To Sanjeev Lala, 60, the term 'fast food' was almost family property, at least as far as Delhi's burger-chompers were concerned. It was his father's ice-cream and fast-food chain, Lala's, that had introduced the concept to the city's youth-and maintained a vibrant business for decades, touching some Rs 100 crore now. An entire generation had grown up on his grub. This was something to be proud of.

But still, there was no escaping the fact that he and his brother, Deep, needed to do some thinking about Lala's future. Lala's generation, though Star Wars-cool in the 1980s (and half the 1990s), was now approaching middle-age. A visit to Lala's had long become more belly-expanding exercise than chick-charming event.

The 'cool' crowd had long walked across to the spanking new global chains that had entered India, leaving Lala's with greying office-goers and noisy families who were simply on the lookout for a quick well-priced meal, ambience or no ambience.

Part of this, of course, was the result of Lala's own doing. In response to the influx of foreign chains such as McCampbell's and Pizza Nutt in the 1990s, it chose not to fight them head-on. It could not have matched their scale of investments and operations (centralised sourcing and so on), and so it opted instead to become a wide-angled 'family' restaurant, serving traditional thalis and tikkas, along with burgers and shakes.

It was a wise decision, felt Lala, and decided to say so-to start off the strategy review meeting that he was convening. "We weren't getting the kids anyway," he explained, "as we lacked attitude." That Lala's was in no position to compete with MNCs for retail locations and top-bracket managers, was too obvious to reiterate. Containing them was out of the question. Going all-India was ruled out for similiar reasons: lack of national-scale infrastructure to serve consistent-quality food.

Lala's glance fell on Amit Arora, 45, Vice President, Marketing, who did not contest the wisdom of the decision. Sales had remained healthy these past few years, and Lala's outlets remained as crowded as ever. Nonetheless, Arora was worried by Lala's loss of brand prestige caused by the crowd shift. "The youth," he said, "collectively account for nearly 60 per cent of fast food consumption. Let's face it, they snigger at butter chicken-chomping middle-aged families. The point is, collegians won't be caught dead dating on the next table-and that's what hurts."

Playing MTV on large screens or making cosmetic changes in the décor would not do the trick, the company had realised. Lala's was already a has-been to youngsters who had the most money to spend. "So," said Prashant Joshi, 38, Head of New Ventures, "we used to be Delhi's Pop Tate's. Now we're not. At least classic Lala's is not. But the important thing is that the brand retains its reputation for reliability. The food is consistently good. The hygiene factors are in our favour. This means that our brand extension can do the job."

The brand extension in question was Lala's 11, a small-format café serving coffee, ice-cream, sandwiches and pizzas, aimed squarely at the bustling youth market. The thalis, chhole-bhatures and other messy-hand forms of nourishment were a strict no-no. This was a concept with a reasoned focus, and any dithering from the categorical objective-attracting the 'happening' crowd-could ruin it.

The trial-run café, in Gurgaon, Delhi's swankiest suburb, had already started drawing customers-and Lala was confident of taking this format all-India. "This concept is easy to replicate and operate," said Lala, "and the rentals are lower, with lower staffing and higher profits."

Joshi, whose project it was, was even more gung-ho. "With an investment of Rs 38 lakh, the Gurgaon café is doing Rs 30,000 in sales every day," he boasted. "We just need to spread out."

Lala wanted to know how the expansion plans were shaping up. "Good," replied Joshi, continuing, "The best part is that a Lala's 11 outlet won't take much space. Even 600 sq-ft would do just fine. High value, low input. It's the way to go. Just watch. We'll put up some 100-odd outlets across India in five years."

Arora had no doubt it could be done. In fact, work was progressing on seven more outlets even as they spoke. His only concern was getting the marketing act together to ensure that the focus didn't get lost in the actual hustle-bustle of business. "The promise of lifestyle," said Arora, "has simply got to be bigger than life."

Joshi listened carefully, knowing full well that Arora was a keen observer of restaurant brands-and what space they occupied in the consumer's mind. Characterisation was everything. All too often, this was a key issue ignored by restaurant owners, to their own grief.

"Well," said Joshi, "we've got Gurgaon's yuppies, by and large." This, despite the competition from BarMan and Coffee Bay, the two chains that had gripped yuppie imagination in the past year or so. Lala's had been a supplier to these chains, and saw itself as a better cost-manager. Not just that, Lala's wanted to price itself competitively. So while BarMan was selling a cappucino cup at Rs 35, Lala's was selling it for just Rs 18.

Lower prices meant higher volumes. But this, to Arora, was also why he had to worry about attracting the envisaged kind of customers, the kind who would give the brand an aura of sophistication.

Managing that was all the more challenging because Lala's was considering the franchise route to expand operations nationwide. Unlike Lala's main business, the ingredients for a short-menu business could easily be centrally sourced and supplied at high-quality levels, thus permitting Lala's to let others operate 'contract' outlets in faraway locations-without the risk of quality boo-boos hurting the brand's image.

"The good news is that the original chain is not at risk," said Lala, "and continues to make us money. This project will give us the customers we lost. And why not? We were the first to introduce espresso-style coffee to India, in 1954, when Gaggia (the inventors of those machines) gave us the exclusive distribution rights to sell their machines in India. Remember?"

Arora smiled. "But," he said, "we're not seen as the café pioneers any more. So we still have the question of differentiation to address. Having a focused menu is not enough to create the image we want. Have we done enough thinking in this direction?"

Lala looked at Joshi. "Our rival BarMan has some interesting interior décor to give it character. The posters, for example. Maybe we do something like that too."

Arora pursed his lips, with an air of dissatisfaction. Lala thumbed his chin. All three were in thought. The question: how should Lala's 11 set itself apart?

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