Chapter 1
Abstract
The G2000 Group is the apparel market leader of Asia region specialized in fashionable men’s and ladies’ career and casual wear. It’s not just a clothing brand featuring upscale and urban-career styles for men and women. It’s also one of the famous apparel industries in Hong Kong.
However, Hong Kong is at its stage of economic downturn. As many apparel industries were closed down under the Finical Tsunami. We want to know how the G2000 Group should adapt its marketing strategies during Hong Kong economic downturn. How can G2000 successes in the apparel industries? And what are the objectives affect the company. Therefore, to develop this research can let us answer those questions.
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In this research proposal, a first step is starting a title of project. Next steps are written down the outline and background of the study, also the adjectives and research questions which we are focused. Final steps, we need to identify the research methods and action plan. It shows that we have collected the primary and secondary data about the G2000 Group from different ways.
We will classify it in communication approach which is versatility, efficiency and geographic coverage. We have self-administered survey, like email-web survey to collect primary data. The advantages are the cost is lower but the feedback rate is high. About the convenience sampling, we plan to do the face to face interview. To setup a questionnaire and then invite the staff in G2000 to have an interview to collect data for research report. Also we will go out and have a street interview to collect data from the residents. The simple size is between 100 and 200. We will also form a focus group to have pilot testing to find out the problem of the questionnaire; For example, How long the questionnaire took to complete; the clarity of instructions or whether in their opinion there was any major topic omissions, etc.
In the part of secondary data analysis, we will first search the information about the G2000 Group in the internet. Secondly, we will find out the annual report of G2000 and evaluate it. Finally, we carry out the literature or articles review to get more information to do this research proposal. Specifically, we must include the preliminary literature review, the review criteria are:
Understanding of the purpose of project
Understanding of theories, concepts, issues and methodology appropriate for the project
Evidence of independent, critical thought and wide ranging reading
Evidence of well-argued analysis and practicality of project
This research proposal also involves a Grant Chart to finish the work on schedule. And the last page of the proposal is the references page that we can follow up the research report.
1.2 Introduction
Nowadays, apparel industries become more prosper in Hong Kong. There are many different famous brand name are well-known by Hong Kong people like G2000, GIORDANO, Bossini, Baleno. The reasons that we choose the G2000 Group to be our object to investigate is because the G2000 Group have many branch store in Hong Kong and they had develop a few brand line under G2000 Group like G2000 pink, G2000 blu, G2 black label.
When we talk about the apparel, most of the Hong Kong people will think about the G2000 Group firstly. Is it because they have a successful marketing strategy? Is it any other reasons? Therefore we want to find out about those questions, and study what are the key skills that lead them to success.
This project aims to study, discuss and analyze the key success factors of the Starbucks Coffee Company (Starbucks) in Hong Kong.
This project will analyze the market situation, external environment, the key strengths and weaknesses, and the key success factors of Starbucks Coffee Company in order to learn how a corporate is successful in the coffee shop market and related business.
To make strategic and logical marketing recommendations for Starbucks Coffee Company, several analyses have been undertaken. Hence, after analyzing and learning the Starbucks Coffee’s ways of success, several suggestions and recommendations regarding how to gain more success and obtain more added values for Starbucks and customers that will be given to Starbucks Coffee Company.
Chapter 2
Background
The G2000 Group (Generation 2000; traditional Chinese: 縱橫二åƒ) was first introduced in 1985, and positioned as a specialty clothing chain distributing both fashionable men’s and ladies’ career wear. According to the G2000 Group, their mission is “To be the apparel market leader by providing mass appeal but fashionable merchandise offering superior value to customers. Through the talents and teamwork of our people, we are committed to providing our customers with the ultimate shopping experience.” (The G2000 Group)
In 2007, the three specialty chains are consolidated into one lifestyle retail chain G2000 which offers the existing product lines under different labels, namely G2000. G2000Pink is women wear line born from the concept for a brand with a more design-driven image and G2000 blù which was recognized as a leading retailer for superior value men’s and ladies’ causal wear. At the same time, the Group introduced G2 BLACK LABEL, the new line offering premium modern city wear.
Nowadays, the G2000 Group has developed into four different brand lines to satisfy the different customers’ needs and wants. The four brand lines are:
G2000 is the main line offering formal business attire for the career wardrobe of men and women. The collection offers highly versatile coordinated pieces that fulfill the customers’ needs for presentable and confident city living. The shirts are perfectly color coordinated with the suits and ties to provide a total look.
G2000 Pink is all about in-trend designs using simple but unexpected elements. The look is fresh but not loud. Informal, yet sophisticated. It is for the cosmopolitan woman who knows her own style, someone who is in tune with current trends without becoming a fashion victim.
G2000 blù is a city casual line for the outgoing man who finds styling oneself being one of his major focuses of creative expression. He is unlikely to be conformist, and will strive to create his own individual look.
G2 BLACK LABEL is the luxurious, premium line that offers men’s and women’s clothing for both work and play. Using premium quality fabrics and finest workmanship, the collection is for the men and women who understand and appreciate the sophisticated and elegant look that reflect their personality and high standard of living.
(The G2000 Group)
In addition, for the customer relationship, the G2000 Group has set a membership premium card. The customers can become a member and use the discount price to buy the G2000’s products. The G2000 Group provides the hotline for any questions and enquires about their customer service. And customers also can submit their response in the official website of G2000.
Internal Market Environment [5 Forces Model of Michael Porter]
Rivalry among Existing Firms
The quality of the G2000 product is higher than other brands
The branches of G2000 are all over Hong Kong and China
Product differentiation can get a high competitive advantage
Exit barriers
Strategic stakes
The G2000 Group expands their business.
Determinants of Suppliers Power
Supplier concentration
Price and quality of different products
Determinants of Buyers Power
The price of products is expensive.
Many competitors like “Bossini” and “Giordano” have a lower price than G2000.
Threat of Substitute Products
Some competitors are going out of the business during the financial crisis, like “U-right” and “Giordano”
Relative price and quality of substitute
Witching costs to buyers from other competitors
Threat of New Entrants
The training of the staff is not sufficient because they usually employ some part-time.
The sales may be decreases under current financial crisis.
Many competitors extend the discount period to attract the customer during financial crisis.
Objectives
To more understand the marketing strategies of the G2000 Group, we must have some objectives as research targets. Below are the main points of the objectives of this research.
Examine the positions of G2000 company
Examine the SWOT Analysis of G2000 company
Examine the goodwill of brand name, e.g. GIORDANO vs. G2000
Identify the target customer of G2000, the awareness and attitudes of customers towards to buy clothes in G2000 shops
Examine the reasons why they shopping from G2000 and the frequency
Examine the relationships between the cost and Marketing Mix Analysis. Association of Marketing Mix with the strategies
Examine the relationships between the promotion method and consumer decision. Can G2000 attract people to buy? Do their customers satisfy?
Examine the market price average will too far from market average
Recommendation and implementation of G2000 company
The development of the hypothesis
To make changes aims to increase the sales, such as 4Ps strategies
During the financial crisis, some competitors like “U-right” and “Giordano” are going out of their business. The G2000 Group wants to be the survivor in the appeal market so the company has changed their marketing strategies to adapt the economic downturn/ finance tsunami. In this report, we will debate how the G2000 Group could attract people to buy and the concept of 4Ps affects the sales.
To develop different product lines to satisfy different customers
Nowadays, the G2000 Group has developed into four different brand lines to satisfy the different customers’ needs and wants. The four brand lines are: G2000, G2000Pink, G2000 blù and G2 BLACK LABEL. The company focuses on diverse consumers to share the large markets and enhance the brand image, also it could benefit for consumers loyalty.
The above hypothesis will be used in the further research studies. The results of whether to accept and reject the above hypothesis will be discussed in the next serial chapters.
Chapter 3 Critical Literature Review
Research Design
Because there is no well-established conceptualization or measures of relevant constructs in the export marketing literature, a parsimonious multi-phase research design is adopted here to operatetionalize and test the proposed conceptual framework. (Tamer S. & Shaoming Zou, 1994) Research design is very important for data collection and information selection. Marketing research has come to be seen as a very important process in the management of organizations. High levels of competition, technological innovations in the products themselves and in their modes of manufacture, and the demanding and increasingly discriminating nature of consumers have all combined to raise the levels of ‘danger’ in the business environment. (Miller Neal, 1987) Marketing research is the tool that producers use to inform themselves of consumers’ needs and help them to satisfy them in an efficient and profitable manner. This concert is useful for doing the research of G2000. In the book, we can learn how to use the skills and collect the applicable results.
Educational research, in its organized form, has changed little in twenty years, even though marked strides had been made in the related areas of psychology and sociology. Research has appeared geared to improvement of specific practices in particular locales rather than to understanding. (Kerlinger F. N. 2005) Marketing research has come to be seen as a very important process in the management of organizations, also understand and design market research, it will be useful to those studying marketing research for a business qualification at degree or diploma level.
