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Whole Foods Case

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Whole Foods Case
November 8, 2013
Post University
MKT 404 Consumer Behavio
Whole Foods Case Study
Whole Foods Case Study
Whole Foods was founded in 1980 and it is the world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods. They offer fresh, natural and organic foods and products with no preservatives or artificial ingredients. It is focused on high quality organic food, promoting healthier eating lifestyles to its customers, and increasing consumer knowledge of food safety. All of which complement its motto of “Whole Foods, Whole
People, Whole Planet”.
The strategy Whole Foods implemented worked brilliantly all these years, expanding its stores from 6 in 1992 to 276 in 2007 via a combination of opening new stores and acquiring smaller chains
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Rivals such as Trader Joe’s started to take some of Whole Foods profits by offering good quality products at a lower price.
SWOT Analysis:
The strengths of Whole Foods is that it has large and spacious stores, a huge product line (over 30,000 items), and a well trained staff. The staff at Whole Foods is equipped with specialized skills, community involvement, and social awareness. They also have a strong reputation; they are the world’s number one retailer for organic and natural food. By providing job security to its workforce, independence at store level, considering employees as “lifeblood of the business” and installing within them a sense of purpose they are able to recruit quality employees. Recently they began offering a different shopping experience through the appliance of home delivery, cooking classes, and providing in-store chefs to help with recipes.
The weaknesses of Whole Foods marketing plan are their premium prices (up to
75% higher than some grocery stores). This limits the areas that Whole Foods can build new stores to rich geographical areas. The company also does not have a high advertising budget, which limits the amount of potential new
…show more content…
There is also major competition from companies like
Sprouts, Fresh and Easy, and local farmers markets.
Some recommendations for Whole Foods to continue to remain the leader in natural and organic products would be to build a CRM system to better manage and serve customers. Because Whole Foods is successfully performing, they should follow a growth strategy in order to keep up with development and profit. It could also develop a new product line, such as whole foods for pets.
In conclusion, Whole Foods Market does a decent job of expressing who they are as a business, their target markets and where they would like to see the company headed in the future. The motto “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet” is properly outline and described within their mission statement to express what their goals are and how they plan to achieve those goals. The company has properly stated what their goals are. They do have to be careful not to get complacent and continue to grow their company. Other companies have followed their business model, and they are doing it with lower prices. With Whole Foods reputation, brand loyalty, and excellent

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