Marketing Project Environment and Target Market
Marketing Project – Kitchen Supplies Store Marketing Environment Competitive Forces Everything For Your Kitchen is in a unique position in Evansville. The store has very little direct competition and operates in an oligopoly. The most dominant competitor is Kitchen Affairs which, coincidentally, is located across the street from Great Mall. Kitchen Affairs is owned and operated by Mike and Shelly Sackett, who started the business in 1986 (Kaufman & Lloyd, 2006, p. 6). Their motto is “Kitchen Affairs – for the serious cook. At that time, they were the first to offer high quality kitchen supplies in Evansville (Kaufman & Lloyd, 2006, p. 7). Even though both stores sell similar items, there are distinctive differences between the two. Kitchen Affairs has a much more limited selection of cooking accessories. They have entered the age of technology by instituting a web page. The primary objective in doing so was to protect the name of Kitchen Affairs and to introduce the store to those moving to the Evansville area. They do little media advertising; 80% of their advertising budget is spent on direct mail catalogs.
They have a mailing list with over 6600 addresses. Occasionally they place ads on radio, television, or in the programs of cultural events. Additionally, Kitchen Affairs has two prominent strengths: the owners Mike and Shelly Sackett are extremely knowledgeable about their products, and the store offers a full schedule of cooking classes, which are held in a large, customized kitchen inside the store. There are a few other competitors in the tri-state area, but they only compete on a very limited basis.
Within the mall, Famous Barr and Macy’s sell some cooking accessories, but these are primarily the high quality cookware, some of the same small appliances, chef quality knives and name brand bakeware. The department stores also have a limited selection. Pampered Chef is a kitchen accessory company that markets their products through a home party system, much like Tupperware. They carry many of the most popular kitchen gadgets, almost all of which can be found at Everything For Your Kitchen for a lower price and without shipping charges.
Economic Forces The Evansville area is in a state of prosperity (Bruce, 2009, p. A1). Toyota has become a major employer with the opening of its new plant; plans for expansion are already underway (Carlin, 2009, p. 19). AK Steel is also in the midst of expanding(Carlin, 2009, p. 21). Shopko, a new retail chain, opened two new stores in Evansville recently (Bruce, 2009, p. A12).. Since the economy is thriving, consumers have substantial buying power. Eating is one of life’s necessities; however, cooking with all the latest accessories is not.
The customers who visit Everything For Your Kitchen use discretionary income when making their purchases. Regulatory Forces The management has no reason to be concerned about the interference of political forces. There currently are not any political issues that face the corporation or the industry. There are no legal issues affecting cooking accessories. There are a few regulatory issues the employees need to be aware of. First, the staff must routinely check the food items for expiration dates, and state laws require that food items may not be returned.
Additionally, many of the suppliers restrict the pricing of their products, so that their retailers who purchase in large quantities will not have their prices undercut. Technological Forces The age of technology is just beginning to make its presence known in the cooking accessory industry both directly and indirectly. However, its presence in retail has been around for several years. The technological advances that directly influence the industry are taking outdated products and making them new again. An excellent example of this s pressure cookers that our parents and grandparents used. Pressure cookers had gone the way of the potbelly stove and had become obsolete. This past year, Fagor has redesigned the old standard; it is now made of 18/10 stainless steel and has an automatic pressure release (King, 2008, p. 42). Its popularity is also on the rise because of the healthy style of cooking it lends itself to. Fagor includes an instructional video that includes three recipes, history of the pressure cooker, and information about its care and use. Probably the most dramatic advance was the bread machine.
This product has revolutionized the way we bake bread. The bread machine takes away all the work. You simply pour the ingredients into the machine, then turn it on and in a few hours you have hot, homemade bread. Most machines even have a timer so that when you walk in the door after a hard day’s work, you will arrive to enticing scents of fresh baked bread. This is all possible because of the invention of a computer chip called the Fuzzy Logic microchip which can “automatically regulate cooking times and temperatures” (see item in Appendix).
This chip is also starting to appear in electric steamers and rice cookers as well as bread machines (Newhart, 2006, p. 85). Calphalon, Scan Pan, and All-Clad are some of the most popular cookware companies and are typically found in specialty stores like Everything For Your Kitchen. These companies are using new raw materials and processes to manufacture their products. All these companies are so confident with the quality of their products that they offer lifetime guarantees. Calphalon uses a special process and the result is a hard-anodized cooking surface (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 03). All-Clad cookware is technologically different because it combines aluminum and stainless steel; these metals aren’t usually combined because they will not adhere to each other (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 105). All Clad uses an 18/10 stainless steel exterior that will not react with food, and the pans have an aluminum inner core to provide the most efficient heating (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 105). They are able to combine the metals because the aluminum is coated with carbon steel (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 106). Scanpan is a onstick cookware that has a ceramic titanium surface and, like the All Clad cookware, has an aluminum core (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 108). Both Calphalon and All Clad have nonstick lines of cookware whose surfaces are virtually indestructible unlike the Telflon and Silverstone surfaces where the coatings eventually begin to peel (Dangerfield, Seinfeld, & Williams, 2009, p. 104). There are technological advances that indirectly influence the sale of cooking items. The biggest changes come from kitchen appliances. Many appliances have computerized elements so that they may be programmed.
