1. Ramen Noodles TAYLOR LICAUSE

2. Snapshot

3. Demographics

4. Knowing your Customer  After looking over the Snapshot and Demographics of Ramen Noodles. I noticed a few trends for the target market.  Lower Income Families  Larger House Holds  Majority White Presents in all 4 products  Ramen is a cheap quick meal which is why I believe it has majority target market for low income families that are busy.

5. Difference Among Brands  Private label Ramen has a larger presents in the small family households.  Nissin Ramen has the highest volume sales with Blacks and Hispanics  The main Private Label Demographic is White, Small Family & Middle Class Income.  Macuchan main market is White, large family household and annual income between 10,000 & 50,000

6. AD HOC Base

7. Category Role  Ramen Noodles have huge brand loyalty. Considering it is a low priced item I would assume families are grabbing the same product they have always purchased just by habit.  Maruchan makes up a majority of the total sales for the Ramen Noodle market. They also hold the highest brand loyalty  Ramen noodles have a huge volume sale but they have lower dollar sales due to the cost of the product.  The overall gross margin for Ramen very depending on the format which the Ramen is sold.  I would say that Ramen is a category that could increase depth if done correctly.

8. Circular Trade Area WMT 5260

9. Circular Trade Area WMT 144

10. Demographics  The Demographics between WMT 144 and WMT 5260 was almost a flip when it came down to size of house hold and income.  Walmart 5260 is the Pleasant Grove WMT in Rogers. Majority of the demographic is higher income and 2-4 members of family.  Walmart 144 the MLK WMT had a demographic of lower income families and single person households.  Even with the difference in demographics both stores carried the same products and almost the same SKU numbers.  If I was going to add more SKU’s I would choose WMT 144 just because it is a college town and a larger demographic.

11. Role to the Category: Maintain

12. Category Role  I would consider Ramen to be a maintain category because it is a sought after product that consumers will be looking for in all stores. Ramen also maintains a high margin considering the price points but does not have high volume dollars due to the low cost of the products.

13. Stores Audited  Walmart #144 – Largest Amount of SKUs  Walmart #5260- Second Largest Amount of SKUs  Harps  Marvins  Every store carried a majority of the Maruchan Brand and had by far more facings of the Maruchan Brand

14. SPSS SKUs Overall Maruchan is favored in the local stores that I audited. They had the largest SKU’s and total facings of product. Nissin had the second largest amount of Facings and SKU amounts. I could not locate any private label ramen noodles in the stores I audited. After learning that ALDI’s has mostly private label items I did find a few private label Ramón's.

15. Gross Margins % and $ Between all the stores Marvin’s and Harps had the larger Gross Margins between all the products carried. This is because they carry more SKUs of product which brings in higher margins and their price points were above the two Wal-Mart Stores. Wal-Mart focused on giving Maruchan more self space and key locations rather than giving to the small brands who do bring in more gross margins.

16. Category Tactics Review of the suppliers  Maruchan and Nissin had the lowest gross margins of all the products audited. This is what correlates with Marvin’s and Harps having better margins because they carry the brands with higher gross margins.  Maruchan and Nissin can charge the retailer more for their product because they have the brand loyalty that the other brands do not.  Maruchan has several different packages to help drive the sales of their brand which in turn takes more self space away from the lower end brands like Thai Kitchen.

17. Category Tactics Private Label  I would say that there is a possible market for private label brands. I believe this because I did some research on private label Ramen which I had a hard time locating in the local area. The Private Label Ramen market has been seen in other countries to be very successful.  None of the retailers I audited had committed to private label Ramen.  When it is all said and done I’m not for sure on how much margin can be made with Private Label brands just because of the low cost of the product to begin with.  Considering Wal-Mart has not created a private label Ramen I would assume the reason for this would be because it will not generate enough cash flow for them to go through the trouble of making a private label Ramen.

18. Category Review  The Category has stayed close to the same as previous Audits. I did notice a slight increase on price on a few of the different brands.  Private label has yet to take off in the local retailers. I would be curious to found out if Walmart as ever considered Private Label Ramen.  The Share of display between my audit and previous years are about the same I had more facings of the Maruchan brand.  I did not notice any new product but I did notice a decline in few brands.  I would say the category is not super competitive just because Maruchan is a juggernaut in the industry.

19. Category Creativity  The Ramen Noodle industry has several different packages and sizes that help meet the consumer needs.  You can buy Ramen in small individual packs along with huge packs of 18 Small Packs to reduce the times you need to restock.  They also have Ramen Cups which gives Ramen one more way to be convenient.  I also noticed while doing my Audits a few stores cross merchandising with a little square bowl called Rapid Ramen.  If the stores sell a few Rapid Ramen along with a box of Ramen they are increasing their Dollar Volume tremendously.

20. Maruchan Large Facings