Preview

Resource and Competitive Position Analysis

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
840 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Resource and Competitive Position Analysis
The restaurant industry is a competitive industry. From low cost meals to specialty food items, restaurants have become savvy in their efforts to attract customers. Panera Bread has developed a strategy to attract customers that are looking for a change from fast food. Consumers are looking for new ideas for meals. They are looking for quality foods over cheap fast food. Panera has been able to attract and draw customers away from the fast food market with their unique food ideas by drawing upon the many strengths of the company. The company has been hindered by the weaknesses in its strategy and now needs to develop ideas to turn those weaknesses into opportunities to increase customers and revenue. A SWOT analysis of the company will highlight areas where the company is performing well and areas that need improved.
Strengths
Quality ingredients – Panera offers the highest quality of products to its customers. From fresh vegetables to gluten free items. The company offers a menu to suit a variety of customers.
Niche Market – Panera's menu items have evolved to meet the taste and demands of customers.
Brand – The company has a strong and distinctive brand
Reward card – This allows Panera to build a relationship with customers. Customers are rewarded with free food items for being loyal customers.
Weakness
Pricing – While Panera offers higher quality foods, many people are turned off by the high cost of the food. Panera's food is priced considerable higher than that of their competitors. Many of the fast-food chains offer and entire meal for less than the cost of a sandwich at Panera
Brand name – The Company is not as well-known as some of its competitors and often gets overlooked.
Menu Selection – Panera's menu is limited to soups, salad, sandwiches and bread. Customers wanting more variety will look for other food ideas.
Market share – The company is a national brand sold exclusively in the United States
Opportunities
Expansion – The Company can

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Panera Porters 5 Forces

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The rivalry among competing sellers, often the strongest competitive pressure, is also fairly high for Panera in the restaurant industry. No switching costs, numerous competitors, and an increase in the availability of healthy food…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Panera SWOT

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The company has a high focus on being a specialty bread store. Panera Bread Company produces Artisan breads. Artisan bread utilizes natural ingredients with skilled attention, which differentiates the company from commercial competition. This helps the company become secure in its segment of the market.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Panera Bread Company

    • 6804 Words
    • 28 Pages

    In front of you lies the new Strategic business plan for the Panera Bread company. This report includes the most important analysis needed for developing new or adapting strategies.…

    • 6804 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Swot of Panera

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Panera Bread is ready for the currentchange in American eating habits. The company is a leader in the quick-casual restaurant business with more than 1,027 bakery-cafes in 36 states. Its locations, which operate under the Panera and Saint Louis Bread Company banners, offer made-to-order sandwiches built using a variety of artisan breads, including Asiago cheese bread, focaccia, and its classic sourdough bread. Its menu also features soups, salads, and gourmet coffees. In addition, Panera sells its bread, bagels, and pastries to go. Almost 400 of its locations are company-operated, while the rest are run by franchisees. Panera Bread's is trying to provide premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers. They want to make the experience of dining at Panera so attractive that customers would be willing to pass by the outlets of other fast-casual restaurants competitors to dine at a near-by Panera Bread. They have strong competition through-out the whole fast-food/restaurant business. Two main competitors that they have are Starbucks and Einstein Bagels. They are a proven company that is always looking for ways to move forward, and advance their business. What does a SWOT analysis of Panera Bread reveal about the overall attractiveness of its situation? Does the company have any core competencies or distinctive competencies? Panera's Resource Strengths and Competitive Assets: Award winning sourdough bread High quality food Strong Financial Condition Powerful Strategy Panera's Resource Weaknesses and Competitive Liabilities: Low brand awareness in new markets Limited product line Prices Panera's Market Opportunities: Increasing health conscientious among consumers Few direct competitors Ample room to expand into new markets Expanding the product line External Threats to Panera's Future Well-Being and Profitability: Due to high profit margins,…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    panera bread

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Panera’s goal is to become the leader in the “fast casual” restaurant category. They plan on achieving this by rapid expansion and building brand recognition. The way in which Panera plans on doing this is by emphasizing its artisan made breads and other signature menu items at a fair price. Also Panera offers meal choices that span the three meal categories from breakfast to dinner. Again with these meals they emphasize the healthy choices at a good value. To complete the advantage Panera Bread Co. is seeking they strive for aesthetically pleasing café’s that provide courteous and efficient customer service.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This case study identified many strengths Panera Bread has including those dating back to Au Bon Pain Company; however, this section will only identify those strengths associated with the current position of Panera Bread Company. First and foremost is customer service. The company has been awarded with two major customer service awards including the J.D. Power and Associates’ restaurant satisfaction study which ‘‘ranked Panera Bread highest among quick-service restaurants in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States in all categories’’ (C-162). Customer loyalty is another key to Panera’s success. Studies from the case show that Panera has a high rate of returning customers once Panera has got them in the door. Panera Bread has a large and diverse menu that has been very well received from the public. In fact, their menu is set up not only to provide healthy and fresh choices but also to accommodate five different dinning times throughout the day including: breakfast, lunch, dinner, ‘chill-out time,’ and light evening fare for eat-in or take-out. The company started with zero debt on its balance sheet in 1999 and had “no long term debt at all” in 2006 (C-170).…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Panera Bread’s primary competition is comprised of many other fast casual and/or café-style restaurant chains, including Chipotle, Starbucks Coffee, Five Guys Burgers and Fries and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro.…

