Question

Promotion Plan In 1 to 2 pages, provide promotional ideas for your store. Include the following:  How you will create buzz about the store/product  How you will you promote a grand opening, schedule sales, and attract your target market  The specific types of promotion and advertising you will employ of a food store,

Answer 1

IMC or Integrated marketing communication is the marketing strategic plan, which is used by the marketing executives of a company, to brand the company’s offerings, promote them in the market and create comprehensive awareness about the features and functionality of the various products. Usually there are 6 critical elements in an IMC:

• Digital marketing
• Packaging
• Public Relations
• Advertising
• Sales promotions
• Personal Selling

The core objective or fundamental ideology with which a IMC plan for a product is developed by the company, is that the various modes or channels of the company’s communication strategy to the outside world, must collaborate and work in alignment to the culture of the company, in order to propagate and make the company brand, more strong and popular among the masses. IMC plans help in adding value to the business strategy by bringing the desired visibility to the products and services offered by the company.

To develop a comprehensive promotional strategy for my restaurant, I would do the following:

• Promotions opportunity analysis is conducted by the marketing department of the company to identify the target customers for the products and services, offered by the company. The marketing team tries to identify and grab the prevalent market opportunities for the product. Based on the market opportunities, the target customers for the product is identified and dedicated promotional plan is developed to attract the customer, towards the product.
• Communications market analysis is usually the first step, conducted under the promotions market analysis. It is basically the process of conducting company’s SWOT in perspective of the communication strategies adopted by the company. This helps in realizing the strengths and weaknesses of the communication strategy, which the company can work on and also helps in identifying the market opportunities, which the market can capitalize, to enhance its promotional strategy and market visibility.
• Based on the results of the above study, a comprehensive IMC plan for the restaurant will be developed.

Target customers: The restaurant is a pinball café. The visitors can play pinball, while relishing on delicious food. As it is a gaming café, the target customers are the millennials or the youth of the society

IMC Plan for attracting millennials to the cafe:

• Digital marketing: The restaurant can capitalize on the potential of social media. The restaurant can come up with dedicated social networking pages for the café. These pages will help the restaurant to have a wider coverage and reach various millennials in least time and cost spent. Offers for the grand opening can be shared on these pages.
• Packaging: The infrastructure of the restaurant will follow a playful and youthful theme.
• Public Relations: The PR of the restaurant will organize events and competitions in places where millennials thrive like schools and colleges, gaming zone, etc. The winners of the events can be given free invites to the grand opening of the restaurant.
• Advertising: The restaurant can also indulge in traditional marketing fundamentals by capitalizing on billboards and newspaper advertisements
• Sales promotions: Various offers can be given to the customers on the grand opening day of the restaurant.

The restaurant can resort to celebrity endorsement on the inaugural day. A celebrity can be roped in to inaugurate the restaurant. A special menu can be developed for the inauguration. Special decoration of the restaurant as well as the street leading to it, can be done to attract consumers. Dedicated consumer packages can be offered on the inaugural day. This way, the restaurant can have a grand opening.