Tip Top Bakery: MKT 113 Final Project Part I Product Overview

This report provides a product overview for Tip Top Bakery, focusing on its new "to go" sandwich offering. It begins with a SWOT analysis to identify the bakery's strengths (reputation, pricing, fresh ingredients), weaknesses, opportunities (healthy eating trends, shorter lunch breaks), and threats. The primary target market is identified as business professionals in Manchester, NH. The report recommends marketing strategies including social media (Facebook, Instagram, coupon sites) and in-store promotion (signs, discounts). The report emphasizes the importance of the price element in marketing and advises against using television advertising due to its high cost. The report concludes that the new product has a great opportunity to succeed, focusing on the target market and leveraging the bakery's existing reputation. References from sources such as Manta, Nielsen, and Huffington Post are included.

Running head: TIP TOP BAKERY PRODUCT OVERVIEW 1
MKT 113: Final Project Part I Final Submission
Tip Top Bakery Product Overview
Anastasia Bo
Southern New Hampshire University

TIP TOP BAKERY OVERVIEW 2
Tip Top Bakery has been in business for over 20 years and has five locations in New
Hampshire. It has a successful breakfast and lunch business making custom orders. To
accommodate its growing lunch business and respond to increased competition, the owner has
decided to start selling pre-packaged “to go” sandwiches. One of the primary target markets of
the bakery is businesspeople, so Tip Top hopes that the new offering will appeal to individuals
without time to have a sit-down lunch but who are still looking for a high-quality lunch product.
To help the Tip Top Bakery decide how to best market its new offering, a SWOT
analysis on the product is recommended. The bakery can use this to identify how it can leverage
its strengths to best take advantage of the opportunities in the market.
Figure 1: SWOT analysis for Tip Top Bakery
The Tip Top Bakery has several strengths to highlight in its marketing activities. The bakery has
a good reputation for serving healthy and delicious sandwiches, its lunch items are priced in line
with competing bakeries, and it is known for using fresh, local ingredients. These strengths

TIP TOP BAKERY OVERVIEW 3
correlate well with the opportunities identified in the SWOT. The first opportunity is the trend to
eat healthy, local foods. Tip Top already has a reputation for serving this type of food and should
be able to transfer that to the new product. The second opportunity is the trend for shorter lunch
breaks. Tip Top has already noticed an increase in the number of people who ask for custom-
made sandwiches “to go.” It can take advantage of this with its new product.
The primary target market for the new “to go” sandwiches is business professionals. This
makes sense given that the bakery already has locations in the business districts of Manchester,
Portsmouth, and Concord. For the new product, it is recommended that Tip Top begin by rolling
it out only in its locations in Manchester. If successful, it can expand to its other locations.
Manchester has over 11,000 businesses located within the city (Manta, 2015), and the bakery’s
two locations are easily accessible by many of these businesses. Additionally, research shows
that more than two thirds of Americans buy their lunch every day (Wolters Kluwer Law &
Business, 2015), which also demonstrates a need for this new product. Further demographic
research reveals that according to the PRIZM segmentation, three of the five primary segments
in the Manchester area have professional jobs, a high level of homeownership, and high
household incomes (The Nielsen Company, 2015). Thus they can spend a little extra on lunch.
This data indicates that working professionals will be a great market segment target for Tip Top.
The working professionals market is an important one for Tip Top. This group primarily
own their own home and have a professional white-collar job and an above-average household
income. In addition, two of the top segments in this area are over 55 years of age (The Nielsen
Company, 2015). This age group seeks convenience, as they tend to feel very rushed during the
business day. Those in the over-55 set also feel a need to be healthy in their food choices, so they
may be more discerning in their choices. In addition, this target market demonstrates two key

TIP TOP BAKERY OVERVIEW 4
wants in the bakery’s favor. The first is the want to support local businesses over large chains,
and the second is their want to eat out for lunch for social reasons. The social aspect of going out
to eat, even just going with a coworker to get takeout, is one of the most commonly mentioned
reasons for buying lunch (Berman, 2014). The bakery’s new product fulfills all of these wants
and needs.
Tip Top Bakery should focus on two primary marketing strategies to promote its new
product: social media and in-store promotion. There are many ways the bakery can use social
media to promote the new product; however, it is specifically recommended to develop a
Facebook page that includes coupon offers or discounts for people who “like” its page. To
encourage current followers to try the new product, Tip Top should promote it through pictures
and information on daily specials. The bakery should also create an Instagram page where it can
cross-post the photos from Facebook. As the algorithms for who sees posts on Facebook pages
become more restrictive, using Instagram can help Tip Top reach a broader audience. The second
online approach recommended is to use coupon sites such as Groupon and review sites such as
Yelp. These channels could help to bring in people who are in the bakery’s target market but
who do not yet visit the bakery. The second recommended marketing strategy is in-store
promotion. The bakery already has a large clientele for breakfast and sit-down lunch; it can
inform its current customers about the new product through signs on the doors and table tents at
the register and on the tables. In addition, it could offer a percentage discount for a “to go” lunch
if customers brought in their receipt from a previous purchase from that day. This would
encourage folks who came in for coffee or breakfast to return for lunch. Both suggested
strategies rely heavily on the price element of the 4 P’s by offering coupons or discounts off of
the new product.

TIP TOP BAKERY OVERVIEW 5
The Tip Top Bakery should avoid a television marketing strategy. Although local
television potentially could reach the target market, the high cost and the limited ability to track
the response to the ad limits its usefulness to the bakery. If this marketing strategy was to be
used, it should focus on the product itself, presenting the benefits of the new “to go” lunch
options. It could include a price discount; however, since this marketing channel is passive, it
would need to be a sale or a day of discounts rather than something specific to the person. Use of
television does not make sense for the bakery regardless of the type of messaging used.
The Tip Top Bakery has a great opportunity with its new “to go” lunch product to reach
new customers and create an enhanced loyalty among its current customers. By focusing the
initial strategy on the target market of working professionals around its Manchester locations,
Tip Top will be able to gauge the new product’s success before rolling it out to all of the
locations. The new product fills a need and will be able to capitalize on the reputation of the
bakery, two factors that will increase the likelihood of its success.

TIP TOP BAKERY OVERVIEW 6
References
Berman, J. (2014, March). Buying your lunch is a terrible idea. The end. No more debates. The
Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jillian-berman/why-
buying-your-lunch-at-_b_5020896.html
Manta. (2015). Companies in Manchester. Retrieved from
http://www.manta.com/mb_51_ALL_CQE/manchester_nh?ftoggle-frontend-prod-
on=abTests.revenue.responsive_12162014_control&utm_expid=82789632-
30.8Ue3RXoXRoWAwC0cgSs_wg.1&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/
The Nielsen Company (2015). ZIP code look-up. MyBestSegments. Retrieved from
http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?
ID=20&pageName=ZIP+Code+Lookup&menuOption=ziplookup#
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business (2015). Survey finds American workers spend an average of
$3000 a year on coffee and lunch at work. Employmentlawdaily.com. Retrieved from
http://www.employmentlawdaily.com/index.php/news/survey-finds-american-workers-
spend-an-average-of-3000-a-year-on-coffee-and-lunch-at-work/