In our work with school tuckshops, we have seen that those making a healthy profit from selling healthy foods are doing this by applying marketing principles in their tuckshop.

They are letting students and teachers know what is available by promoting products on their menu to the students, parents and staff of their school.

So, how can you successfully ‘market’ your tuckshop and menu?  Every school is different, but here are just a few ideas, to get you started.

Think about the 4 P’s – appealing Product, Presentation (the food and the tuckshop), Promotion and Price.  All of these factors effect peoples purchasing choices.

Product & variety: find out what students want.  Talk to students about what they would like on the menu and consider doing an annual survey.  Well promoted specials are a great way to provide variety without the burden of a large daily menu.

Promotion: seek volunteers to help you create promotional material for your tuckshop menu.  These may be volunteers who are unable to give time to the tuckshop during the week, but are happy to contribute from home after hours.

Use descriptive words on your menu: giving your menu items creative and descriptive names and highlighting the wonderful fresh ingredients you use can increase their appeal. Instead of a ‘chicken and salad wrap’ you might have a ‘tender chicken wrap with fresh salad and chucky tomato salsa’.

In coming newsletters we will continue to share our marketing ideas and the great things we are seeing in school tuckshops.