Brand Analysis on Trader Joe's Market Positioning and Differentiation
Assignment #2 - Field Trip / Marketing Positioning & Differentiation
Lynn Xia
January 21, 2014
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Analysis on Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe's is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia,
California in Greater Los Angeles.
When asked about the target market, the founder Joe Coulombe said at the time, and again in 1988 when he sold the chain to the Albrecht family, that Trader Joe's aimed for "the educated customer.”1 The person who dips into the health food movement, the gourmet food,
wine and booze craze, and the ever-popular discount ideal. But all in moderation.
At the beginning , Joe positioned the market as the “ convenience store”, which arouse intensify competition with 7-11 stores. After comparing key features and benefits against competitors, Joe decided to find another market to avoid direct threat from 7-11. Then, Joe came with up an great idea when traveling and successfully grabbed the unoccupied position. He had noticed that Americans were traveling more and returning home with tastes for food and wine they had trouble satisfying in supermarkets of the time. Consequently, the first store named “
Trader Joe’s” opened in 1967 with providing fresh food such as meat, sandwich.
Trader Joe’s is not only the name of the supermarket but is a brand with high reputation in consumers’ mind, which is one of the major factors helping the company to be unique. More importantly, after repositioning , Trader Joe describes itself as "your neighborhood grocery store" or "your unique grocery store”. The tagline indicated that it intend to be unique based on their
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Reference from http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Trader-Joe-s-targets-educated-buyer-1123007.php
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location and product. Last but not least, its products really enjoy higher quality with lower price, which is the most obvious feature for them to be unique.
Firstly, to differentiate itself from other grocery supermarket,
Lynn Xia
January 21, 2014
!
!
Analysis on Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe's is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia,
California in Greater Los Angeles.
When asked about the target market, the founder Joe Coulombe said at the time, and again in 1988 when he sold the chain to the Albrecht family, that Trader Joe's aimed for "the educated customer.”1 The person who dips into the health food movement, the gourmet food,
wine and booze craze, and the ever-popular discount ideal. But all in moderation.
At the beginning , Joe positioned the market as the “ convenience store”, which arouse intensify competition with 7-11 stores. After comparing key features and benefits against competitors, Joe decided to find another market to avoid direct threat from 7-11. Then, Joe came with up an great idea when traveling and successfully grabbed the unoccupied position. He had noticed that Americans were traveling more and returning home with tastes for food and wine they had trouble satisfying in supermarkets of the time. Consequently, the first store named “
Trader Joe’s” opened in 1967 with providing fresh food such as meat, sandwich.
Trader Joe’s is not only the name of the supermarket but is a brand with high reputation in consumers’ mind, which is one of the major factors helping the company to be unique. More importantly, after repositioning , Trader Joe describes itself as "your neighborhood grocery store" or "your unique grocery store”. The tagline indicated that it intend to be unique based on their
!1
Reference from http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Trader-Joe-s-targets-educated-buyer-1123007.php
!1
location and product. Last but not least, its products really enjoy higher quality with lower price, which is the most obvious feature for them to be unique.
Firstly, to differentiate itself from other grocery supermarket,