Strengths

• We offer a wide variety for gaming including everyone’s favorite arcade classics and the most up-to-date video games. Alongside a world class arcading experience, we also have a tasty menu and full bar. Our company attracts people of all ages.

• We have far superior gaming than our competitors and offer a large selection so that everyone can find games they enjoy.

• Since we’ve seen high profits within the year, we can now offer guest a $19.99 Eat and Play Combo for a $10.00 playing card and a choice of an appetizer or entrée starting at $17.99.

• We have a strong presence with 65 locations in almost every state of the US.

• With our attraction amongst people to young children to middle aged adults, we cover most demographics making us a dominant company in the entertainment and food industry. We also recently acquired one of our top competitors, Main Event, which will make us appeal more towards families and young children. With our gaming, food, and bar service, everyone can find a reason to love going to Dave & Buster’s.

• Our USP at Dave and Buster’s is fun. Customers buy food, games, and drinks from us, but they are actually purchasing an entertaining and enjoyable time with their families, friends, and coworkers.

Weaknesses

• We can improve our brand identity. Our website and app branding are different from our social media branding, which is different from our logo branding. A clear visual branding that complements our demographics, mission statement, and values would lead to a more seamless integrated experience for our customers across platforms.
• To keep our current demographics across all ages, we should avoid catering specifically to millennials and generation x-ers. Although they are our target audience, we cannot neglect our board audience. Dave & Buster’s appeals to partying young adults, but it must maintain a family-friendly image as well.
• Our market could view our lack of marketing and advertising as a weakness in our strategy for brand awareness.
• Upon reading reviews of Dave & Buster’s, most customers’ biggest complaints were service, food and drink quality, and waiting time for tables and food/drinks. Dave & Buster’s averages 2 to 3 stars on most sites for the above complaints and replies to customers often seem deflected and impersonal.

 Opportunities

• We have recently purchased Main Event, which was one of our lead competitors, and expect to receive loyal customers from the business.
• With new virtual reality game play emerging, our competitors will either not adapt to keep new inventory or delay doing so.

• Human resources can train management and employees to deliver the best service and how to correctly handle customer complaints. We need to address poor service to retain more customers.

 Threats

• Gaming is an ever-evolving form of entertainment that we must financially be able to keep up with to continue providing the best arcade experience in all locations.

• Our online reviews from customers can be very harsh and with 2–3-star ratings on most legitimate sites, it can lead potential customers to choosing competitors.

• With a low brand awareness and minimal advertising, another threat we face are that our target audience isn’t aware of Dave & Buster’s or our many locations.

Company Values

            We strongly voice our values of the “You got it!” attitude and founders’ spirit, but it really comes down to one thing–– fun! Since Dave & Buster’s first opened, it was always meant to be an enjoyable escape from regular life for customers and employees alike. We want Dave & Buster’s to be the place you come to make core memories that will make the fun last a lifetime, and we are eager to do anything to make that happen.

Target Market

            Although Dave & Buster’s has grown its demographics since they first opened, they always have appealed the most to young adults 21- 34 years old. This is ultimately because young adults feel like Dave & Buster’s provides an adult version of classic arcade and pizza places like Chuck-E-Cheese. It is also a family friendly environment that attracts young families. Dave & Buster’s can easily cater to large groups in their warehouse sized restaurants, which makes Dave & Buster’s appealing for birthday parties, family reunions, company parties, church groups, etc.

Competitor Analysis

            Buffalo Wild Wings is one of the top-grossing full-service restaurants with over a thousand restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. They attract mostly sports enthusiasts and their families with live sports broadcasted on walls of flat screens and special menus for gamedays. Other key factors that lead to sells are BWW’s unique sauces and seasonings, a strong brand presence in the U.S., and consistently accessibile locations. Their biggest weaknesses include not offering healthier choices, over saturation in the U.S. market, and their inability to appeal to non-sports enthusiasts.

            Top Golf is one of the leading sports entertainment companies in the U.S as the one and only golfing entertainment restaurant. They currently have multiple patents in effect to restrict competition from entering its market for the next 15-20 years. Their main strength comes from offering an experience connected to sports and the outdoor atmosphere rather than just watching on a tv or playing in an arcade. Whereas their weaknesses stem from the absence of child inclusiveness, injuries from the combination of golf and alcohol, and management disconnections across venues. For these reasonings, they tend to be popular amongst 18–34-year-olds without children.

            Chuck-E-Cheese is one of the only restaurant franchises in food and entertainment that can be compared to Dave & Buster’s. Chuck-E-Cheese strives to create a safe place for children while offering pizza and salad dining options and a game floor. They’re main audience consists of families with small children. With over five hundred and fifty locations in the U.S., Chuck-E-Cheese’s strengths are the strong entertainment and arcade gaming center, family and group party packs, child safety insurance, and online gaming trends. They fall short when it comes to a global presence and lack of dinning appeal.