AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Contents
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................4

BACKGROUND....................................................................................................................... 5
BACKGROUND OF STUDY....................................................................................................8
CONCERN............................................................................................................................. 15
OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE OF SOLVING THE ISSUE................................................15
1. LITERATURE DISCUSSION..................................................................................18

1.1. RELATIONSHIP MARKETING........................................................................................20

1.2. RELATIONSHIP MARKETING WITH CUSTOMERS.......................................................23
APPENDICES............................................................................................................27
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

ABSTRACT

An idea of evaluating business process initially takes place when something already
implemented from the beginning is outdated with rising competition and competitors
with new ideas and strategies in the same market field of a particular product or service
rendered to customers. Al Amana Hypermarket is going through this phase of re-
evaluating their marketing strategies. They are one of the highly reputed and valued
hypermarket stores in Qatar for almost a Decade.

The main aim of this thesis is to give a clear and better outline on how this company can
redefine or re-make their marketing strategies and perform better in business by
evaluating and also studying the previous methods and comparing them to the new
ideas to be executed. After evaluating various models and approaches made by
researchers in the field of Marketing strategies, a conceptual framework is created to
understand the different possibilities of improving marketing strategies.

This thesis employed Quantitative analysis method and further assessed to collect
evidence on the how the present business market and customer responses are
depending on the present marketing strategies, by distributing questionnaires to the
subordinates working in the company. The secondary data needed to support the thesis
is retrieved from research and reports, journals, and other Internet sources.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

INTRODUCTION

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited
resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a
sustainable advantage. A marketing strategy should be centered on the key concept
that customer satisfaction is the main goal. Marketing strategy is a method of focusing
an organization's energies and resources on a course of action which can lead to
increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing strategy
combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship
management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains
how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. The term "marketing mix"
was first used in 1953 when Neil Borden (1953), in his American Marketing Association
presidential address, took the recipe idea one step further and coined the term
"marketing-mix". A prominent marketer, (MCCARTHY, 1978), proposed a 4 P
classification in 1960, which has seen wide use. The four Ps concepts are explained in
most marketing textbooks and classes.
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BACKGROUND
A small brief about my family business:-

Al Amana Hypermarket and Qatar's Market

Qatar's retail industry has become one of the fastest growing in all over the gulf
cooperation council (GCC) countries. The size of Qatar's retail market has reached to
QR32bn ($8.9bn) mark (ZAWYA, 2014). In Qatar, supermarket and hypermarket
segment was relatively small compared to most of the GCC countries, but the
perception now have changed as a lot number of retailers have been accommodating in
the country's market (CAPITAL, 2012). Al Amana Hypermarket is one of those retailer
groups which are famous throughout Qatar. This group is having a total of 6 branches of
hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores in Qatar. They have been serving
in the retail industry for more than 25 years. The first retail market which was a small
grocery was established in 1988, which later expanded to a bigger market. They have
been very well known for their good customer service, best price provided best quality
and value given to the customers (Amana, 2015). Even though they have been well
known for those qualities, the regular customers have been decreasing and footfalls of
new customers are also slow.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Further to this research an idea on relationship marketing and Al Amana

Hypermarket would be highlighted and to give an insight to present
situation it can be said that Al Amana Hypermarket has segmented its
customer in the following ways:-

Understanding needs and preferences of consumers -- Having

consumer goods, and electronic items of all price ranges clothing as
well as day to day household commodities

Grouping customers based on their needs and preferences --

Customers with similar needs and preferences are included in this
segment.

Targeting the segment that the company can best meet the
needs and preferences of - The Company targets the customers, of
which it can meet the needs and preferences. I.e. customer needs
higher- strength or low price.

Branding the commodity -- Though being a commodity product,

branding is important for a company. The company positions its brand
among Architects and Builders rather than household individuals
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Four P's

The implication of using this in this research relates to its importance of shaping and
exploring the opportunities within the idea of change in marketing strategy The four P's
of marketing (4P's) mentioned here are a set of tools that help companies (Al Amana
Hypermarket )gain advantage within the marketplace. The 4P's are put in place to help
maximize a product's potential. the main strategy for change of marketing strategy
would be focused on these 4 ps , a change in this would bring the change and success
we are expecting to imply .

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as 'the four Ps':

Product - A tangible object or an intangible service that is mass produced or

manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. Intangible products
are service based like the tourism industry & the hotel industry or codes-based
products like cell phone load and credits. Typical examples of a mass produced
tangible object are the car and the disposable razor. To retain its
competitiveness in the market, product differentiation is required and is one of
the strategies to differentiate from its competitors.

Price The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined
by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs,
product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business
may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same
product.

Place Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is

often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as
well as virtual stores on the Internet. Place is nothing but how the product takes
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

place or create image in the mind of customers. It depends upon the perception
of customers.

