Applied Business Management Industry : Digital Marketing Strategy for Kera-la-carte

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BACHELOR OF APPLIED BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Graduate Diploma in Applied Business Management
Industry Project Part A (Project Proposal)
Digital Marketing Strategy for Kera-la-carte
Date of Submission:
Submitted By: Abilal Amruthalal
Student ID Number: 2193019
Submitted to: Fahimi Ali
Student Name: Abilal Amruthalal Student ID Number: 2193019
I verify that this is my own work and that I have not allowed, and in the future
will not allow, other student or individuals to copy it.
Student Signature: Date:

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Table of Contents:
Particulars Page No.
Abstract
- Scope of the Project
- Introduction of the Industry
3
Host Organization
- Introduction
- Issues/Opportunities
- Motivation
3-4
Research Questions 4-5
Research Objectives 5
Research Methodology
- Primary
- Secondary
5-6
Current Trends 6
Summary of peer reviewed articles 6-7
Evaluation of Progress 7
Limitations 7
Timeline 8
Ethics Form Attached separately
Project Introduction Form Attached separately
References 9

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Abstract
In order to reach the young customers in this modern area the role of digital marketing is increasing and is
the most appropriate and valuable tool. The project aims to analyses the role of digital marketing and its
contribution to create brand awareness and to increase sales for Kera-la-carte in a cost-effective manner
and develop strategies accordingly. I will identify the factors in detail that influences people’s decision in
buying Indian food and develop effective digital strategies keeping those factors in mind. As we all
know when people search online about a store selling Indian food they come across various brand
messages and the brands which present a creative and polished content is the eye catcher and
draws attention so developing such digital strategies which are well presented, gets engraved in the mind
and communicates instantly is the focus.
The project is about investigating the store and presenting strategic options for growth and expansion. The
study will focus on creation, promotion, customer support, reputation, monitoring of social networks by
carrying out research and analysis and assist with strategy and creating a brand platform.
Scope of the project
To understand and develop the digital marketing models: We will learn, plan, do and grow. We will
first identify what do we want to accomplish, understanding the digital sales funnel, creating a consumer
persona, identifying users at all funnel stages, implementation of certain guidelines to reach the expected
goal, creation of personalization and automation, finding loopholes in the developed strategy and tracking
the progress.
To understand how the digital marketing campaigns take place: This will focus on designing an online
campaign by identifying the target audience (young adults), selecting our targets (Facebook, Instagram, pin
interest, twitter ads etc.), budget, creating the ad content, targeting and monitoring your ads and then
identifying the conversion rate.
To understand digital marketing effectiveness and impact: We will be judging the effectiveness through
five metrics i.e., return on our investment, the rate of conversion, cost per every lead and the revenue
earned per lead for all sources, tracking every session and the impact created and finding out the bounce
rate.
Introduction to Industry
The restaurant plays an inevitable role in business as well as for workers, consumers, and societies which is
a part of hospitality management. Hospitality means treating visitors, tourists, and outsiders with a polite and
generous way. Moreover, in this era, it is difficult to run an organization without hospitality field. Interestingly,
in many countries, hospitality and tourism are the main sources of income. The hospitality industry segment
comprises great dining cafes, delivery restaurants, fast food outlets, and several other forms of restaurants.
Surprisingly, the hospitality industry in New Zealand increases gradually by hiring a group of people in
restaurants and bars. Every year, restaurants enhance production and strengthen the New Zealand
economy.it is a significant source of income in New Zealand from the past. A large number of people migrated
to New Zealand because it is one of the safest countries in the world. Hospitality in this country became
popular and more restaurants, hotels, bars, and cafes are built and they serve people from all around the
world. Hospitality has been a tradition for the people of New Zealand from prehistoric times.
Introduction of Host Organization
There are many Indian restaurants in Wellington, and “Kera-la-carte” is one of its kind which serves South
Indian food. It is situated in the heart place of wellington central “Courtenay place”. Entrepreneur Mrs. Divya
Unnikrishnan started this restaurant four years ago and it became the first choice for many Indian food
connoisseurs. They are open 6 days a week for lunch and dinner service.
The main attraction of “Kera-la-carte” is everyone can experience the taste of authentic South Indian cuisine.
Quality, quantity, and reasonable prices are the reason for ‘Kera-la-carte's ‘success. Moreover, both

