Ethnic Food Restaurant Business Plan

Zara Restaurant and Lounge

Execution

Marketing & Sales

Marketing Plan

Zara Restaurant & Lounge’s Marketing strategy will be to promote our electric food, superior service, and exciting concepts to draw in the local repeat customers. Marketing initiatives will concentrate on the following:

Building and Signage: 
The most important Marketing tool that we have is the exterior of our building, our new sign and our website. We budgeted a great deal into the renovations and decor to generate the aesthetic appeal of Zara. 

Customer Service:
In our years within the restaurant industry, customer service has always been the major draw for the dining clientele. Food and atmosphere is far out-shadowed by superior customer service that turns a new customer into a repeat customer.

Management will demand the wait-staff provide the very best in quality services to the customer, making certain that they are content and satisfied with their dining experience. Wait-staff are thoroughly trained, and every 90 days they undergo a performance appraisal. This is part of our Employee Manual, and Operations Manual guide.

Advertising and Promotion:
Our Advertising and Social Media plan call for targeting customers directly through local publications aimed at , respectively, singles, couples, and destination customers.

Management recognizes the key to success at this time of initial opening is extensive media promotion. This must be done aggressively in order to accomplish our service goals. A healthy budget is allocated for the first year. A primary part of the budget is allocated to create the media and customer buzz for the month prior to opening and the next three months after the grand opening. The full Marketing program is as follows:.

Media Objectives and Strategy:
Establish our image as a unique Midtown restaurant with great service, value, and great food served in an eclectic atmosphere. We will maximize efficiency in the selection and scheduling of advertisements by:

• Reaching out to select businesses in the area to build relationships. We will promote their services and they promote ours. 
• Scheduling adequate frequency of Facebook ads to impact market with menu items and promotions.
• Where possible, linking and sharing with non competing sites in or near entertainment/food related editorials. 
• Redirecting customers to our website to register for upcoming functions, VIP lists, reservations, and flash media promotions.
• Maximizing google ad words with well timed expensive buys. 

Working with The Reynolds Group Media Co. (Zara Advisory Board), we will develop an advertising campaign built around our Zara Diner theme, menu offering, location, and decor. We will support this plan with ads that reinforce the Zara dining concept.

Additionally, we will develop a consistent reach and frequency throughout the year, targeting each specific customer segment within a five-mile radius, and new ‘suburbanites,’ who still appreciate in-town dining.

Promotional Campaign:
The best way to reach our potential customers is to develop an intense advertising campaign promoting our Zara concept of "Spice of Life." In addition to standard advertising practices, we will gain considerable recognition through newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, public announcements, paid website promotions/ blogs about our services. Consumers will be encouraged to visit our website to be greeted with a flash media intro that highlights the restaurant, past happenings, upcoming attractions and our dynamic menu.

Our periodic customer surveys and weekly menu item sales evaluations will help us to understand what advertising is working and what is not; basically, who we are reaching. Our goal is to understand our customer, measure the success of our direct marketing and media activities, and redirect advertising as effectively as possible.

Sales Plan

Our strategy is simple: we intend to succeed by giving our customers a combination of delicious and interesting food in an appealing environment, with excellent customer service, whether on their first visit or their hundredth.

Our marketing strategies are designed to get critics and initial customers into our doors. Our sales strategies must take the next step and encourage customers to become repeat customers, and to tell all their friends and acquaintances about the great experiences they just had at Zara.

New restaurants often make one of two mistakes: they are unprepared or underprepared for opening, and initial poor service, speed, or quality discourages customers from returning, or they spend all of their efforts at opening, and are unable to maintain the initial quality customers expect on return visits, decreasing word of mouth advertising and leading to poor revenues.

Zara’s sales strategy requires consistently high quality food, service, speed, and atmosphere. We can accomplish this by:

• Hiring employees who genuinely enjoy their jobs and appreciate Zara’s unique offerings
• Continually assessing the quality of all aspects mentioned above, and immediately addressing any problems
• Interacting with our customers personally, so they know that their feedback goes directly to the owners 
• Evaluating food choices for popularity, and keeping favorites on the menu as we rotate seasonal foods and specials

Operations

Locations & Facilities

Location & Operations

Restaurant Location
Midtown Atlanta is the location selected for the Zara concept. The outlook for the future of Atlanta’s Midtown district is exceptionally positive and the most progressive development area in the city. Developers are infusing over $50 billion in Commercial, Residential, and Retail development. Zara’s will benefit from Atlanta’s desire to revamp the Midtown district with a $130,000 renovation grant for restoring and renovating the 100 year old property we plan to lease.

The market has been carefully selected and tested for the necessary demographics and retail traffic necessary to meet the goals laid down for profitability. The busy Midtown commercial/residential location has been chosen based upon a successful demographic model and a traffic count of more than 33,000 cars daily.

Restaurant Design
Single-Level Design Concept:  The total space requirement is 3,000 square feet. The restaurant will feature a comfortable and open concept design. The central dining area will allocate 76 seats, the lounge 22 seats, and the dining bar with 12 seats. In total, the restaurant will provide seating for 110 patrons. Where possible, consideration will be given to incorporate a dining patio. Zoning, parking, and accessibility issues will be reviewed as part of this analysis.

Optional Patio:  During the busy summer months customers can also sit outside on our patio and we will offer a special summer menu, featuring lighter fare, exotic drinks, as well as non-alcoholic offerings. The patio setting will be a fun and casual atmosphere for the summer crowd.

Operating Criteria
The restaurant will be located in Midtown Atlanta. The restaurant will service lunch, dinner, and after-hours dining during the week and weekends. The restaurant will operate during peak service time to take advantage of street traffic, and after-hour patronage from the entertainment facilities in the area. Service will be available during the following hours:

Lunch:   Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Dinner:  Monday to Saturday, 5:30 p.m. – 12 midnight

Sundays – Market brunch takeout only.

Milestones & Metrics

Milestones Table

Key Metrics

Our Metrics are

• # of customers who come to drink 
• # of customers favorite food 
• cost of making the most popular dishes vs price
• # customers who tweet or retweet about our restaurant
• # of returning or frequent flyer customers 
• # of Facebook pageviews and links and website shares