Analysis of Menu Design in the Food and Beverage Industry using the BCG Matrix Method

Abstract

The restaurant menu has long been seen as a crucial marketing tool for influencing patron behavior and driving revenue. The benefits of an appealing menu are extolled by menu designers, who cite several facts and statistics that are unrelated but "show" that menu design has an impact on sales. Many previous researchers have proved the significant benefits of menu designs. However, areas about how to design a menu for a restaurant in practice have been sparse. Therefore, the research objective of this paper is to analyze how to design and redesign a menu. The research method is as follows: first, some data about cost, menu price of each menu item, and the numbers of menu items sold in a sample small-sized restaurant are collected, and then the profits and gross profit% of each item are analyzed and calculated, followed by applying the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) growth-share Matrix to categorize menu items. After that, a menu is redesigned combined with menu design principles. The concluding discussion addresses the successful results of menu redesign for the sample restaurant and the broad and future suggestions for menu redesign.