Kudler Fine Foods' Overview and Marketing Focus

Kudler Fine Foods' Overview and Marketing Focus

Kudler Fine Foods (.5 pts)

Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet food store that carries domestic and imported foods like fresh bakery and pastries, fresh produce, fresh meat, and Seafood, Condiments and Packaged Foods, Cheese’s and Specialty Dairy Products. Kudler Fine Foods was established by Kathy Kudler the owner and founder in 1998. The company has three locations (La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas). Kathy Kudler Gourmet food store was born out of frustration of not being able to find a suitable gourmet store in the neighborhood. So she went on to establish her very own gourmet food store called Kudler Fine Foods, located in La Jolla, California (Kudler Fine Food’s 2008).

Kudler’s Current Sales and Marketing Issues (.5 pts)

Kudler’s Marketing Strategy is to increase loyalty and profitability of consumer by expanding services, increased efficiency, and frequent shopper program. Kudler is continuing to expand the business and at the same time expanding its services to meet the goals of customer satisfaction. However, the company is in process of developing a system to track the customer purchase behavior because the surveys conducted in 2007 show the customer dissatisfaction and working toward improving the customer satisfaction (Kudler Fine Food’s 2008).

Kudler’s Marketing Strategies Using the Four P's of Marketing (2 pts)

The Marketing Mix used by Kudler Fine Foods to sell goods and services to target customers are as follows: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

1. Product (existing products and new offerings):

The store started frequent purchase program that will give them valuable data on customer purchase patterns. Sales will work with purchasing to adjust the product offerings on shelf and it is a bundle of benefits that is being delivered to meet the needs of the customers. This analysis will evaluate frequently purchased items with their corresponding profit margin and fit within the product mix.

2. Pricing (pricing, promotions, and discounts):

The store is using a cost-plus minimum pricing strategy to hit minimum 5% margin threshold, combined with a market-based strategy to build in additional margin around what the market is willing to bear. The promotions such as the frequent purchaser and the cooking classes are designed to be self-funding. The store offers value addedservices rather than discounts to its customers (Kudler Fine Foods, Sales and Marketing: Sales Plan, p. 1).

3. Promotions (customer and sales):

With the successful implementation of the customer promotion programs such as cooking class and frequent purchaser program the store has the potential to earn a bonus of up to 7% of their base salary.

4. Place (expansion, emphasis on locations or customer regions):

At this time, The store is focusing on improving the existing locations. However, its considering new ways to expand the business geographically in the future.

Consumer Behavior (.5 pts)

The customer purchase behavior patters will help Kudler refine its processes and offerings to best satisfy their valued customers. Price is not the primary differentiating factor for Kudler consumers; these consumers are focused on quality and finding specialized items. Therefore, rather than providing discounts to the customers for their purchase frequency like lower end markets, Kudler has partnered with a loyalty points program to provide customers with points that can be redeemed for high end gift items, airline first-class upgrades, or other specialty foods (Kudler Fine Foods, Sales and Marketing: Sales Plan, p. 1).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (.5 pts)

Kudler emphasis is delighting new and existing customers. As a sales organization, this means it must actively analyze the customer data to provide products and services that exceed customer needs. Every person influencing the sales organization will be expected to complete the course “Using Customer Data to Create Happy, Profitable Customers” within the first quarter of 2007 (Kudler Fine Foods, Sales and Marketing: Sales Plan, p. 1).

Recommendation(s) (1 pt)

Kudler’s sales goals are

· New Customer Focused Programs

· Better Information Management

· Targeted Awareness Building

· Increased Behind the Scenes Efficiency (Kudler Fine Foods, Sales and Marketing: Sales Plan, p. 1)

Kudler recognizes the importance of word of mouth and social media marketing to acquire new customers. “The firms that gain loyal customers by providing unique value is the essence of successful marketing” (Kerin, Chapter 1, p. 14). Kudler should develop new strategies like have a customer referral program and Affiliate Marketing because such programs encourage customer loyalty and at the same time helps in achieving goals.

With the referral marketing strategy, Kudler can create opportunities for people to refer business. Customers can provide testimonials to convince others how good the products are thus increasing the customer base. Affiliate marketing is alliance partnership method of marketing that can provide passive income for the business. “Simply stated it’s a pay for performance marketing” (Denise, O’Berry, 2006, p. 122).

References

Virtual Organizations: Kudler Fine Food’s, 2008.

https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Kudler/KudlerHome002.htm

Kerin, Roger A. Hartley, Steven W. Berkowitz, Eric N. Rudelius, William (2006) Marketing, 8e. New York. The McGraw-Hill companies

Denise, O’Berry, 2006, p. 122

http://books.google.com/books?id=hRR96wOTAGIC&pg=PA122&dq=business+strategies+catering&hl=en&ei=KMbETLHxHYH6swPV2M2cDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=business%20strategies%20catering&f=false