Qualitative Focus Group Research Discussion Guide
Flowers Food Company is one of the largest wholesale distributors in the United States its headquarters are based in Thomasville in Georgia. The company was established in the year 1968 by two brothers’ and over the years it has shown great improvement in their market. This company deals with flour products where it bakes, markets as well as distributes fresh bread to their targeted customers. They produce products such as the buns, bread, rolls, bakery sweet junkies and corn and flour tortillas. They target customers from the Western, northeastern and the southern part of the US (Plunkett & Plunkett 2009). They also produce goods such as snack cakes, frozen bread products as well as doughnuts which they sell locally to the people around through retailing and co-pack to customers nationwide. They have several different bread brands in the company and they have developed the direct store delivery where they deal with fresh bread, buns as well as snack cakes that they sell to customers through their network of independent suppliers (Plunkett & Plunkett 2009). This paper, therefore, will focus on discussing the various opportunities and problems that exist in the flowers food company, their target audience and the exercises involved in the group so as to address the informational goal of the company.
The company is, however, facing a lot of challenges that affects the company from performing well. One of the greatest challenges is in the change of customers preferences where the consumer’s tastes evolve over time. This affects the company’s results and thus the company has to evolve with the time so as to be able to meet the needs of their customers. Most of the consumers are currently moving away from the consumption of the gluten and the yearning of fresh and healthy foods over the packed products which have questionable ingredients.
Another challenge is in the sales where it is primarily affected by pricing, products quality, brand recognition, innovation of products; products line extensions, marketing, and services. A Price fluctuation on the raw materials is another problem that faces the company. This results to increment in the price of the products that they produce so as to cover up on the cost f producing the goods. Competition is another problem facing the company and this has reduced the number of customers in the company. There are a number of competitors from the small regional bakers in the US, independent regional bakers, and retailer owned bakeries. Competition in the bakery industry is increasing due to several factors. These factors include the capability to serve consolidated retail and foodservice consumers, generational evolution in the family owned businesses and promotional efforts from the competitors from the branded stores and the store brands. Competition is therefore basically based on product availability, quality, brand loyalty, pricing and efficient promotion and the capability to target evolving consumer tastes (In Smith 2013).
The company also has some of the opportunities that lie ahead of the company. The company is stable and has expanded its operations geographically and thus the demand for their products is high and thus more earnings. The company, therefore, has greater access geographically and thus a greater opportunity to expand their production. They also have the opportunity to invest in technology so as to improve and upgrade their manufacturing function and logistics. They also have the opportunity to acquire brands that scale up so as to tap the evolving consumer trends so as to achieve their aim of becoming successful. The company thus has a room for more geographical expansion in America and hence more potential acquisition chances in the greatly fragmented bakery market (Graber 2004).
The company’s target audience includes the mass merchandisers, retailers, and supermarkets, quick-serve chains, restaurants, organizations, dollar stores, vending organizations and wholesalers. The warehouse segment o the company distributes the company’s products nationally and regionally to restaurants, organizations and foodservice suppliers and retail store bakeries. It also focuses on distributing the packed bakery products to wholesalers for an ultimate wide variety of food outlets. However, it sells packed bakery snack cakes primarily to consumers who deliver the products nationally through the multiple channels of distribution. The company thus has independent distributors who operate under independent contracts instead of using their employees to deliver the products to their targeted customers and this strategy helps to save the company from overspending on paying the overtime wages to the employees (Graber 2004).
The most important goal of this research is to identify some of the key areas that the company needs to improve on so as to be able to face their problems and be able to attain their goals. The research will enhance the entire group to identify some of the chief strategies that the company has used so as to enhance their growth in the market. This will thus enhance the group members to be able to make informed decisions on which strategies that they can apply so as to be competent in their competitive environment.
Different exercises ought to be taken so as to meet the goal of solving the problems that the company is facing in the competitive environment. One of the exercises is in the production sector where the company should engage in producing quality products. This will enhance the company to go beyond the expectation of the customers and thus the company will be more competent than the other competitors (Graber 2004).
Provision of better and improved services will enhance the company to build strong relationships with the retailers and the foodservice consumers. This will build the reputation of the company and thus there will be excellent service support for the company’s sales growth in their core market and thus enable them to move to new markets. A training exercise for the company’s employees is another exercise that can be offered to the employees thus offering them an opportunity to perfect on their services and pro-efficiency thus encouraging their professional development and thus making the company more competent in their operations. Improvement in the shipping and logistics of the company is another exercise that can enhance the company to be competent and to realize great profits (Plunkett & Plunkett 2009). This exercise will allow effective products flow, greater accountability of the finished products, order and delivery fulfillment and minimal shortage costs. Engaging in more research and development operations that include the development of new products exercise will enhance the company to be able to improve the quality of the existing products and thus improving the computerized production processes. This will enable the company to realize the changes in the customers’ preferences and thus they will be able to produce goods that meet the customers’ needs, wants and preferences before their competitors and thus allowing them to be more competent than their competitors. When the company engages in the implementation of the various exercises, it will be able to become competent than the other competitors and thus they will be able to attain good returns from their increased sales (In Smith 2013).
In conclusion, it is important to note that the selection and proper implementation of effective strategies in any business are important. Identification of a target market is as well, important to the success of the business.
Thus as the flowers food company has identified their target market they have been able to provide products that have enabled them to meet the needs of their consumers.
The various problems that have been facing the company have affected its operations and performance but with the right implementation of strategies that would help to solve these problems, the company will be able to realize profits. It is important for the company to produce highly quality products and sell them at affordable prices as this affects the sale of the products. With the changes in the consumer's preferences, the company should be keen in understanding what the consumers needs and thus they will be able to produce products which will be demanded as it will meet the customers’ needs. The company’s performance heavily relies on the employees employed since they are the ones who offer the services and are involved in the production of these goods. It is, therefore, important to employ efficient and professional employees who will offer the best in terms of services and production performance.
References
Graber, S. (2004). The Carolina jobbank. Holbrook, Mass: Adams Media Corp.
In Smith, A. F. (2013). Food and drink in American history: A "full course" encyclopedia.
Plunkett, Jack W., & Plunkett, Jack W. (2009). Plunkett's Food Industry Almanac 2009: The Only Comprehensive Guide to Food Companies and Trends. Plunkett Research Ltd.
