Put yourself in the position of marketing manager for the restaurant organization. You will need to gather some information before writing. You should also look into the secondary literature regarding current information in restaurant sales. Identify your customers – include all demographic and lifestyle information. Identify location of customers (local, regional, national or international). Identify factors in customer selection of the products/services and brands, including remittances. Identify/estimate the size of the total market Identify market trends, including information about market studies and test marketing. List factors that affect purchasing such as: 1) seasons, 2) obsolescence, 3) tax considerations, 4) price, availability, service, 5) emotional considerations, and 6) all other factors. Will promotional activities be concentrated in specific markets? Before you start writing—read all of the material for this week’s assignment. As you read, highlight the areas of the text that align to this week’s paper.
Next, take a few minutes to write an outline. This will save you a lot of time if you do this before starting to write. Here is an example of a sample outline for this paper. Your outline will look different—it will have the specifics that you intend to include in your paper.
Sample Paper Outline
Title: Consumer Purchase Decision
Introductory Paragraph (Write your thesis first…the rest of the paper will flow from your thesis. Combine both requirements in your introductory paragraph.)
Section 1: Consumer Purchase Decisions
Paragraph 1: Specific steps in the decision process leading up to and following the purchase
Paragraph 2: Factors and influences on the purchase decision
Paragraph 3: How the steps might be the same or different for different products. (Link back to strategy)
Section 2: Market Segmentation
Paragraph 1: The process of segmenting the market for the product
Paragraph 2: A possible target market for the product–use demographic terms
Conclusion Paragraph: which links back to thesis…do not introduce new ideas here. Combine both topics in the conclusion.
Provide references to support writing in all paragraphs. List your references in the text of the paper and at the end of the paper in a separate section.
Once you have written your paper, be sure to go back to the assignment requirements and make sure you have included all of the required elements. Read the paper out loud and check for any grammatical errors or miss-spelled words.
Your professor will be looking for all of the required elements of the assignment plus a strong analysis that demonstrates your knowledge of the theory coupled with an analysis that blends the theory with your personal opinion. Simply, copying answers out of the textbook and citing the text correctly will not meet the requirements of the assignment. If you have any questions, please see your professor.
