1. Market Research A summary of the company:
Graeter’s is an ice cream, candy and pastry shop founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter. Grater’s has had at the most 17 stores opened at one time in Cincinnati. Currently the Graeter family operates 12 stores in Cincinnati and has 24 franchised stores located in Columbus, Dayton, Northern Kentucky, Lexington, and Louisville. The Graeter family is currently in the fourth generation of owners.

2. Market Research Current Marketing Summary:
Graeter’s main source of marketing is through word of mouth. If a person goes there once they are bound to bring a friend back, or at least tell someone about it. Graeter’s also receives free press by receiving nominations for best ice cream in many magazines, such as “Vanity Fair”, “The Oprah Magazine”, “USA Today”, “Cincinnati Magazine”, and more. If you have never been to a Graeter’s store, they do have some other draws to lure you there, such as the annual coloring contest, where the winner receives a free ice cream and a t-shirt. They also have a flavor of the month, which is of course only available for that particular month of the year. Finally, you can also receive a free ice cream cone on your birthday, no matter how old you are.

3. Buyer Behaviors
People who go to Graeter’s usually go for special occasions, like dance recitals, school plays, or to celebrate a victory after a sports game. They also tend to buy pies for holidays, and doughnuts with their morning coffee. Most buyers who go there for coffee or ice cream for no special occasion tend to go there often, such as people do to McDonalds.

4. Competition
UDF – Sells ice cream, so is a direct competitor. But they also have many more stores, and extra draws to get people inside (such as gas).
Maggie Moos – Located conveniently in strip malls.
Cold Stone Creamery – A small company, but prides themselves on high quality ice cream.
Aggleneshes (Madison Road) – Family owned ice cream parlor since the 1950’s. Features the old ice cream parlor look, also.

5. Macroenvironment
Demography – Graeter’s tends to draw in groups, but really has no other demographic, other than being Cincinnati-only due to its location.
Economic Environment – The company is obviously influenced by how well the country is doing economically, and so the company is forced to market to the changes in spending habits as needed. It is not as influenced as other businesses, however, due to the fact that most of its products are rather cheap to buy.
Natural Environment – This can actually heavily influence Graeter’s. Bad weather will hurt the business for that day. Warm weather, especially in summer, attracts much more customers than they would receive in the winter.
Technological Environment – Graeter’s has a small tie with the new rising technology bubble, with their online store and the ability to ship “cooler packages” to customers, without ever needing to visit a store. This is becoming a commonly used feature, so it is important to Graeter’s to keep it working and functional to the consumer.

6. Macroenvironment
Political Environment – Since Graeter’s is a food company, they have to contend with new FDA regulations, new laws on processes and manufacturing, and more. Graeter’s must keep track of the changes, and adjust quickly without any bumps in the system if they wish to remain competitive.
Cultural Environment – Luckily, since the company is small and locally owned, there is little culture for them to deal with. They can focus on what the area likes most, and do well. There are some issues they have to contend with, such as religions with restrictions on ingredients (Kosher) and sweets, but Graeter’s has it much easier than a nation-wide company would.

7. Microenvironment
The Company – Consists of Research and Development (of new candies and flavors), Finance for not only the production of the products, but for the stores and franchises, Purchasing covers the basic materials for all their products, most of which just comes from Cincinnati, and finally Accounting makes sure they aren’t exceeding their budget, and keeps track of how well they are doing.
Suppliers – Graeter’s actually receives their supplies from many close-to-home areas, including small farms and smaller Cincinnati-based businesses. As Graeter’s is a local business, it also likes to keep everything else local.
Marketing Intermediaries – Graeter's does have a marketing intermediary, Coca-Cola (As most businesses do). However, the rest of their products are strictly Graeter’s.
Customers – Graeter’s definitely focuses on consumer markets, with its franchise stores, and also relies a little on resellers such as Meijer and Kroger to sell their ice cream.

8. Microenvironment
Competitors – Graeter’s strategy to keep the customer coming back is the family-owned atmosphere, and their special “French Pot Process”.
Publics – The media definitely has an interest in the success of Graeter’s, as there are quite a few magazines featuring articles on the company, and how good their ice cream is. They also have a decent involvement with local and general publics, since they are a small business.

9. Current Products
Seasonal Flavors – Mint Cookies and Cream, Cherry Chip Chocolate Almond.
Signature Chip Flavors – Cocoanut Chip, Black Raspberry Chip, Buckeye Blitz, Peanut Butter Chip
Original Flavors – Coffee, Strawberry, Vanilla, Black Cherry
Sherbet Flavors – Lemon, Raspberry, Strawberry
Candies – Signature Candy Collection, Nonpareils, Gourmet Truffles

10. Idea Generation
Some of the products we thought up when generating ideas were:
New Flavor – Figured this was too easy, and not an exciting product.
Drinks – Not really the sort of product Graeter’s makes.
Branded Chocolate Bar (for retail) – Would require some new processes and a lot of advertising to make people aware of it.
Breakfast Sandwiches – Would require too much new equipment at each store, and would have a somewhat low demand.
Smoothies – Has already been done by many companies, isn’t as exciting anymore.
Popsicles – Something new to Graeter’s, but consumers would be familiar with. These would use the sherbet flavors they already have.

11. Concept Development
At first it was a difficult decision on whether to make the popsicles with brand new flavors, or to go with the sherbet flavors that Graeter’s already has.
New flavors would draw more attention to the popsicles, and would be another feature to advertise about the popsicles.
Using the old sherbet flavors would be much less expensive, and customers would be less wary of trying them (they know what it will taste like).

12. Marketing Strategy
Our Marketing Strategy includes the following items:
Marketing to the current customers giving more variety.
Graeters depends greatly on their history and word of mouth in their marketing, so pushing customer satisfaction is key.

13. Business Analysis
We looked at Graeter’s and saw the sherbet ice cream was an excellent seller, so we decided to build off that.
This would save on startup costs because we are building of an existing product.
A new product always keeps the customer excited and brings new customers into the store.

14. Commercialization
Graeters does advertising on billboards so we would continue that to introduce our new product, and spread the word as quickly as possible, without diving into new forms of advertising that Graeter’s has avoided for quite some time.

15. Advertising Objective
The key objective for advertising is to obtain the best word-of-mouth response we can manage. Graeter’s does not use common forms of advertising such as television, so the initial launch of the product may be slow.

16. Advertising Strategy
To compensate, we must get people to buy the popsicles when they arrive in the store, whether through discounts, coupons, free samples, or anything else it takes to make the customer rave about the product to their friends.
Our Message will be:
“Ice cream on the go a challenge? Try our ice cream on a stick! No mess, no fuss, just quick and tasty.”
Finally, to get customers to keep coming back, after the word has gone around about the new popsicles, and the interest has leveled off, we would introduce a new flavor that we do not offer currently, and only in popsicle form. By limiting the ways customers can get that flavor, they’ll buy more of that product.

17. Public Relations
Graeters has always been a pilar company in the community.
They support the community by supporting local festivals and other events.
They have contests throughout the year such as their Easter egg contest currently.
Its considered the largest Easter egg hunter.
2. Eggs are placed at certain retail locations where kids can find them and win prizes.