Question

Molly’s Home Cooking, a regional restaurant with locations in three small Southern towns, one of which is a college town, specializes in comfort foods and regional specialties. Two of the restaurants have been open for over five years. The Molly’s located in the college town opened in May 2018. The restaurants are either freestanding near other businesses or in a strip shopping/eating area. With a menu consisting of all fresh, cooked-to-order foods, Molly’s features different items daily and serves traditional Southern desserts. Some of the menu items include meatloaf, turkey cranberry salad, specialty sandwiches, salad options, barbecued beef, and fresh pecan pie. While open for lunch and dinner daily, Molly’s also offers breakfast, featuring homemade biscuits, on weekends. On the drink menu, customers will find tea, coffee, soda, and water. A couple of beers and wines are on the menu, but Molly’s does not want to be thought of as a bar. The restaurant also caters special events such as weddings and business lunches and sells boxed meals (barbecue) that feed four to six people for outdoor events such as tailgates.

Menu items are reasonably priced, but are more expensive than many fast food restaurants, while less expensive than most “sit down” restaurants. Each restaurant has the same setup, where customers place and pay for their orders at the front counter and then get glasses for drinks. They fill their own drinks and get their silverware and napkins at the back of the restaurant. Customers select their own tables and servers bring food to the table. If ordered, desserts are brought to the table at the end of the meal so that it may be served hot and with ice cream or whipped cream, if preferred. Customers may add desserts at the end of the meal and pay at the counter when finished eating. If customers prefer take-out orders, they may call in advance and pick up the order. Servers let them know how long it will take for the order to be ready.

Prior to opening a restaurant, the owners have a week of “test and training” days where they invite people from local communities for lunch or dinner. For example, they may offer local businesspeople a free lunch or invite owners from other surrounding businesses to bring their families. For the Molly’s in the college town, the owners and employees extended lunch invitations to several faculty, staff, and students and asked them each to invite a few guests. Molly’s wants to introduce members from each target market to the delicious foods on their menus. Not only does this strategy generate brand awareness, but it also creates word-of-mouth and positive public relations.

With regard to promotion, Molly’s Home Cooking, like many other small businesses, has a limited promotion budget. They use social media, primarily Facebook, where they promote daily specials. For the restaurant located in the college town (about a mile from campus), Molly’s placed an advertisement in the university’s student newspaper early in the fall semester. They also placed signs in front of the restaurant to attract visitors.

Molly’s has many repeat customers at each established restaurant. Those restaurants also attract consumers who are traveling or sightseeing in nearby areas. The newest Molly’s in the college town opened right before the majority of students went home for summer internships. Many faculty do not teach in the summer, so the town becomes very quiet during the summer months. Molly’s Home Cooking wants to increase awareness, get more repeat customers, and increase profits.

1. For Molly’s Home Cooking in the college town, what promotion strategies do you recommend to attract faculty, staff, and students from the university?

2. Without spending much on promotion or changing menu prices, how can Molly’s generate loyal customers in established markets and in the college town?

3. Other than running one ad in the student newspaper, Molly’s has the same setup, menus, prices, and promotion (Facebook page) in each market. Given that Molly’s has a very limited budget, should the restaurant change anything for different target markets (e.g., travelers, families, local businesses, college population)?

Answer 1

Promotion Strategies ->

Molly's should set up a stall in the college campus or just at the exit with permission from the college authorities.

They can promote their cuisine here as they will get attention from every student, professor and management.

This can be done either on some annual day Or just before a weekend as not every student would have tasted their food.

Make offers like buy 1 get 1 meal free. So that the students who have never tasted their food should also come.

Also, it needs to distribute pamphlets and menu cards near the college.

Give offers like " Post on Facebook at Molly's and get 20% discount ". Thus directly getting attention of other students.

In this way they would not need to change the prices. Also not much amount would get spent for promotion.

Changes needed ->

The marketing strategy needed to target college population has already been mentioned above.

They can attract local businesses by providing them an advertisement space in their restaurant. In return, they should promote their employees to have lunch from Molly's. Also food for every meeting should go from Molly's.

For travelers, the banner and hoardings should be big enough to attract.

They should clearly show all the schemes and discounts.

Specific reward program should be there for people visiting the outlet more than once a week.