Justification Memo
interoffice memorandum to: John Doe, bakery manager from: Jane Doe, Assistant baker subject: Introduction of New product offfering date: 3/29/2013
Current situation facing sweet treats bakery
Sweet Treats bakery has been around for around for ten years and has enjoyed becoming one of Lancaster’s premiere cake bakeries. We have had success with building customer relationships and coming up with new and creative ways to address customer needs besides the basic round or rectangular plain cakes. With the trend of smaller portion sizes we expanded our offering to include gourmet cupcakes and were able to show an increase in sales. Currently our sales are down for the first time in ten years and other bakeries in the Lancaster area are also seeing a slump in sales. Giving the current state of the economy it is understandable that business would be down. Now is the time for us to entertain a new product offering to increase our sales and also look at a second location to expand our customer base. I would like to write and present a proposal for introducing Cake Pops as a new product and adding a stand at Central Market as a second location.
Introducing A NEW revenue stream
As with cupcakes, cake pops are a smaller portion of cake that is becoming a fast trend online and is also being featured on shows such as the Today Show and Martha Stewart, both of which are shows that our core customers of middle aged woman enjoy watching. Blogs and social media sites are popping up all over showing new designs and ideas for customizing these little treats and expanding them to be gifts for holidays, showers, birthdays and thank-you gifts. They are quickly replacing the cupcake as the favorite small portion dessert. Cake pops are extremely cost effective to make and can appeal to a large variety of people.
Opening a second location to broaden customer base
While we have a core following of customers, in order to make sure that we are getting our fair share of the market
Current situation facing sweet treats bakery
Sweet Treats bakery has been around for around for ten years and has enjoyed becoming one of Lancaster’s premiere cake bakeries. We have had success with building customer relationships and coming up with new and creative ways to address customer needs besides the basic round or rectangular plain cakes. With the trend of smaller portion sizes we expanded our offering to include gourmet cupcakes and were able to show an increase in sales. Currently our sales are down for the first time in ten years and other bakeries in the Lancaster area are also seeing a slump in sales. Giving the current state of the economy it is understandable that business would be down. Now is the time for us to entertain a new product offering to increase our sales and also look at a second location to expand our customer base. I would like to write and present a proposal for introducing Cake Pops as a new product and adding a stand at Central Market as a second location.
Introducing A NEW revenue stream
As with cupcakes, cake pops are a smaller portion of cake that is becoming a fast trend online and is also being featured on shows such as the Today Show and Martha Stewart, both of which are shows that our core customers of middle aged woman enjoy watching. Blogs and social media sites are popping up all over showing new designs and ideas for customizing these little treats and expanding them to be gifts for holidays, showers, birthdays and thank-you gifts. They are quickly replacing the cupcake as the favorite small portion dessert. Cake pops are extremely cost effective to make and can appeal to a large variety of people.
Opening a second location to broaden customer base
While we have a core following of customers, in order to make sure that we are getting our fair share of the market