Business Plan for an Ice Cream Truck: Marketing, Sales, and Promotion

This report details a comprehensive business plan for an ice cream truck, targeting Lloyd's Park in Walthamstow, London. It begins with an introduction outlining the need for a well-researched management system and then proceeds to Task 1, which presents the business plan itself, including SMART objectives, market analysis, competition analysis, product development, customer trends, and branding. Task 2 delves into the aims, policies, and standards of food and beverage management, including procurement, preparation, and customer service. Task 3 proposes a new food and beverage management system, detailing food production methods, service and quality standards, menu costing, and pricing techniques. Finally, Task 4 emphasizes the importance of marketing, sales, and promotion in attracting customers and achieving business goals, including marketing mix elements. The plan addresses key aspects of starting and operating an ice cream truck business, from market analysis to operational strategies and marketing tactics.

Project
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Food and beverage business plan................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
Aims, policies and standards embedded in food and beverage management system..................4
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
New food and beverage management system..............................................................................5
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................6
Importance of marketing, sales and promotion...........................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Developing a new business plan involves a lot of planning, research and development. That
research forms the basis of development of management system that helps business establish, run
and flourish (Watson, McGowan and Smith, 2015). This essay includes a food and beverage plan
developed for an ice cream truck business that is proposed in Lloyd’s Park in Walthamstow,
London. Appropriate aims, policies and standards embedded in food and beverage management
system are discussed below. Based on standards, a new system has been developed for the ice
cream truck. Also, discussed below are importance of marketing, sales and promotion for a food
and beverage business.
Task 1
Food and beverage business plan
This business plan is for developing an ice cream truck. Market area chosen for displaying
truck and starting business is Lloyd’s Park in Walthamstow. Walthamstow is in northeast
London and is home to variety of ethnic people who bring to it new and exciting developments.
Lloyd’s Park is a bustling place and attracts so many visitors daily who come there to visit and
enjoy different delicacies.
SMART Objective – It includes developing goals that are realistic and achievable (Thomas
and et.al., 2016). For Ice cream truck business, SMART objective is to start an ice-cream busines
and earn a revenue of £5000 in a month with serving at least 5 customers daily. Lloyd Park is a
popular place among youngsters and kids every day. Also, there is a weekend market which
attracts a lot more visitors to the Lloyd’s park area. Delicacies present in this area are too good
and ice cream truck would take their quality ahead.
Competition analysis – Ice cream truck is going to enter the market of sweets and desserts
and have other sweet shops and brands as competitors. Main competition of the food truck in the
Lloyd’s park is Crosstown doughnut. They are expert in creating different and unusual flavours
that can bring water to the mouth of anyone and they deliver anywhere in London. Another
competition is Bens Bakery who are expert in baking personalised products. They experiment
with local flavours to create crafted cakes and deliver anywhere in London.
Product development – Developing range for ice cream truck involves lot of pondering.
First thing is to decide what all products would be offered. It can offer ice-cream candies, lollies,
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sticks, cups as well as other allied products like shakes, ice cream sandwiches, sundae, etc. in
various flavours like vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, blueberry, oreo, swirl, etc. It shall also
develop healthy products range like low fat ice creams, frozen yogurt, fruits slushies, etc. for
health aware customers. Milk shall also be purchased from trusted source. Most effective
marketing method shall be social media promotion and mouth promotions (Piercy, 2016).
Customer Trend – This area has a significant young population which also happens to be
main visitors of the park. But the potential or targeted customers are not restricted to any age
group or any other constraint. Ice cream is enjoyed by all irrespective of any differences. Ice
cream is the first choice of customers in summers but with increasing health awareness and
obesity concerns, trends are being observed that customers are cutting their consumption (Ice
cream parlour sector trends, 2020). However, children’s ice-creams and lollies, especially in
chocolate flavour.
Brand and theme – Since, there is increasing health awareness which is encouraging
people to cut high sugar and fat content, the brand of ice cream truck would be designed around
its healthy frozen dessert range. The theme would be around treating your guilty pleasure of
eating sugar without having negative effects. Ice cream truck would also be designed on this
theme and promotional strategies would be around this theme only.
Task 2
Aims, policies and standards embedded in food and beverage management system
Management system of food and beverage business involves activities which includes food
planning, food servicing, customer management, customer service, etc (Chen and Voigt, 2020).
Aims – Planning and operational management is embedded in a food and beverage
management system. It streamlines activities that are required for successful business. For
example, sequence of service. First thing first, procurement of raw materials, their sources and
quantities shall be finalised according to the menu list prepared in the product development
phase of business plan. Then, comes preparation and storing the products. Shakes and slushies
can be prepared on spot but ice creams need to be prepared beforehand. Then, comes the
sequence of serving customers and satisfying them. Satisfied customers can serve as a
promotional tool for the ice truck business.
