ENTREP S20
Mr. Jorge Saguinsin
Case Analysis – The Red Crab Group
Camille A. Dela Cruz
I.
Situation Analysis (Relevant
Facts)
·
The first restaurant established by
Raymond Magdaluyo’s mother and him in Mimosa Pampanga – Red Crab Seafood and
Steaks, was very successful despite of no market/ research study.
·
The family of Raymond Magdaluyo
adapted the same planning and execution (no market/research study) when they
took the opportunity to open a restaurant in Malate.
·
When the
sales significantly declined in the Malate restaurant, it pushed Raymond to do
a market research study both in the Alabang and Tomas Morato restaurant. This
is to identify who are the customers the restaurant truly caters, to identify
what is the real positioning of the restaurant and to recalibrate his menu to follow his new positioning.
·
Raymond
brought his new learning when he was given the opportunity to open a restaurant
in Greenbelt 3 – do a market research study before entering into a new venture.
·
The
Seafood Club success story was not only because of the food but also because of
the experience that comes with it. The restaurant sold its crabs with all the
complete paraphernalia.
·
Raymond
was again given an opportunity to open a restaurant in Rockwell Power Plant
Mall, and he again did a market research study and at the same time used his
learning in The Seafood Club, which is not only to sell food but also sell the
whole experience. He focused on these four experiences; liberating, enchanting,
fulfilling and transformative.
·
His last
seafood restaurant concept – The Blackbeard’s Seafood Island, focused on the
target market that was identified in the market/research study Raymond did.
·
All of
Raymond’s successful restaurants were due to all his learning from his past
experiences but also from what he learned in AIM which focusing on a single
product, multi concept approach. He focused on seafood but used different
restaurant concepts and formats.
·
He also
used his most enlightening marketing lesson in AIM, which is the importance of
creating his own segment, and to own this segment, he had to define it in finer
detail the elements in that segment. He adapted this learning by making all the
elements of his restaurants work around the concept/position he has placed.
·
Raymond
believed that change is inevitable so he opened up a different restaurant
concept which is Heaven N’ Eggs.
II.
Problem Analysis
I believe that
the main problem of Raymond was he ventured into the Malate business without
doing what was vital and important before starting a business – do a
market/research study. The lack of the study reflected on the significant
decline of the Red Crab Seafood and Steaks in the month of April. When he
started to plan his execution and thoroughly did a market/research study it
definitely turnaround the business in Malate, Alabang and Tomas Morato and
eventually led to the success stories of his other restaurants.
III.
Alternatives Generation
Of course there were several
alternatives to be done to address the problem Raymond was encountering.
A.
First alternative, he can create a
market research study to
identify who are the customers the restaurant truly caters, to identify what is
the real positioning of the restaurant and to recalibrate his menu to follow
his new positioning.
B.
Another alternative is to create a
different concept restaurant other than seafood. This concept could be more
adaptable to the Malate target market.
IV.
Decision Analysis (Deciding on
best alternatives)
In my opinion,
it is important to do a market/research study before entering a business
venture. The importance of a study is to identify all elements – goal,
objectives, concept, positioning, target market, location, pricing strategy,
promotion and advertising strategy and staff, needed to identify to create a
business that will definitely work and live for a long time. Market/research
study is equal to planning and planning is vital to make an execution work
perfectly. Planning gives the person a view of the new business as a whole and
prepares the entrepreneur for any possible failure. This view provides the
entrepreneur to address the seen potential problems and gives him/her to avoid
such.
V.
Action Analysis
The decision was definitely the
best decision Raymond could have done. In the case, he took time to do a market/research
study before his business would fail in Malate. The market researched helped
him identify what was wrong in the business. He then created strategies that
will help fix and solve the problems of the business, which eventually led to
the turnaround of the business. He used the learning in the Malate case and
started to plan and create a market study first before venturing into the
opportunity presented to him. This led to the other success stories of his
businesses.
