This document discusses how mobile technology is changing the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail industry. It analyzes how mobile technologies provide solutions that enable retailers to create new business models and markets. The adoption of mobile technologies increases competition by empowering consumers with information and lowering barriers to entry for retailers. The document recommends that retailers respond to these changes by choosing a value discipline of operational excellence, customer intimacy, or product leadership from the Treacy and Wiersema model to build a competitive advantage. It also predicts retailers will need skills in mobile marketing and an attitude of customer focus to successfully adopt mobile technologies.
CIM/e-Marketing Award-Assignment #1: Analysis of Magicalia's e-Marketing Stra...Naja Faysal
This report presents a case study on Magicalia Publishing Group e-Marketing strategies. Their key success factor was Localization and Cross-Selling.
As part of the Chartered Institute of Marketing programs, Naja Faysal was enrolled in the Professional Development Award in e-Marketing via Cambridge Marketing College
Situational Analysis and an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Electro-Serv (Pvt) Ltd.
This report was prepared based on the assignment questions of the CIM qualifications for Integrated Communications Subject.
CIM/e-Marketing Award-Assignment #1: Analysis of Magicalia's e-Marketing Stra...Naja Faysal
This report presents a case study on Magicalia Publishing Group e-Marketing strategies. Their key success factor was Localization and Cross-Selling.
As part of the Chartered Institute of Marketing programs, Naja Faysal was enrolled in the Professional Development Award in e-Marketing via Cambridge Marketing College
Situational Analysis and an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Electro-Serv (Pvt) Ltd.
This report was prepared based on the assignment questions of the CIM qualifications for Integrated Communications Subject.
This report consist of complete description of how digital marketing affect small and medium enterprises in current scenario and it's advantages for advertising with all possible research methodology
Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Folli Follie Spyros Langkos
As Gabrielle Coco Chanel once mentioned: “Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends”
This study concentrates on the integrated marketing communications plan of the Greek company Folli Follie (personal luxury products retailer) and how it is implemented across international culture: the expansion in China.
This report was created to point out the mixed marketing communications plan for Folli Follie, in order to strengthen the FF Group reputation and motivate the end-user confidence.
Key factors for this communication are International Culture and Access to Global Market. We choose to focus on these two topics, because international employees and customers need more guidelines on these specifics.
International Culture: raise awareness upon cultural differences and increase diversification rates.
Access to Global Market: to expand the awareness of the impact of the Global Environment in new emerging markets.
The guidelines include:
- Branding: create & use consistent message and image
- Efficiency: create re-usable content & high impact channels,such as a multimedia website and social media
- Data metrics: plan activity measurements & future decision making data.
The Goals of this plan form from three levels:
1) Strengthen the reputation of Folli Follie
2) Attract new customers and enhance satisfaction
3) Create engagement and positive industry buzz (word of mouth)
The purpose of this plan is to support the practices, policies and the action plan of the Folly Follies Group and relate them with the business goals and vision, in order to raise awareness, loyalty and customer relationship.
This report strongly recommends the enhance of the company’s recent global campaign theme “ What are you crazy for? ”, based on the results of the situation analysis.
The primary targets of this communications are the Chinese youth, the international employees of the group and the Chinese post-modern woman & man. Secondary targets are China’s major cities, fashion shows, local agencies.We have investigated the possible launch of the Folli Follie in China, where we will try to combine the Folli Follie’s “way of doing” with the local Chinese market.
Our mission therefore, is to successfully introduce the brand, while paying attention to the Chinese needs and expectations.
History and achievements of the company:
Folli Follie is a Greek company which designs, manufactures and distributes jewelry, watches and fashion accessories. The company offers assortments in fashion accessories such as handbags, small leather goods, belts and sunglasses. Following a philosophy of affordable, fashionable luxury, the exclusively designed pieces add breadth to the company’s identity and are now globally recognized amongst accessories brands. Folli Follie established itself as a pioneer in the market when it introduced, amongst its first collections jewelry creations made of silver combined with murano g
Developing business promotional strategies andVIKAS KUMAR
This project is about the use of different types of digital marketing strategies for a business. This project is designed for understanding and giving the best suggestion to IRX about digital marketing.
The title of the project is “DEVELOPING BUSINESS PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES AND MARKETING THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA OF IRX”.
