Panera Bread Company Case Study Questions

Panera Bread Company- Case Study No. 8

Abstract

Panera Bread is a company founded in 1982 named Au Bon Pain at that time by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich. Panera Bread goal was to offer the best quality product and to be nationally recognized by its bakery-café specialty. Panera Bread’s strategy is to make great bread and to make it broadly available, being the bread experts in the industry. One of their strategy is to make the Panera environment feel like a home away from home, where people are comfortable and relaxed (Thompson & Gamble, 2009).

Panera’s has a unique strategy, which is to provide a premium specialty bakery and café experience to urban workers and suburban dwellers. Out of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in chapter five, the one that most closely fits the competitive approach that Panera Beard is taking is the generic concept of broad differentiation strategy. They are unique in many ways which give them a competitive advantage. Their advantage consist of striving to build a competitive advantage based on the triple combination of product, environment and great service, otherwise known as PEGS.

The case focused on the SWOT analysis of Panera Bread, which revealed a number of strengths and some weaknesses for Panera about their overall attractiveness of their current situation. Some of their strengths were around having an attractive and appealing menu, with items that call you attention. One of the items of course is the artisan bread, their signature product. Panera’s strength is that their core competence surrounds around break baking, which is what they are known for. Other strengths are a good brand name, high customer satisfactions studies, and success in catering and good franchisees. The company’s financial strength allows them to grow without taking on too much debt. At the same time, Panera does have some weaknesses. Although their brand is known, it is not as well known as other rivals, such as Starbucks....