Flour Bakery MGMT Plan
Flour Bakery MGMT Plan
Flour Bakery MGMT Plan
Mashael Althari, Hayley Collins, Ainslie Gibbs, Gina Han and Megan Moore developed
this plan for Joanne Change and her business, Flour Bakery & Caf.
Table Of Contents
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......... 4
2 SITUATION ANALYSIS 5
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
3 Financial Projections19
4 Creative Brief19
4.1
Project Summary.19
4.2
Target Audience..20
4.3
Perception/Tone/Guidelines20
4.4
Communications Strategy...21
4.5
Competitive positioning..21
4.6
Single-minded message..21
1 Executive Summary
The service our group has chosen to create a marketing plan for is Flour Bakery &
Caf. This bakery has four locations throughout Boston: Cambridge, Fort Point Channel,
South End, and Back Bay being the newest location. We will be focusing mainly, but not
limited to, the latter caf due to its location and newness. Joanne Chang originated
flour Bakery & Caf thirteen years ago. Chang was originally part of corporate America
when she decided to pursue her passion for baking, following years of apprenticeship,
which lead to the creation of Flour Bakery & Caf. After careful consideration, our group
has chosen Flour Bakery & Caf for many reasons. The first reason is from personal
experiences. Secondly, we appreciate their social and corporate responsibility, donating
food and catering services within the Boston community. Most of all, we believe that
local Bostonians have never heard or experienced Flour Bakery & Caf. This reason
alone revealed the need for a marketing campaign. After researching their website, we
have found that they are still in the media due to high interest, word of mouth and public
relation efforts. However, Flour Bakery & Caf has no formal marketing layout,
including advertisements around Boston.
We sought out contacting the founder of Flour Bakery & Cafe, Joanne Chang. We
had hoped to use her as a primary resource because she could have provided us
information on the company, data and answer other questions we might have.
Unfortunately, due to the busy upcoming holiday season, Joanne Chang and her team
members were not available resources. To alter our gathering, we used personal
experiences and physical observations. In addition, we have found notable PDFs and
databases online providing information and statistics about local bakeries, demographics
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of the Back Bay, specifically, and marketing campaigns of competitors. Our team is
excited to work with Flour Bakery & Caf mainly because they produce a quality product
and we feel as though we can help them in their marketing efforts.
2 Situation Analysis
This marketing plan begins with an analysis of Flour Bakery & Caf. This plan
includes an assessment of the business, customers, competitors, and external marketing
environment and factors. This information is then summarized with a S.W.O.T (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. A full marketing plan and a creative
brief will be included.
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which all serve as popular destinations in the Boston area. The area is known for its
historic brownstone buildings and has been considered a historical landmark since 19621.
Economic factors also need to be considered when thinking about the operations
and success of a business. We determined through secondary research that in the Back
Bay 60% of people live alone2, signaling to our team that we should not be marketing to
families since the population is generally single people. The median income for the Back
Bay area is $71,000 and only 11% of people live under the poverty line. Because the
median income of this area is higher than most it suggests to our team that the people are
more focused on quality and can be less concerned about cost. The people in this
neighborhood are able to afford more expensive items because they make about $20,000
more than average Americans and most do not have families to take care of. This is
important for our team to note when we look at how to market to this specific market.
According to a socio-cultural study in 2009, 81% of the Back Bay area identified
themselves as Caucasian. 9% identify as Asian, 5% identify as Latino, 3% identify as
black, and 1% identify as other races. In addition, 81% of the people living in the Back
Bay have a Bachelors Degree or higher suggesting that the people can be classified as
middle to upper middle working class3. After, considering the environmental factors,
economic factors, and socio-cultural factors our group will be creating a marketing plan
that will market to single, working class people who purchase on quality and not
necessarily price.
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Mentioned previously, the kitchen staff is a very important aspect for the bakery.
The structure of Flour Bakery & Caf is lead by the Chef. Below the Chef is the Pastry
Chef, followed by the Assistant Pastry Chef, Manager, Assistant Manager and then
general employees. Each position plays a very crucial role in Flours operations.
Clearly, chefs are a key part in the running of every bakery. Managers are essential in
almost every business as well as the general employees running payment check-out and
cleaning the facility.
