STUDENT NUMBER:

51207885
ASSIGNMENT 1
MNM3705
UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT
NUMBER: 634157
DECLARATION BY STATEMENT
I Manyano Njeza, student number 51207885, understand the consequences of plagiarism &
collusion and hereby declare that the work submitted for this report for MNM3705 is my own
work.
Step 1- Scope
Introducing meat and meat-related products into the Ocean Basket's food menu in order to
prevent Ocean Basket from losing its clientele due to only focusing on seafood. By adding meat
and meat-related products may also increase Ocean Basket's current target market as well as
attract new customers outside their target market.

This will be done by hiring the services of a menu design and printing company. The training of
staff to familiarize themselves with the new menu changes. The menu will be communicated to
the consumer using the following marketing communication elements/tools: out-of-home media,
television and radio, print media and digital media. The project deliverables are: a new updated
menu and staff training resources (training manual) for the new menu.

The people that are involved in the project, are me, the product manager, who is responsible for
the planning and success of the whole project. I must organize a team, manage them and
ensure that the team reaches the project's objectives within the required time- frame while
sticking to the allocated budget. I also report to the project sponsor (Ocean Basket) about the
progress of the project.

Other people who are involved in the project are the project team members who are the
individuals who will each bring their own proficiencies while working on specific parts of the
project in order to reach the project's objectives.

The project sponsor oversees the whole project and authorizes things like the budget and
ensures that all resources needed to complete the project are available. I, as the project
manager reports to the project sponsor with any matter concerning the project and they approve
each major decision taken in the duration of the project.

Public relations manager is responsible for planning and executing the project's public relations
strategy and securing media coverage. The public relations manager will plan and oversee all
content on Ocean Basket's fakebook as well as oversee, monitor and report on all media
releases.
Step 2- SWOT Analysis; Target Market & Competitor Analysis

SWOT Analysis for Ocean Basket

Strengths
Selling quality seafood at affordable prices to cater to all different income groups who normally
cannot afford the usually expensive seafood prices.
Staff training means that the staff are informed and knowledgeable about their work.
The great customer service Ocean Basket offers, since they have been the winners of best
seafood restaurant for 20 consecutive years.
Having a strong and well controlled supply chain for all their restaurants in the country.
Ocean Basket does not have a huge marketing budget. This helps them with saving and
reducing business expenses.
Ocean Basket focuses more on sustainable success rather than just the profits. This keeps
them grounded and sets them apart from their competitors.
Ocean Basket's longevity in the restaurant industry, since they have been in operation since
1995, not only make it an established brand, but also means they have experience in the
industry- which is a valuable asset to have in business. Apart from experience, longevity helps
the Ocean Basket brand stay relevant in consumer's minds.
Ocean Basket's focus on only seafood helps them better manage and control their operations.
Yet this is serves also serves as a weakness to their competitors.
Ocean Basket having a lot of restaurants situated in locations where there's a high volumes of
consumer foot traffic. This increases the brand visibility, provides ease of access and
convenience for the customer. This also helps to deflect potential customers away from the
competition if your competition has locations that are further away.
Each restaurant is designed to cater to the target market's needs and to be handle the high
traffic of customers they attract, doing so over a long period of time.

Weaknesses

Not having a diverse menu that covers other products besides fish, such as meat and meat-
related products. This gives Ocean Basket's competitors such as John Dory's, Cape Town Fish
Market and Spur an upper hand since they sell meat products.

Costs of rent, gas and rising electricity costs as well as labour costs are other weaknesses
faced by Ocean Basket.

Opportunities

There is an opportunity for Ocean Basket to increase their target market or even attract
customers away from the competitors, with the introduction of their new offering of meat and
meat-related products in their menu.
Ocean Basket must do everything in order to avoid negative publicity in the future. An example
is the case of the article: "Ocean Basket admits fingers aren't always hake" (IOL 2016). Ocean
Basket must learn from this and ensure that they have enough hake in stock to avoid having to
use an undesirable replacement such as angelfish, especially if that item is not included in the
menu. Because customers will not be aware of this replacement, it will certainly upset
customers.
With their experience and expertise from operating some restaurant in countries oversees,
coupled with a good brand equity, Ocean Basket can expand their business to even more
countries across the globe.

