Jessica
Who are we?
Good, Natural Food
Personality
What does the SWOT analysis tell us?
Sustainability
Mission:
The Facts:
- Sustainability Act of 2015
- 5 key sustainability strands to improve upon
- 1. Resources
- 2. Waste
- 3. Sustainable sourcing
- 4. Freshly prepared, good, natural food
- 5. Positive contribution to society
- 22 years old
- Recent college grad
- First year working at advertising firm
- Does not have a long lunch break, so needs something close and convenient
- Environmentally conscious, would rather choose sustainable food than not
- At the same time, wants something inexpensive yet filling
- Enjoys a lunch experience that is quick, easy, reliable, and won't cause a hassle when socializing briefly with friends
"Using natural ingredients and avoiding preservatives and obscure chemicals is sacred to Pret." -- Pret.com, 2013
"Pret creates handmade natural food avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservativevs common to so much of the 'prepared' and 'fast' food on the market today"
- 1986: began in London by two college grads (Sinclair & Julian)
- Proper sandwiches avoiding obscure chemicals found in fast food
- Developed with little business experience
- Private company
- 335 shops worldwide (UK, US, Hong Kong)
- £450 million / year
Jason
Freshly made sandwiches
- Biggest competitor: Starbucks
- It is clear we need to increase customers and loyalty to challenge Starbucks' upcoming expansion to the food market
- Starbucks greatly outnumbers us in terms of size and international appeal
- We need to increase these numbers and increase them fast
- What we're missing: tangible reward for loyalty
- We need to hold on to our customers so they don't switch to another brand
- How can we do this with such a largely respected franchise creeping on our territory?
- "We make them, we sell them!"
- Don't keep products overnight
- No sell-by date on products -- made fresh everyday
How can we accomplish this, stay true to our mission statement, and increase customer rates up 25% by the end of 2013?
What makes us special?
- No sell-by dates on sandwiches...made daily!
- Unsold sandwiches given to the homeless
- Recycle leftover food and packaging
Marketing Plan 2013
- 30 years old
- Has been working at the same firm for about 6 years
- Knows the area well, and still goes to Pret for most if not all lunch breaks
- Trusts their efficiency, convenience, and the fact it fills him up for a low price (even though price is not necessarily his main objective)
- Enjoys going to Pret as a way to take a breather from the heavy day
- Will use the app to order for the office, but enjoys walking there for the friendly employee faces
A bit more on consumer behavior...
- Looking for variety seeking customers
- Low investment
- Inexpensive products
- Significant difference between brands:
- Sustainability, speed, and philanthropy separates Pret from Starbucks
- OCEAN Model
- Jessica and Jason = Conscientious and Agreeable
- Environmentally friendly and generally aware of spending
- Not picky eaters, but do enjoy treating themselves to fulfilling food by going out on lunch breaks
- Word of Mouth
- Within the firm, it appears Jason recommended it to Jessica
- While looking to increase customer loyalty, WOM is extremely important
- Who are our opinion leaders?
- Celebrity face of Pret?
- The "Jason" to our "Jessica": passing down the torch in the corporate world -- way to fit in
Target
- B2B and B2C
- B2B: allows for local businesses engaging with Pret -- increase long term loyalty
- B2C: customer is thus inspired by business catering their lunch
- Work in tandem to inspire loyalty
Situation Analysis: Micro & 5 M's
Trust
[Internal factors we can slightly control]
Who are our target markets?
Why is this important?
Leading Micro Factors
[Constructed by Alexa Aron - Oct. 2013]
The 5 M's
- Philanthropic outreach
- Engage with local community
- Build loyalty
Customers
Mission:
Employees
How is this funded?
- Plans 500 new UK jobs as profits rise (BBC, 2013)
- £7.70 per hour, with "weekly bonus after 10 days" (Pret.com, 2013)
- "This year over 30% of our managers will be promoted from within" (Pret.com, 2013)
- Make sandwiches at the top of everyday
- "At Pret, the goal is to serve customers within 60 seconds." (NYT, 2012)
- Buying habits that fuel our business
- Most successful in cities -- more people to cater to -- greater need
- Local businesses
- Large orders drive greater profit
- Donations made from the sale of certain products
- Collection boxes in shop
- Annual auction
- Pret is known for fast, sustainable, on the go food
- Works in tandem with customers
- Customers require this in every store, our employees make brand message consistent
- Wednesday meetings
- Held every week
- Employees discuss ways to improve with staff
- Began in 1995
- To alleviate poverty in the UK by focusing on the homeless
- Offers employment opportunities to the less fortunate
- Goal: to surpass last year's £1,000,000 amount
- Young emerging professionals
- We need to engage those who are looking for convenient, inexpensive and healthy option
- Born of the technological age: Social media leads to network of engagement, another way to increase customer loyalty
- Local businesses
- Way to tap into the market who doesn't want to go out for lunch...so we'll come to you!