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vegetarians and non-vegetarians can prefer this restaurant. The main dishes in this restaurant are different
types of Dosa, Rice, Kerala plate meals, Biriyani, Payasam, Bread, Starters, etc. The ambiance of the
restaurant is very similar to restaurants in Kerala and they have different art forms that represent their home
state.
Customer service is another feature. Their main focus is customer satisfaction. It is the duty of restaurants to
satisfy the customer’s needs, in a good manner. All these can create ones thought to revisit Also, it will lead
to the success or improvement of the restaurant. Interestingly, customers can enjoy their food with soothing
music. The restaurant can accommodate about 40 to 50 guests at a time. Consequently, customers can
arrange many events, programs, and celebrations there. There are seven staff including the manager. Online
services such as Uber facilities, delivery easy, and home delivery also available in ‘Kera-la-carte’.
I will be working on devising the digital marketing strategy for the Restaurant where I presently work as Duty
Manager.
Host Organizations Issues/Opportunities
Strengths
• One of the known players in Wellington and limited competition in the area.
• Highly enthusiastic team
• Very high gross margins.
• Localised taste
• Good quality at low cost.
• Outstanding customer service
Weakness
• Competitors can offer similar products quickly.
• Long waiting duration
• Limited flexibility in pricing.
• Low efficiency in booking system
Opportunities
• Continued expansion for online sales
• Ability to develop additional stores in the area.
• Health-conscious trend
• Loyal customers
Threats
• Competitors located near by
• Competitors offer cheaper price
• Changes in regulations can impact the business

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Host Organizations Motivation
• To maintain the Group’s Core Values of Commitment, Credibility and Consistency, and finally the ‘Caring’
quality for our customers.
• To achieve ‘excellence’ in everything we do. Continue to be leaders in innovative thinking and effective
management.
Research Question:
What are the emerging major Digital Marketing (DM) channels that can be used by Kera-la-carte, its benefits
and challenges and how they are used to attract customers and enhance brand performance?
Objectives
The below objectives need to be met:
Market Research and Situational Analysis to determine market gap requirements: (Product
gap, pricing opportunity, distribution priority and communication opportunity) This is needed to form a
sound digital marketing strategy for the store. This will majorly be done to strengthen our virtual presence.
We will identify the consumer profile, the spending habits and the consumption habits of the people in the
area. We can save large amount of money by eliminating the wrong audience. Segmenting the audience
will help in creating more personalized messages and increase the virtual encounters. We will able to get
an idea how do people perceive Flaxmere in Hastings. This will help in honing the message. By monitoring
the language and activities of the consumer we will be able to mimic digital strategies accordingly and as a
result the traffic will increase on the webpage and more conversion is possible through clicks. Through
market research we can also identify the digital marketing channels where the consumer see and hear
about our store the most.
Develop Social/Digital Media Strategies after analyzing social media statistic and apply
subsequently to the store: We all are well aware that 80% of the world population is using internet
and according to a surveying 2016 (McKinsey & Company, 2018) 78% sales of luxury goods was online
and only 22% offline showcasing how important an online model is for a business model. We will build a
social network on online platforms Facebook, Instagram, you tube etc. to garner followers and connections
and use interesting content and engage more people to drive sales. As a result, people will talk for your
brand and create awareness and value. Some examples of online strategies intended to be used are online
campaigns, surrogate advertising, PoS communication, Sponsorship and alliance and creating social media
presence.
Identify the viability and cost effectiveness of the developed strategies: Without evaluation the viability
and cost effectiveness will not be possible. We will carry out SWOT and PESTEL analysis. It will take 4-5
months for evaluation as the increase in sales will determine the success of the strategies. We can carry
trials, round up of the strategies and use primary research methods like survey for store preference.
Methodology
We will use both secondary and primary sources for research. Primary data will be collected within the store
and from the customers in Wellington. The further report will rely both on quantitative and qualitative data.
Data collection will take place and the research problem will be identified. To reach the proposed objectives
above the following research questions will be answered.
- Factors that influence young people’s decision to buy Indian food at the restaurant.
- Digital marketing strategies that can be derived from analysis these factors.
Primary research will be carried out. The observation is most widely used method. Other methods will
involve the interviews with owner and other employees. Questionnaire will also be used. We expect market
understanding and opportunity identification, consumer profile, BTL Marketing, alcohol consumption
patterns (frequency, occasion, purchase pattern), store salience and store preference.