To understand the digital marketing strategies this project are divided in to three objectives, “To study various promotional strategies in Digital Marketing”, “Suggest the effective Digital Marketing practices to IRX using analysis” and “To study the competitors Digital Marketing practices and analyse best practices”. In order to understand and suggest the various promotional strategies, different types of activities are mention in this project. The essential parts of the digital marketing strategies are Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Content Marketing, SMS Marketing.
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When it comes to being an industry leader, what differentiates one vendor from others is how he connects with decision makers of the target customer companies. For this, a vendor should be very much aware of the major touch points between him and the customer. A clear picture of where the customer spends time, what are the touch points and how a customer uses different channels to gather information about the vendors as well as industry/domain information is required to make a good marketing strategy.
This survey was targeted at CXO people of Telecom Companies. The set of respondents includes 290 CXOs across 33 countries, and 54 unique communication service providers (CSP). Out of them, total 21 responses were received.
An Introduction to Digital Marketing. My series of Digital Marketing Tutorials will help you to get a good insight into Digital Marketing !! Happy Learning Friends !!
Today news channels are not only providing information about the company but also avails different kind of knowledge. In such context, the present research report is being framed which is emphasizing on strategic analysis of MSNBC. It is the America’s largest broadcasting organization that facilitates different type of information to the customers about several aspects. The present research report is focusing on the strategic analysis of MSNBC in which the marketing strategies of its competitors are mentioned. The company is also provided with some recommendations for the purpose of building the brand image of the company in different markets. The company has been trying to expand the business in other countries in which they are framing different marketing strategies as that will also help in getting greater market share. Based on such analysis, the report is going to use strategic options for business development.
Social Media Role in Improving Customer Relationship Management: An Empirical...journal ijrtem
The study aimed to identify the impact of Social media in improving customer relationship
management (CRM) at Jordanian Islamic banks (JIB), identify the impact of achieving the effectiveness of
Social media at JIB. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher prepared a questionnaire to measure
the role of Social media on CRM. The researcher selected the study sample randomly by distributing 365
questionnaires on the customers of JIB where (302) were retrieved. After reviewing the questionnaires, it was
found that there were (28) questionnaires invalid for the statistical analysis. Thus, the total number of
respondents was (274). In order to answer the study questions and test its hypotheses, the researcher extracted
the arithmetic means and standard deviations and applied the multiple regression equation. Accordingly, the
study reached too many results, most important of which is that there is a statistically significant effect for
Social media on achieving the effectiveness of the CRM. The study recommended the need that JIB seeks for
adding various characteristics of editing, deleting, copying, and setting time on the basis of text messaging
through such networks as well as the need of conducting marketing studies aimed to enabling banks to achieve
the customers' wishes in a method matching their expectations.
•Customer acquisition and Customer Retention for company and basic knowledge on Digital Marketing.
•Social Media Marketing and surveyed the market to understand the consumer needs in the Digital Era.
This report consist of complete description of how digital marketing affect small and medium enterprises in current scenario and it's advantages for advertising with all possible research methodology
Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for Folli Follie Spyros Langkos
As Gabrielle Coco Chanel once mentioned: “Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends”
This study concentrates on the integrated marketing communications plan of the Greek company Folli Follie (personal luxury products retailer) and how it is implemented across international culture: the expansion in China.
This report was created to point out the mixed marketing communications plan for Folli Follie, in order to strengthen the FF Group reputation and motivate the end-user confidence.
Key factors for this communication are International Culture and Access to Global Market. We choose to focus on these two topics, because international employees and customers need more guidelines on these specifics.
International Culture: raise awareness upon cultural differences and increase diversification rates.
Access to Global Market: to expand the awareness of the impact of the Global Environment in new emerging markets.
The guidelines include:
- Branding: create & use consistent message and image
- Efficiency: create re-usable content & high impact channels,such as a multimedia website and social media
- Data metrics: plan activity measurements & future decision making data.
The Goals of this plan form from three levels:
1) Strengthen the reputation of Folli Follie
2) Attract new customers and enhance satisfaction
3) Create engagement and positive industry buzz (word of mouth)
The purpose of this plan is to support the practices, policies and the action plan of the Folly Follies Group and relate them with the business goals and vision, in order to raise awareness, loyalty and customer relationship.
This report strongly recommends the enhance of the company’s recent global campaign theme “ What are you crazy for? ”, based on the results of the situation analysis.
The primary targets of this communications are the Chinese youth, the international employees of the group and the Chinese post-modern woman & man. Secondary targets are China’s major cities, fashion shows, local agencies.We have investigated the possible launch of the Folli Follie in China, where we will try to combine the Folli Follie’s “way of doing” with the local Chinese market.
Our mission therefore, is to successfully introduce the brand, while paying attention to the Chinese needs and expectations.
History and achievements of the company:
Folli Follie is a Greek company which designs, manufactures and distributes jewelry, watches and fashion accessories. The company offers assortments in fashion accessories such as handbags, small leather goods, belts and sunglasses. Following a philosophy of affordable, fashionable luxury, the exclusively designed pieces add breadth to the company’s identity and are now globally recognized amongst accessories brands. Folli Follie established itself as a pioneer in the market when it introduced, amongst its first collections jewelry creations made of silver combined with murano g
Developing business promotional strategies andVIKAS KUMAR
This project is about the use of different types of digital marketing strategies for a business. This project is designed for understanding and giving the best suggestion to IRX about digital marketing.
The title of the project is “DEVELOPING BUSINESS PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES AND MARKETING THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA OF IRX”.
To understand the digital marketing strategies this project are divided in to three objectives, “To study various promotional strategies in Digital Marketing”, “Suggest the effective Digital Marketing practices to IRX using analysis” and “To study the competitors Digital Marketing practices and analyse best practices”. In order to understand and suggest the various promotional strategies, different types of activities are mention in this project. The essential parts of the digital marketing strategies are Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, Content Marketing, SMS Marketing.
Where do the Telecom CXOs Spend Time to Gather Industry/Domain Related Inform...Saumya Verma
When it comes to being an industry leader, what differentiates one vendor from others is how he connects with decision makers of the target customer companies. For this, a vendor should be very much aware of the major touch points between him and the customer. A clear picture of where the customer spends time, what are the touch points and how a customer uses different channels to gather information about the vendors as well as industry/domain information is required to make a good marketing strategy.
This survey was targeted at CXO people of Telecom Companies. The set of respondents includes 290 CXOs across 33 countries, and 54 unique communication service providers (CSP). Out of them, total 21 responses were received.
An Introduction to Digital Marketing. My series of Digital Marketing Tutorials will help you to get a good insight into Digital Marketing !! Happy Learning Friends !!
Today news channels are not only providing information about the company but also avails different kind of knowledge. In such context, the present research report is being framed which is emphasizing on strategic analysis of MSNBC. It is the America’s largest broadcasting organization that facilitates different type of information to the customers about several aspects. The present research report is focusing on the strategic analysis of MSNBC in which the marketing strategies of its competitors are mentioned. The company is also provided with some recommendations for the purpose of building the brand image of the company in different markets. The company has been trying to expand the business in other countries in which they are framing different marketing strategies as that will also help in getting greater market share. Based on such analysis, the report is going to use strategic options for business development.
Social Media Role in Improving Customer Relationship Management: An Empirical...journal ijrtem
The study aimed to identify the impact of Social media in improving customer relationship
management (CRM) at Jordanian Islamic banks (JIB), identify the impact of achieving the effectiveness of
Social media at JIB. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher prepared a questionnaire to measure
the role of Social media on CRM. The researcher selected the study sample randomly by distributing 365
questionnaires on the customers of JIB where (302) were retrieved. After reviewing the questionnaires, it was
found that there were (28) questionnaires invalid for the statistical analysis. Thus, the total number of
respondents was (274). In order to answer the study questions and test its hypotheses, the researcher extracted
the arithmetic means and standard deviations and applied the multiple regression equation. Accordingly, the
study reached too many results, most important of which is that there is a statistically significant effect for
Social media on achieving the effectiveness of the CRM. The study recommended the need that JIB seeks for
adding various characteristics of editing, deleting, copying, and setting time on the basis of text messaging
through such networks as well as the need of conducting marketing studies aimed to enabling banks to achieve
the customers' wishes in a method matching their expectations.
•Customer acquisition and Customer Retention for company and basic knowledge on Digital Marketing.
•Social Media Marketing and surveyed the market to understand the consumer needs in the Digital Era.
Now days mobile marketing is one of popular marketing method which is using allmost business industries and growing up due to vast mobile world and Institute Of Digital Marketing(IDM) provides courses like mobile marketing, mobile training and digital marketing and more.IDM also provides 100% Written Job assurance via offline training.
http://digitalmarketing.ac.in/
Indian Mid-market SaaS companies: Forging a new path to disruptionProductNation/iSPIRT
SaaS has changed the competitive dynamics for Indian enterprise software product firms, putting them on a level playing field with their western counterparts. It has opened up new market segments, notably the small and medium sized enterprise market, whose requirements are different from those of large global 2000 businesses. These customers demand products that are less complex, plug-and-play and come at a lower price tag. This has pushed product companies catering to this segment towards a light-touch, virtually enabled model, dramatically reducing the need for close customer engagement, large field sales force, and elaborate implementation – all of which traditionally put Indian companies at a disadvantage.
