Week 3 - Assignment 3: Consumer Behaviour and Organisational Buying Behaviour (Chapter 5

& 6)

a. (1)Map the decision making process for buying a laptop among the millennials ,
and identify the (2) psychological, sociocultural, and situational factors that affect
the process. Then (3) identify the implications for the markets of laptops ie what
they need to consider and what steps they need to take, to capture consumer
demand.

How the psychological, sociocultural, and situational factors affects your decision in
every of the stages??? *Photo with Hari on the model answer*

(1) Decision making process for buying laptop

1. Problem recognition – Perceiving a need or recognise a need

Example: Newly admitted into a university – May need laptop to do projects, assignment,
etc.

2. Information search – seeking value

· Customer will try to survey and search for various information to find out what
they feel is the best solution.
· Internal search – Think about experiences in the past (Experience with laptop
products and brands)
· External search- This is preferred especially when past experience and
knowledge is not sufficient, the risk of making wrong purchase decision is high
and the cost of gathering information is low.
· Primary source for external information – Personal sources like relatives/friends,
public sources like product rating website (gadgetsnow.com) or marketer-
dominated sources like salespeople
· May not just depend on one source, sometimes it may involve more than one
source.
● Example : Undergraduate students who wanted to buy a laptop will gather
information about the laptop brands that are available in the market.

3. Alternative evaluation- Assessing value

· Think about criteria to use for the purchase (speed of the processor,
characteristic of the computer such as camera, warranty, itunes, support
Windows for work)
· Think about brands that may meet the criteria (Apple, Acer)
· Develop consumer value perceptions
· Example of criteria- price, battery life, appearance, weight
 · Based on evaluation criteria (specific, may vary for different individual), consumer
will obtain a consideration set (brand alternatives/product alternatives that match
the consumer evaluation criterion)
● Example: the undergraduate who gathered information about the laptop brands
will now evaluate each and every product in terms of price, battery life,
appearance, weight, durability, performance and etc.

4. Purchase decision – Buying value

· Left with two important decisions 1. From whom to buy and 2. When to buy
· The choice of seller to buy from depend on term of sale/return policy/past
experiences
· When to buy – depends on several factors – manufacturer’s rebate/ ease of
shopping experience, salesperson assistance, time pressure, financial
circumstances
● Undergraduate decides to purchase laptop based on weight - choose the lightest

5. Postpurchase behaviour
· Comparison with the actual expectations
· Either satisfied or dissatisfied.
● If satisfied, recommend to friends/ if not satisfied,persuade friends not to buy

(2) Psychological, sociacultural, and situational factors that affect the process.

Psychological factors

1. Motivation
· Definition: The energizing force that stimulates behaviour to satisfy a need.
· Is about how important a laptop is to the consumer/ what kind of need a laptop is?
-Notes : Maslow has five levels- Physiological(Basic need)/ Safety(Freedom from
harm, financial security) /Social (friendship, belonging, love) /Esteem (status,
respect, prestige) /Self-Actualization or self-fulfilment

2. Personality
· Definition: Person’s consistent behaviors or responses to recurring situations
· Self-concept – correlation between personality and brand/ product (“I am a Mac
Person”, “I am an Acer guy”)
3. Perception
· Definition: Process by which an individual select, organizes and interprets
information to create meaning picture of the world.
· **** Notes: Selective perception-filtering of exposure, comprehension and
retention
·

4. Learning
5. Values, beliefs and attitudes

6. Lifestyle

Social factors
1. Maintaining status
● People tend to choose products that communicate their role and status in the
society. (It’s important for marketers to know about job/status of a person before
they market any products)
2. Sharing similar values and interests (A reference group perhaps?)
● A reference group is a group of people with whom an individual associates which
strongly influences a person’s attitudes values and behaviour directly and
indirectly.
3. Family
● The taste, dislikes, lifestyles of family members are rooted in the family buying
behaviour

Culture
1. Adopting the culture among friends

Implications
● Companies/Marketers can investigate and understand the way in which specific type of
people behave (eg: What students would consider when they are buying laptops?). This
can help them to position their products to specific group of people or targeted
individuals.
● Marketers/Companies may have to focus and work on their online stores in terms of
providing useful information to consumers. Consumers do research before making their
purchase decisions. It’s important to provide information on online sites to
influence/attract the customers.
● To increase knowledge of sales personnel to influence consumers to buy product. Sales
person has to be fully aware of the customers’ requirements so that he or she could
clearly communicate about products available to the customer. Sales person should also
have command over their spoken language to avoid any miscommunication because
miscommunications may harm brand reputation.
●
●
b. HP markets laptops to both individual end consumer and to other companies. Discuss
how companies buy the laptops compared to how consumers buy them. What
implications does this have on HP’s marketing to companies, compared to marketing to
end consumers?

