Olive Garden Business Analysis

The competition for customers is tough when a company is operating within a monopolistic competition. A company must distinguish themselves as unique among the competing firms for the same type of product (O’Sullivan, Sheffrin, and Perez, 2016). Olive Garden has found its sales in a slump and CEO Gene Lee has spearheaded an effort to revive the flagship company of Darden Restaurants through product differentiation. Many companies who want to enter product saturated markets must find unique products and marketing tools that appeal to consumers and sets the company apart from all the other competitors. A company will be successful in gaining customers through innovative marketing tactics along with keeping a pulse on social issues surrounding

Olive Garden has been around for years and their menu and atmosphere has not stayed in tune with patron demands. Everything has not been lost with Olive Garden’s original business model. Many of the menu items remain popular with Olive Garden patrons. Menu items that contain pasta, meat, cheese, and sauce are still well performing (Arnold, 2015). Reinventing some of these ingredients to respond to customer’s preferences has been a strategy used by Olive Garden business executives. Providing breadstick sandwiches and more traditional dishes such as sausage rigatoni are a part of the revamped menu. Olive Garden breadsticks are one of their signature staples, creating more choices with the popular product differentiates the Italian restaurant chain from its competitors. Along with the menu changes, a focus has made to ensure a positive customer experience is the main priority along with remolding buildings to give the restaurant a fresher

In 2014 the company announced its commitment to making every menu item 100% free from unnatural ingredients. That promise has finally been realized. Panera competes with other fast-food chain stores for business. Panera provides a healthier choice to chains like McDonald’s and Burger King. The bread company responded to consumers demand wanting healthier choices on the run. Along with changing menu items to meet patron’s desires, Panera offers online ordering and no wait pick up for a healthier option of food on the go. Since making the menu and ordering changes, Panera sold their business to JAB Holding Company for $7.5 billion (Kayne, 2017). The previous owner of Panera has many times stated that Panera has been out-performing comparable restaurants for over the past 20 years with share prices increasing 8,000