The Problem and Its Settings
The Problem and Its Settings
INTRODUCTION
One of the forces that boost the economy is business. A business is a commercial
activity that involves exchange of money for goods or services. The growth of a business both
strategies dictates the direction of the business specifically on how it deals with challenges
along the establishment of the business. One of the in-demand business here in the Philippines
are food eateries. Eateries are described as a usual small and informal restaurant serving light
lunches. According to a research, there is a high demand for ready to eat meals offered by food
eateries because Filipinos now prefer to dine out than to make their own meals due to their
Food eatery businesses in Virac, Catanduanes have been increasing through the
years. Food eateries have been put up in different spots within the town. The demand for ready
to eat meals is also increasing with its instant product service to the customers. One of the keys
to keep these businesses in-demand is through carrying out a plan or strategy to achieve the
goals of the business. Moreover, such success in putting up food eateries will be narrowed
down by this research identifying the strategies made by the business managers. The
researchers aims to study the strategies made by food eateries that boost their business and
other services.
In order to attain higher productivity, attract more customers, and gain more profit,
growth strategies are formulated. Some of the business strategies made by managers are based
on the four controllable marketing mix variables of 4Ps: product, price, place, promotion.
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Through establishing a marketing strategy or a broad plan for using an organization’s resources
to meet its marketing objectives, the marketing mix will be managed. Moreover, creating a
marketing plan will help in identifying the factors that can affect the product, price, place, and
customer satisfaction, in-house competencies, product quality and including the art of
competitiveness as one of the small business strategy. Assessing the business strategies used
by managers in putting up eateries can reflect how they adapt to changes brought by different
factors like economic demands, lack of resources, latest trends, and even customer’s
satisfaction. In other words, this research will focus on the strategies that enhance growth both
in boosting financial strategies, performance, service and the advantage of applying 4Ps
marketing mix strategy in establishing the food eatery business. It will also include the
common challenges faced by eatery managers that helped them generate a better strategy.
The demand for the ready to eat meals offered by food eateries especially in the
Philippines is continuously increasing as the years pass. Due to changes happening in the
market like technology advancement, innovation of market trends, and increasing price rate of
raw materials, strategies are made and adapted by different stalls. With this, the researchers
will identify the business strategies made by food eateries in Virac, Catanduanes. Specifically,
What strategies are used by managers in terms of: (based on 4Ps marketing mix)
-price -product
-promotion -place
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What unique offers are used by managers in boosting the eatery business?
What challenges are faced by managers that helped them make a better business
strategy?
This research can help other food eatery businesses to provide solutions
strategies about food related business specifically food eateries in case they
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Researchers
This research will further expand the researcher’s knowledge about food
related businesses and also for other researcher’s future study about this
topic.
This qualitative research will only cover these eateries located in Virac: Arianne’s
Eatery, One two sawa Eatery, Catanduanes Food Garden, Condeno’s Canteen, JBenz Eatery
and Kusina ni Kuya Bert. As stated, this research will also get the strategies made by managers
in gaining income, and offering services but not covering their financial statements. The
researchers will only focus on the eateries strategies relating to 4Ps of marketing mix which
are the price, product, promotion and place. This study will also cover the unique offers made
by business managers to attain business growth and the challenges they have encountered that
DEFINITION OF TERMS
(b) eatery- a small business that offers affordable meals; informal form of restaurant
(f) marketing mix- a technique which can help the business competitive advantage
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(g) place- setting or location
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CHAPTER II
advantage, sustain advantage, and renew advantage in order to produce superior value for the
business ecosystem. Theories of strategy attempt to explain the underlying forces which
produce this advantage or are the primary factors of consideration in producing advantage.
Meanwhile, Schmidt, J.C., Laycock M. & Enock K.(2009) defined strategic planning as a
systematic process of envisioning a desired future, and translating this vision into broadly
defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them. One of the people who
are behind the strategy theories is Henry Mintzberg. He is best known for his work on business
strategy where he is said to have exposed the gaps between academic concepts of strategy and
involve individual cognition and social interaction, cooperation as well as conflict; it has to
include analyzing before and programming after as well as negotiating during; and all of this
373). Mintzberg's general theory identifies eight 'ideal types' of strategies along a deliberate-
emergent continuum. Some of the types of his strategies include planned strategies,
Meanwhile, other theories of strategies are contingency theory, evolutionary theory, organizational
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theory, resource-based view theory, and positional view theory. Donaldson (1995) summarizes the
model. Evolutionary theories discusses three evolutionary process- variation, selection, and
retention. The organizational theory states that “the approach to strategy maintains that strategies
and structures are dependent variables, being consequences of organizational performance” (Scott
& Davis, 2007). Moreover, resource-based theory focuses on the firm’s internal resources and
capabilities as the best source of competitive advantage over other firms. Positional view of
strategy is also called the external view. It contends that competitive advantage is a “function of
On the other hand, the 4PS marketing mix (product, price, promotion, place) that was used
in this study, was put together by Neil Borden and E. Jerome McCarthy. The term marketing mix
was coined by Neil Borden that means “the ingredients that combine to capture and promote a
brand or product’s unique selling points, those that differentiate it from its competitors.” The ideas
of Borden’s model was later refined over the years by E. Jerome McCarthy which reduced them to
4 elements called the “The Four Ps.” The 4Ps model includes the product, price, promotion, and
place.