- The difference between company to company and company to individual is

buying centre (there are several individuals for
- Objectives for buying would be different
- Process would include bidding
- Companies can have new buy, straight rebuy and modified rebuy. E.g. new staff
requires new computer, hence straight buy occurs.
- Buying criteria is different from companies and individuals e.g. colours and
designs of laptops for individuals vs functionality and productivity for companies
- Companies purchase in bulk, hence bulk discount is important
Case B - Abercrombie & Fitch - the asian hurdle (recommended resource pg 171-172)
Answer question 1 and 2 only

Case study facts

In Japan, A&F could not do well because of the following factors

1. Current brand positioning in Japan is less relevant, especially to the youth.

2. Fast fashion competitors like H&M
3. “Sexualised marketing strategy”
4. Charges for denying a Muslim woman a job because of her head scarf.
5. Price too high
6. “All-american” positioning
7. The staffs could not speak the language/unaware of accepted cultural norms of
Japan.
8. Having staff members clothes exposed too much skin, was so not in line with the
market expectations.

Research inputs (ABOUT THE COMPANY)

Good stuffs
 1. Use of ethnically diverse models to improve brand image.
2. Customers a familiar with the brand for the “overly-sexualised” marketing campaigns.
(Previously used this strategy)
3. Scent marketing – to create emotional connection with customers. They managed to
moderate scent marketing to suit consumer preference which could influence the amount of
time and money that a customer spends in a scented shopping environment.

Bad stuffs

1. Failure to conform to cultures, they continued to use “All-American strategy” to penetrate

foreign markets.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Based on the consumer buyer behaviour, how do you think A&F should approach its
plans to expand in China?
Research inputs
Chinese consumers gravitated towards kinship and financial security.

Selective Spending
Chinese consumers are more selective in their spending when they have higher purchasing
power. They are more likely to procure premium goods and services that provide quality to
them and their families. Despite the need to save, they would spend on quality goods that
provide a longer useful life. 48% of them would demand for the best and most expensive
product under the apparel category if they have monetary capabilities.

Brand Loyal
China consumers are becoming brand loyal in the apparel sector as seen with an increase
of 10% from 2009 to 2015. They prefer brands they are comfortable with to prevent post-
purchase dissonance and avoid spending additional money for repurchases. Brand loyalty is
closely linked to corporate brand image, brand personality, brand performance. By focusing
on brand quality, consumers seeking quality goods receive emotional loyalty which leads to
brand loyalty only if they resonate with the brand personality

Shopping via Online Channels

There has been a rise in e-commerce as consumers are more satisfied with online shopping
as compared to physical stores. China’s online retail market achieved RMB3.8 trillion,
contributing to 46% of the global online retail market in China. In addition, the shift in
purchasing habits to online platforms aligns with their idea of saving up and spending more
time with their families while shopping at the comfort of their own homes. (Usage of social
media such as Instagram to promote their brands)
There is a social needs (a sense of belongingness because they are wearing the same
brands)
Esteem (they would like to express their wealths because they are new rich)

Combination of local and foreign celebrities. Local celebrities are more “known” in their
countries. However, they also perceived that foreign celebrities are more ‘atas’ and the new
rich kid are more affluent with other celebrities (foreign).
Hari is typing…..

