Companies do this by gathering information about other similar companies, customers, and products. Competitive intelligence information is used in the decision making of managers and executives to support strategic decision making for the company. It is important for Kudler Fine Foods to know what their competitor is doing for several reasons. First, if their competitor is offering a promotion to the public that is attracting more business, then Kudler Fine Foods will want to offer something along the same lines so more business will sway in their direction. Second, although the company may feel that they offer the best product, if the public feels that the competitor is offering a better product, they may want to consider changing their supplier of certain food products.
It is vital for Kudler to continue reviewing and improving its information system to ensure its appropriateness to the changing characteristics and needs of its customers. More focus should be placed on forecasting techniques to ensure that there would be a match between what the company offers and what the customers need. The best decision may be to use a combination of methods to forecast sales rather than just one (Payne, 2012). Once the manager accepts the process, they must see to it that it is logical, it fits the needs of the organization, and it can adapt to changes in the environment. Threats and
Acquire or Develop Talent Tanglewood should acquire talent, because it wants to keep performance and customer service at high levels. In addition, while old stores under Tanglewood have the same basic look, the management styles and human resource can use some improvements. Acquire talent is very helpful for new stores, because employees would “hit the ground running” and be at the peak performance the moment they arrive. Hire Yourself or Outsource Personally, I think Tanglewood should hire itself. Outsourcing is more practical for small and medium companies.
Additionally, the author describes that hiring only those with good looks can run into antidiscrimination problems. Greenhouse concludes by suggesting that hiring for image leads to the increased prices of product, increased sales of products, and can give the impression of authenticity which eventually leads to what businesses want, profit. Whether retailers should hire only who project certain image it might be morally wrong or not is a provocative question. After considering the evidence presented in Greenhouse’s article and my own experiences, I can fully support retailers company hire only attractive applicants. I am opposed to companies hiring applicants based on their physical appearances in part because hiring good looking people is an advantage to the company, it shows how people are treated differently based on their appearance.To illustrate, Mr. Serrano, a former Abercrombie and Fitch employee emphasizes that, “We were supposed to approach someone in the mall who we think will look attractive in our store.” (p2).
Kudler Fine Foods Issues The decision to open a gourmet fine foods store was generally a good one for Kathy Kudler, even though she had no experience in running such a store. Kathy concentrates on the needs and wants of her customers, which makes her selections of wine, cheese, produce, baked goods all the more special. Kathy started the business with one store and has grown into three with a possibility of a fourth. Although this growth is impressive, there are several issues that Kathy needs to address before they become major problems and the business suffers. Kathy’s issues start with staffing.
Company G has prided itself on cultivating relationships with it's suppliers built on honesty, confidence, and allegiance in order to facilitate profits for both parties. However, as popularity may grow for the product so too may the market and suppliers might consider increasing costs, in which case a fixed contract would be discussed. Threat from Substitutes – If the Little Wonder does prosper their may be threats from substitutes from larger companies that are able to produce a similar product on an increased scale thereby reducing it's price and making it difficult for Company G to compete. SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis has been done for Company G and the outcome is clearly positive. The details of that evaluation: STRENGTHS Dedication from management, employees, and suppliers 1.
The process of attracting new customers can be an alarming duty for any business. The frequent shopper program can be a productive implementation for structuring a loyal consumer foundation at Kudler Fine Foods. Rewarding consumers with points to exchange for delightful items will hold customer loyalty. The direct approach developed by KFF should focus on the privacy concerns or legal issues will arise. Making sure that consumers are aware of how ones personal information will be used will keep confusion down.
For the short term fix the organization would profit more by retaining the best candidates for the job. Thus there are some implementations that need to be in place. Make sure salaries are competitive, offer comp time, bonuses, dependent medical even if employees share the cost like co pay and incentive pay. Provide up-to-date tools and technologies to help employees work more efficiently and conduct roundtable discussions or take surveys from the employees on what priorities are important. National or Global: Recommendations for Tanglewood is national with the evidence of some regional managers operations.
You may not be able to offer or afford the low prices that the corporate chain store can charge or offer. By providing excellent customer service you can offset the effect of higher prices by offering a better customer service experience . to manage the higher prices they can satisfy the customers with marketing strategic techniques by spending money on advertising to get your products and service to be heard, do it gives a pleasure view of the quality of products, so this make the organisation feel very proud of offering sensational customer service. How does effective customer service benefit the employees Creating a successful working environment can enhance the importance of leading improvised employees and their morals of giving customer satisfaction and they are eager to help and put irate customers ease and improve their shopping experience. So therefore, it can overwhelmingly lead to a pleasant working environment which makes employees feel satisfied and good at what they do.
Therefore, the main challenge Innocent might face is to trying to increase the demand. To increase the demand they might have to lower the price of the goods. This means that they need to provide cheaper price so that customers can afford. Innocent also need to create or develop new products to add extra value. They might go to talk with customers to observe what products they buy and how much they pay for it.