Darden Restaurants

1. Darden segments and targets the sit-down dining market by market targeting. Geographic segmentation I don’t believe was used so much. I believe demographic segmentation was used by targeting to age and ethnicity with Olive Gardens old world Italian feel. I think that Long Horns steak house targets to the manly man possibly using gender segmentation. When I think If Long Horn’s with the décor of a rustic feel and deer heads, I believe that is geared towards the roughneck male. With income segmentation, I believe all Darden brands are geared towards the middle class average earner. They appear to want to offer a casual atmosphere and are always looking to keep cost affordable. With psychographic segmentation, Darden wants to appeal to life style and personality characteristics. Olive Garden appeals to the Italian lover, Long Horns appeals to the steak lover, and Red Lobster appeals to the seafood lover. Darden is trying to capture all markets with a huge variety to offer.

2. I believed Darden has differentiated and positioned its brand effectively because of the wide variety of restaurants it has. It has not stuck to one brand; it has expanded to include a variety of appealing sit down restaurants. They have positioned Olive Garden as a welcoming family restaurant with a slogan of “When you’re here, you’re family” and changing the atmosphere of the restaurant has proved to be successful. Red Lobster has made changes and its positioning was received by consumers even better than that of Olive Garden. By focusing on the grilled aspect of seafood, the company has done much better. The Long Horn positioning is focused on the westerner feel. I see it as the all American experience. The changes they made to all three brands include the experience of the dining in, not just the food and I believe that is what contributes heavily to its effectiveness.

3. Standardizing brands across the board could backfire, because sometimes not everything can be just...