Panera Bread

Case: Panera Bread Company

Question1: What is Panera Bread’s strategy? Which of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in Chapter 5 most closely fit the competitive approach that Panera Bread is taking? What type of competitive advantage is Panera Bread trying to achieve?

Paneras Strategy was to make bread broadly available to consumers across the US. Through their attractive menu and the dinning ambience of its bakery-cafes provided Panera has significant growth opportunities despite the restaurant industry.

Panera has been seen as the nationwide leader in the bread segment. Panera scored the highest level of customer loyalty. This is a result of their broad menu and their service to provide all products freshly (dough facilities) as a quick-service restaurant. This leads to customer satisfaction and customers keep on dining at Paneras Restaurants.

The concept of Panera is to provide special premium bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers. Quality and detail of their products is very important and forms the core of their menu. Moreover Paneras advantage is their specialization of fresh baked goods, sandwiches and freshly-made bread, soups, salads, coffes and café beverages. Premium and special dining experience is very important for Panera to provide to their customers. This makes Panera different to their competitors such as Mc Donald, KFC, Burger King.

Panera locates itself between low-cost food such as Mc Donalds and high cost food such as expensive restaurants.

Paneras competitive advantage is generated through their distinctive menu, café design, ambience, operating systems and café location. Moreover they offer 5 different meals for every situation and time of the day (breakfast, lunch, daytime, light evening fare, take-home bread). The long term objective was it to make a recognized brand name and being the dominant operator in the bakery-café segment.(Strategy of Panera)

In order to fulfill the long-term...