- Easy way to engage with large group of people at once
Events
Suppliers
Segmentation
- Sales rose 15% this year (The Guardian, 2012)
- Revenue: £377 million (The Guardian, 2012)
- Underlying profits: £52.4 million (The Guardian, 2012)
- All takeaway prices are without VAT
- Average sandwich = £3
Conclusion
Reaching out to local businesses
Look at all these catering options featured on our website!
- Pret Charity Run
- Simon Hargrave's Apprenticeship Scheme
- Small grassroots homeless charities and projects
Men
Money
Machinery
Minutes
Materials
What can we take away from our plan?
Competitors
- Employees make sandwiches at the top of everyday
- Employees responsible for turning over coffee in 60 sec.
- Coffee maker and hot water boiler for tea
3. We continue to grow and will only improve by making a habit of thorough plans such as this
- Sustainable food
- Must be sure that our distributors match this
- Evident through website
- "We will always try to balance and consider all sustainability impacts, environmental, social and economic when selecting our products"
- Work with evolving environmental times
- 2009: Tuna was banned from Pret's menu because of concern over the unsustainable fishing practices used to catch it. Only poleand line-caught tuna now sit on Pret's shelves. (Marketing Magazine, 2012)
Pret dominates busy cities: we need to build loyalty with businesses so we can become their #1 call to cater for lunches and events
(Goal: have each Pret align with at least one business in their neighborhood?)
- Employees have 60 seconds to serve their customers -- guarantees speedy service
- We pride ourselves for our speedy service: food is prepared and ready for you to take
Let us bring lunch to YOU!
- Other easy lunch spots: EAT, Gregg's, now Starbucks
- Must maintain loyalty amongst similar brands
- Capitalize on our uniqueness
- Less obvious competitors: supermarkets
- Bringing in lunch
- Taking away business during economic recession
Our goal is set for end of 2013...these target markets are essential if we want to reach that 25% increase!
Situation Analysis: Macro Factors
1. Increase customer loyalty by targeting emerging professionals and local businesses
[External factors we cannot control]
- Website is easily accessible
- Always comes up as #1 option for coffee/lunch place in current location
- Definitive logo (star) and unique name (French exudes high class)
- Active Facebook and Twitter
- "Appetite" iPhone app: closest Pret, full menu, daily soup
4. Continue to explore creative outlets to promote sustainable living in this ever-changing business
This persuades those who normally stay in to indulge in our product and hopefully gain their loyalty in the future
App malfunction
- How can we encourage interactivity with fast-paced technological age?
Unexpected blackout
- How do we keep our business running?
Competitive Advantage:
Bulk catering with same day delivery promotes convenience makes it socially "cool" to love Pret!
Situation Analysis: SWOT
Trading agreement policies
- Coffee from Honduras and Ecuador: what if trading agreement policies change?
- What if there is a national campaign against international coffee?
2. Always refer back to mission statement to confirm we are fulfilling our founding values
Internal Strengths & Weaknesses
AKA: how is our mission statement working for us?
Segmentation
In order to increase loyalty, who are we trying to attract?
Demographics & Psychograhpics
Maintaining fair union of workers
- What happens if union chooses to strike?
Hot coffee spill leads to suing Pret
- How can you effectively minimize negative PR
T
L
E
State of the economy
- Pret is usually in major cities, major cities bring tourists. If the local or international economy is down, spending will be down, and therefore greatly affect our business.
- How can we continue to encourage spending?
Situation Analysis: SWOT
Demographics
Control
Psychograhpics
P
E
S
External Opportunities & Threats
KPI's
- Updated app:
- We can track exactly how many customers like which items
- Email blasts
- Which months were more popular than others. Could this be from emails or events?
Natural Disaster
- Ruins international plantation where we get coffee (South America)
Poor season for local/sustainable food sources
- How do we continue to maintain our values despite nature's unpredictability?
- Vital in knowing if we increased in customer loyalty
- Who is coming back? Who is bringing friends? How are we better engaging with our customers based on social interactions?
Are we achieving our objectives?
