Bar & Grill Marketing Strategy: Segmentation and CRM

Market-Driven Strategy and Positioning

In a market-driven strategy, the customer is the focal point, which means that everything the bar and grill does should be oriented toward benefiting the customer in some way. To know what OPG can do to benefit the customer, it must first determine its distinctive capabilities — the strengths identified in its SWOT analysis, along with the opportunities that analysis reveals. The next step is to match customer value with the bar and grill's capabilities and to ask whether leveraging the pub's resources would help create that value. If there is a match and the pub can execute, these steps should lead to superior performance and a successful market-driven strategy.

Positioning is key to this process. As Trout and Rivkin (2006) argue, a company must differentiate or die — and that is precisely what OPG aims to do with its marketing strategy. Using customer benefits and product characteristics as a positioning strategy is the right approach for OPG. Its core strengths are its location and its food. Its location within the community is ideal for its demographic: it feels like a genuine neighborhood pub that has grown organically alongside the neighborhood, giving residents a sense of local identity. Customers love coming for the beer, the food, and the convenience of a spot that is easy to reach for locals.

OPG's opportunities reinforce this positioning further. There is an opportunity to open a beer garden that would resonate strongly with locals, as well as the potential to launch an in-house brewery — a compelling addition for this demographic. Expanding kitchen services to offer full-scale catering to the neighborhood is another promising avenue. Each of these initiatives creates customer value and positions OPG well relative to its existing resources and operational capabilities.

The pubs and breweries in the area all satisfy a generic market need, but none of them truly provides the holistic customer experience of a place that patrons can call their own. Craft breweries are popular right now because everyone in this demographic appreciates craft beer. If OPG can offer its own craft beer, it increases its value in the eyes of customers and gives them yet another reason to be loyal, to purchase pub merchandise, and to promote the pub through word of mouth and social media — that is, through user-generated content. User-generated content costs the pub nothing and is one of the most effective forms of marketing, given the role that social media influencers play in consumer decision-making today (Dhar & Chang, 2009; Lim, Radzol, Cheah & Wong, 2017).

Product-Market Boundaries and Value Chain

In terms of value chain strategy, OPG would add value to its product line by brewing its own beer, differentiating itself from competing pubs in the area. It would also strengthen its reputation as a legitimate community gathering place, particularly since the neighborhood is populated by craft beer enthusiasts. The differentiation advantage of an in-house brewery and a beer garden would place OPG at the top of a short list of best pubs in the neighborhood. Its food and location already put it near the top, and these additions would create even greater value for customers.

Expanding into catering for large events would further improve OPG's standing in the community, especially if the pub sponsors local events to raise awareness of its catering service. The more value OPG adds to the community by demonstrating shared interests through sponsorship, the more value it creates for itself in return.

The demographic segment is concerned with customers' age, gender, occupation, and ethnicity (Lin, 2002). The community's demographic consists of young professionals in their twenties and thirties — most without children, working downtown, and solidly middle class — who still enjoy going out for drinks with friends. The gender split is approximately 50/50 men and women. This is an ideal demographic for what OPG has to offer.

Marketing Segmentation Strategy

The geographic segment identifies where consumers come from (Lin, 2002). OPG's customers are predominantly local, drawn from the surrounding community. Some travel from other parts of town, but the majority live nearby and patronize the pub because it is within walking distance, offers great food, and provides a convenient meeting place for friends.

The behavioral segment examines the consumer's usage patterns — frequent versus occasional, and so on (Lin, 2002). Most of OPG's customers are regulars, though some are first-time visitors who have heard about the pub's reputation. Because it is a neighborhood hot spot with a strong reputation, it also attracts curious customers from other parts of town. This growing reputation is an asset OPG needs to actively leverage.

The overall marketing strategy must therefore build on the demographic, geographic, and behavioral characteristics of its consumers. Customers value both familiarity and novelty, so OPG can serve as that familiar home base while simultaneously offering new menu items and original craft beers once brewing operations begin.

Conclusion

Lin, C. F. (2002). Segmenting customer brand preference: Demographic or psychographic. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 11(4), 249–268.

Trout, J., & Rivkin, S. (2006). Differentiate or die. In The marketing gurus (ed. Murray). New York, NY: Penguin.