Leveraging this wave, a new generation of Indian software product firms such as FreshDesk, Fusion Charts, KissFlow, WebEngage, RecruiterBox and others have started to emerge. This has created an important disruptive force in the mid-sized enterprise market. What is also interesting is that, in their pursuit for a light-touch model, these companies have evolved a unique strategy to define the product, market/sell the product and engage with customers. This iSPIRT report discusses the three core tenets of their strategy - Digital immersion, Desk marketing/selling and Cloud-based customer engagement.
“Supercompetitors” are a new kind of market leader, gaining competitive advantage through the things they do better than anyone else—even amid the fierce competition and turbulence of many industries today. Learn more about how they do it: http://strat.bz/yhGHUWN
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Excerpts... "In this white paper, we will provide a brief primer on the history and present state of mobile codes within the retail world, then share some notable innovations."
"Nielsen Research projects that fifty percent of the US population will own a smartphone by the end of 2011, with two thirds of them researching products and prices online while in stores."
"AT&T is investing millions in their mobile barcode platform, and Microsoft has been giving away its TAG solution as part of its 2010 beta program (which will become a revenue stream for them in 2011)."
Mobile@Ogilvy releases new report at APPNATION Consumer & Enterprise Mash Up -Hidden in plain sight: How mobile is quietly revolutionizing the B2B world @
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Mobile@Ogilvy has published a new report into how business-to-business (B2B) brands can leverage “smart mobility” to gain significant competitive advantage. Entitled “Hidden in plain sight: How mobile is quietly revolutionizing the B2B world,” the report outlines key mobile opportunities for B2B marketers and describes how to develop mobile strategies for B2B brands.
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Focuses on how to provide sales representatives with the tools to manage customer relationships and to capture valuable field intelligence via direct observations. Enabling immediate transmitting of field information via mobile devices to headquarters. to enable category managers, trade promotion managers, finance and logistics instant-connect views, so that business managers can intelligently and swiftly reorder field priorities to energize a launch, or avoid a supply chain issue. Presented at the NZ Retail Show during April 2011.
1. The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Jancis, Yap Ying
Membership Number: 14392939
EMERGING THEME
“How Mobile Technology changes the FMCG Retail Industry?”
December, 2012
1|Page
2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................. 3
Task 1: Research Sources ....................................................................................................... 4
Task 2: Discussion Paper ........................................................................................................ 5
1. How will mobile technology impact the retail industry ............................................................ 6
The benefit and drawback of mobile technology .............................................................. 6
2. How mobile technologies alter the competition within the retail industry? ............................. 7
Nature of competition ...................................................................................................... 8
The changes in competition with mobile technology ........................................................ 8
3. Recommendation and Justification of the response to changes ........................................... 9
4. Prediction of skill, attitude and behavior after mobile technology adoption ......................... 10
Task 3: Blog Article ................................................................................................................ 11
Reference ................................................................................................................................ 13
Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 14
2|Page
3. Executive Summary
There are more than 4 billion people equipped with mobile phone and many have moved from
ordinary mobile phones to internet-enabled smart phones. Consumers now are using these
smart phones to create and store shopping lists, scan product bar codes to compare product
characteristics and access coupons and promotions (GS1 MobileCom, 2010)
This discussion paper will critically evaluate how the technological environment of the Marco
factors affects the FMCG retailing industry; including supermarket, pharmacy, fast food, fashion
stores etc. Specifically, the discussion will highlight on the aspect of how integrating Mobile
technologies provide solutions that enable retailers to create new business models and new
markets for their products.
There is always unavoidable competition when new technologies are integrated and
implemented. Recommendation will be shared to guide retailers on how to response to these
changes and what they should be equipped in order to successfully adopt the mobile ambition.
These will include having the right set of the skill, attitude and behaviour of the modern marketer.
