Conclusion

My business will be a fast food and LAN/internet café mix, based primarily in
Northamptonshire’s town centre. The café will be relaxed, have WiFi for my target
segment of white collar workers, this will appeal to them and might gain some
customer loyalty. There will also be Pc’s with broadband internet access. The WiFi
and internet access will only be available on purchase of any of our products, perhaps
a unique code on the receipt. There will be gaming machines which I predict demand
will increase for on weekends, if there is an increase in demand we will purchase
more computers if capital allows. The games should appeal to our younger target
audience, and keep them interested in visiting. As older gamers/ business workers
have laptops there will be comfy chairs and plug in points to charge their laptops. It
will fill a niche in the lives of business professionals wanting a quick snack.

Working commuters will be our main customers on weekdays then we will appeal to
teenage audience on the weekends, wanting to check their social networking profiles
or just to relax with friends and play some games. While offering the same quality of
food, all week round.
The town centre was deducted out of 2 other options. These were not suitable
locations and the negative points outweighed the positive. Bugbrooke has the demand
but it is not sustainable, people won’t want to eat in my café everyday. If there was
heavy passing traffic; which there’s not it could be feasible to locate in Bugbrooke.
Locations in Bugbrooke where in slim supply, mass parking is non existent.

Sixfields was the option it had good surrounding facilities which would have drawn in
customers and it was just off a major road. The area already had restaurants in the area
but they were all big established brands. Starting a brand in Sixfields would be hard,
because there are other brands people are loyal to, already located in the area. There is
also no opportunity to purchase smaller restaurants as all property is quite large. This
would require a large investment to purchase, and then if the venture fails you don’t
have the liquidity to get out quickly. Sixfields had free parking available this was one
of the benefits.

Northampton town centre provides the relevant transport, is a commercial shopping

centre where my target segment work and shop. There are a lot of empty stores
available for lease which will let us test the market and the effect our café has on it. If
the café is popular then we can then seek permanent accommodation there. But
purchasing on lease allows us to save money which can be invested else where in the
company, like on promotion. The downfall of this location is that it closes at 5:30
week day. It is for this reason we shall be aiming at the breakfast customers and no
dinner style food is on offer on the menu. The parking comes at a cost that shoppers
will already be paying when they go shopping.

To find my target segment I used ACORN data; this was available free but was a
slightly dated version. My target segment all lived in Northampton as this supported
my location choices; they also were all within gaming age. The stop off point for
gaming age was about 44 so the restaurant will not be nostalgic and will be quite
modern in design. I used this to support my design work, the logo represented what
we sold and kept with the brand colour scheme. I rejected a choice to go with a matrix
style and colour theme as this would put off my target segment of business
professionals, my chosen brand appealed to my target segments completely.

Due to limitations because of our location, it was not viable to offer dinner. This fitted
in with the café profile, so we will be targeting the snack market. The menu
conformed to the rest of the brand image. I will also offer a menu on the computers,
on the websites and on the welcome page when users connect to our WiFi.

As there are many different types and qualities of fast food I wanted our restaurant to
be presented as a high quality restaurant. I chose a red warm colour scheme as my
brand image, to give the impression of prestige and quality. The red warm colour also
denoted we were a fast food company; many fast food companies use red in their
brand image. The logo had to fit with the brand image, so was red and had an image
of coffee cup; this was to let potential customers know what we offer.

Although I designed many adverts I would choose the cinema advert to represent my
brand and let people know of my brand. The advert is right for our current
introduction into the market, it promoted the brand image, gave people information
about where we are located and would be in a place where many people spend their
free time; the cinema. My Acorn data supports this choice because it told me a
favourite hobby of people in Northampton is to visit the cinema, which is where my
advert will be located. Giving my restaurant exposure to its target segment, promoting
the brand image and increase brand recognition. The other adverts would either not
reach my audience effectively or where not worth the investment.

Starting the business up it will either be a proprietorship or partnership, dependant on

my confidence and knowledge at the time of start up. Once the business then gains
customer loyalty, brand recognition and market footing we can reconsider the
ownership type.

