Calyx & Corolla Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Consumer Behavior

Consumers need to buy fresh flowers for weddings, funerals and as a sign of love and care for occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s day, Mother’s day and convalescence. They need fresh flowers and require them to be delivered on the stated time.

Calyx and Corolla recently introduced a new distribution system whereby they are able to send goods to customers as early as possible. Also, they can send these flowers within one day as compared to traditional distribution system prevalent in the market taking two to three weeks to deliver the flowers.

The freshness is deteriorated by the time flowers are sent. Whenever they receive orders from customers through telephone, fax and emails, they inform the growers through via the system the same medium who in turn sends goods to consumers through Fed Ex.

Consumers are impressed with the quality of flowers they get from the business. Furthermore, consumers usually get their flowers on time and much earlier as compared to competitors. The business has been trying to improve its relations with growers and established 30 quality suppliers. The quality of flowers is also maintained by testing flowers for longevity and ship ability.

The packing material is used to keep the flowers cool, wet and maintain a constant temperature. Besides that, good relations have been established with Fed Ex to improve the distribution services. Another important factor was the use of beautiful catalogs allowing the customers to buy flowers from the business.

Choosing Target Segments and Valuing Customers

Most of the revenue is derived from catalogs, which amounts to 70%. This includes consumers who had been received catalogs stating the number and types of flowers available. 20% of the revenue is achieved from corporate clients and remaining 10% is achieved by telemarketing to previous flower recipients and existing market.

It is not the most appropriate segment because 59% of the market is captured by retailers and 18% by supermarket. Therefore, the business should attempt to grow by targeting more corporate clients, consumers who do not like buying through mail ordering system and visits retailers and supermarkets for the purpose.

The competitive advantage of the business lies in the mail-ordering system; therefore these customers are the most important for it. Customers who call it to inquire about the products are more important than those to whom catalogs were mailed on random. Prior customer mailings yielded about 5% to 10%.

Therefore, these types of customers should be focused on women who have large disposable income and those who focus on florists and other retailers for their needs would be important potential customers for growth. However, those who did not respond to catalog random mails are the least important because they do not have any interest in flowers.

The product line includes fresh and dried flowers, a selection of plants such as bonsai, and a variety of vases and other floral accessories. The products are of high quality at price affordable to high income earners which are mostly women. Other consumers include corporate clients who can also pay for high prices. In addition, the niche market has been targeted.

Managing New and Existing Products

The product line of the business is in growth stage and its sales are expected to grow in the future, however, the large market is still to be captured. Therefore, an aggressive product development is required to increase the market share. It may exploit the market of promotional tie-ins by using the competitive advantage it has of the unique distribution system. It should convince FedEx of distributing flowers on Sundays, which would give the business and another competitive advantage.

Calyx & Corolla Case Solution

The perception of the brand name is that it is linked to quality flowers with an excellent delivery system and response rate. It has become an effective brand image; however, the brand image can be further improved if the business tries to expand the market. It would be more appropriate if the brand image is perceived as the leader of innovation in the market. If Ruth Owades wants to achieve this position, she has to come with many other innovative things that would meet customer needs.

Choosing and Managing Marketing Partners

There is a chain of distribution from growers to distributors who then sells it to wholesalers. Moreover, the wholesalers sell flowers to retailers. Each party adds its mark-up to the cost of the product. A flower that a grower grows for $5 would cost the ultimate consumers of about $40.............

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.