SWOT analysis of din tai fung

Din Tai Fung is an international brand originating from Taiwan. It is famous with the steamed dumplings. Din Tai Fung recently has over 40 branches in 10 countries worldwide. It has been selected as one of the top ten restaurants in the world by New York Times (Din Tai Fung, n.d). There are two branches in Malaysia recently. Both branches are located in Kuala Lumpur. This brand will launch their first restaurant in Penang.

Din Tai Fung is using SWOT analysis to analyse its market. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this brand will be determined.

Strengths:

Din Tai Fung has the strengths that it provides strong in-house training program that can train their staffs about the technique of customer service. They learned how to serve customers, clean tables and deal with complaints. They have to put their customer’s needs first. Besides, they have to ensure that the restaurant is in a clean condition. The Din Tai Fung staffs have the consistency knowledge and performance for the benefits of their customers (Din Tai Fung, n.d). They are friendly and helpful.

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Besides, Din Tai Fung also provides quality food. They have their own quality philosophy. They expect the highest standards in their production process. They emphasize on the selection of raw materials, the processing of the ingredients and the cooking process. The food would not be sent to the customer’s table if the quality of food did not meet the strict standards. For example, they ensure that each of the steamed dumplings has precisely 18 folds. Furthermore, they are seeking for a new improvement for their food. They have a well developed new product development system. Their newest product is steamed fish dumplings (Din Tai Fung, n.d).

Weaknesses:

There are some weaknesses of Din Tai Fung. The prices of food in DinTaiFung are slightly more expensive. Their target market is middle to higher-income earner. Besides, this restaurant is selling non-halal food, such as pork and alcoholic beverages. This kind of food is not suitable for Muslim. Therefore, they lose Muslim customers and target for non-Muslim customers only. There is more than 40 percent of Muslim in Penang (Penang State Government Official Portal, 2010). Din Tai Fung thus loses 40 percent of their consumer markets. Moreover, the branches of Din Tai Fung are usually having good business. The customers need to queue up outside the restaurant to wait for a seat. They need to take numbers and waiting for their turns. For those customers who are impatient will refuse to revisit again.

Opportunities:

Din Tai Fung has the special set menus. The prices of these set menus are cheaper as compare to the a la carte menu. This kind of menus will probably attract more customers to visit Din Tai Fung. The customers can enjoy the quality food with affordable price.

People nowadays are demand for restaurant hygiene and healthy food. Din Tai Fung has the specially designed open kitchen. The chefs inside the open kitchen are wearing white face mask. Customers can watch the handling and preparation of the foods while ensuring that their foods are clean and safe to be consumed.

Besides, Din Tai Fung has been awarded one Michelin Star recently (Din Tai Fung, n.d). One star means that the restaurant is very good in its category. This award will probably enhance the good reputation of Din Tai Fung. The award is given based on the quality, preparation and the pricing of the food (Cany, 2010). Besides, Din Tai Fung has been rated as one of the top 10 gourmet restaurants in the world (Din Tai Fung, n.d). With the good reputation, the popularity of Din Tai Fung in Penang is not a problem.

Threats:

The Chinese cuisine market is a very competitive sector. The main competitor of Din Tai Fung in Malaysia is Dragon-i. Dragon-i restaurant also serve Shanghainese food and their signature food is steamed dumplings as well. Dragon-i has many outlets throughout Malaysia. There are two outlets in Penang. To be able to compete with this strong competitor, Din Tai Fung needs to maintain their quality of food and overall performance of the restaurant. Besides, Din Tai Fung needs to put some efforts on promoting their products.

Furthermore, the international exchange rate is very important to a business. Din Tai Fung also faces the problem of changing exchange rates. The special equipments and machines that needed in Din Tai Fung are mainly imported from Taiwan. Besides, some of the raw materials are from abroad. If the currency rate changes, the cost of purchasing the equipments, machines and raw materials will be affected.

Market Segmentation:

Din Tai Fung is using demographic segmentation to segment their consumer market. Their target market is middle to higher-income earner. Gender is for both male and female. Din Tai Fung is also target for age group between 6 to 70 years old. Besides, Din Tai Fung is target for non-Muslim customers. Their major customers are Chinese. They are also target for foreigner. Exclude the Muslim customers; there is still more than 50 percent of market size. For the family life cycle variable, this restaurant is suitable for everyone whether the person is single or married or those who has children.

Before The Launch:

Some strategy regarding marketing mix should be determined six months before the launching of the restaurant. The marketing mix includes product, price, promotion and place (Stockard, 2008).

Din Tai Fung can generate the publicity by employing a spokesperson. Celebrities are suitable to become the spokesperson of this restaurant. Studies show that hiring a celebrity to advertise a product will gain more awareness than using a non-celebrity. Besides, celebrities improve the brand recognition and believability. The spokesperson should be chosen based on the relevance and credibility they bring and the persuasive power in getting the customers to visit the restaurant (Leon, 2009).

