Kudler Fine Foods Too Fresh to Go Product Launch - Essay Example

?Running head: KUDLER FINE FOODS – “Too Fresh to Go” PRODUCT LAUNCH Kudler Fine Foods – “Too Fresh to Go” Product Launch Pamela Cook, Connie Johnson,Julie Edmunds Smith University of Phoenix Introduction Marketing has become a critical success factor in the business world of the 21st century. Kudler Fine Foods has embarked in a project of a new product launch targeting the Canadian marketplace. For the firm to succeed it must prepare an effective marketing plan that use good balance of different advertising techniques. The product the company created is called Too Fresh to Go meals. The product offers the customers a pre-cooked healthy meal that can be eaten at home. This product has the potential to penetrate the market well because there a necessity for these types of products among the working class that does not have time to cook every day. Product description Kudler Fine Foods is an establishment that offers a variety of fresh food products. The grocer is a specialty food store that offers bakery and pastry products, fresh produce, fresh meat and seafood, condiments and packaged food, and cheese and specialty dairy products. The company offers a variety of food products which are used in the context of gourmet cooking. There is a need for the company to offer other types of food products which are more conducive to a customer who doesn’t have the time to cook the gourmet meal. By introducing a new line of prepared fresh meals, the customer can take home the meal to eat it for dinner that night or at another point during the week. Too Fresh to Go meals will encompass the spirit of Kudler Fine Foods while providing a healthy, time-saving alternative for current customers. Too Fresh to Go will be positioned in the front of the store for convenience and will include everything a customer needs for a meal, including the appropriate packaging should the dish need to be warmed up to serve. These meals will be balanced, low-fat, and of the highest quality. For instance, a freshly prepared chicken dish, complimented by a leaf lettuce salad and couscous is one of the offerings. These offering will range from various meat and fish dishes to vegetarian meals. This new product line can help the company achieve sales growth and profitability by leveraging the existing product base and customer target market. From a foreign perspective, Too Fresh to Go can attract customers into the store for a fresh alternative for to-go food. Kudler Fine Foods and the introduction of Too Fresh to Go is a natural extension of the gourmet grocery store’s current product offerings. Kudler will also add to a customer’s convenience factor as well as appeal to those customers who may be hesitant to shop at a gourmet store if he or she is not a gourmet cook. These meals will fill a niche in the market whereby more working families are looking for healthy alternatives throughout the week to feed their families and do not want to turn to fast food. Whereas there are a variety of food preparation companies and local delivery companies, the pricing of these products prices them out of the market for some families. By extended this product offering at the grocery store, Kudler already has their target audience that would benefit from this type of product. In addition, Kudler already offers wine tasting classes and this product offering goes hand-in-hand with the nature of excellent customer service Kudler provides. Product positioning From a positioning perspective, the launch of Too Fresh to Go will be placed in the front of the store to add convenience to shoppers who do not have the time, as one of the key concepts of Too Fresh to Go is for working families who simply do not have the time to cook a gourmet meal each night. This section will be small at first in both locations, domestic and foreign, and will feature samples and a customer service specialist to answer any questions, nutritional and otherwise. The packaging will be bright and vibrant, but most importantly, this packaging will be able to be placed in the oven or microwave, offering customers further convenience when looking to heat up the meal to serve to their families. As Kudler offers a wide variety of gourmet wine and cheese, Kudler could also conveniently arrange wine parings or other products in the same section as ‘Too Fresh to Go’ to also introduce other already established product offerings that would compliment a meal. For instance, Kudler could pair a red wine that is on special for the week with a red meat dish or white wine with a vegetarian dish. This would increase sales for both Too Fresh to Go and other products offered by Kudler. Targeting From the targeting perspective, Kudler’s product offering is aiming to fill a gap in the market for healthy to-go food alternatives for the working family. There are many food offerings available for the working class family. Given Kudler’s target audience of more affluent customers in southern California, we believe that a healthy alternative to fast food or to-go orders from a myriad of restaurants would fit perfectly within the niche already serviced by Kudler. Health and wellness are most certainly a megatrend, which is defined as a trend that lasts several years (Kotler & Keller, 2007, p. 20). Given Kudler serves healthy audiences who seek out the best and freshest meat, produce, and seafood, at times, customers do not have always have the time to prepare a gourmet meal. Also, this product offering would add convenience to a shopper’s experience as the customer could do his or her grocery shopping and pick up a few Too Fresh to Go meals to supplement their cooking throughout the week. Given Kudler’s product offerings vary throughout the year with what is freshest in the market, the menu for ‘Too Fresh to Go’ could constantly be changed to reach the broadest audience. From a foreign expansion perspective, Kudler could leverage this product launch to garner brand equity with those in the marketplace and this launch could simply get people in the door of the store to familiarize them with Kudler and what the company and brand represents. Market needs While there are many to-go food alternatives available in both the domestic and foreign markets, there is a clear need for a healthy food alternative. Furthermore, as health in general is considered a megatrend, the need for this type of product will be around for several years to come. The grocery industry, as a whole, “fared well during the economic recession of the late 2000s” (Current Conditions, 2011). Furthermore, as more Americans chose to eat at home rather than go out during the late 2000s, which has continued on through current times, Too Fresh to Go is the right product offering at the right time and Canada is in the right international market (Current Conditions, 2011). From a foreign expansion perspective, Canada is a country with a population of approximately 34 million citizens, and an economy that is defined by a vast wealth of natural resources coupled with the strength its manufacturing and construction industries, the skilled labor force, and the health of the financial and services sectors (Overview, 2010). In addition, “Canada’s real GDP growth expanded at the fastest rate among the G-7 nations, averaging over 3 percent from 1997 to 2007” (Overview, 2010). The size of the market in Canada is that of a population of 34 