Promotion - Marketing Plan for Project Implementation

8. Marketing Plan for Project Implementation

8.3. Promotion

The first marketing promotion which will be implemented in Zurich is Guerrilla Marketing, and the purpose of promotion is to make people happy and raise awareness about vegan foods. The author wants to make people believe that vegan dishes are not tasteless, filled with healthy calories and create brand-awareness in order to gain new customers. This promotion has been done for the testing purposes in Prague at University of New York in Prague. The author wanted to find out if the students will admire the taste of the cake, how the process will finish up, what mistakes should be avoided and what should be done additionally to enhance the process. After the testing promotion was done, the author saw that there were some gaps to be filled for actual promotion in Zurich.

38 For NEZ, the author has decided to deliver free cakes for students at university in several universities. University students has been a focus group because they are at a young age and creating awareness for this group can tremendously influence the future of Earth’s citizens. The other reason of focusing on students is the location of the bakery in Zurich which will be close to universities and libraries. University of Zurich has several clubs on the campus which focus on well-being of people and animal protection such asAnimal Rights Switzerland Hochschulgruppe and Mindful (University of Zurich , 2019). Changing preferences of the youth (or youth adults, aged18-25) will also change preferences of the next generation. It has been proved that young students are six time more likely to go vegan than their parents (Chiorando, 2017). When those adults get married, they will grow their children by enforcing healthy nutrition and environment protection. It is also not only about influencing children, but also influencing peers. Adults at those ages also get motivated or influenced by peers or by people they are surrounded with in the pursue of becoming better than others.

Figure 21- Sliced Vegan Cake by the Ocean

As you can see from the figures above, the cake is layered, and the name of the cake is “Cake by the Ocean”. Why “Cake by the Ocean”? NEZ’s vegan products encourage environment and health protection, therefore the brand owner has decided to use cake names associated with the

39 nature. Cake by the Ocean is a representation of pure sand (chocolate filling) and fresh white waves (coconut). Cake by the Ocean means that a person can lie on the beach and enjoy the cake (which is low calorie) while staying in a fit shape. Also, you can see from the Figure 21 that the cakes are placed on a blue paper table which is the color of an ocean. The healthy calories obtained from the cake will not damage health or person’s physical shape-this is the message the brand and the name of the cake want to convey (Be healthy). Moreover, the author has used paper plates for environment protection. Plastic recyclable forks have been used for one-time experiment, however for the future experiments (promos) wooden forks/spoons will be ordered.

The second cake was not vegan and students who were offered the cakes did not know about that. The cake was bought from the random cake shop and was made from a subtle cream and chocolate.

What was done? The author has posted to the university’s Facebook page a post where she was inviting students to come and get two pieces of cake for free.

Figure 22- Facebook Post by the bakery owner

How many students visited? 11 students. The author offered each student two pieces of cakes and asked them to tell which cake is more delicious. Students were not told which cake is vegan.

Figure 23- Cakes delivered at the university

The purpose was to surprise people by telling them the truth that the cake they liked most is vegan. 10 students out of 11 chose the vegan cake as tastier than the non-vegan one. Afterwards, they were told that the white coconut cake (or Caky by the Ocean) is actually made from plant-based products and they were actually surprised. The purpose of this marketing promotion was to surprise people by showing them that vegan cakes are extremely tasty. Using proper ingredients and secrets of cooking, the author wanted vegan cake to win. It was also about showing the brand’s generosity and care about people and nature and about making people’s lives better.

• How much was the investment in Prague? Costs are specified below.

Non-vegan cake – USD 7.26$.

Vegan cake - USD 8.95$.

Paper plates - USD 4.27$ for 16 plates.

Plastic forks – USD 1.28$.

Overall – USD 21.76$.

• How much will be the investment in Zurich? (Costs are calculated for the same volume as in Prague)

Vegan cake – USD 10.57$

Palm Leaf Plates- USD 5.78$ for 10 plates (Coop, 2019)

Forks – USD 2.83$ for 10 forks (Coop, 2019)

Overall without non-vegan cake – 19.18$

After the trial experiment at University of New York, the author concluded not to use another brand’s non-vegan cake as it will cost more, and the author does not want to promote another brand. One vegan cake is expected to serve up to 11 students. For some products, such as milk and flour, only small fraction of the whole product will be used. This means that the author will not use 1 liter of milk to produce one vegan cake, but only 1 cup of milk. Therefore, not the full price of certain products (milk, flour, chocolate, bananas and strawberries) was included in the cost of vegan cake. All prices are set in American Dollars.