3|Page
4. Task 1: Summary of various secondary research sources
Source Title Merit Credibility Reliability
Business Five Tips This article Business Insider received a Business Insider is a
Insider For Using explained how 2009 Official Webby Honoree fast-growing business
Mobile mobile for the Blog - Business site with deep financial,
Technology technology helps Category! media, tech, and other
To Improve retailer through industry verticals. The
In-Store better flagship vertical, Silicon
Retail engagement, Text 100, May 2009: Ranked Alley Insider led by
Shopping incentivizing #3 Most Influential Blog - DoubleClick founders
customer, product Business category Dwight Merriman and
demo, increase Kevin Ryan and former
loyalty and aids to top-ranked Wall Street
understand the analyst Henry Blodget.
customer better.
Horizon Mobile This article Author works as a Principal Contents were adapted
Watching Computing: provides many Client Analyst on IBM’s from IDC, Gartner,
A Horizon evidences of the Corporate Marketing yankee group, ABI
Watching market growth on Development & Insights team. research and of course,
2012 Trend mobile He advises business leaders IBM.
Report technology with on how to develop social
the driver, marketing plans and online
challenges and communities. He has also built
implication that an expertise the past 10 years
support my topic in researching emerging
on mobile trends, technologies and
technology as business opportunities.
emerging trend.
Know This Retailers' This article Know This has been around It serves as a reference
Next Big covers the pros since 1998. It provides site for hundreds of
Problem: A and cons of knowledge source for college, university and
Smarter mobile marketing. public libraries around
Customer technology and the world was chosen by
how it will be a CERN, originators of the
problem for World Wide Web
retailer in near Consortium, to be the
future Marketing specialty area
within the World Wide
Web Virtual
Mobile Future This article Named as Los Angeles’s most Mobile storm is a
Storm Mobile and highlighted on innovative companies, digital Communication Service
Digital how mobile messaging powerhouse by Provider (CSP); they
Marketing technology aids ford motor co. also produce white
Trends for the marketer in paper, industry reports,
Retailers magnifying their and webinars and
ideas to maintain discuss best practices
4|Page
5. the uniqueness guiding the digital trend.
The Point Retailers This article Articles produced are from Founder's background in
of sale Unite to covers mobile industry experts in the point of business automation and
News Compete in payment and its sale business and from the point of sale starts in the
Mobile potential payment retail industry early 1980s when he
Payments gateway wrote point of sale
Wars proposal. software to run his own
business.
Retail Pro Mobile This article is Retail Pro is a global leader in It covers bother quality
technology produced after Point of Sale, Store and quantities content in
enhances Motorola Operations, and Back-Office evidences.
the Solutions' annual software applications for the
shopping Holiday Shopping specialty retail industry. For
experience Survey over 25 years, they have
economized retail business
processes.
Business to How Mobile This article Business to Community has Author is deeply versed
community Is Changing highlighted the been awarded the most in digital strategy and
Retail changing valuable publication in 2012 by media including search
Marketing shopping DTA engine marketing,
and Buying behaviour and organic search
Behavior how location optimization, social
based marketing media, web analytics and
coupon affect it. data mining. Also, he is
the industry recognised
conference speaker.
5|Page
6. How will Mobile Technology changes the FMCG Retail Industry?
1. The Emerging Mobile Technology Trend in Retailing
With the advancement of the technologies today, there is a rapid increase in expectation of how
technological applications can be used by businesses. It is essential for businesses today to
keep up with the latest technology such like mobile technology in order to stay competitive.
Nickerson (2011) shared that smartphones are rapidly transforming the retail landscape and
blurring the lines between online and in-store customer experience. The retail industry will see a
major transformation from the basic “brick and mortar” in shopping centres and malls to the
hands and homes of consumers via mobile technology and its use in changing the shopping
experience. Mobile services are, therefore, no longer exclusive to larger retail chains, with
powerful financial strength. It will be how the retailer makes the mobile service workable for their
regular and recurrent customer.
1.1. Evidence of how Mobile technology enhanced shopping experience
A decade ago, it was the E-Commerce that everyone tried to be part of. Today, the new “must
have” is mobile technology for businesses. It is becoming the new channel for retailer to extend
their reach. Many retailers generate greater revenues through incentivizing in-store purchase
with mobile initiative and this has improved sales (Ray, 2011). This evolutionary strategy
designs innovative shopping experiences that are not just about immediate sales; it will also be
about creating opportunities to facilitate impulse buying, up-selling and cross-selling.
