Discuss how Robert should explicitly consider the customer value currently offered by Franks All-American BarBeQue.
Hint: In your discussion, discuss and comment on Newman and Grosss five types of value and the perceived costs (as they relate to the case study restaurant).
Case study:
Franks All-American BarBeQue
Robert Rainsford is a twenty-eight-year-old facing a major
turning point in his life. He has found himself unemployed for
the first time since he was fifteen years old. Robert holds a BS
degree in marketing from the University of Rhode Island. After
graduation, a firm that specialized in developing web
presences for other companies hired him. He worked for that
firm for the last seven years in New York City. Robert rose
rapidly through the companys ranks, eventually becoming one
of the firms vice presidents. Unfortunately, during the last
recession, the firm suffered significant losses and engaged in
extensive downsizing, so Robert lost his job. He spent months
looking for a comparable position, yet even with an excellent
rsum, nothing seemed to be on the horizon. Not wanting to
exhaust his savings and finding it impossible to maintain a low cost residence in New York City, he returned to his hometown
in Fairfield, Connecticut, a suburban community not too far
from the New York state border.
He found a small apartment near his parents. As a stopgap
measure, he went back to work with his father, who is the
owner of a restaurantFranks All-American BarBeQue. His
father, Frank, started the restaurant in 1972. It is a midsize
restaurantwith about eighty seatsthat Frank has built up
into a relatively successful and locally well-known enterprise.
The restaurant has been at its present location since the early
1980s. It shares a parking lot with several other stores in the 113
small mall where it is located. The restaurant places an
emphasis on featuring the food and had a highly simplified
dcor, where tables are covered with butcher paper rather
than linen tablecloths. Roberts father has won many awards at
regional and national barbecue cook-offs, which is unusual for
a business in New England. He has won for both his barbecue
food and his sauces. The restaurant has been repeatedly
written up in the local and New York papers for the quality of
its food and the four special Franks All-American BarBeQue
sauces. The four sauces correspond to Americas four styles of
barbecueTexan, Memphis, Kansas City, and Carolina. In the
last few years, Frank had sold small lots of these sauces in the
local supermarket.
As a teenager, Robert, along with his older sister Susan,
worked in his fathers restaurant. During summer vacations
while attending college, he continued to work in the
restaurant. Robert had never anticipated working full-time in
the family business, even though he knew his father had hoped
that he would do so. By the time he returned to his hometown,
his father had accepted that neither Robert nor Susan would
be interested in taking over the family business. In fact, Frank
had started to think about selling the business and retiring.
However, Robert concluded that his situation called for what
he saw as desperate measures.
Initially, Robert thought his employment at his fathers
business was a temporary measure while he continued his job
search. Interestingly, within the first few weeks he returned to
the business, he felt that he could bring his expertise in 114
marketingparticularly his web marketing focusto his
fathers business. Robert became very enthusiastic about the
possibility of fully participating in the family business. He
thought about either expanding the size of the restaurant,
adding a takeout option, or creating other locations outside his
hometown. Robert looked at the possibility of securing a much
larger site within his hometown to expand the restaurants
operations. He began to scout surrounding communities for
possible locations. He also began to map out a program to
effectively use the web to market Franks All-American
BarBeQue sauce and, in fact, to build it up to a whole new level
of operational sophistication in marketing.
Robert recognized that the restaurant was as much of a child
to his father as he and his sister were. He knew that if he were
to approach his father with his ideas concerning expanding
Franks All-American BarBeQue, he would have to think very
carefully about the options and proposals he would present to
his father. Franks All-American BarBeQue was one of many
restaurants in Fairfield, but it is the only one that specializes in
barbecue. Given the turnover in restaurants, it was amazing
that Frank had been able to not only survive but also prosper.
Robert recognized that his father was obviously doing
something right. As a teenager, he would always hear his
father saying the restaurants success was based on giving
people great simple food at a reasonable price in a place
where they feel comfortable. He wanted to make sure that
the proposals he would present to his father would not destroy
Franks recipe for success.