ANSWER
a. Localisation of products/store
· A&F should try to introduce Chinese elements in the stores.
· A&F should try to know more and understand about Chinese customers and
produce apparels that match their needs.
· Produce apparels that suit Chinese consumers’ body physique and their
perceived body image.
· Details such as size labels can be in Chinese Language to show A&F’s efforts in
staying localised.

b. Pricing of the products (Not so sure, because Chinese customers selectly spen
· Cheaper price to remain competitive in the market. (Against competitors like
H&M)
· VALUE BASED PRICING (Cos Chinese customers go for high prices, good
quality)

c. Improve customer shopping experience

· Chinese customers feel that shopping is the best way to spend time with family.
Hence, A&F can work on introducing family concept to provide family shopping
experience. Example, introduce family fitting rooms, graphic t-shirts,
· Hire the local as sales staffs – easier to build connection with the customers.

d. Online-to-offline marketing

e. Way of using online channels to drive customers into physical stores.

f. E-commerce

· 70% of Chinese consumers use social media to discover news brands and
products.
· By using social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat, it can allow customers
to discover its new products easily. Also, customers can read reviews, comments
and feedback from other customers to get insights.
· Can build valuable customer relationships and positive brand image which
enhance its positioning.
 g. Customer-oriented retail assistants.
· Able to converse in Chinese
· Get them equipped with all relevant knowledge and training to deliver service with
high quality.
· Chinese customers are quite particular when it comes to quality, sales assistants
should not exaggerate blab la bla.

QUESTION 2
Research and analyse the United States and the Japanese markets and the different consumer
preferences . Explain how you think A&F can win Japanese consumers over without
compromising on what the brand stands for?
(a) How US and Japanese markets and different consumer preferences?
(i) Brand consciousness (Americans)
Americans tend to seek the product that give the image of being successful.
They have the perception that brand reflects the status. Americans rely on new
trends (with brands) based on Chan & Botelho 2010.

(ii) Solid prints are the go to style (Japanese)

- Japanese tend to favour bolder shades like jewel tones (like turquoise
green, dark/navy blue), neon colour and vibrant prints.
- Americans would use wording, picture or a pattern on their shirt.
- Mundane tokyo Fashion seems to use colour rather than using zany and
interesting print to spice the runway.
- Like miniminalistic
- Very taggy to wear shirt with brands

(iii) Japanese women are more conservative (in terms of their clothing) as
compared to the Americans.
- It was mentioned in an article that they would not expose their skin too
much (so if they are wearing a dress, they would wear leggings).
- However, it is evident that the Americans are the opposite (the less the
better)

(b) According the article above: https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/tokyo-fashion-

week-street-style-spring-2019#3
Style
In Tokyo Fashion Week Spring 2019, Japanese fashion sense is so vibrant in
colour, vintage and some would wear layers of clothing with accessories.

However, A&F style does not match Japanese culture. We know that A&F is
known for their “cool and laid back” looking style.

Therefore, in order for them to to active in the industry, they need to follow and
adapt to the Japanese fashion style. In addition, A&F has to participate in the
fashion show runway to update their design.

Management of the company

It was stated in the article that the company does not hire any Japanese
personnel, this could be a hindrance to foster a good customer relationship
because there will be minimal communication due to communication barrier. Hire
those americans that can speak in Japanese (the Japanese will respect them
because they are able to speak Japanese)

(Importance of shopping experience) Vibe of the retail store and Understanding

the culture of the country

Asians are more converservative, in terms of manners and look, therefore, A&F
needs to adapt to their culture. It was mentioned in the article that A&F does not
hire any hijabis workers and their working attire is somewhat “expose”. Also,
there is a contrast in the shopping experience of the Asians and Americans.
Asians prefer the branding, scent and atmosphere to be subtley. However, A&F
played “loud” music.

Improve brand loyalty

Associated Press (2015), Japanese are loyal to their brands and I feel that A&F
should optimise this opportunity by providing loyalty programs such as
Giftcards/membership programs where they can collect and redeem their points.
This is to ensure that the customers constantly purchase from A&F.

Pricing

To reduce the gap of the pricing, Americans sell cheaper in the country and they
mark up their prices in Japan. Japanese focus into quality and value conscious
(buy less, pay more but with quality) - Japanese value consciousness

A&F Campaigns

“Face your fear campaign” for perfumes

Week 4 - Assignment 4: Marketing Research (Chapter 8)
a. Which research design/plan (Step 2) is most appropriate for the following situation? Provide
reasons for your answers. Provide some ideas how you will go about implementing the research
with your suggested design.

