Menu Planning and Product Development for Frankie & Benny's

This report examines the principles and practical application of menu planning and product development within the context of Frankie & Benny's, a restaurant chain seeking to introduce a Chinese-Italian food concept. It begins by outlining the factors and principles of recipe development, considering personal expertise, economic factors, taste, quality, and health considerations. The report then delves into factors influencing menu planning decisions, emphasizing price, quality, service, decor, and customer preference. It also explores various service methods like self-service, buffet service, and waiter service, weighing their advantages and disadvantages. The report details the stages of menu product development planning, from idea brainstorming to market testing and launch preparation, and discusses the influence of social, economic, and food availability factors on the development process. The report includes a menu design, justification of food service environment, findings on customer requirements, recommendations for launching a new food concept, and a review of performance related to its implementation. The report concludes with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the new food concept.

Menu Planning and Product
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
AC 1.1 Factors and principles of recipe development................................................................1
AC 1.2 Factors influencing menu planning decision..................................................................2
AC 1.3 Factors influencing service methods..............................................................................3
AC 2.1 Stages of menu product development planning..............................................................5
AC 2.2 Factors influencing development process.......................................................................6
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................6
AC 3.1 Justification of menu design...........................................................................................6
AC 3.2 Justification of development of food service environment............................................7
AC 4.1 Findings of research for customer requirements............................................................7
AC 4.2 Justification of new food concept...................................................................................8
AC 4.3 Recommendations on launch of new food concept........................................................8
AC 4.4 Review of performance in relation to development and implementation of new food
concept........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Menu planning is the most important at the time of product development as it provides
the first impression over the customers about the new product. Frankie & Benny's is a restaurant
containing range of Italian dishes. The restaurants want to develop a new food concept of
Chinese Italian foods. The present study includes a brief discussion various principles and factors
affecting the recipe development. It also shows some factors which affects the decision making
procedure in the menu planning procedure of the restaurant business. The study provides various
factors having influence over the service methods of the restaurant along with several stages of
menu product development. The present assignment also shows a menu design as to comply with
the recipe development along with justification of development of an appropriate food service
environment for supporting the recipe and service style, findings of meeting the customer
requirements for the food concept and development of new food concept and the
recommendations for launching and implementing new food concept in the market. It also shows
the reviews of performance in context to development and implementation of new food concept.
TASK 1
AC 1.1 Factors and principles of recipe development
For the purpose of recipe development, a restaurant need to comply numerous principles.
Further there are also various factors which affects the recipe development (Sanderson Bellamy
and Ioris, 2017). In order to develop an effective recipe, and gaining sustainable profit in return,
restaurant has to analyse all these factors and develop their plans accordingly.
Factors that need to be considered while developing the new recipe are:
 Personal expertise: Skill of employees and their expertise is the most important factor to
be considered. New recipe must be as per the capability of the employees. Any new
recipe beyond the expertise of employees may provide negative result to the restaurant. In
case, expertise of workforce is not sufficient for the new recipe, business need to provide
them proper training before launching the new concept in the market.
 Economical factors: Economical factors includes income of the targeted and potential
customers and their spending capacity (Gearhardt, Corbin and Brownell, 2016). The new
developed recipe must be within the spending capacity of the customers so that market
share could be grabbed easily.
Further, The major principles of recipe development are as under:
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 Taste and quality: New developed recipe must contain a standard quality and taste. The
taste and quality must be unaltered as alteration in taste may lead in losing the customers
of the company.
 Ascertaining aliment: Before development of any new food concept, healthiness of the
food need to be ascertained. It is important for the sake of providing safeguard to the
customers.
 Cooking overture: As per this principle, the Frankie & Benny's should set a basic
pattern of cooking the Chinese Italian foods like cutting, boiling, grilling, etc. it would
help in maintaining a consistency in the taste and quality of the food.
 Instauration: Instauration refers to the creativity. While developing the food of new
concept, chefs also should decide a creative concept of serving (Bondzi-Simpson and
Ayeh, 2017). It helps in attracting the customers towards the new concept as well.
Advantages
 Development of new food concept will help the restaurant in attracting more customers
towards the company.
 Developing the new food concept as per the needs and demand of the exsiting customers
will help in enhancing the number of loyal customers for the restaurant.
 In addition, it will also enhance the marketability of the business.
Disadvantages
 It would lead in enhancement of cost to the company.\
 It would enhance the uncertainty of the business.
 It may result in suffering loss to the company.
 Dissatisfaction of the customer may also result in losing the existing customers by the
restaurant.
