MKT 243 FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENT

NO TITLE PAGE
1 Introduction/Background of the company
2 Target customer/Market segment
 3 Issue or problem statement
4 Place & Distribution strategy
5 Pricing strategy
6 Promotion strategy
7 SWOT analysis
8 Recommendations
9 Conclusion
10 Reference
11 Appendices

2.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

We have been delegated by our lecturer, Sir Niza to propose a marketing plan
and select a bumiputra retailer for our marketing (MKT243) assignment. We are supposed to
give ideas to enhance a new program for that retailer under 4Ps program which include
product, promotion, place or distribution and also price. I have decided to select a bumiputra
retailer in Kuala Lumpur which is ZUSB World Travel SDN BHD. The location is at Taman
Ibukota Setapak Kuala Lumpur .

ZUSB World Travel Sdn Bhd is a This is a partnership business. As I mentioned

earlier, it is a partnership business, a partner between the owner (daughter) and her mother.
Actually, the business is already formed since year 1987 which first opened in Kangar, a shop
where her mother started a tailoring shop there. Then, around three years ago, in November
2010, Zaireen Pengantin & Spa is formed and built in Arau which inspired by the owners
mother. The focus on the formation of this boutique is to provide bridal services to future
brides. There are so many kinds of services provided here including handling wedding events,
wedding attire, make up for any kinds of event, catering, photography, videography, home or
hall decoration, spa and selling fresh flowers. Most of the wedding dress provided in this
boutique is ready handmade and some of them is from other suppliers if there is a special
demand from customers such as from Bandung, Indonesia and also from Guangzhou, China.

Basically, the owner is the owners mother and all things related to the boutique will be
handle by Zaini. There is only three staffs work in the boutique to help her. However, when there
is an event where they need a photographer, make up stylist, catering and all sorts of services,
then only the owner will hire other workers. Normally, she will employ a regular and related
people with her. For example, if she needs a photographer, she will employ her brother or her
friends to handle it. Same goes to the catering, she will normally order with regular caterer
service. This boutique is open daily from 11 am to 9 pm for any wedding reservation. According
to Zaini, the owner said that usually in a week, her boutique will receive from four to six events.
For the time being, the highest reservation that she got is from 7 to 8 events in a week and this
happened especially during a school holiday.

3.0 TARGET CUSTOMERS / MARKET SEGMENTATION

Definition of market segmentation can be referred as aggregating of prospective

buyers into groups or segments that have common needs and will respond similarly to a
marketing action. Market segmentation enables businesses to target different categories of
consumers who perceive the full value of certain products and services differently from one
another. Generally, in our syllabus, there are five bases for segmenting consumer markets
which are geographic, demographic, psychographic, benefits and usage rate. The importance
of having market segmentation are it gives more precise definition of customers needs and
wants, more accurate marketing objectives and get better marketing results. After I had an
interview with the owner, I had discovered that the business is implying two types of market
segmentation that are demographic and also psychographic.

DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION

Demographic segmentation is segmenting markets according to age, gender, income,

ethnic background as well as family life cycle.
As for this business, it implies demographic based on age, income and ethnic background.
Age
Refers to the fact that consumer needs and wants different within the range of age and
it is suitable with the package provide.
Although they may still wish to consumer with the package provide but this company
give the opportunity to customer to design their own design the package
For this business, it is have been dream to all muslim around the world to do umrah.
However, other than accepting for umrah package, the company also provide the travel
around the world.

Income
It is a popular demographic variable because income level influence consumers wants
and determine.
Income level for most of people living in Kuala Lumpur can be very high.
However, it still depends on their individual level of income.
 If the customers have a high income, then their demand for the package for the
expensive and comfortable package.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGEMENTATION

Psychographic segmentation is a market segmentation on the basis of personality,

motives, lifestyles and geodomographic.
This boutique business is implying the basis of lifestyle.
Lifestyle
Meaning that it divides people into groups according to the way they spend their
time, the importance of the things around them, their beliefs and socioeconomic
characteristics like income and education
According to the existence business, their customers are truly divided into groups as
mentioned earlier.
For example, there are some customers whom wants a very expensive and
comfortable package. There are also customers whom want the package according to
what they affordable.

