Integrated marketing communication strategy for Vinny's Prima Prego

Vinny's Prima Prego! Is a blossoming gourmet pasta restaurant in Kansas City with a rapidly developing consumer brand and growing customer base. The restaurant is to serve the younger generation of working professionals living in Kansas City. The restaurant faces stiff competition from various other restaurants but the one of the main ways of gaining competitive advantage is to offer deliveries to their clientele. An Integrated Marketing Communication strategy is developed in an effort of increasing its sales.

Situation Analysis

Vinny's Prima Prego! is close to entering their second year of operation. The restaurant has been well received, and marketing is now critical to its continued success and future profitability. The store offers an extensive offering of unique, gourmet pastas with delivery and curb-side services. The basic market need is to offer large groups, individuals, families, and take out/delivery customers fresh, creative, attractive, pasta dishes, salads and desserts. Vinny's uses homemade pasta, fresh vegetables, and premium meats and cheeses.

2.1 Market Summary

The target market for the company

Vinny's Prima Prego has established its target market. The restaurant is in possession of great information concerning its market. Besides, it has a great deal of information regarding the observable attributes of a number of their loyal customers. The information regarding the target market is of great importance as it enables the organization to have an improved understanding of the people whom they serve, the specific requirements of the customers as well as how the organization is capable of communicating better with these customers.

Vinny's Prima Prego has classified its market into three domains. The factors that were taken into consideration by the restaurant entail demographic, geographic and behavioral factors. All these factors are discussed below:

Geographics

The instant geographic target of Vinny's Prima Prego is Kansas City, Missouri. The number of people residing in the geographical area is approximately 500,000. A geographical area of approximately 15 miles needs the services of Vinny's Prima Prego. The restaurant is capable of delivering within two miles only. An approximated population of 46,000 is targeted by the restaurant.

Demographics

The target market for the restaurant consists of both the Males and females. Again, the target market is consisting of ages ranging from 25 to 50. The target market also consists of professionals who are still very young and who work very near the location. Another characteristic of the market is that a number of them attended graduate school and college.

Behavior Factors

The target market enjoys meals of high quality without the problem of making the meals of high quality themselves. Similarly, there is value that is accredited to the presentation or appearance of food.

Market Needs

The restaurant provides the customers with a large selection pasts dishes of high-quality as well as salads which are pleasing and unique in presentation and makes use of top-shelf ingredients. Besides, the restaurant endeavors to meet the benefits described below. The benefits are of great importance to the customers. The benefits include:

1. Selection: A very large pasta choice as well as salad options.

2. Accessibility: The patron is capable of moving into to the restaurant very quickly. They are also capable of choosing the choice of curb side service, dine in or delivery.

3. Customer service: The patron might be overwhelmed with the amount of attention received by them.

4. Competitive pricing: every service or product may competitively be priced in comparison to the similar local pasta or Italian restaurants.

Market Trends

Restaurant's market trend is moving in the direction of highly sophisticated customers. The patron of restaurants in the present time when compared to that of the past is highly sophisticated in numerous diverse ways.

The first way is the quality of food. Due to the fact that consumers have commenced to realize the qualitative distinctions, high-quality ingredients' preference is improving.

The second way is appearance or Presentation. Because presentation of the components of culinary experience has become very pervasive, the patrons have learnt to realize this industry's aspect.

The third way is Selection. Individuals demand a wider food selection; they no longer accept the limited menus.

This trend is caused by the fact that during the recent past years, the offerings of the restaurant has improved, providing consumers with very new choices. The patrons of the restaurants do not want to accept inadequate options. Having numerous choices, the patrons have been very sophisticated. The trend is intuitive because one is capable of observing highly complicated restaurant patron in bigger city markets like New York, Seattle and Portland where more choices are available.

Market Growth

SWOT analysis is described as a method of strategic planning where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are evaluated. However, SWOT analysis alone should not be considered as the basis of evaluating the firm's survival and profitability prospects (Amstrong, 1982). Calculating the Return on Investments (ROI) for alternative courses of action and defining the firm's objectives are other two important aspects which should not be overlooked.

