MARKETING MIX DECISIONS

Product

Star Coffee Shop consists of two parts: goods and services. Goods include mugs, espresso, coffees, teas, milk shakes, fruit juices and other specialty drinks. Customers will be able to select from pastries, light fair and the limited menu from Sri Lankan catering establishment during their stay. Star Coffee Shop will provide services for group meetings, technical support for apple systems and customers having difficulties of configuring their laptops and hand held devices for internet access using our free wi-fi service.

Star Coffee Shop specialty store; as such, its customers should display less price sensitivity than the customers from similar coffee shops who do not position themselves in this way.

• Brand name - luxury, excellence and perfection all over the world
• The image of luxury
• The theme from the brand logo, the color scheme of the premises, to the entire feel is warm tones and relaxing colors.
• Service - reputation for excellence all over the world applies not only for the exceptional coffee but also but insistence on perfect service.
• Enlarge product line:
• Coffee (Cappuccino, Mocha, Late, Black Coffee)
• Hot Chocolate
• Healthy organic sandwiches, Salads, Cakes, Cookies and Pastry
• Higher product variety and quality

Product Life Cycle (PLC)

Coffee shops in Sri Lanka are still very much in the growth stage of the product life cycle and Star Coffee Shop may restart the product life cycle. The challenge facing Star Coffee Shop is to convince regular customers of similar retail stores that there is a reason to switch brands. The product must recognized its place in the battle of the brands and emphasize brand familiarity.

We are in the introduction stage of the product life cycle.


Branding

Branding plays a critical role with in the Star Coffee Shop marketing strategy. Because a good brand and trade mark reduces the marketers selling time and effort. Since Star Coffee Shop is a internationally known brand, branding in the local market will not be a difficult task.

Packaging the product for the customer sends the message and its link to promotion and branding must be reinforced. Packaging must first and foremost must meet or surpass the customer needs and expectations in a way that is perceived by to be superior when compared to competing products. Because the Star Coffee Shop target market is upper and upper-middle class, it is important to understand what they want out of our packaging. The package must serve the important functions of reducing the likely hood of skills around delegate electronic equipments. The branding should be included on the mug to reinforce the brands familiarity and superiority.

• Attributes - Color (Premium color according to the product line), Aroma, Temperature
• Benefits - Prestige, relaxation, social class, refreshment, atmosphere, social networking
• Value - Unique taste
• Culture - Global culture, Social networking
• Personality - Prestige and global character.
• User - Busy lifestyle, socialize character

Product Levels

• Core benefits - refreshment and leisure
• Basic product- Coffee varieties, friendly and polite staff, comfortable seating and table setting
• Expected product - car parking, A/C, Wi-Fi, Pipe music, smoking area
• Augmented products - ATM, Cable TV channels, Web Kiosk, Kids corner, Foreign currency exchange index
• Potential product - Online reservation, gift voucher

Price

The prices of all the products are comparatively high because our target market is upper and middle-upper classes and foreigners.

Pricing strategy (market skimming) - Prestige product for higher price.

• Pricing factors
• International brand and brand loyalty
• High quality of products and services
• Atmosphere
• Convenience
• Efficient
• Technology and customer care.

Place

Location: Basically prime locations in Colombo and suburbs for an example Bambalapitiya, Kolpetty, Colombo national museum with the purpose of attracting foreigners, World Trade Center, Katunayake and Hambanthota Air Port, Green Path, Kandy City Center, K-Zone, Crescat, Southern Express Highway (Canowin) and Galle Fort shopping complex. Apart from outlets in all the hotels in MGS Group, we are planning to open fifteen outlets at initial stage.

The retail services of Star Coffee Shop must be available over the web, a feature highly sought by the target market. Online orders can be taken for foods, drinks especially targeting foreigners residing in Sri Lanka.

Promotion

Nevertheless, because at the time Star Coffee Shop open it will largely unknown to its prospective customer base. It will be important to use promotional tactics that will gain attention in the market place and persuade consumers either to switch to Star Coffee Shop or otherwise give the shot a try.


Managing promotional mix

Above the line (ATL) advertising

• V and Radio channels: English (ART TV, ETV, MTV, CSN, YES FM, SLBC English, Gold FM, TNL Radio, Sun FM)
• Time: TV Channels - 8.30pm to 10.30pm advertising while telecasting news, business and sport programs , Radio - 6.30am to 8.30am and 5.30pm to 7.30pm while driving to office in the morning and returning to home in the evening.

Below the line (BTL) advertising

• Cinema - English movies in Liberty, Savoy and Majestic cinemas.
• Brochure with credit card statements - Printed advertisement (special discount offers linked with HSBC and AMEX banks for gold and platinum card holders.
• Magazines: Business Today, LMD, The Living, Explore Sri Lanka

Through the line (TTL) advertising

• Professionally designed website is a must for serving our products and services to the target market. The web order system can also be used to re-order or implement advanced ordering further degree the wait time and to allow the sales people to properly priorities their service responsibilities. The product assortment and online ordering system must be able to scale rapidly for the franchise operations. It is important to recognize the economic needs of consumers fulfilled by Star Coffee Shop retail offering such as convenience, product selection, special services, and fairness in dealing, helpful information, prices and social image.
• Sending email fliers for targeted profiles, Linked-In Advertising and word of mouth
• Daily Mirror online edition (dailymirror.lk)
• Linkedin.com

Sales Promotion

• Discounted price for HSBC and AMEX gold and platinum card holders.
• Offering special discounts of 20%  for bills exceeding Rs.1000
• Lovers Promo - (Every Wednesday) One to one free for couples and partners will be offered with a cup of coffee.

Public Relations

Product launch with press conference at the MGS hotel in Colombo inviting head of  ICC (International Cricket Council) match referee panel Mr. Ranjan Madugalle as brand ambassador.


Event & Experience

• Organize “Star Coffee Cup” golf tournament collaboration with Royal Colombo Golf Club, Victoria Golf Club and Nuwara Eliya Golf Club.

People

Stewards and staff must understand its role to serve customers with more effective, efficient, polite and kindly manner. They should be well trained by foreign trainers representing Star Coffee (USA). We train our staff to serve our customers with international standards with the touch of Sri Lankan traditional hospitality. Select the best service employee of the month and reward him to continue the work and motivate others as an internal marketing strategy.

Staff must be extremely knowledgeable and able to offer high quality service and use the consultative selling approach when necessary.


Process

We will introduce hi-tech coffee machines to provide a prompt service to our customers. This will help to serve our customers within 3 minutes. A proper software system to support point of sales (POS), customer relationship management (CRM), inventory and stock management and finance management will be implemented together with touch terminals.


Physical Evidence

Interior designing, building structure, uniforms, and other physical equipments according to the SCS corporate standards. This will help to our customers to feel a reflection of global experience. Logo (greenish brown & green colors), hording, banners, name tags, cups, spoons, tissues, toothpicks holders, table mats, menu folders, carpets, parking area and other accessories according to colors, designs and quality recommended by SCS principles in USA.