Marketing Management Case Study - Barista

Marketing Management Case Study - Barista

1. What is Barista's market offering and how is it positioned?

a. Market Offering:

Barista offered a 'chill out' experience with coffee for emerging urban youth and also created the right ambience for executives to meet over a cup of coffee. They also opened new concept stores called Barista Crème as premium cafes offering much wider range of food and beverages.

b. Current Positioning; further compare the positioning with café coffee day

Unlike Café Coffee Day that has positioned itself as coffee hubs, Barista positioned itself as fine cafes and as experiential cafes. According to research, about 46% of Barista's customers are in the 20- 35 age- group. The majority of these are students and young urban professionals. The pricing of coffee at Barista was much higher than its competitor Café Coffee Day.

2. What are the possible alternatives with regard to pricing, product mix and franchising decisions and their implications to Barista's current positioning? What are your recommendations?

Product Mix:

Alternatives: Barista should consider other products that go well with coffe for the Indian customer - this can be some pakoras , samosas, other fried products, idli, cakes and puffs etc so that the customers can enjoy coffee with various combinations. They can alo think of introducing various types of tea apart from coffee.

Implications: This approach will draw customers who want to have snacks with coffee or tea and this can help in increasing the footfalls.

Recommendation: Barista should consider the above alternatives to become more popular and to increase sales.

Pricing:

Alternatives: Instead of uniform pricing Barista should consider location based pricing of its offerings.

Implications: The purchasing power varies in different locations of India including the metros, semi-urban and rural areas. Due to this reason a premium offering from Barista will not be an attractive option for people in various parts of the country.

Recommendation: Barista should study the purchasing parity in various regions of India and accordingly it should price its products to increase popularity and sales.

Franchising:

Alternatives: Barista can increase its outlets in various parts of the country through the franchisee option.

Implications: