markting

Flying Rhino Coffee and Chocolates

Final Report - Direct Marketing Campaign

Prepared by Launch Advertising

Sample From A Good Student

DO NOT COPY

Executive Summary

Flying Rhino Coffee and Chocolates was founded in 2005 by two semi-retired artists. Ralph and Gini Behrendt, partners in business and life, decided to start a new business venture after years of selling original glass pieces at art shows and consistently seeing a large amount of patrons choose an item like kettle corn over a handcrafted work of art.

Ralph and Gini already loved coffee and because of their mature tastes were self-proclaimed “coffee-snobs”. As Ralph found a love for chocolate, a business model was settled and their business began. Ralph and Gini quickly built a strong local customer base by engaging with the customers and their families; providing wholesome and honest ingredients; and keeping their costs reasonable. Flying Rhino is now recognized by a green and lavender logo that displays a rhino with wings at the original shop, local businesses throughout Toledo, and on weekend mornings at the Farmer’s Market.

Over the past few years Flying Rhino has received requests for and begun to recognize the potential opportunity to expand business online. Customers are not always able to make a trip to the Farmer’s Market stand, Flying Rhino shop, or an area business that stocks Flying Rhino products. Some of Flying Rhino’s most frequent customers have moved away and now do not have a way of obtaining the coffee they may have grown to love without calling the shop and asking for a special package to be sent their way. Furthermore, Flying Rhino is interested in exploring the potential opportunity to obtain new customers by reaching out to them in a way that aligns with the advancements in our society today (new technology, online processing, etc).

The marketing campaign outlined in this report consists of a $40,000 web-overhaul through which Flying Rhino’s current website will be re-designed to offer interactive and customizable online ordering. Current and new customers will be reached out to through personal interaction, prompted action on iPads placed in local businesses, and emails that will be sent to customer lists purchased from relevant vendors in the Toledo market. The tagline: “Fresh.Honest.Yours” will signal to customers that Flying Rhino’s coffee beans and ingredients are wholesome, fresh, and exactly what they are looking for.

The campaign will be active for at least two years. Quarterly and yearly reports will be complied that focus largely on conversation rates and progression toward and success above the break-even point. The campaign will be considered successful if the break-even point is surpassed and if the conversion rate steadily sits at or above 20%.

Flying Rhino does have a website established, but has never offered the convenience of purchasing product online, nonetheless allowing customers to observe visually where products are being derived from as they are ordering. This campaign has the potential to expand Flying Rhino’s reach from the small city of Toledo to the entire country and possibly: the entire world.

History of Company/Item 5

Market position 5

Current Branding 6

Current Targeting and Positioning 6

General Description of Campaign 7

Tagline 8

Branding congruency 8

Branding Objectives 9

Targeting 9

Objectives 10

Media or Direct Marketing Tool Objectives 11

Budget 11

Control/Follow Up 11

Measuring Success 12

Time Frame 13

Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

Flying Rhino Coffee and Chocolates was founded in 2005 by Ralph and Gini Behrendt. Partners in every part of life, the two decided to embark on a new business venture together after years of traveling the country to showcase and sell various pieces of glass art. Art was a passion for Ralph and Gini who had been involved in blowing glass for 17 and 8 years, respectively. However, the years of travel were exhausting and the growing expense of showcasing art at multiple shows was hard to ignore. Ralph and Gini had made an interesting observation after attending so many of these shows. Out of all of the beautiful art vendors, craftsmen, and service providers, there was one person at every show who seemed to always have the longest line and walk away with the heaviest pockets: the man selling the kettle corn.

This observation made the specifics of Ralph and Gini’s decision to venture on a new business journey a little bit easier. The two artists understood that the key to their success was focusing on a product that could be consumed by their customers. Ralph and Gini had already both dubbed themselves “coffee snobs” (Behrendt, n.d.); Ralph had been roasting coffee in their home for a few years simply out of love for the internal warmth a fresh cup gives the soul. This experience, combined with a newfound interest in chocolate, sealed the deal.

Near the end of the December snow in 2005, Ralph retired his glass blowing tools and instead used his time to roast coffee. He had already been nicknamed the “Midnight Chocolatier” (Behrendt, n.d.) due to his newfound passion for chocolates and the late hours of the night he worked on tasty creations. Though not previously mentioned as a part of the initial crafting of the product line, Gini applied many of her talents to the kitchen by creating homemade pastries. Thus, Flying Rhino Coffee & Chocolates was born.

