Evaluation Of San Churro Marketing Communications - Case Study Example

Paper Title: San Churro marketing communications report [Name of Student] [Name of Affiliate Institution] Contents Contents 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2.0 Introduction 5 3.0 Internet communication strategies for San Churro 6 3.1 Marketing communication goal 6 3.2 Overall marketing strategies 7 3.3 Public relations 10 3.4 outdoor marketing 11 3.5 digital marketing 11 3.6 Sales promotion 12 4.0 Effectiveness of the brand (San Churro) 12 5.0 Recommendations 15 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY San churro is a franchise type of business which runs café and prides itself in provision of churro and chocolate delicacies. The business is engaging in various means towards reaching out to customers and providing them with the best services coming from an informed point of view. This is capitalized by the fact that for increased revenues for companies, communication between the customer and the business must be initiated and maintained. With an aim of utilizing current internet media trends of communication, the company has a website and also engages in other social media like face book and twitter. The main goal is not only to market their products but to also provide the best services to their clients that are also tailor made with the use of information gathered from the people. This paper looked at several items in digital, marketing and how they are working for or against the business as well as other means of collecting information and data. The information obtained was used to give recommendations on future options to venture into as well as areas to improve on. The in store experience has been discussed here broadly and the rating is fair. However, the grease concern was the staffing which affects or compromises the quality of service like clean up after a customer. Their public relations especially on face book is commendable with most of the complaints by customers being responded to. The following on face book is about 37,000 and the following on twitter is about 800 and this can be made better. This people also make up for the social media friends and represent the digital followers. Looking at Google impressions the number of views obtained after a Google search are slightly above 320, 000 making it only second last to café brunetti and star bucks having the highest at 66,400,000. This means that there is need for optimization of the search engine to make best use of Google first impressions. The trip advisor also offers information that is vital to change or implement depending on customer responses. It is also ranked 4 out of 113 restaurants found in Frematle which a very poor rating meaning there is something more about their products that needs to be done. Most of the complaints in trip advisor and urban spoon is about consistency with food quality and poor staffing which means the people recommend it is good for children and visiting in the evening or after hours. The recommendations are for the business to venture into sponsoring events, TV programmes, branded entertainments and agencies. While doing this it should improve on the website quality and public relations. 2.0 Introduction According to the American marketing association, marketing can be defined as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (American marketing association, 2008). This is an integrative definition which includes not just the customers at the centre as has been the core but also the clients, partners and the society. Marketing seeks to satisfy the customer or the user of the end product initiating the whole process of production and sales with information of what the consumer needs are and embedding those needs in the production process and the final product. Marketing is a concept that stops reliance on production and sales where production looks at the product and sales look at returns and includes the needs of the customer. Communication is important if information is to be gathered on the needs and requirements of a consumer on the nature of products and/or services. Therefore business have created channels that are conduits of information and that are interactive in obtaining information from their clients on the nature of their products and services and how they can improve these products and services. The end result of increases in revenue is achieved in a competitive business environment. Examples of marketing include flyers, cold calling, follow ups, referral networks, value additions, posters and the internet. The internet has brought about e-communications or internet communications as technological advancement has allowed, with many companies creating websites for customers relations online which have many interactive options. The internet serves as a driver of communication between the business and the clients and offers opportunities to compete more for profits in competitive markets. This report looks at one such business San Churro, a franchise company that deals with chocolate delicacies and is located in Western Australia. 3.0 Internet communication strategies for San Churro 3.1 Marketing communication goal Every marketing communication strategy has a goal or an objective in mind failure to which it becomes irrelevant and like a plane without wings. The purpose of using any marketing strategy including the internet is to inform the existing customer base of your existence and to inform them of what you are offering and why it is important to try this product (s). The second reason for marketing is to persuade the customer to purchase your product rather than that of the competitor and also create avenue for future relations with the same customer as you narrow down your scope in mass coverage to more special customers. The final reason is to remind these customers in the future to purchase your products (Gray, 2012). This is supported by the make believe campaign (www.makebeleive.me) which encourages marketing strategy to move from a broad perspective i.e. community to making committed followers when making social movements. These are the reasons why any business would want to use the internet to reach out to their customers and are the same reasons San Churro is doing business. San Churro deals with churro and other chocolate products and is in competition with star bucks, café Brunneti, Mc café and koko black. San churro believes in ‘chocolate as their currency’ and the company is committed to giving the best chocolate product, uncompromised in taste and quality and give their customers a fun experience. San Churro wants to take a portion of the customers from the broad market and increase their market base as well as retain them by improving their products and services. While San churro understands that even with a good product, marketing is essential and even if they had good profits they can be made better. Therefore e-marketing is increasingly becoming beneficial in reaching out through mass media and an every business requirement and so it is for San churro. 