According to Chamberlin (2011), the explosion of devices, network capacity, applications,
video, mobile transactions and Machine to Machine (M2M) deployments will grow to match
global demand. Such demand increases alongside with the growing number of smartphone user;
having millions of shoppers now engaging with retailers via mobile devices like the Iphone,
Blackberry and Samsung Galaxy. With these engagements, brands now have greater
opportunities to listen, understand, and react to customer feedback through the mobile channel
(Ray, 2011).
This emerging trend creates an ideal opportunity for the FMCG retail businesses to extend
their service with more value added experience that bring convenience to the next level;
such like the mobile wallet improving transaction time (appendix 1A) and innovative shopping
experience (appendix 1B).
1.2. The drawback of implementing mobile technology
Retail Pro (2011) shared that although it's crucial how retailers use mobile technology and it
should only be used where it make senses. Integrating new devices just because they are the
latest and greatest will not necessarily improve the shopping experience. It all comes down to
the implementation.
High level of comparison with accessible information: With mobile technology, consumers
are empowered to access information to compare price right at their fingertip and this will
increase their purchasing power (Christ 2010). They can now easily get exposed to flaws of the
brand through reviews and viral warnings or finding another alternative that can be a substitute.
Redundancy of employee: Through many readings, it has been said that technology will
replace labour worker; considering just the mobile wallet and how powerful it can be. A good
6|Page
7. example will be having self-checkout counters to improve transaction and conveniences for the
consumers (appendix 1B). This will hence lead to overstaff and redundancy of employees.
Security challenges: Consumer are concern on how this upcoming mobile technology protects
their data and privacy when retailer will have the need to access the data for targeting
promotion purpose; are the data used appropriately or misused for other purposes? The
challenge facing retailers is how to make the new, more responsive systems of the future work
with creaking legacy infrastructure (Leroy, 2012).
1.3. The Potential of the changes
A recent study from the Munich Maximillans University suggests customized mobile promotion
and marketing can greatly change consumers’ choices at the point-of-purchase (Adelson, 2012).
As part of the mobile technology, the rising usage of location-base marketing has created a
great impact in consumer buying behaviour; they have become more value conscience and
make more informed decision.
Mobile technology will be the new trend that will stay on till another futuristic device comes into
existence. Cunningham (2012) shared that Merchant Customer Exchange (appendix 1C) has
high hopes for its product and its ability to compete with mobile payment giants. Whatever the
future holds, these news makes it clear that mobile technology trend will be the new mega trend.
2. How mobile technologies alter the competition within the retail industry?
The next task is to attempt and analyse the competitive landscape of the mobile technology in
the retail sector. ‘‘What makes your business unique? What is your competitive edge?’’ These
are the question every retail businesses have to solve. But, before knowing your competitive
edge, you must know your competitor (Waters, 2012).
2.1. Nature of competition in retailing
Typically, regardless how well retailing businesses position themselves, they do have to face
the basic nature of the competition in the market. The Office of Fair Trading by London
Economics (1997) identified four dimensions of horizontal competition between retailers:
• Pricing- it is one of the key concerns for the retailer to set the right price to target the right
people. Naturally, consumers are attracted to ‘sale and promotion’ and that is where the
retailers know they are involved in price war every single day. To ensure that they are not at the
losing end, retailers have to study the market with research and analyse which pricing strategy
most fit their target audiences; skimming, premium, penetration, value-base etc.
• Location – Having the right size and location for a retailing business does not mean better
financial returns. The rising competition from one era to another is putting pressure on retailers
in existing malls to refurbish as the competition heats up. Consumers do seek convenience
when it comes to the need of travelling to get something and retailers will always hope to reach
out to them at their convenience; often, the high traffic locations are oversupply with competitor
or vice versa. Thus, new channels like cyberspace could bring new opportunities
• Product and selection – to ensure that consumer always get what they want from the retail
store; retailers have to pamper their consumer with the range of selection as well as its
availability in-store. A financial astute practice is having the right amount of liquidated asset
7|Page
8. available by not keeping too much stock. Having a physical space to keep up to selection and
availability can be disobliging. Other stocks can be sold via online, mobile transactions.
• Retailer service – quality of the customer services offered do play an important role in
growing the brand equity. Retailers need to consider innovative ways to improve retail service
and experience and the type and source of technology can be a good method to improve the
overall retail experience in and out of the retail outlets.
All of the competition dimension can be easily solve as long as retailer has a strong group of
funding and investor. But, what will be the break-through when mobile come on board?
