a. Darden’s competitive advantage and core competency – in essence, the magic sauce that makes the company stay in the game.
One of the biggest competitive advantage of Darden restaurants is its continual investment in maintaining a powerful brand image. This includes healthy and nutritious food, fast and attentive service and engaging and inviting dinning environment. Looking back to Darden’s mission statement, the firm promises to create a terrific dining experience, nourish and delight every customers they serve for now and forever, Darden restaurants have been one of the strongest brand image in casual dining industry. Although it has been in high competition with other food brands, Darden restaurants with seven well-known brands such as Olive garden, Red Lobster are familiar to people when they …show more content…
The firm employs the power of media such as internet, local and national television, newspaper, radio, digital voucher and promotion catalogue. In particular, Darden uses television as its main marketing outlet for its well-known restaurants such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn and Seansons 52. Red Lobster, for example, was broadcasted in California Spanish channels to introduce to Hispanic people. Furthermore, the firm also use some attractive promotion like “free soup and salad” for every order of main menu or “dinner today and tomorrow” which gives customers the deal for dinning today and to-go tomorrow with the affordable price. As well, some of Darden restaurants offer “limited time only” promotion to attract the customers.
In conclusion, the key to the success of Darden has been their core value and above competitive advantages. It not only helps the firm stay in the game but also become the one of leading restaurants and advertisers in the full service dining segment of the restaurant