menu engineering is a discipline of the marketing field characterized by the application of marketing methodologies when designing and putting into operation the product offerings of companies in the catering sector, generically.
Although it is a marketing concept, there are many other fields of study that have a presence in these types of strategies , turning menu engineering into a multidisciplinary concept and constantly open to new changes in its nature.
Through this type of engineering, restaurants are able to design and adapt their menus according to different factors previously studied or measured. In this way, the hospitality industry is able to modify its offer quickly, taking into account multiple and diverse variables especially related to the customs and tastes of its consumers.
The success of menu engineering is to make people less expensive dishes popular. That is, look for the maximum possible level of profitability .
Although this definition is usually linked to day-to-day hospitality, there are other economic sectors in which companies use these marketing tools to adapt their list of products offered taking into account their consumers .
Menu Engineering Mission
Basically, catering companies pursue the maximization of their profit , also using the creation of an effective letter. That is, it seeks to reach maximum profitability taking into account the maximum utility or customer satisfaction simultaneously.
For this, it will be necessary, through the necessary marketing mechanisms, to know in detail the cost of the dishes, the assessment made by the guests of the same and the consequences from the economic point of view of making changes to the menu of different types.
A special economic aspect to consider is pricing. For this reason it is important to note that menu engineering is also related to areas such as microeconomics , in the line of the search for profit maximization or resource optimization, for example.
Product Classification
According to menu engineering theorists and large companies that have turned this trend into a business line to follow, there are four representative levels :
- Stars: They enjoy greater success and profits
- Plow horses: The bulk of a card, successful but with lower margin levels
- Puzzles: dishes with anecdotal success, with large margins without being so popular and demanded
- Dogs: they do not enjoy a high level of demand or usually leave significant margins
Marketing elements related to menu engineering
- Neuromarketing, as a tool for anticipating the decisions of the plaintiffs and thus a better level of optimization
- Market segmentation, as it is necessary to adapt the menu to the type of public that the restaurant has in order to adapt the product offer more efficiently
- Continuous evolution We must take into account the methodology of change, since the uses and customs of consumers are usually changing, as well as the conditions of production (existence of greater or lesser level of competition in the sector, prices of raw materials, seasonality …)
- Pricingor pricing strategy and promotion.