Flying Rhino has a very unique position in the market. At a glance one may think that their biggest competitors would be brands such as Starbucks or Biggby, but that is not the case. Flying Rhino can be compared in market position to a product like craft beer. Craft beer companies sell the same product as large beer companies like Budweiser, but are considered to be in a different segment because of how different they are. In the same sense, Flying Rhino sells the same product (coffee) as the big players in the game (Starbucks and Biggby) but holds a different market position because of how different the company is. Flying Rhino imports beans from all over the world and roasts them differently based on those origins; different bagged beans are sold based on the import that month, so a flavor may not always be available for purchase.

Flying Rhino’s market position is crafted to target open minded individuals with a love for flavor. It is placed in small bakeries in the Toledo area and can be found every weekend morning outside at the Toledo Farmer’s Market. The price is reasonable, never as expensive as somewhere like Starbucks but not as cheap as McDonald’s coffee, and the promotion is small. Flying Rhino makes business off of word of mouth promotion. The testimonies loyal customers give to friends and family are what create new customers day after day.

Flying Rhino’s current branding consists of a logo of a rhino with wings in front of the moon. The colors used in all marketing materials are green, lavender, black, and grey. All photos used for brand publications are taken by Gini Behrendt (owner).

Flying Rhino has a website and a Facebook page. The website is used to provide a company history, in-depth description of products, and information about store hours. The Facebook page is used to provide customers with updates on pastries, answer inquiries, and share relevant news articles regarding coffee or the Toledo area. Other than this, Flying Rhino does not engage in a lot of activity online.

Currently, Flying Rhino focuses largely on the Toledo market. By special request one may call and have an item shipped, but there is not an option to order online. Flying Rhino has a location in downtown Toledo and operates out of the Farmer’s Market every Saturday and Sunday morning. This customer crowd typically consists of adults ages 25 and over from both downtown Toledo and the outlying areas.

Flying Rhino has widened its reach over the past few years with a few new business partnerships. Their coffee beans are now being roasted and served at Kathy’s Confections, Black Kite Coffee & Pies, Registry Bistro, Treo, Nine at Hensville, Maumee Bay Brewing Company, and more. The beans are on the shelves for purchase at Earth to Oven, along with paleo bread and paleo scones. (Behrendt, We Are Proud to be Working With The Following Companies: , n.d.)

Flying Rhino is not currently using much direct marketing, so the campaign that would bring them the most value may seem simple for a company that is already very involved in their direct marketing. Since they are already present in local coffee shops for brewing but only available for bean or pastry purchase at one-two locations or on the weekends, the best campaign would involve re-designing the website and adding the ability to purchase online.

The opportunity lies in the experience. Flying Rhino has such a unique product that holds great opportunity to connect with customers on a very emotional level. The flavors are strong and ever-changing depending on their origin. The pastries are hand made, and many comply with the strict outlines of a Paleo diet. These all present a unique opportunity to connect with customers directly through involved online purchasing.

This online purchasing model would do so much more than give customers an opportunity to have coffee delivered to their door. The website would include a purchase generator: a tool that electronically showed customers exactly what they were ordering. The tool would use cookies gathered from the moment a customer entered the site to make suggestions along the way but would start with one simple selection of product: coffee or pastry?

If coffee was selected, a customer would then select from the highlighted map of the world where they would like their coffee to come from. The animated application would show the coffee traveling from a country to the US, then “arriving” at Flying Rhino. From there, the customer would have the opportunity to grind the coffee beans to their liking in an animated application (stopping at fine, French press, electronic drip, etc.). and finally see the coffee packaged and being placed in their online cart.

When pastry is selected, a customer would have a similar product building experience, but instead of making choices about the selection, customers would have the opportunity to watch how the product was made through animation. If an item needed to be taken out, this could be done within the animation and shown to the customer, later reflected in their online cart. The animation would start with an empty bowl and show customers (without revealing the exact recipe) just what was going in their pastry of choice. This would help to show customers the love and care that goes into building a pastry, ensure them that when a paleo option is selected that it is being properly catered to, and ease any worry a customer might have about an ingredient being included that they did not want.

Due to the personalization of this campaign and the quality of the products used, the tagline will be: “Fresh. Honest. Yours.”. This signals to all customers that they can count on the ingredients and coffee beans to be newly selected, that they can trust the source, and that they may customize it to fit their personal needs. This will be especially helpful for the pastry customers due to the strict paleo diet many of them stick to.

The elements of this campaign are extremely congruent with the values of Flying Rhino Coffee and Chocolate. Ralph, one of the founders of Flying Rhino, passed away in 2014 (Zaborney, 2014). Ralph had a passion for his work, but even more for his customers. His wife, Gini, has worked tirelessly since the start of their business venture and since Ralph’s passing to ensure that was always the focus of their business. Due to Ralph’s individual passion for chocolate, Flying Rhino no longer supplies customers with the chocolate they once knew and loved; instead it is held as a memory forever associated with the “Midnight Chocolatier”.