Promotion- represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the
marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public relations,
personal selling and sales promotion. A certain amount of crossover occurs when
promotion uses the four principal elements together, which is common in film
promotion. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in
line with a company's overarching mission statement.
Source- (MCCARTHY, 1978)

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The esteem and goodwill of Al Amana Hypermarket has given them an

acceptance in Qatar market and this was made possible through a visionary
planned strategy and the highest quality of service. While satisfying the
domestic markets general demand for commercial home line products, Al
Amana Hypermarket has developed an enviable reputation as being one of
the regions leading Hypermarket Chain. They perform their core functions
around the region with more than 150 of their efficient employees. The
company is specialized in the business of providing all standard and non-
standard foodstuffs, household and electronic items required for the primary
customers and commercial industry.

But as new key players in market came by in recent years they had to face tough
competition from all sides of the business and so resulting to this the business had a
downfall and they are slowly getting back on track. But what they are more in need of is
the restructuring and redefining of their overall market value that is a new strategy to get
back in to market and be the market leaders once again and this would be discussed in
the research.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

In this research porters five force model has been used since Al Amana Hypermarket is
one of the leading hypermarkets in Qatar so they have high competition too, five forces
would help to understand how the market is for them relatively to the rising competition
With a clear understanding of where power lies, one can take fair advantage of a
situation of strength, improve a situation of weakness, and avoid taking wrong
steps. Hence we focus on improving our marketing strategy to be more successful
strong and competitive this model can also be used in this context as one of the main
reasons of difficulty AL AMANA faces is the rival companies and their threats. According
to this model of porter analysis on the in depth situation can be given a clear idea based
on who all are the rising competitors and what all necessary measures of the buyer and
supplier can be used here.

AL AMANA Enterprises can also be analyzed based on this theory. According to this
since there is stiff competition in the HYPERMARKET retail and supply industry with a
lot of key players already in this field, it poses a serious threat to AL AMANA Enterprises
at the same time it has stood still and has eventually shown Fair results.

Since the industry and the economy as a whole are both growing, there are numerous
opportunities for new entrants to enter in the market but it would be seriously difficult for
it to launch itself. Researches can do great guns and thus create problem for AL
AMANA Since they have their products manufactured from Japan which is of high
quality.

It should be noted that there isnt a perfect model that takes all aspects into
consideration. This model was selected for the basis of this research as this helps to
determine the various Marketing strategies that can be used by the company. Though
there are various limitations to this model, it helps to identify the underlying causes of
Poor Marketing Strategies. Some of the limitations for this model are: it does not
address the Improved percentage change of business growth and how far it would be
the needed change for the company overall (FOUBERT & GIJSBRECHTS, 2007).
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Relationship Marketing

Rendering to the greatest marketing guru of the modern times, Mr. Philip Kotler
(KOTLER & RAVI, Legends in Marketing: Philip Kotler, 2012), The aim of Relationship
Marketing is for building mutually satisfying long-term relations with key-parties like the
customers, suppliers, distributors in order to earn and retain their business. Therefore
we can come to the notion that Relationship as well as mutual bonding for the benefit of
both the parties is known as the Relationship marketing which can be built between the
Manufacturer (Company) and Customers, between the Manufacturer (Company) and
Suppliers & distributors as well. As the marketing world has emerged over the years,
every business now-a-days are adopting new strategies to interact with its customers.
But the way the companies interact with their customers varies from company to
company as per the situation.
In general definition we can define Relationship Marketing as a form of marketing which
moreover emphasizes on customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant
focus on sales transactions.

Thus as a practice, Relationship Marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that
it recognizes the long term value of customer relationships and extends communication
beyond traditional advertising and sales promotional messages.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

My understanding on Need of Relationship Marketing

Today, its all about more. More consumer control, more channels, more
media and more money spent online.

Businesses in many industries may lose up to 50% of their customers over

a five year period.

Studies have shown its 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new

customer than it is to retain a current customer.

As little as a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25

to 9

Source- (GREG, 2006)

My understanding on some facts regarding Relationship Marketing

1. Now-a-days Customers are not loyal any more:

Customers are getting a wide array of choices to choose their options and make
evaluative purchases. Direct purchases are in less demand now-a-days and the internet
marketing is taking their places. In the business markets also, face-to-face transactions
are getting replaced by emails and online ordering.

2. The Companies actually want to interact the customers doesnt want:

Consumers need to be turned into Customers. This reality needs to be understood by
the companies as fast as possible because the customers really dont want the
relationships; they will go to those companies who will give them more value. In that
case, its about the companies who need to go near the customers and seek
relationships with them in order to earn their interests from heart and from their pockets.

