Introduction
The present report is a marketing strategy for a healthy food outlet Joe & The Juice. The situation has impacted the restaurant industry severely by creating significant new threats. Thus, it is essential to develop a plan for consolidating and retaining a customer base in challenging times. First, the report provides a brief overview of the company. Second, a SWOT analysis is performed to outline outside and inside environmental factors that can affect the company’s development. Finally, the paper proposes a marketing strategy using the marketing mix (4Ps) methodology.
Joe & The Juice: Overview
The company is a Danish chain of healthy food outlets around the world. It was founded in 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Kaspar Basse, and its headquarter is located there. In the outlets, one can find healthy drinks, coffee, sandwiches, and snacks. Regardless of the fact, that Joe & The Juice competes with such companies, as Starbucks, it developed its unique style. It focuses on healthy and fresh food and drinks, and it has a special ‘young’ informal atmosphere (loud music, informal behavior of the staff). Today the company has around 300 outlets in Europe, U.S., Asia, and Australia. Currently, the company is experiencing a significant decline in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a framework that helps to analyze internal and external environments. The general idea behind SWOT analysis is that every company should build on its strengths, remedy or workaround weaknesses, take advantage of the opportunities, and protect from threats. In marketing, SWOT analysis is used to create a comprehensive marketing strategy that utilizes the strengths of the company to advantage of the outside opportunities while masking the weaknesses and controlling for threats. Table 1 below provides a brief SWOT analysis of Joe & The Juice.
Table 1. SWOT Analysis of Joe and the Juice
SWOT analysis demonstrates that the success of the company comes from strengths that the company has built since its establishment. Before the COVID-19 epidemic, the company successfully used its well-trained motivated employees to provide the best service. Teenagers and young adults found the place trendy and visited the café despite the rising competition and high prices. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to build upon the inner strengths of the company to survive during the epidemic. Thus, the company needs to consider finding a new marketing strategy utilizing the possible opportunities, controlling for threats, or addressing the weaknesses.
The central problem Joe & The Juice is facing is the impact of quarantine measures due to COVID-19. However, the coronavirus outbreak is associated with the emergence of several opportunities for the hospitality sector. For instance, the pandemic gave a significant rise to food delivery services and a particular interest in food ordering applications for mobile devices. Joe and The Juice have already created a smartphone application that can be used to order drinks and snacks online. However, the app has a limited number of functions and needs significant modification. Additionally, the provision of food delivery service without unique color is unlikely to sustain the customer base.
Thus, the company needs to build on another opportunity that emerged due to the pandemic. The pandemic is associated with significant harm to the environment due to the increased use of surgical masks. These masks are made of non-woven fabric, such as polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyethylene, or polyester. The masks have the potential to become a significant threat to the environment, as they are a source of microplastic. The target audience of Joe & The Juice is sensitive to such information, as the majority of the company’s customers support sustainable development. Thus, the company can use the rise of interest in environmental problems to sustain and expand the current customer base.
Proposed Marketing Strategy
General Concept
Joe & The Juice is advised to create a new concept of service that will become the core of the new marketing campaign. The new service will be called “Eco Delivery,” which is the delivery of healthy food in environment-friendly packaging using transportation supporting environmental sustainability. In particular, the company is recommended to deliver its products to customers using electric cars. The idea behind the service is not to bring additional income delivering products; instead, the service will be used as a useful marketing tool to increase awareness of the brand and attract new customers.
The marketing campaign will build upon the fact that people caused significant harm to the environment as a result of wearing personal protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic. The customers will be offered to repay nature and contribute to environmental sustainability by purchasing products from Joe & The Juice. During the past two years, the company made a significant push to decrease ecological impact: it uses paper straws, wooden cutlery, recycled plastic products, bagasse bowls and cups, and bags made of recycled paper. Eco Delivery marketing campaign will be another way to emphasize the dedication to green practices.
Eco Delivery is a new service that builds upon strengths and opportunities outlined in the SWOT analysis. It also considers the threat of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic developing the delivery services. While the company could have addressed its weaknesses by lowering prices, decreasing the cost of production, or capturing new target audiences, it would be suboptimal. The company will need to compromise on its major strengths and bear significant costs without a guarantee of success. Thus, a marketing campaign based on Eco Delivery is the best option to sustain and expand the current customer base.
Application of the Marketing Mix
Product
Eco Delivery is a new concept of food delivery designed to increase access to the products of Joe & The Juice. The products of the company can provide perceived benefits to several target audiences. First, the products grasp the interest of health enthusiasts. All the juices and snacks are beneficial for human health as they are produced out of fresh vegetables and fruit. Second, the products may be interesting for environmental activists, as all the packaging and delivery services are environment-friendly. Finally, the products may be attractive to progressive youth, as they want to follow the trend of sustainable development. Thus, the primary benefit of the product is the perfect taste made of fresh products with minimum harm to nature.
Price
The price of the products will remain the same with an additional charge for delivery services. The target audience can accept the high cost of products, as they understand that environmental sustainability cannot be cheap. Moreover, the company is not likely to have enough delivery orders to offer free delivery. If the new service gains the attention of the customer, Joe & The Juice may decide to offer free delivery in the future.
Place
The products will be sold in brand shops and online. The central attention should be put on the newly developed online application, as the COVID-19 created increased interest in them.9 The mobile app should be updated to include all the recipes and prices with the ability to order products in one click. The customers should be offered to order with or without registering. The mobile application should be compatible with all iOS and Android devices.
Promotion
The promotion campaign should be very attentive in choosing media channels for advertising. The products of the company may be interesting only to a narrow range of potential customers. Thus, the media plan should focus on online paid ads and a social media campaign. The online ads should target three central audiences: health enthusiasts, environment activists, and progressive youth. The social media campaign should include extensive advertising using official Joe & The Juice channels and social influencers to attract attention to the products. The company may decide to collaborate with celebrities concerned with the environment and adored by the youth, such as Olivia Wilde, Emma Watson, and Ireland Baldwin. Appendices A and B provide mock-ups of online posts promoting Eco Delivery.
Eco Delivery cars will also be part of the promotion campaign. Electric vehicles with Joe & The Juice symbols are expected to attract additional attention from a broad audience. To make the delivery more cost-efficient, Joe & The Juice should consider partnering with electric car manufacturers, such as Tesla or Volkswagen. The car industry is also experiencing a significant drop in revenues, and they might consider the new partnership profitable to attract new buyers.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a disaster for the hospitality sector. Trendy cafes, such as Joe and The Juice, were especially sensitive to the epidemic, as they offer very specific benefits to a narrow target audience. However, coronavirus created several opportunities for Joe and The Juice to build upon after the lock-down was over. In particular, the epidemic raised concern over environmental issues and increased demand for food delivery services. To grasp these opportunities, the company is recommended to create Eco Delivery services that will be used as a marketing tool to sustain and expand the customer base by increasing brand awareness and offering unique benefits to customers.
Reference List
EHL Insights, Key Trends in the Food Delivery Industry, Web.
Fadare, Oluniyi O. and Elvis D. Okoffo, ‘Covid-19 face masks: A potential source of microplastic fibers in the environment’, Science of the Total Environment, vol. 737, 2020, pp. 1-4.
Joe & The Juice, Impact. Web.
Marketing19, Internal analysis and SWOT: Joe & The Juice. 2020. Web.
Appendix A: Olivia Wilde Facebook Post
Appendix B: Emma Watson Instagram Post
