A specialty grocery store, George-Mart, is celebrating its grand opening in North Bend,WA

A specialty grocery store, George-Mart, is celebrating its grand opening in North Bend,WA. Create the promotional mix for the grand opening. Consider the different types of promotional tools (e.g. personal selling, public relations, direct mail) they can use and determine which one would be the most effective. Describe the process you would initiate to develop the promotion.

When dealing with this type of situation, it might be smart to consider implementing an IMC (integrated marketing communication processes) where many different promotional tools can be implemented, containing the same message for consumers. You could create a plan where different elements of the promotional campaign can be rolled out one by one, in a manner which will build consumer interests, and get them excited to come to the store.

The first thing to consider is who is your audience, and then you can tailor your promotional mix based on this. It is a specialty grocery store, so we can say that the target audience would be affluent adults who have an impeccable taste, who like gourmet foods and wines and who are likely to pay for quality rather then quantity. They are excited by variety, and like to try new items like new olive oils, new cheeses.

Once you got this figured out, you can then begin to base your campaign on this. A common message would be nice to include in all elements of the campaign to tie everything together. Something along the lines of "For your every day specialty needs"

Before the store opens, you would need to start spreading the word out. First step would be to create a website. The url should be catchy, easy to remember and memorable - such as gourmetfoods.com. The website should be interactive, colorful, and dynamic. It should firstly feature the opening dates and the location, but it must be much more then that. You should have recipes search. People can put in an ingredient they have and recipes can be shown. There should be an educational area which teaches people about wines, cheeses, oils, spices... to make it dynamic, you can have contests where people can include their favorite recipes to win a gift certificate for example. The website should also have a coupon where people can print and bring to the grand opening to receive 25% discount and a free bottle of olive oil.

The website must be complete before stage 2 is implemented. The problem with the website is that no one will know that it exists since the store has yet to open. This now brings us to phase 2 - print ads, and direct mailing.

The store can take out print ads in local newspapers announcing the opening day and location publishing the url for the store, announcing a discount coupon is available. The print ad should run for every day for the last 2 weeks before the opening. This will direct people to the website. The benefit of actually have the website is that it will contain so much more information then a small print ad would ever be able to have. People can navigate the website on their own (and they will actually be prone to looking at the site due to the coupon and free gift), and their interests will be peeked. What company invests in creating such a wonderful, knowledgeable website before the store actually opens. The print ad will also contain our slogan.

Choosing which news paper will also be key, if North Bend only has 1 newspaper this would not be a problem, but if there are several papers, then you need to pick one where the demographics of people who read it will fit your targeted audiences. Placing it in business newspapers as well might attract a more sophisticated crowd.

If George-Mart also has the budget, they can put up Out of Home ads in bus stations, on billboards. These are quite expensive, but would have a nice impact. They could also install these ads 2 weeks before the opening. Too far in advance, and people will forget. The posters can have nice pictures of food or wine or products with the opening date and url for the website. They can be placed in areas where our target audience would be near - the business sector of town for example.

About 1 week before the launch, direct mail will be sent out to consumers. The card will also have the url for the website, the slogan, as well as opening hours and location. You do not want to send them out too far in advance, or they will be thrown away.

Finally, on the day of the launch, it should be like a party. There should be a large banner with your slogan. Every customer receives their free gift. There are free samples, taste tests... people are having fun and enjoying themselves. You also provide them with 2 pieces of paper with their free oil. The first will be a 10% coupon off of their next visit, and the second would be a coupon that they could give to their friends who were not able to make the launch.

This will go into word of mouth communication, which is powerful and very persuasive. If a person came into the store and loved it, they will not hesitate to tell their friends about it. The free present coupon would be icing on the cake. Granted some people might use the free coupon for themselves, but we are talking about an upscale richer target audience who would shop here. Even if a few people tell their friends, it is a way for the store to gain advertising at little cost to them.

Once the store is up and running, the website should be updated often, and there should never be any old content on the site. The out of home posters also need to be updated, never should an old promotion be shown in a bus stop.

So this is how you would build a promotional mix. Any other elements can also be included if they fit in with the theme, feel and concept of the mix (radio ads, tv ads if it were a national product...)