BY:

Isabelle Ding
Melanie Smith
Brad Petit
Trevor Grant
Stefan Boudreaux

Executive Summary

Founded in 2011 by Will Edwards, Kolache Kitchen is a breakfast food restaurant that is
located near LSUs campus and provides kolaches, rancheros, empanadas, and breakfast tacos. It
is currently the only restaurant in the Baton Rouge area that sells kolaches. Kolache Kitchen
utilizes a strategy that mixes low price, high-quality food and speedy service. The breakfast
items are freshly made every morning with only high-quality ingredients. This is just one of the
ways that the company separates itself from its competitors. The other advantage worth noting is
the close proximity to LSUs campus. Kolache Kitchen also has a drive-through that allows
customers even faster speed of service. Not many competitors can boast the same level of
service, cost, and quality ingredients in their value propositions.
The problem Kolache Kitchen currently faces is that it isnt bringing in enough customers
because of the lack of marketing implemented. Kolache Kitchen is currently in the introductory
stage of the business life cycle and accordingly needs to let people know that it exists. The
current customer numbers are not as high as the owner, Will Edwards, would like them to be. We
discovered that Kolache Kitchen has a vague understanding of who exactly are its target
customers and therefore cannot implement a successful marketing plan without first
understanding of its customers. This explains why Kolache Kitchen suffers from such low
awareness. Kolache Kitchen is unable to market successfully because it has not conducted an
analysis of who its customers are, and who they should be. Kolache Kitchen is located on one of
the busiest streets near LSU, yet many of the students surveyed or involved in the focus groups
had not heard of it. This lack of customer awareness leads us into our proposed solutions for
Kolache Kitchen.
Kolache Kitchens competitive advantages are its unique menu items and high-quality
ingredients at low prices. Thus, we believe the solution is to introduce a marketing campaign
focused on increasing customer awareness through traditional advertising because our secondary
research claims that is what will secure us the greatest possible reach. Through our qualitative
and quantitative research efforts, we found that it is not a problem to get people to enjoy Kolache
Kitchen, but getting customers to discover it is another story. Therefore, our solution is focused
mostly on communicating the convenience and superiority of dining at Kolache Kitchen
compared to dining at its competitors restaurants.
We believe these problems should be addressed and resolved as soon as possible because
it is imperative to Kolache Kitchens long-term success as a veritable breakfast food restaurant in
Baton Rouge. Kolache Kitchen should invest in the improved marketing strategy for two
reasons. The increase in awareness will lead to greater brand recognition and customer
loyalty. This will in turn drive higher profits and greater long-term success that will continue on
into the growth and maturity stages of the businesss life cycle.

Company
Kolache Kitchen is a local restaurant located at 4245 Nicholson Drive, Baton Rouge LA,
70808. A map of the surrounding area and the full menu can be found at www.
KolacheKitchenBR.com. According to their profit and loss statement, Kolache Kitchen grossed
just over $900,000 in sales from January 12, 2013, the day it opened, to December 31, 2013.
This year it reported $307,694.23 in sales on its income statement as of July. The Kolache
Kitchen employs a total of approximately 20 people, with a mix of some standard part-time
workers, and some employed on contract for special events. Will Edwards, the owner of
Kolache Kitchen, is in close professional contact with team member Isabelle Ding, and has made
himself available to the group via email and personal meetings. Kolache Kitchen is just over one
and one half years old, and will be celebrating its two-year anniversary on January 12, 2015. The
majority of the firms sales are food sales at the physical location, either from the drive-through
or its walk-in customers. Mr. Edwards currently handles the Kolache Kitchens marketing. While
the restaurant has a presence on social media, it is not utilizing this tool to its full potential. They
rely heavily on word of mouth as their main marketing medium. They are also featured in local
Baton Rouge publication, 225 Magazine. They have a fully functional attractive website used
primarily for directing traffic to the location. However, the website is not linked to Google
Analytics or any other analytical tool at the moment. While Kolache Kitchen has a vague
understanding of its customers, it has a strong company culture and is conscious of the area's
fast-food market saturation.
Competitors
The market analysis of Kolache Kitchen competitors shows that our current customers

