Introduction of Cafe Culture

Coffee is the most frequently selling product in the UK. Several companies are working in the UK to only serve the coffee market. Café Culture is an important name in the coffee market. Café Culture product line includes branded coffee with several types such as cappuccinos and lattes. Presented work is about the communication plan for Café Culture outlets in the United Kingdom market. A communication planning report is consisting of information about the activities and actions suggested by the Café Culture to address a highly competitive market.

Cafe Culture Overview  

           The café culture is currently working in various areas of the world with a broader chain of coffee cafes. Café culture is also working in the United Kingdom. In fact, Café Culture network has already established with sites in 25 major cities of United Kingdom (UK).   Café Culture is mainly supported by JTA foods. JTA Foods is a famous food group in the UK that present traditional products and in-home cuisine environment. The key product of café culture is coffee which is offered in several different flavors. Some most frequently selling types of coffee by Café culture are Latte, cappuccino, and espresso coffee. Café culture is now developing an expansion strategy for the business under which Café Culture will promote its coffee products in the UK market through a new marketing communication plan. The key objective of the plan is to ensure the positioning of the brand in the UK market by strong market communication and electronic marketing. In accordance with the decision taken by the corporate management of the Café Culture, the plan will be implemented next year in January 2020.     

Objectives of Plan for Cafe Culture

The key objective of the communication plan is developed to manage all activities in the campaign. Some of these objectives and goals are presented below:

1.      To develop a positive image in the targeted audience

2.      To ensure differentiation in the UK coffee market  

3.      To capture the attention of the targeted audience with an aim to increase sales 

4.      To build a sustainable position by translating the key advantages to the proposed customers through the use of social media and print media. 

Targeted Market of Cafe Culture

          The targeted market of Café Culture is selected on the basis of geographical segmentation and demographic segmentation. In geographic segments, developed and crowed areas of UK markets are selected where Café Culture will launch a news outlet. Furthermore, in demographical segmentation Café Culture has selected population of the United Kingdom (UK) as potential customers while considering their age, gender, and income-related characteristics and specifications. The Café Culture research indicates that young people are the most frequent consumers of coffee and they always seek for the best tastes and quality. Details show that income has limited influence over the trade of coffee as people of the United Kingdom (UK) are enough economically strong to afford a cup of coffee in a café. Café Culture will select this young generation as the target market.         

Challenges of Market Sector of Cafe Culture

UK market is really attractive for Café Culture to boost up sales of coffee and earn a huge profit on an annual basis as coffee consumption rate is high in this geographical sector. Somehow, still, there are some factors which can cause a direct influence on sales and business operations of Café Culture. The key challenges of the market need to be taken into consideration by the Café Culture in order to earn success in this market. The key challenges are fluctuating prices of coffee and changing market trends. The key challenges also include the increasing competitive position of the UK market. New entrants and already established competitor companies process threats for the Café Culture which are required to be managed by the management of Café Culture through effective market communication strategies.           

Potential Competitors of Cafe Culture

            Competitor products and substitutes are difficult to manage in dynamic markets. Café Culture is not the only company which will work in the market of UK. In fact, a number of other competitors companies are also working in this geographical and demographical targeted market with almost the same products and services. Potential competitors of Café Culture includes already established companies and cafes with coffee-related products. Furthermore, new entrants are also a reason for increasing competition in the selected market of United Kingdom (UK). Market analysis shows that the coffee market in the UK is already headed by some famous coffee selling brands which include Starbucks, Costa Coffee, and the Coffee Republic. These competitor companies have strong position and image in the market because of which a huge market share of coffee is consist of the loyal customers of these brands. Somehow, at the same time, new entrants are also willing to capture the maximum share of the market by providing the best quality featured products. New entrants such as Aroma, Café Cadbury, and Café Nescafe are opening coffee outlets in public places like hospitals and railway stations. The growing sales of new entrants also show threats and challenges for the future sales of Café Culture.  

