Table of Contents

I. Introduction…

A. Description of Business…………………………………………………………. 1

B. Description of Community…………………………………………………….… 2

C. Target Market…………………………………………………………………..… 3

II. Analysis of Marketing Components…

A. SWOT Analysis of Current Sales Promotional Activities……………………….. 4

B. SWOT Analysis of Current Advertising Activities……………………………… 6

C. SWOT Analysis of Current Customer Loyalty Programs……………………….. 8

D. SWOT Analysis of Current Product and Service Management…….…..………. 10

III. Proposed Strategic Plan…

A. Proposed Marketing Plan……………………………..………………………… 13

B. Proposed Activities,Timeline, and Budget……………….…………………….. 14

References...…………………………………………………………………………………….. 16

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I. Introduction

A. Business Description:

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt opened its first store location in a suburban neighborhood of

Los Angeles, California in May of 2007. The first store was opened by a husband and wife,

Danna and Adam, with a common love for frozen yogurts. Their sweet tooths inspired them to

create a yogurt store where all people can feel welcome to enjoy themselves. Menchie’s offers

and unique fun-filled environment and an advanced selection of yogurt flavors and toppings.

Their first store was so well received by the surrounding community, more locations were

demanded. At that time, they realized they needed to find a business leader to franchise

Menchie’s, and that is where Elie Balas joined the team.

Menchie’s strives to create an

overwhelming presence of

happiness and positivity, going

all they way of creating a

mission statement of “We Make

You Smile”. Menchie’s and the

other store mascot characters

help deliver the products and experience that would make anyone happy. Menchie’s vision

statement is “to make the Menchie's experience available to every guest all over the world as a

legacy for generations to come” and they do that by serving high quality frozen yogurt. In 2010,

Menchie's was awarded as the #1 fastest growing food franchise in the United States and till this

day holds the prestigious status of the largest self-serve frozen yogurt franchise in the world.

Menchie’s today has 540 locations open across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Trinidad

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& Tobago, England, France, South Africa, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates,

Qatar, India, China, Japan, and Australia (History, 2016).

B. Community Description ( Demographics, Geographics, Economic/Socioeconomic)

Demographics:

Menchie’s prides itself in being the new face of frozen desserts. Their target is 10-25 year

old middle to upper class Americans. They

are great at appealing to the new generation,

millennials are getting older and creating

families. Menchie’s is trying to create an

environment for the new generation of

families. For the kids, they created characters

that the kids love and adore. These characters

bring the attention of the children and in turn bring the parents in. Menchie’s also cares about

the “other” people, they have kosher yogurt to bring in people of other backgrounds in life.

Having kosher yogurt means that they are able to

bring in a wide range of people with their healthy and

wide options.

Geographics:

Menchie’s is a worldwide company with locations

in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and even Saudi

Arabia with all of those wide

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spread locations they have more focus and locations on North American and warmer areas. The

states with the most locations are California, Washington, Florida, Texas, and Georgia, in that

order. They are targeting warmer and generally more progressive areas. Menchie’s has a

location in Altoona, Iowa. In Altoona, Menchie’s is located in a business duplex on the corner

8th st. SW and 34th Ave. SW. It is a popular part of town with many business like fast-food

restaurants and big shopping supercenters like Walmart and Target. It is just off a very used

street and around popular businesses.

Economic/Socioeconomic:

Menchie’s has locations all around the country and the world. Most of the stores in the

United States are in states with high unemployment, even with that they are still in high to

middle income areas. In these areas the life expectancy on

average is between 77-80 in age. The safety in the area is

comfortable and safe, they have medium to almost high

crime rates. Menchie’s in Altoona is surrounded by middle

class families and median wealth businesses. The crime rate

in the area is low to moderate most of the time. It is a family

friendly environment for people to enjoy.

C. Overview of the Business or Organization’s Target Market

The primary target market for Menchie’s pertains to people aged 10 to 25 years of age

and from middle to upper class families. Menchie’s has created a fun and family friendly

environment to make the customers feel more comfortable when they come into the stores.

Menchie’s has created a line of animated characters that represent them and appeal to their

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younger target market. At the end of every purchase, stickers, tattoos, and figurines are given out

to children which helps convince the parents to come in. Menchie’s appeals to their older target

market by having student discounts.

