Case Study: Problems at Cafe Campesino: Lack of Identity and A Dull Competitive Edge

Introduction

Cafe Campesino operates in a region where coffee shops are found in almost every corner. The cafe has not established a strong identity for its establishments. This implies that Cafe Campesino has not identified the type of customers it wants to serve. Therefore, the cafe has not appropriately prevented an "identity crisis" caused by numerous competitors (Peter and Donnelly 45). Currently, cafe Campesino has been losing ground in the last decades to other alleged "theme restaurants." The firm does not know why, nor does it have any feeling of what clients are searching for from Cafe Campesino. This kind of business insight is pure gold to an organization in dealing with its aggressive methodologies, but then it was truant as a weapon in Campesino's competitive arsenal. Where was the cafe Campesino team to turn for this kind of information?

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Inventory and Pricing Snafus

Cafe Campesino is a business organization that operates nationally. Due to some challenges in the supply chain, the company at times runs out of inventory- coffee beans. Running out inventory is a surefire way for an organization to put a crimp in business and disappoint customers. In the same vein, Cafe Campesino has been customers through inappropriate pricing. Running a national retail business is challenging at a wide range of levels. Everyday activities should be facilitated to guarantee that product is accessible with regards to client needs and that quality stays high and costs are monitored. In such a business domain, management tends to center around estimation and the correlation of actual performance and costs against organization guidelines and benchmarks. From a focused point of view, the firm should keep on innovating - conveying new product and service offerings to the table and re-engineer core business forms for more prominent viability and effectiveness (Peter and Donnelly 48; Hunt et al. 22).

Customer Service and Overall Management Headaches

Most coffee shop owners face a problem of slow service, particularly in establishments that provide a variety of customized coffee preparations. A highly profitable organization may not aggressively look to change its ways, but rather one in decrease must search for underlying causes (Joannides 78). Some of the most successful coffee shops have succeeded because for a long period, they have been providing the right product at the right time (Peter and Donnelly 7). On the off chance that the undertaking purpose of sales framework was a wreck, the company's financial management framework was a catastrophe. Every location emailed their summary budgetary outcomes to the CFO's office every month. The corporate financial management team would catch this data on Excel spreadsheets and afterward re-enter them into a single bookkeeping framework - but at the same time running only individual location financials (Peter and Donnelly 279). This procedure was inclined to mistakes, delayed month to month, quarterly and yearly financial closings, and made it exceptionally difficult to examine slants or to figure business performance. Without better control of financial data, it is difficult to perceive how any firm, not to mention one of Cafe Campesino's multifaceted nature, could operate effectively.

Alternatives the Company Can Choose to Solve These Problems

Cafe Campesino can develop a unique value proposition to help in easily guarding against a dull competitive edge. This implies that the organization has to do something that competitors cannot do exceptionally well. For instance, should emphasize on roasting coffee beans in-house as well as providing baked products from scratch. Besides, the cafe should keep a stash of board games so that customers can have the opportunity to play as they enjoy a beverage (Porter 36).

Cafe Campesino should establish a good POS which has an inventory control model to solve the problem of inventory and pricing status. The model tracks inventory quantities as well as generate automatic re-orders or alerts when quantities reach the pre-defined levels. A good POS system will allow Cafe Campesino to compare the price of coffee beans and other profitable inventory while also helping the firm to determine the necessary promotional or pricing adjustments.

With regards to solving the problem of customer services and overall management headaches, Cafe Campesino should also have an efficient POS system. An effective POS system makes it easy to manage the cafe by tracking customers' information. The system uses traffic patterns to predict adjusting strategies and staffing needs.

Information Management and Technology Solutions

The authority group put resources into incorporated point-of-sales, merchandising, and bookkeeping frameworks to address the value-based management and control sides of their issues. These applications especially programming tools share an institutionalized, back-end, database management systems. The focal points to the firm of this venture turned out to be instantly self-evident (Porter 40).

