Marketing Research Paper – Kudler Fine Foods
Gathering reliable information is a crucial activity before the deployment of a rewarding marketing plan. Kudler Fine Foods is a specialty grocery store located in the San Diego Metropolitan area that focuses on high-end food products. The company hopes to expand its scope of operations and boost the loyalty of its customer base. In order to achieve these goals, the company will conduct marketing research to identify opportunities and threats that exist in the external environment (Staff 2012). Marketing research can be defined as the process of collecting custom data and competitive intelligence that will enable managers to make value-adding decisions. The following paper will analyze the importance of marketing research as it relates to the business plan of Kudler Fine Foods.
Areas that Require Additional Marketing Research
Kudler Fine Foods has enjoyed a high rate of success in the regional grocery store industry, but there are areas of weakness in the business model that must be explored. Currently, the company is only taking advantage of newspaper advertisements in the local area to run sales. The importance of newspaper as a marketing medium is rapidly diminishing for many businesses. Younger generations of consumers do use printed newspapers to obtain information in their daily lives – rather they opt to use social media, mobile technology, and other web-based technologies. In is essential that Kudler Fine Foods researches the viability of using these alternative marketing mediums to engage their customer base. Marketing research can be conducted to analyze the potential cost and return on investment of using these methods. In addition, data about the customer’s buying habits and preferences should be obtained to tailor