AC 1.2 Factors influencing menu planning decision
While developing any new food concept, menu planning is the most important task. An
effective menu can help the restaurant in attracting maximum amount of customers towards it
(Gür and Eren, 2018). In this regard, decision regarding planning of menu design need to be
taken after considering various factors which have influence over the menu planning decision
like:
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 Price: It is the most important factor to be considered while planning the menu. Frankie
& Benny's should decide the each range of food of the new concept must be in between
spending capacity of the target and potential customers. List dishes beyond the spending
power of customers may result in suffering loss to the restaurant.
 Quality: While developing range of food having new food concept, restaurant need to
ensure that standard quality of the food must be maintained. Reduction in quality of food
may lead in providing dissatisfaction to the customers which may become a cause of
losing the customer by the business.
 Service: Restaurant should decide the type of services to be provided to the customers
including welcoming service, serving services, etc. thee range of services should be setup
as per the number of workers and the financial position of it (Chandler and Lusch, 2015).
It would help the organisation in being economical and cost efficient as well.
 Decor: Decor includes garnishing of the dish at the time of serving it to the customers.
This factor is needed to be consider in order to attract the customers towards the dish. It
also leads in providing some sort of satisfaction to the customers.
 Preference: The range of dishes included in the menu must be developed as per the
preference of the target customers. Dishes should contain the taste preferred by the
population of the region. It would help in sustaining the customers with restaurant and
attracting more population towards it as well.
AC 1.3 Factors influencing service methods
Service method refers to method of serving or attending the customers. In a restaurant
business, in includes the way of welcoming and attending customers, taking their order, serving
food, etc. there are various factors which may affect the service method of the Frankie & Benny
like:
 Budget: Service method need to be within the financial capacity of the business. It would
help the restaurant business in being economical and would maintain its earning capacity
as well (Wynstra, Spring and Schoenherr, 2015).
 Trend: Maintenance of service methods as per the latest trend may provide positive
result in attracting the customers towards the services of restaurant. It directly affects the
sales of the new dishes and the profitability of organisation as well.
There are range of service methods that can be adopted by the Frankie and Benny like:
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 Self services: In this type of services, customers need to take order for food and take the
food from the service counter on their own.
Advantages
▪ It reduces the need of waiters in the restaurants
▪ Waiters do not need to take care about each customer.
▪ Only few waiters are needed to stand behind the counter and take the order or
customers and transfer it to the kitchen area as well.
Disadvantages
▪ This method is not suitable for the restaurants serving lunch or dinner.
▪ It enhances the rush on the counter
▪ it may result in customer dissatisfaction due to rush on the counter. Buffet services: In this method, range of foods are served on the counter (Škec, Štorga
and Tečec Ribarić, 2016). Customers can choose foods as per their preference from the
buffet station.
Advantages
▪ It is the easiest method of serving.
▪ It reduces the need of waiters.
▪ Reduces the workload of waiters as they just need to focus on the dishes on the
buffet station and cleanliness of the tables of customers.
Disadvantages
▪ It reduces the chances of interacting with customers.
▪ Maintenance of each bowl full of dishes might be quite challenging for the
restaurant. Waiter services: It is the most common service method applied by the restaurants. In this
method, waiters provides each services to the customers from taking orders till collecting
payment of the bill.
Advantages
▪ This method helps in providing personal care to each customers
▪ Management of the restaurant becomes quite easy (Armstrong, 2015).
▪ Enhances the quality of services.
Disadvantages
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▪ Requires large number of customers.
▪ Requires more skilled staff to serve the customers properly.
▪ Enhances the cost of restaurant.
AC 2.1 Stages of menu product development planning
For the purpose of an effective development plan for of launching new food product, the
following stages should be followed by the Frankie & Benny's:
 Idea brainstorming: The stage of development of new product starts with the generation
of idea of development. For the purpose of generating a brainstorming idea, Frankie &
Benny's should analyse the needs and demands of the customers (What are the factors
affecting meal planning?, 2018). Generation of idea while taking into account the
customer's requirement will result in generation of more effective idea.
 Evaluation of idea: after generation of the idea, an evaluation of feasibility of the idea
must be performed (Holland, 2019).. The idea generated must be feasible by the
restaurant business within a specific time. As, unfeasible idea is of no use for the purpose
of getting success in near future.
 Competitive analysis: it is the most important stage of product development. Amount of
competition influences the profitability and market share of the company. Development
of strategies as per the analysis of competitors helps in effectively performing the
business activities and attracting more customers as to enhance the profitability of the
business.