2.3
These five forces help Flour understand and cope with competition that will affect their
business. There is a broad spectrum of competitors Flour must take into account. The
bargaining power of suppliers is a low concern for Flours business. Due to the factor that
the business is local and on a smaller scale, the company is not competing against other
large companies for their products from one supplier, unless there is a need for specialty
supplies.
The bargaining power of customers has an impact on Flours company based on
donations. As Flour explains, By investing in a range of worthwhile causes, Flour brings
our commitment to good citizenship into action. We provide charitable gifts to support
diverse organizations and initiatives that we believe can make a meaningful difference in
our neighborhoods.5 Flour gives back to the community and allows its customers to also
feel like they are contributing. Flour is shaped as being a local hangout rather than a
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franchised location like Dunkin Donuts. These are both high areas of concerns for Flour.
Flour prides themselves on their relationship with their customers and the community.
The high concern for this area is evident with Flours focus on this concept within their
mission statement.
Companies, including Flour have the force of a threat of new entrants. Flours
biggest threat to their company and profit is the abundance of other local bakeries and
chain bakeries around their location. There are other local bakeries that focus on the same
mission of clean eating (i.e. Sweet & Tatte & Mikes Pastry/Modern Pastry/Finale) as
Flour focuses on. Unfortunately, there is an abundance of these bakeries that Flour
continually needs to compete with for a profit, making this a high concern for their
company.
There is also a threat of substitute products that Flour faces. There are other
bakeries such as Flour that also use the concept of clean-eating to draw in consumers.
This concept refers to the organic and more health conscious products that companies
use. The concept of clean-eating appeals to a wide range of consumers today that are
aware of what kind of products they are consuming. There are many clean-eating
bakeries that have products that are gluten free, without nuts, extravagant desserts, or
anything locally owned and made. Flour works hard on having a product for everyone.
This can result in increased profit for the company.
Lastly, the force of competitive rivalry within an Industry can affect the
company. Rivalry within this business can cause Flour to lose many customers over a
short period of time. One of our main concerns is how high Flours prices are for the size
of their products. Customers may choose to search elsewhere for a lower priced product,
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even if the trade off is a lower quality and less CSR. This may help other competitors due
better than Flour. Sites such as Yelp.com show all other bakeries within the Back Bay
area as having a 4-4.5 Stars when researched, similar to Flour, which has an average
rating of 4.1 stars.
2.4
has been able to reach great levels of success. One of the indicators of its success is the
restaurants ZAGAT rating. Its ratings are as follows: food (26), decor (20), service (20),
and cost ($13) out of 30. Within the review, terms that were identified in association
with this restaurant are delectable, creative, neighborly vibe, caring staff, and relatively
good prices.6 Additionally, there are great reviews on Flour, and the people who post
things on websites have many positive things to say about this restaurant. The reviews for
Flour Bakery + Cafe is also better than two of its competitors: Tatte Bakery and Sweets
Etc., two local Boston cafes. Its Yelp reviews indicate that people feel the restaurant is
reasonably priced, and there are certain foods that customers highly recommend to
others.7
With all of the positives that are found within the restaurant reviews, there are
some negative posts. The most common trend in the negative posts appears to revolve
around the lack of social media marketing and other networks for the restaurant. In other
Zagat. Flour Bakery & Cafe. Zagat, 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.zagat.com/r/flour-boston>.
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Yelp. Flour Bakery + Cafe. Yelp, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.yelp.com/biz/flour-bakery-caf-boston-4>.
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words, customers and people living in the area complain that there is such a little online
presence for the restaurant. Considering the Internet is how many people find information
nowadays, this lack of a presence is troubling and detrimental to business.
The Facebook page for Flour Bakery & Cafe is virtually nonexistent. Although
there is a page that is up and running, it is not properly being utilized nor it is being
maximized. This is evident through the small number of likes on the page, meaning the
individual fans or people who support and follow the page. The page only has 5,083 likes
and 122 people talking about it. Even worse, there have only been 5,246 visitors to the
page.8 These low numbers indicate that there is not much traffic to the Flour Bakery &
Cafe Facebook page.
