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 1143000314325Michaeline StithTea Fusion Cafe is a restaurant and cafe in the University area of Charlotte, North Carolina located at 440 E McCullough Dr #116, Charlotte, NC 28262. Tea Fusion Cafe offers bubble tea, bahn mi sandwiches, fruity mason jar drinks, shaved ice cream, mangonadas, baked goods, and more. They are open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Co-owners Annie Luong and Jimmy Cao opened Tea Fusion Cafe in July 2016 and have been met with very good reviews on online platforms. According to Annie Luong, the goal for opening Tea Fusion was to provide Charlotte with an alternative to the predictable coffee scene. My suggested mission statement for Tea Fusion Cafe is “Tea Fusion strives to provide Charlotte with an alternative to the predictable coffee scene, including globally inspired fare that is inspired by adventurous Charlotteans who like to try new things” Because of the organization chart of the company which only has a few employees below the co-owners, marketing is handled by the co-owners themselves and is considered a secondary effort on top of all their other responsibilities. This is understandable given the company's start-up position, but in order to grow their customer base, Tea Fusion needs to put more into their marketing. Tea Fusion is a very young start-up in Charlotte’s restaurant industry. They currently rely primarily on word-of-mouth advertising, and while this has been working for them so far, there is so much more they could be doing with their marketing efforts that could help Tea Fusion bring in more customers. Their current promotions include a 10% discount on Wednesdays to students and staff of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte if the customer shows a school ID at the time of purchase. They also sponsored Miss Vietnam of the Carolinas in 2017. They do not have a website, but they have glowing reviews on Facebook, Yelp and Google with scores of 4.9/5, 5/5 and 4.9/5 respectively. They have an Instagram account that features their own original content, but they don’t seem to be using any of their social media very frequently. Tea Fusion Cafe was recently featured in a Charlotte Agenda article written by Katie Levans Loveluck on May 31, 2017. The goal of this marketing campaign is to find more target customers for Tea Fusion. If you are someone who is willing to try new things like the unique products offered at Tea Fusion Cafe, it is easy to get carried away and spend money at the restaurant, so the goal should not be to get people to spend more per transaction or to spend more on certain products. This would not be the best use of their time. However, more customers are beneficial to any company especially a young start-up restaurant like this one. Tea Fusion Cafe has a uniqueness in product that is unmatched by the current cafe options in Charlotte. Coffee is the biggest cafe contender, and even if you focus on bubble tea restaurants or places that offer bubble tea, Tea Fusion Cafe has so many products that are rare in Charlotte such as Taiwanese shaved ice cream, Vietnamese iced coffee, mangonadas and bahn mi sandwiches. Their differentiation should be a heavy focus of this campaign, as well as the idea that people who want to go to Tea Fusion want to have the opportunity to try new things. Tea Fusion Cafe is also notable for their fresh ingredients, but this should not be a focus of their campaign. In the current market, it is expected that restaurants have fresh and delicious ingredients so even though this is another way that Tea Fusion stands out, it does not need to be mentioned because it is expected. Even though Tea Fusion hasn’t been open for very long, it is obvious that they enjoy adding new options to their menu. They added more options only six months after opening and seem to be constantly looking for ways to expand their offerings further. As their business grows, they can continue to add more products and fine tune the products that work best for them and their target market. Tea Fusion can also offer seasonal or limited edition beverages and food to add exclusivity and more options to their menu throughout the year. This would also help because they would not need to have the ingredients for these seasonal products on hand at all times which would help with storage. Tea Fusion Cafe’s current target market appears to be Asian millennials and families, based on their current marketing efforts as well as the ethnography from my trips there. For example, on a recent visit there were 17 people including myself and my partner, and of those all were either millennials or a family. On one hand, Tea Fusion Cafe has a definitive Asian influence and that should be celebrated, but their target market does not have to be limited to people who are familiar with this cultural food. Millennials, particularly college students, are more likely to delight in trying new things than Gen Xers or Baby Boomers, and because of the unique menu, millennials will be a focus of this marketing campaign. Families should also be