SCR and MBA: Week Three Alphabet Soup

Nate Davies

Jimmy Xu

Business 260 – Marketing

February 5^th, 2018

Week 3 Discussion Questions

Chapter 3 Response:

1. Kroger collected data from its members by accessing the information from their loyalty cards and creating special offers specifically for each household.
2. The market basic in so crucial in retail because the industry revolves around output. We need to sell more units! They need to do this at the lowest possible cost as well. This means minimizing overhead like carrying cost. They use buying trends to keep the appropriate number of a product on a shelf and find what products sell most frequently with the largest margin.
3. The market basket analysis can be simple in theory. The basic idea is to find two products with a relationship. Then analysis probabilities and calculate outcomes. However, stores can carry thousands of products which makes this more complicated even for highly intelligent computers with algorithms using matrix blocks.
4. The first thing I always see is the fruit and vegetables in Hannaford's. This is to give a fresh and clean allure that promotes a feeling of ethics and social responsibility.
5. The main focus of this articles was market segmentation using a market basket analysis which is data mining customers place, time, quantity, and frequency of purchases to make the supply chain more efficient.
6. I only use Hannaford. I live on Marginal Way but have never stepped foot inside of Whole Foods and only have been in Trader Joe's once. I was not a fan of Trader Joe's. It was more expensive and its decor and energy was hip and tacky. I was also raised in the Bangor area which is more country than Portland and much less progress so I am honestly bias in my shopping experience.

Chapter 4 Response:

7. We need to be more careful of our consumption of sugar because it has greater social affects than we think. In the future, it will raise the cost of healthcare due to high demand for diabetes and heart disease medications as well as lower supply of doctors relative to patients.
8. I believe the government should definitely limit the advertisement of sugar. Heart disease kills more people than all cancers combined. Tobacco companies are not allowed to advertise publicly because we know the inarguable facts that cigarettes cause health problems like excessive food and sugar consumption causes diabetes and heart disease.
9. The four steps are as follows: (1) identify issues (2) gather information and identify stakeholders (3) brainstorm and evaluate actions (4) choose course of action. The snack food industry should make itself more “green and healthy.” This is like what Kashi and CLIF bars have done. They have not only created a granola bar but a lifestyle brand. They recycle materials and use sustainable agriculture. The dilemma here is the cost. If some companies combined resources then they may be able to make healthy snacks inexpensive and accessible to he public via more selling outlets and combined resources. A box of six Kashi bars cost eight dollars versus a ten pack of oatmeal pies valued at two dollars.