Besides, Din Tai Fung should do advertisement to gain awareness of consumers about the new launching of restaurant in Penang. They can advertise their restaurant through television, radio, newspaper, magazines, internet or bus ‘wraps’ (Bovay, 2008). Television advertising is more expensive compare to other advertising mediums. Newspaper and magazines advertising are less expensive and the advertisement can be targeted to a specific region or industry. As for internet advertising, the cost is affordable and it reaches more people since almost everyone access to internet nowadays (McConnahea, 2010).

During The Launch:

Din Tai Fung should produce a well written press release to media and consumers. Press release is a powerful form of advertisement. It is the best way to inform the public about the opening of the new outlet and the reason of the popularity of the restaurant (Shakya, 2008). They should also indicate the date and time of launching the new outlet in the press release. Moreover, they can invite the local celebrities or dignitaries to cut the ribbon to declare the grand opening of the new outlet. Media will be invited to broadcast or photograph the staged event (Franklin, 2010). Besides, the waiters can distribute some balloons with the name of Din Tai Fung to the children walk by. Balloons will catch the children’s attention as well as the adult. The waiters will also distribute the flyers that inform the consumers about the promotion given during the launching month.

Din Tai Fung should give sales promotion for their menus during the month of new opening. They need to design and create suitable and effective promotion ideas. Sales promotion provides a short term incentive. For examples, they can give 10 percent discount to their customers on a la carte menus. Besides, customers will get a RM10 cash voucher for every spending more than RM100. On the other hand, they can give a lucky draw to customers who spend more than RM150. To attract the customers to spend more, Din Tai Fung should provide great prizes such as notebooks and mobile phones for the lucky draw activities. Besides, Din Tai Fung can give a small gift such as a printed pen or a key chain to their customers for every of their visit. When they use the pen, they will recall back the restaurant (Toombs, 2010).

Furthermore, Din Tai Fung can offer a taste test campaign. It is an affordable marketing method. Din Tai Fung can offer free bite-sized portions of their dishes to the passers-by. This kind of promotion works well because it allows the consumer to try the products. If the dishes are great, the consumers will visit the restaurant and be glad to pay the full price (Harcourt, 2010).

After the launch:

The marketing tactic should be changed after 6 months of launching to grow the sales continually and increase the loyalty of customers.

Din Tai Fung can provide the loyalty cards to their customers. The loyalty card works when the customers pay the bill with it to collect points. When the customers have accumulated enough points from the previous visits, they will get a rebate on the price of the meal or vouchers. With the loyalty card, the customers can enjoy the special discount on their birthday week and a free birthday cake. The customers not only satisfy with their appetite, but also fulfil the needs for belongingness and recognition (Chiaro, 2010). The customers need to give their personal information and contact details in order to apply for the membership. Therefore, Din Tai Fung can communicate regularly with their customers. They should also check the list of their customers and watch out for upcoming birthday. One week before customers’ birthday, Din Tai Fung can send them a birthday card via post or email. This small action can help the restaurant to build a loyal database and boost the sales of their restaurant (Riesco, 2009).

Besides, Din Tai Fung should participate in sponsorship opportunities. The main reason to sponsor for an event is the exposure of the brand name. A sponsorship let Din Tai Fung to advertise their brand. Consumers are more likely to let the brand to enter their consciousness because the brand has stick to an event that they are interested. When sponsoring an event, the company will gain recognition and credibility within the local market and thus boost the business (Stockard, 2008). It is important to sponsor a right and suitable event that can benefit their brand.

Din Tai Fung may run a cooking contest or eating contest to enhance the exposure. Customers who spend more than RM50 can participate in these contests. They can invite the food editors, professional chefs or cooking teachers to be the judges of the cooking contest (Mortensen, 2006). On the other hand, the people who consume the most food within a specific time will be the winner of the eating contest. The type of food that can be used in eating contest are noodles and steamed dumplings. Great prizes are offered to winners. Consumers thus will visit and spend in Din Tai Fung to get the chance to participate in the contests.

Furthermore, Din Tai Fung can carry out a gift certificate selling plan. They may offer gift certificates for customers to buy for their friends, family members and relatives (Riesco, 2008). People nowadays love to give gift certificates as a birthday gift or festival present. If the customer does not use the gift certificate when they dine, the restaurant is not losing any money. Gift certificates will increase the number of repeat customers, additional sales and huge profit.

Din Tai Fung will continually compete with their main competitor which is Dragon-i. Dragon-i serves almost the same type of food with them. Din Tai Fung needs to maintain their food quality and excellent customer service to compete with Dragon-i. Quality food and good customer service will bring back the customers and they will also recommend it to friends. Besides, they need to have new release menu items every month because people like to try new things. (1950 words)