Kudlers

Marketing Research: Kudler Fine Food

MKT421 - Marketing

February 7, 2008

Marketing Research: Kudler Fine Food

Kudler Fine Foods is a company on the move. The company is poised to expand services, improve efficiency in the operations and increase the consumer purchase cycle. To accomplished these goals the companies marketing strategies will become a defining factor in how successful Kudler Fine Food will be at achieving there goals.

Kudler's has collected information from a survey in 2006 and 2007 to use in defining plans to rollout programs, which will help the company obtain its goals. What is Market Research?

"Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information - information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications" (Marketing Teachers Ltd., 2008).

These surveys are a way for Kudler Fine Foods to collect data as part of its market research. This type of data collection is using a questionnaire with fixed alternative questions that give respondents a chance to rate areas on a semantic differential scale, or a scale that use short descriptive adjectives, instead of numbers for rating (Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, Rudelius, 2006). The questionnaires ask 10 questions with a scale that ranges from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree." The value of these two surveys is potentially high; they give Kudler's a direct view of how customers feel about its products and services. The company can analyze how well they are using the "Four Ps" with certain questions, such as the customer's overall satisfaction with convenience place, value or price, and selection or product that will help define what promotions Kudler's offers the customers. The results of these surveys can be used to determine how a customer will react to the introduction of new services (Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, Rudelius, 2006).

The marketing mix or the four P's will guide Kudler Fine Foods towards the company's goals. "These are the marketing manager's controllable factors - product, price, promotion, and place - that can be used to solve a marketing problem. The marketing mix elements are called controllable factors because they are under the control of the marketing department in an organization." (Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, Rudelius, 2006). The product Kudler's offers is gourmet foods and catering services. Kudler Fine Foods is synonymous with gourmet and wish to present a unique catering service for the company's customers. Having a diverse menu would allow Kudler's to satisfy the needs of a wide customer base, but it also allows customers to choose how expensive the catering will be.

As Kudler prepares to launch its new catering service the company will need to research other, high-end local caters. The research will be to not only determine what the competition charges but their menus, list of services they offer and the types of events the competition caters. The data from this research will be used alongside the 2006 and 2007 surveys of Kudler's customers and Kudler's 2007 pricing guidelines. These guidelines represent a cost-plus minimum pricing strategy to reach the companies minimum 5% margin threshold, combined with a market-based strategy to build in additional margin around what the market is willing to bear. Price for products and services that are common among the local caters will strictly adhere to the cost minimum pricing strategy set in the sales plan. Products and services especially value added services will have additional margins built into the price. Kudler Fine Foods is offering services that no other company is offering, but Kudler's must be prepared to adjust pricing and strategies if their competitors start offering the products and services that were similar to Kudler. Kudler's sales plan designed to be adjusted based on data collected by the frequent buyer program. "The frequent purchase program will give us valuable data on customer purchase patterns. Beginning in Q1, sales will work with purchasing to adjust the product offerings on shelf to reflect the needs of our customers." (University of Phoenix, 2007). Data from the frequent purchase program will be used to track what catering services and menu items are most popular with Kudler's customers. The in-store cooking classes given by world-renowned chefs, catered events are expected to be upscale, feature unique menu items and Kudler's products that should generate word of mouth among target group. Kudler's current customers