Billy had just started his business – Billy’s Cookies – a range of cookies targe
ID: 391869 • Letter: B
Question
Billy had just started his business – Billy’s Cookies – a range of cookies targeted at the young, affluent, coffee-drinking segment of the market.
Like others, Billy had noticed the significant lifestyle trend towards drinking coffee. Therefore, he thought there could be an opportunity for a food item that would go well with coffee. While he looked at various product concepts, in the end, he decided that there was a gap in the market for a range of low-fat, high quality cookies that people would purchase with their coffee.
He had approached quite a number of independent coffee shops trying to sell his product, but found only a few that were interested. He had found that sales through these outlets were quite low at this stage. This was mainly because the coffee shops didn’t really cross-sell his cookies, as they also had other food items for sale.
His ‘vision’ for his product was to have people ‘automatically’ order a coffee AND a cookie – very much like ‘burgers and fries’, or ‘movies and popcorn’. But the question was: What is the best way to educate consumers to make that automatic purchase?
He was now considering various options and would like your advice on which one to choose?
Provide the coffee stores with a few thousand free cookies to automatically give away with each coffee – with this approach, consumers will become conditioned to eating a cookie with their coffee.
Provide the coffee stores with free cookies to give away as part of their loyalty card programs (that is, a free cookie with their free coffee after 5 purchases) – this is designed for consumers to see the cookies as a reward and will hopefully purchase one when they want to ‘reward’ themselves.
Give money to his family and friends to go to the coffee shops daily and buy a coffee and a cookie. He saw this is a longer-term program designed to get other consumers to notice that other people frequently buy cookies with their coffee.
Design a series of ‘clever’ posters that will sit on the counters at the coffee shops. As an example, a photo of a coffee, with the headline “What is missing from this picture?” and the copy at the bottom says “Billy’s Cookies – low-fat, high-quality, and designed to go with coffee”.
QUESTIONS
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions
1)Identify and explain with details Billy’s marketing problem(s).
2)Which learning theory is Billy trying to leverage in each of the four scenarios? Explain.
3)Which promotional approach do you think will be the most effective in resolving Billy’s marketing problem(s)? Why?
4)Do you think that Billy will achieve his ‘vision’ of making a cookie/coffee connection?
Explanation / Answer
1) The marketing problem that Billy is experiencing currently is something that almost each and every new individual in the business industry experiences and that is lack of brand value and awareness of the product in customers. The coffee shops generally does not cross sell his cookies because there are various other products as well and in addition it is a new product which the organization does not want to take risk on.
2) In each of the scenarios described, Billy wants to understand that what is that aspect that will bridge the gap in this case where people will order a cookie with a cup of coffee. The strategy or approach that would be appropriate and preferable is important for Billy to know so that it can work accordingly for him. It is experience that he needs to gather and this will give him the same.
3) I think that the series of clever posters that will be advertising the cookies will be the best option because that will make the customers aware of the details of the product and also they may get interested by the approach Billy is using to sell his cookies.
4) Yes, I believe that if the approach is effective and successful, Billy would be able to make a Cookie/Coffee connection because it is not that difficult as people prefer a cookie with coffee in general.
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