Marketing: Kudler Fine Foods

Marketing: Kudler Fine Foods

Marketing is matching consumersпїЅ needs and wants with a company's product then maintaining the relationship between the company and the consumer (Kerin, Hartley, Burkowitz, & Rudelius, 2006, ch 1). Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) must utilize all aspects to be successful in determining who to offer these services to and what services to offer. Market research, controlling market factors, technology, and integration of KFFпїЅs organic produce are all areas that will have be considered when deciding how to get the best results.

Relative Value of Market Research

Prior to introducing a new product to a market, it is a good idea to perform market research. Market research is the gathering and analyzing of data and information to define the problems and opportunities associated with introduction of the new product (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 8). KFF already has customer surveys to help determine opportunities, but they also plan to implement a system where they can track customer purchases, and to perform studies on market size and opportunities, food marketing trends, and services benchmarking (Apollo Group, Inc., 2007, Sales & MarketingпїЅMarketing Overview).

The two pieces of market research that KFF already has is two customers surveys performed in 2006 and 2007. These surveys are a way for KFF 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 et al, 2006, ch 8). The questionnaire by KFF asks 10 questions with a scale that ranges from пїЅStrongly AgreeпїЅ to пїЅStrongly Disagree.пїЅ The value of these two surveys is potentially high, as they give KFF a direct view of how customers feel about its products and services. In particular, KFF can analyze how well they are using the пїЅFour PsпїЅ with certain questions, such as the customerпїЅs overall satisfaction with convenience (place), value (price), and selection (product) (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 1). The results of these surveys can be used to determine how a customer will react to the introduction of new services. In this case, the new service would be catering.

In order for the surveys to be of high value for KFFпїЅs marketing research, other data collection and research methods will have to be used. The surveys only offer a small piece of what KFF needs to improve or maintain to satisfy customers. KFF has already budgeted for studies that will help the marketing team better understand how the market will react to the addition of a catering service (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 8). Benchmarking other business that provide catering services, analyzing trends in the food market, and determine the market size and opportunities, combined with the surveys KFF has already taken, will give the marketing team a better idea of what particular items to serve, what KFF should expect to charge for these services, how best to promote the new catering service, and how to get those services to the customer.

Marketing Mix Components

The marketing mix is the factors that make up the issues that must be addressed by KFFпїЅs marketing team. Both controllable and uncontrollable factors make up the marketing mix. Uncontrollable, or environmental, factors can be placed into five groups: social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 1). For KFF, these factors may include other specialty food catering services in the area, economic stresses in the area reducing the desire for catering services, and regulations for food handling.

The marketing mix also includes controllable factors, or the пїЅFour Ps.пїЅ These factors include product, price, place, and promotion (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 1). Product is the service or good desired by a target group of consumers, price is the cost of the product to a customer, place is how the product is transferred to the customer, promotion is how the customer and the seller communicate about the product. KFF will need to focus on these four factors for their marketing strategy.

Product

KFF will need to determine the particular catering services to provide to its customers. By utilizing market research, the marketing team can determine the target group for its services, then what that target group needs or desires (Kerin et al., 2006, ch 1). The product itself will be able to satisfy the customer while using products that KFF already offers.

KFF has plans to offer cooking classes at its stores (Apollo Group, Inc.,