balanced by delicious food but not everything seem perfect . So apptizers poped up after waitline of 15 minutes, kababsand salad dressing in indo-western style was eye popping. As “Discussed in Reid the Marketing Mix , this restaurant partially failed in applying marketing mix to their setting. While their Presentation Mix was absolutely stunning as depicted by the starters shown below”. Pricing Strategy according to my statistics was not fair for the downtown public as there is tense compedition among Indian Restaurants. The Appetizers were  tasty but the servings were not much as compared to others

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restaurants. Then came MAIN COURSE , Lamb curry was a little spicy accompanying butter chicken and tandoori chicken with naan bread and vegetable rice. Butter chicken was half bone and half boneless
, i was so mad , waiter failed to explain in main course about  butter chicken in menu when we asked  , employing here “Reid” Knowledge Gap”. I was so dissatisfied with the amount of s

ervings they served.As stated in ” Reid”that experience caused me to write about  Communication gap widening ,  The highlighted topic in Reid (2010) Customer Satisfaction : According to it, Shiva Mango did everything  to make the dinner more worse. There were no recovery strategies employed “.

 

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The rice was served cold , we called and told waiter that but he argued that it should not be . Argument is not the way they should have dealt with handling problem , “lack of communication, in proper management counted towards overall bad experience at shiva mango”. The waiter was not talking properly to us , he bought in fresh hot rice and did not even apologize for their fault.in adding to it he was not paying attention to our table , service was bad . As discussed in “Reid” , PRODUCT- SERVICE mix was not applicable in this case  as we all not expected there by paying huge some money . The price that we were paying for purchasing the food and service was inappropriate. Main Course was OK except that glitch. Overall Mango Shiva could not stand up to my expectations at all.  |The marketing voyage of shiva mango was in ruins , their marketing concept was completely out of line and so as their marketing mix too|.

OVERALL A REALLY PATHETIC EXPERIENCE IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN.

Mankirat Marketing Intro

Hello there welcome to my Marketing portfolio. My name is Mankirat. I came from india , from past 2 years i have been here in canada. My Portfolio would highlight my thoughts and conceptuals learned in marketing course.

I came to ottawa this summer for vacation and decided to stay here and pursue a new carrier in the field of hospitality and customer services transition from chemical engineering. This is a huge transition from engineering to hotel and restaurant carrier and in order to explore more in this field I wanted to be at RIGHT PLACE OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.Before coming to the college, I have worked in Calgary at Southern Alberta Institute of technology campus in Alumni Call center , that was a valuable source of customer service experience for me.Whatever I learned through my previous experience would help me a lot to excel in this field.I learned alot through that job and in order to learn more I chossed this program in ottawa because for me this city is more professionalized to learn a professionalism order in hospitality and hotel management area. TBC