II. Analysis of Marketing Concepts

A. SWOT Analysis of Sales Promotions

Strengths: ● Menchie’s Smile card ● Students get some $ off ● Wacky Wednesday

Weakness: ● Don't promote anything ● $5 Fill up ● In general losing money in advertising

Opportunity: ● Coupons in parades ● $5 Fill up ● More promotions for bringing people

in

Threats: ● Don't promote anything ● Does not bring in amount of people to

even break even ● Other companies have more strategic

promotions.

Strengths- The strengths of Menchie’s Sales Promotions is that they are great. The promotions

mentioned above are great for bringing in the youth and children. The

Menchie’s Smile card is a fantastic way to bring people back, and it

helps people save money which is always great. The student discount

brings in young people because high school or college students are on

a tight budget, but if they can fit Menchie’s into that budget they will

continue to come back. Wacky Wednesdays is great because it shows

that Menchie’s cares about the community, with their partnerships

with local businesses and town events such as Mitchellville Days.

It gets the name of Menchie’s out to people who may not have

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known they exist.

Weakness- Menchie’s has some weaknesses when it comes to their sales promotions. One of the

biggest is that they barely promote anything. The majority of people don't know about the deals

talked about above. The things that Menchie’s does promote they don't promote it enough. The

promotions don't bring enough people in and in turn Menchie’s will be losing money on

promotions. One such promotion is the five dollar fill up. People get to fill up any size above five

dollars and this is great to do a few times a year. If Menchie’s does this every week they will

lose, but in small spurts it will be more effective and you'll make more money every week.

Opportunity- Menchie’s taking part in community activities, giving coupons during parade

events that don't happen every day but bring in big business for a limited time. It shows people

that you still exist, and displays your product. The five dollar fill up is great to bring in people

even though it makes Menchie’s lose money. It brings in a lot of people, and Wednesdays, when

you have this deal is one of your busiest days. These are great for bring in business but if

menchie’s could send a little more money and time to do some more promotions and getting the

word out.

Threats- The biggest thing is that Menchie’s barely has any promotions. There is no way to

promote new flavors, deals, or contests. With Menchie’s lack of promotions they don't bring in

people. Customers don't know what favors or deals going on and if Menchie’s doesn’t have the

flavors they favor, they will just walk out and leave. Menchie’s does not promote so in turn their

competitors that do promotions and bring in people. With the lack of promotions of Menchie’s

loses customers and money.

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B. SWOT Analysis of Advertising Activities

Strengths: ● Ads presented in magazines are

visually appealing to customers ● Uses Facebook to advertise deals,

new flavors, and holiday specials ● Provides a good schedule of deals

Weaknesses: ● Do not use television to advertise ● No electronic advertising other than

Facebook (newspapers and magazines only)

● Does not reach to all their target market

Opportunities: ● Menchies had an episode on

Undercover Boss advertising their company to others

● Create commercials that reach the younger target market

● Promoting flyers, broadcasts, and commercials to help business

Threats: ● Competitors use mass media (TV,

social media, etc.) ● Lack of advertising ● Only advertises when deals are

available unlike competitors

Strengths- The strengths for Menchie’s marketing is a very small category. A strength that they

do present in their advertising is the magazine ads that are visually appealing to customers

creating the craving for frozen yogurt. Magazine ads present an image of frozen yogurt with a

variety of toppings that are available in stores and a coupon or deal. Menchie’s also has created a

Facebook page that advertises different deals, introduction of new flavors, and the holiday

specials that are going on in stores. Menchie’s Facebook page has 366,451 like's and 239,971

visits to the page. Menchie’s has a good schedule of constant that are going on. For example,

every Wednesday at a Menchie’s you can get anything in your bowl and if it weighs over $5,

Menchie’s brings down the price to $5. This is a very popular deal that many people take

advantage of.

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Weaknesses- Advertising through television is one of the advertising activities that Menchie’s

lacks. By not using television commercials, Menchie’s does not reach their younger target

market. The only advertising activities that Menchie’s uses is newspapers and magazine ads that

only reaches to their older target market. Their newspaper and magazine ads do not reach to their

younger target market such as 10 year olds.

