Business Strategy – Kudler Fine Foods
Alicia Walker
MMPLB 502: MANAGING THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
January 10, 2011
Joseph Bucci
Business Strategy – Kudler Fine Foods As companies grow a build customers bases and increase services to meet these demands there is a need to enhance information technologies to continually “Strategic management involves major decisions, business choices and actions that chart the course of the entire enterprise” (Gomez-Mejia et al., p 156). The undertaking of strategic planning is usually the responsibility of executive staff of a company and in this case consists mainly of owner Kathy Kudler. She, in fact hired an intern to help her to create Kudler Fine Food strategic plan. Kudler Fine Foods focus is to
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Kathy Kudler’s due diligence and leadership provides the direction of Kudler Fine Foods growth and sustainability plan. The direction focuses on the continual enhancement to improve efficiency for all stakeholders. The first part of the strategic plan provides the vision, “Kudler Fine Foods will be the premiere gourmet grocery store for those savvy shoppers who are searching for the finest meats, produce, cheeses and wine” (Kudler Fine Foods Virtual Portal Strategic Plan 2003, p. 3). Social responsibility is also defined because it provides the stakeholders a snapshot of the responsibility Kathy Kudler for not only her store (s) but also the surrounding communities. This example not only indicates her amazing business savvy, but leadership skills. She leads by example, which not only empowers her, but influences the people who work for her and with her in a positive way. Customer satisfaction appears to be one of the most important factors influencing the strategic planning of Kudler Fine Foods. Kathy Kudler’s vision to create Kudler Fine Foods was formed due to a need she desired that was lacking in her community. The vision, of course came to fruition, and as the strategic plan was developed in 2003, it was to focus on future growth and development of enhanced services. All aspects of the store provide guarantees and emphasis towards customer satisfaction and retention. Kathy Kudler realized then from the beginning
The American Marketing Association defines marketing as "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders". (2005) Simply put, marketing is the process by which businesses assess the needs and desires of consumers in order to provide products and/or services to meet those needs in the most efficient and cost effective manner. Truly effective marketers do market research in an effort to understand their target market and create marketing strategies based on the characterization of those in the target area.
Although Kudler Fine Foods has chosen two very specific markets to target, a more thorough understanding of those target markets is needed to deliver what they want. One of KFF’s target markets is gourmands. KFF’s research focus in this area has been primarily on the supply side: Kathy monitors what products the competition is offering, what products are advertised in gourmet magazines, and what products are shown at gourmet conventions and websites. To discover what gourmands want, KFF also needs to research the demand side. Mining on-line blogs and gourmet food forums are two ways KFF can increase its understanding of what gourmands want. Customer surveys, such as the ones KFF currently uses in-store, can also be revised and used both in-store and on-line. Specific areas to be researched include:
One current problem that Kudler Fine Foods has is that the strategic plan is not current, it does not fit the company’s current make up, and the owner is too involved in each store location to concentrate on the company’s long term
Kudler Fine Foods website needs a redesign. The website has no real good information other than directions to their stores, and while this information includes maps, it lacks store hours. Based on designs of other food stores like AJ’s Fine Foods (AJ's Fine Foods, 2012) , Sprouts Farmers Market (Sprouts Farmers Market, 2012) and Whole Foods (Whole Foods Market, 2012) , the website is lacking in many areas that would lead customers from website to brick and mortar store. One of the key areas of the current site that needs to be addressed is the very
Competitive intelligence and analysis is an important part of a business. Competitive intelligence is the art of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, individuals, concepts, information, ideas or data needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for a business. This includes a broad array from government intelligence to market intelligence to business intelligence (Competitive Intelligence, n.d.).
Kudler Fine Foods has had great success in the past and present with its mission and sales. Since its first upscale store opened in 1998, Kathy Kudler (Founder) has expanded and opened stores in two other locations. So, to further expand its operation, Kudler has decided to express interest in designing Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Shopper Program. This shopper program should
In this paper we will evaluate the Kudler website and make some recommend some improvements. Kudler Fine Foods website has strengths and weaknesses and we will evaluate the existing site and purposes improvements for redesigns while building on the strengths of the current sites. The following specifically addressed design are the style and artistic quality used on the website, navigation of the site, marketing strategy, performance of the whole site, e-commerce capabilities, the web community as a whole, and layout of the site.
Kudler Fine Foods has experienced growth in all areas except customer satisfaction with their pricing. By focusing on ways to reduce internal costs then product costs can be lowered enough to appease current customers and attract new ones. The culminating effect of this one action will generate an increase in sales, customer returns, and the overall shopping
Kudler Fine Foods is a local retailer of gourmet foods and ingredients. Through three store-front locations Kudler offers premium products to the local market and regional chefs or restaurants. Since their inception, Kudler Fine Foods has strived to provide the very best customer experience through quality products at reasonable prices and
Kudler fine foods are a high level specialty food store with the finest series of food and wine. The storehouse is dedicated to offering top class foods to their consumers. Kudler fine foods would love to make an innovative program to follow any customer acquisition through a frequent shopper program. The frequent shopper program would gift loyalty points and give the chance to convert those points towards Kudler fine food products. The frequent shopper program will store customer purchase behavior, demographic information, which will assist in any promotions and store
Kudler Fine Foods is a privately held upscale specialty food store, located in the metropolitan area of San Diego. Currently the company has three locations in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas. Kudler stores have a fine selection of bakery and pastry products, fresh produce, fresh meat, seafood, condiments, packaged food, cheese, and specialty dairy products. Each of the stores has a domestic and imported fare. The owners at Kudler are exploring ways to expand the organization and maximize profits. The three options for expansion are going public through and IPO, acquiring another organization in the same industry, and merging with another organization. This paper will list the three options
Kudler Fine Foods has decided to launch a product in both domestic and international markets. Kudler Fine Foods has determined that expanding their markets will allow domestic and international market growth generating an increase in profits. Many factors need to be considered when launching new products into domestic markets as well as international markets. Establishing a strategic communication plan will help the success rate of the launched product.
Today’s market demands organizations to have a strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan describes where the organization wants their organization to go. A strategic plan is a document used to communicate goals, and the actions needed to achieve those goals. In order to remain competitive every organization needs to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. They need to develop new products and services with increasing frequency. The design of these new products and services must meet, or exceed, customer expectations and at the same time, they must generate an acceptable financial return for the organization. However, any business that does not realize the importance of developing new products will not last very long as a consequence
Strategic Planning is one of the most fundamental factors in the success of an organization. This research project will discuss the importance of strategic planning as well as the different components of strategic planning. Many organizations fail to accomplish their goals and tasks due to the lacking of strategic planning. In order for their businesses to be successful, organizations need to be well informed about how the strategic planning process works.
This strategic plan has been developed by the Sixers Consultant Agency group in order to provide a road map for supports, services and organization development to the management of Grace Kennedy Foods over the next Five (5) years (Hansen, 2008). The Board of Directors, Managers and staff will meet quarterly as it relates to the progress of the relevant divisions and provide reviews and update the plan annually (Ecdus.org, n.d.).