are LSU students who commute from Nicholson and Burbank between the ages of 18-32.The
current customers for breakfast and lunch hours are LSU students and faculty who are either
commuting to or from campus
Our potential customers are LSU students and students/faculty and non-LSU affiliated
consumers in the area that are unaware of Kolache Kitchen. These potential customers are
between the ages of 18-32 and commute from the downtown area and Highland. Our survey
determined the reason they arent current customers is because they do not utilize Nicholson
Drive or Burbank and had not been made aware of the restaurant.
Current competitors of the Kolache Kitchen are local breakfast oriented restaurants and
fast food restaurants. Our top three current competitors for morning restaurant options include
eating at home, McDonalds, and CCs. Our research also concluded that our top three late night
competitors include Pluckers, Taco Bell, and Hungry Howies. Since the Kolache Kitchen
focuses on fast breakfast food many of the local restaurants are not in direct competition with
them. Furthermore, since their hours are either in the morning, and/or late at night most dinner
oriented restaurants do not compete heavily with this firm. The most direct competitors in the
area for breakfast are Mr. Ronnies, Mary Lees, Starbucks, and CCs Coffee House. The
competitors during the late night hours are Rotolos, Plucker's, and Mellow Mushroom. Fast
food is highly competitive during all of Kolache Kitchens hours. Potential competitors include
Nacho Mamma food truck, Alkasha or any place that may extend their hours to either breakfast
or late.
Over the years, the fast food industry consumers have become increasingly aware of the
importance of a healthier lifestyle and the risks associated with fatty-foods. This has negatively
impacted many of the firms within the industry as this trend continues to affect the consumers

buying process. Historically, small firms spend on average between 2.5% and 4% of their annual
sales on marketing and advertising. The Kolache Kitchen intends on spending just below 3% of
its net sales in 2013 on advertisement.
The Kolache Kitchen is unique in that it is the only local restaurant that serves authentic
kolaches. Like many other restaurants, the Kolache Kitchen is located on a highly trafficked
road, has a drive-through, fast service, variety, and inside seating. Some key things that
differentiate the firm from its competitors are its unique menu items, relatively inexpensive price
for such high-quality food, and fresh ingredients. Due to the location of the firm the sales depend
on LSU classes being in session.
Our market positioning strategy is to market high-quality, freshly baked breakfast items.
According to Chiavaralle and Schenk, market positioning is based on both Attraction: Providing
values and attributes that customers genuinely want or need and Distinction: providing values
and attributes that customers can receive only when they buy your product. Kolache
Kitchens offering in its competitive landscape differentiates itself by having the trifecta of
convenience, price and high-quality.
Kolache Kitchens points-of-parity are its convenience and speed of service and its
points-of-differentiation against their competitors are their high-quality, freshly baked
goods. Their unique selling point is the combination of speed of service and high-quality,
freshly baked goods. Our competition focuses on either high-quality ingredients or a rapid speed
of service and convenience, but cannot maintain both aspects well.
Customers
Kolache Kitchens current buyers are LSU students, between the ages of 18 and 32, who
commute to campus on Nicholson and Burbank Dr. While our focus groups and survey reached

many demographics, we found that younger people, who attend LSU, were most likely to
frequent Kolache Kitchen. We believe that this is due to the nature of Kolache Kitchen, as a
quick service restaurant as opposed to one that focuses on the dining experience. Kolache
Kitchen is, therefore, more likely to appeal to consumers who find the convenience in the
Kolache Kitchens location. This need for convenience is amplified when taken into
consideration the breakfast orientation of Kolache Kitchens products and their unique hours of
operation.

