What do you do if your food and beverage business is facing intense competition?

The team needs to first reframe the opportunity using all facts to develop meaningful insights on both the consumer and business environment. Using those insights, "change the game" focusing on both your consumer and the strengths of both your team and organization. Then ACT!!!! Be decisive and ACT!!!!

En mi experiencia, una diferencia esencial entre los competidores reside en la capacidad de financiar las operaciones de crecimiento, marketing e inversión. Una actividad con fondos ilimitados, incluso con un balance negativo, puede mantener precios bajos, renunciar al margen, gastar en publicidad. Las empresas que viven de lo que generan cada año están en una situación más débil y esto requiere: elegir dónde invertir, manejar el corto y el medio plazo, cohesionar los equipos, centrarse en productos de nicho y hacerlo mejor que la competencia.

It's always been a tough market in the food and beverage world, and in my experience while working with a world known beverage brand" it's what you do makes all the difference". I have seen that agility, being hands-on with the market trends, sevice standards, infrastructure, complaint redressal and being close to primary and secondary customers contributes hugely to market share growth. Instead of presenting and pushing a product or a brand - present it as a solution to a customer pain point.

This is more for the mom-and-pop establishments but be known for something, make it a tasteful and memorable experience. Find one, or maybe two, items you are good at and make it better than everyone else. There will always be competition. This is not to say to neglect your other offerings.

En mi experiencia, la omnipresencia del online conlleva una mayor exigencia por parte del cliente en todos los aspectos de la cadena de valor. Esto incluye la logística. Efectivamente, la satisfacción del cliente depende cada vez más no solo del proprio producto, si no también el servicio que lo acompaña. En el caso de una tienda online, el cliente puede comparar fácilmente el mismo producto vendido por diferentes tiendas. Sin embargo, la rapidez de la entrega, la posibilidad de devolver el producto, la precisión de la información y el precio del servicio terminan muchas veces por convencer al comprador. La operatividad, vista desde el inventario hasta la entrega y el servicio pos-venta, se convierten en componentes del producto.

Don't focus on others because if you do you end up following them and the true way to success is to offer so much value to the guest that they ignore the competition and come to you. Be the people who set the trend not follow it. Double down on experience and look at how you can personalise their visit before, during and after. My summary would be don't ignore the competition but don't spend too much time on them and ignore your guests.

Improve the quality of your product and maintain it. In time your customers will notice the difference and will set you up at a higher level than your competition.