Pasta's world market has been approximated to reach 18 million tons by 2015. The sale of Pasta is approximated to improve by at about 10% few years to come. The improvement may be due to a number of different causes. The first one is a positive reception for the foods that are health conscious. Despite the fact that some pasta may not be beneficial, predominantly the sources that are cream based, pasta is capable of being extremely tasty and also health conscious.

2.2 SWOT Analysis

There are a number of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are available for Vinny's Prima Prego. All this are critically looked at. All these are of great importance to the company.

Strengths

Vinny's Prima Prego enjoys very great interactions with the vendors offering ingredients of very high quality as well as frequent or fast delivery schedules. Second, Vinny's Prima Prego has very excellent and highly trained workers who are very attentive to the customers. Another key strength of Vinny's Prima Prego is the high retail space which is very bright, clean, and situated in the Crossroads District, Country Club Plaza, as well as Power & Light District. Again, the restaurant has very high consumer constancy among the repeat customers. Besides, Vinny's Prima Prego offers food offerings with very high-quality and that exceeds the competitors offerings in presentation, quality and price. Lastly, Vinny's Prima Prego delivers meals to the customers on request.

Weaknesses

Despite the fact that Vinny's Prima Prego has several advantages, it also has its weaknesses. The following are some of the marked weaknesses of Vinny's Prima Prego. First, the name of the company is lacking brand equity. Again, Vinny's Prima Prego's marketing budget is limited to come up with brand awareness. The other weakness of the company is that it struggles to repeatedly emerge to be cutting edge. Finally, the greatest weakness facing the company is the numerous restaurants that it competes with.

Opportunities

A number of opportunities are available to the restaurant. A growing market having a great percentage of the target market is still not aware of the existence of Vinny's Prima Prego. The improving sales prospects in the curb side and the business of delivery are a great opportunity for the restaurant. Another opportunity that is available to the restaurant is its capacity to enter various revenue centers. The restaurant will be capable of spreading management overhead costs to the various stores thereby minimizing fixed costs for every store.

Threats

A number of threats face the restaurant. A number of local restaurants continue to respond to the restaurant's superior offerings. The presence of Gourmet pasta restaurant chains in the Kansas City poses a great challenge to the restaurant. The last threat that the restaurant may face is the economic downtown that is capable of reducing the disposable income of the customers. This is capable of making the customers to spend less when they go to eat out.

Competition

Competition is a very important aspect of business survival and success in the market, it is therefore imperative for firms that wish to succeed to analyze their competitors strategies with the aim of countering the same. This is because no business can develop without competition. In analyzing competition it is important to consider a number of forces including; the bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of the employees and the substitute products. Competitor analysis is important in that it enables the business to gather relevant information that's helps in the development of the firm's strategies. It also helps the firm to identify and capitalize on the weaknesses of the competitors (Lester, 1988).

There are a number of restaurants with the same range of offerings within our locality. All these ventures have their targets on both low and middle class of the market segments. Most of these ventures compete on price but to a greater extent service quality. Since price alone is not a long-term competitive strategy, most of the firms have resorted to quality and creativity as their main competitive tools.

In the current situation, there is only one competitor in the upper market segment. This competitor, though well established in the market, has not been able to respond adequately to the needs and expectations of the customers. It has also been identified that they have experience a steady decline in. This has created an opportunity to Vinny's Prima Prego venture in advancing to the upper market since this competitor fails to uphold the tenet of reciprocity.

Vinny's Prima Prego has a number of competitors. There are two types of competition that the restaurant is exposed to. That is national competitors and local competitors.

National Competition

A number of restaurants are competing Vinny's Prima Prego at the national level. The first restaurant that it competes with is the Olive Garden which is offering customers sauces, ingredients and noodles of their choices. It allows the consumers to gather their dish the way they wish. The quality of food that is provided by this restaurant is average.

Carrabba's Italian Grill is the second restaurant that Vinny's Prima Prego is competing with at the national level. The restaurant is having a small selection. However, dishes are served with ingredients of high-quality. The restaurant charges very high price. The quality of food that is provided is, however, good.

