Caitlin Wendecker
Romulus Community Schools
Marketing Plan
1. Timeline
a. Testing product recipes for acceptability & survey with students
03/3/2015
b. Review recipes for corrections 03/2015
c. Review student survey responses 03/2015
d. Submit changes to Webtrition for review and addition of Power up
Tropical smoothie recipe 03/2015
e. Review cost profile and reimbursement guidelines with smoothie
recipes 04/2015
f. Appropriately adjust menu cycle and work schedules to accommodate
addition of new smoothies 04/2015- 05/2015
g. Advertise 04/2015- 05/2015
h. Implement 05/2015- 06/2015
i. pending popularity adjust 2015-2016 school menus to include
smoothies
2. Key Communication Objectives – provide 2 objectives you hope to achieve
through your marketing plan
a. Students will know that the recipe for the cherry fruit smoothie has
been improved
b. Students will believe nutritious foods can taste good
c. More students will choose flexitarian menu options such as the
smoothies at meal times
3. Key Messages – provide one key message for each objective you create above
a. Cherry Vanilla smoothie; new and improved!
b. Mmm Mmm Power up with a tropical smoothie!
c. Let fruits and veggies fuel you!
4. Barriers – Consumers affinity for junk foods, chips, cookies and hot breakfast
items vs. fruit and vegetable consumption.
Wendecker 1
5. Marketing Strategies – what will you do to market the product? Below are
some suggestions but feel free to think of your own. It is suggested you utilize
2 to 4 strategies:
a. Highlight on the menu
b. Public Address (PA) announcements in the school
c. Signs or posters in the cafeteria or school
d. Signs on the serving line
e. Flyers or handouts with key messages and education material
f. Direct promotion to students via assemblies or talking to them in the
lunchroom with sampling of products
6. Marketing Materials – Images of smoothies created and on testing day, on
menu, signs, and marketing messages. See appendix
7. Staffing Considerations – FSD will hang designed materials in schools in
various places (1-2 hours) and FS staff will hang signs on serving line when
smoothies are served as they do with other food signs, this will not require
additional staffing. FS staff could potentially need additional staffing for
smoothie production, however the smoothie should just substitute other
menu items being prepared that day.
Breakeven Analysis- Cherry Fruit Smoothie
You will determine the breakeven point for the recipe, where sales will equal cost of
production AT MIDDLE SCHOOL. To determine the number of complete meals you
must sell that include this new recipe to breakeven, you will need the following
variables:
Fixed Cost (FC) = Costs required for an operation to exist (for this exercise we will
just use the total labor cost for the meal period you are serving – if your director has
any other fixed costs you can include them)
Variable Cost (VC) = Costs that change in direct proportion to the volume of sales
(i.e. food cost)
Selling Price (SP) = Selling price of averaged-priced meal (if the majority of the
meals at the school are free or reduced, use the USDA reimbursement rate for a free
meal)
To find each of these variables, do the following:
Wendecker 2
FC = Ask the foodservice director for the total cost of labor at the school where you
are introducing the new product.
2 associates working school breakfast 6:45am- 8:30am 1.75 hrs
$14.53/hr x 1.25 (including fringe costs) = $18.16/hr
$18.16x 1.75hrs x 2 workers = $63.56 per day
VC = Cost out the recipe you are producing. You can do this by hand or use a
nutrition analysis program like Nutrikids or Webtrition. Determine the cost of a
complete meal containing the other required components. The meal should contain
all 5 components – meat, grain, vegetable, fruit, milk. You should get the average
portion cost for the other meal components from the director (in other words, just
cost out your recipe – the other parts of the meal can be estimated costs).
meal cost = $0.88 (recipe, 1 oz. meat alternate +1/2 cup fruit ) + $0.25 (fruit) +
$0.21 (milk) + grain.25 = $1.63
Calculating the Breakeven Point
This equation is for number of units sold – it is different than the equation in your
text which is for sales volume. This method determines how many meals must be
sold to cover the cost of production. The other equation determines the volume of
sales which must be achieved. Because this recipe is part of a unitized meal, it is
more appropriate to determine units rather than sales.
Equation:
Breakeven = FC / (SP – VC)
If FC = $63.56, SP = $1.93, and VC = $1.63
63.56 / (1.93 – 1.63) = 212~ meals need to be sold to breakeven and cover
production costs
Breakfast meals sold daily average 2800 ( 2165 free, 215 reduced)
Remember that this is assuming this is the only meal being sold during this lunch
period. There may be many other items for sale, with various food costs. However,
this provides some guidance for how many meals must be served/sold during the
lunch period in general – if your total meals for the lunch period, including the new
item meal, exceed the breakeven point, it’s likely you have covered the cost of
producing the new item. If you do not reach your breakeven point with total meals,
you can assume you most likely did not cover the cost of producing the meal.
Wendecker 3
Middle school
Head cook 6:00-1:30
Asst cook 6:00-1:30
Server 9:15- 1:30
Server 9:30-1
Server 9:30-1
Breakfast/ cashier 6:45- 8:30 * possible additional 15-30 minutes
Breakfast/ cashier 6:45- 8:30
Cashier/ salad 9:30-1:30
Cashier 10:15- 1:00
Dish/ Server 10:30- 1
= 57.25 hrs/ day
High school
Head cook 5:45- 1:30
Asst cook 5:45- 1:30
Snack cashier 9:30-1:30
Sandwich 9:15-1:#0
Cashier 9:30-1:30
Cashier 9:30-1:30
Cashier 9:30-1:30
Breakfast/vend 6:15- 10:30
Salad 7:00- 11:30 ** Possible additional 15-30 minutes
Dish/server 9:30- 1:30
Stockroom 10:30- 1:15
Packer 7:45- 10:00
Packer 7:45- 10:00
= 54.5 hours/day
Wendecker 4