According to our observations and our interview of their employees, the number of
customers increases and decreases dramatically between school days, non-school days, and LSU
home game days. One subset of the current customers is the tailgating customers who typically
order large portions to take to tailgates. As for their late night operating hours between 10:30
P.M. and 3 A.M., their current customers are college students who are traveling home from
social activities, including large numbers migrating from the neighboring local bars. Kolache
Kitchen, in fact, sees a highly positive correlation in sales with the amount of people visiting
Tigerland during their late night hours, according to their staff. Our secondary research shows
that consumers are more likely to eat the breakfast that saves them the most time. This is likely
because morning routines are much more time sensitive than those for lunch or dinner. To
further support this trend we found that 78% of our survey respondents who claimed to purchase
from Kolache Kitchen more than once each month were LSU students who used Nicholson or
Burbank on their commutes to LSU campus. During our focus group of young professionals we
learned that while many of them were aware of Kolache Kitchen and have eaten there before, a
large number of them do not eat at there because it is not nearby their place of work.

Through our research, we have found that one of the largest factors deciding Kolache
Kitchens buyers was proximity to the restaurant. It is because of this that we believe that the
buyers of Kolache Kitchen can be segmented as follows: LSU students who commute using
Nicholson and Burbank, people who live within a three mile radius of Kolache Kitchen, LSU
students and faculty purchasing lunch while staying near campus, and people attending social
activities nearby during the late night hours. The first segment, commuters, are currently the
most likely to purchase from Kolache Kitchen, however our survey indicated that a large number
of Burbank Dr. users still do not know about Kolache Kitchen. According to ESRI, the second
segment, those who live nearby, are mostly students with some young professionals and small
families. This segment is likely to purchase from Kolache Kitchen as well, but are hindered by
lack of motivation to go to Kolache Kitchen opposed to more mundane choices such as
McDonalds. The third segment, LSU students and faculty on campus, is largely unaware of
Kolache Kitchen. The final segment, late night eaters are also affected by lack of awareness, as
well as the constant allure of other nearby options.
The individual purchasing breakfast is both the influencer and the buyer in this process.
The decision-making process for buyers during the day typically takes place in the morning,
shortly before leaving home for the day. If breakfast is not eaten at the home, and lunch is not
made for the day, the individual will consider purchasing breakfast on the way to school or work.
This decision is influenced by the need for a fast, relatively cheap, filling meal within the
boundaries of the normal path that the person takes. The decision to stop at a particular place is
either made due to habit, where the person normally stops, awareness of a particular restaurant or
when they see a suitable restaurant nearby. Late night buyers have much the same decision
making process, however it starts when they become hungry at social activities, and involves

either purchasing food nearby and returning to what they were doing, or purchasing food on the
way back to their homes.
The non-buyers of Kolache Kitchen are people who do not attend LSU, and do not live or
work nearby the location of Kolache Kitchen. These people are not buying from Kolache
Kitchen because they seek convenience in their food choices and Kolache Kitchen does not meet
this need.
These consumers are typically buying from restaurants closer to their homes, works, or
commutes. They are both the influencers and the buyers, and have the same decision-making
process as the buyers of Kolache Kitchen.
According to the marketing textbook, a successful marketer understands the target
markets wants, needs and gets. Needs are basic human requirements like water, shelter and food.
We believe the target customers needs are food that satisfies their hunger during breakfast time.
Based on our research, we discovered that people need food that will satiate their hunger until
lunchtime. Needs become wants when they are directed to specific objects that might satisfy
that need (Kotler & Keller, page 10-11). The basic difference between customers wants and
their needs is desire. Customers for this market want relatively inexpensive food that is a
healthier option and is also a convenient location on their daily commute to work or school.
Customers in the breakfast food market want products that are easy to eat while on the go, but
taste as if they could be made at home. Kolache Kitchen offers customers the ability to resolve
this difference by offering a healthy breakfast food at a reasonable price in a feasible location for
commuters. Based on our research, the customers get high-quality food

