BUSHRA FAZAL
STUDENT NUMBER: 60988959
UNIQUE ASSIGNMENT NUMBER: 776457
MODULE CODE: SDENG3J
ASSIGNMENT ONE
QUESTION 1: CHOSEN TEXT
IN THE ZONE WITH MWEB ENTREPRENEUR: NANDO'S: SA'S MOST SUCCESSFUL
RESTAURANT EXPORT
Nando’s, the popular and well-known brand in South Africa, has become one of the country’s
greatest international success stories. In 1987, an entrepreneur named Robert Brozin and his
friend Fernando Duarte, went to a Portuguese takeaway restaurant named Chickenland in
Rosettenville, southern Johannesburg. Brozin was so impressed with the restaurant's flame
grilled chicken that he proposed the pair of them buy the restaurant, which they duly did. They
renamed the restaurant Nando’s, abbreviating Duarte’s first name. Within two years, Nando’s
had three outlets in
Johannesburg and one in Portugal. Their growth and popularity continued, and today there are
over 1,000 restaurants in 30 countries around the world, making Nando’s South Africa's most
successful restaurant group export.
Their first two British branches opened in 1992, in Ealing and Earl’s Court, west London,
serving mainly takeaway food. The business struggled at first, and was on the verge of collapse
when the chairman, Richard Enthoven, handed it over to his son Robert, who shifted the
emphasis from takeaways to what is known as a mixed service model. Under the mixed service
model, the way customers are encouraged to act is different and there's an element of
responsibility, in that you have to go to the counter to order and you help yourself to your own
cutlery, soft drinks and sauces, before servers bring the meal to your table. All this moving
about helps to create a fluid, busy atmosphere, and an environment that customers enjoy
spending time in.
Enthoven also came up with the idea of individualising the design and decor of each outlet,
thereby avoiding the uniformly bland feeling of a restaurant chain. Nando's commissions its
own artworks and runs a Worldwide Art Project, where artists from local communities are
invited to interpret Nando's in their chosen, local art form. The artist is then profiled along with
their art, and the restaurant wall is transformed into a gallery showcasing their work. Nando’s
has the largest collection of South African art in the UK, with over 3,000 works displayed in
their restaurants.
Individualised store design and the mixed service model proved to be a highly successful
formula. They occupy a particular place within the food service industry known as 'fast casual
dining’. A survey by the market research company NPD shows that restaurants in the 'fast
casual sector’ have an average 'revisit intent’ of 69 per cent. Nando’s has a ‘revisit intent’ of 80
per cent. They serve everyone from happy families to workers at lunchtime, and from groups of
teenagers to dating couples. It’s a safe place for teenagers to go on their own, and in an astute
marketing move, Nando's is relaxed about its teen-appeal and even encourages it by offering
free refills of soft drinks.
Nando’s sees its customers as its best brand advocates. They have carefully cultivated some
clever branding elements, and astutely reveal the famous names who have passed through the
restaurant’s doors, including David Beckham and J-Z, on a blog on its Facebook page, which
has 13 million followers. In 2010, Advertising Age magazine named Nando's as one of the
world's top 30 hottest marketing brands. So is the Nando's secret that it is more than just your
usual takeaway place? Nando's professed unique selling point is that it is all about the family
