Caf Gam Sung Marketing Plan Analysis - Term Paper Example

Marketing Plan Introduction This report is a marketing plan for Café Gam Sung. Café Gam Sung will be a newly opened coffee shop at Sunnyside, NY. Though it is named as a coffee shop, it will also serve tea of various kinds. So basically, this is a coffee & tea shop. The concept of the shop is extremely different from all the existing players. The café combines the concept of resting and technology, ie, the café will sell technology related design products along with the beverages. The customers get an overall experience of having coffee along with shopping. Therefore, customers can either have coffee by sitting at the couch or while selecting the merchandizes from the shop. This marketing plan will first make a situational analysis for the café. In the situational analysis, the overall picture in terms of trends, statistics, size, growth and competition will be discussed. Also, a SWOT analysis will be performed for identifying the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of the current industry. The report will also give an insight into the current competitors in the industry. A comprehensive explanation of the target market and product positioning is discussed. Based on all these analysis, a marketing plan is charted out for the café. Situational Analysis Café Gam Sung will be located at Sunnyside neighborhood in New York City. Sunnyside is located in the western portion of New York City. Sunnyside contains a total population of 29,506 people. Though majority of the population are Americans, a larger portion is also constituted of people from almost 30 countries. Therefore, Sunnyside is a place with very diverse cultural characteristics. The median income of the region is $37,962. Majority of the population in the area are of the age group of 25 – 39 years. Clearly mentioning, they constitute up to 32% of the Sunnyside population. The next bigger group is 40 – 64 years old forming around 30%. Teenage people of 19 – 24 years old form 7% of the population. The majority of the employed people are from the industries of retail/wholesale, professional, manufacturing, finance, education/health and arts/entertainment. Around 44% of the employed population falls into the income category of $30,000 - $74,999. 40% fall below $30,000. Only a meager 1% has an annual income of higher than 150,000. Sunnyside is a market with a highly growing potential for coffee shops. The major opportunity in the market is that it contains a considerable portion of young population. The population of age groups 19 – 39 years is of great potential for the business. Another opportunity is the rapid development in technology industry and growing population that attempt to explore new and advanced devices to pursue the trend. The major threat will be Starbucks which has a well-established outlet in Sunnyside. Apart from Starbucks, there are also various other coffee shops in the region which can pose a threat to Café Gam Sung. The strength of Café Gam Sung when compared to other players is that this is not an exclusive coffee shop. Café Gam Sung is a Coffee/Tea shop with a focus on technology merchandizes. The main weakness is that Café Gam Sung being a new player has less expertise in the field compared to the established players. Competitors Some of the major players in the Sunnyside are Starbucks, Baruir’s Coffee, Café Marlene and New Post Coffee Shop. Starbucks: Starbucks is the most established coffee shop in Sunnyside. The shop is so popular that people find it hard to get a seat because of the rush. Wi-Fi is also free at Starbucks Sunnyside. Therefore, customers usually spend more time at the shop. They also offer free refill of coffee when the customers spend more time at the shop. This Starbucks outlet also contains a friendly staff. Servings are coffee and teas like any other Starbucks outlet. New Post Coffee Shop: New Post coffee shop also serves diners. But this place seems to be least preferred by the customers. People are generally dissatisfied with the ambience and overall appeal of this outlet. Even the health department rating is C for this outlet. The only differentiation for this outlet is that they serve breakfasts and other heavy snacks. Baruir’s Coffee: Baruir’s Coffee is a popular coffee shop in Sunnyside. This one is highly rated by the customers. Their uniqueness is that they roast their own coffee. This outlet is also not as fancy or ambient as Starbucks. Nor do they have a place to sit and spend time over coffee. Their USP is that even the ice cubes they use are made of coffee. Café Marlene: The Café Marlene is located in Woodside neighborhood. The shop has mixed responses from the customers. The ambience is good at this place. But the coffee served is inconsistent. Also, it does not have an AC and seating is little cramped. Target Market The target market of Café Gam Sung is the local residents and foreign students who are fond of exploring technology and related products. The prime target is the people of age group of 19 – 40. They are expected to be the major chunk of the customers though the outlet does not restrict its product philosophy to the rest of the group. From the pilot analysis of the existing coffee shops in the region, it can be found that the main focuses of the customers are quality, consistency, ambience, friendly staff and choice. Starbucks is able to give all these attributes in their outlet because of which they find a heavy rush. The major aspect is quality of the products. This was evident from the success of Baruir’s Coffee. Though Baruir’s Coffee does not have an ambient outlet or brand name, it is highly preferred by the customers. There is also huge word of mouth publicity about Baruir’s Coffee Shop. The customers are also least bothered about the price of the coffee. Basically, if the coffee/products and the experience are good, customers will rush to the outlet. The psychographic profiles of the customers are highly advantageous for the coffee shop. Sunnyside has recently seen a huge change in the lifestyle of people in the region. Unlike before, the people are ready to pay more for good quality products. Price is kind of becoming a secondary determining factor on the purchase decisions of the customers. Positioning Café Gam Sung will be positioned entirely different from that of the existing players in the market. Café Gam Sung will not be a typical café where people can spend more time over coffee. This will be a merchandize cum coffee shop. The outlet will showcase design items like phone cases, cups, and other small accessories that are reasonably priced. There will not be abundant space for sitting and relaxing. But there will be enough space for the customers to move around and check the products. Therefore, the customer groups will consist of those people who come just for the beverages, those for beverages and merchandizes and those who come solely for the merchandize. Marketing Strategies Product Strategy: Café Gam Sung will maintain a color combination that will help to generate an identity. Just like the green and black for Starbucks. This way, customers will be able to remember and identify the shop easily. Unlike other coffee shops in the region, Café Gam Sung has an additional service of merchandizes too. These features will help to achieve the positioning objectives. Promotion Strategy: Promotion will be mostly carried on through Facebook. A Facebook page will be created for Café Gam Sung in order to connect with the potential customers. Marketing activities like small contests will be regularly conducted to keep in touch with the customers on a regular basis. Any new merchandizes that is introduced will be announced through the Facebook so that the customers will be updated. Café Gam Sung will thus be able to stay connected with the customers regularly. Pricing Strategy: The coffee/tea products will be priced at par with Starbucks so as to maintain a premium status. Coffee and Tea will be priced in the range of $3 - $5. However, the price of the design products will vary. This pricing strategy was adopted because the study has shown that the customers are least bothered about price when the quality is superior. Therefore, Café Gam Sung expects to maintain a premium tag by providing good quality beverages at reasonably high price. This will help to increase the brand value and achieve the positioning objective. Distribution Strategy: Utmost care will be taken to ensure that superior quality coffee beans are used for the products. Talks are already on with Joy Ride Coffee distributors for supplying the coffee. The company intends to sell coffee only through its retail outlet. Regarding the merchandizes, the company is planning to have the products designed by the housewives. Such handicraft items that can be used for gadgets will be sourced from selected households. This will also be done through students who are interested in designing products. Bibliography Movoto. (2012). Neighborhood Information for Sunnyside. Retrieved December 9, 2012. From: http://www.movoto.com/neighborhood/ny/sunnyside/11104.htm Yelp. (2012). Starbucks. Retrieved December 9, 2012. From: http://www.yelp.com/biz/starbucks-sunnyside Read More