Marketing an Organic Bakery Using Sales Promotion Technique - Essay Example

Organic Bakery – The Idea:- Bakeries are high volume high demand business models that can persist despite severe competition within the same vicinity due to product and taste differentiations. The important challenge for owners is to market and sell their products to consumers before competitors capture the market. It is important to understand that a bakery can be run in various ways; and a way that is successful for one owner may not be that successful for another. It is hence essential that bakery owners consider their strengths and weaknesses, location and target niche when deciding their business strategy (Gaines).

The Marketing Plan: - While deciding the sales promotion technique, it is essential that a strong underlying marketing plan is in shape that guides steps towards achieving specific goals through sales. Few of the key strokes in making a successful marketing plan include:- Identifying Customers:- A demographical analysis of customers is essential to determine potential customers for specific varieties of products produced by the bakery. A customer demographic research to achieve the stated goal can be useful (Fullen and Brown).

Studying Competition:- An essential determinant of the bakery’s success is to study the competition for products that exists in the vicinity. In case of an organic bakery, differentiated products can act as a major selling point and overcome competition. Furthermore, healthy and organic lifestyle promotion can also be of help. Some of the key questions to be answered include: Who are the five nearest direct competitors, how are their businesses, what are their strengths and weaknesses, have you learned from their operations and how do their products differ from yours (Fullen and Brown)?

Advertising and Public Relations Management:- Some of the strategies to promote the business through advertising can include short, descriptive messages to be sent to people in the vicinity of the bakery, taglines to create brand equity and persona, and emphasis on product differentiation. Sales Promotion and Appropriate Techniques:- Sales promotion is an activity, or any material, or both that is intended to entice sellers to sell a product or customers to buy a specific product (Pride and Ferrell).

Sales promotion includes several promotional techniques, excluding public relations, personal selling and advertising. Sales promotion is often used to facilitate personal selling or advertising. Sales promotions often increase sales by providing incentives to customers that may not be provided during the normal course of business. Several promotion methods exist to achieve objectives of high volume of sales: 1) Coupons: - Coupons are written price reduction on specific products aimed at increasing the sales of that product by attracting customers.

They have several advantages, including generating brand awareness at low cost, maintaining old customers and attracting new customers and inducing purchases in larger quantities. The result, often, is an increase in the volume of sales. This technique can be an incentive that entices customers to try new products rather than sticking to their routine buys. There may be a small compromise on the margin on products though (Pride and Ferrell). 2) Cents-off offers:- These offers provide customers straight up discounts on regular prices to encourage sales.

This technique is used in product introductions and can entice customers to buy something new. While it can stimulate purchases and increase sales, most of the increase in sales are short lived. 3) Point of Purchase Displays:- This technique involves promotion via displays, counter pieces, etc. and does not involve any direct discounts or price incentives except mentioned in the promotion material. Ideal Promotional Technique:- The ideal promotional technique for a bakery item will be coupon offers.

It is well observed that bakeries are present almost everywhere, and most of the times, more than one within a small geographic area. This is the reason that customer retention is a major challenge in the bakery business. Although several niche markets exist, the level of product differentiation that bakeries can exhibit is limited. Through coupons, customers are given the incentive to return to the bakery they once purchased items from. This technique is extremely beneficial if most of the audience is indifferent with respect to the brand of the bakery and is very price elastic.

Furthermore, the fact that these coupons entice greater sales, it increases sales volume and purchasing process. Most coupons have a greater discount for newer products which further expands the horizons of the products that are in the favorite category of customers. The facts above clearly justify that coupons should be the sales promotion technique the organic bakery uses to increase sales volume. Works Cited Fullen, Sharon L. and Douglas Robert Brown. How to Open a Financially Successful Bakery.

Atlantic Publishing Company, 2004. Gaines, Melinda. Guide to Bakery Business. 2011. . Pride, William M. and O. C. Ferrell. Marketing. Cengage Learning, 2008.