The third restaurant that Vinny's Prima Prego competes with at the national level is the Romano's Macaroni Grill. The restaurant is offering pasta which is rationally fresh and practically innovative. Besides, their charges are lower price. This firm was sold in the recent years, and as a result, the management direction of the firm has remained stagnant in the recent times, thereby resulting into excessive worker turnover.

Local Competition

Besides the national restaurants competing Vinny's Prima Prego at the national level, there are several other restaurants competing it at the local levels. The restaurants include the Garozzo's which is an expensive Italian restaurant with limited pasta dishes selection. The dishes served are very good despite the fact that the selection is pricey and limited and pricey.

Cascone's is the second local restaurant that Vinny's Prima Prego is in competition with at the local level. The firm is an Italian restaurant having an extremely respectable selection of pasta. However, the quality of their dishes is inconsistent.

The third restaurant that Vinny's Prima Prego competes with at the local level is the Bice Bistro. The restaurant is expensive and fashionable. It is having a very large selection of wine as well as good salads. Any other thing that is offered by the restaurant is mediocre and is always over-priced. The Services provided by them is always very poor.

In a nutshell, a SWOT analysis is important in that it can help decision making on the next course of action to be taken by the venture which might include; adding superior value to customers and a review of the management styles if need be. On the other hand SWOT analysis brings to the marketing force, contemporary issues which can be an impediment to business success if not well handled.

2.3 Competition

Competition is a very important aspect of business survival and success in the market, it is therefore imperative for firms that wish to succeed to analyze their competitors strategies with the aim of countering the same. In analyzing competition it is important to consider a number of forces including; the bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of the employees and the substitute products. Competitor analysis is important in that it enables the business to gather relevant information that's helps in the development of the firm's strategies. It also helps the firm to identify and capitalize on the weaknesses of the competitors.

There are a number of restaurants with the same range of offerings within our locality. All these ventures have their targets on both low and middle class of the market segments. Most of these ventures compete on price but to a greater extent service quality. Since price alone is not a long-term competitive strategy, most of the firms have resorted to quality and creativity as their main competitive tools.

In the current situation, there is only one competitor in the up market segment. This competitor, though well established in the market, has not been able to respond adequately to the needs and expectations of the customers. It has also been identified that they have experience a steady decline in. This has created an opportunity to Vinny's Prima Prego venture in advancing to the upper market since this competitor fails to uphold the tenet of reciprocity.

2.4 Product (Service) Offering

Since Vinny's Prima Prego has been in existence for the past one year, it has been able to provide a range of quality products to its customers. The restaurant has been gaining popularity among the customers due to the fact that it offers creative and attractive pasta cheeses, fresh vegetables, salads and desserts, and premium meats. The above range of products have provided to different segments of the market including, individuals, families and large groups.

There are specific rules that apply to a certain sect of Judaism when it comes to food and drinks preparation and consumption. A restaurant must be established with these in mind since the Jewish community forms an important part of the customers and their customs and traditions must be observed to attract them. For instance, dairy and meat should not be prepared and served using the same utensils and cooking pots. It is on these grounds which have necessitated use of two sets of utensils and cooking pots at Vinny's Prima Prego venture (Telushkin, 2006)

In preparation of products, Vinny's Prima Prego venture, must observe the provisions of dietary laws which are referred to as kosher in the Hebrew language (Kreamer, 2008). The sources for the laws of Kashruth are expounded in rabbinic legislation and codified in the Shulchan Aruch.

2.5 Keys to Success

Almost all businesses have the ability to use their key success factors to attract new customers. This can only be achieved by deciding in advance how many customers they need to bring on board and focus their efforts on achieving such a goal. There are a number of key success factors which can be utilized to this effect. These include: retention of creative and experienced employees and increasing customer satisfaction.

Measurability is one very important aspect of the key factor analyses. A potential key factor needs to be linked to a measurable goal, for instance, increasing the market share by 20% in the second quarter. This is essential in keeping the business goals in focus.