I. A toy manufacturer is interested in understanding how little children aged 1 to 3 go

about choosing toys to play with, what they do with various types of toys, and what tend
to fascinate them?
Exploratory research.
Observation Method due to key constraints over the age.
Sampling Method: Non-probability, because it is an exploratory study and it is qualitative
in nature so it does not need to be statistically correct. It is also difficult to get data.
Random sampling is fine.
For kids, they are only interested in the aesthetics.
Additional factor: Would be the parents because they are the one making the decisions
by doing descriptive surveys to get feedback from the parent or focus group or
interviews with parents.
II. A credit card issuer is interested in knowing what credit card holders look for in credit
card products and issuers, how they use their credit cards, what are their perceptions of
various credit card products and issuers, and their perceptions of merchants’ treatment
of credit card transactions. This information will help the company develop better
marketing strategies.
Descriptive Research
Online self-administered survey
Sample: Used your members to reach out to them. Therefore, you may have a larger
group of sample.
III. P&G owns shampoo brands like Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Herbal Essences,
Rejoice etc. It wants to create the next big thing in shampoo but does not have any idea
what it could be.

Step one: Define the problem and objective

P&G’s concern is mainly about creating the next big thing in shampoo.
So, it’s about,
· Creating a product which has got “something” or does something
· that products in the current market do not have/doesn’t do, enabling them to
gain an edge over their competitors as well.
· However, they are not sure about what the idea could be. There is a lack of
information to make decision comfortably (Decision about “next big thing”)
Step 2: Determine the “research design”
Suggestion:
1. Start with exploratory research.
 Reason:
• The topic is not well defined or specific. It helps P&G to gain broad insights,
narrow the focus and learn the basics necessary to go deeper.
• It’s a matter of P&G laying the groundwork to conduct further research in the
future.
• Flexible / Saves time
Techniques recommended: Secondary research like focus groups and interviews.
(Consumers will list out problems they have with existing products in the market and
researcher will get an overall picture about the problems consumers face when they
use the products)
2. When they already have their secondary data in hand, they can conduct
quantitative descriptive research.
Reason/Objective: Utilise the data obtained through exploratory research to obtain
detailed data. (How much each problem listed by respondent during interview/focus
group affects the actual population of consumers?)
- Experiment the target groups on their response?
Technique: Survey
Sample: Nonprobability sampling
- Based on gender, age group, hair types
- E.g. Group people with different hair problems together
Confirm findings > create concepts of shampoo > test it in quantitative survey
Road shows?
b. Read the assigned article “New Insights for New Growth: What It Takes to Understand Your
Customers Today” by McKinsey. (i) What are the interesting key takeaways from this article?

Case C – NeBO: From Data to Actions Case (Textbook*, Pg 239 to 242). Answer questions 1 to
4

Question 1:

What are the management challenges facing NTUC club? What research questions arise as a
result of these management challenges?
- How to recruit? NTUC Club feels that the membership signup rate could be further and
recommend ways to reach out to nonmember personnel.
- How to retain? Dilemma on ways to improve their club’s benefits and range of activities
so as to maintain existing members and extend their membership upon expiry of one
year.
- What are the trends that youth seek and constantly stay relevant to attract the youths?
- The club is unsure of the research approaches, types of relevant secondary information
and determining exploratory research that should be carried out to understand the
problems better?
- Close ended and likert scale questions
- Research objectives: What activities and benefits would attract the existing to renew
their membership?
- Research objectives: What trends to attract nonmember to
- Have to provide incentives and reminder to all existing and lapsed members.

Question 2:

Given the research questions you identified in question 1, what research design is appropriate
to answer these research questions?

Exploratory research (provides ideas about a relatively vague problems)

- Why is the data collected for aged group between 20-24 is not that supportive as
compared to aged group between 15-19? Find out why these people do not like to sign
up membership?
- To find out what attracts the age group between 15-19 to join member? Almost half of
the percentage joined member.
- What are the issues that children at that age are facing? They train for??

Descriptive research (generally involves trying to find the frequency that something occurs or
the extent of a relationship between two factors).

Identify the problem:

- How to constantly stay relevant with the youth trends to keep them attracted?
 - How to maintain the existing member? Do we need to improve the the benefits?
- How often they use the facilities in NTUC? The frequency of usage? The facilities or
events that they usually go to? Occasions to go use the facilities? Choice criteria of
events?

Currently they are already providing events to the youth such as special movie screenings,
underground parties, beach carnivals, and entrepreneurship dialog sessions with local
businessmen and women to inspire yet. “Mission is to increase youth activism and participation
in Singapore, nEbo organises events that are all youth-initiated and youth-run”.

