2. Bolster the current promotional strategy to a more aggressive soft-sell promotional strategy
while still utilizing word-of-mouth tactics to increase first-time customer traffic. We found that
customers are prone to give newly opened eating establishments a trial. Panera has underutilized
potential in its promotional strategy to allow customers to know of newly opened cafés. Panera
can pursue the opportunity within the industry if it strengthens the current promotional strategy
to promote awareness. This helps Panera promote brand awareness to become a dominant leader
in the bakery-café industry. To do this, the company must begin expanding to untapped and lowpenetrated
markets where customers will not know much about the company. The company
must then increase excitement about these new cafés before opening by using guerilla marketing.
An example of this is hiring plain-clothed personnel to circulate future and current development
sites and engage potential consumers by drumming up interest in café openings. The next
implementation step is to distribute coded coupons with a two-week expiration period, and an
additional coupon to be given to a friend. Success can be measured by tracking new customer
foot traffic in the specific cafés and the new café‟s sales volume in the first six months.