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Kathy Kudler, passionate about gourmet cooking, founded Kudler Fine Foods in 1998. Since 1998, Kudler has grown and boasts three locations in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas. The Kudler locations offer their customers imported and domestic products from the bakery, meat & seafood, produce, cheese & dairy, and wine departments. Experiencing a significant growth, Kudler is focused upon expanding service offered, operations efficiency, and increasing consumer purchasing. Kudler Fine Food’s mission is to “provide their customers with the finest selected foodstuff, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2008). In order to reach their goals, Kudler must recognize the marketing strategies and tactics needed to promote the company’s new services. We will examine the marketing strategies and tactics, additional areas of needed marketing research, and identify the importance of competitive intelligence.
Marketing research in the development of Kudler Fine Food’s marketing strategy and tactics is very important when creating a business plan for new products and services. Marketing research is the gathering of information on customers, competitors, and the product market. The information gathered is invaluable to Kudler in that it will identify the company’s overall target market characteristics like age, location, gender, and income level. Once a company decides to develop or launch a new product or service it is essential that they conduct a thorough and focused marketing research. If this is done any decisions that are based upon the marketing research plan will minimize the risks involved as well as pay dividends. As the business continues to thrive with the new product it is essential for the company to conduct follow up marketing research on their product throughout the lifecycle of the product it will assist the company if better communication with customers, minimize the company’s risk, identify opportunities, and create a standard to measure progress of the service.
When a business conducts thorough market research for the duration of the service, the company is communicating with current customers. This assists the company in two ways; the first area is that the company is obtaining valuable information from current customers that reflect how the customer’s needs are being met. The second way it assists the company is that it takes the deductive reasoning out of customer service and gives the customer the sense that the company cares. This step is important to the company and the customer because it provides accurate feedback on whether the company is providing the best possible service. Conducting proper market research, it provides the company a chance to minimize the risk that is associated with introducing a new service. The company is given a chance to fine tune the marketing strategy to fit into the targeted market. It also gives the company a chance to see what provisions need changed with the product so that the company is meeting the needs of the purchasing consumers. Marketing research allows the company a variety of opportunities that will assist them in marketing to the targeted audience.
By conducting additional marketing research, the company will be given an opportunity to market to individuals who have already developed a predetermined notion of the company and the services it offers. By marketing to these individuals, it gives the company the opportunity to change their mind and perfect the marketing message. Businesses are always trying to develop a standard that they can measure their success against and utilizing marketing research can give them a benchmark standard. This benchmark standard will assist them in measuring their progress and how well the business is performing. By creating a standard or benchmark to measure off of the company can see where there needs to be fine tuning to prevent issues with the service. By not using marketing research the company would never know about these issues and this could result in the company doing poorly in relation to their new product or service. Additional Market Research Needs
Additional market research may be needed in areas such as the identification of potential target customers, new territorial areas and new marketing and sales promotions. Taking the time to investigate what people want is key to meeting their expectations. Questions such as: – What one item is not in stock that you would like to see? – How much would you pay for that one item? – How often would you purchase that item? These lead shoppers to ask what is it they want and need that we cannot provide. Knowing this for each location can target those specific stores and their clientele – and earn repeat business. The quantifiable need has to be there in order to undertake such a venture, but it will allow managers and purchasing agents to see what it is that their customers want. These items may not be the same for each location. Thorough analysis needs to be done at both the store and company levels to determine the scope of the initiative. Comparison shopping of other stores is also critical. Doing so – especially for a gourmet grocery store – will allow management to determine the best prices to compete with local chain stores while not compromising on the overall quality of our items. If another store carries a brand Kudler’s carries, then it should be tracked for movement and cost. This will help management determine if the item should have a price reduction or even a small ad campaign showcasing it to the local consumers.
Competitive Intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publically available information about competitors and developments in the marketplace. The importance of competitive intelligence is to improve strategic decision making, assess, and track competitor’s actions, and to provide early warning of opportunities and threats (Armstrong & Kotler, 2009). This information can be about the product, customers, competitors, etc.., and is essential for the company when planning new marketing strategies and tactics. This information can be gathered both internally and externally using such sources as business libraries, web sites, census data, government information, public records and any previous marketing research that has been conducted by the company.
When a company needs to plan a competitive strategy, they will use any other these sources to obtain enough information on the competitor and the market to make their strategy successful. Competitive intelligence remains ethical and legal when they use external sources like public records. If a company chooses to go through the others trash or use some form of spyware to obtain access to their computers, they would be using a form of spying which can be considered illegal and unethical.
Kudler has to keep in mind that the type of store they have is becoming more popular in which, there are more of this type of specialty store opening. Since Kudler is an already established company in this area it gives them an advantage over their competition. Keeping this advantage is going to be Kudler’s biggest challenge and will require extensive marketing research being done on the competition. Kudler has to make sure that their ideas are going to assist them in the market and enable them to stand out against their competition. When checking on the competition Kudler needs to evaluate their prices, items, service, promotions, and sales. If the competition is utilizing a rewards program/ point system is the program giving the customer a better deal than Kudler and are the competitions prices better. These are some of the areas in which competitive intelligence become vital for Kudler.
Kudler is off to a fine start in thinking up new ideas to keep their store out in the front of the competition. With the development of new marketing strategies comes a constant need to make readjustments to their marketing strategy and tactics. Marketing research needs to be conducted at different intervals during the introduction of Kudler’s new services to its customers. Re-conducting the marketing research needs done to maintain their loyalty and to obtain information about the market to make sure that they are continuing to meet their customers’ needs. If this store continues to meet and exceed its customer’s expectations it will remain one of the most successful stores in this San Diego area.
Armstrong, G. & Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing: An introduction (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Perrault, W.D., Cannon, J.P., & McCarthy, E.J. Jr. (2009). Basic marketing: A global-managerial approach (17th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
University of Phoenix. (2008). Kudler Fine Foods [Computer Software]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, Simulation, MKT421 – Marketing website.
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