Recommendations:
1). Related diversification/ Blue Ocean Strategy:
• The growing health awareness has created a huge demand for organic restaurants which provide health food options to the health conscious people, willing to spend on healthy and nutritious food items, rather than eating fast food (especially for office goers looking for healthy lunch options).
• Whole Foods should create an organic restaurant chain, where they hire gourmet chefs to prepare tasty and healthy food in front of customers.
• None of their competitors have utilized this strategy so far.
• Seeking customers that prefer to “eat out” rather than making food at home gives Whole Foods the opportunity to capture consumers who are “busy” and cannot cook at home.
• Whole …show more content…
Boost e-commerce sector/ Online Stores:
• Increase online ordering with ad spaces on popular health/athletic websites like ESPN, Men’s Health, etc.
• Agreement with Google for search words like “online shopping”, “organic foods”, etc. should show Whole Foods website first.
• Use online platform to educate community importance of health and healthy eating.
• Home delivery of foods provides additional exposures to neighbours and of customers (also increases word of mouth publicity). Use taglines like “Why Shiver, Whole Foods Deliver”, “Beat the heat with this deal” etc. to generate consumer awareness and interest.
• Use marketing taglines like “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store”, “We care for your health”, etc. on websites, delivery trucks, stores, etc. to emotionally bond with the customers.
• Increases customer convenience and reduces trips to grocery store.
3). Store Openings:
Direct Store Expenses as a percentage of gross profits (in the range of 71-78%, 2000-2013) shows large consumption of Gross Profits. High store expenses, limited customer base, logistics for arranging the supply for 1000 stores, etc. makes a potent case for Whole Foods to carefully open more stores at a slower …show more content…
• Increase in home delivery via online sales would help them reduce size of stores and improve sales per square foot.
• Whole Foods has a strong position in the Organic Foods segment and hence could look into increasing number of stores in high population areas like Chicago, New York, etc. and other mid-sized cities.
• Increase use of Sales Promotion techniques like Discount Club cards, discount vouchers for high spenders, etc. and invite highest ranked customers for customer appreciation events. This would help improve brand image, offset image of expensive brand and also incentivize community to choose Whole Foods for their grocery shopping.
Food Deserts: Whole Foods have been quite successful in low income areas, but the success does not seem to be sustainable, as once the giants like Walmart realise the profits offered by such regions, it will be hard for Whole Foods to compete with their prices. It will become difficult to maintain same levels of quality at low margins, which could eventually harm the brand image across the country.
• Brand Loyalty is low in these areas as major focus is on cheap food, and not on “health
1). Related diversification/ Blue Ocean Strategy:
• The growing health awareness has created a huge demand for organic restaurants which provide health food options to the health conscious people, willing to spend on healthy and nutritious food items, rather than eating fast food (especially for office goers looking for healthy lunch options).
• Whole Foods should create an organic restaurant chain, where they hire gourmet chefs to prepare tasty and healthy food in front of customers.
• None of their competitors have utilized this strategy so far.
• Seeking customers that prefer to “eat out” rather than making food at home gives Whole Foods the opportunity to capture consumers who are “busy” and cannot cook at home.
• Whole …show more content…
Boost e-commerce sector/ Online Stores:
• Increase online ordering with ad spaces on popular health/athletic websites like ESPN, Men’s Health, etc.
• Agreement with Google for search words like “online shopping”, “organic foods”, etc. should show Whole Foods website first.
• Use online platform to educate community importance of health and healthy eating.
• Home delivery of foods provides additional exposures to neighbours and of customers (also increases word of mouth publicity). Use taglines like “Why Shiver, Whole Foods Deliver”, “Beat the heat with this deal” etc. to generate consumer awareness and interest.
• Use marketing taglines like “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store”, “We care for your health”, etc. on websites, delivery trucks, stores, etc. to emotionally bond with the customers.
• Increases customer convenience and reduces trips to grocery store.
3). Store Openings:
Direct Store Expenses as a percentage of gross profits (in the range of 71-78%, 2000-2013) shows large consumption of Gross Profits. High store expenses, limited customer base, logistics for arranging the supply for 1000 stores, etc. makes a potent case for Whole Foods to carefully open more stores at a slower …show more content…
• Increase in home delivery via online sales would help them reduce size of stores and improve sales per square foot.
• Whole Foods has a strong position in the Organic Foods segment and hence could look into increasing number of stores in high population areas like Chicago, New York, etc. and other mid-sized cities.
• Increase use of Sales Promotion techniques like Discount Club cards, discount vouchers for high spenders, etc. and invite highest ranked customers for customer appreciation events. This would help improve brand image, offset image of expensive brand and also incentivize community to choose Whole Foods for their grocery shopping.
Food Deserts: Whole Foods have been quite successful in low income areas, but the success does not seem to be sustainable, as once the giants like Walmart realise the profits offered by such regions, it will be hard for Whole Foods to compete with their prices. It will become difficult to maintain same levels of quality at low margins, which could eventually harm the brand image across the country.
• Brand Loyalty is low in these areas as major focus is on cheap food, and not on “health