targeted. Families have limited options when it comes to food and drinks at cafes in Charlotte. Most cafes are dominated by coffee which is high in caffeine and not good for children to drink, and many of the cafe options in Charlotte are big chains like Starbucks or Caribou Coffee. Tea Fusion Cafe provides many different fun, exciting options for parents and their children without the temptation of caffeine. The bright colors of the beverages appeal to both children and millennials, and Tea Fusion offers snack foods like Popcorn Shrimp perfect for children who are picky eaters. Both of these groups are looking for unique experiences, and the open, welcoming space of Tea Fusion Cafe provides a memorable experience that will bring people back over and over again. There are many reasons why this marketing campaign for Tea Fusion Cafe will be compelling and give the target market a reason to visit and purchase at Tea Fusion Cafe. For one thing, Tea Fusion is about having experiences which is considered highly desirable by their target market. This marketing campaign is founded by an experience for people who want to try new things and be perceived as adventurous. They want to eat something healthy or different. They want to treat themselves. They want to feel cool by trying something new. They want to have a place to go eat with their friends in a chill atmosphere. Words that should be associated with Tea Fusion Cafe are open, adventurous, and worldly. There should also be a desire for freshness and authenticity. The people who go to Tea Fusion Cafe want to be immersed in an experience. The Tea Fusion Cafe wants the community to perceive them as a very fresh and open space for the community and as a place for people of different life experiences to come together in one place. I am not going to be redesigning the logo because the current logo is a perfect fit for Tea Fusion. The current logo features a bright green colors in a script like text that hints at the freshness of the product, the authenticity of the global fare, and the bright fun adventurous nature of Tea Fusion Cafe. While the address is fine for now because Tea Fusion Cafe is such a new business, two years down the line I would like to replace this with a tagline that says “What’s stopping you?”Our main goal for Tea Fusion Cafe is to undergo a major brand awareness campaign that establishes who Tea Fusion Cafe is and their image. This restaurant is a still a new business, and many people do not even know that they exist in Charlotte. The hardest part of a new business is always at the beginning, so starting in their second year will be the perfect time to initiate this campaign. Because of this need to increase brand awareness, a massive PR campaign is necessary. Tea Fusion Cafe needs to immediately launch their PR campaign to take place over the next year of their business so that in the coming years they can increase their marketing to include ads on radio, billboards, and local television. Tea Fusion Cafe needs to come up with a list of media contacts in local television, radio, and publications. They could reach out to Katie Levans Loveluck who wrote the article in Charlotte Agenda and ask her if she has any additional contacts who might like to feature their restaurant. Tea Fusion Cafe should seek out publication in Charlotte Five and the Charlotte Observer, being interviewed for local interviews on radio stations and providing prizes for radio talk show giveaways. They should also seek out publications in Charlotte Creative Loafing or Charlotte Parent. As a new business, it is essential that that they use the PR route instead of paying for any advertising on local media. A great way to accomplish this is to offer physical goods instead of paying for coverage. They can offer free meals to media contacts who check out their restaurant or coupons for the media. In order to convince them however, Tea Fusion Cafe will probably need to contract a public relations contact for this so that they have an expert on their team, or their marketing professional needs to have a heavy background in public relations. They should also seek out local bloggers and content creators who are mini-influencers on websites like Instagram and Youtube and local to the Charlotte area. Tea Fusion Cafe can offer them a free meal for a review of their experience and images of their product. Tea Fusion Cafe needs to make a professional website for themselves. The website needs to feature their menu online so that people can be aware of the type of food available at the cafe before they go there. The website can also feature a Contact page, an About Us page, a link to any social media links. They can also have a specific press page where they feature a press release and publications, appearances, and events. The website should also feature a blog that talks about the food featured at Tea Fusion. Posts might include “What is a ‘popping pearl?”, “The History of the Bahn Mi”, “Crazy Food from Around the World” and other articles that help people understand the exotic foods offered at the cafe, interesting facts about