Marketing Strategy of Flavors Cafe - Case Study Example

Marketing Strategy of Flavors Café Name Institution Date Introduction This is a marketing strategy for the new chocolate café known as Flavors Café which will be situated in Canberra. The paper will highlight the café’s marketing objectives and strategies used pricing, distribution, promoting and developing the product. Marketing activities of Flavors Café will set the foundations for achieving set aims and objectives. Marketing objectives Marketing goals for Flavors Café will assist in ensuring successful implementation of the marketing plan. The following are specific objectives for Flavors Café: i. To develop a strategy that will position Flavors Café as a provider of superior products at a lower cost ii. To evaluate ways of building customer loyalty and attract new customers to the cafe iii. To investigate how to Increase the frequency of customer visits to Flavors Café iv. To find ways of establishing good image of the café among the target market and business community Marketing mix An integrated marketing mix seeks to establish customer awareness about the products of the café. An extensive awareness of Flavors Café by the target market assist in maintaining and establishing customer loyalty. In the Flavors Café, the marketing mix approaches includes the following: Pricing Flavors Café seeks to set a price that is favorable to middle-class people who makes 49% of entire Canberra population. In this case, lowering the price below competitors will win the loyalty of many middle-class people. Therefore, this pricing strategy would increase the revenue for Flavors Café which results in rapid growth in the industry (Australian Government, 2016). Place In order to appeal to the market segment, the premises of Flavors Café will be kept clean, organized and stylish. Some staff will be tasked to ensure the café always has a high level of organization and cleanliness. On the side of catering, service is offered as per the specification of the client and in line with Flavors Café’s premier marketing position. The areas of the café prone to customer traffic will be kept be free from obstruction in order to increase the speed of delivery of service to take away customers. An appealing display of available products will be made to encourage purchase and easy retrieval of items of sale (Australian food statistics, 2016). Product promotion The product promotion in Flavors Café would seek to pass a message to customers that the café provides superior products and services. The products and services are offered in an environment that is appealing to target customers. Product promotion in Flavors Café will be conducted through online presence, social networking, magazines etc. a) Online presence The Flavors Café seeks to build an online presence to increase the awareness of its products. Online presence would be made possible by regularly updating and reviewing Flavors Café’s website. It enables wider access to promotion information. Category, online presence is desirable to attain rapid growth. The information passed online may include discounts available on the product and information on special promotions. In order to increase online presence, Flavors Café will develop prominent promotional messages and increase information accessibility. The café will also place messages with potential to trigger viral marketing in YouTube (Australian Government, 2016). b) Social networking In order to develop a customer loyalty, Flavors Café will encourage interaction with the café and others customers via social media. Loyalty rewards will be provided to customers who are actively following posts on social media. The marketing studies have shown that potential customers targeted through social media usually identify with products and services of good quality. Positive qualities that most clients associate with social media include responsiveness, trustworthiness, ‘coolness’ and personalization (Australian food statistics, 2016). c) Advertising in media and magazines Most of the target segment of the market commutes to the workplace on a regular basis. The trend provides us an opportunity to place regular adverts in media and local magazines due to a high number of commuters. The adverts directed to target market would increase the café awareness and promote its products. d) Direct mail to local businesses Flavors Café will be involved in direct mail and adverts to the businesses across Canberra. In order to communicate directly to market segments in need of catering services, direct mail campaigns will be an effective method. Our research clearly shows that the use of flyers delivered to the business location of the local patrons is more convenient (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016) iv. Distribution strategy The Flavors Café drinks and snacks can either be taken in the café or offered to customers as a takeaway. In the case of the takeaway model, customers can make a call to order some drinks or snacks and come later to the restaurant to pick it up. On the other hand, customers take out an order, wait to be served and dine at the café (ACT Government, 2016). v. People A key focus of the marketing strategy is to empower human resource. In order to boost the productivity of our staff, we will organize regular training so that they are responsive to the market level of service. Also, a better remuneration will be offered to boost the morale of staff and become good ambassadors of Flavors Café. Positioning of Flavors café Flavors Café will compete favorably with competitors such as Starbucks by offering superior products to consumers at a lower price. As a result of this, our consumers would have a maximum value and unique value. a) Product and price In Flavors Café, a variety of drinks and snacks offered are always fresh. In our market survey, we discovered that some clients of Starbuck complain of high prices of competitors products. Therefore, lowering the price would attract more customers. Also, the price is set to be just slightly lower than that of a competitor to ensure that prices signify high quality and brand prestige (Australian food statistics, 2016). b) Service Our team of skilled and experienced staff would facilitate the provision of high-quality and friendly service to all our customers. We intend to utilize service offered to our clients as the key differentiating factor. c) Ethics The business will uphold a high level of ethics during operation. The business will adhere to social and environmental responsibility. In order to be environmental responsibility, the business will minimize the use of non-recyclable packaging. The business shall be socially and environmentally responsible. Target Marketing The Flavors Café market consists of three target segments: a. Individual takeaway According to our initial market survey, Canberra has an estimate market size