Carrefour's Organic Food Department Essay On Market Engagement.

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Discuss About The Contemporary Market Engage Learning Bresler.

With the advent of technology, the marketing campaigns and strategies in any organization have become highly advanced, with different companies attempting to see to it that they employ the best methods in order to make their products the most popular ones in the particular market. Hence, there are different statistical and technological tools which are available and can be utilized in order to make an extensive market research which will be utilized in order to increase the sales made by the company (Corrigan, Craciun and Powell 2014). The report will be looking into the functioning of the company Carrefour and concentrate on its organic food department. The technologies and statistical tools which can be used by the company will be examined and recommendations shall be provided on the same.

The Carrefour is a supermarket asked in the United Arab Emirates which offers the different customers with a wide base of exclusive brands which have ultimately gains high degree of credibility among the different consumers as present in the target market. The company began its operations with a motive of building a large suite of products which would have exceeded the expectations of the different consumers. The products are good both in terms of quality and price. The traceability as offered by the goods are unique in nature.  The company offers a wide range of organic products which are quite good in nature and are comparable to the leading brands in the market available at competitive prices (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2013). The different quality prices and safety regulations are strictly followed by the company. The Carrefour Bio range tends to offer a large base of high quality and organic products to the different consumers. All these products are sourced b the company from Europe and France with their specific certification. Both the online as well as offline stores tend to offer organic food of different preferences and tastes. The different categories of foods as offered by the company to the different customers include cereals, jams, pasta, biscuits cans and frozen food.

With the dynamics of the social strata have been changing considerably, the brand belonging to Carrefour would like to fulfill the demands of the customers by offering them a healthy and balanced diet which is then available at reasonable prices.

The target market for the selected products are the individuals who are conscious of health and want to eat healthy products (Goworek, McGoldrick and McGoldrick 2015). The target markets have a high income and thus due to this they are able to afford good quality products as well. It is the primary motive of the company to see to it that the needs of the given target market is fulfilled successfully.

Effective statistical methods

There are various statistical methods which can be used in order to engage in market research. In the field of market research there has been an emergence of different tools which help the different users of the system to analyze the market research data which is available (McDaniel and Gates 2013). The different advanced tools which are available for the market data and research have individual strengths and weaknesses which tend to imply on the fact that the use of one or more tool needs to be made in order to ensure effective research.

Factor Analysis

This is a statistical method which can be used to determine the strongest underlying dimensions amongst a larger set of inter-correlated variables. The factor analysis may be collectively used to understand the combination of different aspects, priorities which are crucial to the consumer group. Hence, by using this tool a company can largely understand the variables of their actions which are crucial to be the demands of the different customers.

Cluster Analysis

The cluster analysis is a statistical method which can be used in order to group certain data objects together into clusters and homogenous groups. Any business enterprise may conduct market research to identify the different customer segments. This makes it easier for the company to make offerings in the long run and tends to support their resource requirements as well.

Conjoint Analysis

The co-joint analysis is a method which is used to use statistics in order to distinguish the manner in which the respondents tend to perceive and analyze the different variables which tend to form a part of a particular product. For instance, con joint analysis helps a given business to understand the purchasing decision of the different consumer markets and what their decisions are generally based on whether the brand recognition, quality, service or other related aspects (Shukre 2013). This analysis can also help a company to understand if their decisions are based on something valuable.

Multiple Regression

The multiple regression method is used to predict the value of a variable which is formed on the basis on two or different variables. It can shed light on the manner in which sales revenues might have an impact on the amount which is spent on advertising of the products.

Discriminant Analysis

This kind of statistical analysis can be used to predict membership in a chosen group or a cluster which is based on the measurement of the different variables. For instance, through this tool the business can analyze whether the income level is a useful parameter to understand whether these consumers belong to a particular group.

Effective technologies to be used

Presently, big data analysis is being used as a major tool to conduct marketing research. In big data analysis, past details of the company are harnessed and future predictions can be made.

Out of the given group of tools used, the factor analysis is a basic tool of statistics which is generally used by the different food companies who are dealing in the organic products. This tool helps them to understand the different demands which will be made by the customers and how this can help them to present the different products in that designated manner (Kotler 2015). However, the conjoint analysis can be described as an effective tool which can be made use of in the given situation to understand the decision making variables which determine the different decisions of the company for buying these organic products.  

Technology has opened a wide variety of options and made the globe a more accessible place. As a researcher, technology has formed the ability of the customers to access the respondents globally which can then be used to process the insights and understand the dynamics of the respondent (De Mooij 2013). This aspect of the organization will contribute towards better understanding of the market dynamics. This facility helps the company with a choice to ensure that they can conduct the different researchers any time and hence, the different advancements in technology can be incorporated to make the procedure of marketing very clear in nature (Malhotra and Peterson 2014).  The different technological tools which can be used are as follows:

Google keywords tools

These can be used as a window to analyze the different behaviors of the consumers when they use the internet to search for the goods and service online (Armstrong et al. 2015). When the company makes use of the given tool they can easily understand which products are mostly popular and which ones are not in the given domain.

Quest back

 The quest back is a premium service which can be used to fulfill the gap between the target market and the company. It conducts an in-depth research on the behalf of the company and provides a feedback accordingly.

Key survey

The key survey is another tool which allows the company to create one`s own questionnaires which will then be distributed among the various participants and can be used as an effective tool to gain response.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another tool which is used to conduct market research. It is used to provide feedback so as to ensure the manner in which the different consumers behave while they are making use of the website of the chosen company. This helps in understanding of what kind of products do the customers view for the maximum time frame and how the social media channels of the respective company be used in order to understand the insights of the different consumers.

The given technologies can be used considerably in order to understand the demands of the customers and the type of products which they like to makes use of (Carrefouruae.com. 2018).  Using such information, the company can understand which products to stock in the given segment.

Apart from the given mentioned tools, various other tools which makes use of technology are used to make market research for the given consumer (Hartley and Claycomb 2013). The knowledge of the demands as made by the customers can be used effectively for the marketing campaign. The competitors in the similar industry generally make use of the tool of Google Analytics in order to research the chosen market effectively and analyze the requirements they need to fulfill.

The Whole Foods tends to dominate the organic and natural foods niche but the increased competition has led to an increase in the threats which are present to the given business. The primary reason why the company has been losing out tends to relate to the increased facilities as provided by the different competitors and the loyalty programs. For this reason, the Whole food company has taken a valued strategy. It has planned to come up with various customer loyalty programs known as the 365 by Whole foods (Hair Jr and Lukas 2014). The given convenience focus store tends to offer only the private labelled items of Whole Foods and has automated mobile checkout options. This tends to assist the company by providing them with cost and time efficiencies. Another intuitive as taken by the Whole Foods company is that it has begun an initiative where it is giving out digital coupons to different price conscious shoppers who want to avail discounts and the only thing which they have to give in return is the download of the Whole Food mobile app.

Another popular Loyalty program as adopted by them includes the following:

They have conducted a new market test launch program with respect to the new rewards program for the customers. In this program, the customers can save instantly up to 10% in case they are the loyalty members and earn rewards. The may also win surprises for shopping in the selected stores.

Another technique as followed by the company includes providing successful loyalty programs to the different customers who tend to make repeated purchases at the stores.  The given strategies have proven to be largely successful for the organization (Boone and Kurtz 2013). The given loyalty programs as adopted by Whole Foods can be stated to be quite accurate in nature and has worked well for various companies around the globe like that of Starbucks.

The loyalty program which may be the most suitable for Carrefour and its range of organic and health food products have been given as follows:

Membership program

The company could start with an effective membership program whereby after paying a nominal amount of fees, the customers may receive considerable amount of discounts and offers (Babin and Zikmund 2015). The main incentive which is largely paid to the different customer in the given scenario includes incentives like free delivery at home, free parking, minimum 25% discounts, consecutive 10% discounts and other related offers. This program shall go a long way in helping the customers to increase the sales.

Free product offer

Initially if the customers tend to purchase a certain products in large quantities they can be offered certain products which are similar in nature for free (Peppers and Rogers 2016). In the given aspect, the company will be able to successfully ensure that the company makes the other free products popular in the market and also ensure that it is being able to provide a gift to the different customers.

Free gifts

In order to ensure that the customers become aware of the organic products being offered to the given customers, any customer purchasing a general product will be provided with the free organic clone of it (Meffert 2013). In this manner the customers will feel valued and also become aware of the new products by the company.

The most suitable metrics for the organic food and health products will be as follows:

Traditional Metrics

The traditional metrics tends to concentrate on the traditional measurements of success like the Sales and revenue earned by the company (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). Hence, in this aspect Carrefour could make use of the following:

Market Share

The Market share metrics will go a long way in helping the firm to understand the success of its products by ensuring a larger share in the chosen market. If the market share of the company is quite high, it can be stated that the firm has been fairly successful in its activities (Xu, Frankwick and Ramirez 2016).It is usually measured in percentage and is a measure of marketing performance of a firm.

Customer Acquisition Metrics

The different customer acquisition metrics are generally metrics like the Acquisition Rate and the Acquisition cost.

Acquisition Rate

The acquisition rate can be used as a useful tool for the given industry as it will help the company to analyze the number of customers who will be making use of the given set of offerings. It is always calculated in terms of the group of customers who purchase the product.

Customer Activity Metrics

The activity metrics tends to measure the activities of the customers during a campaign. The most suitable metrics for the organic food items have been given as follows:

Average inter-purchase time

The given metrics is measured in time periods and if the goods are bought on a regular basis, these tools will come in useful in such a scenario.

Popular customer based Value Metrics

This analyzes the purchases based on the perception of the consumers and what they deem to contain value. The popular metric in this category is the Size of the Wallet.

Size of the Wallet

The size of the wallet metric tends to help in the determination of the size of the wallet of the different customers and it is a useful measure for customer centric organizational to understand their popularity.

The data for the given matrices will be gathered from the different sources as follows:

Size of the Wallet

The data for the given metrics could be attained from a primary research technique.

Average inter purchase time

The data for the given metrics can be used from the Sales records of the previous years.

Market Share

The data can be gathered from sales of the firm and the sales from each of the categories.

Acquisition Rate

The data for this kind of research can be gathered from internal records and primary research.

The whole food company makes use of the acquisition rate matrix and market share to analyze it success (Bresler and Lubbe 2014). It conducts regular researches and surveys in order to achieve success in the metrics calculation.

Hence, from he given analysis it can be stated that the metrics which is most viable for the chosen organic food products are the Traditional metrics which is the market share (Parise, Guinan and Kafka 2016). As the competition in the chosen industry is quite intense, a larger market share will help in determining that the popularity of the chosen product has increased considerably.

Conclusion

Hence, from the given analysis, it can be stated that, the success of the product largely depends on the marketing research aspect and the promotional strategy as adopted by the firm. The report concentrated on the different techniques used by Carrefour for the organic food and health products section to gather market information and using which loyalty programs it can gain success. The latter half of the report discusses the different success metrics which can be successfully applied by the firm for the long term success evaluation.

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