Panera Bread Company is a highly successful fast casual restaurant that has grown drastically even despite the market down trend. One of its best assets is CEO and Chairman, Ronald Shaich, whose radical and innovative ideas have taught the business world many lessons. When the competition was lowering prices to meet the trend of higher unemployment rates and focusing on making their product cheaper, Shaich proposed Panera Bread should raise their prices and cater to the 90% of the workforce who remained employed. Such strategies have allowed Panera Bread to become the bread winner in its market. Panera has an uncanny ability to keep in touch with its customer’s needs and desires. Oftentimes Panera creates a dining experience that customers don’t realize they want until they experience it and it leaves …show more content…
The R&D team should gather more frequently and in different locations to expand their vision. One way of expanding their product line is creating a product line for kids lunches at school. Kids lunch programs are continually cutting back due to federal mandates. Kids are complaining that they are hungry and are fed up with school lunches. Creating some type of lunchable type product that kids can identify the Panera brand with and know their lunch will be nutritious and delicious, as well as their parents knowing this as well, may bring in a new market strategy. Offering dinners that could rival competitors such as Ruby Tuesdays, Applebees, Chilis, etc for evening meals would be beneficial. If they could come up with a product line that is more than “just a soup and sandwich” for those who want something more hearty but still as delicious and nutritious for their evening meal, it would allow people more product selection and help increase evening