CASE ANALYSIS: The Red Crab Group – Kevin Toledo
Situation Analysis – Relevant Facts
Red Crab Group started from the first restaurant
opened by Raymond’s mother in 1998 at Clark, Pampanga. Red Crab eventually
expanded to Metro Manila and has been successful in developing its business of
chain of restaurants.
1998: Raymond’s mother opened the Red
Crab & Sea Food Restaurant at Clark, Pampanga in the Mimosa Leisure Park.
The price of the food was in the high end as its market was golfers, casino
players and high rollers.
1999: Red Crab and Seafood Steaks was opened at Malate. There was no
market research done and sales went below 30%
2001: Red Crab Seafood & Steak at Tomas Morato was opened where
surprisingly it captured the “celebrities” as its market.
Another Red Crab and Seafood & Steaks branch
was opened at Alabang. This time, Raymond started to do market research. In
this venture, he realized that his market was in the 26-35 years age bracket.
He then adjusted the ambience of the Alabang & Morato branch to fit younger
crowds.
Raymond also did repositioning of the brand
where he downplayed the Filipino branding and focused in the “International seafood
restaurant feel”. He also recalibrated the menu.
2003: Seafood Club was opened at Greenbelt 3. This required Raymond
to develop a new concept where the restaurant was intended to be a happy place
to entertain customers.
2004: Crustacia was opened at Rockwell. Raymond was also required to
develop a new concept for this restaurant where he focused on the restaurant to
be Asian themed fine dine. Raymond did an intensive product development &
market research in order for the restaurant to be aligned in it concept.
Crustacia was awarded later the “Best
Asian Restaurant in the Philippines”.
2005: Blackbeard Seafood Island was opened with a concept of being an
“inuman place” for the young professionals who would like to unwind to have a
good dinner and a couple of beers after a tiring day from office.
2005: Heaven n’ Eggs was opened at Tomas Morato. This concept was
entirely different as it deviated from the original seafood theme of Red Crab.
Raymond was very successful in expanding the
business of Red Crab by capitalizing in his mastery of identifying market &
what he is selling – Single Product, multi-concept approach.
Problem
The problem is business growth and
sustainability as Red Crab had been known in developing new concepts where the
brain is actually Raymond. Red Crab group must be able to find a way on how
they could sustain developing new concepts the way Raymond did.
Alternatives
1. 1. Red Crab Group will
hire internally product development experts.
2. 2. Red Crab Group to
create a product development team within their organization which will develop
a list of different new concepts they could offer to lessors.
3. 3. Red Crab Group must
stick to the single product-multiple concept approach, and relinquish their ownership
from non-seafood related products.
4. 4. Red Crab Group will just
have to focus on the restaurant brands they have developed
5. 5. Red Crab Group to keep
its position and further develop their management team by investing in
trainings in order for the Group to be independent from Raymond in terms of
developing new concepts.
Decision
Alternative #3 would be the soundest decision
I can think of. Red Crab Group, having its “mother brand” already developed, must
just focus on the single product multiple concept approach. They have already
created a market for their brands related to seafood and have proven their mastery
on that approach. All they need is to do is focus on expanding the market they
have created and just further improve the brand. Red Crab Group has been known
to be a chain of seafood restaurant concepts and they must maintain to capitalize
on it and further improve on it.
Action Analysis
Raymond
was successful at developing Red Crab as a company with a chain of different
seafood restaurant concepts. However, I think he made a wrong decision with the
latest move he has done for the company where he ventured into an entirely new
concept and deviated from the seafood theme, most especially taking into consideration
that the name of the Group is clearly associated with seafood.