Feldman's Bagels

Feldman’s Bagels Marketing Plan Created By: Emi Cepeda, Chance Foster, and Mariah Rolle Executive Summary: Feldman’s Bagels has been open for a little under a year. Roy and Maddy Feldman, a father- daughter team has been in the bagel business for many years. The business is located on 660 Pine street. The company's vision is to bring authentic New York style bagels to Burlington. They specialize in a product that is made from local ingredients. They make bagels fresh every day along with a variety of salads, soups, and sandwiches. Everything at Feldman’s is fresh including their specialty cream cheese and pickles, which is made in house. As a new business, Feldman’s Bagels wishes to expand their customer base into the larger student market around them. Burlington has almost 16,000 college students in Burlington alone. College students are a great market because they love to go out to eat, they tend to like inexpensive options, and they appreciate local ingredients. With more marketing, and public awareness (particularly to UVM and Champlain College) Feldman’s has a high chance of being the best out of all the competitors towards the scope of bagels. After all, it is their specialty. Core Competency & Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Feldman’s Bagels sustainable competitive advantage is their recipe. They have a master bagel maker named Roy. His experience is invaluable and he produces very high quality bagels that are difficult for competitors to match. This is a very sustainable quality because making bagels always follows along with the same process each and every day, the recipe will always be same. Customers will want to eat at Feldman’s Bagels because they know it is a step above the competition, which makes it relevant to them. Their other services are more easily replicated, anyone can make flavored cream cheese and salads, along with sandwiches. Feldman’s product is made from scratch every day, and their bagels are vegan and kosher. This separates them from generic bagel brands. But at the very core of the company, is their outstanding New York style bagels which will never be matched in the Burlington area. Essentially, as long as Feldman’s continues to produce bagels that are the same quality as they have now, this core competency will ensure that they have a competitive advantage on other bagel shops and stores. Swot Analysis: Strengths: ❖ Feldman’s bagels is able to offer a good product. An authentic New York style bagel. Many students who come to Burlington to study come from the New York area, for them a New York bagel is a slice of home. ❖ Most of New England has grown up on New York style bagels. Montreal style bagels are foreign to most college students. ❖ Feldman’s hires quality workers, they have never had an employee quit. The only reason an employee has left is because of schedule conflicts. ❖ Feldman’s Bagels is a young company that appeals to the college market because it is highly relatable ❖ Their manager Jake is a Champlain Alumni, and Maddy is inspiring to many students at Champlain because she is a young entrepreneur. ❖ Many students at Champlain wish to start their own businesses and Feldman’s Bagels is a good example of a successful business started by young professionals. ❖ Many students use Pine Street while commuting to school. It is also a high foot traffic area, that is appealing to college students. ❖ It is also conveniently located on the way to highway 89. Which makes it easy to stop at Feldman’s on the way to the mountain for some skiing, or other day trips college students are taking. Weaknesses: ❖ The location can make it hard for the average college student to reach however. Not every college student has a car, and climbing down the hill can seem like a pain especially in the colder weather. ❖ The decor of Feldman’s has been called uninspiring by college students also. They would rather go places like Henry’s and sit down for breakfast. The atmosphere there is most appealing to them. ❖ It does not feel like a sit down restaurant. Opportunities: ❖ There are 16,000 college students around the Champlain College area. University of Vermont and Burlington College are within three miles too. ❖ Many people leave their hometowns to come to Burlington for school and work. Lots of these people grew up with bagels as an important staple in their lives. ❖ There is currently a growing food truck culture. Outside of the University of Vermont and around the South End of Burlington food trucks are beginning to pop-up. A gourmet food truck culture is beginning to flourish in Burlington. With so many college students and young professionals in the area, living a fast paced lifestyle like this could bring in new customers. ❖ Pine Street is the location of the Art Hop. Feldman’s bagels easily ties closely with this Art Hop as well. Feldman’s could use more advertisement and potentially gimmick to bring crowds in. Lots of college students and whole classes attend the Art Hop. Feldman’s could be the first place everyone goes on the Art Hop. ❖ College functions and class assignments involving Burlington businesses (which the Stiller School of business's wishes to use as resources) can be a good way to get Feldman’s name out to college students. Threats: ❖ Popularity of healthier breakfast options, such as low-carb diets. ❖ Another company making the food truck inspirations a reality. This would potentially win over the favor of the student. ❖ With places like Speeder and Earls, and Myer’s Bagels just down the street, there are a lot of options for a breakfast or lunch option in a very small area. ❖ Being in a college town means that with summer months, many students choose to go home, which could cause less customers. Competitive analysis: Through a competitive lens with structural analysis it can be conveyed that the offering of the best, or product quality bagels for consumers, is at Feldman’s Bagels. Plus they offer the cheapest price (regular plain bagel with cream cheese) compared to Bruegger's, or Dunkin Donuts. Our survey can support this too because 51% of our reported said that they didn't even know the difference between a New York style bagel, to a Montreal style bagel. However, Dunkin Donuts and Bruegger's Bagels are better known, are companies that have been around longer, and have a wider range of products for consumers. Bruegger's Bagels location does an amazing job at reaching out to students because it is in a high pedestrian traffic area. Dunkin Donuts is less likely to worry about this, or marketing in general because it is a well-known franchise. Target Audience: Burlington consists of many college students and young professionals. The population is roughly 29,500. The medium age in Burlington is 29.2. So it would be an achievement to dominate the customer base of college students, and young working professionals. There are many young families here as well. One thing about all these groups of people is they do not have much disposable income. One way Feldman’s is able to attract this target market is by keeping the price point reasonable, but also appealing to the foodie side of the locals here. Burlington is known for having excellent food however much of it comes at a high price point. Feldman’s offers specialty cream cheese and sandwiches made with local ingredients while at an affordable price point. Market Analysis: The bagel industry in Burlington is a thriving one. It appears that the city loves their breakfast food, and not only in the morning. According to Yelp.com burlington has five bagel shops. It is predicted that ‘breakfast for dinner’ will be a major theme in 20141, and this bodes well for the bagel industry not only in Burlington, but nationwide. Another relative trend for Feldman’s Bagels is that egg white sandwiches are expected to be on the rise in 20142, as it is a more 1 "Eat This List: 2014 Food Trend Predictions – Eatocracy - CNN.com Blogs." Eatocracy RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. 2 "Food Trends 2014: Food Gurus Predict What'll Be Hot at Restaurants Next Year."TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Feldman’s Bagels: Feldman’s Bagels Open in Burlington - Seven Days Vermont's independent voice. Alice Levitt Web. 10 Feb 2014 health-conscious decision. Feldman’s could start making their sandwiches with egg white, and corner the market more effectively. They also could try to make a gluten free option. This is also important because Burlington is such a health conscious city; and any ‘healthier’ option is almost guaranteed to take off. Market Research Key findings. We have conducted the following findings through survey analysis, this is what we found: 1. The college market is a large consumer of bagels and there for a very good target market. ● 76% of respondents had eaten a bagel in the past week. 2. An opportunity exists to deliver bagels to students on the weekends. ● 74% of respondents were “Interested” or “very interested” In the concept of a bagel truck that would deliver to campus. 3. Advertising quality ingredients will be essential in attracting the college market. ● 51% of respondents said local and organic ingredients where “The most important” or “Important” in their decision to purchase. 4. It is clear at Myers bagels is a true competitor. ● The college market is unaware of the difference in bagel types 53% of respondents said they did not know the difference between New york Style and Montreal Style bagels.

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