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Policies – There are many policies and guidelines of industry as well government which
the ice-cream truck shall follow. For example, earlier there was rule that ice-creams sold in UK
must contain at least 5% fat and 2.5% milk protein. So, for those producers who were planning to
bring low fat product, were helpless to use term ‘iced dessert’ for their product. This rule was
scrapped in 2014. At present, government has made it mandatory for businesses to declare all
contents and information about any specific allergens such as nuts, eggs, milk and milk products.
Ice cream truck shall fulfil all mandatory requirements such as get themselves registered with
local authority environmental health department and obtain license, insurance, etc (Ice cream
parlour legal issues, 2020).
Standards – Other than legislations by government, there are certain practices that those
who are in ice-cream selling business adopts and practice (Engida and et.al., 2018). One can join
trade association like The Ice Cream Alliance (ICA), UKHospitality, etc.to get updates about
standards of practice in the industry. It is in service industry where serving customer and
satisfying them is of primary importance to small businesses to make it big. One more thing that
a management system helps in is training oneself to align with the present business situations. It
is the time when economy of UK is recovering from economic slump caused by lock-down and
restrictions caused because of Coronavirus crisis. Therefore, business shall be start with caution
and operated with precautions. For hygiene issues, business must comply with food safety and
hygiene regulations for handling, sterilisation and pasteurisation of dairy products. Business
must train its human resource in food safety as per the advice and guidance offered by ICA and
HACCP. Ice-cream truck manager must gain food hygiene qualification. Business can apply to
local authorities for food hygiene inspection to obtain a food hygiene rating (Industry sector:Ice
cream parlour: Food safety, 2020)
Task 3
New food and beverage management system
Taking inspiration from various standards and processes mentioned in food and beverage
management system above, presented below is food and beverage management system
incorporated for Ice-cream truck:
Food production methods – These include the standards that ice-cream truck business
would have while producing all the food that has been included in its menu list. Raw materials
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like milk and fruits must be procured from the hygienic and trusted sources that is authorised by
government. Using the ice-cream making machine, ice-cream must be prepared beforehand and
given different shapes using moulds while slush maker will be producing slush on order basis.
All the food shall be prepared in a hygienic condition (Taoukis and Tsironi, 2016). Necessary
equipment shall be purchased or taken on hire. Truck would require refrigerator for storage of
prepared products. Chocolate is usually most favoured flavour hence, these must be prepared in
most quantity in all forms say 5 litres a day initially and little of other flavours at the beginning
like 1-2 litres. Changes in production quantity will be subsequently made according to the
demand. Food truck requires two persons to manage all these – one for ice-cream production and
one for slushies. Since, ice-cream needs to be prepared beforehand, that person can manage
front-end operations as well like manager.
Service and quality – These include all the standards that ice-cream truck would have to
follow while providing service to customers. Business shall make no compromise with the
quality in producing the food or providing the services. Company can assume creative ways in
providing services that can help it create a competitive advantage for itself (Valta and et.al.,
2015). For example, company can use cute customised packages to deliver products to little
customers. Kids like cute things and will definitely love it. Business can also start a live service
counter wherein customers can customise their products for themselves and leave with a happy
and satisfied feeling. Business shall involve in active customer engagement from pre-purchase to
post-purchase stage. For this two additional persons would be required to employed. One for
taking and delivering orders and another to prepare products at live counter.
Menu costing and budgeting – These include all the standards that business has to adopt
while developing budgets for carrying out operations. First thing that ice-cream truck business is
need after developing plans is funds, sources of finance and resources to start and operate truck.
It is important to analyse whether it would be more beneficial to buy or hire food truck to initiate
business. Finance for infrastructure development like truck and its interiors, customer seating or
standing, utensils and equipment, etc. also needs to be sorted. Then, next comes developing
budgets for the products that are decided to be in menu and decide for manpower planning to
carry out all operations.
Pricing techniques – These include all the standards that the business shall follow to decide
the pricing techniques for the products that are on the menu list (Farris, 2016). Since, the
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business is new, it shall follow penetration pricing techniques in aid to competitive pricing
strategies. Prices for ice-creams in that area is around £2-5. Business shall try to keep prices in
this range only and penetrate the price and market whenever possible. It will help business in
taking an edge over its competition. Business can adopt open and flexible pricing technique for
the open and live counter. Business just needs to set base price and component price. Final price
would be as per the customised product of the customer. This business is at small scale and
therefore, shall engage in active customer persuasion and customer base building.