Induction stovetops are a new trend in Everything For Your Kitchen. Some will only operate if the cookware is made of a specific material, as is the case with the magnetic induction stovetop (Murphy, 2009, p. 94). It will only heat if the pans used have either aluminum or ferrous content (Murphy, 2009, p. 95). Computers and their technology are revolutionizing the retail industry as a whole. Cash registers scan UPC codes, while they update inventory records and simultaneously reorder merchandise. Retailers are also adding computers, fax machines, and web sites.
TV’s and VCR’s are also becoming a common fixture in retail stores. These innovations are fast becoming the rule rather than the exception. Social Forces The average American family leads a very hectic lifestyle. Mom no longer spends two or three hours making a three course meal; in many families dad is helping with meal preparation. It is many times easier and more convenient to pick up something on the way home or to pop a dinner in the microwave. Americans are also becoming more concerned with eating healthy meals. All of these trends have changed the way we cook.
When we do choose to prepare a meal, we like to use tools that will save time and work efficiently. Many people are demanding high quality items and are willing to pay for them. People are also attracted to gadgets, so products that at one time were only available commercially are now available to consumers. Small appliances like yogurt makers, stand mixers, cappuccino makers, pasta machines, and even the cheese graters used at the Olive Garden are available at retail stores. Many Americans are concerned about healthy cooking. We are reading labels and counting fat grams.
The huge success of the George Forman Grill is a prime example of how this trend is influencing consumer spending (Cosby & Foxx, 2009, p. 231). Green tea is believed to have cancer fighting agents and its popularity has soared in the last few months. Low fat and healthy cookbook sales are also increasing (Belzer, 2009, p. 12). New products that aid in cooking healthy meals have a distinct advantage in the market place (Cosby & Foxx, 2009, p. 232). One of the biggest influences in how America cooks comes from the “Diva of Cooking and Decorating,” Martha Stewart (see photo in Appendix).
Martha hosts a daytime show where she cooks and demonstrates new techniques, tools, and ideas (“Martha Stewart” 2007). She has an immense following. In September, she made a lattice pie crust by cutting out holes using a 1 inch leaf cookie cutter. Everything For Your Kitchen was inundated with customers looking for the cookie cutters and within days there was not a leaf cookie cutter to be found in Evansville. A few months later she demonstrated a garlic peeler that is little more than a 6”x6” rubber square that is covered with dimples.
They, like the cookie cutter, were sold out in a matter of days. Like E. F. Hutton, when Martha talks, people listen. Target Market Everything For Your Kitchen’s market segments fall into three distinctive categories: young married couples, families with children, and empty-nesters. They range in age from 25-75. Although many of our customers shop as couples, it is usually the woman who makes the purchasing decisions. Our ideal customer is a professional, married woman. She cooks more for the pleasure of it, than for necessity. She also demands quality over economy.
She and her husband have an annual income will over the area’s average of $33,465 (“Evansville City, Indiana,” 2008). The ideal customer is also well acquainted with the name brand manufacturers and new innovations in kitchen accessories. She will typically spend an average of $50 per purchase and will visit the store every 4 – 6 weeks. Everything For Your Kitchen’s target market covers a large area. Everything For Your Kitchen geographic target market includes Evansville and Vanderburgh County; it also includes southeast Illinois, northwest Kentucky, and most of southern Indiana.
Everything For Your Kitchen market density in the Evansville area is over 120,000 households, which does not include areas outside of a 30 mile radius (“Evansville City, Indiana,” 2008). The potential of achieving our marketing objectives is excellent. References Belzer, R. (2009, October 5). Cooking the books: Healthy titles surge in popularity. Publishers Weekly, 100(21), 12-16. Bruce, L. (2009, October 15). Evansville prospers, in the midst of recession. Courier & Press, pp. A1, A12. Carlin, G. (2009, October). Toyota, AK Steel expand operations.
EBJ: Evansville Business Journal, 15(10), 19-21. Cosby, B. , & Foxx, R. (2009). Putting your money where your mouth is: Trends in American food-related spending. Journal of Food Economics, 75(2), 231-247. Dangerfield, R. , Seinfeld, J. , & Williams, R. (2009, March). Cookware Buyer’s Guide [Special section]. Cook’s Illustrated, 101(3), 102-124. Evansville city, Indiana. (2008). American Community Survey [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved November 15, 2009, from United States Census Bureau website: http://quickfacts. census. gov/? qfd/? states/? 18/? 1822000lk. html Kaufman, A. , & Lloyd, C. 2006, June). Kitchen Affairs celebrates 20 years. Evansville Business, 21(6), 6-8. King, A. (2008, September). Fagor re-invents the pressure cooker. Cook’s Illustrated, 100(9), 42. Martha Stewart: Television creator, producer, writer, host. (2007). She made it. Retrieved November 15, 2009, from The Paley Center for Media website: http://www. shemadeit. org/? meet/? biography. aspx? m=159 Murphy, E. (2009, October/? November). For the eco-conscious cook: Induction stovetops. Gourmet, 72(5), 94-97. Newhart, B. (2006, June). Fuzzy logic comes to the kitchen. Consumer Reports, 54(6), 82-90.
