Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods was founded by Kathy Kudler in 1998. She developed her business to be an upscale gourmet food market. The store is located in the San Diego metropolitan area. Kudler provides a selection of bakery products, fresh produce, meats & sea foods, condiments and specialty dairy products. Kathy successfully combined affordability within an upscale epicurean food shop. Under Kathy's leadership, Kudler Foods became profitable within nine months of opening their doors. In 2000, a second store was opened and by 2003 the third shop was opened. There are plans to develop a frequent shopper program for all three of their stores in California.

Competitive intelligence is a vital part of the strategic planning of any business. To be successful Kudler Fine Foods continuously monitor the competitors within their specific market area. Their identified competitors would consist of any rival with whom they compete for market share. Marketing managers try to determine what their competitors will do before they actually do it. This strategic marketing will assist Kudler in counter act the plans of the competition. There must be defined calculations of business decisions based upon the information or analysis received. Components of successful competitive intelligence consist of an assessment of strategies, the perception the competition has of your product, effective operations, an understanding of the competition's capabilities, and a long-term forecast of the shared market.

Effective marketing addresses the consumers' needs. Kudler has continued to expand their business ventures to achieve their goals of providing their consumers with the finest affordable specialty foods. With Kathy's background in gourmet cooking she can continue to grow her business through offering services as specialty foods and catering services. Part of Kudler's marketing strategy they provide surveys to collect consumer reaction and satisfaction with their products and services. These surveys showed that consumers were not completely satisfied, and did not offer enough information the properly track and trend consumer reaction. There needs to be more analysis to determine the correct actions to take to resolve the dissatisfaction. More defined marketing analysis can identify the problem to increase customer satisfaction.

Kudler's quick success may have miss guided their marketing direction. There is not a strong organized marketing plan in place to evaluate how effective their decisions are. There are opportunities in society for Kudler to base their marketing strategies on. With the increase in wellness and fitness concerns Kudler can base their marketing strategies off of the direct correlation between consumer wants and their product and services. This awareness changes consumer's purchasing habits which Kudler can directly benefit from through effective marketing. Kudler can capitalize marketing strategies due to their organic based options. Additional research is needed by the organization on how to appropriately educate their targeted consumer market about their products, services and availability. The company must also make strides in developing consumer loyalty.

Kudler's current effort of providing a frequent shopper program is the first step in establishing stronger market awareness. This is a strong advertising tool but must An important factor for staying on top is being aware of the competition factor. Kudler has to not only establish their personal goals and business aspirations, but they have to know what is happening in the market place and find out who their competition is and what they are doing. At this time Kudler currently provides customers with educational experiences to create interest in products and as a great advertising tool for the stores. This current program coupled with a frequent shopper program would be beneficial for both the consumer and Kudler.

The in-store events at Kudler provide an atmosphere for more than just sales opportunities, but also a place for research and feedback from the customers. Kudler is consistently focused on the expansion of their consumer base and this includes expansion of the offerings of services and products to meet and exceed customer's needs. Through these activities Kudler would gain customer loyalty reaching their goal of customer satisfaction. Research has shown customer loyalty has a profound effect on business results. Customer satisfaction is only the first step in continued business success the next phase is gaining loyalty. The results from customer loyalty are repurchases on a more frequent basis and recommendations by current customers to potential customers.

Utilizing their current inventory processes Kudler will need to determine popular food items and recipes for their catering services by tracking the items used for their on-site events and their top purchased items. Through this process they would be able to determine a food menu to entice customers. A list of attendees from the on-site events would be a good starting place for surveying and determining possible interest for moving forward in pursuing the new business endeavor. Many of the customers attending the events would be the most loyal and would potentially provide the best feedback based on their current engagement in food preparation.

Kudler has maintained their success through loyal customers and convenience. The placement and marketing of the catering services will need to focus on the second portion of their mission, convenience. Positioning the service as convenience for those larger events requiring more than one cook or when timing is short. This could be a responsibility consumers of Kudler may not easily want to give-up, as their interests are in cooking and creating their own gourmet meals. By focusing on the convenience portion the costumer would feel less guilty about their lack of involvement in the preparation process. Kudler has continued to measure their inventory by a demand strategy they could also implement this into their catering services and provide customers with the opportunity to choice their own menu based on their needs.

Kudler not only determines their inventory through the demand strategy, but they also use the demand pricing strategy. This has been a successful tool in the past, but special consideration will be needed while they are implementing new products and services into their currently line-up. With any specialty gourmet item the price will be slightly higher, as you are paying for the quality of your items and services. Due to the nature of the business Kudler will need to provide exemplarily