4.0 ISSUE OR PROBLEM STATEMENT

CUSTOMER
The wedding industry is unique in that we only get one shot to market to our prospects. As we
know, couples only get married once. So, even if they are absolutely thrilled with the service
we provided, they arent likely to be a repeat customer anytime soon. This fundamental
difference from many other industries makes a lot of typical marketing advice null and void,
and makes things like email marketing very difficult. So here, the retailer having difficulties
to find other couples again and again in order to maintain their business in long run.

In dealing with the brides, sometimes they tend to add on at last minutes. For an example,
they want to have a bouquet of flower for their photo shoot and change the concept last
minute. This is usually happen to brides that are not dealing with the wedding planner earlier.
So, these make the wedding planner hard to fulfill their want, because it is difficult for them to
dealing with the supplier and get the things quickly.

Other than that, the wedding planner also needs to face the customers that promise to make a
payment after the weeding but do not do so. This things happen in the previous years when
this company still new in this industries.

Since this company rent wedding gown to the bride, sometimes the gown tend to damage,
such as the beads and sequins are no longer in good condition. It is rarely happen.

SUPPLIER

This business usually imports the materials from China and Indonesia as their main supplier.
So they need to properly plan what to buy in order to meet current demand from customer. If
they are running of stock, it is difficult for them to go and buy at that moment, and since it is
far away from Malaysia, they incur high transportation cost rather than buying in Malaysia
itself.

This business do not use social network wisely, they are the person to go and buy the material
there, they do not use online shop to get material and do not use postage as a medium of
sending their stocks, so it is make difficult for them to go there and buy each time they want
the material.
PRICING

In setting of the price, it is up to what package that the customers choose. Usually the cost of
umrah package provide there are three package expensive, average and affordable price.The
problem is, some of the customer wants to go for umrah but they to busy with their work or
some of customer did not have enough money. The agency provide a way for the customer
that still did not get enough money. The agency provide facilities payment by murabahah with
Affin Bank Berhad up to MYR100,000 for the customer that qualified.

5.0 PLACE AND DISTRIBUTION STRATERGY

ZUSB World Travel Sdn Bhd is located at Unit: E-06-10, Pusat Komersial Setapak (Starparc
Point) at No 68, Taman Ibukota Setapak 53300 Kuala Lumpur. The business target market is
all muslim around the world. As for the competitor, there is many umrahs agency that build
for a long time like Andalusia, Jaguh Mas dan Tiram but they have their own strength.

Place, or the distribution channel, is the path through which services flow in one direction
(from agency to customer), and the payments generated by them flow in the opposite direction
(from consumer to the agency).

A distribution channel can be as short as being direct from agency to consumer or may
include several inter-connected intermediaries such as agents. When there are agent involved,
each intermediary generally receives a commission from the agency.These businesses is the
business that provide service so in this business only have an agent as a intermediaries.

8.0 SWOT ANALYSIS

Strength
There is much strength that the Zaireen Butik Pengantin has like they sewing their wedding
dress by themselves and not hired to others. The sewing dress is sewing by the workers or the
owner of the business. This can decrease their production cost and the rental price for the
wedding dress also will decrease. So, many customers will make an order because the price
for rental is cheaper than other business. Other than that, Zaireen Butik Pengantin has many
experiences to manage the business. This is because the owner was carrying the business since
1987 in Kangar before open new business in Arau. The places of the business also strategic.
This is because this shop was close to the area that has many residents. This shop also next to
the supermarket that is C-Mart which is the place where people to buy goods. The business
also provides a variety of packages to its customers. This package is provided to attract the
customer to get their service. The package is also offered in the cheap prices to the customers.
Customers will also be given a discount on the subscription packages.

Weaknesses

There are limited services. When there are many customer needs their services in a one times,
they need to decrease the number of the customer. This is because they need to avoid from the
order cant be completed on time. They also face the parking problem especially on weekends
and public holidays. Parking is not sufficient can cause the customer difficult to park their
cars. In addition, the rental shop is also expensive. The manager needs to pay RM2800 per
month for rental fees. This rental fees will make business profits decrease. The manager also
only hired too few workers. She hired only three employees to work with her that make it all
work such as sewing, make up and so on. It became problem when too many orders because
workers are forced to work overtime to complete it within the stipulated time. Other than that,
this business is a seasonal business. It only received order during school holidays or festive
seasons. On a normal day they only received a few order. Furthermore, this business also
provides a catering service for the customer but do not prepare by them. Previously, this shop
provides its own catering services for its customers. But due to much other work to be done
until there is no time to complete, they need to order from another party for its customers.

