The first bite is crispy, then the softness inside the waffle will melt in your mouth… We all love food, especially fresh, homemade waffles. You can find us at park campus of the university of Northampton.

The products, which will be offered, are waffles and crepes with a customer’s choice of the toppings and fillings. The menu will be represented by a great variety of options. The choice of drinks will include only non-alcoholic items, such as apple juice, orange juice, tropical juice and water. This is as our unique things due to it is very rare to be found in University's restaurants or cafes.

- Promotional literature 
Our signature crêpes are made to order and are created with the freshest local ingredients to ensure you partake of a mouthwatering homemade crêpe experience.

A crêpe is a thin pastry made of flour that is often prepared with a sweet filling and topped with either a sweet reduction and fresh fruit and ice cream.

Our desserts are topped with fresh fruits, ice cream and often incorporate rich white chocolate, toasted almonds, toffee, nutella, honey, butter, icing sugar and lemon. We have four different ice cream flavours for customers to choose such as Vanilla, Chocolate, Coconut and Lemon. Creating homemade traditional French favourites with a signature flair, we provides the ultimate pastry desserts in the form of sweet crêpes and waffles. Ask for our signature Crêpe Sweetheart’s or Waffle Sweetheart’s!

Our customers can easily define that our desserts are of a very high quality. In the manufacture of waffles - crepes and related products we will not use preservatives or concentrates. The following essential characteristics explain the concept of our shop well: 

• excellent quality
 • homemade recipe
 • natural raw materials
 • great flavour
 • competitive prices and incentives

 

 

Sweet Heart’s (SH’s) focuses on students and professors from the University of Northampton as the main customers, but also on the employees and people who visit the University, for example, those who come for an Open Day. 

In the report of a Higher Education Review conducted by the Quality Assurance Agency of Higher Education (QAA) at the University of Northampton, in 2015, there were some 13,000 students taking a course at the University (QAA, 2015, p. 3). However, given the number of students, SH’s has the potential to be a real success. Based on the fact that SH’s will be the only provider of waffles on Park Campus, it is expected for the business to have £… gross sales by the … year of operation.

 

 

SH’s wants to found a large consistent customer base and will concentrate its business and advertising on students and professors, which will be the main target market. This will establish a consistent income base to safeguard stability of the business. High visibility and viable products are critical to seize this part of the market. In addition, what makes the product to be sold is that neither the UniExpress, the Pavilion, the Library Café, nor the Restaurant provide waffles or crepes as dessert.

Our primary aim is to serve breakfast and lunch, but the waffles can be served at any time during the day and there is no need to sit down and eat, therefore people can easily enjoy them while walking around.  

 

 

Competition in the local region is rather sparse, while there are no food trucks or shops that sell similar products, all food providers in the Park Campus area are indirect competitors. However, the five main competitors that sell waffles, such as Kaspa’s Desserts, Haycock & Tailbar Associates, Firejacks, Gallones Ice Cream Parlour and Café Creperie (TripAdvisor, 2018) are all placed around Northampton. Therefore, the competition is relatively at a low level because of the great distance between Sweet Heart’s and other waffle providers.

 

 

Strengths

§  Exclusive location

§  Cost benefits

§  Wide variety of toppings

§  No waste

§  Waffles are simple to prepare

 

Weaknesses

§  Weak brand

§  Low marketing skills

§  Less popularity compared to other business

§  Loans for the start-up funding

 

Opportunities

§  Innovation on the menu (gluten-free)

§  Increase in sales in combination with other products

§  Enter new market or segments

 

Threats

§  Fast increase in cost of food

§  High investment in technology

 

 

 

 

QAA (2015) Higher Education Review of the University of Northampton. [Report]. Gloucester: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Available from: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/ReviewsAndReports/Documents/The%20University%20of%20Northampton/University-of-Northampton-HER-15.pdf

 

TripAdvisor (2018) Northampton Waffles & Crepes. TripAdvisor [online]. Available from: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g186349-zfd9910-Northampton_Northamptonshire_England-Waffles_and_Crepes.html [Accessed 01 February 2018].

Sweet Heart´s offers home-made and fresh waffles and crepes, ice cream and drinks. All products are especially focused on students and tutors from the University of Northampton, therefore the key factor to success is aimed at prices which must be suitable for students. The food truck is the only one on and around the Park Campus with its outstanding prices, that means it can also appeal local people. Sweet Heart´s provides a unique range of waffles and crepes tailored to customer´s wish. Everyone can choose according to his own taste, either on plain or chocolate basis and then combine the toppings. 

Our strategy is serving quality food at a great value and having the satisfied customers who will be coming back, feel welcomed and special. Motivated and friendly staff also contribute to the desired goals.

As a new business on the market will apply the cheapest methods of promotion for now to gain publicity and increase customer awareness of Sweet Heart´s. 

Sweet Heart´s will rely on happy customers and free method of promotion – word-of-mouth. Other types of promotion, how to catch customers´ attention, are creating a website and using social media. Nowadays the social media are very used and creating a fan page on Facebook is free of charge as well. Besides staff stays in touch with customers, which is more personal level. Both website and Facebook can inform about news, sales and discounts for customers. The last and the costliest promotion strategy will be leaflets spread throughout the UoN. (Bplans.co.uk, 2018)

3.   Pricing policy

Prices will be competitive with other shops in Northampton providing desserts because lower and acceptable prices supplemented by special discount and offers, which will increase sales volume, will be deciding key factor for buyers. Sweet Heart´s will keep stable prices within a certain period to appeal the customers.