Changing Market Conditions of Cafe Culture

           Changing market conditions is also a challenge for the business of Café Culture. Market studies indicate that people of the UK are also switching to other drinking products and beverages. Because of some research findings, it is considered that the high consumption of coffee is not safe for the health of human being (Smartinsights.com, 2017). As a result of this, some people are switching to fresh juices and other available beverages in the market. Excluding this, tastes of UK people are also changing over the period of time. People easily switch to trendy products. Whenever a new beverage or drinks become trends in UK coffee market automatically gets the effect. The changing market condition also covers the changes in the prices of coffee beans and other material used in the coffee. Changes in the prices of these materials also have a direct impact on the prices and sales of coffee.     

Recommended Creative Strategy of Cafe Culture

In the presence of high competition in the targeted market Café, Culture will face challenges for its survival, therefore, some effective strategies are required to create differentiation in the market. Although, positive image building is also necessary to grab the attention of the selected audience. Positive image building, positioning, and differentiation all depends upon the communication and marketing of a company in the selected segment. Considering this it can be said that Café Culture needs to establish new creative strategies to ensure accomplishment of prime purposes of a business in the UK market. The recommended creative strategy for Café Culture relates to different areas of market communication and marketing strategies. The recommended strategy for Café Culture is to develop awareness in the market regarding the benefits and advantages of offered products. Café Culture needs to educate the current market through the use of innovative sources such as digital media and social media to understand the difference between the products of Café Culture and another competitor. Strong communication network will support Café Culture to elaborate on the key advantages of its services to the customers covering quality benefits, customer satisfaction, and prices advantages.          

Media Strategy of Cafe Culture

            The selected media strategy for Café Culture is to take advantage of both printed and digital media to spread awareness in the market. Printed media will publish messages of Café Culture in the advertisement and articles to educate the targeted market about the key features of Café Culture. While electronic media will be used to post innovative and attractive activities carried out in the Café Culture outlets on the social networks and fan pages of the brand. Café Culture will use both media with innovative and creative ideas to support market growth and to build an interactive relationship with the targeted audience (ELLERING, 2019).     

Communication Planning Model of Cafe Culture

Communication-related activities will be done according to the communication planning model. The selected communication planning model for this project is Chris Fill marketing communication planning model. The model mainly emphasis on brand, experience, and participation. Following this model context analysis are taken for the Café Culture brand. The context analysis was consist of internal context, customer context, external context, and business context. In this analysis, research is conducted in the market on the basis of which potential segment of the audience is targeted as the selected audience.

Furthermore, considering this model some communication-related goals and positioning objectives are selected. These goals and objectives are developed in the light of corporate goals, marketing goals and communication goals of the Café Culture. While developing these goals the main emphasis was on overall corporate goals and financial budgets to align all activities with the organizational objective in the appropriate way. Café Culture will follow up pull strategy for the flow of communication (Baker & Hart, 2016). Café Culture administration and corporate management will directly communicate with the customers through a straight communication channel rather than relying on intermediaries. (See the presented below communication planning model of Chris Fill)

After the selection of marketing communication strategies, the coordinated communication mix is developed. In this coordinated communication mix style, media, and types of communication were selected to each kind of stakeholder. According to the communication plan resources selection is made along with the appropriate scheduling of activities. Resources utilization related plan was developed in the light of selected styles of communication and optimized budget of marketing communication for Cafe Culture.   

                                               Positioning Strategy of Cafe Culture

         In marketing communication, positioning and branding activities are highly important. As the market grows and eventually gets matures, different roles will be expected from the marketing communication used by the mainstream players. For instance, in the introduction stage focus on awareness is essential to grab the attention of customers. While on the maturity and growth stages differentiation with positioning is required to secure a strong and sustainable position in the competitive market. Positioning is selected to concentrate on some areas to ensure improvement and excel organizational performance (Fielded, 2012).

The selected areas for positioning are quality and prices. Focusing on the quality aspect Cafe Culture will ensure to develop a positive image in the market related to the high-quality production system in the cafes of Cafe Culture. Cafe Culture will describe how in the kitchen of Cafe Culture outlets quality standards are maintained. Environment-friendly production system with a limited contribution to negative environmental impact will support cafe culture to earn a better reputation in the market. Alongside, quality of services will be also improved in the outlets.

Service providers will be trained professionally particularly emphasizing on the communication skills of these employees. Full comfortable environment and well manner service providers will provide the best customer experiences. Good customer experience will support WOM (word of mouth) strategy of café culture in positioning. In addition, to support differentiation and positioning appropriate prices related strategies would be developed. Pricing strategy translates the vision of the company therefore, the appropriate pricing strategy can result in a good reputation.       

