Case Study: Marketing Strategy and Plan for Local Lion Coffee Shop

This case study examines the challenges faced by Local Lion, a coffee shop in North Carolina, particularly its struggle to maintain profitability and brand image amidst competition from Starbucks. The analysis highlights issues of declining customer loyalty and revenue. The study delves into Local...Read More

Running Head: Marketing Strategy and Plan
[Company name]
Marketing Strategy and Plan
[Document subtitle]

Marketing Strategy and Plan 1
Problem Statement
The given of the given paper analyze the details about the problems faced by the coffee shop
Local Lion in the business environment of North Carolina. The biggest problem faced by the
company is that reduced profitability and reduction in brand image as well. With the entry of
Starbucks in the given market, the company started struggling in to increase revenue and
maintain their brand image in the business environment (Wei, 2016). Customer loyalty
another biggest issue faced by the company because even when the customers buy coffee
from Local Lion, they still started shifting towards Starbucks.
Analysis
Analyzing the given case study, it should be noted that the company Local Lion works on
providing typical mountain coffee experience in the environment. The company provides
several types of coffee to the customers that are sold locally to the people and through online
services as well. Based on the place strategy, the company started coffee shop drive through
to add advantage in the competence of the Local Lion. The company initiate sales in the
market by partnering with two campus that successfully increase sales for business. However,
entry of Starbucks in the nearby made the organization suffer loses in the environment
because it affected sales by attracting Local Lions customer to them (Soedarsono, Mohamad,
Adamu, & Pradita, 2019).
Thus, it should be noted that the solution for the problem of Local Lion lies in their marketing
strategy only. Change in marketing strategy would subsequently make the organization more
competitive in the environment. The company need to implement strategic action plan that
would successfully help the organization to increase its effectiveness. The students were
slowly getting attracted towards Starbucks, therefore, it is the right time for the organization
Local Lion to preserve the interest of customers in the business and make them loyal towards

Marketing Strategy and Plan 2
them as well. The strategic recommendation would suffice the objective of Local Lion in the
target environment.
Solution
Marketing Mix
Product: the products offered by the organization Local Lion are efficient but in order to
compete with a bigger brand like Starbucks, it is crucial for the organization to offer wide
range of products in the environment. Therefore, the company should understand the menu of
Starbucks and innovate their products as well. They should also provide daily offers to the
students living in nearby so that they purchase coffee from Local Lion. The product strategy
should involve fusion of menu so as to attract the customers to initiate sales for the company.
Fusion menu will let the customers to initiate sales in the market (Huang, & Wood, 2017).
Price: the company should initiate effective cost pricing strategy in the environment. This
strategy would not increase the burden of the students for making food expenses in the
environment. The major target of Local Lion are students living in nearby locations. It should
be noted that as Starbucks is a brand therefore, it has moderate pricing in the environment
that cannot be afforded by students regularly. Therefore, Local Lion might achieve
competitive advantage in the target market while providing low cost opportunity to the
customers present in the business environment. This would let the customers compare the
prices and initiate sales of Local Lion (Surya, 2019).
Place: as the organization has already partnered with universities in the North Carolina
environment, therefore, the organization should also target other campuses present in that
environment. The company should initiate effective and fast distribution strategy in the
environment by providing timely products and services to the customers in the business
environment.

Marketing Strategy and Plan 3
Promotion: the promotion strategy involves targeting the customer in the environment in an
effective manner. The students are extremely innovative and attracts creativity as well.
Therefore, the organization need to initiate the marketing campaigns in such a way that the
customers directly get attract through the advertisements and implement sales for Local Lion
coffee shop in the business environment (Morland, 2017).
Recommendation
Below mentioned are the recommendations provided to the company to improve their
marketing impact on the customers and fight against problem statement as well:
 The company need to develop a timeline for marketing campaign so as to increase its
effectiveness.
 The promotion strategies should focus on the brand being a local coffee shop that
could connect with the domestic people and serve them traditional taste of coffee
based on their interest.
 Lastly, it should be noted that the company Local Lion need not to compete with
Starbucks while expressing themselves as a great brand, but they need to make the
customers loyal by satisfying them and providing them great offers as well.
 The company should tie up influencers on social media like Instagram to promote
their café.
 The company should start giving discounts and offers to regular customers who visit
café.
 The company should renovate the infrastructure of the café to attract new people.

Marketing Strategy and Plan 4
References
Huang, Y., & Wood, B. (2017). Identifying successful sales and marketing strategies that
affect customer loyalty in a coffee shop. The Journal of Applied Management Research
Ideas, 1(1), 29-34.
Morland, L. (2017). Rounton Coffee and Bedford Street Coffee Shop: From rural coffee
roaster to urban coffee shop. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation,
18(4), 256-263.
Soedarsono, D. K., Mohamad, B., Adamu, A. A., & Pradita, K. A. (2019). Managing Digital
Marketing Communication of Coffee Shop using Instagram.
Surya, N. K. A. R. (2019). Social opportunity on coffee shop. International journal of life
sciences & earth sciences, 2(1), 13-18.
Wei, C. (2016). Marketing Strategy For Setting Up An Own Coffee Shop In China: Using
Starbucks as a case study.