Importance of online Advertising

IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING

Importance of Online Advertising

University of Phoenix

February 18, 2007

BSA310

Importance of Online Advertising

Kathy Kudler opened Kudler Fine Foods in 1998 to allow people with one place to shop for a broad medley of fresh food one would find at specialty stores. Kathy had success with her store and soon expanded into two other locations and has a vision of further expansion along with creating a mutual relationship with her customers. Although she has developed good plans to help market her stores, she has neglected the importance of online advertising and needs to expand her marketing scheme on her website. The article More Marketing Goes Online (2007) evaluates the increase of electronic commerce and the necessity of online marketing tools. The importance of online marketing is emphasized by the fact that most people use the internet to learn about products and search for the best deals. The internet has become an important source of information for individuals and has grown to encompass a wide variety of uses.

Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet groceries store located in southern California. Kathy Kudler opened the store because she has a passion for cooking and was tired of driving around town to obtain the ingredients she needed at specialty stores. This store was a place where she could do all her shopping and believed that others who shared her passion for cooking would also appreciate her store. Kathy was met with approval and her store was a success. She quickly opened in other locations in 2000 and 2003.

Kathy plans to continue expanding as well as to create a mutual relationship with her customers. One of the marketing strategies Kudler uses are cooking parties held at the store; where famous chefs are invited to come show visitors how to prepare exquisite meals. Such events draw people into the store to help encourage consumer purchasing. Kudler events are also offered at private residences for a fee.

A shopper loyalty award system is another strategy Kudler uses; where consumer purchases are tracked and points are awarded to the customer who later can trade points in for various high quality rewards. An award system encourages consumer spending and allows Kudler a way of keeping track of a costumer’s purchases to help provide insight as to best satisfy that person’s needs.

Another strategy Kudler is pursuing is the cutback of costs associated with purchasing and storing of goods and lost cost associated with untrained professionals and bad company logistics. They are looking at other companies for clues to run their services more efficiently, have trained personnel, and acquired new integrated software systems. The training will help to expand the relationship with the customers as well as create a knowledgeable staff that will work more efficient with the new systems that create a more logistical structure to the company. One of the new integrated software being developed will keep track of consumer’s historical behavior of items purchased.

To get the word out to people about the store, Kudler uses traditional advertising through different medians. Along with marketing through radio, television and the newspaper; Kudler also sponsors public events to create a strong relationship with the community.

Although Kudler Fine Foods has done very well to market their stores, Kudler could benefit by upgrading their website to help promote the store to the public and encourage consumption. Kudler advertises in many medians, but has not taken advantage to advertise in a popular stream: online. Online advertising has advantages by being able to bring “accountability, breadth and the consumer (ABCs)” to marketing (Moore, 2005). “Accountability” allows an organization to know exactly what they are getting for its money. When Kudler invests money into building its website, they have a working site that they can use and will promote their stores. “Breadth” is the ability to track information regarding how well the marketing is working. With the help of online techniques, Kudler will know how many people visit the site and see what areas of the site are being used or not used. “Consumer” is the deliverance of the customer to the company. When people use the site and business picks up and feedback is positive; Kudler will know the effectiveness of their website. Kudler needs to look at marketing through the needs of the consumer: “solution, information, value,