3.2 Overall marketing strategies In store experience An in store experience is the need for consistency in service provision in all stores that are a franchise. This is in terms of service delivery where consistency in quality is a requirement for customers experience at any geographical location where these businesses are located. In store experience is what sets a business apart from its competitors and creates loyalty with customers. These criteria of approach in any business chain has advantages among them repeat visits, increased productivity by up to 10% and reduces employee turnover by 50% of market employee turnover. In store experience is designed in three ways i.e. offer design, offer support and network operations. Any chain business ensures that the shops are all standard and the quality of standard is not compromised. For a food company, the taste in food needs to be the same in all stores and customers will pay premium price for such products. The staff should be experienced and knowledgeable to provide help and guide the customers. The store needs t be clean, the display needs to be proper and the consistency is important (Wyman, 2006). San Churro has a consistent appearance and customer service in all their franchise for consistency. The intention is for customers to get the same quality service and products in all their outlets. While there are many customers on their page who enjoyed their products like milk shake, some were unhappy with consistency of some products e.g. soy classic Spanish as reflected on their face book page. Passing traffic viewing the brand logo Passing traffic in internet marketing are the people in the mass media who might come across the San Churro web page or might quickly find some few seconds and check what is in the page to offer. Some might even have been referred to by other people and therefore decide to check out quickly what they have to offer. For a brand logo to be viewed by a person who is quickly passing on the net, it needs to be conscious. By conspicuous it means it needs to be large enough with bright and unique colors that if they have seen such before, can arouse memories. From personal observation and data collected the brand logo is not clear enough and would not create interest on many people especially those viewing it for the first time. The brand logo is also small and that is which on the score sheet the clarity of the logo scored 2 against scores of 3 and 4 from the competitors. This means if San Churro wants to introduce new customers, brand logo may be less effective and mat have to rely on other mechanisms like use of word of mouth or referrals to increase their customer base. In marketing people tend to relate to the brand logo first before the product. That is why there are so many fake or copycat products because of a brand logo e.g. Gucci. A logo has got everything to do with branding which creates a mental picture of a specific business (Harte, 2009). A brand communicates to the customers about what are the values and strengths of any business and it is a pull not a push for customers. Plate 1: photo showing San Churro logo obtained from the company website www.sanchurro.com A good logo also needs to be original, easily recognizable and unmistakable. It should be acceptable across different races and cultures (Abramsohn, 2011). With San Churro the logo may present bias especially in cultures where images tell a lot because the logo looks like presenting a weird ancient story of a goddess. It is not easily acceptable by all across borders from where it originated. Seats and table setting and staffing Franchises of business chain kind of businesses normally have the same color schemes, settings with very minimal variations. The staffs are trained using the same kind of training to ensure consistency in product and service delivery. There needs to be enough seating space and every customer needs to enjoy privacy even though in a public place. There needs to be enough staff to support and serve every customer without customers feeling delayed or left out. The table and seating arrangement need to be attractive and consistent with cleanliness of the linens being observed. Urban spoon had information on one store on Northbridge where they needed to keep the tables clean and had less staff hence delaying on food service. The delay by staff was noted by several complainants who complained about their dinner services. Other customers complained about tables having a lot of other customers left over which was contributed you by poor staffing therefore they could not keep up with the large number of clients (www.urbanspoon.com). 3.3 Public relations Public relations is the practice of information management that is handled between individual, the business and the public. The purpose of public relations is to guard the reputation of the company and to ensure proper information is spread to the public about the business or that the public has the right kind of information about the business. Public relations has got both proactive and reactive strategies. Proactive strategies are geared towards making the public informed about the existence of a business and what the business does and does not do. This is where the frequently asked question comes into play where instead of having the same frequent questions being repeated. The company through the PR department goes ahead and prepares a question and answer page. Reactive kind of approach looks at the responsive part to customers for their questions about the business or the products or protects the image of the company where the image has been tainted. The difference in PR and marketing is in reaction to criticism but in proactive PR gives the strengths of the business (Kokemuller). Looking at their face book page on the responses given to complaining customers or the replies given to customers enquiring then the company is careful to respond to most enquiries done on their interactive page. On the part of the frequently asked questions San Churro scored much better at 2 only being outdone by Café Brunetti. 3.4 outdoor marketing Outdoor marketing is another example of a way to sell a company’s products to the people. Some latest examples of outdoor advertising include bill boards, digital boards, bus benches, the exterior and interior of buses and company vehicles. In outdoor marketing activities include outdoor campaigns and events. San Churro is keen to such events as they are a source for their clients and new clients to taste their delicacies. Therefore the company is keen on selecting the events that bring people who are treated to delicacies for free or by rewards. One of the successful events that the company held is the Victoria Melbourne. This was a Hispanic fiesta held in late November last year as a street bash for about two days. The activities in this event included dance, music, theatre, film, cuisine, and visual arts. There are also other recurrent events that happen every year like the South Australian Clare valley four days event. The event is about dance, good food and music (www.sanchurro.com). All these activities are meant to advertise San Churro chocolate delicacies and relate to certain cultures about those communities i.e. Spanish theme. 