Casual research (to determine the extent to which the change in one factor changes the other
one)

“NTUC has been focusing on marketing union membership to adults. Afterwards, NTUC change
and adopt new strategy by marketing and creating brand awareness to the youths in 2013.”

This experimental and testing of market is a good example of casual research. However, is their
slogan too boring? nEbo (Nobody enjoys being ordinary).

Question 3:

Examine the initial questions proposed by the student for the online research. Are they any
problems with these questions? How can these questions be improved?

Question 1 1. The question is relevant Never

How often did you use your as it determines if the Once a month
nEbO membership privilege respondent has 2-5 times
card? experience using nEbO More than 5 times
Never/once a month/1-5 membership
times a month/ 5-10 times a benefits/facilities OR
month 2. However, the answer are
not mutually exclusive. 2nd Never
option and 3rd Option are Once a month
not mutually exclusive, as 2-10 times
a member who used the More than 10 times.
membership privilege card
will get confused if he is
supposed to choose
option 2 or 3.
3. Also, there is no option
 available for members
who used the card more
than 10 times.

2. Which nEbO youth 1. There are two separate issues Break the question into
communities have you that they are interested in. First, two parts.
heard of and are of interest they would like to know about
to you? youth communities that people
have heard about. Second, youth
communities that attract these
people.
Combining these two separate
questions in one question isn’t a
prudent idea.

3 What do you usually do Relevant as it allows to Have an ‘Others’

when you hang out with researcher to know better about option
friends? youth’s interest. Others
However, it is a non exhaustive (Specify)________
questions as the choices are
limited. For example, if the
respondent usually goes for
swimming with friends or play
soccer with them, there is no
option available for him.

4. When was the first Respondents will never be able Modify the question.
time you heard of to respond accurately because Asking about where
nEbO they may never remember when the respondents got to
they first heard about nEbO. know about nEbO may
Also the question has too many still be relevant.
choices.
 5. Please rate the The first sentence- misleading
following statements: cos of the word “highly” plus it’s a
1. I am highly negative sentence.
dissatisfied with
being a nEbO Mixture of positive and negative
member. sentence, respondents may get
confused while answering the
questionnaire. (Overall)

The fourth sentence is made up

of two points, respondent who
likes the design but dislike the
navigation would not know where
to mark. (Make it separate)

The fifth sentence, no point

asking. No consumers would be
open to answer this kind of
questions honestly. (Replace)

Question 4:
Examine the selected research results from the online survey. What conclusions can you draw?
What recommendations would you propose to the management of NTUC Club based on these
results?

Week 5 - Assignment 5: Market Segmentation & Positioning, New Product

Development (Chapter 9 & 10)

a. Conduct a segmentation of fashion in Singapore, using at least 2 segmentation

variables.

Main Dimension: Psychographics and Income

Segmentation Variables: Lifestyle/Occupation and Income
Casual wear - Cotton On, H&M, Pull & Bear, A&F
Sportswear - Nike, New Balance, under armour
Office wear - G2000, Topman, Benjamin Barker, Forever 21, Bershka

Main Dimension: Demographic

Segmentation Variables: Income
High Income, Middle Income, Low Income

Main Dimension: Demographic

Segmentation Variables: Occupation
Areas in CBD areas are for office personnel therefore shops such as Benjamin Barker,
G200, Forever 21, Bershka, are primarily popular and located around the CBD areas.
Unlike neighbourhood areas, where Cotton on and H&M are located. Price point for
neighbourhood areas are more dollar-friendly/less steep and casual wear.

b. Compare G2000 and Benjamin Barker outlets in Singapore, and answer the
following questions:
- Identify the target segments of G2000 and Benjamin Barker?
Target Segment for G200:
It’s categorised based on (a) Gender; there are men and women sectors (b) age
and life stage; it caters to only workwear adults, therefore aged anyway above 21
(mainly), (c) lower-middle/middle-middle income level; men suits are ranged
between $300 to $400 whereas for women, their dress or office wear are ranged
between $100 to $200 and (d) occupation; for those adults who requires to wear
office wear to work.