The “Fresh.Honest.Yours.” campaign will increase customer focus by fostering and maintaining positive and personal customer relationships. Though some of these relationships may be formed online, the customization that includes preferences and the trust created as customers interact with the site features will ensure that the relationship easily transitions into a personal connection. Gini obtains a large amount of information about her customers through personal conversations in-store and at the Farmer’s Market, but this tool will allow for even more information to be obtained from customers that may only buy beans at one of the retail locations in Toledo. Gini may then use this information to follow-up with customers personally, therefore adding a strong personal association and loyalty to the transaction.

Branding for this campaign will be very similar to the current branding of Flying Rhino. The green in the logo will be capitalized upon in all marketing materials to relay to customers the freshness of all products and ingredients. As shown below, the current website is very dark. The green elements of the logo will be incorporated largely into the background of the website to give it a more welcoming and happy ambiance. The brand integrity will not be challenged, but instead capitalized upon. All campaign pieces will be colored green, lavender, and black. Flying Rhino will not update the name of products, the company name, etc. Part of what gives Flying Rhino its local charm is the simplicity of the brand. The tagline “Fresh.Honest.Yours” will be incorporated into branding pieces and adopted for future use.

All of Flying Rhino’s current direct customers will be targeted first, followed by customers that obtain products from various retail locations throughout Toledo, then finally expanding to potential customers.

Current customers will be targeted through direct interaction while in-store at Flying Rhino or at The Farmer’s Market in downtown Toledo. When ordering a cup of coffee or certain pastry, customers will be encouraged to interact with the site while waiting for their order to be ready for consumption. Customers are used to interacting with electronics at Flying Rhino due to the use of an electronic iPad payment system. The site will be set to a test-mode while in-store and at the Flying Rhino that prompts customers to enter their email address to save the customized order they have created during the interaction.

Customers that obtain products from various retail locations throughout Toledo will be targeted in a similar way, but during a different timeframe in their experience. Part of the budget will be allocated to the purchase of table iPads for customers to interact with. This is not something that is already used at the locations that Flying Rhino sells their products at, so it will be new and fun experience for customers. At shops like Black Kite Coffees & Pies, iPads will be mounted to the table and set to the interaction mode of the website with an option to purchase. At locations such as Earth to Oven, the iPads will be mounted on the shelves for customers to see when they are looking at various bags of coffee. Customers may be enticed to interact with the application when prompted on the screen to ‘find their favorite coffee country’. Similar to the interaction at the Farmer’s Market and inside of the Flying Rhino location, customers will be prompted to enter their email address to save their customized order. However, since during this timeframe customers may have not been making a purchase with Flying Rhino, during this use of the application they will also be prompted to purchase the order they have created.

Potential customers will be targeted using the methods discussed for customers that are already obtaining Flying Rhino coffee from various locations (since not every customer visits those locations specifically for Flying Rhino coffee), but also through the purchase of customer information from business partners in the Toledo area. These lists of past customers who have purchased any product at one of the locations that serves Flying Rhino (and possibly other companies in the area as well) will be used to email potential, and possibly current, customers. The email will focus on the campaign tagline “Fresh.Honest.Yours” and prompt the viewer to interact with the online customization tool.

The objectives of this campaign are simple and important: to further foster and maintain new customer relationships by growing the online Flying Rhino business. This will be completed through the optimization of the current site, adding new ordering features and interactive customization options.

As previously discussed, the largest Direct Marketing tool that will be used for this campaign is the website interaction.

Also, email will be heavily used during this campaign to market to new customers that may be shopping at locations that Flying Rhino is served or sold. Whether they are purchasing the coffee and pastries or not, the email interaction will prompt them to interact with the tool and, following interaction, save their customized order or purchase. Furthermore, after saving potential or current customers will be prompted with the option to share their customized order online (via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) for a chance to win free coffee for a year (2 bags per month for 12 months). This will encourage word of mouth exposure as well as reach customers that Flying Rhino may not have direct access to or that may live too far to have heard of Flying Rhino in the past.

The budget for this campaign will be $40,000. It will be used to purchase ten iPads for various location placement, along with stands to mount the iPads to tables or shelves. The iPads will cost about $1,300 each (Apple, Inc., 2016) and stands will cost about $40.00 each (Apple, Inc., 2016) totaling around $13,400. The remainder of the funds will be used to develop the website and purchase customer lists from local businesses and list developers. $10,000 will be allocated for customer information and email creation, and the remainder of the funds will be used to develop the website into a tool that may be used to interact with products and customize a customer’s experience.

Due to the fact that in past years there have not been any online sales, there is not an opportunity to compare sales from the web campaign to past online sales. However, what Flying Rhino will have the opportunity to analyze is the amount of sales that are conducted through the new interactive tool, and the sales within their store and at the Farmer’s Market. One follow-up that will be especially interesting is the of impact on in-person sales; did sales grow due to the marketing campaign or were they simply transferred to a different avenue? The follow-up will be conducted quarterly and yearly for two years to ensure accurate information.