Social issues on sustainability
- What happens when the trendy green revolution is no longer unique? Or people turn against it?
Ethics on sourcing abroad
- What happens if it is socially unethical to get products from overseas?
"To increase customer loyalty by 25% at the end of 2013"
- Emerging professional (18-35)
- Business men and women, though majority are women
- Average income, not necessarily first class
- Looking for cheap lunch that is fast, easy to get, and environmentally friendly
- Those who feel good about knowing their food is fresh
- Convenience (many locations within cities) allows for easy social time during lunch break
- Great way to interract with co-workers while not ruining your wallet
- Increase or decrease in customer complaints?
- Are they mostly about the app? If so, we need to work closely with software company to remedy this.
- The Green Revolution
- Take advantage of collaborating with local farmers
- Prime chance to educate
- Global warming is a huge issue -- Pret is working to help the environment!
- Technological age
- Take advantage of connecting with customers through technology
- Ex. can we expand on our app to promote loyalty?
- UK: striving for healthy lifestyle
- To be discussed: Opportunity to collaborate with Jamie Oliver
- Competitive Threats
- Rise of Starbucks (major int'l franchise)
- How can we make our sustainable food unique in an age where this is considered "hip"?
- Competitor's pricing
- Keeping prices low but not belittling value of our product
- Economic decline
- Pret: common in major cities
- Economic decline in the US, $ is very weak
- How can we continue to encourage spending?
- Begin researching the day the app, email, event, etc. is launched!
- Can be linked to events, loyalty cards or emails
- Which months had increased sales?
- Can we match this to particular high attendance at events, high response to promotions in email blasts or increase in loyalty card renewal?
Positioning
Where do we lie on the positioning map?
Positioning Statement:
EAT
Sales Promotion
Tactics
(Challenger)
Free State Coffee
(Niche)
Segmentation
(Current leader, will be challenger if we don't step up our game)
Strategy:
How are we going to fulfill our strategy?
How can we measure this?
- High quality, low price
- We want to capitalize on our sustainability, and still give customers more reason to come in with our unbeatable prices
- Challenge: not to belittle the quality of our product with prices that are too low
- What do we hope will come from this?
- Encouragement from young professionals to their peers as to why Pret is the #1 place to go
- The ideal catering service for local businesses who want to treat their employees without abusing their overhead budget
- Pret's dominate busy cities, so finding ways to calculate groups can be done in several ways
Strategy
PR & Publicity
Starbucks
Gregg's
To maintain our market leader position by capitalizing on the values that make us unique
Part 1/2
(Follower)
(Rising leader)
- Recommendations
- Every time you recommend someone to Pret you receive a discount on your next purchase
- How to promote our sustainable resources?
- Celebrate sustainable products and unique resources by offering discounts
- Ex. Today is National Honduras Day! Enjoy a free cup of coffee on us with any purchase over £5!
Measurable
Accessible
Substantial
- Busy city life allows for more frequent and current updates as to how our target market is doing
- Celebrity Chef -- Jamie Oliver
- Importance: One of the UK's biggest proponents for healthy eating -- people trust him
- Can go to schools and promote Pret's food -- why a sustainable eating lifestyle is a healthy one
- Young emerging professional lifestyle differs from that of the adolescent or elderly market
- Our target makes more frequent small purchases which is easy to calculate whereas teens/the elderly are more reliant on other's assistance
- With the rise of Starbucks, we must maintain our market leader position by capitalizing on the values that make us unique
Direct Marketing
Differential
Actionable
Events & Experiences
IDEAS!
Actions
- Emerging professionals account for a majority of the workforce.
- Works to our advantage: they take advantage of going out with coworkers during lunch to join the work family
- 10 coffee gets you one for free
- Measurable: how many of these cards do we give out daily?
- Accessible: easy to count how many you give out each day, then count how many are returned
- Encourages customers to keep buying, especially young professionals who need their caffeine
- 5 sandwiches gets you one half off
- Promotes healthy eating
- Actionable: young emerging professionals want to go out for lunch, and this encourages them to do so in an economic way
How can we use our target market to achieve this?
How are we going to do this?
- Can we get them to buy? YES.
- Have grown into the sustainable revolution, eager for fast results, but need something filling
- Easily persuaded by price and convenience, both of which Pret specializes in
- Email blast
- List serve that constantly reminds people of offers and deals
- Include information about where today's fish was caught and what's in season
- Daily map / chalkboard in each store
- Being of the digital age we need visuals
- Shows you where today's chicken is from or states who made the sandwiches + personal fact about them
- Gives you a personal connection to keep investing
- We need to increase loyalty
- Must maintain our customers against the international appeal of Starbucks.