Target Segment for Benjamin Barker

It’s categorised based on (a) Gender; only for men (b) lifestage and occupation;
would be for those adults who requires to wear office wear to work (c) higher-
middle/ higher income level; Benjamin Barker provides tailoring services for their
customers. Their blazers cost $400-$500 while their top cost about $70-$90 (d)
Location, primarily located at CBD area such as Wheelock, Vivocity, Marine
Square.
 - What do you think are the points-of-parity and points-of-difference between
the 2 brands? Are the points of difference relevant and meaning to their
respective target audience? - why or why not?

Ambiance, cater to men only (niche, quality, prestige) and G2000 to men and
women, accessibility (G2000 have more outlets, about 20, while Benjamin Barker
have 10), premium for Benjamin Barker while affordable formal for G2000.

- Write a positioning statement for G2000 and Benjamin Barker using your own
words

“Benjamin Barker: The suit that makes a man”.

“G2000: Every walk is a runway”.

- Create a perceptual map for the two brands, by choosing two key attributes
Low Price to High Price; Low Quality to Finest Quality

(a) Identify the importance attributes (scale) for adults wear. Therefore, the key
attributes for adults to judge various men/women apparel are (a) price points:
Low vs High price and (b) Quality: Low vs High Quality materials
(b) (a) Accessible and Bold/Plain
(c) Price and Fashion trend

Case D - Starbucks and City Cafe in Taiwan: Friend or Foe (Textbook*, Pg 265 to 267). Answer
questions 1 to 4.

1. What variables should be used to segment the coffee market in Taiwan? How
many groups can you identify in your segmentation exercise? What are the
responses and behaviours of each group?
City Cafe
Dimension: Demographic
Segmentation Variables: Age
It was mentioned in the article that City Cafe targeted students and workers
aged between 20 and 40.
 Starbucks
Dimension: Demographic
Segmentation Variables: Income
It was mentioned that in the survey, for about 68% that had done the survey,
mentioned that Starbucks should review their prices. Currently, their price
range are between US $2.46 to US $5.08. Therefore, based on demographics
and income level, Starbucks could alter their prices and quality of coffee to
meet the demands.

Dimension: Psychographic
Segment Variables: Lifestyle
It was mentioned that Taiwanese frequently consumed latte (48%), followed
by Americano (19%), Cappuccino (17%), Mocha (4%) and Others (17%).
Therefore, Starbucks and City Cafe should focus on meeting the demand and
lifestyle of the Taiwanese.

Segment Variables: Benefits Sought

Based on Quality (subpoints source of coffee), Service (subpoints ambiance,
accessibility)

Segment Variables: Benefits Sought

- Perk me up (morning kind of coffee) ie City Cafe and Starbucks
- Social (Starbucks)
- Connoisseur (Quality) ie for Taiwanese/Foreign Specialty

2. What group is Starbucks targeting in Taiwan and how do Starbucks’s offering

fit their requirements? Which group is City Cafe targeting and how do City
Cafe’s offering fit their requirements?
Starbucks: Enjoy a cup with your friend?
City Cafe: Convenient and Affordable coffee
 Starbucks provides good quality coffee at a higher prices which includes cafe
latte, vanilla latte, hazelnut latte, caramel macchiato, coffee mocha and
cappuccino. In addition, Starbuck provide tea options for its consumer such as
rose fancy tea. Starbucks also adopt similar and yet different pastry.

Based on the statistics, there are higher percentage of people who consumed
latte as compared to the other beverages. Therefore, Starbucks provide a
variety of latte beverages for the consumers.

City Cafe provides low priced coffee to student and workers aged between 20
and 40 which includes latte, cappuccino, and City blend.

3. How do Starbucks and City Cafe position themselves in the market and what
do they communicate to their target customers?

4. Why is the President’s Group able to dominate the coffee market in Taiwan
with the starbucks and city cafe concepts rather than cannibalize itself with
two brands in the same market?

They have segmented very well and choose the segments and offer a variety of
coffees.
Very little to non cannibalizing

Week 6 - Assignment Week 6: Managing Product and Brand, Services Marketing

(Chapter 11 & 12)

a. Pick an Asian brand and evaluate its visual brand identity which includes the brandname,
logo, symbol and slogan. Your evaluation should also include whether it would appeal to the
brands’ target audience.
Sheng Siong.
Brandname: a grocery and fresh food supermarket retailing chain in Singapore. Prevent their
names from being generic. Local company, thus having a mandarin name.
Logo: “Sheng” in chinese
Slogan: “All for you.” The customers can relate to the slogan and know that Sheng Siong
provides everything for the customers. This is in line with their vision “To be a preferred retailer
for consumer to shop and provide affordable products.”

