Food Marketing Series

The setting

GOODFIELD MARKET gave its best end-of-aisle display to a new line of refrigerated soups. Shoppers walk past it, though the same soups sell steadily in their usual position, and the signage, the price card and the product itself each say something slightly different.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a marketing associate at GOODFIELD MARKET.

Your task

GOODFIELD MARKET is a regional grocery store that recently began carrying a new line of refrigerated soups from a local producer. The store gave the line its most prominent display, at the end of the main aisle beside the entrance, expecting it to sell quickly. In its usual position in the chilled aisle, the same soup sells steadily to regular shoppers.

Staff have noticed that shoppers glance at the display and keep walking. The sign describes the soups as a healthy lunch, the price card highlights a multi-buy offer, and the packaging itself leads with the producer's family story. The merchandising director wants to know why the store's best position is performing worst.

The merchandising director (judge) wants you to explain why the display is not working and what should change. Identify the elements of the promotional mix at work on a display like this, explain why the elements of an advertisement have to be coordinated, explain the components of the message a shopper reads in the two seconds they give it, explain how the soups fit the wider product mix, and explain what promotion is meant to achieve here.

Performance indicators

• Identify the elements of the promotional mix.
• Explain the importance of coordinating elements in advertisements.
• Explain the components of advertisements.
• Explain the concept of product mix.
• Explain the role of promotion as a marketing function.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Why might a product sell better in its usual spot than on a premium display?
2. 2.What would you change first, and how long would you give it?

The setting

HEARTHSTONE BAKERY wants to put the word local on the front of its bread packaging. The flour is milled nearby; the yeast, the salt and the packaging are not. The owner is keen and the print run is booked.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a marketing associate at HEARTHSTONE BAKERY.

Your task

HEARTHSTONE BAKERY is a well-loved regional bakery whose bread is now sold in several grocery stores. The owner believes customers increasingly choose products they see as local, and wants the word printed prominently on the front of every loaf's packaging. The next print run is booked for the end of the month.

The flour is milled at a family-owned mill nearby, which the bakery is proud of. The yeast, the salt and the packaging itself come from suppliers in other states. A competitor was recently criticised in the local news for a similar claim, and the owner wants to be sure HEARTHSTONE could defend its own.

The owner (judge) wants you to recommend what the packaging should say. Describe the regulation of promotion as it applies to a claim like this one, explain the role of business ethics in promotion when a claim is technically arguable, identify the consumer protection provisions that apply, explain what the claim would do for the HEARTHSTONE brand, and explain what promotion is supposed to be doing for the bakery in the first place.

Performance indicators

• Describe the regulation of promotion.
• Describe the use of business ethics in promotion.
• Identify consumer protection provisions of appropriate agencies.
• Explain the nature of corporate branding.
• Explain the role of promotion as a marketing function.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What wording would you be comfortable defending?
2. 2.Is a weaker but honest claim worth less to the bakery?

The setting

TERRA FOODS has run in-store sampling for its frozen dumplings every weekend for two years. Store managers say the sampling weekends feel busy, and nobody has ever established whether sales hold up afterwards.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a marketing associate at TERRA FOODS.

Your task

TERRA FOODS produces frozen dumplings sold through several grocery chains. For the past two years it has paid for in-store sampling every weekend, with a staff member cooking dumplings and handing them out near the freezer aisle. Store managers are enthusiastic about it and say sampling weekends feel busy.

Nobody at TERRA has ever checked what happens to sales in the weeks after a sampling weekend, or compared stores that sample with stores that do not. The marketing budget for next quarter is being set now, and sampling is one of its largest single costs.

The director of marketing (judge) wants you to recommend whether sampling continues next quarter. Describe the need for marketing data before that decision is made, identify the data that should be monitored, explain the nature of the marketing research that would answer the question, identify the other sales promotion channels the same effort could go to, and explain the marketing strategy sampling is meant to serve.

Performance indicators

• Describe the need for marketing data.
• Identify data monitored for marketing decision making.
• Explain the nature of marketing research.
• Identify communications channels used in sales promotion.
• Explain the concept of marketing strategies.

The judge will ask

1. 1.How would you establish whether a sampling weekend actually worked?
2. 2.What would you need to see to recommend stopping?

The setting

ORCHARD LANE has been offered a substantial promotional allowance by a large supplier in exchange for giving its brand most of the shelf in one category, which would mean dropping two smaller regional producers the store has carried since it opened.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a marketing associate at ORCHARD LANE.

Your task

ORCHARD LANE is an independent grocery store known for carrying products from small regional producers alongside national brands. A large national supplier has offered a generous promotional allowance if ORCHARD LANE gives its brand most of the shelf space in the preserves and spreads category.

Accepting would mean dropping two small regional producers the store has carried since the day it opened, one of which is run by a family many customers know personally. The general manager can see the value of the allowance but is uneasy about what the decision would say about the store.

The general manager (judge) wants you to recommend whether ORCHARD LANE takes the offer. Explain the concept of product mix and what this would do to it, explain what product management has to weigh here, explain the business ethics involved in dropping long-standing suppliers for an allowance, explain how you would identify the product opportunities the store would be giving up, and explain what the decision says about the store's brand promise.

Performance indicators

• Explain the concept of product mix.
• Explain the nature and scope of the product/service management function.
• Explain business ethics in product/service management.
• Identify product opportunities.
• Identify company's brand promise.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What do you tell the two regional producers?
2. 2.What would make you recommend taking the offer?