CU Sports Marketing Class Lends Support to Local Restaurant

    Steve Barrett’s Sports Marketing class has created a marketing plan designed to help local restaurant “Moe’s” in the coming years. The plan was presented to the restaurant owners  on February 19, 2016, after the death of restaurant creator and original owner Mohammad (or Moe) Seif in January. After his unexpected death, Seif’s wife, Fatima Koraich, decided to reopen the restaurant. In an interview with WVNS-TV, Koraich stated that she wanted to continue Moe’s dream.

     “I didn’t really know him (Moe) to be honest,” Barrett said, “But I had heard a lot of good things about him... I said to myself, ‘What can I do to help them? They need help.’ That was my first thought.” Though he did not know much about the restaurant or the restaurant industry, Barrett then thought of his marketing class and realized that this could be a golden opportunity for them to apply what they are learning into a practical, real-world situation.

The marketing strategy was overseen by 21 students a took roughly three weeks to put together. Though Barrett admits to not knowing much in the way of the specifics of how Moe’s Restaurant functions, he is certain that the four Ps of marketing are applicable for any sort of business or industry. The four P’s of marketing are Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. Barrett added that after he thought of this, he approached the restaurant owners and asked them if they would be interested in his sports marketing class putting together a marketing program and plan for them. They agreed, and so work began. When asked why the plan took only three weeks to put together, Barrett said that while they could have taken a lot of time to put together a much larger plan, that likely would have taken the whole semester, and as it is a sports marketing class, doing so would be somewhat outside the curriculum.

    The plan itself details strategic goals for the restaurant, chiefly  they want to become the best restaurant in the Athens area, they are going to implement a loyalty program and to engage in social media. Barrett stated that in this day and age, interacting with people on social media is necessary for any business to succeed. Essentially, what they did was paint a mental picture of what the ideal Moe’s Restaurant would look like, and then put it to paper. What they envisioned is a cozy, family friendly atmosphere where anyone can feel comfortable to sit down and eat, and have it be a memorable, colorful experience. In other words, they envisioned Moe’s as a cheap place to eat where that cheapness doesn’t impede the quality and freshness of the food. To that end, the market strategy implements event nights over the year, and gives special discounts on certain items throughout the year. It also means cutting the inventory to things that prove less popular with customers. With all of these implementations and ideas in mind, Barrett hopes that this marketing strategy can help Moe’s achieve even greater success than it has seen..