Anera Marketing in Evaluating Panera Term Paper

. Panera Bread needs to move away from word-of-mouth advertising and
embrace more effective means of advertising and awareness building
strategies. Panera has relied largely on word-of-mouth communication
of positive customer experiences to build awareness of the concept.
Advertising spending (as a percent of bakery-caf? sales) has been
relatively modest, including 2.2% in 2003, 2.1% in 2004, and 2.1% in
2005. Marketing efforts have been mostly focused on the use of in-
store promotional signage (e.g., point-of-purchase materials, hanging
signs) and limited-time offers. A 2005 consumer survey conducted by
Panera Bread highlighted opportunity for Panera to use more
advertising to build awareness. Study results indicated Panera's brand
awareness is only moderately developed. Interestingly, findings
revealed that 85% of people made aware of the brand ultimately became
a customer, suggesting a strong link between awareness and trial.
Based on the study, management appears to have increased emphasis on
using marketing as a means to grow trial, particularly for under-
penetrated day dining periods (e.g., dinner). Accordingly, Panera
expanded its local marketing staff by roughly 50% in 2006. Panera
Bread boosted marketing efforts for the introduction of Crispani,
offering free samples within bakery-caf?s (encouraging trial) and
utilizing direct mail to distribute limited-time offers.
. Panera Bread needs to compete from their strengths in emerging fast-
growth geographic markets they are not currently in. Panera needs to
be aggressive about marketing leading growth in the most attractive
mid markets, as the company leads the fast-casual segment with a
concept that offers fresh food (made with premium ingredients) at
reasonable prices…