Custom «Kudler Fine Foods Organization» Essay Paper

Kudler Fine Foods refers to a virtual organization, whose founder was Kathy Kudler in 1998, in California, that deals with selling of gourmet foods  (Apollo Group, 2005). Kathy Kudler’s vision led to the establishment of Kudler Fine Foods stores. According to Kathy, it will be more convenient to do gourmet shopping in a location than purchase a number of ingredients from various stores distributed in the area. This organization offers a broad range of gourmet foods, such as cheeses, and fine wines, organic meats, spices, and exotic herbs,  seafood, and European-style baked foods. Kudler uses an effective marketing plan to guide its business venture (Apollo Group, 2005). Marketing research is a crucial element of a marketing plan, and this has a significant influence on the organizations success. This paper will consider the vision of Kudler Fine Foods, significance of the marketing research in the development of the marketing strategy and tactics of Kudler Fine Foods, identification of the areas that require additional market research, and an analysis regarding the development of the marketing tactics and strategy.

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Market Research

The success of an organization also depends on regular market research during which an organization gathers relevant data on the services and commodities within the marketplace to analyze and present (Apollo Group, 2005). Strategic decisions become available after the analysis of the market research and the identification of potential opportunities in the target markets. A number of data collection techniques that exist in a market research include qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative methods assign statistical numbers and sizes to the collected samples as small or large (Kudler Intranet, 2005). Qualitative research techniques are useful in social sciences and marketing, in which an organization obtains data from small groups of respondents, analyze with various statistics apart from inferential statistics (Kudler Intranet, 2005). Successful organizations must gather accurate information that concerns customers, the marketplace and products sold for market research. Once the data is accurate, the market research can undergo a closer development to meet the target market. Therefore, an organization should conduct a market research thoroughly in order to develop its business plan (Apollo Group, 2005).    

Analysis of Market Research

Customer surveys between 2009 and 2010 provided a significant data, whose analysis provided critical areas of concern (Apollo Group, 2005). Such surveys showed that clients consider Kudler Fine Foods as an organization, whose customer service personnel lack courteousness, purchases are not valuable, and whose selection of products is limited. Such complaints are usually detrimental to organizations and can have collective exponential impacts on organizations (Apollo Group, 2005). Therefore, Kudler Fine Foods must attend to each complaint to ensure that customers are satisfied with the products and services offered. The current marketing objective of Kudler focuses on the frequent shopper program, increasing efficiencies and expanding services (Kudler Intranet, 2005).

Expanding Services

The Chief Executive Officer of Kudler Fine Foods suggests that the provided services will increase the rate of customer purchase of beverages and food (Kudler Intranet, 2005). Cooking demonstrates that celebrities, food experts and local chefs provide some traffic for the organization. However, additional research clarifies the demand for various services. In addition, the organization must determine the costs that celebrities, food experts and local chefs involve (Apollo Group, 2005). The organization should also determine the fair market price regarding the services provided, and if the potential customers prefer the groceries that they purchase on their own and those that the cooking instructors purchase (Kudler Intranet, 2005).

Frequent Shopper Program

The Frequent Shopper Program of Kudler tracks clients’ purchase behaviors and provides valuable incentives through earning loyalty points. The purchase behavior patterns of the clients help this organization refine its offerings and processes to satisfy customers in the best way (Apollo Group, 2005). Kudler should do enough research to determine the high-end gift items, specialty foods, or first-class upgrades for airlines that will customers due to a loyalty program. Identification of the needs and wants of the client is a significant task for an organization, because the high-end gifts are a nice sign for increased customer royalty and increased sales (Kudler Intranet, 2005). It is crucial for Kudler Fine Foods to evaluate the current Frequent Shopper Program, so that it can receive adequate returns on investment (Apollo Group, 2005). If an organization cannot be able to evaluate the Frequent Shopper Program, the organization should alter the mix of their rewards, or take a step to eliminate the frequent shopper program, and base the marketing budget toward other incentive. Research has shown that the presence of a frequent shopper program attracts many clients, which enables a company to enhance customer royalty (Kudler Intranet, 2005). The program will record, monitor and analyze the buying habits of customers to help Kudler Foods customer purchase automatically and manage customer loyalty points based on the purchases. Refining all process for Kudler Foods will be easy, once the automated program captures the shopping behavior information of customers.

Increased Efficiencies

Kudler benchmarks Nordstrom department stores. This organization is developing the training programs for employees, and it integrates appropriate software systems, which will enhance their efforts (Kudler Intranet, 2005). To address the under-performing client service level of Kudler, it is ideal for the company to establish industry leading benchmarks. It is necessary for the organization to identify the service components that its clients desire. In some positions or cases simple similes might suffice clients’ needs, while in other departments, or positions, the presence of a courtesy and knowledgeable staff member is crucial (Kudler Intranet, 2005). In general, Kudler should establish the primary client service needs for all workers. Some of these needs include availability, politeness, good grooming and friendliness. The secondary client service needs include training and knowledge in field, or department. Research and documentation of secondary and primary customer service wants will make sure that hiring and training can be a way of reaching the ideal service benchmarks (Apollo Group, 2005).

Kudler Fine Food must stock rare products, which will meet the needs of the target market. This organization stocks an extensive cheese selection and a variety of fish and meat selections. Additional research is necessary for revealing if Kudler stocks appropriate combination of each commodity (Kudler Intranet, 2005). Clients have the alternative to special order products and this will require Kudler Fine Foods to evaluate the turnover rates of the products. Kudler stocks such products regularly. This organization will utilize a software system in the purchasing department to obtain many answers to questions related to inventory. Kudler will also use automated inventory management to control stock, decrease waste, increase profits, and increase the inventory turns (Apollo Group, 2005).

Conclusion

The current marketing objective of Kudler Fine Food focuses on frequent shopper program, increased efficiencies, and expanding services. Kudler should be able to rectify the current trends, which gain exposure through customer surveys. As a result, this organization will satisfy the needs of its clients for a broad selection of commodities, the value of its products and the courteous of customer service attendants (Kudler Intranet, 2005). Marketing research is extremely significant in the developing the marketing tactics and strategy of Kudler Fine Foods. This research identifies various areas where marketing research should take place. Lastly, marketing research provides an analysis concerning the development of the marketing tactics and strategy of Kudler Fine Food (Apollo Group, 2005).