Executive Summary
Calyx & Corolla is a young company that offers a very unique choice for customers who are interested in buying fresh flowers. Fresh flowers industry valued approximately $9 Billion in the United States in 1990 with steady market growth rate of 7.7% since 1985. However, the market potential did not reach the top yet. US fresh flowers market still has more room to grow. Per capita consumption of flowers and plants in the US was $36 per year, while the average in Europe was $60.
Since a flower diminished its value everyday due to lacking of freshness, efficient distribution is the key to the flower industry. Calyx & Corolla has a distinctive way of delivering flowers to the consumers. Calyx & Corolla links its customers directly to the growers via the reliable delivery service of FedEx, whereas other companies rely on the traditional distribution channel which contains at least four layers: growers to regional distributors, regional distributors to wholesalers, wholesalers to retailers / florists, and florists to end-users. Thus, Calyx and Corolla can deliver fresher flowers to its customers bypassing those distribution processes. Calyx and Corolla also earns higher profit margin than its competitors due to its uncomplicated cost structure. For instance, Calyx and Corolla does not have to spread its profit to distributors and wholesalers.
FTD was the biggest player in the fresh flowers market. FTD was a member-owned, worldwide cooperative of 25,000 florists. Florists usually used FTD to provide delivery service beyond their service area. The florists who originated the order received 20%, the florists who delivered the order 73%, and FTD 7%. The powerful network of 25,000 florists was the main advantage of FTD to penetrate the fresh flowers market. However, its price structure was not so flexible. “800-Flowers” was the largest member of FTD network and it was becoming more and more popular. 800-Flowers received 25% fee of the flower order from the delivering florist. Its revenues were about $16 Million in 1990.
Another channel that we need to keep our eyes on was supermarkets. Supermarkets were becoming more popular and more powerful in the fresh flowers market. The average annual sales for supermarket floral departments were $104,950, having grown almost four times in the past ten years. However, supermarkets had two major...
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...ing sufficient business customers can offset the sales of off-peak period. Business customers are more predictable with a special care. Calyx and Corolla has to build a long term relationship with them to ensure the steady sales, thus corporate account team is very important to ensure the long term growth.
(iiii) Fund research for development of flowers growing techniques
Differentiation point is very important especially in the business like flowers where many customers perceive that all flowers are the same. Funding research for new growing techniques, for instance, how to grow more durable flowers in cold weather can help Calyx and Corolla develop a closer relationship with its growers and also help Calyx and Corolla gain competitive advantage over others once the research is successful. Calyx and Corolla can also ensure its flowers quality to the customers and it also gives the image that Calyx and Corolla really cares about their products. Moreover Calyx and Corolla can also gain a positive image to the brand to the fact that they give something back to the community by funding research to universities. (especially in the town/state that the funded universities located)
RNRA Team, “Supermarkets, Fresh Produce and New Commodity Chains: What Future for the Small Producer?” Hot Topics: February, 2004.
Kudler Fine Foods is a store unlike any in the grocery industry. Kudler Fine Foods represents a store that could possibly spark a new era within the grocery world. The owner of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler, has watched her dream of owning and operating a grocery store that specializes in fine quality food grow within a short period of time. The success of Kudler Fine Foods can be attributed to the innovative ideas, effective leadership, and organizational structure. The overall mission of Kudler Fine Food's "is to provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparallel consumer environment. Our selections coupled with our experienced, helpful and knowledgeable staff, merge to offer each customer a delightful and pleasing shopping outing" (Apollo Group, 2003). Kudler has managed to maintain its mission statement by providing its customers with the best and as a result the company has flourished. "Kathy considers one of her key responsibilities to be that of identification of new gourmet items that can be offered in her stores (Apollo Group, 2003)." Therefore, Kathy is considering plans to contract with local growers of organic produce to yet obtain the best in quality products for her consumers and take her business to the next step. If Kathy makes the decision to contract with local growers then changes could be introduced into the company's overall structural organization. Each aspect of Kudler Fine Food's organizational structure from basic business process to the supply chain and quality control process will be affected by the formation of a contractual relationship with local organic growers.
The retail plant and flower industry in the U.S. is a $9 billion per year industry. The industry has grown at a rate of 7.7% since 1985. The market landscape is broken into three areas. Twenty five thousand retail florists have 59% of the market ($5.31 billion) and supermarkets have about 18% of the market ($1.6 billion). Nurseries, mail order companies (seed companies) and other retailers accounted for the remaining 23%.