Initially we shall employ the use of penetration pricing and use a mix of pricing
strategies through our products life cycle. The penetration pricing is used to gain a
market share and gain repeat sales and customers loyalty. Once a market share has
been gained we shall be using premium pricing to cover costs and promote the quality
fast food image. Then also by this time we can take the advantages of economies on
scale.

I think that my restaurant will succeed because of where it is located; there will be a
large amount of passing trade. Plus the advertisement will be reaching its intended
audience and promoting our restaurant, the pricing strategies will encourage people to
test our products. We also have a USP and there is a demand for it, the Grosvenor
centre has limited access to WiFi. There are no other gaming cafés in the Grosvenor
centre so ours is likely to succeed as there is a demand for one. Our target segment all
work and shop around my restaurant

The business might fail if there is an increase in costs or tax for purchasing certain
types of food that we sell. This would result in a price increase for our customers or a
loss for us. The price increase could result in loss of customer loyalty and inevitably
profits. Difficulty in raising funding, which could result in debt and with a sole trader
ship I would have unlimited liability which means personal assets could be taken.
Interest rates rising could also have a detrimental effect on my business and could
cause it to fail. Also I have no prior knowledge of starting up a business or culinary
arts; this could also cause the business to fail having limited knowledge of the market
you’re in.

5 Year plan

Break even within 2 years

As the fast food market is quite a competitive one I don’t expect to break even before
a year. The cost of staff would have to be taken into account, like other fast food
restaurants our staff will be young adults. Then there is the initial price of all the
promotion and breaking into the market. It is for these reasons I don’t think we will
break even within a year.

Permanent location
We will test the market and invest in a permanent location if the business is a success
the location will have to be similar to the temporary leased location. Somewhere
where my target segments are likely to visit or pass. This will soon after we break
even and gain enough capital, maybe at this point consider changing ownership type
and getting investors involved if we have a successful business model. At this point
we could also consider franchising.

Children’s range
As our target segment does not include young children there are no plans for a
children’s menu, within the 5 years will have expanded the product range to include
children’s meals. They would have to deviate away from the brand image slightly as it
has been designed for a more mature audience. We could also include free toys as a
promotional offer. Including a character for children, a physical representation of our
brand for children to easily identify with could help promotion of the children’s range.
Meal offers
Above you can see a mock up for a children’s lunch box that will house healthy food
and drinks, an alternative for busy managerial parents who don’t want to food their
children McDonalds (due to health concerns). But at the moment due to restrictions
on the location (it shutting at 5:30pm), on week days it is not viable to have a
children’s dinner meal option. However a morning snack box for adults, much like
those on aeroplanes; just higher quality, could let customers purchase quickly. This
would decrease queues to pay and would help us sell stock faster. This is necessary
for sandwiches, where ingredients can go off quickly.

Product lifecycle
Within the 5 years new products will be introduced in the product line and less not so
popular ones withdrawn. This is to maximise profits as a product that isn’t selling
equates for wasted stock. If a product does not sell as well as hoped we could offer
promotional offers and promotional information to get the publics interest and
awareness of the product, which helps during a products growth stage.

Company graphics
We will also get in professional packaging designers to show off our products and
appeal to our target segments better. All graphics design work will have to be
redesigned by a professional to give our company a professional appeal. Maybe even
a whole reshape of corporate image, to better promote our brand as I feel that the
current logo is not all too great and could be better designed by a graphics designer to
give us a stronger brand image that stands out.

Customer support & advertisement

As we get know as a computer related shop and as custom increases we can start
offering computer services such as laser colour printing, photocopying and scanning.
But as these services are no essential at start-up they could be introduced within 5
years. Also with an increase in custom we could promote other companies for money;
advertisements on the computer’s screensaver or desktop. Differentially we could
promote our brand image by giving our branded items such as coffee mugs and mouse
mats ect… This all would increase brand recognition but would require spare finances
which we would not have at initial start up.