Strategies are actions that provide guidance for attainment of organizational goals (Gupta
&Muita, 2013). As suggested by Martins (2015), one of the keys that gives success to business
is the strategies made by entrepreneur and manager As stated by Hyland (2013) (as noted by
Anyanga and Namita), such different growth strategies made by business owners are classified
into either organic or inorganic clusters. Bressler (n.d.) considers the art of competitiveness as
a part of a small business’ strategy that should be mastered. He noted that “for a competitive
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advantage to be successful, entrepreneur need to develop a competitive advantage that can be
sustainable for a period of time. Achieving superior competitive advantage can often result in
Mcarthy (1960) (as cited in Bressler) proposed the marketing mix which can help the
business develop competitive advantage. Such marketing mix mentioned are product, price,
place, and promotion. Bressler on the other hand, proposed that a fifth element, as pertaining
to people, should be added to the marketing mix which serves to connect the other four
elements. In addition, David Ingram (n.d) says that an effective strategic management can help
new businesses to navigate the often unstable early years, helping them to become profitable
In other words, this research will focus on the strategies that enhance growth both in
boosting financial strategies and performance. Beattie has considered balancing quality and
growth as one of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses saying that there are also
biggest challenges acknowledged by Beattie also are client dependence, money management,
fatigue, founder dependence and balancing growth quality. On the other hand, such factors that
affect a competitive advantage of a business are customer satisfaction and value. As noted by
Bressler (n.d.), certainly effective strategy should be based on more than the marketing mix
As stated by Gelderen et al. (n.d.), 95% of small business failure is due to lack of proper
business planning. Conversely, Steyn and Niemann (as cited in Bressler ) suggested that “small
business owners need to rethink business strategies to incorporate new ideas and principles to
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adapt to societal and stakeholder expectations”. A study conducted by Anyanga & Namita
(2016) proved the “theory of strategies by indicating through its findings that enterprises move
through distinguishable stages of growth and that each stage contains a relatively calm period
of growth that ends with a management crisis. “ Furthermore, Anyanga & Namita found out
that most entrepreneurs adopted the product development strategy that targeted specific market
segments. Meanwhile, Amurao,E., Mercado & Ramirez S. (2014), “pricing is one of the most
important factors one must consider when putting up a business. The idea is not to price your
Innovation strategies have been introduced by Bonn & Milagrosa (2014) which also
involves (like what other researchers have mentioned above) product, process, ways-of-
Amurao,E., Mercado & Ramirez S. (2014), businesses should consider making innovations in
improving relationship with customers, and strengthening supplier relationship. They have also
recommended that the same study should be conducted in other provinces to “assess the
marketing strategies employed by small and medium enterprises in those areas, as bases for
intervention.”
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This research used the case study qualitative research design which follows the
structure of covering the research problem, context, and other issues related to the
research. This research design is also used for it requires a direct data collection
specifically through interviews. The case being investigated in this research is for the
manager of the business covering the business strategies which were furthered
The researcher conducted a survey on six food eateries (Arianne’s Eatery, One
two sawa Eatery, Catanduanes Food Garden, Condeno’s Canteen, JBenz Eatery and
Kusina ni Kuya Bert) located in the vicinity of Virac using a set of questionnaires and
through a face-to-face interview with the respondents. The sampling procedure that was
used in this study is purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is used as the researchers
only selected specific eateries which are chosen based from their location which are only
near establishments like schools, offices, market, and other stores. The managers or co-
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Instrumentation
The researchers conducted the data collection through a semi-structured interview. The
The questionnaire requires data for the title of the respondent and the eatery. Questions
1 to 3 covers data about the eatery and the unique offers made by restaurant. Question
number four focuses on the 4Ps marketing mix: product, place, promotion, and price.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Please provide an answer required for the questions below. The researchers will further
Name: _________________________
1. How many years has this eatery been on the service? ________
2. What is/are your main reasons for putting up this kind of business?
Convenience of customers
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Others (please specify) _____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
PRICE
(l) What factors do you consider in setting the price of your offered meals?