Opportunities- The creation of television commercials is a good way for Menchie’s to spread

their advertising to their whole target market. Television commercials on common watched

channels can reach to all of Menchie’s target

market. In 2013, Menchie’s was on an episode of

Undercover Boss, getting their name out to the

public. Menchie’s got publicity from this episode

by airing it on television to their younger target

market (Tode, December 30, 2013). Promoting

flyers, broadcasts, and commercials can help get

the word out about Menchie’s and their products

and deals. The creation of an Instagram page for local stores can be available for customers to

follow for flavors of the week and deals that are going on at that time.

Threats- Using commercials, social media, and radio advertisements, Menchie’s competitors

reach out to their entire targeted market unlike Menchie’s. Menchie’s competitors reach out to

the targeted market in more ways, causing customers to go to the competitors instead of

Menchie’s. The lack of advertising does not present deals to customers and does not inform

customers about the Menchie’s stores or locations. Customers are not being informed about

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Menchie’s and because of that, Menchie’s does not get the attention and number of customers

they should be getting. Menchie’s advertises flyers, posters, and Facebook posts only when deals

are occurring. Advertising all the time could draw more attention to Menchie’s.

C. SWOT Analysis of Customer Loyalty Programs

Strengths: ● Each time a person purchases frozen

yogurt from Menchie’s, the person gets rewarded with points that can add up to getting up to $5.00 off from your total purchase.

● Allows the option of the customer receiving text message alerts with promotions, announcements and up- to- date information.

● Menchie’s values the time that people put into getting the rewards and try to suit people's best interests.

Weaknesses: ● Menchie’s expects the customer to

remember their username and password for their Smileage account, some people cannot rely on themselves to save their username or password to get into their account

● The Smileage program is meant to fit all customers needs, yet Menchie's Money redemptions cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers.

● People don't want to provide their phone number because of personal reasons, but the Smileage card requires a phone number.

Opportunities: ● Make people come more often. ● Putting in your birthday gets the

customer $5.00 off on your birthday. ● Do more sales promotions for people

who do have the rewards card.

Threats: ● Hackers ● Other frozen yogurt companies can see

the success of the loyalty program and try to better their loyalty program.

● Ice cream locations seem to be a bigger threat because people visit ice cream shops more often.

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Strengths- Mysmileage is the name of the rewards program that Menchie’s offers to customers.

The Mysmileage program could go two ways; negative or positive. To become a member of the

Mysmileage program, you can register in store or online. Joining Mysmileage program has lots

of strengths such as, being rewarded with 1 point per every $1 you spend (Menchie’s 2017). The

strengths of the Mysmileage card allows the customer to receive texts when they sign up. By

providing your phone number with the sign up of Mysmileage, you will receive alerts such as

promotions, discounts, alerts and up- to- date information which can increase the amount of

customers that come in to get Frozen Yogurt. Menchies values the time that the customer puts

into the rewards program, therefore they try to suit the customer's best interests.

Weaknesses- The negativity of the rewards program is that the Mysmileage program account

requires a username and password to log into the customer's account online. Yet Menchie's

requires the customer to remember their own username and password and for most people it is

hard to memorize their usernames and passwords (Menchie’s 2017). The Mysmileage program is

meant to fit all customers needs, but the rewards card cannot be combined with any other

discounts or offers. Why would the customer want to use their Mysmileage card if they cannot

use a discount? The point of the rewards card is to earn points, to then reach a discount. The

rewards card requires a phone number, but some people do not like the fact that they have to give

out their phone number. Menchie’s should change the rule of having the customer adding their

phone number to attract more people to the rewards card.

Opportunities- There’s a lot of opportunities when it comes to the rewards program. The main

opportunity is that the rewards card can tempt people to come into the store more often and buy

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Menchie’s frozen yogurt. Another opportunity is when you register for the rewards card, you

have the option to put in your birthday. By putting in your birthday, it allows the owners with the

Mysmileage card to receive a benefit on a customer’s birthday, benefiting them with a $5.00

discount, attracting more buyers of the products (Menchie’s 2017). With the rewards card, it

allows Menchie’s to do more promotions for the business. The rewards card has lots of benefits

and opportunities, therefore it can attract more customers.