Our value proposition is that Kolache Kitchens high-quality staff provides freshly baked
on-the-go breakfast that fulfills your early morning and late night cravings at a convenient
location.
Marketing Goal
Using our research findings that revealed who our current and potential customers are, we
have decided to focus our efforts upon achieving the goal of increasing awareness. Our survey
and focus groups showed us that the majority of those who knew about Kolache Kitchen would
eat there once a month or more. Clearly it is not a matter of getting customers to like the
products, it is an issue of making people aware of its existence. Kolache Kitchen has highquality, fresh products that they need to show off in order to consistently be included within the
consideration set of the consumer. The freshness of their ingredients is a point of differentiation
that gives Kolache Kitchen a competitive advantage over their competitors. We believe that an
increase in awareness will lead to an increase in daily traffic leading to an overall increase in
sales.
Marketing Mix Mediums
Product
Kolache Kitchen currently offers a wide variety of different products. Their main
product categories include kolaches, rancheros, breakfast tacos, and empanadas. Most of these
products are customized even further including the customers choice of egg, bacon, sausage,
potato, cheese, or even chorizo, catering to many different consumer tastes and preferences.
They make each item daily, using fresh ingredients, which distinguishes their products from the
competitions and in turn, strengthens their value proposition. This is precisely why Kolache
Kitchen should focus its marketing upon increasing awareness. Many competitors within the

area are able to offer fast food, but cannot match the high-quality of Kolache Kitchens products.
Once individuals are made aware of Kolache Kitchens product offerings, they are more likely to
visit the store and make a purchase.

Price
Kolache Kitchen currently has an average price per item of $3.00. Our survey
respondents indicated that the average spent per customer for breakfast was $4.48 and the
average spent per customer for late night meals was $6.70. From this, we conclude that Kolache
Kitchen's current price is optimal because it is under the average spent per customer yet retains a
strong profit margin. While we discussed raising the price, we believe that Kolache Kitchen
should maintain its current price point because we concluded through a survey and focus studies
that the majority of their optimal target market is made up of price-sensitive customers. With a
high average profit margin of 67%, Kolache Kitchen is currently making about $2.00 per item
sold. This high-profit margin is necessary as Kolache Kitchen is in its introductory stage and
must be able to offset the high startup costs incurred for a new business. Also, the current price
gives Kolache Kitchen the ability to lower its prices as it moves forward into the growth stage.
Place
Kolache Kitchen is located in a premium spot to reach its optimal target market. Kolache
Kitchen is within walking distance of LSUs campus and it is situated on one of the main traffic
arteries to LSUs largest commuter parking lots. This gives Kolache Kitchen the power to
become a part of the LSU commuters routines because the convenient location can appeal to
hungry students and faculty during their daily commute. Kolache Kitchen is currently in an area
that is inundated with student housing, while also being in close proximity to several large

residential neighborhoods including College Town and River Bend. This proximity to potential
customers is crucial because convenience was rated very highly as a factor influencing the
customers decision to buy. Additionally, Kolache Kitchen is located right next to McDonalds.
This is significant because before deciding to open a new restaurant, McDonalds spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars on market research to find a location that will yield the highest
revenues. Kolache Kitchen has been able to take advantage of this because the restaurant is so
close to McDonalds. Lastly, Kolache Kitchens drive-through accessibility gives them the
ability to compete with the major fast-food franchises that are within the immediate area. Our
focus groups agreed that the drive-through of Kolache Kitchen was necessary point-of-parity that
kept them within the consideration set of current buyers.
Promotion
In order to accomplish our marketing goal of increasing awareness of Kolache Kitchen,
we have decided to use a mix of traditional advertising, online advertising, a rewards program, as
well as a unique LSU hosted event, Tiger Bites.
Recommendation (1): Traditional advertising
Traditional advertising is absolutely necessary as our main goal is to increase awareness,
and traditional advertising is able to reach more consumers than other forms of advertising. Our
first traditional advertising method is Billboards. According to our survey, 53% of our survey
respondents said they knew about Kolache Kitchen because they saw the sign when driving past
Nicholson. Also, according to lamar.com, 80 of out of home advertising reaches 80% of
consumers on an average day, we believe that billboards are an efficient way to increase
awareness. We recommend placing billboards during the month of September and February on
Lee Drive and Stanford Ave. Our current customers are LSU students and faculty who drive pass

