Sweet Concepts, Inc.: Trade Show Marketing

9 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Mark E. Parry

Mark E. Parry

University of Missouri at Kansas City - Department of Organizational Leadership/Marketing

Abstract

Brooks West of Sweet Concepts has recently adopted a new brand strategy for Butterfields, the company's line of hard candy. West must decide how the new branding strategy should affect his trade-show marketing program.

Excerpt

UVA-M-0707

SWEET CONCEPTS INC.: TRADE SHOW MARKETING

In May 2003, Brooks West, president of Sweet Concepts, sat in his Nashville, North Carolina, office and thought about the Summer Fancy Food Show, scheduled for late June in New York City. West had recently adopted a new brand strategy for his Butterfields line of hard candy, and he had spent the last several months incorporating this strategy into the development of new packaging and communications materials. As West thought about the coming trade show, he wondered what changes he should make in his marketing efforts and the Fancy Food Show.

Product Line

Sweet Concepts produced hard candy using traditional batch production processes. Tracy and Brooks West purchased Sweet Concepts in 1989, and Brooks West assumed sole ownership in 2003. As Exhibit 1 illustrates, all of the company's products carried the Butterfields brand name. The heart of the product line consisted of Butterfield Buds, which were fruit-flavored hard candies available in twelve flavors and two package sizes (three ounces and nine ounces).

Trade Show Marketing

Sweet Concepts advertised the Butterfields line in trade magazines like The Gourmet Retailer. However, the company's primary promotional efforts centered around trade shows such as the New York Fancy Food Shows. The Fancy Food Shows were sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) and featured products from over

900 domestic exhibitors. According to the NASFT Web site (http://www.specialtyfood.com), recent shows featured over 50,000 food items and attracted as many as 32,000 visitors, of whom:

. . .

Keywords: communication process, communication strategy

Suggested Citation

Parry, Mark E., Sweet Concepts, Inc.: Trade Show Marketing. Darden Case No. UVA-M-0707, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=910120 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.910120

Mark E. Parry (Contact Author)

University of Missouri at Kansas City - Department of Organizational Leadership/Marketing ( email )

5110 Cherry St.
Kansas City, MO 64110
United States

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