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ABSTRACT This study was set out to compare the promotion and advertising strategies used by Tesco and Carrefour hypermarkets in Malaysia. Various selection of relevant literature was sought to establish a solid framework. Through a survey which covered a sample population of 30 respondents, the study was able to determine that Tesco seems to be more popular compared to Carrefour. It highlighted that effective advertising and promotion strategies have contributed to the hypermarket’s popularity.
The study significantly indicates the advertising and promotion strategies that both hypermarkets practice and describe how they manage to be more attractive and how they analyze they companies’ weaknesses and strengths. This study also discusses the use of marketing strategies to enhance the productivity in order to be efficient. Many retail outlets have been growing since the early 1980s due to the change of era. Foreign-owned hypermarkets are fast gaining their popularity in Malaysia as they come with a different concept from the other retail outlets which exists today.
Hypermarket is a concept of supermarket and department store together under one-roof. But different retailers have different marketing strategies to attract customers. Therefore, the most interesting examples of leading hypermarkets in Malaysia are Tesco and Carrefour. Tesco is an international hypermarket from the United Kingdom. With a huge growth of profit, Tesco then decided to look into the expansion of its international market to maintain its position.
Then Malaysia was selected as the next market of entry and the first Tesco Hypermarket in Malaysia was opened in Puchong in May 2002 and followed with the second Tesco which opened in October in Malacca.. Tesco carries a total of 86,000 lines of products including more than 1,300 Tesco branded items. Another leading hypermarket is Carrefour and it is the number one retailer in Europe and the second-largest retailer in the world. Carrefour opened its first store in United Kingdom. Just as Tesco, Carrefour also wanted to expand its market into international market.
Then Carrefour came to Asia and in Malaysia, Carrefour is also a leading hypermarket with a wide range of products such as household groceries, garments, shoes, home appliances and many more. Beside that Carrefour also provides lowest price guarantee to its customers. STATEMENT OF A PROBLEM Tesco and Carrefour are both leading hypermarkets in Malaysia that provide offers similar products but with different marketing strategies such as on advertising and promotion. Tesco seems more popular, as Tesco tries to understand its customers need.
Tesco also makes the shopping experience better for their customers by adopting a low pricing strategy and tries to keep its price as low as possible from its competitors and without sacrifing product quality. Besides that Tesco also becomes more popular because of every day low pricing (EDLP) strategy that they have been implemented win which it makes many people (customer) attracted to it. Therefore this study intends to identify why Tesco seems to be more popular compared to Carrefour.
RESEARCH QUESTION Tesco and Carrefour are both leading hypermarkets in Malaysia, but lately Tesco seems to be more popular compared to Carrefour due to its promotions and advertising. How does this contribute to Tesco being more popular? LITERATURE REVIEW From the research nowadays in the business world, many companies tried to do competition among each other due to make profit for the organization but different company comes with different strategies to promote their company and product to the outsiders so that people from outsider will know about it.
Therefore the companies need a better understanding through the marketing strategies. According to Kotler and Armstrong noted that “Marketing is the key element of the companies in dealing with buying With good marketing strategy give the benefits to both sides that are sellers and also the buyers at the same time. According to Ramde, D (2008) stated that With well-planned in marketing will improve the growth of the company to become a better and a more successful company.
Lovelock and Wirtz mentioned that “As a tool for growth of the company comes with strong In order to make good promotion, thinking into the customers shoes is very important especially in promoting and advertising the products. According to Tianwah (1989) also highlighted that “To make a good promotion materials, marketer should take a Promotion decisions should be made with an appreciation for how it affects other areas of the company. According to Scalera, C (2008) also stated that Base on the research, advertising also one of the marketing tools that are effective for the company.
Advertising is one of a communication way that company conducted to tell or make announcement to the people about the product or service in order to persuade the customer to buy or use it. According to Kotler and Armstrong highlighted that “With advertising can riveted customers’ attentions with new product As shown by Lovelock and Wirtz noted that It is important for the company to step up by explored their product in the market by capturing customers’ attention coming with several strategies for the growth of the company and to get more profits.
Beside that promotions and advertising plays a big role in the business nature and it’s had tied up together with the well-planned of marketing strategies. Sometimes it may cause a fall down due to over budget through advertising and promotion but it also can cause great profits. Therefore it’s a risk that a company should be willing to take in order to became a successful. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This study intends to provide in detail account of the method undertaken in this research as well how this study should be organized.
