Competitive Strategies of the Restaurants in Russia under COVID 19

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has truly become the main event of 2020, has had a tremendous impact on the entire world. Entrepreneurs, especially restaurateurs around the world, were not ready for the pandemic either. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the various changes associated with it in the way people live, including legislative changes and restrictions, have hardly hit the Russian public catering market. Moscow casual dining restaraunts located near Mendeleevskaya metro station on Novoslobodskaya and Sushchevskaya streets were chosen as the object of research work. Purpose of the research: to identify what changes have occurred in the industry during the pandemic, how this affected the segment of casual dining restaurants, how restaurateurs reacted to these changes, how competitive strategies have changed in accordance with the new realities, in relation to the selected restaurant cluster and what influencing factors most significant, according to industry representatives. Data collection methods: using scientific literature, including books on strategic management, as well as articles in academic journals, analyzing electronic articles on industry news, studying regulations and changes in it related to the restaurant business, analyzing statistical data, building a map strategic groups of competitors, analyzing the macro and microenvironment, conducting high-quality interviews with industry representatives from the selected restaurant cluster. From the point of view of the political external environment, the most significant factors turned out to be the introduction of a mandatory self-isolation regime in Russia in April-June 2020, as well as a ban on the operation of restaurants in Moscow in November-January 2020-2021, and numerous sanitary and epidemiological measures and restrictions. Among the economic factors, the most significant were the decline in restaurant visits, as well as the general economic crisis, and the decline in real incomes of the nation. The greatest influence among the factors of the microenvironment is influenced by the power of consumers and the decrease in consumer flow to restaurants, slightly less, but also significant influence is exerted by the penetration of new specialized competitors into the market, as well as potential competitors with substitute goods. Based on the results of the research, it was concluded that the dominant strategies in the catering industry in the restaurant segment are a differentiation strategy to attract and expand a loyal audience base, as well as a cost leadership strategy. Moreover, the differentiation strategy is primarily aimed at service and it’s quality, an interesting concept and maximum comfort of visitors, due to the growth of competitors with substitute goods in the form of food delivery. The cost leadership strategy is primarily aimed at optimizing business processes, without compromising the quality of products and services. Also, many were guided by the strategy of optimization of the "price-quality" indicator.