Advertisement of Cafe Culture

            Advertisement will be made in the selected market to promote coffee products. Advertisement will work as a supportive strategy for communication. Through this Café Culture management will translate the key objective and messages in the market to ensure their attraction and attention towards the offered product portfolio of Café Culture in the UK market. Innovative content with attractive designs will be used to capture the attention of coffee consumers. Advertisement will also provide information about new discount offers, expansion in the product line, changes in policies, special offers, and different prices of offered products. Advertisement will also use as branding activity to tailor a successful ad campaign and preemptive unique selling propositions. Media strategy used in the advertisement is media dispersion approach. Under this media strategy, most innovative resources will be utilized and different media categories will be employed to reach the targeted audience. Advertisement will be published in weekly magazines and newspapers (Hanlon, 2016).             

PR strategies of Café Culture

Cafe Culture will also take advantage of the public relation strategy. Café Culture will develop a relationship with the press and media to release something newsworthy about the inauguration event and other promotions related events organized in the Café Culture. Somehow, in the beginning, Cafe Culture will pay limited attention to PR strategies because of the high budget requirement for PR strategies. In the limited budget of Cafe Culture, PR strategies are difficult to manage. However, the carried-out strategies for public relation will develop a connection to the campaign focus, aims, and targeted market requirements (Smith & Taylor, 2004).         

Digital Marketing  of Cafe Culture

Digital marketing is the innovative marketing style which enables the companies to interact with the customers. Café Culture will use digital marketing strategy for the purpose to support two-way interaction. Digital marketing will be made through social media platforms e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Furthermore, a fully responsive website will be used to communicate with the customers. Website and social media activities will also include feedback collection to bring improvement and betterment in the offered products and services.   

Budget and Evaluation of Cafe Culture

The budget set out for this communication campaign is limited to £2 million. The total duration set out for the communication plan is 12 month (a year). Budget will cover all costs and expenses related to the marketing and communication campaign excluding the expense of salaries for the marketing team. The costs and expenses to be covered in the budget are presented below:  

 The advertisement related activities will be carried out 6 times a year. While on the other hand, public relation strategy and promotional events will cost £1500000. Agency cost is £16,800 for a 12-month duration. Somehow, the one-month agency cost is £1400. The social media marketing activities will be carried out through the support of a professional social media agency on the contract of £500 per month. The social media page will include SO writing for the website and social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Success of Campaign of Cafe Culture

The success of the communication campaign will be measured and evaluated at each stage to identify weakness and limitation for further modifications and improvements in the communication plan. The accomplishment of communication-related objectives developed in the communication plan will be used as a success measurement matrix. Furthermore, improvement in sales percentage over the period of time will also explain the successful of the campaign.         

Conclusion  on Cafe Culture

            The whole discussion and above-stated information conclude that Cafe Culture is working in the highly competitive market, therefore, there is need to ensure working on communication and marketing plans to grab the attention and attraction of targeted market of UK. The communication plan will cover all important activities related to promotion and direction communication or interaction with the selected audience. A budget of £2 million will be utilized to work on the campaign and communication plan while aligning all activities with the corporate objectives and communication goals. The selected activities and media strategy will be considered as successful strategies and action in case the outcomes result in the increase of profit or sales. Furthermore, the accomplishment of organizational objectives will also indicate the success ratio of cafe culture.  

References of Cafe Culture

Baker, M. J. & Hart, S., 2016. The Marketing Book. s.l.:Routledge.

ELLERING, N., 2019. How To Make The Best Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign In The World With Multiple Teams. [Online]
Available at: https://coschedule.com/blog/integrated-marketing-communications/

Fifield, P., 2012. Marketing Strategy. s.l.:Routledge.

Hanlon, A., 2016. Digital Marketing model: Lauterborn’s 4 Cs. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/digital-marketing-model-lauterborns-4-cs/

Smartinsights.com, 2017. Marketing communications planning using the PASTA model. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/planning-budgeting/marketing-cdommunications-planning-using-pasta-model/

Smith, P. R. & Taylor, J., 2004. Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach. s.l.:Kogan Page Publishers.