• Retail prices in 2011 ranged from $30 for a vegetable peeler to $1,599 for the Signature Set (prices include shipping and handling.).
• The company also offers a five-piece set of flatware (teaspoon, dinner fork, table knife, soup spoon, salad fork) and a set of six serving pieces as well as a complementary line of accessory kitchen products, including various types of shears, potato masher, pizza cutter, cleaver, pocket and hunting knives, and garden tools.
• "Cutting edge" cutlery items still account for about 90 percent of sales.
• Prices of CUTCO products are increased by an average of 5 percent every other year (e.g., 2007, 2009, and 2011). This price increase is primarily to offset one-half of rising labor and material costs. The other half of rising labor and material costs are to be covered with improved manufacturing efficiencies.
Direct Marketing Method.
• CUTCO's business model is, and has always been, to market its cutlery through direct marketing. .
• The direct marketing model requires that products be demonstrated in person, a method that CUTCO has determined to be highly effective in making a successful sale.
• Vector has harnessed the power of college students to sell CUTCO cutlery on a commission-based compensation plan, typically during the summer months of May through August. .
• These summer employees are on a strictly commission based salary.
• Top sales representative can make an upwards of $20,000 in commission during these summer months.
• In 2011, CUTCO received 750,000 orders through direct marketing, with an operating margin of 7%. .
Internet Sales .
• Vector Marketing has used the internet to recruit sales representatives as well as to promote CUTCO products. .
• CUTCO has refrained from offering full online purchasing access to the general public, with concern that it might alter the sales environment for its direct marketers.