Opportunities
Nowadays many people want to get married and it can cause the demand for this service is
always needed. However, this shop must always update all wedding dress according to
consumer tastes and trends to avoid from customer demand for their services being reduced.
The manager also got courses about business management from the Ministry of Entrepreneur
and Co-operative Development (MECD) while studying at the university before this. Other
than that, Zaireen Butik Pengantin also received loan from Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA)
when they first time opened this shop to develop their business.

Threat

Zaireen Butik Pengantin faces many threats during managing this business which is too many
competitors in that area. They had to compete with a store that has a similar business in the
nearby area to prevent from the number of customers is being reduced and gives the effect to
the profit. This business also had to bear the higher cost of shipping goods from the suppliers
when they increased the cost of shipping. Furthermore, the government also raised the import
tax rate. High taxes imposed on wedding material imported from China and Indonesia will
cause the raised of production cost.

9.0 MARKETING MIX PROGRAM

Marketing mix is a business tool used in marketing products. The marketing mix is
often crucial when determining a product or brands unique selling point. Under marketing
mix, it is the combination of the four Ps which are known product, price, place and
promotion. This concept is nothing new. In fact, it has been around since Neil Borden coined
it in 1953. However, it is still relevant in todays market and should be considered when
rolling out a new product or service.
Here is the real purpose for us making this assignment which we have to recommend
for new marketing mix program to the retailer business that we have chosen. The business has
already its own 4Ps, but we have to suggest some recommendation to enhance and help them
to attract more customers.

PLACE
It is regarding on a decision where are the business owner or retailer is going to sell the
products or services.
For this business, we recommend that the business owner should open a new branch or
make some renovation to make the boutique looks bigger than now.
The new branch or the new boutique may provide all in one service where all the things
needed for wedding reservation is equipped in there. Unlike the existing, where the
business owner have to call others like photographer, caterer, and so on when there is any
events occur.
By having this, it will make easier to work. Furthermore, it will give a comfort place to the
customers whom going to the boutique to make reservation.

PROMOTION
Promotion includes every advertising, brochures, packaging, salespeople and sales
methodology.
It is a method on how to promote, advertise and sell the products or services at the
location.
According to this business owner, she said that her business does not need any big
promotion as it is a wedding business. So she assumed that people will just come over to
her boutique and look at the promotion given in the catalogue. Yes, she have a facebook
account to promote her services, but when we look at it, the admin of the facebook
account is not very active in giving promotion to the customers.
Therefore, in our opinion, we recommend that this boutique still need a promotion to the
outsiders in order to attract more customers and definitely will increase the sales of the
business.
 The promotion that we suggest to the business owner is by giving a brochure or flyers to
public which provide some information regarding on special promotion that this boutique
had offered.

PRODUCT

As for recommendation of product or services, this business can add one or two more
service to their business activity, so that they can have variety of product and services and
this can lead to increase in profit from other sources of activity.
For an example, haircut service, selling product for skincare and health that is related for
both groom and bride in preparation for their wedding ceremony.
Other than that, this business can also open a class for teaching make up technique, from
here they can generate income rather than stick to their main activity to obtain profit.

PRICING

In term of pricing, we can see that the price for each package is set at lower price. For the
brides outfit, they should increase the price, this is reasonable because all of the material are
imported material.
These incur cost of transportation, import tax, besides the material to make the outfit have a high
quality.

10.0 CONCLUSION

Zaireen Butik Pengantin is a partnership business between the mother and her children. The
name of the business is taken from the combination of their name. This business provides
services to the customer concerning the wedding. They also provide spa for the customer.
Other than that, this business also uses Facebook, email, and blog as a promotion for their
business. Before their business become successful, they had many threat from other parties
like competitors, government and so on.

11.0 REFERENCE
Internet:

http://www.tutor2u.net/business/marketing/segmentation_bases_demographic.asp
http://www.examstutor.com/business/resources/studyroom/marketing/market_analysis/7_demogr
aphic_segmentation.php

http://www.examstutor.com/business/resources/studyroom/marketing/market_analysis/7_demogr
aphic_segmentation.php

10.0 APPENDICES