Second Sneak Peek from “The Five P’s of Promoting Your Child Nutrition Program”

Meals Plus’ free, downloadable white papers are tailored to K-12 school food services, and topics range from managing your child nutrition’s finances to tips for increasing the speed of your cafeterias’ lunchlines. Our next white paper is a comprehensive cheat sheet for promoting your child nutrition program, thus increasing participation in the lunchroom. The white paper will be available for download this winter, but in the meantime, here is the second sneak peek of “The Five P’s of Promoting Your Child Nutrition Program: Product, Placement, Promotion, Price and People.” (Did you miss the first sneak peek? Click here!)

Price, the third marketing principle, is the actual amount charged for the goods or service.  Too many times it is thought that students do not care what they are charged, but they are becoming more sensitive to pricing. They are aware of what competitors are charging and will seek out the provider that provides the food at a lower cost.  Students are also looking for discounts and deals. Consider discounting new products temporarily to get students to try them or promotions that give students a treat or free meal if they purchase a certain number of meals. Pricing a product or service too high or too low can influence the student and parent’s perception of the product. Most think that a lower price increases sales, but if students and/or parents value quality more, then price may not matter as much. School lunch has always been a bargain, but since additional nutrition standards have been implemented, there is no question about the value of the meal for the price.  Is that a marketing message that parents need to hear?

“The Five P’s” was written by Cynthia Sevier, SNS, who has over 30 years of experience in K-12 child nutrition, and has authored other Meals Plus white papers that are available for download. She is currently the Child Nutrition Operations Consultant for Meals Plus, assisting CND’s across with country with staff training, menu preparation, Pre-Validation review and more.

Subscribe to our e-newsletter for the official announcement when “The Five P’s” is available for download!