them, and their history. This will offer more content for Tea Fusion to promote on their various channels, and it will also educate people who might consider attending Tea Fusion, but aren’t as adventurous as their typical customer. Search engine optimization should be a significant part of this campaign, and even though ideally they would be able to rank for “Cafe Charlotte” this might be too high. It might be easier for them to rank in Google for something like “Bubble Tea Cafe Charlotte” or other options. They will need to experiment to figure out what works for them and what they can rank for without having to pay too much in Google Ads, and adding a blog feature to their website will help with their SEO ranking too.. Tea Fusion’s website should also feature a landing page that enables visitors to sign up for a Tea Fusion Cafe email mailing list. Email mailing lists should be sent out once a month, and they should include one of the blog posts, links to publications and appearances, as well as discussing events that Tea Fusion Cafe is either hosting in their location or events that Tea Fusion is participating in. Speaking of events, Tea Fusion needs to make event marketing one of the most important aspects of this campaign. Tea Fusion needs to have a weekly event schedule. Their weekly event schedule should feature open mic nights and live music, sampling days for Tea Fusion to try out new products and let customers try something they might not normally purchase, as well as continuing with the Wednesday discounts for people affiliated with UNCC. They should also get involved in the Charlotte community by participating in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte International Festival and promoting healthy living and walks in the surrounding areas. Tea Fusion needs to be seen as a community space where people can come together, and these events will help Charlotteans perceive the cafe in this way. If Tea Fusion is able to make their restaurant more of a recreational space on some days, this will encourage people to stay longer and buy more during their visit. It will also be a good excuse for people to invite their friends to come to the event, resulting in more customers at the cafe. Tea Fusion should take pictures at all these events and encourage people to share their memories of these moments on social media. The cafe should also introduce a loyalty program with a punchcard that gives people the opportunity to get a free drink after they have bought ten drinks. If not done via a punchcard, it would be really beneficial if this was set up similar to how Jersey Mike’s does their reward points via a phone signup and phone code. If they did it with a mobile phone signup, they could also send out reminders to customers when they were near the Tea Fusion cafe location and periodically as a reminder to how many more drinks they need until they get a free drink. Finally, Tea Fusion Cafe should start a social media marketing campaign. Using their events and website blog for a good portion of their Facebook and Twitter content, Tea Fusion should use social media zones like publishing, community engagement, and entertainment to communicate with its customers. Some engaging customer questions for Facebook might include “What other beverages or products would you like to see?” and “What is your favorite flavor bubble tea”. It is clear from their reviews that people are inspired already to interact with Tea Fusion, so they need to use that to their advantage to get their engagement up. Twitter is best for interacting with customers and talking to people in the community because so much conversation happens on Twitter. LinkedIn and Pinterest should not be used by these companies at all because their business is not B2B or crafty related. Instagram, however, provides a fantastic opportunity. The beverages and foods offered at Tea Fusion Cafe are very “photo-worthy”, and this should be promoted on Instagram. While Tea Fusion Cafe has an Instagram account, they have just been using it for some of their own photos. While they can post some of their own content like graphic images for the blog posts and event photos, the best course of action is to get the community on board and have them create the content for you. Tea Fusion Cafe should host a monthly Instagram contest. Each month for one week, Tea Fusion invites customers to share photos of a certain Tea Fusion Cafe product (ie. one month bubble tea, next month shaved ice cream, etc) with a new hastag each month. In order to win, you must follow Tea Fusion Cafe on Instagram. The winner gets a $5 gift card to Tea Fusion Cafe, but they use all of the entries as the Tea Fusion Cafe Instagram content for the month. If Tea Fusion Cafe follows this advice with their branding campaign, then they can start moving into a campaign of just brand reminders and being a part of the Charlotte community, but they must take these first steps before they are ready for that. Resources Fusion Cafe Google Reviews (came up with Google Search) ................
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