Mexican Food Cart

A Portland food cart owner, preparing to expand into a second location at a brick and mortar micro-restaurant concept, wanted a strategic marketing plan to help her get the new location off the ground.

The Situation

As part of the Portland State University Capstone project for Marketing majors, students must complete a strategic marketing plan. Students had the option of choosing any company they wanted, as long as they were aware that their choice would dictate whether they were producing spec work or real work for the firm.

My team decided that if we were going to create a marketing plan, we would like our efforts to make a positive and real impact in the community. We also agreed that very small businesses may not have the budget to hire a marketing manager, let alone an outside marketing firm, so we saw this project as an opportunity to make a difference for a local small business owner. We partnered with a business outreach program in the business school and chose a local food truck owner to work with.

The Goal

After meeting with the business owner, my team and I decided we could make the biggest impact by focusing on 3 separate but related goals:

• Promoting a key differentiator of the restaurant
• Driving awareness of the new location
• Increasing traffic to both locations

Differentiation

My team and I performed an analysis of the current state of her business and researched her existing and potential target markets at both locations.

There are hundreds of Mexican food establishments in Portland. While our focus would be to position our client favorably against other Mexican restaurants in the immediate area, differentiation would make a substantial difference for our goals.

During our research, we learned that the owner’s unique and poignant story surrounding her family recipes is the driving force behind her restaurant. With such meaningful connections to the food, we knew it would be crucial for the restaurant to share this story through every customer touchpoint. This would be the differentiation factor.

Recommended Strategies

• Define and clarify the restaurant’s brand so the physical space, website and collateral, and social messaging are consistent across the board.
• Schedule regular social media posts to be published on the restaurant’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. These posts would share the story of the food and the restaurant’s brand.
• Launch a punch card rewards program for customers to earn free tacos.
• Capitalize on the seven different moles (sauces) – the restaurant’s specialty – through weekly specials.
• Organize a grand opening event centered around the theme of the brand story, the moles, and the owner’s family history. Promotional tactics include direct mail, social media, and on-site signage. The event would also feature mole tastings.

Projected Results

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Team

Reid Rubsam, Hunter Raglione, Daniel Romero Vazquez, & Pam Noble

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Notes:

1. This marketing plan was presented to the client in December 2019. The new location is scheduled to open in late March 2020, so the results of this plan are not yet realized.
2. The food cart owner requested that all team members sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which is why the client is not named here.