Based on SWOT analysis, Vinny's Prima Prego venture should capitalize on the existing strong relationship with the customers. Topping the list for keys to success is the generation of repeated business by avoiding one off transactional approach; since their main aim is to market the product not to sell the product. Secondly, properly developed brand equity creates goodwill and increases customer loyalty to the venture hence increasing the number of customer's transaction. Lastly, impressive food quality, which is one of their basic tenets is key to our market penetration as well as the ability to deliver the food to their customers, a move that is important in their gaining of competitive advantage as it differentiates it from its competitors.

2.6 Critical Issues

These are factors or an activity that needs to be taken into account to ensure a successful offering to the customers hence contributing to the business success. There is need for a more pragmatic approach in handling these factors because the contemporary business model fosters diversity, complexity and dynamism.

Critical issues focus on a limited number of areas in which successful implementation has higher chances of giving the business a competitive edge. These factors include; the various ways in which a firm can get its products to customers for instance using distributors, intermediaries or through the internet. Approaches to expansion, brand awareness and brand recognition are other critical issues to be considered (Armstrong, 1982).

Vinny's Prima Prego venture intends to distribute its products and services through distributors and specialized deliveries. The internet will also serve as a very important distribution channel. Expansion will be taken in a step like manner, not for the sake of it but based on the capability and emerging opportunities. On the other hand, brand awareness being an important step in building the brand equity will be given the attention and care it deserves.

3.0 Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy to be employed is Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Strategy.

The concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) has been employed by various companies in an effort to increase their sales via the engagement of a larger customer base. Clow and Baack (2007) defined Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) as the process of seamlessly integrating as well as coordinating different tools of marketing products, functions, avenues as well as sources in an effort to maximize the influence of marketing products on the customers at a minimal cost.

The advantages of adopting and implementing Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategy are numerous.

IMC has assumed an integral role in product and services marketing strategies. IMC has shifted advertising from media to communications. It has also seen marketing functions becoming data-based. Practitioners have supported the idea of marketing communication since it builds as well as maintains a perfect relationship between stakeholders while leveraging these important relationships in an effort of reinforcing the brand while improving customer equity as pointed out Duncan and Moriarty (1998). The variability of market dynamics however, makes the attainment of positive results on the various marketing communication strategies daunting. There are several factors that affect the response of consumers to various marketing offers as well as the management of marketing communication moves (Duncan and Mulhern, 2004).The strategy is to be implemented by special teams from both within and without the restaurant. It would involve the use of banners, e-mails, direct phone calls, advertisements, promotions, online marketing and other forms of promotions in a coordinated and timely manner.

3.1 Mission

The mission of Vinny's Prima Prego! is to provide excellent quality food at a reasonable price at the convenient time as dictated by the client.

3.2 Marketing Objectives

The marketing objective of the firm is to capture the largest market share in terms of food delivery in their region of operation. It should be the favorite among the populations having an age of 25 to 50.The specific marketing objectives are;

To achieve at least 20% return on the initial capital employed by November of 2012

To gain 25% of the market for Italian food in Kansas City, Missouri by 2013

To increase our operation size from $250,000 in 2009 to $750,000 in 2015

3.3 Financial Objectives

The financial objectives of Vinny's Prima Prego! Are;

To increase its total revenue by 15% in the next couple of years with at least 6% each year

To seek financing for supporting its expansion and IMC strategy campaigns in line with the laid down marketing objectives as well as strategies

To experience a moderate but steady cash flow

Costs are to increase at a rate of 1% to 2% per annum

The company would invest its residual profits in financial markets and never in corporate expansion (this is to be so unless it is completely necessary)

The general maintenance as well as the restaurant and equipment repairs are to be kept to a minimum so as to maintain an operation that is dependable.

The future cash investments of the firm are to make use of the NPV projections in order to achieve optimum returns with minimal risks.

Vinny's Prima Prego needs to expand as well as be the market leader. This will require several efforts and resources. The company therefore needs to aggressively set specific financial objectives that are to help it in realizing profitability.

3.4 Target Markets

The target markets for Vinny's Prima Prego! is made up of male and females aged between 25-50 that makes about 43% of the population of Kansas City (U.S. Census, 2000). The target market is made up of young professionals who work in the vicinity of the firm. The income of the target market is to be over $40,000 and they should be able to eat out several times of the week.Ryan and Chrisler (2003) it is important to have a look at the consumer drinking and eating patterns for the location that the restaurant is to operate. The important data to gather are the recent changes as well as trends in the consumer behaviors and attitudes regarding food taken away from home.