 Marketing testing: Testing the market includes the analysis of competition and
profitability in the market. Further, it also includes the analysis of sales mix of the
competitive market i.e. analysing the probability of each dish included in the menu. At
this stage, Frankie and Benny's need to analyse the market of Chinese Italian food (Flora,
2017). It will help the restaurant in developing more effective strategies of promoting the
food and improving the serving concept as to attract more customers and develop itself in
the near future.
 Preparation for launch: It is the final stage of planning for the development of new
food concept. Frankie & Benny needs to develop the plan for performing marketing and
advertising activities, designing menu cards, preparation of list dishes to be included in
the menu for Chinese Italian foods., price of each dish, design of menu, etc.
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AC 2.2 Factors influencing development process
 Social factors: Development of any new food concept has to be as per the social culture
of the region. It directly affects the taste and preference of the population. Frankie &
Benny must analyse the culture of the region and evaluate taste of the population
accordingly. Any product not according to the taste of population, may lead in increasing
dissatisfaction among the customers and reduction in probability of grabbing more
market share as well (Ye and Murthy, 2016)
 Economic factors: Economic factors includes the spending power of the population. The
decision relating to the price of product must be taken as per the economic condition of
the target customers and potential customers as well. It will help in sustaining them with
the company for long time (The product development process, 2018).. Further
maintenance of economical price will also help in attracting maximum amount of
customers towards the company as well.
 Food availability: Further, development of new range of dishes in the restaurant must be
decided as per the availability of raw material needed for preparation of food. Otherwise,
it may enhance the cost of the company (Ozdemir and Caliskan, 2015). For example, if
Frankie and Benny's decides to develop ant new food concept for which those raw
materials are needed that are not easily available in the nearby market or approachable
market. It will result in making the company to export the material which will increase
the cost of company. In case, the new product fails to meet the cost incurred by the
restaurant, it would result in suffering loss to the company
In this regard, all these factors needed to be taken while developing the new food concept, as
these factors have major influence over the success of the concept in the market.
TASK B
AC 3.1 Justification of menu design
AC 3.2 Justification of development of food service environment
AC 4.1 Findings of research for customer requirements
AC 4.2 Justification of new food concept
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AC 4.3 Recommendations on launch of new food concept
AC 4.4 Review of performance in relation to development and implementation of new food
concept
(Covered in PPT)
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that, Frankie & Benny's has decided to
launch a new food concept i.e. Chinese Italian foods. For this purpose, the restaurant has made a
breif research of each factor influencing the food development, service method, external
environmental factors etc. the restaurant has designed its menu in the most attractive way.
Further it has also set its interior design as to include both Chinese and Italian culture. It has
helped in gaining the attention of the customers. The study has also recommended some points to
the restaurant with the help of which it can enhance its service methods and enhance its
marketability and profitability as well. Further, after reviewing the implementation of food
concept, it has been evaluated that the idea of the Chinese Italian food has resulted in attracting
maximum customers towards it. Further, it has also helped the restaurant in attaining the rapid
growth and development in near future.
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REFERENCES
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the conative response of menu decision makers. International Journal of Hospitality
Management. 67. pp.115-124.
Gür, Ş. and Eren, T., 2018. Scheduling and Planning in Service Systems with Goal
Programming: Literature Review. Mathematics. 6(11). p.265.
Chandler, J. D. and Lusch, R. F., 2015. Service systems: a broadened framework and research
agenda on value propositions, engagement, and service experience. Journal of Service
Research. 18(1). pp.6-22.
Wynstra, F., Spring, M. and Schoenherr, T., 2015. Service triads: A research agenda for buyer–
supplier–customer triads in business services. Journal of Operations Management. 35.
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Armstrong, G. and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Škec, S., Štorga, M. and Tečec Ribarić, Z., 2016. Work sampling of product development
activities. Technical Gazette. 23(6). pp.1547-1554.
Holland, B., 2019. Factors and strategies that influence faculty involvement in public
service. Building the Field of Higher Education Engagement: Foundational Ideas and
Future Directions.
Flora, P., 2017. Development of welfare states in Europe and America. Routledge.
Ye, Z.S. and Murthy, D. P., 2016. Warranty menu design for a two-dimensional
warranty. Reliability Engineering & System Safety. 155. pp.21-29.
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Ozdemir, B. and Caliskan, O., 2015. Menu design: A review of literature. Journal of
Foodservice Business Research. 18(3). pp.189-206.
Online
What are the factors affecting meal planning?. 2018. [Online] Available Through:
<http://www.preservearticles.com/2011100714900/what-are-the-factors-affecting-meal-
planning.html>
The product development process. 2018. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/product-development-process>
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