Threats

Competitors such as John Dory's, Spur and Cape Town Fish Market, who are in the same
market as Ocean Basket but offer meat and meat-related products, something that Ocean
Basket does not.

The threat of the project moving slow or coming to a halt due to possible disruptions with the
current Covid-19 pandemic.

Also, with Covid-19 negative effect on most businesses all over the globe, there is a possibility
that this will have disruptions over Ocean Basket's current suppliers and Ocean Basket may
have to find new suppliers and hence may have to incur the costs of finding those new
suppliers.

Bad publicity, as in the case of the article: "Ocean Basket admits fingers aren't always hake"
(IOL 2016), that reported not just one, but five of Ocean Basket's restaurants selling a food item
from the kid's menu, that it was not supposed to.

Target Market

Age Group

Group Marketing Executive, Jean Sloane states that: “Our menu and stores cater for a variety of
dining needs, from a casual lunch with friends, to a quick sushi meal or a large family
celebration, ensuring that our stores are busy throughout the day” (Biz Community 2016).
Ocean Basket's age group ranges from young age, middle age to full grown adult age. This is
because Ocean Basket caters for the whole family or a large family. So, a large family will most
likely consist of kids, teenagers, young adults and full-grown adults. This can be also seen in the
current Ocean Basket menu offering as there is a kid's menu as well.

In its inception, Ocean Basket has been described as “different, fresh, fun and relaxed” (Biz
Community 2016). The teenagers and young adults are people who like to socialise and go for
lunch with a group of friends in fun spaces. Also, for them eating sushi is seen as different, cool
and trendy. With adults who have families, big or small, Ocean Basket provides a relaxed and
refreshing environment for them. Where they can take a break from other activities and relax
with their whole family while enjoying the benefits of a quality meal at affordable prices. The
affordability of the Ocean Basket menu gives them piece of mind and comfort knowing they get
value for their money while treating the whole family on a restaurant outing.

Income and LSM group

As Manny Nichas states "We have seen a huge growth in demand from the middle class; they
have been frequenting our stores lately” (IOL News 2014). The middle class is Ocean Basket's
target market. The middle-class people are not rich but not poor at the same time, but are able
to afford the basic things in life. According to economist Justin Visagie, the average income of
the middle class in South Africa household of four persons with a total income of between
R5,600 and R40,000 per month after direct income tax" (Businesstech 2016).

The LSM group of for Ocean Basket's target market lie in the group 5-8 with level 8 being the
fact that most of the target group lives within suburbs since you'll find most Ocean Basket
restaurants situated within malls or shopping centres in suburbs. Level 7 meaning they
generally have an involvement in all economic activities, can afford to buy take-away food, have
a full access to services and at least have a car, which enables them to be able to travel to the
restaurant locations.

Hobbies, Lifestyle and Online platforms

Ocean Basket's target group are people who like to go out in groups of friends and with family,
in fun, distinct, relaxing and refreshing spaces. They like to do all of this in places where they
will get their value for money. Ocean Basket's affordable food offering and their fun and distinct
restaurants, from their refreshing wall decors to the vibrant environment, offers all of this to their
target market. As evident from the number of followers in the Ocean Basket's online media
platforms, most of their target market uses the facebook social media platform. Their facebook
main page has the most followers out of all the other social media platforms, with a following of
373 000 followers. The Ocean Basket app has the least users, with only about 10 000 plus
downloads.

Competitor Analysis

Ocean Basket competitors are other sit-down restaurants that also sell fish such as Spur, John
Dory's and Cape Town Fish Market. Spur offers the biggest range out of all the competitors,
from ribs, steak, chicken, burgers, pizza, seafood and a kid's menu. This is Spur's main strength
against Ocean Basket, as it offers way more than just seafood and because of this may attract
more customers. The only weakness that Spur has against Ocean Basket is that their seafood
offering is not as extensive and diverse as that of Ocean Basket. Spur uses about the same
online platforms as Ocean Basket, which are a customer ordering app, instagram, facebook and
twitter.
John Dory's offers seafood as well as steak, ribs and chicken and a kid's menu. Their strength
over Ocean Basket is that they offer meat options in their menu. Their other strength is that their
restaurants offer a kid's play area, while Ocean Basket doesn't. A weakness that John Dory's
compared to Ocean Basket is the fewer number of restaurants they have. John Dory's has
about 49 stores, while Ocean Basket has over 200 restaurants. Also, the John Dory's brand is
younger and therefore least established than Ocean Basket. John Dory's uses about the same
online platforms as Ocean Basket, which a customer online app, instagram, facebook and
twitter.