2.2. The changes in competition with mobile technology
Ashdown (2012) shared that the mobile business model is no longer the preserve of the larger
retail chains; as brands of all shapes and sizes are now able to cash in on the operational profits
and exceptional marketing opportunities that mobile services can offer. When mobile technology
gets in place with the retailers, there will be an expecting shift in the buyer power that will affect
the dimensions of horizontal competition between retailers leading to a lower barrier of entry.
Based on the 5 force model by Michael E. Porter, these are the areas of critical analysis of
changes in competition:
Buyer Power: ComScore recently reported that two-thirds of all smartphone owners compare
products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures or locating a retail store via
their mobile phone (Rao, 2011). With the accessibility of information, consumers are now
empowered in buying and hence, increasing the buying power. Retailers have to improve their
strategies in order to have a competitive advantage over their competitors.
In the past, consumer visit ‘brick and mortar’ retail giant such like Wal-Mart and Tesco to
purchase their shopping goods. Today, we are talking about Amazon, EBay and Gmarket who
are the top few e-commerce retail giant in the market for the last decade and they are moving
into mobile as well (Rao, 2011). Many of these new competitors have mobile applications to
assist consumers in buying anytime, anywhere. For instance, Tesco Homeplus opened a virtual
grocery store in a South Korea subway station; consumer can now purchase grocery while
waiting for the train (Bergen, 2011). This injects a new wave of shopping experience consume
expect and hence, increase competition among retailers to meet these new expectations.
Having all these expectation ahead, retailers have to be mindful that:
Pricing now becomes more sensitive as consumers grow into a wiser spender; they
compare and comment more before and after purchase respectively.
The increase in show-rooming has shown that location might not matter as much as
before. Consumers now get to access purchase right in their hand or from home. This
may create competition for the popular shopping centres and malls.
Product selection will definitely improve since retailers do not need the item to be
physically there. Moreover, over the decades consumers are used to purchasing item
over the internet and now, it just got easier with mobile technology. This also suggests
why show-rooming is increasing.
Barrier of entry: Considering the above issues, the barriers of entry are expected to reduce
when retailers adopt the mobile ambitions (Ashdown, 2012). Today, it is feasible that any
retailer can operates a viable mobile proposition with adequate amount of subscribers
8|Page
9. Although competition may seems to heat up with the adoption of mobile technology, retail
businesses can take this opportunity to work into a cost efficient expansion or work toward a
differentiation strategy with the aid of mobile application. In the future, it will be about the
uniqueness of the mobile application that attracts and entices purchase from consumers and not
just the physical product display at the retail outlets
3. Recommendation and Justification of the response to changes
The combination of smarter and more demanding shoppers with economic downturn is
presenting retailers with one of the most challenging retail scenarios in recent years (Oracle,
2010). It is important for retailers to affirm their stand on which positioning strategy they
should apply before entering the market. It is recommend that retail businesses look into the
internal aspect of positioning using the Treacy and Wiersema (1995) Value Discipline Theory as
well. This will help in building a stronger competitive advantage over the others.
According to Treacy and Wiersema (1995), every market is divided into these three generic
segments disciplines; operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership.
Retailers must choose to follow one of the value disciplines while striving for reasonable levels
of performance in the other two in order to maintain the competitive advantage over their
competitor (Simister, 2011).
Source: http://www.enterprise-advocate.com/2012/02/the-tracey-wiersema-value-discipline-model-part-1/
The key for retailers that want to get closer to their customers and be welcomed by them is to
set up a mechanism that allows them to do that. Thus, in response to the changes, retailer
should work toward ‘Customer Intimacy Value (CIV)’ while keeping a balance for the other two
disciplines. This will help to better manage the customers when the buyer power increases.
Having more focus on the customer intimacy value, retailers get to neutralise the upcoming
competition through a better reach and range of service, cycle time and product identification.
(Matthews, 2012) defined CIV as the following:
Customer intimacy should base around the market segment that value customised products
and close relationships with the following principles:
Having a full range of services available to serve the customers on demand. This may
involve in having a wide range of services available from other suppliers when notice is
short.
9|Page
10. Have a corporate philosophy that resulting business practices which encourage deep
customer insight and create an innovative thinking about how to improve the customer’s
situation.
Injecting the above principles, the table below shares what ‘Customer Intimacy Value’ can
prepare retailers during the changes and how it will help the retailers in near future:
CIV principle How? Values gained
will help in…
Make use of Advertisements with Offers and ‘Know your customer’, give
mobile coupons in both search and display them what they want; Offers
Reach and to drive consumers into your stores and and promotion.
range keep them there while they are comparison
(Barza, 2011) shopping.
