Business Strategy

Competitive Strategy 

Competitive strategy refers to the way in which a company plans to operate within its industry and gain a competitive advantage over its competition. This can be achieved with a combination of a cost or differentiate strategy and an industry-wide or focus strategy. 

With a concentration on premium seafood dishes, we have determined that Red Lobster has a focus differentiation strategy. Red Lobster focuses mainly on serving items related to seafood and other meats. Our restaurant prides itself on delivering its customer base with premium quality seafood better than what their competitors offer. Red Lobster is a focused based company because its primary objective is to ensure their customers receive premium quality seafood as well as high quality service. Also, Red Lobster focuses on various different customer bases who do not mind paying a little extra than other restaurants. The various different customer bases is what helps and makes Red Lobster a successful business.

Porter's Five Forces Model

Bargaining Power of Customers
The bargaining power of buyers/customers is the ability of a customer to have an input in the everyday business of the company. At Red Lobster customers have a low bargaining power. This is because Red Lobster entitles its customers to premium quality items on the menu for a reasonable price. 

Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of supplier is the ability of a supplier to affect the everyday business of a company. Red Lobster has to deal with various supplier to be able to acquire premium quality ingredients for their foods. The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low because the costs to acquire seafood are usually fixed depending on the seasons. The bargaining power of the NCR POS hardware suppliers is also low as the hardware is sold at a fixed cost to be enabled to use at any Red Lobster location.

Threat of Substitutions
Threat of substitutions is the ability of potential businesses to attract another businesses customers by offering a product which is somewhat similar. At Red Lobster the threat of subsitutions would be medium since there are a few grocery stores around the area such as Shop-Rite and A&P. The location of these stores poses as a medium threat to Red Lobster because customers of our restaurant can easily purchase seafood or other foods at these stores and cook it themselves. However, Red Lobster prides itself on its excellent customer service and presentation and instead of shying away a customer, the quality of Red Lobster helps them retain their customers.

Threat of New Entrants
Threat of new entrants refers to the ability that a new business can easily operate in the area with successful profits. Currently, the threat of new entrants is low. This is because our restaurant is located in a busy area that is already occupied by various different businesses. It would be difficult for a new business to successfully conduct business with profits as all the businesses in the area are making profits through their loyal customers who would not switch to the services of a new business.

Rivalry
Rivalry refers to competing businesses in the area who offer similar products or services. The rivalry threat for Red Lobster is relatively medium at our current location. This is because there are few quality gourmet restaurants in the area such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster, T.G.I Fridays and The CheeseCake Factory. The quality and presentation of Red Lobster is what separates them from these other gourmet restaurants.

Value Chain

Inbound Logistics: Red Lobster has to contact various suppliers in order to acquire the inventory to prepare meals for its customers. In order to this Red Lobster has to use their DASH software to keep a record of all their inventory. Once the inventory is tallied and accounted for specific distributors must be contacted to re-stock.

Operation: This part of the value chain focuses on the physical preparation of the food order set forth by the customer. This process consists of the customer giving their order to the waiter who send it to the kitchen to be prepped. Once the waiter has taken the order down they must then enter it into the NCR POS system which directly sends the order into the kitchen. This was a hardware that was introduced to Red Lobster in 2005 and has been successful since being implemented. By the use of this software Red Lobster has saved around forty percent of their finances on maintenance. 

Outbound Logistics: The focus of outbound logistics is to physically serve the food to the customers. Once the chef has prepped the meal they can check the NCR POS hardware and inform the server to which table the specific food item needs to be delivered to.

Sales & Marketing: All of Red Lobster's sales are recorded in the DASH software that helps the restaurant keep a record of which items are more demanded by their customers. Once the customer has made the payment the system automatically records the item as a completed sale and is accounted for. As for marketing Red Lobster makes various uses of social media to promote and attract new items and new customers. Red Lobster has its own website as well as a Facebook and Twitter account which help promote these items not only to their active customers but also others who may be potential new customers. Also, in order to keep their loyal customer base Red Lobster uses a Microsoft SQL server to input data of it's existing customers such as name, address and birth date. By doing this Red Lobster can send mail coupons to its customers based on their preferences. Also, with the customers birth date, Red Lobster can send an incentive to their customers by offering a special deal on their birthdays. 

Customer Service: Red Lobster prides itself on its customer service and the treatment of their customers. Each customer is greeted with a custom VIP greeting upon entry and their names are entered into a database if they have to wait for a table. After every meal Red Lobster encourages its customers to actively participate in a survey through their smartphone or computer in order to notify the restaurant of what they could do better or improve upon as well as anything else that may have made the customer feel special during their meal.