Two metrics that will be used to measure the success of the campaign are the conversation rate and the break-even number of sales.

The conversation rate is described as “the rate by which a company converts [these] leads into sales” (Spiller & Baier, 2011). It is calculated by dividing the number of buyers by the number of inquiries. This is important because in order to properly analyze the effectiveness of the campaign, Flying Rhino will need to know how impactful its marketing is. Are customers simply engaging with the tool because it is interesting, or is it actually making them want to buy the product being offered? In Flying Rhino’s campaign, the inquiry number would be found by adding up all of the potential customers that interacted with the online custom ordering tool throughout the duration of the two year analyzing period (and quarterly as reports are compiled). The number of buyers will be calculated by adding up the number of all customers who purchased using the online tool. The formula to be used may be found below.

The break-even number addresses the financial concerns related to running a new campaign. It determines the number that is needed to ensure monetary funds are not lost. The break-even point formula calculates the number that Flying Rhino would break-even, or “the point at which the gross profit on a unit sale equates to the cost of making that unit sale” (Spiller & Baier, 2011). If the campaign generates a gross profit that is above the break-even point the campaign will be considered successful. The formula to find the break even point may be found below.

The campaign will be further analyzed by using the break-even point in conjunction with the conversation rate to determine if it is successful enough to keep active. If the break-even point has been surpassed by at least 20% with the conversion rate also above 20% by the end of the first year Flying Rhino will continue to support the campaign. This will continue to be analyzed throughout the last year of the initial campaign and throughout the life of the online tool.

The interactive tool will be completed within six months and launched by the end of December. Once launched, all terminals and iPads will be active at Flying Rhino locations and the locations that serve their coffee and pastries. Emails will be sent out to the lists previously mentioned to encourage interaction and online purchases. By the end of January 2017 every avenue discussed will be available for direct interaction.

As recorded in earlier sections of the report, analysis will begin quarterly and also be conducted yearly for a full two years. Quarterly reports will show progress toward the break-even point and the current conversion rates. As the time that the campaign has been live grows the reports will be compared against one another for further analysis. At the end of the two years a full analysis will be completed to determine success of the campaign and the worth in continuing to move forward in the e-commerce world.

In conclusion, Flying Rhino’s $40,000 direct marketing campaign will consist of a web-overhaul through which the website is re-designed to be interactive for customer use while still maintaining the original branding of the beloved Flying Rhino name.

The campaign focuses on acquiring new customers and offering a new opportunity to current customers to interact with the Flying Rhino products in a more convenient way. Customers will be able to view the sources of the bean they select or the ingredients that are being used for pastries while using the interactive tool, increasing trust and customer loyalty.

The campaign will be evaluated for a duration of two years, including quarterly and year-end reports. Reports will focus on gross-profit and financial success of the campaign dollars, particularly progress toward and succession past the break-even point and the conversion rate. The conversion analysis will indicate if customers are only engaging with the tool because it is interesting, or if it is actually making them want to buy product for the first time or more product than they have in the past.

Flying Rhino has a website established, but has never offered the convenience of purchasing product online, nonetheless allowing customers to observe visually where products are being derived from as they are ordering. This campaign has the potential to expand Flying Rhino’s reach from the small city of Toledo to the entire country and possibly: the entire world.

Apple, Inc. (2016, April 25). iPad Accessories. Retrieved from Apple: http://www.apple.com/shop/ipad/ipad-accessories

Apple, Inc. (2016, April 25). iPad Pro. Retrieved from Apple: http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-ipad/ipad-pro/12.9-inch-display-256gb-space-gray-wifi-cellular

Behrendt, G. (n.d.). About Us... Retrieved from Flying Rhino Coffee & Chocolate: http://www.flyingrhinocoffee.com/Flying_Rhino_Coffee_%26_Chocolate/About_Us.html

Behrendt, G. (n.d.). We Are Proud to be Working With The Following Companies: . Retrieved from Flying Rhino Coffee & Chocolates: http://www.flyingrhinocoffee.com/Flying_Rhino_Coffee_%26_Chocolate/Customers.html

Spiller, L., & Baier, M. (2011). Contemporary Direct and Interactive Marketing. Chicago, IL: Racom Communications.

Zaborney, M. (2014, July 03). Ralph J. Behrendt; 1951-2014: Chocolate maker was a glass artist . Retrieved from Toledo Blade: http://www.toledoblade.com/Deaths/2014/07/03/Ralph-J-Behrendt-1951-2014-Chocolate-maker-was-a-glass-artist.html