3.5 Positioning

According to Kotler (2002,p.269) product positioning can be described as "the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes - the place the product occupies in consumers? minds relative to competing products." This is important to a given business venture because consumers do hold a certain set of complex perceptions, feelings as well as impressions for a given product then compares these attributes to those of a competing product. These attributes are not accidental but are heavily influenced by firms in an effort to differentiate their products from those of their competitors. Prior to positioning its products, Vinny's Prima Prego! must full identify the target audience. This role is played by market segmentation. Market segmentation is important for a successful marketing strategy (Hooley and Saunders, 1993).It purpose is to effectively leverage all the scarce organizational resources. The role of market segmentation is to position the products of a given firm. It entails the division of a larger market into smaller units of potential clients having similar psychographic as well as demographic characteristics. Vinny's Prima Prego must segment the sector according to the mentioned factors and then the difference in the target group be noted as well as the difference that exists in the products offered by competitors. Vinny's Prima Prego targets the young and professional male and female and this is extremely important to its product positioning. It has to position its products a high quality and readily available on request/order. This move would make the product to achieve a distinctive image in the clients' minds. The image of which sharply contracts that of the competitors. The positioning is achieved though differentiation. Differentiation is attained via important areas. These are products, services, image as well as personnel (Kotler 2002, p. 360)

3.6 Strategies

The Integrated Marketing Communication strategies to be adopted by Vinny's Prima Prego include the following;

Promotion

The following tools will be used as part of the Vinny's Prima Prego! marketing and promotion strategies.

Public relations

The Vinny's Prima Prego should strive to provide as much information as possible to the main stream media with the hope of gaining coverage. The benefits of this strategy are numerous; it is less expensive and media coverage is given more credibility than advertising. The downside is that the risk that the media may communicate is extremely difficult to control. This tool is an extremely useful tool for businesses that are small as well as those that are growing.

Sales promotions

Vinny's Prima Prego! should offer discounts to his customers, provide them with coupons as well as rebates.

Personal selling

Through this strategy, the sales team of Vinny's Prima Prego! would make "cold" calls to potential customers as well as effectively respond to his queries.

In-restaurant displays and samples

The firm may display some of its best dishes on the counter of its restaurant.'

Online marketing

The company may employ a third party company such as Google Inc. To help it in the advertisement of its services using proximity based online services.This is via their Adsense and Adword programs. Special banners should be designed to be used for advertising Vinny's Prima Prego! As the premier restaurant that offers the best delivery of the best takeout food in town.

Local newspaper and television

These can also be employed by the restaurant in an effort of reaching the local population.

The use of social media and smartphone applications

The IMC strategy to be employed by Vinny's Prima Prego! is to include a component of social media. This would entail the development of computer and mobile phone applications that are used purely for marketing the venture. The mobile applications that are developed for Vinny's Prima Prego! For the marketing mix must integrate seamlessly with the popular social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace as pointed out by (Stelzner,2010). This is because social networks have been indicated as an important marketing hub via which advertising can be carried out. The fact that people always like updating their status on these social media platforms forces them to buy Smartphones like iPhones. The fact that Vinny's Prima Prego! targets the youth makes this a particularly viable option and strategy. It can use this strategy in order to reach a wider audience by placing advertisements on the Vinny's Prima Prego! that they could have developed and installed on their clients smartphones. The users of the Vinny's Prima Prego! smartphone applications can also promote their products via the posting of links online as well as by word of mouth. Smartphones have been shown to have an increasing level of importance amongst marketers and advertisers alike.The Vinny's Prima Prego! can be installed on the handsets of their clients so as to re-engage them. In order to make the application exciting, it should be enhanced so as to contain a lot of information that is important to the client. The features of the application should also be upgraded constantly so as to maintain its innovativeness.

Posters and Happy hours

The firm may employ posters to communicate its special offers like hours of discounts

Newsletters and direct emails service

Vinny's Prima Prego! is to send daily, weekly and monthly newsletters and direct emails to its customers who have subscribed to the service.