3.5 digital marketing Digital marketing includes the use of digital billboards and use of internet resources such as face book, twitter, you tube, urban spoon, emails, smart phones etc. San Churro is in face book with a following of close to 37, 000 people, the company also have a following in twitter and is active in urban spoon. San Churro has also created several you tube videos to allow for interaction with clients. Some of these videos have information about events like a new San Churro opening in town, partners and even history (www.google.com). The company also advertises itself in other online digital pages with an intention t create more business. An example is shown below obtained from one of the pages: Plate 2: photo obtained from www.franchise.net .au 3.6 Sales promotion This is the process of persuading the customer to buy the product. The ways in which this kind of promotion is done is through sampling when a new product is being introduced into the market, free trial where a product is tried by consumers for a period of time say one month after which they either purchase or return the product to the company, free gifts, contests and special prices are also given at a lower price to entice customers to try. San churro is offering this as evident in their face book page where they give contest like “win a trip to Spain competition”; they also offer prizes of chocolate bunnies. 4.0 Effectiveness of the brand (San Churro) The matrix mix The marketing mix is said to have four components within it. They are the product, pricing, place and promotion. San Churro has been able to combine most of the essentials that sell a product and meet the requirements of a customer. The product that San Churro deals with is mainly chocolate delicacies and the fancy is in chocolate. The company has engaged in marketing communication items intended to give the best to the customers. For example they have a website in place with many interactive segments like the face book and twitter option, the direction to a shop option, the FAQs and many more. The company has created continuous interaction with the clients through face book and twitter, u tube, urban spoon and many other digital advertising conduits. Other forms of advertisement that San Churro has undertake is use of outdoor marketing events like fiesta to engage he customers. Currently there is a chance for customers to win a trip to Spain after competing and such are meant to encourage the clients to purchase products as well as invite more investors into this franchise. Social media friends Social media friends are all about relationships created by the social media that is necessary for future business interaction and to increase revenue. Most of this is provided by face book, twitter where a business has a following otherwise referred to as friends. San Churro has got a following both in face book and twitter. It is impressive how on observation, the franchise is careful to respond to every update and also prompt discussion on twitter. All these are geared towards making future relationships and can make it easier and cheaper to market their product and events. Google impressions Google impressions are so important when a user is on the search engine looking for information about something. When a user types the word San Churro there are a total of about 862,000 items displayed. Analysis of the rest of the four competitors showed that only café brunette is below this with 320,000 views possible. The best was star bucks which had 26,300,000 views. This means the impression created by the franchise is not good enough and needs more entries by use of SEO i.e. search engine optimization to enable more entries and optimum use of Google. Trip Advisor Trip advisor enables clients to interact and gather information about travel and businesses. It is meant for user-generated content but businesses might use it to get response on the feeling of consumers about their product and services. San Churro is ranked number 4 out of 113 restaurants found in Fremantle (www.tripadvisor.co.au). 93% of the respondents recommend and the highest rating is on food and the lowest rating is on atmosphere. Important to note is that only one respondent said it was terrible which a very small fraction of the total. The preference is for late night and after hours as the best times to enjoy the best services. Urban spoon Urban spoon also offers vital information about San Churro and customer satisfaction on service delivery. Depending on the geographical location of the café, the rating varies. For example, the South bank has a rating of 57% likes. Their strengths indicate late night and after hours as the best time which is similar to that in trip advisor. 5.0 Recommendations Every business has short comings which must be constantly dealt with in order to be effective. The following are recommendations to San Churro if they are to increase the revenues and create a large number of committed followers which is the purpose of marketing. The first recommendation is sponsorship, where they could use financial or in kind support to reach out to a larger market. There are many poor Aussie kids going to school and the company can venture into such arenas with a vision in mind. The second recommendation is TV adverts and TV programs. These are a source of reaching to a very large audience and the company should consider venturing into such kind of marketing. The third recommendation is to use branded entertainments more and simple ones like road shows can suffice or concerts that are also sponsored and are an entertainment avenue. The public relations in San Churro can be improved especially if the business wants to become international. This is because their logo is more cultural and their theme more religious hence it may not be internationally appealing. The company may want to change the approach to attract many diverse people and not act rigid or claim that they are not offensive. The last recommendation is to use agencies to market their product more and take advantage of using agencies in marketing. References Gregory, t., Gundlach, & Wilkie, W. L. (2009). The American marketing association releases new definition of marketing. Journal of public policy and marketing, 28(2). Gray, T. (2012, December 26). Business techniques in troubled times. Retrieved from www.tomgray.com Adams, D. (2007). Know your customer, know your customer strategy and motivate your team. USA; KNEX industries. Wyman, O. (2006). Your customers want a consistent in store experience. Beth, H. (2009). Brand versus brand relationship. In the Harte of marketing: marketing and communications for the customer centric organization. Retrieved from www. theharteofmarketing.com Arnold, S. (2010). The relationship between PR and marketing. 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