Kudler Fine Food - Marketing Essay Example for Free

Kudler Fine Food Marketing Essay With the marketing focus review, this paper will discuss the potential technology solutions for customer contests, loyalty points programs, purchase tracking, benchmarking of internal versus external service processes, and the management of inventory and related costs. Also concepts such as consumer databases and customer relationship management systems (CRM) will be elaborated upon. A potential technology solution to support customer contests can be achieved through a simple manner of employing an online survey that can be held daily. A winner would be selected each day. The winner would enjoy the prize of being in the presence of Kathy Kudler in being taught how to prepare specialty foods in a cooking class. Another suggestion for a prize would be to provide tickets to special and private events that are held by Kudler Fine Foods. On the technology end of this solution, the customer would fill out the online survey and the information would be stored in a database. At the end of the month, a winner would be randomly selected from the database for the contest. The cost of the implementing and maintaining a program and the database would be affordable for Kudler Fine Foods. Essentially, the time and cost would be made up by the targeted customer’s desire to enter said contests to fully enjoy the Kudler Fine Foods executive experience. Also another option for a prize is to have cooking classes that are presented by cooking professionals, celebrities, or food experts rather than just the owner, Kathy Kudler. The Loyalty Points Program, also known as â€Å"frequent shopper program†, is a program that would allow the customer to accumulate points that can be used within the Kudler Fine Foods stores. With this program, customers shopping and purchasing habits can also be tracked. With the points that have been accumulated by the customer, the points can be exchanged for high-end items within the stores. By employing this program, Kudler Fine Foods will be more familiar with their customers as well as their spending habits. In addition to, this program will allow Kudler Fine Foods to keep track of each and every customer on the frequency of their visits to the stores and keep having them come back to accumulate more points. On the technology side of this programs, a data management system would be need to be constructed and maintained in order to keep track of the multitude of customers and their accumulation of â€Å"loyalty† points. This data management system would service all of the Kudler Fine Foods stores in ensuring that the all of the data is integrated for new customers, customer information is updated, and that duplicates are prevented. To allow customers to redeem their accumulated â€Å"loyalty† points, web servers would need to be set up to assist with the vast amount of data. Also, redundancy of the said servers would need to be implemented in case there is a hardware or software failure. The most important piece of the â€Å"loyalty† program is the card itself. It is a card that the customer would carry and has a unique identifier dedicated to that customer. With these cards, the customer can view online their accumulated points and purchases at Kudler Fine Foods. Kudler Fine Foods utilizes purchase tracking to follow profit, profit margin, and transactions that have taken place over a period of time. With the large amounts of data, Kudler Fine Foods will need an effective, efficient, and accurate means of capturing and storing this information. In stating that, the main server will need to be located at the main store so as to be a focal point for all communications that happen between all stores. Benchmarking can be described as the most effective method in relation to both products and processes. Other successful business entities that are similar to Kudler Fine Foods can be viewed as a model such as Wal-mart. Being able to view Wal-mart as a model for the processes, Kudler Fine Foods is able to meet benchmarking, if not higher, and continuously improve on it products and processes. On the technology side of benchmarking, online web based training courses can be created to teach and inform employees on the new products and services. An important part of Kudler Fine Foods is inventory management since Kudler Fine Foods is a store that sells a large amount of fine foods. Not knowing what is in stock can lead to an overstock or a shortage of merchandise. Having an overstock simply spells wasted money that could have been spent elsewhere. Having a shortage of product would lead to dissatisfied customers. On the technology side of inventory management, IT is a huge factor in tracking, recording, and warning about inventory. A main server would be connected to the point-of-sales machines and continuously keep track of all of the inventory from each and every store. The inventory management system would always be updated from when a new inventory is placed into stock and when an item is taken out of inventory. In conclusion, Kudler Fine Foods currently has a strong foothold in its marketing abilities. Employing the suggested potential technology solutions would not only promote efficient and effective processes but would also allow for room potential growth and increased revenue. With this vision in mind, this mission statement of Kudler Fine Foods will be met successfully as well as all of the standards that Kathy Kudler is counting on. References https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Kudler2/internet/index. asp