3. Representing the brand in front of the customers: To control the information flow
to and from the company and to provide the name in front of the customers in such a
way that, it always will remain in their minds.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

4. Customers are now-a-days expecting to be thanked after their sales: The

modern customers are becoming more and more demanding in nature and they dont
mind in spending big amount while purchasing anything. But in return they also expect
to be thanked by the company after the first sale itself which is very critical in nature.
Therefore the companies need to thank their customers after the first sales and also
after every sale to make them feel that they are the Special Ones.

5. Companies dont control the selling process, but the customer does: Now-a-
days the customers dont bother about the price but they want the best benefit for their
money, be it functional or emotional.

6. Dont make overcomplicated program, but try to build them innovatively: This
means Dont do different things but try to do things differently. Simply dont make
complicated promotional and other programs which will bounce over the heads of the
customers, rather if possible make them with innovativeness and advertise them on a
regular basis so that the customers will notice them and believe me, they might just go
after it!

7. Experiment continuously: Dont hesitate to experiment with new tricks of acquiring

and maintaining the customers in a profitable way Because of the volatile nature of
customers in this fast changing world, there is need to develop and test new tricks and
strategies on a regular basis to earn more share of the profit pie
Source: - (CIOTTI, 2015)

In this study, however, it will been shown that a segmentation approach in a CRM
perspective, using the concepts of trust, commitment and relationships, allows a firm to
develop and structure existing relationships in new ways. It is evident that active
customers are characterised by high levels of trust and of commitment, which means
that strong relationships exist over time. Active customers are loyal to the brand, proud
of it and have feelings for it. For this reason, a firm should concentrate on developing a
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

brand strategy that reinforces commitment to the brand through emotional, knowledge-
based or other experiential elements of personal value to the customer.

On the other hand, it would also be shown that passive customers are characterised by
low levels of trust and of commitment, which means weak relationships that come and
go from time to time. Passive customers trust the brand but are for certain reasons not
so highly committed in terms of loyalty, pride or emotions as active customers. For this
reason, a firm should concentrate on developing a brand strategy building and
establishing relationships based on elements of personal value that could lead to
commitment.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

*RESEARCH QUESTION*

How to Improve the Enhanced Relationship with the customers connected to AL

Amana HYPERMARKET in order to retain customer satisfaction and Increase New
customers by understanding and adapting New Relationship Marketing Methods
& changes in Marketing Strategies
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

CONCERN

My family owns a chain of hypermarkets in Qatar and Oman which have been serving
for last 25 years. We are successful in the retail market and the people in that country
have accepted our service and quality. But recently the number of customers is been
decreasing and is seen that they are visiting the competitors. Therefore this report will
be undertaken to understand what the theories teaches on building relationships with
the customers and retain them as well as to gain new customers and study the
relationship marketing methods and marketing strategies and get new ideas that can be
applied in my family business.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE OF SOLVING THE ISSUE

The retail market in Qatar is getting bigger and challenging and is expected to
grow in the future. The number of competitors in this field is increasing that it will
be challenging for my family business to keep up the same success in the future.
Therefore solving this issue can help retain the current customers and gain
complete customer satisfaction (KPMG, 2014).

The goal of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty. At

the core of this strategy is the concept of establishing a learning
relationship with each customer. Every interaction companies have
with a customer is an opportunity to learn about their individual
motivations.

Gaining deep insight into visitor behavior at every stage of the visitor lifecycle is
essential to successful relationship marketing. Customer behavior should be
represented by a comprehensive analysis of all customer data, allowing deep
insights into customer preferences and motivations.
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

This research will also be going through the following questions:-

1. What is the present state of pricing and promoting strategies that exist

in Al Amana hypermarkets and what are their impacts?

2. How should the company measure the level of customer dissatisfaction?

3. What specific methods of improvement apart from the marketing

strategies can Al Amana adopt in their company to resolve challenges

faced because of competitors?

4. What are the strategies that can be used to Increase the percentage of

Satisfied Customers and clients at Al Amana hypermarkets?

5. What are the new products or services planned to be offered in the market?

The notion for these questions is that the organisational trust already exists between
both groups of customers and low level subordinates. But in order to emphasise
relationship development over time, commitment is the critical element of a firm's brand
strategy. In this sense, active customers are already highly committed but passive
customers are not. So this would give us an overview and understanding of what
improvements are they expecting from the hypermarket and how we can emphasize
and work on delivering those. These questions raised at the end of the research would
give a clear perception to the objective to be achieved
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

LITERATURE
DISCUSSION
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

1. LITERATURE DISCUSSION

Under this topic the theories relationship with customers, retention of customers,
customer loyalty will be explained. This part will be mainly focused on the theory of
Business to customer's relationship as the research question or issue is based on
encouraging, retaining and gaining new customers.

PROCESS: RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

HOW TO DEVELOP STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS?

