2. Foodland Super Market Ltd.: Store hours-Monday to Sunday 6am to 12am
- Location: Ewa Town Center
- Departments: bakery, liquor, floral, seafood, deli, Asian, Gourmet and Natural foods
- Maika`i Card: earn one Maika`i point for every dollar you spend on every purchase. My Rewards Certificate good for 5% off future grocery purchase with every 250 Maika`i points or 250 AlohaPass Miles (Aloha Airlines tickets)
- Foodland To Go: shop for groceries any time of the day or night via the Internet. Pick up service schedule is Monday to Friday from 2pm to 8pm (order time from 11am to 4:30pm), Saturday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm (order time from 7am to 3:30pm). Must order three hours in advance
- Pay utility bills, make money orders, buy stamps and concert tickets
3. Safeway Food and Drug: Store hours- open 24 hours a day
- Location: Kapolei Shopping Center
- Departments: bakery, floral (balloons, stuffed animals), deli, liquor, seafood, Asian foods, and Photo Center
- Safeway Club Card: use for buy one get one free items, sweepstakes, earn special savings awards and bonus miles on United Airlines, 15-20% off certain merchandise, and 5% coupon.
- Website: cannot order online but you can see the weekly sale ads in your area
4. Nanakuli Store: Store hours-Monday to Friday from 7am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 8am
- Location: Nanakuli
- Departments: bakery and liquor (very small)
5. Sack N Save Foods: Store hours-Monday to Sunday from 5am to 11pm
- Location: Nanakuli
- Departments: bakery, liquor, floral, seafood, deli, Asian, Gourmet and Natural foods
- Maika`i Card: earn one Maika`i point for every dollar you spend on every purchase. My Rewards Certificate good for 5% off future grocery purchase with every 250 Maika`i points or 250 AlohaPass Miles (Aloha Airlines tickets)
- Pay utility bills, make money orders, buy stamps and concert tickets
- No website
6. Tamura Superette: Store hours- Monday to Friday from 7am to 8:30pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 8pm
- Location: Waianae
- Departments: deli, seafood, liquor, floral, and bakery (very small)
- Check cashing, buy stamps, and gift baskets
- No website
7. Waianae Store: Store hours- Monday to Friday from 7am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 8pm
- Location: Waianae
- Departments: bakery, deli (party trays), floral (balloons, gift baskets) and liquor
- No website, sells propane and block ice
8. Akamai Grocery Shopping and Delivery Service is owned and operated by a husband and wife team. Akamai’s owners, George and Jackye Peacock are a waiter/waitress couple. Customers order by email, fax or mainly by phone, making up their own lists, specifying stores (will visit two stores per day per customer), and delivery service. The customers pay the shelf price, plus a delivery charge of 17% of your bill, order the night before for next morning delivery or by noon for afternoon delivery. Deliveries made from downtown Honolulu to Hawaii Kai; to Kailua and Kaneohe only. NHOH Online Grocery does not see Akamai Grocery as a competitor but it is the only grocery shopping and delivery service on the island (Shimabukuro).
S.W.O.T.T. Analysis
A S.W.O.T.T analysis of our company is a tool in which it would identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that include the following:
Strengths:
One of the strengths of this business will be the uniqueness of the business at this time. The convenience of being able to do grocery shopping online from the comfort of your home gives this an edge compared to typical competitors. There will be a standard of service to include time of delivery, continuous operations with little downtime if any within this business. The products to be selected will only be the best in the markets, which will be decided by surveys and talking with potential customers and also inventory of items sold.
Weaknesses:
The improvement that could be done for this company would be the improvement of computer equipment and peripherals to include updating of web pages and software. In addition, the quality of products could become an issue due to this business being a small startup business that could have a hard time competing with large grocery entities. Things to avoid within the marketing are to market to people who would not use the business and to try to maintain a level of service that customers expect with timely delivery and friendliness of staff. The staff to be hired must be knowledgeable of computer programming and maintaining systems and also be of a reliable nature for deliveries.
Opportunities:
There is an opportunity with this company to reach a market that does not have an outlet like this in Hawaii. The uniqueness of this business will give us an edge over the typical market. Due to other expenses the prices of products sold will be within the range of other markets and the ability to undersell the competitor will not exist. Furthermore, due to the small geographical market area an opportunity is to reach all available customers on the island of Oahu.
Threats:
The threats that can be faced are that the typical competitors of grocery chains can lower prices and possibly enter the market of online sales. Currently there are no known major grocers conducting services such as this. Although the capability is there with established chains throughout and the large amount of revenue already brought in to help with starting of this type of venture.
