Daniel Woo, founder of Sushilicious, a new sushi restaurant in Irvine, California, was thinking about how to make his second year in the business even more successful. Woo had defied the odds, building a successful sushi restaurant in the same location where a traditional sushi restaurant had recently closed its doors. Harnessing a combination of social media tools to promote Sushilicious, Woo had been able to achieve 80 per cent utilization rates and turned a profit in his first year. His current objective is to grow the customer base for his restaurant using a limited marketing budget. He wonders how he can build upon his current communications strategy of focusing strictly on maintaining his social media presence. Even though his low-cost, new-media approach has produced a steady stream of foot traffic as well as online word-of-mouth, Woo would like to see increased traffic on Mondays and Tuesdays. He is also considering the possibility that he has maxed out his online reach and may need to branch out his marketing efforts to include some form(s) of traditional media.
1. What are Daniel Woo’s key challenges as he looks to make Sushilicious a success?
2. How well has Woo used the various new media marketing tools to his advantage?
3. What are Woo’s challenges in February 2011?
4. Given Woo’s limited resources, what should his marketing plan look like for the next growth phase?