Price of ingredients
PRODUCT
How do you make the variations of your offered meals every day?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
PROMOTION
Flyers
Social Media
PLACE
What factors do you consider in choosing this place as the setting of your
eatery?
D. Procedure
Preparations of questionnaires
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Face-to-face interview
Through it, the researcher have asked questions related to the topic for
Data collection
The researchers collected and sorted the data gathered. The data
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CHAPTER IV
Constantino, Virac,
A Arrianes’s Eatery Asst. Mgr. / Cashier
Catanduanes
Catanduanes Concepcion,Virac,
B Manager
Food Garden Catanduanes
Rawis, Virac,
D Jbenz Eatery Co-Owner
Catanduanes
Salvacion, Virac,
F One Two Sawa Proprietor / Chief Cook
Catanduanes
This table shows that all the eateries are located in Virac and almost all the respondents
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Table 2. Factors considered in putting up an eatery
convenience of
A service
customers
convenience of
E service
customers
The managers of the eateries have considered two factors or reasons for choosing a
food eatery as their business. The researchers have classified it into three categories in terms
of:
Service – Three out of six respondents said that one of the main reasons why
they put up an eatery is for the convenience of the customers and to bring
service to people.
Financial Growth- Two of the respondents said that they considered putting
Personal reasons- One respondent considered his passion for cooking as his
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Table 3. Common challenges faced by eateries
A encountered
B challenges while
E generate a better
F strategy?
Table 3
Table 3 shows that 3 out of 6 of the respondents said that they have faced business
challenges putting up the eatery while the remaining three said that they did not encounter any
problem while they are running the eatery. The researchers found out different challenges that
eateries faced that helped them generate better strategies. The manager of Ariane’s Eatery
whose eatery has faced challenges said, “we considered receiving some complaints about our
eatery’s service as one of the challenges we faced that helped us improve our work.”
Other challenges encountered by the managers includes the problems in the organization and
improvement of the structure of the eatery itself. Having insufficient funds to produce or offer
more meals is also one of the challenges faced by one of the managers as they were just starting
the business.
On the other hand, the manager of Catanduanes Food Garden who did not faced any
challenges said “out family has been on this field of business for a long time so it was not
difficult for us to run the eatery especially my son has finished culinary education.”
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Strategies based on 4Ps model of E. Jerome Mccarthy (price, promotion, place, product)
Price
Other
Price of Amount of
Eatery expenses Others
What factors ingredients meal serving
spent
do you
A
consider in
B
setting the
C
price of your
D
offered meals?
E
F
As shown in table 4, three out of six respondents said that the major factor they consider in
setting the price of their offered meals depends on the price of ingredients used for cooking the
meals. On the other hand, one of the respondents said that they depend it on the amount of
meal serving and the other two respondents said that they consider the kind of food that the
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Product
The managers said that they both consider the customer and the menu in making
the variation of the set of meals cooked every day. When it comes to customers, the
managers consider which meals are already highly in-demand to the customers. Those
meals which are already in-demand are included in their menu every day to make sure
it will be consumed for one whole day. On the other hand, when it comes to the menu,
one of the managers make sure to have different menu everyday by making a meal plan.
To keep meals in-demand, the eatery managers said that they continue to
maintain and improve the quality and consistency of taste. They also keep the meals
Promotion
Table 5. Medium used in Promoting Business
Commercial Social
Eatery Flyers Others
How do (radio) media
A you
B promote
C your
D business?
E Through…
F
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As shown in table 5, four out of six respondents said that they promote the
eateries through commercials in radios. The rest of the respondents said that through
referrals made by customers or relatives to other customers, they can gain more
buyers.
Place
A
B
C
D
E
F
The number one factor considered by the respondents in choosing the setting of
the eatery is the place or spot to attract more customers easily. Other aspect include the
sanitation or cleanliness of the environment. One manager said that the setting of the
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Table 7. Unique Offers made by Eateries
The managers of the eateries have made unique offers to boost their business. The
Service
Two out of six respondents made a unique offer in terms of service through having a
conducive place and offering an affordable price of meals to the customers. One of the
managers also said that they consider having a good relationship with the customers
like smiling and thanking them before leaving the eatery as a unique offer of their
eatery.
