Marketing Segmentation Variables Employed by Darden Restaurants Targeting the Sit-Down Dining Market
Marketing Segmentation Variables Employed by Darden Restaurants Targeting the Sit-Down Dining Market
Darden Restaurants serve more than 400 million meals every year in more than 1,800 restaurants across the United States. Bringing in over $7 billion of revenue per year, Darden Restaurants strategically target different consumer demographics based on several segmentation variables to achieve the high level of market share they take pride in. For those reasons and more, the multi-brand restaurant operator CEO, Clarence Otis, claims that his company’s successes are never due to luck, or chance but strategy and marketing intelligence instead. Marketing Segmentation is the concept of dividing and subdividing a market along mutual characteristics. This marketing strategy is employed across Darden’s portfolio of restaurants but is seen more clearly with the case of Darden’s top three restaurant chains; LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster. The first and most common type of segmentation is done by focusing marketing energy on a specific demographic. Age and Generational Marketing clearly stands out with Darden’s top three chains as they seem to have successfully captured the Generation X demographic. Generation X includes individuals born between 1965 and 1976 who in other words currently make up the typical “parent” bracket of our society. This is a highly successful advantage for Darden as parents tend to have more occasions for ‘sit-down’ dinners than any other age group. Primarily, parents like to take their families out for a meal every once in a while and once a family considers potential family restaurants, Olive Garden, LongHorn or Red Lobster automatically come to mind due to their perception as family-friendly, cultural, and arguably fancy. Furthermore, when parents want to go on date-nights or couple-night-outs with friends, Darden’s three chains equally come to mind as couple-friendly and therefore somewhat romantic. Another demographic
Darden Restaurants serve more than 400 million meals every year in more than 1,800 restaurants across the United States. Bringing in over $7 billion of revenue per year, Darden Restaurants strategically target different consumer demographics based on several segmentation variables to achieve the high level of market share they take pride in. For those reasons and more, the multi-brand restaurant operator CEO, Clarence Otis, claims that his company’s successes are never due to luck, or chance but strategy and marketing intelligence instead. Marketing Segmentation is the concept of dividing and subdividing a market along mutual characteristics. This marketing strategy is employed across Darden’s portfolio of restaurants but is seen more clearly with the case of Darden’s top three restaurant chains; LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster. The first and most common type of segmentation is done by focusing marketing energy on a specific demographic. Age and Generational Marketing clearly stands out with Darden’s top three chains as they seem to have successfully captured the Generation X demographic. Generation X includes individuals born between 1965 and 1976 who in other words currently make up the typical “parent” bracket of our society. This is a highly successful advantage for Darden as parents tend to have more occasions for ‘sit-down’ dinners than any other age group. Primarily, parents like to take their families out for a meal every once in a while and once a family considers potential family restaurants, Olive Garden, LongHorn or Red Lobster automatically come to mind due to their perception as family-friendly, cultural, and arguably fancy. Furthermore, when parents want to go on date-nights or couple-night-outs with friends, Darden’s three chains equally come to mind as couple-friendly and therefore somewhat romantic. Another demographic