Analyses Service Marketing of MK Restaurant †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Analyses Service Marketing of MK Restaurant. Answer: Introduction MK Restaurant, a Thai based food retailer, started in the year 1962 as a small restaurant in central Bangkok by one entrepreneur Mrs. Tongkam Mekto, is currently one of the leading restaurants in Thailand and the larger Asia continent. The restaurant has undergone several transformations to become the leading food retailer it is today, by continually adopting new ways of doing business in restaurant industry and keeping itself abreast with current customer tastes and preferences. That not withstanding, the restaurant has not departed form its core or basic business attributes that made its first small restaurant in central Bangkok very popular with customers relaying on word of mouth for marketing but instead, it has continually built on these attributes, lacing it with current consumer behavior and trends in the market in order to remain competitive and attractive to customers. (Itthiopassagul, Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2009) MK restaurant (perhaps from the name Mekto), has phenomenal concepts and is credited for many firsts in the Thais competitive restaurant industry. The firm was publicly listed on Thai stock exchange in the year 2014, and Mr. Rit, the chairman of the of the firm reflected on the business journey the restaurant has had beginning with one branch in 1962 to 355 branches in the year 2012. Some of the striking features of the restaurant are; superior customers service level (which includes training members of staffs on how to smile to customers), cleanness and nutritional and calorie values report to customers at the end of meals, among other outstanding features. (Sharma, 2008) The restaurant prepares a number of cuisines blended with Thais culture such as Thai style Suki and more than 70 fresh items on the menu. This paper will discuss service marketing zeroing in on MK chain of restaurant. (Itthiopassagul, Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2009) Background of the business Service industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world of business. The ever changing consumer behavior and taste is what makes this industry competitive. New ventures keeps on cropping up while the more established ones keeps on increasing the number of outlets and franchise partnerships in various parts of the world. Focusing on Thailand, a country with a population of about 67 million people and 22 million visitors per year as at 2012, the restaurant business is almost everywhere ranging from food outlets in streets of towns and cities like Bangkok to five star hotels in the country. (O'Kane, 2011) Marketing conditions The restaurant business in Thailand is crowded and competitive with a number of local and international restaurants opening shops or business in the area. The market has majorly two segments of the fast-food restaurants based on the service level and these are, Quick service restaurants abbreviated as QSRs, and Full-service restaurants also known as FSRs. QSRs typical serves customers within the first 10 minutes of placing an order, and comprise food outlets such as Hamburger, Pizza, Chicken and Ice-cream. This market was valued at 37,000 million Thai baht in 2012 and has some key players operating in the market such as McDonalds and KFC. FSRs on the other hand, take more time to serve the customers ranging from 10-20 minutes after placing the order. This category of market has players selling Pizza, Suki and buffet style meals and was valued at 53,000 million Thai baht in the year 2012. Major players in business under this category are MK restaurant and the Pizza Company. (Patterson , Piyathasanan, 2014) Market Positioning The process of establishing the image of MK restaurant has been largely based on its concept of warmth. That the customers should understand that when you visit MK restaurant, you will be served with warmth on top of the delicious food that the hotel is serving. The warmth in this case represents friendly waiters maintaining cordial relationships with clients to give clients sincere and warm experience along with delicious and healthy food. The hotel also positioned itself on its Suki food with innovative cooking techniques along with top notch cleanness laced with Thai tastes and preference. The MK restaurants Suki, is not fried rather it is more of boiling method of cooking. With the current campaign for clean and healthy food to beat the lifestyle diseases gathering pace, MK restaurants Suki has superbly captured the imagination of many consumers on what a healthy food is, and thus further establishing a mental image of what the restaurant stands for in food industry market, posit ioning. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) Target market MK restaurant has targeted a number of customer segments. With the latest introduction of MK gold meant for those clients who wants more ambience and luxurious treatment and experience. The restaurant also caters for the budget cadre of consumers who are not interested in luxurious treatment and ambience but needs only quality food, good customer service and nice place to sit and enjoy the meal. It is worth nothing that as much as the budged cadre has huge number of customers than the higher cadre, the total value of sales in higher cadre a times outperforms budget cadre especially in developed economies. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) Service marketing mix analysis Analyzing various aspects of the case study in relation to the service marketing seven principles as captured in the marketing mix theory, the outcomes points to well planed business model that largely conforms to the best practices in the service industry. Analyzing the positioning aspect of MK restaurant as captured in the case study report, the study reveals a strategy that established a strong image, quality, variants and support. The restaurant has cut the image of serving healthy and innovative cuisines such as Suki and Chinese Thailand meals with high concentration of vegetables rather than meat to establish its position in the market. The restaurant was also first of Suki restaurants in Thailand to start using electric Suki pots at every table as opposed to hazardous gas stoves that could explode any minute. This conforms to the best practices of market position principle as postulated in the marketing theory. The principle says the organizations should have a product that co nsumers expect to get. In this case the restaurant conforms to the expectations of the clients by delivering delicious food, healthy, laced with local tastes preference and in safe manner. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) MK restaurants are located in prime locations with good traffic and where the potential customers can easily accesses the services of the restaurant. The places are shopping malls and departments that are busy with many other established businesses and offices. Based on the principle of Place in the marketing mix theory, where it asserts that the product must be placed where clients can easily find it, MK restaurant conforms to the best practices employed internationally, whereby many such restaurants are placed in high traffic environment such as the central business districts of various towns and cities. The case study has also demonstrated variance in price, in that the restaurant has a various services with various prices that suits different types of clients. The MK restaurants Gold branch is aimed for clients who need premium services and are willing to pay more for it. Apart from this the restaurant has other branches that serve clients with interest in budget menu. (Sharma, 2008) The restaurant therefore has got it price well based on the information contained in the case study report. According to the marketing mixs principle for price, customers must see or feel value for the price attached to the service. This is exactly what the case study has captured in its gold branches where there is more ambience and luxury but clients pay more as well as in other budget branches where premium services is not customer priority. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) On promotion, the case study spends an upwards of 586 million Thai Baht from the year 2010 through 2012 for promotion as establishing and it brand in the market. In comparison to McDonalds, a worlds leading food retailer which spend and around 1,117 million Thai Baht, during the same period under consideration, further to this, the case study, MK restaurant, has launched more than 30 television commercials in two decades and had social media page with 85,000 followers as at 2014. This therefore indicates that the case study, MK restaurant does its promotion within the levels of best practices and conforms well to the price principle as captured in the marketing mix theory. In specific, the principle outlines that the company needs to promote its products to the potential clients through various effective platforms. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) The case study also values and invests in her people. It is worth northing that MK restaurants ensure that it trains its employees even on how to smile. That goes a long way in demonstrating how the case study takes seriously the question of her employees and culture it creates. It ensures that each employee conforms to the restaurants culture even when all the people in the world are practically different in one way or another. Ensuring that all smiles are done same way at the restaurant is classic. The company also ensures that all her people are trained well on being friendly and maintaining cordial relationship with clients and establish that emotional connection with the clients for repeat business and referrals. This aspect of the case study conforms well to the best practices practiced across the world by leading companies in service industry. According to the People principle of the service marketing mix theory, organizations should invest in her people in training and other aspects for them to be able to serve client well and excellently. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) The process on how the service is delivered by the company is important factors in ensuring organizations remain in business. The aspect of the case study which depicts this concept or principle of service marketing mix theory is the aspect of warmth with which the restaurant ensures that it comes along with delicious and healthy food, and therefore conforms to the best practices. (O'Kane, 2011) Organizations should not only mind about how good their services are but also how good is the process of delivering these services is. The principle in the theory postulates that the process of the service delivery is also part of what customers pay for. Connecting with the principle of price where clients would want to see or feel the value for the assigned price to the services, its clear that the concept of process is fundamental to any business. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) On physical evidence, the case study as captured this concept or principle by revealing to its clients how they train and prepare their employees before allowing them to serve the clients. This is a form of showing customers how the services they receive at the restaurants look like. The award winning TV series showing extensive and hard trainings the employees of the case study undergoes before being incorporated in to work environment conforms to the best practices as expected and as per the principle of physical evidence in the marketing mix theory. (Patterson, Piyathasanan, 2014) Conclusion In conclusion, the competitive nature of the service industry calls for its players to always remain in the loop regarding new trends in business and consumer behaviors and taste. MK restaurant core values of warmth clean, healthy and delicious food has seen the company grow and expand within the domestic market of Thailand as well as in the larger region of the Asian continent. Recommendation MK restaurant should consider going online and establishing a website where customers can order meals online and have them delivered to their place of choice. This would work well for those clients who like take out foods. Also the company should consider franchise business to other parts of the world for faster growth rate and greater brand visibility across the world as opposed to being predominantly Asian based only. References Blythe, J. (2009). Key concepts in marketing. Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE. Itthiopassagul, P., Patterson, P., Piyathasanan, B. (2009). An emerging south-east Asian brand: MK Restaurants. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 17(3), 175-181.https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2009.05.012 O'Kane, B. (2011). Marketing basics. Cork: NuBooks. Patterson, P., Piyathasanan, B. (2014). MK: Restaurant: an emerging Asian Brand, 475-787. Roy, S., Mutum, D., Nguyen, B. (2017). Services Marketing Cases in Emerging Markets. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Sharma, S. (2008). Service marketing. Jaipur: Paradise Publishers. Temporal, P. (2001). Branding in Asia. Singapore: Wiley. Tsiotsou, R., Goldsmith, R. (2012). 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