International Business Management

The object of this Bachelor's thesis is to see whether there is a market in Turku for a new business plan, a child-friendly cafeteria. The author has an option of starting up a company if the thesis proves that there is a market for the business. The author wanted to know if other people with children feel the same way than she does about the existing cafeteria culture, the lack of healthy food and drink options and not very child-friendly enviroments being the main problems in the market. The theoretical part of the thesis is focusing on marketing in general, introducing market research, marketing mix and distribution channels. The business model canvas is also presented, as business planning is a part of the thesis. The theory used is supporting the implementation in this project. The implementation started already during the author's maternity leave in 2010, but the actual project started with the survey in November 2013. The survey was conducted as an online survey through Webropol and the respodents were collected from social medias parents groups. The survey was open 5 days online and after that the actual work began. The project was analyzed through the theory learnt and the outcome was pretty much as expected. The is a niche market for the child-friendly cafeteria in Turku and many parents have realized that the current situation is not satifactory, but there are also risks that has to be considered before starting up a business and exit plans have to be existing and up to date