FInal Project Analyzation

Would Hosting Cooking Demonstrations Improve Trader Joe’s Profits

A Market Research Study

We set out on this survey Saturday afternoon, 11 September 2010, to examine if Trader Joe’s were to hold weekly cooking demonstrations would the company see an increase in profits due to the clientele purchasing the products being featured in the demonstration. In order to examine if holding the demonstrations would even be useful to the company, we began by asking questions that would help us determine if most of the customers of the store are loyal to the store or if they just stop in occasionally, because if most people just stop in occasionally they will not be likely to come on the day of the demonstration and therefore would not make an impact in the company’s sales. According to our survey that 58% of the customers interviewed shop at Trader Joe’s between 3-6 times per month and 80% make 1-6 purchases per month. From this information we can see that most of customers who shop at Trader Joe’s are in fact loyal customers and therefore would most likely attend a cooking demonstration, in fact 68% of those polled said that they would be somewhat likely or likely to attend the demonstrations, and therefore the demonstrations would be a chance for the company to sell and suggest new products to its customers that they may not normally have tried before.

The customers who already loyally shop at the company shop there for many different reasons including the quality of products, the organic options that are offered, and the fair and reasonable prices. These entice the customers to make purchases at the store and their purchases are quite substantial considering the low prices of the goods. When surveyed, 76% of the participants said that they purchased between $21-$40 per transaction at the store. If this number could be raised even by $10 per transaction by the introduction of the new products being demonstrated in the cooking demonstrations the company would see their profits rise.

When surveyed however only 30% (15) of the customers had attended cooking demonstrations in the past and then only 46.6% (7) of those customers actually purchased the products that were featured. This may or may not be a good result for Trader Joes. Perhaps previously the cooking demonstrations featured products that were too pricey for the customers to purchase, or maybe they were too specialized to be used for more than one distinct recipe. In order for Trader Joe’s to ensure sales of their featured products I would feature products that can be easily used in everyday recipes that are known to a vast majority of customers, and also choose products that are not too expensive that a customer would be able to easily add to their shopping cart without too much hesitation.

Overall I feel that the information gathered from the survey indicates that if Trader Joe’s were to implement weekly cooking demonstrations that they would see a rise in product sales and company profits.