Task 4
Importance of marketing, sales and promotion
Marketing and promotions are very important for any business. Specially those business
which have recently started or are planning to go on floor soon because they do not have a
customer base or connect with the customer. Marketing and promotional tools helps it in putting
its products and services to the customers. This will help businesses build a customer network
and improve their profits (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). Ice-cream truck is a new venture and
therefore, to attract customers, it shall offer various promotional offers like early bird discounts,
discounts on bulk purchase, organise games and lottery, winner would get free products, etc. for
a limited period till the time it does not achieve its SMART objective. This will also help in
creating a competitive edge over competitors like the ones mentioned above. For designing
marketing and promotional activity, a business undertakes market research. This research helps
the businesses in identifying recent customer trends in their industry and in market in general. It
might help business in identifying opportunities or threats present in the environment or expected
in future such as introduction of some new flavour of ice-cream or shakes or might be a reverse
case wherein business might be forced to remove one or more products of it menu list. This will
also help in gaining competitive advantage and will lead business to path of sustainable growth.
Marketing, sales and promotion includes two aspects to influence third i.e. marketing and
promotion to increase sales and improve development of the business. Businesses use various
marketing mix techniques to identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can develop
marketing and promotional activities accordingly. Marketing strategies are always aligned to
business environment and are based on choices, influences and culture of potential and target
customer. Ice-cream truck can use various methods of promotions like traditional methods –
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advertisement on TV or newspaper, billboard or hoarding advertisement but majority of
customers that Lloyd’s Park get are youngsters or kids, with their guardians, so more effective
method would digital marketing and promotion. By being visible on digital space, business will
be able to create a strong image in the minds of customers. It can take help of digital medium
like blogs, video hosting websites, social media channels like Instagram, twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIN, Pinterest, etc. or digital influencer like Trip Advisor. Another effective method of
economical promotion is mouth publicity. Business shall focus on providing quality services to
its customers that they spread positive words of mouth for business (Kumar, Choi and Greene,
2017). It can also use some innovative methods to promote business like giving some additional
services like free gaming for some time, weekly declare one ice-cream or other product as
product of the week and then, decrease its price and increase value with it.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it can be concluded that ideating a new business idea and developing
a business plan around it requires a lot of brainstorming. Developing a correct management
system helps. For example, a proper food and beverage management system helps in developing
a system for the firms operating in food and beverage industry. Every business operates in an
external environment which is dynamic and ever changing. Businesses have to adapt themselves
according to it. For example, government legislations, rulings, policies or the standards of
practices used by the firms and customers in the industry.
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References
Books and Journal
Chen, X. and Voigt, T., 2020. Implementation of the Manufacturing Execution System in the
food and beverage industry. Journal of Food Engineering. 278. p.109932.
Deepak, R.K.A. and Jeyakumar, S., 2019. Marketing management. Educreation Publishing.
Engida, T.G. and et.al., 2018. Measuring corporate sustainability performance–the case of
European food and beverage companies. Journal of Cleaner Production. 195. pp.734-
743.
Farris, P.W., 2016. Marketing metrics. Pearson Education India.
Kumar, V., Choi, J.B. and Greene, M., 2017. Synergistic effects of social media and traditional
marketing on brand sales: capturing the time-varying effects. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. 45(2). pp.268-288.
Piercy, N.F., 2016. Market-led strategic change: Transforming the process of going to market.
Taylor & Francis.
Taoukis, P. and Tsironi, T., 2016. Smart packaging for monitoring and managing food and
beverage shelf life. In The stability and shelf life of food (pp. 141-168). Woodhead
Publishing.
Thomas Lane and et.al., 2016. Exploring the potential of local food and drink entrepreneurship in
rural Wales. Local Economy. 31(5). pp.602-618.
Valta, K. and et.al., 2015. Overview of water usage and wastewater management in the food and
beverage industry. Desalination and Water Treatment. 53(12). pp.3335-3347.
Watson, K., McGowan, P. and Smith, P., 2015. Leveraging effectual means through business
plan competition participation. Industry and Higher Education. 29(6). pp.481-492.
Online
Ice cream parlor legal issues, 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.lawdonut.co.uk/business/sector-specific-law/ice-cream-parlor-legal-issues>
Ice cream parlour sector trends. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/market-research/sector-trends/ice-cream-parlour-
sector-trends>
New ice cream definition would boost reformulation work. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2010/05/21/New-ice-cream-definition-
would-boost-reformulation-work?
utm_source=copyright&utm_medium=OnSite&utm_campaign=copyright>
Industry sector:Ice cream parlour: Food safety. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.sectorsdonut.co.uk/sectors/hospitality-catering/ice-cream-
parlour/food-safety>
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