million, however, these citizens are dispersed among 9 million km2. This unique population density translates into the need to expand Kudler into one of two of Canada’s largest cities, which include Toronto or Montreal (Key Data, 2010). Both of these cities are homes to working families who need Kudler’s type of product as a health alternative as well as Kudler in general to cater to the ever growing gourmet cooking trend in light of the recent economic downturn. Market potential and market growth The key to Kudler’s product launch success as well as expansion into Canada is predicated on the company building and leveraging positive brand equity with customers. According to Kotler and Keller, “brand equity is the added value endowed to products and services, reflected in how consumers think, feel, and act with respect to the brand, as well as the prices, market share, and profitability” (2007, p. 165). The Too Fresh to Go product launch perfectly complements Kudler’s current product mix as it serves to offer convenience for customers who still want to provide their families with the freshest gourmet meals on a to-go timetable. The market potential for this launch would take into consideration expansion with the company’s current customer base as well as the development of an entirely new customer base in Canada, a country with a large population, stable economy and working class families concentrated in two of Canada’s largest cities. Market growth can be driven by Too Fresh to Go’s success as detailed in the projections noted below. Growth is based on the success of fully integrating the Too Fresh to Go launch with Kudler and the company’s overall branding. Meaning, this product launch should look to speak to Kudler as a brand and as a company, bringing all of Kudler to the customer every time he or she purchases a Too Fresh to Go meal. Company SWOT analysis Kudler Fine Foods has several strengths that have made the company a success in its domestic marketplace. These strengths should carry over into the global expansion plans of the company. The firm has a strong reputation for offering quality, fresh, and great tasting products. The product the company sells are considered gourmet quality meals. This type of reputation will help the firm a lot is the launch of the Too Fresh Too Go brand. A weakness of the company is that the firm is not a major player in the food industry. For example a company such as Subway that has nearly 30,000 stores worldwide has greater brand value and customer recognition than Kudler Fine Foods. Another weakness of the company is its lack of experience doing business globally. An opportunity for the company is to successfully expand its operation in Canada in order to use Canada as a model for future expansion into other foreign marketplaces. A threat the company faces is imitators. Other food companies might come out with new lines of fresh meals for home to compete directly with the product offering of Kudler Fine Foods. Competition Kudler Fine Foods faces a lot of competition due to the fact that the food industry is extremely saturated. There are hundreds of frozen meal alternatives in the marketplace that can be microwave and ready to eat in a few minutes. Fortunately the Too Fresh to Go brand has key differentiating factor which is freshness. This attribute has to be focused in the advertising of the product in order to persuade a lot of microwave frozen food eaters to switch to a health alternatives that offers the same convenience benefits. The competition does not stop at the supermarket. Convenience stores have many food products that can be eaten instantly or heated up in a few minutes. The low prices, fast drive-through service, and value that the fast food industry offers is also a source of competition for the company. Firms that offer prepared food deliver to the homes of people are also competition. Marketing objectives and marketing strategy The marketing strategy of the company should focus on the differentiating factor of freshness. The objective of the marketing campaign is to penetrate the Canada marketplace by targeting the working class. The product the company is offering provides the customer with at meal that is ready in minutes that is fresh and full of nutritional value. The strategy the company should use must be based on reaching the masses. The population of Canada is 34 million people. Other than infants the product can be consumed by everyone. Due the quality of the food the company can offer great value for its customers. The marketing strategy is for the company to be able to create brand awareness of the product among the entire Canadian population. There certain segments of the population that would benefit more from the convenience and speed factor the brand offers. A single working mom could give their kids a nutritional meal without spending hours she does not have in the kitchen cooking. Family consumption of the product can help raise the sales of the product line. Pricing Marketing communication (including public relations) The company has to create a public relations campaign to reach the people of Canada. Three channels that must be used simultaneously are the written press, television, and radio. In order to lower the cost of advertising in television the firm can choose a substitute medium which is websites that broadcast television programming such as Hulu.com. The media loves to follow a good promotion. The company can start a contest for a trip around the globe for the winner of the contest. The 30 day trip would include four to five day visits in each of the seven continents. Billboards will be placed at strategic locations near industrial manufacturing sites, highly populated cities, and highly trafficked locations such as train station terminals. The company will advertise the brand using celebrity stars in the industry such as famous cooks. Due to the mass appeal of athletes using them as celebrity starts is also a good idea. Late night infomercials can be used to showcase the product line. A publicist with experience doing business in Canada must be hired to form part of the marketing team. The firm should also use the internet for marketing purposes and to provide customer service. Distribution strategy – Pamela Financial information – Pamela Market research – Pamela Conclusion - Pamela References Canada – Economic Overview. CountryWatch. (2010). Retrieved May 19, 2011 from http://www.countrywatch.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/cw_topic.aspx?type=text&vcountry=32&topic=MAOVR CultureGrams (2011). Canada. Retrieved May 22, 2011 from http://online.culturegrams.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/secure/world/world_country.php?contid=6&wmn=North_America&cid=192&cn=Canada. "Grocery Stores." Encyclopedia of American Industries. Online Edition. Gale, 2011. Reproduced in Business and Company Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.:Gale Group. 2011. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/servlet/BCRC Keller, K., & Kotler, P. (2006). Marketing Management (12th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Keller, K., & Kotler, P. (2007). A Framework for Marketing Management (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Kudler Fine Foods (2011); University of Phoenix Virtual Organizations. Retrieved May 06. 2011 from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Kudler2/index.htm Read More