Threats- When a company has a rewards card, there can be a lot of threats along with it. One of

Menchie’s threats with the Mysmileage card is hackers. There are smart people in this world and

some will do whatever it takes to get that $5 off of a cup of yogurt. Therefore, people could find

a way to get into the Menchie’s account and take away points from people. Also, other frozen

yogurt places know about the rewards program and they also know about the success of the

Mysmileage card, so they can ‘up’ their own rewards program to compete more with Menchie’s.

Ice cream also seems more popular in the summer, so if Menchie’s makes more benefits to

customers, it could attract more people into coming into the store.

D. SWOT Analysis of Production/Service Management

Strengths: ● Menchies provides rigorous customer

service training with employees. They follow a system called the “5 G’s” to help ensure every customer visit is special.

● New flavors are introduced monthly. ● Their yogurt is extremely high quality

and fit many dietary restrictions and are low fat, no high fructose corn syrup and are kosher.

Weaknesses: ● Most seasonal flavors are discontinued

and often times new flavors are hard to obtain from distribution.

● Menchie’s in a secluded market and is extremely difficult to expand their product lines outside of frozen yogurt and toppings.

● Menchie’s corporate wants all locations to operate with the same flavors and the same schedule, which doesn't work for all businesses, especially ones affected by the cold season.

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Opportunities: ● Menchie’s faces an opportunity to

change flavors more often, maybe even changing one a day.

● There is an opportunity to advertise in many ways to different generations because it's a very diverse product.

● Opportunities to do partnerships with many candy companies to do advertising campaigns with children's movies and brands.

Threats: ● They have an extensive amount of

coupons and that can lead to a lot of lost profit.

● Frozen yogurt businesses lose a lot of business in the winter months so they lose profit.

● Menchie’s faces lots of competition with ice cream shops and frozen yogurt shops being popular.

Strengths- Menchie’s takes their customer service training very seriously. They have a program

called the 5 G’s which is an easy way for employees to

remember how to interact with the customer. The 5

G’s are Greet, Guide, Genuine Connection, Gift,

Goodbye. Menchie’s always has at least 2 new flavors

at the beginning of the month and that flavor stays

available to the customers for the whole month. That

monthly system is a great way to bring new people in

every month and it can also make Menchie’s be more relatable to seasonal and holiday events

(i.e peppermint in winter, pumpkin in fall, lemonade in the summer). Along with overall being a

lower calorie option to ice cream, Menchie’s has strived to maintain the highest quality yogurt

possible. They use quality ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup, and are kosher qualified.

Weakness- All businesses face this issue, but it’s hard to please all consumers. However, with

only being able to serve a max of 16 flavors at a time, that limits the amount of flavors that can

attract different audiences. Also, Menchie’s has limited their product line to just self serve frozen

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yogurt. Although a specific market for food businesses, their product line is so small that it might

be creating a setback. Menchie’s corporate is very strict on how lates stores are open and

holiday hours which can create a deficit. For example, stores in Iowa have the same hours as

store in L.A.. Obviously, there is a difference in population and weather in those two locations.

Them staying open late in Iowa in the winter months is making them lose profit, They are paying

for employees and operation costs but no one is coming in to buy frozen yogurt.

Opportunities- Since they have no permanent many, Menchie’s faces the opportunity to have a

constantly ever changing flavors and toppings offered. They can keep a daily cycle of changing

yogurt flavors and topping. Changing flavors would consistently bring new people into the store

to eventually to get them hooked on their Frozen Yogurt. And with bringing in new people,

different generations of consumers require different advertising mediums. All walks of life, age,

race, and gender considered, love frozen desserts. With a broad audience that love their product,

there is an opportunity to advertise in many places, such as newspaper, social media, and radio.

Menchies does a plethora of advertising campaign partnerships with upcoming PG-Rated movies

and there is an opportunity to partner with other companies that produce children’s games, toys

and new candies. When people see businesses are partnering with a new movie or product

they’re excited to see/try it gets that costumer excited about Menchie’s.