Marketing Strategies
Product adaptation, promotion adaptation, and completive pricing strategies have been described as the mean by which firms’ offerings adapt to or fit the idiosyncrasies of foreign markets. (Tamer S. & Shaoming Zou, 1994) 4Ps concept let marketer more understand the behavioral research of customers, what are the consumers needs and wants, how the G2000 Group get into the market. Those marketing strategies will be used in the further research studies. The results will be discussed in the finding and conclusion.
Many companies aren’t really alarmed by customer defections or they’re alarmed too late-because they don’t understand the intimate, causal relationship between customer loyalty on the one hand and cash flow and profits on the other. (Frederick F & Reachheld, 1996) We know how to get the useful information that can be wrung from a customer loss, and why don’t businesses learn or even try to learn from customer defections. To study customer loyalty, customer defections, and their effects on corporate cash flow and profits, also learn how to satisfy the target customers. The relationship between the employee and customer, also how to make profit and company radically changed the way it does business and dramatically improved its financial results analysis. (Anthony J. & Steven P. & Richard T, 2000) The results are useful for the research as customers are important so the G2000 Group can get the business sales improvement
Statistical Analysis
In the most general sense, statistics describes a set of tools and techniques that is used for describing, organizing and interpreting information or data. (Neil J. Salkind, 2000) The process of data collection, organization, summarization and then interpretation are necessary in the research project.
Chapter 4 Methodology
4.1 Research Methods
According to Gilson, Research is the systematic and objective identification, during collection, dissemination, analysis, and use of information for the purpose of improving decision making which related to the identification and solution of problems (Gilson, & Nielson, 2000). The research was also conducted by the exploratory research and the descriptive research that makes the report more informative and helps researchers to find out the answers of the topic – A study in people’s attitude of shopping in G2000.
At the same time, this project’s research methods and information are mainly obtained from primary data that is qualitative (interpretive) methodology. The followings show the research design, and list how we obtain and collect the data and information.
Research design descriptors Table 4.1
Category
Options
The degree of which the research question has been crystallized
Exploratory Study
Descriptive Study
Formal Study
The method of data collection
Monitoring
Communication Study
The power of the researcher to produce effects in the variables under study
Ex post factor
The purpose of the study
Reporting
Descriptive
Causal Explanatory
The time dimension
Cross-sectional
The topical scope-breadth and depth-of the study
Case Study
Statistical Study
The research environment
Field setting
The participants ‘perceptional awareness of the research activity
Actual routine
4.2 Exploratory Research
Exploratory research is a research that conducted to explore the problem situation, to gain ideas and insight into the problem confronting the management or researchers (Malhotra & Peterson, 2005). The objective of the exploratory research is to identify the G2000 group’s attributes that are important to the consumers of G2000. In the exploratory research, according to our discussion, 7 important attributes were identified, as follows: 1.) price of goods, 2.) quality of the goods, 3.) design of the goods, 4.) the services, and also including after purchasing service, 5.) shop environment, 6.) shops location, 7.) promotions of G2000.
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4.2.1 Secondary Data Analysis
Secondary Data means any data that have already been collected for purposes other than the problem at hand (Malhotra & Peterson, 2002). The secondary data are collected from newspaper, journal of marketing and research, internet web sites that include: Google and Yahoo, public library and university library, etc. Researchers could learn more form the research topics and identify the further information needed form the future research projects. However, the collected secondary data was generally based on the date reliable, valid and generalize the problems at hand, so researchers may have a more clear idea from choosing the research methods.
Focus Group Discussion
Focus group is an interview which forms a small group of respondents conducted by a trained moderator who leads the discussion in a non-structured and natural manner (Malhotra & Peterson, 2005). Before doing the descriptive research, the researchers may be collecting more data and information to design the questionnaires from focus group discussion. Those collected data and information could be used for the future research. The focus group will find 5-10 people to join and discuss together. All the participants had the recent experience of purchasing the clothes. There is also the main leads from the focus group include shops location, price of products, and quality of the products, or other factors such as physical appearance.
Pilot Test
Pilot survey is a survey tends to be less structured than large-scale surveys that generally contain more open-ended questions and the sample size is much smaller (Malhotra & Peterson, 2005). The purpose of pilot test is to refine the questionnaire that respondents will have no problems in answering them and researchers will have no problems in recording the data. Also it obtains some assessment of the questions’ validity and reliability of the data. Thus, a pilot test of ten samples was used to reduce the errors that find during doing the survey.
4.3 Descriptive Research
4.3.1 Research Design
The research design used in the study of Hong Kong people’s attitude toward shopping in G2000 was a sample survey by face-to-face interview. Our target market is the people who are 15 years old or above. The segment will be divided into 2 segments that are males and females since there are some differences of purchase behaviors and attitude about shopping in G2000 between male and female.
