Devising Marketing mix

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Kudler is interested in expanding its service offering to add a catering service in addition to the in-store parties that it currently offers. Look at the market research available on Kudler's intranet site and write a 1,400-1,750-word paper in which you provide examples of the kinds of opportunities Kudler has in its marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) for its new catering service. Specifically, do the following:
a. Assess the relative value of the three pieces of market research.

Strategy and Marketing Research

"In the emerging economy, a firm's only advantage is its ability to leverage and utilize its knowledge."
...Larry Prusak, Executive Director - The Institute for Knowledge Management
A successful organization constantly redefines their methods of creativity and problem solving. For any high performance organization, knowledge management is the central pillar in its strategic plans. For this Marketing research plays an important role in collecting and interpreting the market information relevant to the organization.
Research is the search for and retrieval of existing, or discovery of new, information for a specific purpose. Research has many categories, from medical research to literary research. Marketing research (also called consumer research) is a form of business research. It is a form of applied sociology, which concentrates on understanding the behaviours, whims and preferences, of consumers in a market-based economy. Hence marketing research is an important prerequisite to develop the marketing strategy of an Organization.

APPLICATION OF MARKETING RESEARCH TO KUDLER

It will be used in following manner:

Forecasting and business trend research
It will help in knowing the growth rate of the food industry. It is mainly secondary research as past data has to be gathered to find out the previous trends.

Market share and market potential
Market Share: The share of existing players in the industry. It will be known by secondary research primarily by industry reports, annual report and trade magazines.

Market Potential: is the limit approached by the market demand as industry marketing expenditure approaches infinity, for a given environment. The phrase for a given environment is crucial in the concept of marketing potential.
Total Market Potential = Number of buyers in the specific market under the given assumptions * quantity purchased by an average buyer * price of an average unit.
It will be done on the basis of secondary sources such as economic data of the country.

Segmentation and marketing mix research

The marketing mix approach to marketing is one model of creating and implementing marketing strategies. It stresses the "mixing" of various decision factors in such a way that both organizational and consumer objectives are attained. The most common variables used in constructing a marketing mix are price, promotion, product and distribution (also called placement). Segmentation involves classifying the market on various parameters such as flavor, age, region etc.
It will be mix of both primary and secondary research. The primary research has to be carried out to know the customer attitude, tastes and needs. Various trade journals, industry reports should also be referred as secondary source.

Image and market characteristic research
It has to be mix of both primary and secondary. Primary research is to be done to know the customer perception about the image of the company and the nature of market competition. Various trade journals, industry reports should also be referred as secondary source.

b. Explain the components of the marketing mix for Kudler's new catering service (product, place, price, promotion).
Our Marketing mix will be based on our vision and strategic objectives:
Kudler's Vision statement

Kudler is envisioned as a provider of finest quality of food in order to make individuals healthy, energetic and relaxed.

Organization's strategic objectives
? Providing customers innovative solutions by ...