abhishreshthaa
New member
Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) is a Fortune 500 is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power based in San Antonio, Texas, United States.[1] The company owns and operates 15 refineries throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 2.8 million barrels per day, 10 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.1 billion gallons per year, and a 50-megawatt wind farm. Valero is also one of the US's largest retail operators with approximately 5,800 retail and branded wholesale outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under the Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar and Beacon brands.[2]
Product
The basis of all restaurant dishes and beverages are organic ingredients. To support purchasing decisions and prevent wastage, the menu comprise of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Each set of menu include basic items, those that customers commonly order. To keep the menu interesting and encourage customers to come back to the restaurant frequently, an additional set of dishes would be served daily with themes from international cuisine so that customers can experience the different culinary cultures while consuming organic food. This would keep the interest of the customers so they have something to look forward in their next visit to the restaurant.
4.2 Price
The pricing scheme of the restaurant is premium pricing, which refers to the determination of menu prices based on product and service uniqueness (Proctor 2000). This works in situations when the competitive advantage of differentiation exists. Differentiation emerges by building a unique value. (Schewe & Hiam 1998; Bradford, Duncan & Tarcy 2000) There are no direct competitors in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant and no restaurants that focus on organic food. These factors support the ability of the restaurant of apply premium pricing. Nevertheless, the idea is to create high value, by using organic ingredients and creating an interesting menu, so that customers would not be sensitive to the price.
4.3 Place
The sole venue for distribution is the two-floor restaurant located in a strategic position close to the university and business centre. By focusing on the exterior, interior and ambiance of the restaurant, it should be able to attract customers. The intention is to establish the location and the restaurant as a health and environment friendly landmark so that these advocacies are remembered when visiting the area or the restaurant. This should ensure long-term viability of the restaurant.
4.4 Promotion
The promotional activities to expand the market of the restaurant include event sponsorship at the university related to health and environment to introduce the restaurant to university students. Other promotional activities are joining organic food fairs, holding weight-loss challenge programs, distributing leaflets to the offices in the business district, establishing booths at gyms and sports facilities, improving its website, joining forums and using blogs to promote the restaurant to reach out to young professional and men and women interested or currently on a diet regime.
4.5 People
The restaurant personnel including the promotional team play a significant role in the promotional activities to expand the market of the restaurant because they communicate value offering to consumers (Yeshin 1999; Hafiz & Hendricks 2001; Hardy 2005). To build its human resources, the restaurant conducts a briefing of new service staff to inform them of the value creating strategy of the company and role of personnel on this matter. The restaurant also sends its kitchen staff to organic food conventions or trade fairs to support continuous improvement in food and beverage quality and variety.
4.6 Process
The restaurant applies a customer-focused business strategy (Hooley et al. 2001) so that it places importance on every point of contact with customers. As such, from the entry of customers to ordering and food delivery to the payment, service staff consciously observes the attitude and behaviour of consumers to draw implicit feedback on the entirety of the service. In addition, the restaurant also has a customer feedback slip at the front desk that they can fill-up or the manager casually seeks out verbal feedback from randomly selected customers.
4.7 Physical Evidence
The restaurant and service delivery exudes the value of organic food in healthy living and caring for the environment. The ambiance is very casual and homely but also trendy. Customers are comfortable in their dining experience even for people with limited knowledge of organic dishes and the experience should be memorable to warrant recommendations to family, friends and co-workers.
Product
The basis of all restaurant dishes and beverages are organic ingredients. To support purchasing decisions and prevent wastage, the menu comprise of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Each set of menu include basic items, those that customers commonly order. To keep the menu interesting and encourage customers to come back to the restaurant frequently, an additional set of dishes would be served daily with themes from international cuisine so that customers can experience the different culinary cultures while consuming organic food. This would keep the interest of the customers so they have something to look forward in their next visit to the restaurant.
4.2 Price
The pricing scheme of the restaurant is premium pricing, which refers to the determination of menu prices based on product and service uniqueness (Proctor 2000). This works in situations when the competitive advantage of differentiation exists. Differentiation emerges by building a unique value. (Schewe & Hiam 1998; Bradford, Duncan & Tarcy 2000) There are no direct competitors in the immediate vicinity of the restaurant and no restaurants that focus on organic food. These factors support the ability of the restaurant of apply premium pricing. Nevertheless, the idea is to create high value, by using organic ingredients and creating an interesting menu, so that customers would not be sensitive to the price.
4.3 Place
The sole venue for distribution is the two-floor restaurant located in a strategic position close to the university and business centre. By focusing on the exterior, interior and ambiance of the restaurant, it should be able to attract customers. The intention is to establish the location and the restaurant as a health and environment friendly landmark so that these advocacies are remembered when visiting the area or the restaurant. This should ensure long-term viability of the restaurant.
4.4 Promotion
The promotional activities to expand the market of the restaurant include event sponsorship at the university related to health and environment to introduce the restaurant to university students. Other promotional activities are joining organic food fairs, holding weight-loss challenge programs, distributing leaflets to the offices in the business district, establishing booths at gyms and sports facilities, improving its website, joining forums and using blogs to promote the restaurant to reach out to young professional and men and women interested or currently on a diet regime.
4.5 People
The restaurant personnel including the promotional team play a significant role in the promotional activities to expand the market of the restaurant because they communicate value offering to consumers (Yeshin 1999; Hafiz & Hendricks 2001; Hardy 2005). To build its human resources, the restaurant conducts a briefing of new service staff to inform them of the value creating strategy of the company and role of personnel on this matter. The restaurant also sends its kitchen staff to organic food conventions or trade fairs to support continuous improvement in food and beverage quality and variety.
4.6 Process
The restaurant applies a customer-focused business strategy (Hooley et al. 2001) so that it places importance on every point of contact with customers. As such, from the entry of customers to ordering and food delivery to the payment, service staff consciously observes the attitude and behaviour of consumers to draw implicit feedback on the entirety of the service. In addition, the restaurant also has a customer feedback slip at the front desk that they can fill-up or the manager casually seeks out verbal feedback from randomly selected customers.
4.7 Physical Evidence
The restaurant and service delivery exudes the value of organic food in healthy living and caring for the environment. The ambiance is very casual and homely but also trendy. Customers are comfortable in their dining experience even for people with limited knowledge of organic dishes and the experience should be memorable to warrant recommendations to family, friends and co-workers.