“Retailers need to have a cross-platform Higher engagement with the
strategy which includes tablets” customer
Test and redesign experiences specifically
for different types of devices. This is to
ensure appropriate coverage.
Help customer find stores that are near Drives more business
them with store location integrated in
display campaign.
Improving the time between awareness of
customer need and delivery as well as
product or service development time. Efficiency
Cycle time
For example:
The inventory database can be accessed on
hand as it enables store associates to
determine in seconds if an item a customer
wants is in stock and where it is located.
The ability to identify new products or The Availability of
Product services required by customers; meeting customised products and
identification demand services
Angrove (2010) shared that now retailers are not opening as many new stores, they are
focusing on productivity within existing stores. They are starting to think like marketers and
acting like merchants.
The slowdown in economies has been relatively prolong, thus it is vital for businesses to take
some steep learning curve in improving the situation. One such learning is the value of
customer data and its vital importance for retention, cross-selling and up-selling (Oracle, 2010).
Generally, to excel in customer attention and customer service, retailers need to be mindful that
it is essential to know the customer preferences and behaviour when dealing with them. Only
then can the retailer be viewed as trusted by its customers and its communications welcomed
as a ‘good friend’. Tools like segmentation, targeting and positioning can be improved with this
strategy.
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11. 4. Prediction
In this technological age, marketers need to be adaptive and ever ready for the emerging
technologies that will affect their future marketing campaign and efforts planning. It is predicted
that after mobile technology, the expected new technologies like facial recognition and gesture
sensor etc. are the upcoming trends.
Below are some of the key drivers for mobile technology adoption:
Be innovative with mobile application – There is an increment in the time consumers spent
online and mobile can become the “glue” that ties physical products and stores to the digital
world. Retailer should use current data available to create a mobile application that will bring a
brand new shopping experience to their customer. They need to learn how compel their
customer through the creation of experience that is not just useful, but personal, fun, and
optimized for mobile devices (Verizon Business, 2011)
The ability to analyse and utilise data generated – With the compelling content, it should
build a stronger loyalty. Retailer will understand what motivates their customer through
evaluating the data collected.
Customer relation excellence – Through innovative cloud and mobility advancement, retailer
should attain the ability to build a sustainable relationships with their customer based on
personal preferences and social networks (Verizon business, 2011). Most importantly, retailer
must fully respect customer rights for privacy, preference and informed consent.
With all these abilities prepared, retailers will be all set to meet this emerging trend of mobile
technology.
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12. Task 3: Blog Article for http://mashable.com/mobile/
Mobile technology is reshaping the retail world!
December 7, 2012 by Jancis Yap
Mobile represents a fundamental shift in consumer
behaviour and retailers must move quickly to exploit
it, says John Milliken the managing director of
Mobile Money Network.
With the booming number of smartphone creation
and users, consumer now has higher demand for
everything around them. It has always been the
case since ‘marketing’ was born, the reach and
convenience are what many shoppers have been
seeking till date and how many businesses go all
miles to accommodate and strive a difference.
Source: http://www.hrmehrotra.info/tech-news/how-
mobile-technology-has-been-revolutionized-today.html
Today, there is a mobile phone in everyone’s pocket; this medium offers a level of direct
engagement and reporting that any traditional medium just can’t match. Most importantly, it
provides the mobility convenience to the consumer.
Cisco IBSG Market Watch conducted a survey in thirteen countries consumers, and mention
that the emerging markets are ready to use their mobile devices to improve their shopping
experience. They have asked the consumer about their usage of mobile phone when they are at
in the store (Figure 1.) and the secure service they may use (Figure 2.).
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13. From the above, we should see that with all the potential services made available for the
consumer, the competition level will definitely hit another peak. Retailer need to be ready for the
upcoming competition if they are mobile ambitious.
I have prepared a discussion report to further evaluate this emerging mobile technology trend.
The report analyse on the aspect of how integrating Mobile technologies provide solutions that
enable retailers to create new business models and new markets for their products. The
analysis covers the following advantages to retailers:
- Facilitating impulse buying
- Extend services for value added experience
- Upselling and cross-selling
In additional, the report highlighted on how the new technology, changes the buyer power which
will eventually alter the nature of the retailing competition. To remedy this issue, a
recommendation of using Value discipline strategy is shared for further action.
For further information on my discussion paper, please click here to download a copy.
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