In this case, We have found Steve’s Tire and Lube’s company to have strong competitive priorities with their friendly environment, honest an reliable work, good reputation in the small town, quality service are worth the price, variety of services and supplies at retail, good employee training at vocation school, and most importantly they have loyal and hard workers， thus store turnover is rare. The order qualifier is service variety, including good services about oil changes, tire rotation and balance, brake pad replacement, and service inspection. In addition, provide retail parts and supplies are also considerable for the customer. Comparison with the same type of store, Steve’s has good order winner than others. It is about offering high
First, customer centricity is important to channel customer centricity into their company strategy. It will get the whole workforce on track. Next, the collection should keep their customer data up-to-date. They would benefit from building a stable foundation by bringing all of their current customer contacts. The brand should also save all documents including minutes-of-meetings, emails, offers, contracts, and every payment transaction. Then, the company should establish healthy customer relationships based on their customer profile. It is always important to follow-up on customers and to make sure they stay satisfied with the merchandise. Finally, it is all about the customer. Their response is very important. It is viable to surprise and impress their customers, as well as plan and implement multi-phase marketing campaigns(CAS
Differentiation: by focusing on those activities associated with core competencies and capabilities in order to perform them better than do competitors. The key point of this strategy is to create something that customers feel as being unique.
Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. 2014. Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. [ONLINE] Available at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479076.aspx. [Accessed 31 March 2014].
Business depends very critically upon Fed Ex. If Fed Ex had a major disruption to their delivery system, flowers would not be delivered on time, resulting in dissatisfied customers. For example, if Fed Ex employees went on strike, there would be no alternative equivalent to Fed Ex to deliver flowers to customers. UPS, although an alternative, did not deliver perishable products in the same timely fashion as Fed Ex.
In the modern world of conducting business, any company that wishes to succeed must differentiate its products or services from others in the industry. Differentiation makes it possible for consumers to point out notable differences between one company’s products as compared to those of competitors. Differentiation helps companies build brand loyalty as the uniqueness keeps customers fixed on a particular product. BMW is one of the most popular automakers in the world today. It definitely uses differentiation as a strategy to beat off competition by building products that are innovative, detailed and incomparable to those of competitors.
Another important factor that will ensure Toyota retains a competitive advantage within this industry is continuous process improvement, which is one of their core competencies. Toyota Motors has over fifteen research and development organizations worldwide and each facility has a main focus, such as advanced engineering or exterior, interior, and color design. Toyota conducts all of their research and development within these facilities where the overall objective is to produce the highest quality vehicles. Their ability to focus on research and development allows them to keep their technological advantage at bay amongst their products, which in turn leads to innovation and
According to the Harley Davidson case study, the author has mentioned Harley Davidson uses the differentiation strategy: focus strategy for their business level strategy. This is, the focus strategy is an integrated set of actions taken to produce goods or services that serve the needs of a particular competition segment. Thus, by using the focus strategy for their business level strategy, it can help Harley Davidson to build strong brand recognition for their products. Harley Davidson believes that they understand the dynamics of their market and the unique needs of customers within it very well. Since they serve their customers in their market uniquely well, they tend to build strong brand loyalty amongst their customers. As a result, they
Rajagopal. "International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management." Emerald. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2014
Q2. How did the sales and marketing affect operations when they began to sell standard pieces to retail outlets?
Hogsmeadow Garden Centre is a popular tourist area of the UK, which mainly sells garden-related products in shops and high-quality food in restaurants. In the past few years, Hogsmeadow Garden Centre was expanded and the number of customers sharply increased. However, the sales revenue and profitability hadn’t grown as fast. The aim of this essay is to discuss the main micro-operations at Hogsmeadow Garden Centre and its main input resources, transformation process and outputs, the problems faced by Don Dursley in managing and developing his centre and the solutions to improve the profitability of his business.
For a business to grow into a more profitable one, the manager should emplace measures to insure that customer service is made number one priority. After implementing a structure, it is recommended that the customer service representatives, along with other employees in the business, undergo continuous training in order to maintain the standards set out by the customer service model. Having the right structure in important in any business entity and will have positive implications on its profits.