Threats- Menchie’s is consistently trying to bring new faces in the door and the easiest way to

do that is to give out their coupons. However, Menchie’s is starting to suffer a loss of profit

because of the amount of discount. Coupons need to either be decreased in redeemable value or

they need to be given out less often. Also, with Menchie’s only selling frozen yogurt, their

business goes way down in the colder months. Although most of their locations are located in

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areas that are warm year round, they still have a few locations in areas affected by weather where

eating frozen desserts isn’t suitable. Menchie’s needs to adjust their hours for their locations in

the colder areas of the world. Menchie’s is one of the many companies that bought into the

bustling business of frozen desserts (ice cream, frozen, yogurt, and the like) which creates a lot

of competition for Menchie’s. Menchie’s has to make themselves unique to stand out in the

extensive line up of self serve frozen yogurt shops. They are trying to create a difference based

of the atmosphere of the store, but sometimes that’s not enough.

III. Proposed Strategic Planning

A.Proposed Marketing Plan Changes

1. Sales Promotions

Menchie’s does not provide enough promotions. All Menchie’s tries to do with the customers, is

to make them smile all the time. Yes, a smile is the best accessory that someone can wear, but

not always the best promotion. Making people smile will not always attract more customers than

some clearances will. Menchie’s should provide promotions to customers such as discounted

holiday flavors after that holiday has passed, or products in the store that are not selling well.

2. Advertising Activities

Commercials are always a great way to advertise a business. Menchie’s for example, is a

business that does not advertise with commercials Commercials on television is a great way to

promote the company and the company's products. The only way Menchie’s does advertising is

with magazine and newspaper ads, and with a facebook page. Menchie’s would most likely gain

more customers if they widened their advertising techniques.

3. Customer Loyalty Programs

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The Mysmileage program could have more benefits. Instead of rewarding the customer every 50

points with a bigger reward, Menchie's could reward the customers with 15 and 25 points with

some smaller rewards, with the 50 points being the biggest reward. That option for customers

could attract even more customers so that the company could have the chance of making more

money.

4. Product and Service Management

Menchie’s could expand on the number of machines in the store. Menchie’s tries to focus on

having a variety of flavors. So instead of having 8 machines in the store, with a total of 2 flavors

in each machine, changes the number of machines in the store to 10. By doing that, there would

be a total of 20 flavors in the store, instead of 16, to widen the variety of flavors that the

customer chooses from. Also, instead of doing just frozen yogurt, Menchie’s could add a

department in their store with making smoothies. Menchie’s is all about making their customers

happy, so why not add all of the products to make all of the customers happy?

B. Proposed Activities, Timelines, and Budget

Proposed Activities Estimated Timeline Budget

Commercials for more advertising

Menchies could make a new commercial every 3 months to promote new seasonal flavors that are coming. For example, make an advertisement in October for the flavors coming for the Christmas season.

A 30 second national commercial would cost approximately $300,000. But local commercials cost up to $200 to $1,500.

Create a Menchie’s coupon calendar to keep track of seasonal coupons

Keep the calendar up in a back office all year long to see when the coupons start for the season.

Making a schedule for new coupons for seasonal coupons could cost $35 per calendar.

Start advertising on social Commercials and Making more advertisements

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media and on TV so that children know about the benefits of Menchie’s

advertisements could be displayed all year long so that kids can see what Menchie’s is and know their new products. Instead of only advertising in newspapers, magazines and on facebook, expand onto TV and more popular social media sites so that the whole target market knows about Menchie’s.

could cost $10,00 to advertise on television.

In warmer locations, do more tropical flavors and in colder locations have more rich flavors available

In colder locations, Menchie’s can continue with more seasonal rotations. In the warmer locations, do the seasonal rotations with the yogurt flavors but with the more fruity flavors rather than the rich flavors, which would be available in the colder locations of the U.S.

Doing this, it would not change the price of the frozen yogurt. It’s all the same price either way, no matter the flavors in the store.

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References

Franchise Information Report. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2016, from

http://menchiesfranchise.com/menchies-franchise-report.pdf

History. (2016). Retrieved December , 2016, from

http://www.menchies.com/frozen-yogurt-store-history

Menchies. (2016). Retrieved December 13, 2016, from

https://registrationinfo.net/menchies/register

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt full SWOT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

of

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt. Find 100,. (2017). Retrieved December 13, 2016, from

http://www.swotanalysis24.com/swot-m/69974-swot-analysis-menchie-s-frozen-yogurt.h

tml

Tode, C. (2013, December 30). Menchies promotes mobile offer on TV, sees 30pc redemption

rate. Retrieved December 8, 2016, from

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/database-crm/16881.html