The products used for vegan cake are the following:

Vegan Almond Milk – 3.80$ for 1L (Coop, 2019)

Organic Flour, 1kg – 2.99$ (Coop, 2019)

Vegan Soya Yoghurt for the dough, 500gram – 2.99$ (Coop, 2019)

Vegan Chocolate, 400gram – 5.37$ ( (Coop, 2019)

Yoghurt for filling, 150gram – 2.48$ (Coop, 2019)

Strawberries, 300grm – 3.34$ (Coop, 2019)

Bananas, 1.4kg – 1.97$ (Coop, 2019)

42 The outcome is that the author can reach more people by doing the same promotion in several universities in Zurich. On a larger scale, free cakes will be distributed at University of Zurich.

There are 26.000 students at University of Zurich (University of Zurich , 2018). This university was chosen based on the number of students enrolled, as it has the largest number of individuals studying at UZH (University of Zurich) and based on in-campus groups focused on Health and Environment Protection.

In Zurich, this promotion will be done differently. Only NEZ’s vegan cake will be served with a small brochure. This brochure will be used for other marketing promotions of NEZ. The

brochures will be served in order to tell students about us and to give them motivation to visit NEZ’s bakery. If the author wants to reach 5000 students, 8718$ USD (824 cakes) will be invested into vegan cakes (plus plates and forks), because one cake can be delivered only up to 11 students. Bakery owner will dedicate two days into delivering cakes for free at the university.

If during the first day, cakes are not fully distributed, there will be the second day to finalize the process and deliver all cakes.

Brochures

The author has created brochures for several marketing promotions for the bakery. First of all, as was already mentioned, brochures will be distributed to university students (at University of Zurich) when free cakes will be delivered. 5000 flyers will be produced and distributed with cakes at the UZH. The cost of brochures will be 271$. The capacity of the university is

significant; therefore, the quantity of brochures is 5000.They will be A5, bi-fold and glossy brochures.

Second, only brochures will be distributed at ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. There are over 21.000 students at ETH Zurich (ETH Zurich, n.d). This university has been chosen based on the number of students enrolled at each university and they have the

43 largest capacity of individuals (after University of Zurich), which will allow to reach more

people. Moreover, ETH has three student associations: Association of Exercise and Sports Science, Association of Environmental Studies and Association of Agronomy and Food Science (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, n.d), where students are focused on health and

environment protection. For ETH, 10000 brochures will be ordered at the cost of 490$. The same style brochures will be delivered at all universities. Moreover, brochures will offer 20% off for any purchase they make if they bring the brochure safe back which is an advantage for students as they are inclined to saving money. Brochure distribution will be done at several time periods as to remind to the students about the bakery using the same design. There will not be any date on them in order to avoid cost of producing more brochures with a new date. For instance, the author avoids stating this on the brochure: “Visit us between February 1^st – 5^th, Get 20% off”.

Instead, the 20% off campaign will apply anytime. This means that people who get the brochure will bring it back to get 20% - the bakery owner will receive back the brochures and use them again for the second and maybe third stage of brochure distribution. In overall, the first stage brochure distribution will have the first stage brochure collection. The bakery owner will separate one month for collecting back the brochures and to track how many people brochures have reached and influenced. After 1 month, the second stage brochure distribution will be

processed. During the second stage, 5000 brochures will be distributed at ETH and 5000 at UZH.

There is a risk associated with this promotion method. First, there is possibility that not all brochures will be brought back during the first month, and therefore it is crucial to have another 5000 brochures in stock for the 2^nd and 3^rd stages. This will be done for the purpose of

distributing exactly 5000 flyers, instead of 2500 which the owner can get back from the 1^st stage.