CASE E – Dynasty Travel: Reinventing the Travel Agency Business (Textbook Page
344-346*). Answer questions 1 to 5.

1. What unique characteristics of service marketing (in contrast to product

marketing) do travel agencies like Dynasty encounter? What unique
challenges does Dynasty face as a result of such unique characteristic?
Unique Characteristics:

Intangibility:

In 2009, it was mentioned that Dynasty offers online payment for group tour
packages.

In 2010, Dynasty arranged for its customers to have access to premium club lounges
in Changi Airport prior to departures for their tours

In 2011, Dynasty provided customers with options of paying their tour packages
through over 880 AXS machines.

In 2012, Dynasty launched its holiday-booking mobile application, the iDynasty. This
app allows users to obtain information on travel destination and itineraries as well as
book their chosen packages from their mobile phones.

Future plan: to launch a concierge service using TOURIX. Travel consultants will be
able to visit their customers at their homes or any agreed locations and discuss their
travel needs, enabling their provision of personalized customer service on the go, with
precise and updated information in the system.

Challenges:
In order to improve their customer service, Dynasty has to continue to stay relevant to
the market and ensure that they meet the demand of the consumer.

And in order to do so, travel agencies in general are having a hard time to do because
their services, as travel agencies, have direct and indirect threats. Consumers are
increasingly booking their flights, accommodation, and other requirements online and
service providers such as airlines, hotels, and tourist sites are increasingly using online
platforms to sell directly to consumers.

Also, the source of income of a travel agencies are through the marking up of the
travel packages. However, the supplier of those packages have a higher selling power
as compared to the travel agencies who has lower purchasing power. This was evident
when the supplier of the travel packages have sufficient number of customers to sign
up for these packages. To find good overseas partners for foreign trips order to ensure
safety and enjoyment of customers travelling abroad.

2. Would you view the evolution of the travel agency business as high in search
properties, high experience properties of high in credence properties? What
strategies can travel agencies like Dynasty use to reduce uncertainties in
service evaluation and improve adoption rates?

3. What are the dimensions of service quality of travel agencies? How would you
define these dimensions? What questions might customers ask in assessing
these dimensions?
(a) Empathy: Caring, individualised attention provided to customers. Question:
Am I able to customised my tour packages? If I don’t want to do part of A, can I
substitute it with other activities?

(b) Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

Questions: What is the price/rate of the flight between date A to date B? What
packages do you have to offer? What are the activities that the travel agencies got
to offer? The tour packages? What is the weight of the luggage, do I need to pay
additional fees for the check in luggage (because air flight to Thailand, you don’t
have to pay)?
(c) Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey
trust and confidence. Question:

4. Carry out a customer contact audit for a traditional brick and mortar travel
agency. How will this audit be different for agencies such as Dynasty, which
have developed online and mobile platforms and applications for customers
and travel consultants?

5. Comment on what constitutes an effective service marketing mix (7Ps) for a

travel agency such as Dynasty.

a. Product (Service); seeks to provide excellent customer service because they

believe that human touch cannot be replaced by technology. Launching a
concierge service using TOURIX. Travel consultants will be able to visit their
customers at their homes or any agreed locations and discuss their travel needs,
enabling their provision of personalized customer service on the go, with precise
and updated information in the system.

b. Price; Their packages may be pricier as compared to the rest but they provide
customers with great value for money by provide good quality hotels and
cuisines.
c. Place (Distribution)
d. Promotion:
e. People:
f. Physical Process
G. process
Assignment Week 9: Distribution (Read Chapters 15, 16, 21)

