Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods Market Research.

Could you help me with my paper, I am strapped for time and need some help with market research on Kudler Fine Foods. The company is a gourmet grocery store that has experienced significant growth and is now focused on expanding its services, improving the efficiency of its operations, and increasing the consumer purchase cycle. I have to prepare a 1,050-1,400-word paper justify the importance of marketing research in the development of Kudler Fine FoodÐŽ¦s marketing strategy and tactics, and identify the areas where additional market research is needed. Also, analyze the importance of competitive intelligence and analysis in regards to the development of Kudler Fine FoodÐŽ¦s marketing strategy and tactics.

Strategy and Marketing Research

"In the emerging economy, a firm's only advantage is its ability to leverage and utilize its knowledge."

...Larry Prusak, Executive Director - The Institute for Knowledge Management

We are living in an economy of kaleidoscopic change where the only element, which is constant, is change. The industry environment is being influenced by unexpected, multiple changes reducing the period for which organizations can hold on to a competitive advantage. Every sector of industry in every corner of the globe has been affected by this change. There are fundamental questions that all businesses must ask themselves to play a pro-active role in the competitive environment:

„« What to change?

„« When to change?

„« How to change?

„« How fast to change?

„« How to ensure the capability to change?

They lacked the direction and commitment to organize the necessary changes to maintain their position as a leader. They needed to constantly renew their processes, their knowledge, their technology, their people, and finally, their strategies.

To maintain a competitive advantage, all businesses should concentrate on the 5 strategic pillars for a high-performance company:

„« Leadership

„« Innovation

„« Information Technology

„« Organizational excellence and agility

„« Knowledge

( Hamel, G)

A successful organization constantly redefines their methods of creativity and problem solving.

For any high performance organization, knowledge management is the central pillar in its strategic plans. For this Marketing research plays an important role in collecting and interpreting the market information relevant to the organization.

Research is the search for and retrieval of existing, or discovery of new, information for a specific purpose. Research has many categories, from medical research to literary research. Marketing research (also called consumer research) is a form of business research. It is a form of applied sociology, which concentrates on understanding the behaviours, whims and preferences, of consumers in a market-based economy.

Hence marketing research is an important prerequisite to develop the marketing strategy of an Organization.

APPLICATION OF MARKETING RESEARCH TO KUDLER

It will be used in following manner:

1) Forecasting and business trend research

It will help in knowing the growth rate of the food industry. It is mainly secondary research as past data has to be gathered to find out the previous trends.

2) Market share and market potential

Market Share: The share of existing players in the industry. It will be known by secondary research primarily by industry reports, annual report and trade magazines.

Market Potential: is the limit approached by the market demand as industry marketing expenditure approaches infinity, for a given environment. The phrase for a given environment is crucial in the concept of marketing potential.

Total Market Potential = Number of buyers in the specific market under the given assumptions * quantity purchased by an average buyer * price of an average unit.

It will be done on the basis of secondary sources such as economic data of the country.

3) Segmentation and marketing mix research

The marketing mix approach to marketing is one model of creating and implementing marketing strategies. It stresses the "mixing" of various decision factors in such a way that both organizational and consumer objectives are attained. The most common variables used in constructing a marketing mix are price, promotion, product and distribution (also called placement). Segmentation involves classifying the market on various parameters such as flavor, age, region etc.

It will be mix of both primary and secondary research. The primary research has to be carried out to know the customer attitude, tastes and needs. Various trade journals, industry reports should also be referred as secondary source.

4) Image and market characteristic research

It has to be mix of both primary and secondary. Primary research is to be done to know the customer perception about the image of the company and the nature of market competition. Various trade journals, industry reports should