Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods Strategy Overview

April 26, 2012

Kudler Fine Foods

Company Overview

In 1998 Kathy Kudler founded an up-scale gourmet food store and named it Kudler Fine Foods. She did not have any prior experience in business or running a store but she had a passion for fine foods. Nevertheless her passion and confidence in gourmet food and that it can be sold at a reasonable price for all consumers to try helped her build a successful business. Her I can do it attitude turned into tree successful gourmet stores. The first stores doors were opened in 1998 in La Jolla, the other store opened in 2000 in Delmar. The third store opened in 2003 in Encinitas. Mrs. Kudler has built a shining example of how to become a successful business using the proper marketing tools.

The marketing process has four key components which are promoting the product, designing a satisfying product, placing the product in a place where people will buy it and setting a price for the product. (Nickels-McHugh-McHugh: Understanding Business, Eighth Edition - Marketing: Developing and Implementing Customer - Oriented Marketing Plans, pg .352). To make her business a success she had to put in long hours, maintain direct control over hiring, work seven days a week and deal with customer service and ordering for the all stores.

Problem Statement

Being that Kudler Foods wants to continue to cater to the tech-savvy and affluent demographic they must stay true to their mission statement. They must make sure they keep in stock the very best produce, meats, wines and cheese as well as provide user-friendly website because the consumers will expect nothing less than that.

Opportunities and Challenges

The success of an organization is based on the organizations implementation of its' strategy. The planning stage is a critical function of management. The opportunities need to align with the company's overall goals and objectives or the company could lose its focus. The idea to stay flexible, listen to the customer's request, and seize the opportunities when they come involves decision- making (Nickels-McHugh-McHugh: Understanding Business, Eighth Edition, Management, Leadership and Employee Empowerment pg 188).

Looking at the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats analysis (SWOT) the main focal point should be given to information technology. Mrs. Kathy has decided on updating the ordering and inventory automation system by adding an online ordering and e-commerce (Kudler Fine Foods Portal, Strategic Plan, pgs 15-16). Many rising and successful organizations utilize information technology to improve customer service and boost operation flow, and to use competitive knowledge to gather information about their direct competition. By implementing inventory and ordering systems and creating a new website will help focus the cash flow in the areas that need to be focused on. Researching other products and knowing what s in high demand will allow Kathy to forecast any changes that may need to make to maintain her increasing customer's demands. In addition having prior knowledge of the trends will better prepare the company for any unpredictable threats when it comes to their expansion plans. Employee morale may take a hit because of the updating of the systems.

Being that a vast majority of Mrs. Kudler love her because she is kind and generous to them, it is safe to say that the revamp of the IT system will be an advantage to the organization by increasing productivity and improve teamwork, communication and productivity. The ability to gather information on competitors is part of the competitive intelligence that will help to prepare Kudler be more competitive.

Mrs. Kudler has shown that she pays great attention to detail when it come to business so developing a plan that will give her a competitive edge by focusing on strategic awareness will only help her continue her success. "Kudler Fine Foods is committed to providing our customer with the finest selection of the very best foods and wines so that our culinary visions can come true" (Kudler Fine Foods Portal, Strategic Plan, pg 1).

Mrs. Kudler decided to create Kudler Fine Foods when she went to her local grocery store and they did not have the items she was looking for.

The bakery department's commitment to its customers is if the baked goods purchased from our store are not the best you have tasted, then the purchase is free.