Trends:
Currently there are a few businesses like this worldwide. The customer’s base is the ones currently doing online shopping. The industry is not currently looking at this too seriously with the influence of earlier failures being known. The understanding that with the way those consumers are starting to buy their necessary items online that eventually this will be the next step for grocers. Today’s society is looking for an easier way to conduct daily affairs that the thought of major online grocery shopping is not that far fetched with the continued growth of online usage.
The opportunity for this business to succeed, it must be managed and marketed properly. The business can adapt with the changing variables that are present with the ever-evolving S.W.O.T.T. analysis to be done.
Marketing Mix
The four P’s of marketing which are product, place, price, and promotion will be presented as our marketing mix:
Product:
Our made up company NHOH Online Grocery is a business that will provide for the needs of the population to have a point and click interface with a computer to shop for their grocery needs. NHOH Online Grocery operates its own warehouse store, which stocks over 11,000 items. It offers a wide variety of non-perishable and perishable groceries including various meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry and seafood. The life cycle of our product will be considered in two fold; one with the basis of our service oriented business and second with the shelf life of our products to include the short life spans of perishables like fresh produce, meats, and fish.
Place:
The realization must be made of what type of channel we will be using to distribute to our customers. NHOH Online Grocery will distribute perishable and non-perishable items directly to the final customer or consumer by using the direct channel. The company will use the Internet as a direct channel method. The company will also use physical distribution and maintain a customer service level that will provide quality products and delivery services that customers want and need. The process of transporting and inventory distribution for the NHOH Online Grocery warehouse will be delivered by way of trucks from local food distributors and local farmers. The company will use refrigerated vans to deliver groceries to customers. Finally, the company will use a private warehouse to store its inventory until a customer places an order. The private warehouse location will in Kapolei. The delivery services will be offered to customers from Ewa, Makakilo, Kapolei, and the Waianae coast. In addition, the drive thru service is available to customers at the Kapolei warehouse.
Price:
Geographical concerns needed to be decided within the area of price, objectives, price flexibility, price level, and discounts that include the following:
Price Objectives: In looking at our target return objective, which sets a specific, level of profit as an objective. The NHOH Online Grocery Store will aim for a 15% return on sales. The profit maximization objective is to seek as much profit as possible, which some assume a company would start charging high prices. The NHOH Online Grocery will aim for prices slightly lower than its competitors do. As a result, it may expand the size of the market and increase the sales and profits (Perreault and McCarthy 477).
Price Flexibility Policy: NHOH Online Grocery will apply the flexible-price policy that offers the same products and quantities to different customers at different prices. When computers are used to implement flexible pricing, the decisions focus more on what type of customer will get the price break. For example, frequent shoppers can be become club members which will result in reduced prices on weekly specials (Perreault and McCarthy 481).
Price-Level Policy: The penetration pricing policy is a concept on trying to sell the whole market at one low price. The NHOH Online Grocery will implement a low penetration price for its products to stay ahead of its competitors. Introductory price dealing idea is to temporary price cuts in order to get customers to try a new service concept or to attract customers. The plan is to raise prices as soon as the introductory offer is over. For example, NHOH Online Grocery may offer a five percent discount for the first 50 customers (Perreault and McCarthy 482).
Discount Policy: NHOH Online Grocery’s will use sale prices as temporary discounts from the list price, which will enable the company to be in comparison to its competitors. NHOH Online Grocery will accept coupons from product packages, mailings and print ads. In addition, the website will provide electronic coupons.
Geographic Policy: By looking at the area of coverage for our business the delivery price for NHOH Online Grocery will be $2.95 for the Kapolei and Makakilo area, $3.95 for the Ewa Beach area and $4.95 for the Waianae area and free for purchases over $50.00 dollars. Any delivery that is late will be free or receive a coupon for $5.00 off their next purchase. The drive thru service will be free of charge.
Promotion:
The promotion method for NHOH Online Grocery will include the following:
Mass selling is communicating with large numbers of potential customers at the same time. NHOH Online Grocery will apply mass selling through advertising with newspapers, radio, television, direct mail, community newsletters, and online. Publicity will be done through community events and press parties.
Our promotion objectives is a promotion blend that supplies the primary demand that is informing which educates by letting potential customers know about our company’s service if they are to going to start buying from us. Selective demand is persuading that usually becomes necessary by trying to develop a set of attitudes so customers will buy and keep buying.