On account of merchandising and notwithstanding accounting, the accessibility of a single, enterprise-wide data management framework encouraged more responsive and viable activities inside individual Cafe Campesino's settings and across the firm. In any case, the challenge of how to interface this value-based information to client socioeconomics remained. Here the solution was both evident and complex. Campesino required accurate data on each of its a large number of clients and is expected to attach this data to single client store purchases (Scott 17). The solution came with the Internet. The cafe Campesino group made expanding complex, customer-enticing Web sites where its customers were energized by ticket giveaways, coupons, and different motivating forces to enroll as a major aspect of the Campesino online group. For instance, each store receipt offered coupons on future Cafe Campesino purchases if the client connected his/her receipt exchange number to his/her Web account. A similar thing was carried out with free in-cafe photos that were retrievable online using the Cafe Campesino Web webpage (Sweeney, et al. 62). The firm also ran travel planning services, surveys, and other online occasions - with prizes - to establish a culture and group understanding around the use of its Web website. The ultimate result of all these exercises is that clients started to connected broad individual data with their cafe Campesino transaction histories.

The greater part of the subjective data offered by individual clients went into yet another data system procured by Campesino - its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System (Hunt, et al. 77). This framework included devices for tracking the different ways individual clients cooperate with Cafe Campesino and its Web website. It additionally put away statistic information on the client and additionally music, performing craftsman, and travel/get-away preferences. Later versions of this kind of product additionally take into account the mix of online networking information from such sources as Twitter and Facebook. The CRM framework is presently utilized by Cafe Campesino to inform Web webpage personalization, to plan of melodic visits by the craftsmen that the organization sponsors, and even in the securing of new scenes and the making of new product and service offerings.

One ought not to belittle the millions of dollars and significant effort put by Cafe Campesino in the development of new data management hones and the obtaining of new IT systems (Hunt, et al. 78). Be that as it may, these investments in IT and IM paid off for Campesino big time in helping the firm to tidy up its everyday operations, oversee and control corporate performance, and learn enough about the requirements and interests of its customers to get ready for what's to come. Campesino is very much "still around." As the cafe Campesino is in a transition phase, it is critical to retain the old customers. The old staff individuals will assume a key role in taking the necessary steps. The members need to comprehend the goal of the firm and act accordingly. The goal of the organization is to provide high-quality coffee and different meals. The quality of service ought to be the highest need for the cafe, and it also underlines on the satisfaction of the customers.

The staff individuals ought to be extremely service oriented and they ought to keep up the service quality of cafe Campesino. The individuals ought to give the ideal service quality. They should try to examine the needs and wants of the customers precisely and render service adequately. They ought to be given appropriate training and ought to be clarified with the goal of the organization in detail so they could adjust their service as needs are. As the cafe is experiencing a progress stage, it is an imperative time for the business. Amid this time the proprietors and a large portion of the staff individuals are changing while at the same time holding just two of the old staff. Amid this time the cafe will endeavor to hold its old customers while making new customers. The customers must be held to quality products and quality services. So the staff individuals should act accordingly (Scott 34). The objective of the business ought to dependably be remembered, and the activities are to be directed as needs are. Each staff member at Campesino ought to be equally assigned some specific task, and they should be made responsible for those specific tasks. Furthermore, customary evaluation should be conducted about the performance of their work.

Effect of Marketing Initiatives and Campaign

The organization to accomplish their goal are taking some showcasing measures, for example, they have held some of the key staff individuals for the already running business of that cafe as they have a connection with the customers, which will help the firm to retain the old clients. Aside from that they additionally plan to change or update the signage of the bistro which will pull in the customers. Signage plays an essential role in pulling in clients, and they attempt to get consideration of the clients in this manner increase the number of visiting clients. The organization has pondered not increasing the cost and to work on the past value, which will snatch customers (Hunt, et al. 78). As the clients are price oriented so this technique will work to build the base of the clients. In spite of the fact that there will be an up degree will be finished concerning the cafe, but there will be no increase in the price of the things. This can just be done by controlling the cost. Peter and Donnelly (23) assert that on the off chance that the cost is controlled this will provide them with the favorable position to compete on the price.

Besides these common techniques, the organization is planning to take some more effective strategies to create some marketing to give some favorable position to the business (Peter and Donnelly 52). The aggressive promoting techniques will enhance business operations and will create a platform for the organization which will help to outcompete its rivals. This will strengthen its situation in the market and individuals will be more mindful of the organization. Such a marketing strategy will make a profitable positioning for the organization. The aggressive strategy may incorporate advertisement on print and digital media and various initiatives, such as offers and discounts.

Marketing

The marketing system ought to be aggressive, and it should give advertisement to local print and digital media with the goal that many customers are pulled in towards the cafe. This will build up a client base for the business and might also help in stabilizing the business after any change that may occur (Peter...