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Secondary research would be based on news articles, interview excerpts, marker research report done
earlier for such study, relevant statistical data, the alcohol market in the area, company and its competitor
websites. The expectation of the secondary data will include liquor market dynamics, competitor analysis,
competitor benchmarking for marketing effort, promotion efforts and store history and progress.
Current Trends/ Issues/News
The Covid Pandemic is one of the major issues these days. It is one of the biggest crises the world is facing.
The entire economy of NZ along with the restaurant business is affected. Social distancing and wearing of
masks have become the new norms. For the safety of people, the national restaurant association (NRA) has
called for a lockdown. During this period all the employees are paid by the restaurants and there is limited
business due to online delivery and huge losses are being suffered by the sector. After the restrictions have
slowed a bit and people are moving out, dining experience has become lucrative to them as a result the
restaurants are using innovative methods to increase sales and provide a good customer experience like
Impresario’s smoke house deli introduced DIY meal kit. People are more conscious about spending these
days and prefer social distancing and they prioritize health more now.
Peer reviewed articles
Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behaviour
(Bruno Godey, Aikaterini Manthiou, Daniele Pederzoli, Joonas Rokka, Gaetano Aiello, Raffaele
Donvito , Rahul Singh) (June 2016)
The focus of the research is to identify how social media influences brand equity and customer behaviour
towards a brand. Five luxury brands are considered and a survey of 845 participants in New Zealand and
other three countries (France, Italy and India) is undertaken to develop this relationship. The link between
social media marketing (SMM) efforts and consequences is demonstrated.
The research methodology used is creation of quantitative survey and the target audience is luxury brand
followers on social media. The brands chosen are Burberry, LV, Dicor, Guuci and Hermes. The reason for
selecting is their social media prominence and fan base. The sample size includes roughly 200 people from
all four countries. The sample is based on two criteria’s one being age and gender and the other being
education and income. The sample size has 57.6% women and 42,4% men with an average age of 34 years
and annual income of $ 39,500.
The results demonstrated that SMM have a direct influence on customer preference and equity of the brand.
Further to it SMM has a direct and positive influence on customer preference, paying ability and towards
brand loyalty. It also proved that brand equity creates a mediation effect on customer response and marketing
efforts. The research highlighted that luxury brands in Europe dated back to 18th century, while in New
Zealand they came in 1990’s and in India the presence is recent highlighting that level of maturity of the
market also plays an important role.
The philosophical and theoretical implications with the study are that any media should focus on three aspects
i.e., interaction, entertainment and trendiness. Media should be used to build a positive image and should be
environment friendly rather than only attracting customers. Luxury brands are not actively present on the
social media, it’s not too late in entering as the sector is evolving.
The limitations with the study are that they are specific for only luxury brands and cannot be used for other
industries. Secondly the culture in the four countries is completely different and is beyond the scope of this
study so future research is recommended and multinational approach is to be used.
Customers’ motivation to engage with luxury brands on social media (Saleh Bazia,b,Raffaele Filieric
, Matthew Gorton)
The study focuses on the importance of customer engagement with luxury goods developing a theoretical
framework for emotional, cognitive and behavioral engaging of consumers with luxury brand. The study uses
semi structured interviews and identifies thirteen motivation subs grouped in six dimensions. The study is
very helpful to marketing managers in engaging customers.

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The qualitative method of research is adopted due to the complex nature of customer’s motivation. The
method used is semi structured interviews as it suits research on attitude, values, motivation, experience and
beliefs (Adams, 2015). The interview helped in asking probing questions, led to discovery of new issues and
information was recalled effectively by the respondents. This helps in increasing the social interaction and
rapport (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2018). For most informative selection purposive and snowball sampling is
adopted, and interviewees were selected based on purchase made in last six month of their favourite item
and those involved with social media. The procedure recommended by (Arsel ,2017) and (Belk, Fischer, and
Kozinets, 2013) was used as interview guide. Interviewees had an age between 18 and 35 with different
ethnicities and occupations. The identity of the participants was anonymised. The interview lasted for 45
minutes to one hour and thematic analysis was conducted.
The theoretical contribution of the study is that it identifies a recent call for in-depth research on consumer’s
motivation to engage with luxury brands (Hollebeek et al., 2019). Secondly the research adopts a holistic
approach to study customer psychology. On managerial front the study is very helpful to marketing managers
in engaging customers by developing appropriate campaigns.
The limitation of the study is that it is theory building, some quantitative research to test hypothesis is
encouraged for future research and the sampling is limited to age group 18 to 35 years.
Evaluation of Progress
In order to track the progress, we will use the following metrics:
Conversion evaluation: We will focus on activities of the consumers (analyzing purchase, submitting
information etc.) by using social marketing. Metrics used will be number of clicks, analyzing how many times
the buy button or there to buy is pressed, paid marketing conversion rate, which channel had highest
conversion and number of purchase (Davenport, 2013; Charlesworth, 2014).
Evaluating the content of the website in the context of consumer behavior: The metrics used will be
the content which was most relevant, ways how customers visited the website, layout which provided
maximum results, the resources from where customers accessed the website, time spent on the website,
pages viewed etc. (Fulgoni et al., 2017).
Brand visibility, activity assessment: The metrics used will be comments, responses, unique visitors,
impression, searches made, ratings obtained, increase or decrease in followers, registrations made,
subscription availed etc. (Kelly, 2013; Strauss & Frost, 2014; Chaney, 2009).
Evaluation of financial results: The metrics will be future prospect cost of visibility of brand, consumer
value, cost of earned media, evaluations of each engine, conversion rates (Spiller & Tuten, 2015; Bendle et
al., 2015).
Evaluation of individual phases of the buyer's decision cycles: The metrics will be frequency, the reach,
size of quest. Information search will include clicks, visits, bounce rates, evaluation will include subscriptions
and comments, purchase will include conversion and post evaluation will include reviews and ratings (Lumb,
2104; Fulgoni & Lipsman, 2014).
Limitations of the study:
- Time span for the project is limited.
- Cost will be high as hardware, software, design of the website, distribution costs online, site maintenance
will be done.
- There are chances of scams and fraud on internet.
- Because of security purpose many customers will not share their card details to make purchase on the
website.
- Many sites are created without customer service making it difficult for the customer to navigate.
- The researcher had a limitation as only 107 respondents answered the survey of all 150 respondents.

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Timeline

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References
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