Marketing research importance for Kudler Fine Foods strategy development

Kudler Fine Foods was created in an effort to provide high quality products to customers in the southern part of California. It offers clients a wide selection of specialty food products, including everything from baked goods to fresh produce and refined wines.

"Kudler Fine Foods is committed to providing our customers with the finest selection of the very best foods and wines so that your culinary visions can come true" (Website of Kudler Fine Foods, 2011).

In the development of its marketing strategies and tactics, Kudler Fine Foods places great emphasis on the role of the marketing research, as well as the analysis of the competition. This project sets out to assess just why and how important these features are in the creation of the marketing efforts.

a) Marketing research

Marketing research is mostly focused on the analysis of the customers' needs and wants, in an effort to ensure that the firm would be able to serve these needs and wants. The importance of market research is given by the growing importance of customers in the profit generation of economic agents, including that of Kudler Fine Foods.

Traditionally, the customer was the person purchasing whatever items the firms would produce, regardless of quality and price, as they needed the respective items. Today however, as a result of macroeconomic changes, among which globalization is the most notable one, there are more and more companies providing similar products and services. This virtually means that customers are presented with a wider selection of items from which to choose those products and services that best serve their needs. In other words, the customers are now the ones to tell the firms what to produce and sell, and they are the ones which impact sales and company profitability. Ergo, the analysis of the customers within the market is crucial to the overall business success.

Kudler Fine Foods operates in a relatively niche industry, in which the needs of the customers are highly specific. The fine foods retailer has to identify its customers and their particular needs. In case it does not manage to identify its target market and its needs, it even risks failure within the market. For instance, if Kudler Fine Foods were to create marketing strategies and tactics unsuitable for its customers, then it would not manage to attract them; it would not register sales and it would not as such be financially sustainable.

For example, Kulder Fine Foods would be expected to target people of both genders, of ages above 30 and who register above medium incomes -- or live in households that register incomes above the national average. The targeted individuals would reveal exquisite tastes in food and would not normally consume fast food products; they would be educated, sophisticated and demanding customers.

The initial understanding of the customers helps the marketing specialists at Kudler Fine Foods to develop the marketing strategies and tactics which best speak to the selected customers. The targeted individuals would for instance watch a specific television channel, so advertisements for Kudler would be aired during those shows; these customers would go to specific restaurants and would have specific leisure activities. Market research allows for the identification of the best means to communicate with the customers, and as such the ultimate development and implementation of the proper marketing strategies and tactics, which lead to overall company results.

b) Areas for additional market research

The Kudler Fine Foods current market research is limited to the means in which the customers perceive the company and its products. In essence, the marketing strategies and tactics revolve around the positioning of the firm in a means in which it is more appealing to customers. In other words, most of the marketing emphasis is being placed on the strengthening of the brand.

Efforts to strength the brand are always useful and necessary as part of the overall marketing tactic, yet it is necessary for Kudler Fine Foods to also focus on other aspects of the marketing research. These are generically linked to getting to know the customers, in an effort to best understand and serve their needs, even before the customers become aware of the existence of the respective needs. In this order of ideas, the following areas are proposed for additional research:

Customer behavior

Customer shopping preferences

Levels of customer consumption of specific specialty foods

Customer leisure time activities

Media consumption patterns of the customers

Factors which influence the decision making process for the selected customer base.

c) Industry research

The analysis of the market is essential, as has been previously mentioned, due to the need to identify and serve the customers needs and wants. But aside from knowing the customers, Kudler Fine Foods must also recognize and understand its competition. This desiderate is best achieved with the aid of the competitive intelligence and analysis efforts, which also play an important role in the construction of the marketing strategies and tactics.

As the processes of globalization and market liberalization intensified, economic agents became able to transcend boundaries and expand their businesses to foreign regions. Kulder Fine Foods is, for now at least, confined to three locations in Southern California (Kovach, 2010) and has not managed to expand its presence to other regions of the globe. Still, it faces competition not only from the United States, but also from abroad.

A crucial tool in overcoming the competitive threat is represented by strong marketing strategies and tactics. But these can only be created when research is completed to understand the competition. Some vital areas to consider in the completion of competitive intelligence and analysis include the following: