Question1: What is Whole Foods Market’s strategy for success in the marketplace? Does the company rely primarily on a customer intimacy, operational excellence, or product leadership customer value proposition? What evidence supports your conclusion?
Answer1: Whole Foods Market’s strategy for success in the marketplace seems to be product leadership. Evidence of this can be seen throughout the documents. The first boldface heading in the company’s Declaration of Interdependence or we can say the first core value listed on the first page of the Annual Stakeholders Report is “Selling the Highest Quality Natural & Organic Products Available”. That shows that the company prides itself on not only having high quality products, but on having as high or higher quality than any other supermarket. Throughout the Stakeholders Report, phrases like “our emphasis on the highest quality perishable items” and “we adhere to the highest quality standards” reinforce that concept of product leadership. Perishable product sales account for about 67% of total retail sales. Customers choose Whole Foods Market primarily because they are able to buy better natural and organic foods and higher-quality perishable products than in conventional supermarkets. Further evidence of the product leadership CPV can be found in the company’s Declaration of Interdependence, which states “Our goal is to sell the highest quality products that also offer high value for our customers”.
It could also be argued, of course, that the company focuses on the customer intimacy CPV, based on the second core value of “Satisfying and Delighting Our Customers”. This core value references the unique shopping atmosphere WFM wants to create for customers, and WFM seems to have a particular niche in its market but WFM’s bland core value seems to be a more basic statement that should be included on any company’s core values. Therefore, customer intimacy is NOT the main CPV for Whole