Another social media out that has skyrocketed in popularity, both in society and in
the corporate world, is Twitter. Whereas many organizations are fully taking advantage
of the consumer interaction and free publicity associated with this social media outlet,
Flour Bakery & Cafe is not. Joanne Chang does have a Twitter page, but it is her own
personal page. On this page, she has 10,835 tweets, meaning pieces of information she
has published. She also has 11,293 followers and is following 149 others.9
Based on the unpopular Facebook page and nonexistent Twitter account, it is
evident that the biggest problem for Flour Bakery & Cafe is its social media marketing.
In being able to improve the quality and presence of its social media marketing, Flour
Bakery & Cafe will be able to better reach current and prospective customers. It will also
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be able to reap the benefits associated with increased marketing without simultaneously
increasing their costs. Because marketing and advertising campaigns can be very costly,
it is important for Chang to find ways to promote her restaurant for little or no costs,
which is the key goal of our marketing plan.
2.5
many different customers with various eating habits and dietary needs. The bakery and
caf style add a certain feel to the establishment brining in more customers. Flour
receives promotion from top-notch reviewers such as Oprah and Bostons A-List voters;
receiving awards and giving opportunities to the community such as cooking classes.
Flour also focuses on corporate social responsibility by donating items not purchased at
the end of the day, raising money to donate to societies such as the Leukemia and
Lymphoma society and Strong Women Strong Girls at Simmons College. Flours
weaknesses that we hope to improve are the locations promotion and access. The prices
do not cohere to the locations of the bakeries. Flour does not have a marketing sector in
their business and is not associated with a marketing or creative agency. There is plenty
of competition within the bakery business. Flour would benefit from hiring a marketing
company or agency and developing a marketing strategy. Flour has the option to hire
personal in order to implement this marketing plan or they can choose to educate
themselves in using tools in order to market themselves effectively. Improving their
ingredients to match locations and prices would also be beneficial. The SWOT analysis
that follows will highlight in depth Flour Bakery and Cafs strengths and weakness
and the opportunities and threats in its current market.
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10
Facebook. Flour Bakery & Caf. Facebook, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flour-BakeryCafe/160143804024972>.
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Leukemia and Lymphoma societies, along with donating products to SWSG.11 CSR
efforts such as these help Flour Bakery show just how much it cares about residents in the
local and surrounding communities, and this can go a long way with customers.
Facebook. Flour Bakery & Caf. Facebook, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flour-BakeryCafe/160143804024972>.
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Flour Bakery and Caf located in the South End do have higher prices yet these prices are
not necessarily coherent with the South End neighborhood. Less expensive items would
be more appealing to this neighborhood. Because Flour prides itself on clean eating
having healthy and all natural productsthe price does inevitably increase. If Flour had a
location on Newbury Street, as mentioned previously, the prices would be justified. Flour
must recognize that they have a solid product, which has relative prices; these prices
must fit in a certain spectrum of the city in monetary terms as well as the type of people
Flour normally attracts.
Moving away from the pricing and location of Flour is a more important issue: the
promotion aspect, or lack thereof. Flour Bakery & Caf relies heavily on public relations
and has absolutely no form of marketing. Although they do have certain social media
feedsFacebook, Twitter and YouTubeFlour has no campaign or defined marketing
strategy. When searching the Flour website for employees, there is no marketing manager
or creative agency is listed. We understand that small businesses may not have the means
of implementing a marketing agency but having a more expansive marketing outreach
would supplement and enhance the company as a whole.
The only notable aspect is the public relation sideall awards given through
magazines and television shows. Not having any sort of marketing campaign or strategy
opens a doorway and an opportunity for an improved product but more importantly, an
improved company. Our focus is to create a marketing strategy to make this weakness
into a tremendous strength. Implementing a marketing plan can change the dynamic of
the company as a whole and show competitors how Flour is keeping up with popular
trends while also staying true to their original products.
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program to get college aged people to purchase products from Flour. By targeting college
students with a discount program they can create lifelong customers. Once the college
students enter the professional world they will be able to afford Flours normal prices and
continue to purchase their products. Flour has many opportunities that would result in
improving their business.
"Search for 'Bakeries' in Boston." Yelp. Yelp, Inc., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=bakery&find_loc=central+square&ns=1&ls=86
f59204c0c4ce2e#find_loc=boston>.