Kolache Kitchen. The potential customers that we are not reaching are those who do not pass by
Kolache Kitchen on the way to school or work yet will be within a close distance to Kolache
Kitchen. We know from our focus groups that students tend to move during semester breaks. Our
goal is to generate awareness at the beginning of the semester and have the customer take
Kolache Kitchen into consideration when making decisions about breakfast or lunch as they
establish their routine. The pros of billboards are their eye-catching nature; therefore, it is a good
way to increase awareness. The cons associated with using this style of traditional advertising are
paying for off-peak hours and that passers-by only have a few seconds to look at it.
Our second recommendation for traditional advertising method is printing ads in LSU
Reveille. Our target customers are LSU students, thus advertising through LSU Reveille can help
Kolache Kitchen directly reach their target customer base. According to our survey, LSU
Reveille is the third most effective way for LSU students to find out about new restaurants. We
will combine print ad with price promotion and insert coupons in the Reveille. This will give the
customers incentives to go to Kolache Kitchen. The advantages of print ads are that they allow
Kolache Kitchen to provide detailed product information and the ability to directly reach their
target customer at a low cost. The disadvantages of print ads are their short lifespan, poor
production quality, and that the ad may get lost in the clutter. While traditional advertising
allows for a wide reach, the largest downfall to all of these mediums is their passiveness.
Recommendation (2): Online Advertising
Social media is becoming a large and important part of the students daily life. A study
done by Baylor University found that college students spend at least 15% of their online time on
social media. According to our survey, 77% of our survey respondents who have heard about
Kolache Kitchen report that it was through word of mouth and 91% report that they often found

out about new restaurants through friends and/or social media. Word of mouth is one of the most
effective ways of marketing (Whitler, 2014) According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe
recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. We learned in the
online advertising lecture that social media is the digital form of word of mouth. Therefore, we
decided to run a social media campaign entitled, Kolache Kitchen Selfie Sunday. Participants
will post a picture of themselves with a Kolache Kitchen product on their social media page and
tag Kolache Kitchen or use the #Kolachekitchen before the end of each month. Kolache Kitchen
will pick the best selfie of each month and award the winner two Kolaches per week for a whole
year. The total cost of this promotion is $815 per year, due to the relatively low cost to make
kolache. The success of this campaign can be easily measured by determining how many people
have used the hashtag, the number of followers before and after the campaign, and the number of
mentions on social media during the length of the campaign. These measures will determine if
this campaign has successfully increased Kolache Kitchens awareness. The strengths of social
media are its ability to receive authentic customer endorsements and the relatively low cost of
the advertising medium. Social media can, however, empower negative feedback as every
customer on social media has a strong voice including those with negative opinions.
Recommendation (3)
Our third recommendation is to have Kolache Kitchen invest in a rewards program. We
made this recommendation because 46% of our survey respondents say that rewards programs
would drive them to visit Kolache Kitchen more often. Specifically, we recommend that Kolache
Kitchen implement a cloud-base rewards program through belly.com. We decided to use a digital
platform instead of using traditional punch cards because belly.com will also allow Kolache
Kitchen to track customer preferences and provide insightful data to the business while

