Business Proposal Paper
Student name
ECO/561 – Economics
December 23, 2013
Professor
Business Proposal Paper
The purpose of this paper is to outline a business proposal for a new realistic product called “Ziosk” in the casual dining industry. Ziosk is a 7-inch Android OS touch screen tablet with a credit card reader that allows customers to order their food and drinks, play games and pay their bill at the table while dining. Currently, they are located in 1,200 locations and serve approximately 6 million guests each month. In a quote from their website, Ziosk is “Revolutionizing the experience and economics of casual dining” (Ziosk, 2013). By mid 2014, they are expected to service 24 million guests per month.
Market Structure
This type of product is offered by a relatively large number of sellers with differentiated products, which show evidence of a monopolistic competition market structure. In an article titled “Goodbye Paper Menus? Restaurants Test the Water for Tablets” we realize just how true this is. Author Nevin Martell stated the following:
“When you sit down at Chef Jose Andres tapas restaurant, Jaleo, in Washington, D.C., and ask to see beverage options, as I did recently, you’re in for a surprise. Instead of a traditional leather-bound menu, I was handed an iPad. An app called SmartCellar guided me to search for wine by grape variety and climate zone. Selecting a bottle, I got details about the vintage and its producers, tasting notes written by the restaurant’s wine team, pictures of the bottle or label, and food pairing suggestions.”
He later goes on to talk about other digital menus, apps, and software that are competing for restaurant owners’ interest like MenuPad and eMenu or Uncorkd and Wine List that are solely for wine (Martell, 2013).
Elasticity
Unlike other products and services, the Ziosk tablet does not have a set price per unit. Instead, the company uses revenue based financing, which means the company supplies...