Week 9: Culinarian Cookware Case

The Culinarian Cookware case is interesting in terms of considering all aspects of price and promotion:

1. Was the previous promotion effective in achieving the goals specified in the case.  Most importantly was it profitable? 

Perhaps the promotion did appease the trade and "stimulate excitement," with good sales numbers and customers admitting that the promotional price persuaded them to buy the cookware. However, the promotion was not profitable, with a projected loss of $469,489 and $99,332. While the company was able to save almost $40,000 on inventory costs, that does not make up for the amount of money that was considered lost on efforts. 

1. What aspects of the promotion worked best and which were less successful?

The price promotion was only implemented by 50% of the stores, while in other promotions the stores pocketed the sales difference. Offering a gift incentive (especially during gift months) worked well for Culinarian--and retained the image of high-end cookware--but not for the stores who had to shelve the extra gift sets.

1. Should Culinarian run a promotion prospectively?  Why or why not?

In order to maintain it's image as quality, high-end cookware (one of the company's overarching goals), a promotion--based on past instances---would not be worth the risk of loss associated with a promotion. It could harm the image, and would not boost sales enough to remain profitable.