1. Understanding the Visitors behind the Visits

Every interaction is an opportunity to understand more about the customers. Because

customer data is captured through a variety of channels, marketers often have a
fragmented view of their visitors. Its essential to develop a comprehensive cross-
channel view of customer behavior to have a complete understanding of their interests
and preferences. It is must recognize individual customers at every contact point to
learn about individual customer needs and motivations (IPULLRANK, 2014).

2. Segmenting Customers by Behavior: Segmenting the customer behavior through

various channels and ways-
Grouping the customers by their needs.
Discover how visitors impact the sales cycle.
Identify visitors that are most likely to purchase.
Create and customize the segments by assigning levels of visitor interest, or visitor
attractiveness
Compare segments and look for ways to increase the value of underperforming
segments or look to expand the most valuable segments (IPULLRANK, 2014).
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

3. Creating Specific Content to meet the Customers Needs through sending

personalized email to customers who have opted into communications & using the data
gathered to customize marketing message to individual customers, and use insight
gained to take action to improve the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of marketing
efforts (IPULLRANK, 2014).

4. Measuring the Success: To measure the results of relationship marketing

campaigns and continually optimize the results of the programs. By measuring and
learning from the customers at every interaction, companies can continually provide a
better experience every time the customer returns, which creates a lasting competitive
advantage (IPULLRANK, 2014).
SOURCE: (IPULLRANK, 2014)

There lies a level of trust and of commitment among active as well as passive
customers. But in order to build strong relationships with passive customers, it is
obvious that commitment is the crucial factor in terms of a successful brand strategy.
For this reason, a commitment-based approach more reasonably a relationship
marketing approach will probably strengthen the relationships with both active as well
as passive customers. In this sense, it does not matter what type of customer group,
that is, active or passive, a firm should approach with its brand strategy in order to
develop and maintain relationships
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

1.1. RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Relationship marketing is a way for the business firms to generate and develop mutual
benefits and valuable long-term relationships with the customers as well as with the
suppliers (GRONROOS & RAVALD , 1996). (O'MALLEY & TYNAN, 2000) Believes that
it is said that relationship marketing is to work in a proper effective manner when the
customers have a high involvement in the goods and services provided by the firm,
when there is an element of personal interaction, and also when the customers are
willing to involve in relationship building activities. Even though a company grows and
expands its services to the customers, it can be easily followed by the competitors soon.
Therefore the company should provide something to the customers that are different
and better than its competitors which leads to increase in relationship. Almost all retail
markets look the same and provide the same products. Majority of the customers
mentions that no difference is seen in the products and services provided by the retail
markets. Differentiation made to the products and services provided by a company that
give better satisfaction to the customers than the competitors can help increase
relationship with them. One of the ways to win a retail competition is by growing,
expanding the promotions and offers, selling of grocery and non-grocery items, HYPER
consumer durable products, luxury products etc. which leads to being the leaders of
retail market (NICULAE, 2008).

(BRUHN, 2003) States that the principle aim of relationship marketing is not replacing it
with traditional/transactional marketing, but to improve it as a market and customer
focused corporate management approach. It is also stated by (GODSON,
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING, 2009) that the current marketing trends have been
moving to relationship marketing from traditional/transactional. Since the market has
become vast and the competitors have increased in every business fields, relationship
marketing methods is the best to be used. The difference between these two marketing
are shown below:-
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Figure no.1: Differentiation of traditional and Relationship marketing

(GRONROOS C. , THE MARKETING STRATEGY CONTINUUM: A MARKETING CONCEPT FORT HE 1990s,
1991)

As stated by (GUMMESSON, TOTAL RELATIONSHIP MARKETING, 2008) "the

concept of relationship marketing is nothing more than a new term used to define a
phenomenon that accompanied commerce since its early stages". Relationship
marketing does not tell everything but it's also about focusing on satisfying the needs of
the customers and retaining them by delivering a proper marketing mix framework i.e.
the 4P's: Price, Product, Place and Promotion. It is stated by (GRONROOS C. , From
Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing, 1994)
that after he did several studies on the framework of marketing mix, he concluded
saying that the framework of marketing mix have become restricting to the marketers,
therefore the new concept of relationship marketing was proposed. Even though the
new concept was proposed, marketing mix still remained as the main framework for
undertaking the issues related to marketing. Marketing mix has become a high
influential framework in developing the theory as well as the practice of marketing
(CONSTANTINIDES, 2006). Marketing mix is not just a theory but also it is a theoretical
framework that helps the managers to identify the important decisions to be taken in
order to provide or deliver offerings to the customers that suits their needs.
(GRONROOS C. , From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm
AL AMANA HYPERMARKET RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Shift in Marketing, 1994) States that the main reason for the marketing mix to be a
powerful framework is that because it makes the handling of the marketing related
issues easy and the components in the framework changes the company's position in
the competitive market.