3.8 Marketing Research

The process of conducting a marketing research involves the gathering as well as the analysis of data to be used to show if the company's products as well as services meet the needs of the target marketplace. Vinny's Prima Prego! can conduct a research so as to determine if its customers are satisfied with its services. The restaurant can then look for various means of improving the quality as well as presentation of its goods and services.

4.0 Controls

Backman (1927) pointed out that marketing controls are mainly concerned with that limitation of the supply that affects the level of sales in a given market segment. MarketingRope (2010) pointed out that for any marketing process to be very successful, proper controls must be installed to ensure that all of the objectives that are outlined in the plan are accomplished in the intended manner. The control entails the measuring, evaluating as well as monitoring of the laid down marketing plan. The marketing control plan is to be used by the managers of Vinny's Prima Prego! In the gauging of the progress of the marketing and communication strategies.

The changes that have been caused by the marketing strategy are to be evaluated quarterly via a review of the changes in sales after a given marketing and communication moves. The only exception is if there is a media coverage that would require the sales and marketing team to closely monitor the variations in sales before and after the coverage. The monitoring of the marketing strategy

Joseph (n.d) pointed out the following marketing controls

Research

The process of conducting a marketing research entails the gathering as well as the analysis of data to be used to show if the company's products as well as services meet the needs of the target marketplace. Vinny's Prima Prego! can conduct a research in order to determine if its clients are satisfied with its services. The restaurant can then look for various means of improving the quality as well as presentation of its goods and services.

Testing

Test marketing is an important aspect of marketing control. Vinny's Prima Prego! can test its products and services on a small scale by means of a focus group as well as a limited distribution. This is important since it can help the company to predict the level of success or failure of their product or service offering and hence avoid chances of making costly mistakes.

Measurables

The marketing managers of Vinny's Prima Prego! can employ statistics in the assessment of the level of success of their marketing strategy. Other than using the sales volume, they can employ market share data as well as the level of competition in the determination of the return on investment (ROI).

Pricing strategy

The pricing strategy used by Vinny's Prima Prego! may be adjusted appropriately so as to meet the changes that are in the market as well as to maintain profitability.

Promotion strategy

Vinny's Prima Prego! may need to adjust its promotion strategy as well as advertising strategy in order to change the consumer perception as well as increase the level of sales.

4.1 Implementation

Before implementing the marketing strategy, it is important to put in place all the necessary resources. This is to say that Vinny's Prima Prego! must put in place all the financial resources, personnel, technologies as well as legal resources necessary for the implementation of the plan. The strategy is then to be implemented in phases with the outcomes being noted progressively. The non-effective strategies are to be eliminated soon after they prove inefficient. The company should begin with a rigorous sales and promotions strategy followed by the online-based marketing moves to reinforce the traditional marketing strategies.

4.2 Marketing Organization

The marketing is to be organized into the traditional and technological marketing systems that make use of the latest technologies in marketing. The marketing is to be carried out by the company's marketing team in conjunction with outsourced third party technology firms to spearhead the online marketing.

4.3 Contingency Planning

The use of social media platforms such as twitter, Myspace and Facebook involves certain risks. The company is to create a group called "Vinny's Prima Prego!" For individuals to join as well so as to receive the latest update on their products and service offerings. The risk involved is that very few people may actually join the group and this may make the group appear bat=ring as well as less attractive. The solution to this is to provide incentives to people for joining the group like a 5% discount or free chocolate. This would increase the willingness of people to join the group as well as to visit the restaurant.

In regard to the newsletters and direct emails, recipients may view them as junk mail to their inboxes. This may ruin the reputation of Vinny's Prima Prego!." The newsletters should therefore come with coupon codes. The mail on the other hand should contain valuable information that could help companies and individuals not to treat them as spam.

5.0 Conclusion

Integrated marketing Communications is an important strategy to be adopted for marketing products and services. Small and growing businesses like Vinny's Prima Prego! should therefore employ the strategy with vigor so as to ensure that they increase their sales and brand visibility.