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    490 case

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Panera is able to identify its strengths through a strategy known as “Concept Essence.” The concepts in Panera’s strategy help them to distinguish themselves in the market place by focusing on specific areas to concentrate on. Panera has high quality meals for lower prices. The atmosphere is also very relaxing. Panera’s biggest weakness is the marketing strategy. Their campaigns have not been successful. They recently tried to restore their dinner offering and market towards breakfast and dinnertime dining. That plan failed. Panera also has very strict rules in regards to franchising. The requirements to open a franchise are very hard to accomplish. One must pay a lot upfront and also open 15 stores in six years. Panera needs to constantly seek expansion if they want to stay a dominant member in their market.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Panera Bread is a fast food company that aims to provide a quality product. They make and sell specialty breads, salads and soups. They started strong in 1981, and currently have over 1800 stores with company managed and operated as well as franchised locations (Panera Bread, 2012). The company jumped into the frontline of restaurant chains and has gained, with great effort, a good number of customers. If you go to any one of their restaurant locations you will find similar services in each and every store. There is always a choice to dine indoors or outdoors, a fire place which aims to make you feel at home while reading your paper or drinking you coffee in the morning, especially in the winter months. They are also known for their services of free refills on coffee, tea or fountain drinks as well as complimentary water with slices of lemons. There is also free access to the internet through Wi-Fi, making Panera locations a great study environment for college students. It is also well equipped with screens that display the product they offer which adds another great feature to…

    • 2488 Words
    • 72 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Panera Bread Case

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Driving concept: to provide a premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Panera Bread Company

    • 9519 Words
    • 39 Pages

    Executive Summary: Our consulting team completed an analysis of Panera Bread Company mainly focusing on the opportunities and threats within the industry, Panera‟s competitive capabilities, and the company‟s strengths and weaknesses. The following recommendations contain the opportunity or threat within the industry, the strength or weakness that allows Panera to pursue or defend against the critical issues and the tools needed to take immediate action. We recommend that Panera Bread Company: 1. Open cafés in untapped markets, and focus on utilizing franchising to achieve the desired 1:160,000 café: person ratio by 2010. We found that the restaurant industry life cycle is still in growth. This growth coupled with Panera‟s strong franchising capability offers a significant opportunity for Panera to pursue. To achieve this Panera must first use the current site selection and market analysis processes to chose ideal locations for new cafés in untapped markets. Panera should also utilize this process to…

    • 9519 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Panera Bread’s core competencies are in their market niche, offering a premium specialty bakery and café experience to suburban and urban residents. Penera’s focus is offering their customers with better than their rivals, making the dining experience so attractive to their customers will pass up their competitors in outlets of other easy casual restaurants to dine at the nearest Panera Bread…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Panera Bread case study

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Panera Bread has a driving concept to provide a premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Panera Bread is a quick casual restaurant chain that is a mixture of fast food and more upscale casual dining and especially known for its fresh ingredients and bakery goods. It sells handcrafted bread, sandwiches, soups, drinks, salads and other bakery items.…

    • 1600 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In 1985, the company added fresh made sandwiches to their production when they noticed customer behavior of purchasing a baguette cut in half and using cold cuts brought from home to make sandwiches. This allowed for a new way to reach customers with fast service, all the while staying nutritious. Panera opened in three business segments: company owned bakery-café operations, franchise operations, and fresh dough operations. The key initiatives of Panera’s growth was focused on growing store profit, increasing transaction and gross profit per transaction, use its capital smartly, and put in place drivers for concept differentiation and competitive advantage. During the recession, while other companies were lowering pricing and quality of goods, Panera was doing the opposite. The company instead targeted customer who could afford to spend an average of $8.50 on lunch. So during 2009, the company raised prices twice, on bagels and soups, which enabled the company to provide more for less. This attitude also allowed the company to maintain employees and customer satisfaction. By keeping labor consistent with sales and continuing to invest in its employees as a way to better serve its customers.…

    • 2063 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays