How Do We Create a Marketing Mix for Coffee Bar Carly?

The This Bar Saves Lives team was having a strategy meeting. They had decided to develop a rough outline for a marketing mix strategy for each of their main target segments. This week's task was Coffee Bar Carly. The goal of the meeting was to decide on a few key pieces in each area of the marketing mix to develop a more comprehensive plan around. The group would make some initial decisions and then turn their outline over to one of the marketing folks to expand and add details. They all read Coffee Bar Carly's customer profile again before they began their discussion.

Coffee Bar Carly

Carly was a 20- to 40-year-old who could be found almost daily in a local coffee bar. She often had her laptop or tablet with her. For her, the coffee bar served different roles. Some days she would start her day there with her morning java and a light breakfast. Other days she would stop at the coffee bar on her lunch break. And some days she used the coffee bar as a mini-lounge, taking advantage of the free wifi to check messages, catch up on the personal and professional news, etc. Coffee was important to her and she felt at home in the coffee bar. She definitely had her favorite beverages, and though she didn't make a lot of money compared to some, her visit to the coffee bar was a daily indulgence, and she would sacrifice in other spending areas if needed to keep it in the budget. She didn't always purchase a bar when she visited the coffee bar, but often did. She only bought bars when she was at the coffee bar and never more than one at a time. She liked to experiment, though for her, the primary purpose of experimenting was not to find the best bar, but rather to find out which ones she did not like so she could exclude them from future purchase. She liked bars with interesting names and quality ingredients, especially if it was something unique. She actively supported a couple of social causes, and even volunteered for one of the local charities once a month.

The Discussion

1. Chloe: Okay, where do you want to start?
2. Todd: Let's agree on her most important characteristics first. Her personality. What is she like? What makes her different from other customers? What does she care most about?
3. Ryan: She is clearly interested in comfort and takes her coffee seriously.
4. Todd: And she seems like she is someone who is purposeful and thoughtful. She cares about causes, which we can use if we can get her excited about our cause.
5. Chloe: She doesn't buy bars all the time, and only buys at the coffee bar, one at a time, every so often. We will have to think about how we can get her interested in linking TBSL to the coffee bar so we become her go-to bar.
6. Todd: And she wants interesting names and flavors, and experiments. Probably means we need to do some more work on naming, especially when we add new flavors, and probably we'll have to have a lot of flavors for her to really consider us as her go-to.
7. Chloe: Unless we can make the cause more important and raise her connection with us and the social cause, since she does seem to think that's important.
8. Ryan: Well, that's a good point, Chloe. I think we have a decent picture of her and you should run with it. I'd like to hear your marketing ideas for her soon. Can we meet next week? Think some more about how we might be able to get Carly to tie us more closely to the social cause and how we might be able to build our marketing plan for her around that idea.

The team split up, but Chloe's work was just beginning. She was already thinking about possible ideas to develop a marketing mix for Carly.

Running Case Questions

1.What customer benefits do you think Carly wants most when she buys or eats bars?

2.What does convenience mean for Carly?

3.What costs do you think Carly associates with buying and eating bars? Include all costsboth monetary and nonmonetarywith shopping for, buying, and using the product.

4.What type of communication do you think Carly expects or wants related to bars? What message(s) is important to her? How do you think she would prefer a company to communicate with her?

5.What do you think would make Carly connect with a brand or with other customers?

Application Exercise

By now, you should have a basic understanding of the marketing mix framework. So it is time to get some practice applying the extended marketing mix. What steps do you take to make it work? Here's how. The first part of your task has already been completed if you've answered the running case questions above. The process begins with the marketer assessing customer expectations and preferences for each C in the mix (customer benefits, convenience, costs, communication, and connection). Once that is completed, you then assess each P to make a specific link between something you can do that links P and C. For example, if you know a customer wants the fastest computer, you could make product decisions to (1) include the fastest processor available, (2) have lots of memory available for processing, and (3) include an operating system and software combination that is the most efficient handling programs. Each decision set works the same way. One important factor to consider is the order for the mix decisions. Start with product, then place, then price, then promotion, then participation.

Now your job is to finish the extended marketing mix outline for the TBSL team. Apply the extended marketing mix framework to make marketing decisions by:

• Make two specific product recommendations (decisions) to deliver the most important customer benefits for Carly (use your answers from running case Q1.).
• Make two specific place recommendations to deliver the desired level of convenience for Carly (use your answers from running case Q2.).
• Make two specific price recommendations to deliver a good value for Carly (use your answers from running case Q3.).
• Make two specific promotion recommendations to communicate with Carly in the manner that is most appropriate and effective for her (use your answers from running case Q4.).
• Make two specific participation recommendations to make it possible for Carly to connect with (1) the brand and (2) other customers in ways that add value to her experience (use your answers from running case Q5.).
• Now, go back and see if your recommendations are consistent. If so, you have a mix outline. If not, you need to adjust any that are not consistent.