Product
The remaining four respondents said that they have an offer in terms of product like
SUMMARY
Four out of six respondents interviewed were managers and the remaining two are co-
owners or assistant managers. There are factors considered by the managers in choosing the
eatery as their business which are categorized into two namely service and financial growth.
In connection with the strategies they make, the respondents were asked if they have faced
business challenges that helped generate better strategies. Figure 4. 2 shows that four of the
managers said that they have faced business challenges putting up the eatery while two of them
said that they did not encounter any problem while running the eatery. The challenges faced
by the managers include insufficient funds for offering additional meals, receiving complaints
from the customers, and the problems regarding the organization of the structure of the eatery
itself. Making unique offers in terms of services and product are also made by eateries as part
of their strategies. The unique offers in terms of services includes conducive place and offering
affordable prices. Most of the unique offers when it comes to product are free soup and
unlimited rice. Moreover, the strategies are categorized based on the 4Ps marketing mix. When
it comes to price, fifty percent of the respondents said that the number one factor considered
in setting the price of the meals depends on the price of the ingredients. For the product,
variations of offered meals are made by the managers through making a meal plan. In addition,
the eateries keep their meals in-demand by maintaining and improving the quality and
consistency of its taste. In terms of promotion, four out of six respondents advertise their
product through commercials in radios while the other respondents depend on referrals through
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other customers and relatives. In choosing the place as the setting of the eatery, the number
one factor considered is the distance or spot that attract customers easily. Other aspects
considered are the sanitation or cleanliness of the environment and the building they already
own.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings, the six eateries have practiced the 4Ps marketing mix as their
strategies of boosting their eatery business. Aside from the marketing mix, the unique offers
made by the eateries are part of their strategies to boost their business in terms of offering a
good service and the quality of product they made for their customers. The eateries have also
faced challenges while running the eatery in terms of funds, service, and organization of the
eatery itself. This study also found out that through facing different business challenges, the
eateries have made better strategies for the future of their business.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The study is deemed to be revised and improved for future research. These are the following
The researchers can consider the number of years in service of the managers working
The researchers can increase the number of respondents through choosing them in
various places to compare and contrast the differences and similarities of strategies
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Another P can be addedin the marketing mix (4Ps) which is people specially in
generating strategies.
During the data gathering, researchers can interview the respondents and ask further
Other researchers can use other type of sampling methods to increase the number of
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REFERENCES
WEBSITES
Beattie, A. (2015, June 29). 5 Biggest Challenges Facing Your Small Business [Web log
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trend-report
Gourmet Mktg. (2017, January 19). How To Increase Your Restaurant’s Business
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Ingram, D. (n.d.). Small Business Development Strategies. Retrieved September 22, 2017,
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Purely Branded. (n.d.). 4Ps Marketing Mix. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from
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Sare, R. (n.d.). 20 Small Food Business with Small Capital in the Philippines.
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restaurant-institutional
Bressler, S. (n.d.). How small businesses master the art of competition through superior
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Nyamita, M.O., & Anyanga, S.O. (2016). The Major Growth Strategies adopted by Small
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Ramirez, S.P., Mercado, R.I., & Amurao, E. A. (2014). Marketing Strategies of Selected
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APPENDIX
Appendix 1
Questionnaire
Please provide an answer required for the questions below. The researchers will further
Name: _________________________
1 .How many years has this eatery been on the service? ________
2. What is/are your main reasons for putting up this kind of business?
Convenience to customers
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
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4.
PRICE
(m) What factors do you consider in setting the price of your offered meals?
Price of ingredients
PRODUCT
How do you make the variations of your offered meals every day?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
PROMOTION
Flyers
Social Media
29
PLACE
What factors do you consider in choosing this place as the setting of your
eatery?
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Appendix 2
LETTER OF REQUEST
31
32
LETTER FOR THE MANAGER
33
34
LETTER FOR RESPONDENTS
35
36
CURRICULUM VITAE
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Name: Mary Joy P. Capinpin
Nickname: Joy
Address: Sogod Tibgao, Virac, Catanduanes
Date of Birth: August 17, 2000
Parents: Emilie P. Capinpin
Luisito B. Capinpin
CP no: 09124125503
Email Address: N/A
38
Name: Leila Marie V. Pascual
Nickname: Lei
Address: Cavinitan, Virac, Catanduanes
Date of Birth: April 17, 2001
Parents: Noemi T. Pascual
Menandro T. Pascual
CP no: 09483903954
Email Address: N/A
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