NHOH Online Grocery will use the four promotional jobs of the AIDA model:
- (1) To get Attention—getting attention is necessary to make consumers aware of the company’s online grocery services that include delivery and drive thru services...
- (2) To hold Interest—holding interest gives the communication a chance to build the consumer’s interest in the online grocery services.
- (3) To arouse Desire—arousing desire affects the evaluation process.
- (4) To obtain Action—includes gaining trial that may lead to a purchase decision (Perreault and McCarthy 389).
Our promotion plan will include the adoptive curve that shows when different groups accept ideas. It shows the need to change promotion effort as time passes. The customer group consists of the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards or non-adopters.
Lastly, the promotion budget will be considered with NHOH Online Grocery matching expenditures with competitors and the task method. The amount budgeted using the task method can be stated as a percentage of sales. For example, the spending level might be based on the number of new customers desired and the percentage of current customers.
Monitor
NHOH Online Grocery is compelled to deliver high quality service to our customers, by means of online surveys that will help us to evaluate and improve our products and services. Surveys will measure customer’s satisfaction, by rating our performance from one to five in five different areas. Areas include time management, competitive pricing, freely service, product availability, and convenient. This action will bring awareness to our company of what needs are required to keep our customers happy and loyal. With this guidance, NHOH Online Grocery will remain able to produce quality products and services to existing and potential customers.
NHOH Online Grocery will track the surveys to identify any trends and correct problems that the trends may point out. Each trend will automatically become assigned to a specialist that will review the survey and make sure that corrective actions are taken place. Our aim is to focus on gaining a competitive edge over our competition to develop a stable relationship between conglomerate and client. NHOH Online Grocery specialist will implement ways that will benefit both the organization and customers according to customer’s wishes on the survey. If wishes are not reachable, the account will be referred to a management team member that will make an effective decision to negotiate between middle and upper management in support of implementing a customer’s request. If a member from the management team decides that the request is not in the best interest of the company, the decision will be made right there, however, if the team member feels the request is influential she will call for a meeting between both middle and upper management. The upper management team will always have the final decision to either deny or accept the project; however, it will be in middle management’s best interest to make a strong argument in support of the project in order for negotiations to take place. When a decision is made in support of implementing a project, evaluations will be processed on an upper managerial level to ensure customer satisfaction for at lease six months.
Control and Adjust
In order to control the growth of the organization, there will be a hyperlink labeled “Feedback” on NHOH Online Grocery Store’s website to assist with improving quality and service to our loyal customers. Every feedback will receive a personal reply from a member of our management team explaining actions taken, if any at this time, by our organization with improvements. In additional to our feedback hyperlink, there will be a “What’s New” hyperlink sharing new information each week on services offered, by NHOH Online Grocery. This will keep hits on our website optimistic. Customer will want to log in to see new services, such as, new delivery or pickup times offered each week that are not visible with our product pricing.
In order to control and adjust sales/cost of our organization, stakeholders will have access to financial statements online, by registering “Online Customer Service”. The financial statement will show operating expenses in detail to take care and uphold a dynamic organization operating structure. During the year, estimates of year-end expenses will be displayed on our website and once the year has come to a close, a financial report hyperlink will appear describing the company’s closing earnings. This will give our loyal stakeholders directions on their investments within the organization.
Performance analysis will allow our organization to compare products and services amongst competitors. Having a performance report at the end of each month to measure occurrences and an annual report at the end of each year will identify achievements and encourage enhancements to our organization on the way to guarantee customer’s satisfaction. Each year the organization will have new goals and objectives to meet from items listed on the performance report the year before. This will increase our motivation concentration amongst employees to continue in providing quality and excellent service to our customers.
Works Cited
Foodland.com. 2 Feb. 2003 < >
Kahn, Barbara, and Leigh McAlister. The Grocery Revolution: The New Focus on the
Consumer. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley, 1997.
Morganosky M., and B. Cude. Consumer Response to Online Grocery Shopping.
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. Vol. 28. No.1
pp. 17-26. 2000.
Perreault, William D., and E. Jerome McCarthy. Basic Marketing: A Global-Managerial
Approach. McGraw Hill Co., 1999.
Safeway.com. 3 Feb. 2003 < >
SeniorJournal.com. “Senior Citizen Stats.” 2 Feb. 2003 < >
U. S. Census Bureau. Hawaii Demographics, Social, Economic, and Housing
Characteristics 2000. 21 Nov. 2002. U.S. Department of Commerce. 7 Feb. 2003
< >