potential of 12,000 – 15,000 individuals (ACT Government, 2016). The market size of Canberra has an annual growth rate of 5 percent. As the market grows, the trend in social behavior tends to signal the increasing level of social and environmental issues awareness (Australian Government, 2016). Therefore, there is an increasing level of health consciousness among the area population. The following are some of the characteristics of customers within individual takeaway segment of the market (Australian food statistics, 2016): i. They are regular commuters ii. They are sensitive to product quality iii. They tend to be socially and environmentally responsible iv. They are sensitive to peer pressure influences v. They earn an average income of over $40,000 vi. They literate to current technology b. Individual sit-down According to the initial market survey, an estimated market size of 4,000-5,000 individuals exists in this market segment. It has s similar annual growth rate with that continues to grow as well. The individual sit-down market segment has the following characteristics though some similarities with individual takeaway (Australian food statistics, 2016). i. Their ages range between 35 and 60 years old ii. It includes tourists, foreigners or domestic iii. They earn an income of over $60,000 iv. The majority are either clerical or profession v. They are conscious of healthy food but eager to impress their colleagues c. Groups According to our market survey, the groups consist of organizations and business caterings. An estimated market size of 650 businesses exists in the focus groups (Australian Government, 2016). With time, the number of businesses targeted will increase. The characteristics of the market segment are similar to both individual takeaway and individual sit-down but only a few exceptions. These groups are less price- sensitive and mostly consist of business managers holding business meetings or training. Strategy Pyramids In order to achieve Flavors Café’s mission, vision, and values, all the marketing activities will be coordinated with strategic directions of the company. Flavors café’s strategic directions include the following (ACT Government, 2016): i. Increase the sales revenue through rigorous marketing campaigns ii. Recruit and maintain well remunerated and motivated staff iii. Provide superior products and services to the customer's iv. Employ mechanisms to boost customer loyalty The above strategic marketing directions will facilitate the increase in revenue and establish the business brand in the competitive market. Most of the customers would identify Flavors Cafe as a provider of superior products. The increase of the cafe’s traffic due to rigorous campaigns will increase business profitability. The Flavors Café brand will increase with increasing brand recognition especially within the surrounding area (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). In general, our marketing activities are tailored to provide the most benefit to Flavors Café business. Implementation a. Budget The marketing budget for Flavors café will allow efficient utilization of the business resources. Each marketing area is allocated resources depending on the level of priority. A major concern in designing the budget is to ensure that the amount spent on marketing aimed is the realization of the business objectives and is within the budget. The budgetary allocation for this marketing strategy is $300 000 and allocations are as shown in the table below. Table 1: Marketing strategy budget   Production Cost Media Cost Total Cost Magazine       Adverts 20 000 50 000 70 000 Competitions 10 000 30 000 40 000 Radio       Adverts  30 000 50 000 80 000 Sponsorship Event 20 000 20 000 40 000 Online presence       Display 5 000 15 000 20 000 Samples     5 000 Incentives     5 000 Social media       Maintenance 40 000   40 000 Total     300 000   b. Schedule Tactic Jan Feb Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Magazine                       Adverts               Competition                       Radio                         Adverts             Sponsorship                     Event                       Online presence                       Display                     Samples                   Incentives                     Social media                       Maintenance   Evaluation Marketing strategy is important to ensure the success of the business operations. The business should closely monitor the results of marketing plans and activities. A variety of methods can be used to monitor, analyze and evaluate the marketing strategy. a) Direct response It is one of the oldest methods used to evaluate marketing communication activities like sales promotion. Flavors café would use the approach in soliciting customer feedback directly via an online questionnaire that a customer fills (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). b) Market surveys A regular market survey would be conducted among the target audience. In this case, the target group will be requested to answer specific marketing questions. Market survey will enable marketing team to obtain quantitative information on customers taste and preferences (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016) Conclusion In conclusion, the marketing strategy proposed would be implemented to realize the aims and objectives of Flavors Café. The aim of the business is to be a provider of superior products that satisfies customer’s expectations. Evidently, from the above description, the target market for Flavors Café mainly consists of middle-income earners who commute to the workplace and the nearby business organizations. The promotion strategy adopted in this marketing plan includes print media, online presence, and social networking. Evidently, consumers are becoming more and more conscious of their diet. With regard to this, our business will focus on providing healthy food as per expectations of the clients. The major competitor of the business is Starbuck Café.   References Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2016). Finding government statistics, Australian Government Business, Retrieved 3rd August 2016 from  https://www.business.gov.au/Info/Plan-and-Start/Develop-your-business-plans/Marketing-research/Finding-government-statistics Australian food statistics 2012-2013. Retrieved 3rd August 2016 from  http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ag-food/publications/food-stats/australian-food-statistics-2012-13.pdf Australian Government (2016). Market research & statistics in your state or territory. Retrieved 3rd August 2016 from  https://www.business.gov.au/Info/Plan-and-Start/Develop-your-business-plans/Marketing-research/Market-research-and-statistics-in-your-state-or-territory Average weekly earnings and other economic indicators data from ACT Government from http://apps.treasury.act.gov.au/snapshot   Read More