stimulating the interest of repeat and new customers. Furthermore, the main drawback of
belly.com is listed on their website as the need to purchase iPads to make the reward cards
function, Kolache Kitchen already uses iPads as their primary mode of charging credit cards. The
goal is to combine the loyalty program and price promotions to not only generate more
awareness, but also to provide the customers with an incentive to dine at Kolache Kitchen more
frequently. This program will allow Kolache Kitchen to have access to the data and to better
target their customers through online advertising and traditional advertising. Additionally, it is
fairly easy to measure the effects and reach of this effort. However, while price promotions may
be effective in the short-term they are not beneficial in the long-term unless they increase
customer loyalty.
Recommendation (4)
Kolache Kitchen is in close proximity to LSU and is currently on the Approved LSU
Vendor list. Therefore, we recommend that Kolache Kitchen attend LSU hosted campus eventsspecifically, Tiger Bites. According to LSU, of the 47% of students that received product
samples, 65% purchased the product. Our research has shown that people like the food at
Kolache Kitchen. Thus, the problem is not retaining customers, it is gaining new customers.
Attending this event will help Kolache Kitchen gain exposure on LSUs campus and market
directly to their target customers. It is difficult to measure the return on investment for this
particular method, but there are a few ways to see its reach. As samples are supposed to be one
per person, Kolache Kitchen can estimate how many people have tried its food at the event, by
counting how many samples they have given out. Furthermore, Kolache Kitchen can see how
long it takes them to run out of food compared with the other vendors to gauge customers
interest in their product.

Budget:
Based off each recommendation our budget came out to a total of $29,400. The typical
marketing mix of a firm this size in the restaurant industry is around 2-3% of total sales revenue
(Industry report). Our sales revenue is over $900,000 so we were allocated a little fewer than
three percent of total sales revenue. The billboards being placed on Lee and Stanford will cost
around $16,000 (lamar.com). One digital billboard that will be located on Stanford for four
weeks will cost $5,300 (larmar.com). The Print Billboard on Lee that will also run for four
weeks will cost $10,700 (larmar.com). For the Social media promotion of Selfie Sunday our
marketing team came up with the average Kolache cost of $1.95 with a profit margin of 67%
costing $.60 to make each Kolache. We then calculated the total cost to be around $3,130 if
Kolache Kitchen gave out free Kolaches two times a week for the year.
The rewards program Belly and Kolache Kitchen participating in Tiger Bites will cost
$2,700 for the whole year. The Belly reward programs main cost would be the monthly fee of
$150. These costs could fluctuate depending on the features Kolache wants to add or remove to
the rewards program. Tiger Bites will cost Kolache $700; $350 for registration fees, $300 for
food, and $50 for labor. To calculate the cost for the amount food Kolache brings, we used the
same method that we used for calculating the cost of Kolaches being given away to social media
winners. For the labor fees, we used the amount of money the employees get paid an hour which
was $7.50 and multiplied it by three for two days for a total of $45.
Measure and Evaluate
We will measure the success of our marketing mix plan by tracking the number of
mentions/followers within different social media platforms and the increase in the number
of transactions per day. We want social media followers to increase by 5000, number of

rewards program enrollment of 600 after six months and an increase of 10 customers a
day. We will also compare sales revenue after implementation with the revenue before the
marketing campaign. An increase in overall sales revenue of 10 percent will be the
precedent of success for the marketing campaign. Kolache Kitchen could measure the
% !!!"#$ !" !"#$!

responsiveness of consumers to advertising expenditures by this formula: % !!!"#$ !" !" !"#$%&$'
What is success?

Success for the marketing mix plan is to increase brand awareness, name

recognition to Kolache Kitchen, and give the target customers more incentives to dine at
Kolache Kitchen. Based on the non buyers and buyers of Kolache Kitchen we know they
value speed of service during breakfast which the competitors (Taco Bell, McDonalds, and
chain Coffee shops) around Kolache Kitchen offer. What our competitors do not offer is
Kolache Kitchens quality ingredients baked into each item they offer. After the marketing
campaign, we want Kolache Kitchen to be a household name for breakfast places in Baton
Rouge. Laid out in Kolaches business model Will Edwards defined his goal for Kolache
Kitchen, which was to increase brand awareness and expand Kolache to different locations
in Baton Rouge. If our marketing campaign is successful this could lead to an increase in
sales and help Will achieve his goals.

Works Cited
Chiaravalle, Bill, and Barbara Fendlay Schenck. "How to Determine Your Business's Market
Position." - For Dummies. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
Whitler, Kimberly A. "Why Word Of Mouth Marketing Is The Most Important Social Media."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 July 2014. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.