Creating a Plan for the Cozy Corner Café

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Program Name:

  Sport, Recreation, & Entertainment Marketing

  Course Title:

  Marketing Applications

  Course Number:

  8827120

  Career Cluster:

  Marketing, Sales & Services

  CIP Number:

  0252191005

  Course Type:

  CAR-PREP-High School Career Preparatory Program

  CTE Standards:

  CTE-MKT.912.8827120.4.6 Develop a product/service plan.

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson is designed to be used with the case study, “Cozy Corner Café,” See CPALMS resource ID# 218925.

• Career Connection

  
  

  This lesson helps students build industry content knowledge because developing a product or service plan requires students to think critically about market needs, competition, and business strategies. To create the product or service plan the students must take into consideration many industry standards such as meeting customer needs, owner objectives, and financial viability of desired endeavors.

  In the domain of communication, students will practice presenting information logically, coherently and in a concise manner to a small group of peers. The students will be expected to outline the steps involved in creating a product or service plan by applying theoretical business/marketing concepts using the real-world scenario described in the case study.

  In the domain of critical thinking, students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and evaluate information to make objective and informed decisions by creating a product or service plan for the business described in the case study.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Create a customer survey designed to identify consumer preferences.
  • Develop a product or service plan by incorporating the owners’ objectives in addition to meeting customer needs.
  • Present their product/service plan.

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with/able to:

  • marketing vocabulary such as consumer, revenue, vendor, product plan, service plan, customer needs, and owner objectives
  • marketing plans
  • oral presentation skills

• Guiding Questions

  
  

  The following guiding questions can be posted on the board for students to keep in mind as they work though the lesson discussions:

  • Why is it important to understand your customers’ needs?
  • What factors should be considered in trying to create a product/service plan for the Cozy Corner Café?
  • Does the product/service plan meet the needs of the customers and align with the owners’ goals and objectives?

• Procedure

  
  

  1. Prior to the lesson, set up a whiteboard or poster board in which students can post sticky notes.

  2. To Introduce the lesson, students will respond to the following industry quote: “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” - Peter Drucker

  • • To begin a discussion, ask students to write down what they think the quote means on a sticky note.
    • Students can then anonymously post their ideas in a designated location.

  3. After the students post their ideas about the quote, provide students with the hand-out entitled, “Industry Quote Discussion Questions for Creating a Plan for the Cozy Corner Cafe."

  • Give students time to briefly write responses to the discussion questions.
  • The teacher can then use the sticky notes and students discussion question answers to facilitate a whole class discussion.

  3. Distribute the case study, "Cozy Corner Cafe" (see CPALMS Resource ID#218925). The students can then read the case study silently.

  • The teacher can then call on 3 or 4 students to summarize the case study.

  4. Next, the teacher can pose the following questions to the whole group and allow students time to briefly discuss:

  • • How can Anjali and Mike gather effective feedback from their customers about desired menu options?
    • What methods can they use to analyze the success of new menu items or partnerships?
    • What financial factors should Anjali and Mike consider before expanding their menu or partnering with food trucks?
    • Should the marketing plan align with their objectives for the growth of the business?

  5. To introduce the activity, the teacher can expalin that using the case study, students they will create a brief customer survey to assess Cozy Corner Cafe's customers’ needs and then create a marketing plan for the café.

  6. Students can work in groups to develop a brief customer survey designed to gain insight into the needs and interests of restaurant patrons. Inform students that their surveys must be five questions or less.

  7. Once the surveys are completed, groups can then switch surveys and complete them.

  8. Students will then use the answers to their survey questions from their peers to conduct research and create a marketing plan for the café. Their plan should include:

  • • a specific goal for Cozy Corner’s sales
    • a target market (families, weekly breakfast crowd, lunch crowd, or late-night patrons)
    • addition or removal of menu items
    • restaurant kitchen build or partner with food trucks
    • a way to boost merchandise (t-shirts, cups, hats) sales.
    • Students will create their marketing plans on a digital multimedia platform.

  9. After each group has finished they can pair up with another group and take turns presenting their marketing plans to each other. Direct students to provide justification of how their plan meets the needs of Cozy Corner Café’s owners and customers.

  10. To bring the lesson to a close, students will write a response to, “What happens now?” This can be a short paragraph in which the students will write one thing they think that the Cozy Corner Cafe must do immediately to implement a successful marketing plan.

  11. To ensure that students understand how the lesson connects their future career, the teacher can assign each group one of the following career-focused questions.

  • • How will understanding how to meet customer needs help you succeed in your career?
    • What new skills or knowledge do you think will be essential for success in running a small business?
    • What can you do to improve financial literacy to ensure success when implementing a product/service plan?

  12. In their groups students can then complete a quick write to share their insights.

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • Depending upon time constraints, teachers can break this lesson into multiple lessons.
  • Students can work in pairs or small groups at the beginning of the lesson to complete the discussion question responses.
  • The questions listed after the closing activity could be used as an attention grabber or introduction for a subsequent lesson.