Cape Town Fish Market offers seafood as well as meat and poultry with a kid's menu. Their
strength over Ocean Basket is that they offer meat options in their menu. Thier weakness is that
they have far fewer restaurants as compared to Ocean Basket. They only have about 13 stores
in South Africa and outside the country. Another weakness is that CTFM does bott have a
customer online app. They also generally use about the same online platforms as Ocean
Basket, facebook, twitter and instagram.
Step 3 - Objectives of the project

⦁ Communicate and market the new menu to the consumer through communication elements by
the end of November 2021, just in time for festive season trading. The communication elements
to be used are advertising with the use of both words, audio and images. The communication
channels to be used are outdoor billboards (out-of-home media) in areas where Ocean Basket's
target market may likely frequent. Television advertisements and radio advertisements,
newspapers, e-mail customers on Ocean Basket's database, Ocean Basket's online website
page and fakebook page.

⦁ Send out bulk e-mail to customers on Ocean Basket's database advertising the new changes
in the menu and the new meat offering on Ocean Basket's menu. This should be over a month's
period from June 2021 to July 2021.

⦁ Launch the new marketing slogan/ tagline: "why FISH around for MEAT?, when you can get it
all in one place", through television, radio advertisements and on Ocean Basket's online website
and on their fakebook social media page. This is to be done by September 2021.

⦁ The new marketing slogan/ tagline is to be printed over images of a plate of fish next to a plate
of meat on all new menus and all store wall decors. The slogan is also to be displayed on all
out-of-home media billboards and newspapers (print media). Ocean Basket's clientele must be
able to decode this message as a play of words and associate the two words in bold letters
('FISH' and 'MEAT') in conjunction with the images, as to what is now offered on the new menu.
This is to be done by October 2021.

⦁ Public relations manager must execute all public relations marketing strategies of the project
i.e., put up new menu adverts on Ocean Basket's main online website page and on the
fakebook page. The PR manager must then constantly monitor the target market's reaction to
the introduction of the new meat offering on menu on fakebook. The PR manager must keep
record of all these reactions and customer opinions and frequently report feedback to the team.
Public relations manager must monitor public responsive towards the radio, television and
newspaper advertisements, record this feedback in terms of the statistics and figures and report
back to the project team. This should be done within a period of six months. Starting from June
2021 to November 2021.

⦁ Store management to have all restaurant staff trained in all Ocean Basket restaurants by
September 2021.
Step 4 – Budget

Marketing Communication Duration (number of Total

Element months)
2 months R100 000
Out-of-home (Outdoor
Billboards)

2 months R70 000

Television

2 months R40 000

Radio

3 months R15 000

Newspaper

2 months R40 000

Facebook

1 month R10 000

Bulk e-mail

6 months R20 000

Ocean Basket's Online
Website

6 months R35 000

Public Relations

Total R330 000

References:
Ocean Basket breaks onto new shores, refreshes offering. Available at:
https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/173/146113.html [Accessed 21 May 2021]

A simple recipe for restaurant business success. Available at:

https://www.news24.com/fin24/finweek/entrepreneurs/a-simple-recipe-for-restaurant-business-
success-20190829 [Accessed 21 May 2021]

Ocean Basket admits fingers aren't always hake. Available at: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-
africa/western-cape/ocean-basket-admits-fingers-arent-always-hake-2073169
[Accessed 21 May 2021]

How much money you need to be middle class in South Africa. Available at:
https://businesstech.co.za/news/wealth/111285/how-much-money-you-need-to-be-middle-class-
in-south-africa/ [Accessed 22 May 2021]

South Africa: Understanding the Living Standards Measure Segmentation in South Africa
November 19, 2020. Available at:
https://googleweblight.com/sp?u=https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/south-africa-understanding-
living-standards-measure-segmentation-south-africa&grqid=bhf8eMNa&hl=en-ZA [Accessed 22
May 2021]