Shamma Abdulla Al Falasi 200705489
Competitive Analysis What is so special about ? “The Switch” is where the Mediterranean cooking served to you in a unique interior designed environment. It’s the coolest design restaurant which opens in Dubai mall. What makes “The Switch” a unique place is serving contemporary Mediterraneanstyle cuisine, in a unique, worldly environment, with a wacky outlook. As Karim Rashid (the designer of the restaurant) said about the interior design idea: “I wanted Switch to be a strong, symmetrical soft organic, womblike space composed of a continues, undulating wall that wraps around the entire restaurant”. Rashid chose to develop a fluid wall inspired by the Arabic letter ()س turned on its sides, and he wanted to create a powerful space that offers a beautiful perspective. In the early begging of 2011, Switch Restaurant and Lounge celebrated its one year anniversary under the supervision of Deem Al Bassam, the Founder and Director of Switch. Since the opening a year ago, Switch became a wellknown place for its unique design, creative menu that offers a really unique casual dining experience; such the camel burger as the newest thing in fast food meals, and additionally its environment where people offer you a special hospitality which can let you feel that you are at home. The restaurant has a growing base of loyal customers from Dubai and beyond. That is a result of a cooperation between the director, chiefs, and workers in there. Together they achieved an important milestone. Actually, we have been successful in the most competitive market, and we can envision further expansion in the region. Who are ‘s competitors ? When asking people to recommend you a restaurant at the Dubai Mall, Switch would be one of their recommendation for sure. The list of recommended restaurants might includes a wellknown restaurants such as, Al Hallab, Burj Al Hamam,
Shamma Abdulla Al Falasi 200705489
Japengo, Macaroni Grill, Ruby Tuesday, Shakespeare & Co., TGI Fridays, and Chili’s. Switch is an attractive place to people who love art, because of the unique interior design, additionally to people who keen on trying new things. As it is located near the Ice Rink area, parents who drop their children there might choose to pass by Switch. In the other hand, Switch might be the last option for people who don’t care about design, or people who always choose the same kind of food, so they don’t like to go deeply in the experience of trying new things. Competitors of Switch those are in the same area next to the Ice Rink mostly coffee shops such as DOME Cafe, whereas coffee shops are quicker in serving customers as they serve simpler things. Here we can get DOME as a competitor, also because it’s nearer than Switch to the Ice Rink. The SWOT of . [ Strength – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats ]
There are lots of strength factors that can let customers give Switch the priority when choosing a restaurant. First of all, parking area is available in a short distance, shops are located all around the restaurant. In addition to the services offered, such as reservations, walkIns welcoming, catering, take away, waiter service, plus serving all the meals like Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Coffee and Drinks. Whereas, it is a good place for groups, and kids. Despite of all these strengths, there are main weaknesses that should be put in mind. The most important point is that a huge budget was spent on the creation of this restaurant, in addition to the decoration that was done by the Designer Karim Rashid. Then, faced a problem with advertising, because there is no enough remaining budget, so we tended to advertise on costless mediums, such as social networks. So, this played a big role in making the spread process slower. Since the restaurant is just a year old, there were some opportunities offered to it in order to be wellknown. Most of the opportunities were social and educational events, product launches, fashion shows, workshops, art exhibitions, meetings and conferences. In addition to the focus group studies that have been done there. One of the most important events held in the restaurant was when Dubai One chose Switch to shoot in, HAITI Event, Brown Book Event, and Art Dubai.
Shamma Abdulla Al Falasi 200705489
In establishing any new business, lots of threats might be faced. In our situation, when the founder Deem Al Bassam wanted to start this business nobody supported her or even believed in her idea. So she had to ignore negative thinking and start working hard in order to proof that it is not just an idea on a paper, so she started out of scratches. The STEP impact on . [ Social – Technological – Economical – Political ]
The Social impact on Switch Restaurant is huge. Since the advertising side is basically relying on social networks, and the word of mouth. In addition to the restaurant’s environment also, which is more likely to support groups gatherings. With the Technological side, Switch is using new technologies as much as it is needed. For example, the lighting system in there is a high technological system with lots of colors and effects, in addition to using music, with speakers between the decorations’ unique style. Switch is a new established business, and since it is a new idea that is developed in a unique way, the founder faced an Economical issues with converting the scratches into a real business, no supporters, no sponsors, but a need to organize well and work hard. No Political issues in there.
Where is on the product life cycle curve ? Switch is currently on the Growth stage of the product life cycle curve, which means that it still didn’t achieve a stability stage.