a. Channel Design’s key channel decisions include channel length (number of channel
levels), channel intensity (Exclusive, Selective, Intensive) and channel types
(wholesaler type, retailer type, online vs brick and mortar etc). How will channel
design decisions be similar or different for the following product categories?
i. Shampoo (Pantene- Procter and Gamble)
1. Channel length – 4 levels (Producer > Distributor > Retailer >Consumer)
Reasoning: Low cost item/Low-unit value and frequently purchased by the
consumers. Manufacturer of shampoo sell its items to wholesalers/distributors
in bulk, retailers order in boxes or in small quantities from distributors. As for
large retailers, they may purchase straight from manufacturer.
2. Channel intensity - Intensive distribution - it’s important to place its
products at as many outlet as possible because buying shampoo
involved low commitment, customers may easily switch to other
products if they are not able to get it from an outlet.
 3. Channel type- Talk about type of retailers-supermarket, provision shop
4. Channel design - Buyers or consumers look for convenience when it
comes to shampoo. ---> shampoo have to gain display at convenience
stores. Sellers who sell shampoos may not only sell shampoo,
(convenience stores). Hence, they will only purchase in small quantities.
Makes more sense to buy from distributors. As for large retailers they
may buy straight from the manufacturers.

ii. LED Television (Sony and Samsung)

1. Channel length – 5 levels (Producer → Agent → Wholesaler → Retailer →
Consumer) manufacturer → retailer →
No wholesalers because it is bulky !
Reasoning: Many manufacturers and many small retailers, and an agent is
used to help to coordinate a large supply of product. Multinational.
2. Channel Intensity- Selective (Medium intensity)
Reasoning: For example, Sony TVs are manufactured in Mexico, Japan and
Slovakia. In Singapore, West have 6 outlets, East have 5 outlets, North have 2
outlets and Central have 4 outlets.
3. Chanel types:

iii. Elevators and Escalators (Mitsubishi Industrial Machinery Division)

B2B! Direct because you want more control! Talk about business and
then requirement (listen to the lecture)???
Channel Length - 2 Level (Direct Channel for marketing channel for
business goods and services) Mitsubishi Industrial Machinery Division →
Industrial User -----> Reasoning: Depend on salesforce to sell the
machinery, requires extensive negotiations and product has high unit
value- requires hands-on experience to install
Channel Intensity: exclusive distribution Located at 4 areas only, 2 west
and 2 east. Need to only have 1 office in Singapore ! no intermediaries
Channel types - no channel type because it only use own sales force to
market
 Elevators and escalator highly affect the operations of buyers hence
need maintain close relationship for installation, quality control and
maintenance purposes. Long term relationship

b. Read Chapter 21 and Read article -

http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/Winning_the_MultiChannel_Challenge.pdf (in
Xsite)

What multi-channel and cross-channel buying behavior do you observe in:

Under what circumstances to do showrooming? And what circumstances to do
webrooming?
(i) the travel industry (Janis’ group)

Buy the right product at the best price. The consumer use the above stated multiple
channels to compare the services and packages. Consumer is able to book and check
the prices, ease of comparison. Online agencies and hotels. Web rooming is low
because of convenience. However, some people will check the package tours at the
store and then check online to compare. Look at the brands and time of the
bookings.

(ii) banking industry (Andy’s group)

Front Ends ie call center, internet, self service, branch, service center → Middle
layer ie Independent Transaction Layer → Internal Back end ie transactions,
customer , booking and security processing → External systems ie loan, credit card,
insurance and home loan banks.

Traditional: retail shops

Model: Influencer through blogs
Setting up account:How flexible is the bank? How many atms?
How many outlets does the bank have?
More web rooming - see online first and then go to the bank. Ie loans.
Cross channel buying behavior
Consumer could make their transactions via online. Alternatively, they would
research products online and then head over to the captive shops to

HARI :
Buying behaviour - Consumers perform mobile phone/tablet/computer
transactions more than the branch transactions.
Example: Citibank
1. As a bank, they have their own selling force to sell their products (eg.
Credit card, loan)- Traditional channel
2. Various other channels include
a. Discount (35%/25%) off when we use DBS credit cards/debit
cards to purchase clothes in Zalora
b. Cashback when purchase things using Citi card in Giant.
c. Advertisements in youtube while watching video
d. Internet banking/ Mobile app banking
e.

iii) computer industry? (Cheng Wei’s group)

Offline (to check for information) and then buy at the store.
- Web rooming: High involvement product that is more expensive
- Purchased offline
- Sometimes purchased online after checking out at the physical store

- Webrooming vs showrooming

For example, how do consumers use various channels for (a) search and information,
(b) transaction and purchase, and (c) fulfillment and delivery?

c. How can companies implement multi-channel marketing strategies effectively to

address the cross channel buying behavior of consumers in the above three
industries? (by groups too)