rank's All$-$American BarBeQue

Robert Rainsford is a twenty$-$eight$-$year$-$old facing a major turning point in his life $.$ He has found himself unem$-$

ployed for the first time si nce he was fifteen years old. Robert holds a BS degree in marketing from the

University of Rhode Is land. After graduation, a firm that specialized in developing web presences for other

companies hired him. He worked for that firm for the last seven years in New York City. Robert rose rap idly

through the company's ranks, eventua ll y becoming one of the firm's vice presidents. Unfortunately, du ring

the last recession, the firm suffered sig nificant losses and engaged in extensive downsizing, so Robert lost his

job. He spent months looking for a compa rable position, yet even with an excellent resume, nothing see med

to be on the horizon. Not wanting to exhaust his savings and finding it impossible to maintain a low$-$cost res$-$

idence in New York City, he returned to his hometown in Fairfield, Connec ticut, a subu rban community not

too far from the New York state border.

He found a small apartment near his parents $.$ As a stopgap mea sure, he went back to work with his father,

who is the owner of a restaurant$-$Frank $\text{'}$s All$-$A merican BarBeQue. His father, Frank, started the restaurant in

$1972.$ It is a midsize restau rant$-$with about eighty seats$-$t hat Frank has bui lt up in to a relatively successfu l

and loca l ly we ll $-$known enterprise. The restaurant has been at its present location since the early $1980$s $.$ It

shares a pa rking lot with several other stores in the sma ll ma ll where it is located. The restaurant places an em $-$

phasis on featuring the food and had a highly si mplifi ed decor, where tables are covered with butcher paper

rather than linen tablecloths. Robert's father has won many awards at regional and national barbecue cook$-$

offs, which is unusual for a business in New England. He has won for both his barbecue food and his sauces.

The restaurant has been repeatedly written up in the local and New York papers for the quality of its food and

the four special Frank's All$-$American BarBeQue sauces. The four sauces correspond to America's four styles of

barbecue$-$Texan, Memphis, Kansas City, and Carolina. In the last few years, Fran k had sold small lots of these

sauces in the local supermarket.

As a teenager, Robert, along with his older sister Susan, worked in hi s father's re staurant. During summer vaca$-$

tions whi le attending college, he conti nued to work in the restaurant. Robert had neve r anticipated working

full$-$time in the fami ly bus iness $,$ even though he knew his fa t her had hoped that he wou ld do so $.$ By the ti me

he returned to his hometown, his father had accepted that neither Robert nor Susan would be interested in

taking over the family busine ss $.$ In fact, Frank had started to think about selling the business and retiring.

However, Robert concluded that his situation called for what he saw as de spe rate measures.

Initi ally, Robert thought his employment at his father's business was a temporary measure while he continued

his jo b search. Interestingly, within the first few weeks he returned to the business, he felt that he could bring

his expertise in marketing$-$particularly his web marketing focus$-$to his father's business. Robert became

very enthusiastic about the possibility of fu l ly participating in the family busines s$.$ He thought about either ex$-$

panding the size of the restaurant, adding a takeout option, or creating other locations outside his hometown.

Robert looked at the poss ibility of securing a much larger site within his hometown to expand the restaurant's

ope rations $.$ He began to scout surrounding communities fo r possible locat ions. He also began to map out a

program to effectively use t he web to ma rket Frank's All$-$American BarBeQue sauce and, in fact, to build it up

to awho le new level of ope rational sophistication in marketing.

Robert recognized that the re staurant was as much of a child to his father as he and his sister were. He knew

that if he were to approach his father with his ideas concerning expanding Frank $\text{'}$s All$-$American BarBeQue, he

would have to think very ca refully about the options and proposals he would present to his father. Frank $\text{'}$s All$-$

American BarBeQue was one of many restaurants in Fa i rfield, but it is the only one that specializes in barbe$-$

cue. Given the turnover in restaurants, it was amazing that Frank had been able to not only survive but also

prosper. Robert recognized that his father was obviously doing something right. As a teenager, he would al$-$

ways hear his father saying the restaurant's success was based on 'giv ing people great simp le food at a reas$-$

onable price in a place where they feel comfortable." He wanted to make sure that the proposals he would

present to hi s father wou ld not destroy Frank $\text{'}$s recipe for success.

$1.$ Discuss how Robert should explicitly consider the customer value currently