The important aspects in the design of the study are to determine what and who should be included and excluded in the study. It refers to the respondents, geographical area and the instrumentation used. The Primary data used in this study is the questionnaire which is based on the research topic. The respondents that participated in this study were half from the public at One Utama shopping area and half will be distribute at the KDU College. While the Secondary data used in this research initiate with the reference from Journal, book and also internet.
It is hoped that in detailed account on the methods used in this study will help to verify the validity and reliability of the study. RESEARCH INSTRUMENT . The instruments use in this research is using the questionnaire that consists of 30 respondents. The focus of this study is concerned about “A comparative study on the promotion and advertising strategy used by Tesco and Carrefour hypermarket in Malaysia”. The questionnaire is divided into three parts, which are Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. In Part A, it contains the information about the demographic detail of respondents such as gender, age, race and occupation.
Part B of the questionnaire is about description of respondents towards their preferred hypermarket. Part C is designed to get the perception of respondents towards the promotion concept done by the preferred hypermarket. Lastly, Part D of the questionnaire is about the advertising concept used by the hypermarket. FINDINGS Table 1 Gender Table 2 Age Table 3 Race Table 4 Occupation Table 5 Which hypermarket do you prefer? Table 6 How often do you go to your preferred hypermarket? Table 7 What are some reasons you go to your preferred hypermarket?
Table 8 How many years have you been shopping at your preferred hypermarket? Table 9 Between Tesco and Carrefour, which promotion and advertising strategies attracts you most? Table 10 About how many minutes does it take you from your house to your preferred hypermarket? Table 11 How much do you spend on every visit to your preferred hypermarket? Table 12 Are you a member of the loyalty program of your preferred hypermarket? Table 13 Do you think hypermarkets in Malaysia are becoming more popular than ever? Table 14 What makes you attracted to your preferred hypermarket?
Table 15 What do you think about the pricing in your preferred hypermarket? Table 16 What is the most important factor in choosing your preferred hypermarket? Table 17 As a customer, are you happy with the price in your preferred hypermarket? Table 18 How do you know about your preferred hypermarket? Table 19 How often do you see the advertisement about your preferred hypermarket? Table 20 What do you think of the advertising used by your preferred hypermarket? DISCUSSION In Table 4, shown the occupation of respondents, there are classified into employed, unemployed, students and others.
There are 20 persons (66. 7%) are employed and 10 persons (33. 3%) are students. There are no respondents are taken based on unemployed and others. Which hypermarket do you prefer? In Table 5, shown that 15 respondents (50%) are chosen Tesco, 9 persons (30%) have chosen Carrefour and another 6 persons (20%) are chosen others. Total are 30 respondents (100%). In Table 7, shown some reasons why respondents go to their preferred hypermarket. There are 13 respondents (43. 3%) chosen because of lowest price, 8 respondents (26. 7%) choose because of close to their home, 1 respondents (3. %) choose because of close to their favorite shopping area. How many years have you been shopping at your preferred hypermarket? From Table 8, shown that 14 respondents (46. 7%) are less than 5 years and 16 respondents (53. 3%) have been shopping at their preferred hypermarket more than 5 years. A total are 30 respondents (100%). Between Tesco and Carrefour, which promotion and advertising strategies attracts you most? In Table 9, shown that 17 respondents (56. 7%) are attracted to Tesco and 13 respondents (43. 3%) are attracted to Carrefour.
About how many minutes does it takes you from you house to you preferred hypermarket? In Table 10, there are 13 respondents (43. 3%) consider less than 10 minutes, 8 respondents (26. 7%) consider about 10 to20 minutes and another 9 respondents (30%) consider more than 20 minutes. In Table 11, shown that how much respondents have spends on every visit to their preferred hypermarket. There are 9 respondents (30%) have been spent less than RM 50, 9 respondents (30%) have been spent between RM50 to RM 100 and about 12 respondents (40%) have been spent more than RM 100 for every visit.
Table 12, indicate that 13 respondents (43. 3%) are the members of the loyalty program of their preferred hypermarket and 17 respondents (56. 7%) are not members of their preferred hypermarket. In Table 13, shown that all of the respondents of 30 persons (100%) have been agreed that hypermarket in Malaysia are becoming popular than ever and no one have disagreed with it. From Table 15, show that about the perception of respondent toward the pricing of their preferred hypermarket. It shown that there are 7 persons (23. %) consider the prices are average, 18 persons (60%) consider the prices are reasonable, 5 persons (16. 7%) consider the prices are cheaper than other hypermarket, and no one have consider the price are expensive than other hypermarket. As a result there are total of 30 persons (100%). What is the most important factor in choosing your preferred hypermarket? In Table 16, show that 12 respondents (40%) have been chosen because a value of money, 11 respondents (36. 7%) have been chosen because of shopping convenience, 7 respondents (23. 3%) have been chosen because of broad selection of products.