4.3.2 Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire (Appendix) was set both in Chinese and English in which the words are simple and use unambiguous words. This aims to let the respondents easy to get the meaning of the questionnaire. After reviewing the literature and the findings from the focus group study, a three-part questionnaire was developed.
At beginning of the questionnaire, Part I consisted of rating the sentences about the macroeconomic approach of Hong Kong so that respondents would feel more comfortable and less pressured in their response. Part II was about the expenditure of consumers on shopping in G2000 with general questions such as “How often do you go to G2000?”, “Which location of G2000 shop do you often go?” etc. This is funnel approach which is going from general form specific in order to prevent specific questions from biasing responses to general questions. Also, these questions can view the respondents’ pattern of going the shop of G2000. Based on the G2000 shop attributes identified in interview; the questionnaire for the main study was design:
a.) From question 4 to question 7, these also aim to check the frequently, pattern, lifestyle of respondents to consume in the G2000 shops.
b.) The question 10 requires the respondents to rate the importance of the 7 selecting G2000’s factors or attributes and the last question for each brand is used for measuring the overall attitude toward the brand. These rating questions are used for identification of the “ideal point” which is more important to the G2000 Group.
c.) A 5-point Liker scale was used for above questions.
Part III examined the personal information of respondents. At the end of questionnaire, the questions are used to obtain the demographic information of the respondents. These used for dividing 2 segments for the study of the attitude toward shopping in G2000 between two groups.
4.3.3 Data Collection
We use communication approach to collect data. The strengths are versatility, efficiency and geographic coverage. The weaknesses are having different error sources, such as measurement questions, participant and interviewer, also it is inaccessible populations. a.) Place
The data were collected by face to face interviews outside the shop of G2000 which are located at Kowloon thus more easily and convenient to meet the target market, which could imaging the situation when they enter the shop base on observing the shops immediately. Therefore it helps to reduce the bias.
b.) Time
From 3:00PM to 5:00PM in May. Since it’s the tea time, people maybe more free and willingly to do the questionnaires.
c.) Time limited
We set the time limit of 10 seconds for each question because customers will firstly call back the memory so the answers more match to their mind.
e.) No leading questions
Also, Interviewers must not ask by using leading questions such as giving some examples for interviewees to choose as to avoid wrong attitude.
d.) Sampling size
One hundred completed questionnaires were collected within one month.
Also based on the communication approach, it includes:
Self-administered survey
Mail-web survey
Intercept
Computer
Focus Group
Telephone Survey
CATI
Face to face interview
Intercept
Participant-controlled environment
There are two sampling methods that we used in the research, non-probability sampling and convenience sampling. Non-probability sampling does not need to generalize. It is just for study only; we can use less time and the lower cost to do sampling. The sampling provides greater speed and greater accuracy. And the reasons for using the convenience sampling are that samples are unrestricted, least reliable but cheapest and easy to conduct. Convenience sampling can be carried out quickly and with minimal cost. As such, it is normally used only in the early/exploratory stages of a research project.
4.3.4 Data Analysis
After collecting all the questionnaires, the data was coded, analyzed, and summarized into computer by using SPSS (version 14). Descriptive statistics that means mode and mean were performed to summarize the personal information of the respondents. When analyze the relationship between low spenders and high spenders along demographics, Cross-tabulations were used. The following details could be found by statistical analysis in the Chapter 5.
Reference Lists
Anthony J. & Steven P. & Richard T. (2000) The Employee -Customer- Profit Chain At Sears, 1st edition. Pages 83-97
Frederick F & Reachheld (1996) Learning from customer defections, [online] Available from Gilson A. & Nielson M. (2000), Tourism and Hospitality Marketing, Ireland
John R. (1992)Understanding & Designing Marketing Research. 2nd edition, Glasgow, UK
Malhotra N.K & Peterson M.(2005)Basic Marketing Research, 2nd Edition,Prentice Hall
Miller N. & Rutgers L. Rev. (1987) Facts, Expert Facts, and Statistics: Descriptive and Experimental Research Methods in Litigation Neil J. Salkind, 2000. Statistics: What it is for people who (think they) hate statistics Sage Publications. Inc, United Kingdom, p.364
Tamer S. & Shaoming Zou, (Jan.1994).The Journal of Marketing. Marketing Strategy-Performance Relationship: An Investigation of the Empirical Link in Export Market Ventures, Vol. 58, pages 1-21
TheG2000Group.(2009)corporateoverview.[online]Availablefrom Torgerson W.S.(1958) Theory and Methods of Scaling, John Wiley, New York
Tull D.A. & Hawkins D.I. (1990), Marketing Research: Measurement and Method, Macmillan, New York, 5th edition.
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