The primary goal of the upcoming Waldorf-based ice cream bakery company Sweet Sundays is to offer its customers high-quality, sweet Sunday products. The company will conduct business within 100 radii of its residence. The Bakery was started by Jayson, a talented baker, ice cream maker, cake decorator, educator, and businessman. Jayson is a native of Maryland and is familiar with the intended audience. The competitiveness of the business is supported by the founder’s experience, business acumen, interpersonal skills, and zeal. The company name is intended to entice more customers to shop with us because it connotes sweetness and deliciousness. For its clients’ retail and wholesale markets, it will make premium ice creams and baked goods. Along with selling pre-made goods made with local ingredients, the business will also deal in custom confections. Additionally, the company will provide services like bakery goods for celebrations, vacations, parties, and decorating classes. Cupcakes, ice cream, and cookies will be our Bakery’s main offerings. The Bakery is new, so the business needs to develop a strong marketing strategy to give it a competitive edge. The company must correctly identify its target market and define its sales strategy. As a result, this essay aims to create a marketing strategy for Sweet Sundays Ice Cream Bakery.
Target market
Choosing an appropriate target market to concentrate on is one of the essential marketing tasks. The seller specifically targets with its marketing efforts are referred to as the firm’s target market. Identifying and selecting the target market are vital for the enterprise marketing technique to be effective. Segmentation plays a significant role in determining the target market. Sweet Sunday’s marketing team can use demographic segmentation to identify their target market. Under this segmentation, the firm may consider age and gender. The marketing team should concentrate on the age group under 35 years old following the nature of the business since these demographic favors junk food and fast food more than the elderly. Additionally, most women prefer fast food and snacks to men, so the marketing team should also pay attention to women (Kumar et al.,2021). Finding the target market’s demographic would be important for more accurate targeting than before. Families might stop by a bakery for pieces of bread and rolls, while younger customers might order pastries. High-income households may request tier cakes for birthdays and other special occasions. Location and the competitive landscape would affect the product mix and pricing strategy.
Psychographic segmentation would also be essential in helping sweet Sunday bakery determine its target market correctly. The firm marketer may position their products, such as ice cream, so that consumers can discover them accurately (Wan,2021). The firm’s marketing team will break down the firm’s customers into segments that would positively influence purchasing behaviors such as lifestyle, opinions, and values. The psychographic technique establishes the motivations behind behaviors rather than tracking the behavior itself. Psychographics goes hand in hand with demographic segmentation. Females enjoy taking products such as ice creams and cupcakes.
| Demographic profile | Psychographic profile |
| Female | They enjoy snacks such as ice creams and junk food
67% of female loves fast foods. |
| Age 13-30 | Enjoy fast foods |
| Married | If they have children, they always go to Sweet Sunday Bakers to purchase snacks for the youngsters. |
| Household income $75k+ | Wealthy households might ask for tier cakes for birthdays and other special occasions. |
| City dweller | Loves going out with girlfriends and purchasing snacks for their partners |
Sweet Sunday bakery needs to conduct a purchasing patterns segmentation to determine its target market. The marketing team will be able to identify trends in how various consumers behave while making a purchase decision by segmenting purchase behavior (Patrick,2019). Using this technique, the company can ascertain how their clients approach the buy decision and its complexity. Psychographics will help you gain an understanding of her potential purchasing habits.
Lifestyle segmentation mainly entails consumers’ perceptions, tastes, and preferences. Customers have different lifestyles; thus, their attitudes and perceptions may differ. Some clients may prefer a gluten-free diet, while others prefer high-fiber loaves of bread and rolls. Some people might turn to ice cream as comfort food during adversity and uncertainty. As a result, other clients might seek out particular treats like cupcakes and queen cakes as their comfort food and might be willing to pay a premium price, resulting in high profits for the Bakery (Collins et al.,2019). Additionally, the firm may consider identifying the target market through time and price segmentation. Sweet Sundays are located a near a business park. For instance, the majority of customers are probably formal workers who drop by for breakfast muffins and then buy pastries to take home after work. Due to its extra space, the Bakery may offer catering services for special events like anniversaries during the day when its staff is not busy serving customers. The Bakery has extra space, so during the day, when the staff is not occupied serving customers, it may provide catering services for special occasions like anniversaries. Custom orders may have higher price points and profit margins than standard items, which is good for the bottom line.
Sweet Sundays’ market competition
The company will face off against both direct and indirect rivals. Sweet Sundays will compete with two other local ice cream bakeries in the Maryland neighborhood. Below is each competitor’s profile.