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bakery.14 The abundance of local and corporate competition and the values they offer to
consumers threaten Flours place in the bakery industry, making Flour a substitutable
brand despite its strengths.
Lastly, there is a higher consumer demand for nutritional information today, due
to an increasing awareness of healthy eating and fitness. Many competitive bakeries,
including Panera, meet this demand by providing nutritional information of their
products.15 Flours lack of similar action may be an indicator that it is behind on trends.
Financial Projections
Implementing our strategies comes with a price. Luckily, increasing Flours social
media outreach would incur no extra costs due to public access. The most expensive
portion of our promotional campaign would be the implementation of advertisements.
Depending on the size of our advertisements the cost increases. For example, it costs
$14.25 per 1/14th of an inch in the Boston Globe. If Flour were to put a 5-inch by 5-inch
advertisement within the Boston Globe it would cost an estimated $500. Another
promotional aspect would be to donate goods to local events within the Boston area. This
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would decrease revenue, however it would increase awareness. Another option on the
spectrum would be to implement another location on Newbury Street. Before doing so,
we would need to take in consideration the fixed costs in relation to the variable costs,
and how much the contribution margin would be. Based on this marketing plan, these
financial projections are the only ones we see as affecting Flour Bakery & Caf.
However, all of which, in the long run will benefit the company as a whole.
4 Creative Brief
4.1 Project Summary
Flour Bakery & Caf is a Boston-based bakery owned by Joanne Chang. There
are four locations of this bakery: Back Bay, Cambridge, South End and in the Fort Point
Channel. As of now they rely heavily on public relations focusing on social media
(Facebook, Twitter, etc.), word of mouth and most notably interest from reports and news
channels.
Flour Bakery & Caf has a competitive advantage with higher reviews than local
competitors such as Sweet and Tatte. The goal of our team is to see change within the
marketing department ultimately implementing a new marketing strategy to convey their
quality products to expanded consumers. We would like to create more advertisements
via social media and throughout the Boston neighborhood, addition of new locations to
attract diverse consumers and varying prices dependent on neighborhood and product.
4. 2
Target Audience
Flour Bakery & Caf caters to young professionals and young families who are
looking for a convenient and healthy treat! The bakery also appeals to people who are
looking to have a relaxing caf environment by sitting down and enjoying some of
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Flours many products. Flour Bakery & Caf offers a trendy element due to its eclectic
appeal and higher-priced products.
Flour attracts loyal customers who are familiar with the product and who
continually purchase from the bakery. This bakery neglects to attract and retain new
consumersa crucial element in a successful a company.
Owner, Joann Chang, promotes a healthy lifestyle to her consumers by
incorporating organic ingredients as well as vegan and gluten-free options. While doing
so, Joann also wants to keep flavor profiles sweet and savory to appeal to all taste pallets.
4. 3 Perception/Tone/Guidelines
1. High accessibility and online presence
2. Price promotions via social media and public relations
3. Information on the products should be more transparent
4. Market-oriented strategy to promote the breadth and depth of their product
to a broader range of audiences
4. 4
Communication Strategy
With our new marketing strategy we will mainly focus on advertisements
throughout the city as well as online outreach through social media. In order to enhance
our social media tactics we will promote Flour more so on Facebook and create a Twitter
handle for Flour that is not directly connected to owner Joann Changs account. By
doing so we can provide and promote discounts to followers. For example, if a follower
retweets or mentions #Flour in a tweet, the bakery will offer promotional discounts
such as 10% off our Pumpkin muffins. Also, if a customer tags Flour or their location
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in a Facebook status then promotions such as Get a free tartlettes with your next
purchase! apply.
Other options for advertisement include word of mouth and more importantly
possible donations to local Boston events. This then will gain a wider audience and
spread the word of Flour. We recommend and will implement small advertisements in
The Metro, BostonGlobe, and The Boston Herald and their online counterparts.
4.6
visibility.
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Tatte
Sweet
Panera Bread
Low
High
Low
Price
(Appendix 1) Perceptual Map Bakeries in Boston
Flour Bakery + Caf= The position they currently hold
Flour Bakery + Caf= Where we would like to reposition them
Flour
Bakery + Caf