Therefore, 5000 brochures (for stock) will be ordered beforehand. The cost will be 271$ USD when ordering from Vistaprint services, which is based in UK. Vistaprint services will be used as they are less expensive when compared to the printing services in Zurich. Second, it is crucial to ask customers when and where they obtained the brochures after the 1^st month all the time to

44 measure the effectiveness of the strategy (if people are influenced enough to visit our store, if the distribution venue actually reaches estimated number of individuals).

During the second stage, the other target university, such as The Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences will be included into the strategy. Even though this university does not have any health related student associations, it has Health Science Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree offered to students and a campus. The Kalaidos has 3000-3999 student enrollment capacity (uniRank, 2019). Kalaidos is estimated to receive the following number of brochures during the 2^nd stage:

The Kalaidos – 2500 at the cost of USD 168$

For ETH and UZH, the quantity that will be distributed during the second stage will be identified after the first stage (even though estimated amount for each is 5000). Customer who will come to the store with the brochure will be asked where they received the brochure, which will help us to determine at which university the brochures have been effective during the first stage. It will eventually help the owner to determine where to distribute the larger number of brochures. It is important to note that if fewer brochures are returned from University of Zurich, it does not necessarily mean that fewer people are influenced by the brochures. The brochures received during the first stage can be returned after several months as well. However, the university that will have the lowest responsiveness from prospective customers, will receive lower number of brochures during the second stage. The university that will have the highest responsiveness from customers, will receive the same number of brochures (as in the first stage) during the second stage. Brochures will be distributed to every student during the classes by NEZ’s employees so that each student gets it

The overall cost: USD 10,189.00$ (Brochures for 3 stages and 824 free cakes distributed at UZH)

The Marketing Budget: USD 20,000.00$

45 The author offers promotions on the brochures to attract customers and create awareness about the new spot. The author came to conclusion that by using Guerilla Marketing strategy, it is possible to spend small amount of money, but create effective marketing plans for reaching prospective customers. This marketing promotion strategy combines several promotion strategies: brochures, sales promotion and free cakes. By tactically using resources, it was possible to create promotions which can create word of mouth (free cakes and sales promotion) and re-use already existing tools.

Figure 24 - Brochure Front Page

Figure 25 - Description on the Brochure

Figure 26 - Brochure Inner Pages

8.4 Conclusion

The research objective of the paper was to analyze and research the vegan bakery market in Zurich, which later was implemented into creation of a marketing plan for a new bakery business in Zurich. The developed marketing plan can be very successful as it is about continually

reminding of the brand, affording reduced prices for the food, saving costs for the bakery and being effective. The market analysis which revealed real potential customers’ desire in the food service industry contributed into offering what is actually lacking. Switzerland is the country of meat and cheese lovers and it might the biggest reason why there are no full-service

vegan/vegetarian spots in Zurich, so that small group of vegans/vegetarians has been neglected.

Investors are not very willing to do vegan cafes in Zurich because of a small target group, however it is essential to know that expats and other target groups can be in the customer group as well. However, the author has been able to discover straightforwardly that specific

vegan/vegetarian group in Zurich thanks to advanced technologies, which tremendously helped to analyze the market and its needs.

In order to succeed, it is critical to oversee specifically that group along with the . Being consistent and being able to retain customers by constantly investigating and providing their needs will keep the bakery updated and regularly improving. On the initial stages, it will be effective to track what exactly people order during specific time periods. If some dishes are ordered on a lower amount, then it is a sign to promote the bakery by using exactly that dish. The aim is to satisfy customer through customization, so the bakery owner will be open for any offers from the customers’ side via email or the bakery Instagram/ Facebook page. The benefit of having vegan bakery in Zurich is that, specifically that target group, is small and therefore the narrower the market, the more effective are the offers to that group. It will be easier to identify the changing needs and offer what is needed. It is clear that there is wonderful business

opportunity, and this is a doable project which can become the best in the city.

Reference

Bezekova, C. (n.d. May 2013). Citadella's Bakeshop "Becoming the Most Celebrated Bakery in Bratislava". Prague: University of New York in Prague.

Blythe, J. (2010). Marketing Essentials . Oxford, UK : Elsevier Ltd.

Chiorando, M. (4. December 2017). Plant Based News. Načteno z Plant Based News:

https://www.plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/students-six-times-more-likely-than-parents-vegan-veggie