Bluegrass ice cream bakery
Every morning, baked goods are available at Bluegrass Bakery, an independent bakery. They provide various customers with handcrafted artisan loaves of bread and pastries. The Bakery specializes in magic-infused European loaves of bread and artisan pastries. Clement is the owner of the Bakery, which began as a small business 28 years ago. After receiving criticism for not serving donuts, Clement decided to stick with the menu that helped his Bakery become successful. Bluegrass formed a partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Agriculture Department five years ago to cultivate and mill the flours locally. Presently, they continue to expand their line of wholesome and satisfying baked goods while supplying daily loaves of bread and pastries to numerous restaurants and resellers.
Magee Ice Cream Bakery
Magee is located one kilometer from where Sweet Sundays are located. Since 1956, the Magee family has owned and run the Bakery. After 60 years, Magee’s Bakery still serves the best-baked goods in the area. They specialize in making daily donuts, pastries, and fresh pieces of bread. They serve different pot pies and sandwiches for the lunch menu. Magee’s Bakery serves breakfast and lunch from Wednesday through Saturday. They offer online ordering in addition to curbside pickup or delivery.
Competitive advantage for Sweet Sunday
- Sweet Sunday provides exceptional customer services and commitment. The owner of Sweet Sunday takes great pride in being present every day and getting to know most of their customers. The firm has a customer care desk that deals with customers’ envision for various custom-made cakes and ice creams. It is incredibly satisfying to realize that concept and provide the client with what they had in mind. When a client sees the finished product, we love to watch their reaction.
- Sweet Sundays offer delicious and fresh pastries daily; thus, they attract more clients as there is no stale pastry served in the Bakery.
- The firm is located in a convenient area, a busy retail strip center, close to well-known holiday inns and retail establishments.
- By exceeding customer expectations and upholding honorable business practices, Sweet Sunday will keep its competitors at bay. The rule of prompt attendance and response to customer complaints has no exceptions.
Sweet Sunday Value Proposition
Sweet Sunday’s value proposition ensures its customers are served with a unique and gratifying experience. Allowing customers to customize their pastries is a unique offering that sets pastries apart from the competition. Cupcake Queen only uses the best ingredients to create its gourmet goods. Customers will have access to the best services, including lots of seating, enjoyable music, and appealing décor, to support them in having the best social experience. To win the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, the goal is to delight them. The assembly line method will produce efficiency and transparency, along with direct customer contact (Vivanco,2021). Therefore, making a great first impression on their clients. They will be able to watch an employee, for instance, make their cupcake in front of their eyes in real-time. This will foster trust and make the client feel valued. They may use the statement “Always fresh, every day is guaranteed.”
Marketing strategy
Customers’ acquisition and maintenance is vital for the growth of Sweet Sundays. Having done the target market analysis, the Bakery is ready to venture and perform better than its competitors. Entrepreneurial activities involve taking risk; thus, Sweet Sunday have to invest a reasonable amount of money in sales and marketing to achieve one million sales. The sales and marketing department will be in charge of promotions. Using social media platforms would aid in the retention of customers by making it simple for them to access enterprise information. To increase brand awareness, the marketing department may run product campaigns on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest. The use of social media is always beneficial in establishing direct contact with customers. Additionally, consistency in product production is also crucial to avoid the structure and flavor inconsistencies seen in some products (Ratnadianti et al.,2020). This is noted during Sweet Sunday’s premium manufacturing. Products are effectively distributed directly from the company to discourage customers from turning to other available alternatives. They can also deliver goods directly to events and big-box stores, expecting higher consumption. Because of this carefully thought-out distribution network, customers can easily find the products.
Conclusion
An entrepreneur is a risk-taker who can pinpoint a target market and outperform its rivals. Sweet Sunday has demonstrated this quality by introducing various services like product customization for its customers. It conducted various market segments to identify its target market, such as demographic, lifestyle, psychographic, and time segmentation. The firm has also embraced various marketing techniques such as social media and direct sales to ensure it met the target sale of one million.
References
Collins, C. M., Vaskou, P., & Kountouris, Y. (2019). Insect food products in the western world: Assessing the potential of a new ‘green’market. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 112(6), 518-528.
Kumar, R., Chambers IV, E., Chambers, D. H., & Lee, J. (2021). Generating new snack food texture ideas using sensory and consumer research tools: A case study of the Japanese and south Korean snack food markets. Foods, 10(2), 474.
Patrick L. 2019. 47 Snack Food Industry Trends and Consumption Statistics. Foodtruck Empire. https://foodtruckempire.com/news/snack-food-industry/
Ratnadianti, A., Fahmi, I., & Hannan, S. (2020). Digital marketing strategy of small and medium enterprises for snack in Bogor city. Jurnal Manajemen & Agribisnis, 17(1), 74-74.
Vivanco, J. P. (2021, December). Sustainable and Circular Food Innovation—The CeTA Experience. In Biology and Life Sciences Forum (Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 3). MDPI.
Wan Pauzi, W. N. S. (2021). Case Study: Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd.