In Table 20, shown that what the respondents think about the advertising used by their preferred hypermarket? There are 2 respondents (6. 6%) have think its poor, 11 respondents (36. 7%) have think its good, 17 respondents (56. 7%) have think the advertisement is average and zero respondents have think its excellent. A total are 30 respondents (100%). “For company to growth, they must market their goods and services “Advertising needs to be more attractive, colourful and eye catching Researcher reveals that most of the respondents agree that the Tesco hypermarket seems to be more popular than Carrefour.
Respondents also believe that the growths of hypermarkets are the good concepts that need to be maintaining for the conveniences to the consumers. From the studies founds that some respondent think that the growth of hypermarkets will affect their life in the change of their shopping experiences to be more effective and organize due to the concept that everything can be obtained at one stop under one roof as their convenience. Hypermarket need to improve their marketing strategies from time to time due to increase the sale volume of the company as well to attract more customers to it.
RECOMMENDATION THE ADVERTISMENT. The hypermarket should put a lot of effort in doing more interesting and design more attractive on the advertisement hence making it more well-known to peoples all around the States of Malaysia. CONCLUSION REFERENCES Internet: www. tesco. com. my www. carrefour. com. my Books: Cannon, T & Willis, M 1986, How to buy and sell overseas, Hutchinson Business, London. Journal: Scalera, C 2008, ‘Big prize scratch 2 win promotion help newspapers boost newsstand sales web traffic’, Journal of advertising research, pp. 4, 11th June. Ramde, D 2008, ‘Companies hope gas promotion fuel new business’, Journal of advertising research, 9th June. APPENDIX Questionnaire I’m currently doing a research report on the promotion and advertising used by hypermarkets in Malaysia. I would appreciate it if you could spend 5 to 10 minutes of your time to answer through this questionnaire. It will help me to get more understanding about your shopping experience.
PART A: DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL Your Gender Male Female Age 19 – 25 years old Above 25 years old Race Chinese Malay Indian Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. Occupation Employed Unemployed Student Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. PART B: DESCRIPTION TOWARD HYPRERMARKET Which hypermarket do you prefer? Tesco Carrefour Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. How often do you go to your preferred hypermarket?
Once a week Twice a week Once a month Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. What are some reasons you go to your preferred hypermarket? Lowest prices Close to home Convenient location Close to favorite shopping area Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. How many years have you been shopping at your preferred hypermarket? Less than 5 years More than 5 years Between Tesco and Carrefour, which promotion and advertising strategies attracts you most?
Tesco Carrefour About how many minutes does it take you from your house to your preferred hypermarket? Less than 10 minutes 10 – 20 minutes More than 20 minutes How much do you spend on every visit to your preferred hypermarket? Less than RM50 RM50-RM100 More than RM100 Are you a member of the loyalty program (e. g: Tesco Clubcard/ RealReward) of your preferred hypermarket? Yes No Do you think hypermarkets in Malaysia are becoming more popular than ever? If yes, why? State your reason in not more than 15 words) If no, why? (State your reason in not more than 15 words) PART C: PROMOTION CONCEPT What makes you attracted to your preferred hypermarket? Promotion Advertising Quality of product Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. What do think about the pricing in your preferred hypermarket? Average Reasonable Cheaper than other hypermarket Expensive than other hypermarket Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. What is the most important factor in choosing your preferred hypermarket?
Value for money Shopping convenience Broad selection of products Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. As a customer, are you happy with the price in your preferred hypermarket? Yes (Please proceed to Question 19) No (Please proceed to Question 18) Please state your reason for your response in Question 17. (State your reason in not more than 15 words) PART D: ADVERTISING CONCEPT How do you know about your preferred hypermarket? Friends Pamphlets / Brochures Television advertisement Newspaper advertisement Others (Please specify) ……………………………………………..
How often do you see the advertisement about your preferred hypermarket? Once a week Once a months Almost everyday Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. What do you think of the advertising used by your preferred hypermarket? Poor Good Average Excellent Others (Please specify) …………………………………………….. In what way do you think the advertisement of your preferred hypermarket need to improve? (State your reason in not more than 15 words) Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.