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CDR second-largest segment; Revolving around specific themes, cuisines
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Saturday, 03 January, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashish Saxena
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fiogf49gjkf0d The Indian food service sector has witnessed exponential growth in the last few years. Primarily, quick service restaurants, casual dining segments and ready-to-cook industry comprise the fastest growing sector in India.
Fast-paced urban lifestyle, rising disposable income, nuclear family structure, increase in the number of professionals with an experimentative palate, and rapid urbanisation are the many factors that have led to growth in consumer markets and the eating-out culture.
The dining out culture has made food services one of the most promising business sectors in India. The youth have exposure to the international environment and culture and this has helped creating demand for world-class products and services at affordable prices. All these factors have led to growth and created competition for CDR (casual dining restaurant) brands trying to establish presence in India. And hence the need for marketing their offering has increased.
Key segments
The CDRs and QSRs are key segments of the Indian food service market. A number of CDR have flocked to India over the past few years with specific cuisines and product offerings contributing to the market growth.
The casual dining space is an exciting segment and has evolved in India over time with CDRs forming the second-largest segment after QSR segment. The CDRs revolve around specific cuisines and themes, and are focussing on elaborate menus, quality of food and increased focus on presentation. From metros to smaller cities, these international brands are expanding their business in smaller formats. The consumer indulgence is increasingly fuelled by non-occasion outings to these outlets.
Dining out is now one of the three most popular recreational activities among Indian consumers. However, the customers are surrounded by an ever-expanding array of choices and have the ability to consume what they want, anytime and anywhere.
Marketers are always on the lookout for ways to appeal to the customer and his ever evolving needs. We often overlook that due to urbanisation and corporate culture, the young Indian customers become more independent and move from city to city with more money and less responsibility in their hands. This definitely leads to them to eat out more often but also makes them experimentative in the kitchen.
Gone are the days when cooking was just a chore and done by only women of the house or by maids. The recent popularity of the cooking shows and competitions on television has inspired amateur cooks to participate in cook-offs and battle it out for the best dish title.
Chili Cook-offs
Chili’s Grill & Bar recently launched its third outlet in Bangalore and hosted India’s first ever Chili Cook-off. Chili Cook-offs, which are a trend in the US (where the brand originally is from) since 1967, is the best platform to experiment with flavours and showcase the best Chili dish. The event was open for food enthusiasts to come together to celebrate their culinary nuances. The participation was open for Chili’s Grill & Bar’s patrons in Phoenix Market City and Orion Mall. The registrations were taken over a week and were followed by a master class with culinary champion Abhijeet Gomare who demonstrated Chili’s own recipe of the dish. The first round was a preliminary round and nine contestants were shortlisted out of the 45. The winner won gifts worth Rs 75,000 including kitchen appliances, salon and holiday vouchers.
The main purpose of the event was to emphasise on the whole concept of Tex-Mex cuisine which is rather new in the Indian market. There are a lot of misconceptions about the origin of the brand and the dishes that it serves due to the name resembling the most abused ingredient in India - Chili (as in the spice). The main aim was to break the mould in the mind of the customer and let them know that Chili represents the Mexican dish. This came across strongly through the messaging starting from the concept to the radio promotions run on an American channel and what better time to do it during the launch of its first and biggest high-street location in Bangalore.
The connect with the local customers who enjoy cooking and experimenting with different foods and that of the main brand offerings synched perfectly and the event proved to be an immense success. A culinary event of this nature showcased the brand’s lineage and also created a platform for food enthusiasts to engage with the brand even more. Chili’s founders have been a part of the Chili Cook-off tradition since 1967 and have participated for many years in Chili Cook-offs around Texas. The brand is trying to bring the same tradition to India and make people more aware about the yearly event.
Constant evolution
Marketers need to constantly incorporate themes, trends and specific cultural events to help the brands stay in touch with their fans and consumers. The key is to make sure the theme or trend overlaps and blends well with the brand and so the content remains genuine.
Between Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, the trend of sharing visual content has increased within the past year and a half. Brands are now maximising their efforts and creating imagery used in social content to draw the attention of their fans by sharing and engaging with them. The shareability of an image; often times, an enticing photo of a food item is enough to trigger a response from a fan; social networking sites have also garnered presence for brands with foodies creating relevant pages and discussion platforms. During the Chili Cook-off, Chili’s used the same space to its full extent with the help of online promotions and 4-5 influential social media personalities joining hands to make it even more special.
Main battleground
Casual dining has become the main battleground for the restaurant industry; the eating out market is dominated by the casual dining sector. It’s a sector where innovation, branding and differentiation have become the keys to success. International chains run social media campaigns to launch a new product or outlet in a new city. Whether to put your products on ebay or give out free coupons to Instagram-ers on specified conditions. Chili’s is also innovating and offering customers an experience like never seen before especially to the Bangalore audience. The campaigns offer exclusive discounts or free products to the first set of customers and hence create brand recall and loyalty.
Introducing new menus as a limited time offer, allows restaurant chains to gauge the level of demand for the product before making it a permanent addition to menu. Chili’s Grill & Bar has launched several LTO (limited time offer) menus to keep the customers engaged. The chain has created a special menu for kids to cater to young working professionals who enjoy a meal out and would love to spend some quality time with their family and kids.
Loyalty programme
As customers continue to place a premium on value, and several quick service and casual dining brands like Chili’s Grill & Bar have found that an engaging and effective loyalty programme helps in customer retention and can be one of the best ways to achieve a value position without simply slashing prices. Loyalty programmes take time to create, craft and hone to keep customers coming back for more, they require frequent updating, revamping and overhauling. Loyalty programmes need to have a special name, look and feel to them; it has to continually re-engage with guests for them to keep coming back to the outlet and must offer a good value proposition for the guests.
CDR sectors focus on staying ahead in a rapidly evolving marketplace. International brands are integrating tailor-designed solutions that build businesses, improved profitability and productivity and deliver measurable return on investment (RoI). But here needs to be a strong focus on customer happiness as well which should show from the marketing efforts. Chili’s in the US is famous for its strong marketing efforts in traditional as well as contemporary mediums. It has formed a strong bond with the locals as well as won the hearts of people all over the world. Be it getting insync to promote its Baby Back Ribs in the 90s or the various charitable associations, Chili’s leaves no stone unturned in connecting with the community. We plan on holding similar values over here. The main key is to keep the local community engaged and connect with them on a personal level to ensure they come back for more.
(The author is executive director, TexMex Cuisines India Pvt. Ltd)
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