- Event planner
- Responsible for promoting public events
- More crucial to establish as we strive for customer loyalty
- Responsible for introducing these values
- Ex. offering loyalty card at end of every purchase / asking if they want to sign up for emails / or reminding them of upcoming events
- Offer Friday lecture on bringing sustainability/recycling to the workplace
- Fridays = slow for most businesses
- Encourages healthy lifestyles and Pret as the ideal model
- "Thank You" party in honor of customer loyalty
- Every 1 year anniversary Pret says "thank you" to customers by staying open late and offering free mini appetizers to customers
- Come help us give food to the homeless
- Leftover sandwiches given out at end of day
- Promotes philanthropy and empowerment to brand
- Will need to add direct social media links
- Offer this in several languages to appeal to international customers
- Include "pay as you go" tab which links to your credit card --> offer email receipt
- Search history -- customers see what they enjoy and we analyze the traffic
- The advancement of the app will help to regulate customer's opinions, likes and dislikes
- Will need to have constant communication with them to monitor if our loyalty increases
Advertising
- Plan on investing a significant amount for Jamie Oliver
- Work closely with CFO to make sure we minimize spending to make this happen
- Ex. cut condiments from sandwiches and put them on the side
- This will eliminate over-using product, save money, and also promote healthier eating habits for customers
- Purchase packets of condiments in bulk for customers to use as needed
Emphasis on the long-term
Tactics
Strategy:
Remain active on social media
How are we going to fulfill our strategy?
So why do we need a change?
To maintain our market leader position by capitalizing on the values that make us unique
- Connecting with our customers will mean connecting with them 24/7
- Update Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pintrest daily
Interactive Marketing
Objectives
- Current campaign
- "Play with your food" aspect
- Food imitates life
- Unique and interesting way to encourage sustainable eating
- To meet strategy: Expand to TV ads
- Print has been successful, but need to engage young, digital age consumers with more visuals
- Ads can incorporate these food creations as characters -- builds upon making healthy eating more exciting and relatable
"Starbucks’s fiscal third-quarter net income advanced 25 percent to $417.8 million" (Bloomberg, July 2013)
Strategy
S.M.A.R.T
Starbucks' mission statement: "to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time" (Starbucks website, 2013)
Part 2/2
Starbucks: biggest competitor
We currently hold the leadership position for our popularity in the sustainable, fast food market. We are customer's #1 choice when aiming for a speedy lunch and we aim to stay there.
Starbucks
Leader
Pret
...however...
- 55 countries
- 2012: $13.29 bill.
Personal Selling
Increase customer loyalty by 25% by the end of 2013.
- Improve the iPhone app: Appetite
- Order sandwiches through your app in advance
- Don't waste time if your sandwich isn't there -- important for busy lunch hour
- Lets you keep a history of what you liked and didn't like
- Works for ordering catering for local businesses
- Check in on social media with the app
- Linked to your FB, Twitter, Instagram
- Each check-in or tag earns you points
- Points amount to a free beverage or pastry
- 3 countries
- Total revenue 2012: £377.3 mill
The international fame of Starbucks could easily outdo our private company if we do not increase loyalty. We will not settle to be the challenger!
S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R ealistic
T imebound
Affordable Luxury
Market Dominance
Model
Challenger
- Loyalty Card
- Biggest thing lacking from Pret that separates it from Starbucks
- 10 coffees land you a free one or 5 sandwiches makes your next one free
- Encourages customers to keep coming back for a tangible goal
- Starbucks can afford to raise prices and expand because of their loyal customers
What does this mean for us?
EAT has similar values to Pret with its cheap eats, lunch focus and quick service. However, it does not have the same int'l appeal as Pret. It is definitely Pret's closest competitor next to Starbucks as its similar values prove the fight for the top leader.
...Let's break it down with SOSTAC...
Niche
Follower
- We need to expand our customer base
- Increase loyalty
- Give customers the extra reason to come to Pret and not Starbucks
Free State is a very niche brand that only focuses on the elite segment. With higher priced and higher quality items, their one location is not looking to compete with such massive franchises. They have found their fans near Holborn station and are doing just fine.
Gregg's does not actively pursue the top leadership position, but rather casually follows the trends. With similar cheap eats and a lunch focus as Pret / EAT, one does not actively seek out Gregg's like the others...but they don't get upset about it!