Panera Bread
Executive Summary
Problem Statement: While Panera bread has incorporated a great strategy by provided their customers with an upscale, high-quality dining experience in the specialty Café category, they have fallen slightly behind in their pricing strategy in order to remain competitive when so many competitors are offering a similar experience with lower prices.
Analysis:
Panera’s Strategic intent and vision has been:
• Make great bread broadly available to customers across the US
• Have an attractive Menu
• Upscale dining Ambience
• Specialty café anchored by authentic fresh dough artisan bakery
• To be one of the leading fast casual restaurant chains in the nation
• Incorporate a “name your own price” pricing strategy.
Alternatives: A few alternatives Panera could implement are:
1. Do nothing. Many times a company does not have to change a certain aspect of their business if they intend it to be that way. So, perhaps Panera does not want to change their pricing and they want to remain in the niche market they are in with their same prices and their same demographic. They might be lowering their quality standard if they lower their pricing.
2. Panera could implement some sort of additional menu that is similar to what McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s have. Even though they are not their direct competitors, these companies have maintained and increased the prices on their regular menu, but have added a “Dollar Menu” in order to be competitive and reach an entirely different audience. If Panera did this they could keep their up-scale high quality menu with their current prices as is, but they would be introducing a whole new mini-menu in order to compete on price. They could make new foods which will probably create a new marketing campaign that would fuel more buzz about the brand.
Recommendations: Option # 2
The course of action Panera Bread should take in order to also be competitive in the pricing landscape, is to incorporate a lower priced
Problem Statement: While Panera bread has incorporated a great strategy by provided their customers with an upscale, high-quality dining experience in the specialty Café category, they have fallen slightly behind in their pricing strategy in order to remain competitive when so many competitors are offering a similar experience with lower prices.
Analysis:
Panera’s Strategic intent and vision has been:
• Make great bread broadly available to customers across the US
• Have an attractive Menu
• Upscale dining Ambience
• Specialty café anchored by authentic fresh dough artisan bakery
• To be one of the leading fast casual restaurant chains in the nation
• Incorporate a “name your own price” pricing strategy.
Alternatives: A few alternatives Panera could implement are:
1. Do nothing. Many times a company does not have to change a certain aspect of their business if they intend it to be that way. So, perhaps Panera does not want to change their pricing and they want to remain in the niche market they are in with their same prices and their same demographic. They might be lowering their quality standard if they lower their pricing.
2. Panera could implement some sort of additional menu that is similar to what McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s have. Even though they are not their direct competitors, these companies have maintained and increased the prices on their regular menu, but have added a “Dollar Menu” in order to be competitive and reach an entirely different audience. If Panera did this they could keep their up-scale high quality menu with their current prices as is, but they would be introducing a whole new mini-menu in order to compete on price. They could make new foods which will probably create a new marketing campaign that would fuel more buzz about the brand.
Recommendations: Option # 2
The course of action Panera Bread should take in order to also be competitive in the pricing landscape, is to incorporate a lower priced