1.

Company Analysis
1.1. The Company
Established in 1987, Q industries is a Singapore-based catering company, it provides a wide range of product
lines, caters to all the requirements and solutions for clients with reasonable price in different sectors of
hospitality and food service industries (Q industries, 2019a). The company has many offices in South East
Asia, it has been providing products in many hospitality establishments throughout Asia Pacific and many
areas around the world, it has more than 30 years in B2B consultant for hospitality solutions. It offers
different range of products, services and dedicated solutions based on different customers’ needs from each
country and area.
At the moment, the company has developed Q Quantum Pro Series which are also core product range (Q
industries, 2019c). These products are developed by professional Chef brand ambassadors in their own
professional kitchens before being made available to customers, especially for chefs. Each sample pack
consists of a Quantum Pro sauce pot and fry pans, Chef’s knife and 2 pieces of small utensils such as a
peeler. The Quantum Pro products’ characteristics are all durable and cost-efficient, unique design, strong
hardware, versatile and easy to clean. Quantum Pro is more competitive than other products in the market by
its handles and bases quality.
1.2. Vision, mission and values
Q industries aims to become and to be recognised as the pioneer company in integrated hospitality solutions
(Q industries, 2019a). Its mission is to create a breakthrough change in bringing unique blend of innovative
solutions and integrator services into hotel procurement function.
Q industries focuses on three main core values which are the passion of bringing the best quality solutions to
the clients, concept of innovation and precision from planning to executing stages (Q industries, 2019b).
2. Customers Analysis
2.1. Segmentation
The company mainly segments its market and activities in Singapore where the head office is located. It can
be seen that Q industries has catered for many big hotels and hospitality establishments in Singapore (Q
industries, 2019d). It has also expanded global client network in countries including Malaysia and Vietnam,
catering warehouse facilities in many hotel chains and resorts. These hotels and resorts in Vietnam are one of
the largest hotel brands in Vietnam. Beside its main market segmentation which are Singapore, Malaysia and
Vietnam, Q industries is also the hospitality product provider for some large resorts and hotel in Thailand,
Macau, Maldives, China, Indonesia, etc.
As its purpose is to enter to Business to Customer (B2C) through E-commerce, Q industries established
Q.ulinary Essentials retail store to sell products from 5-star projects. In terms of Q.ulinary Essentials, its
current customer’s segments are restaurants and bakery owner, chefs (75%), 3-star hotels buyer (20%) and
household users (5%).
2.2. Targeting
Q industries’ main clients are hotels, clubs and restaurants. The company provides comprehensive and
professional range of products and equipment to ensure the right atmosphere for the customers using services
from hotels, clubs and restaurants mainly in Asia countries.
In addition, in terms of customer profile, there are 4 types of target customers including housewives,
professional cooks, expats and Small to Medium Enterprise (SME). Q industries has investigated the
demographics, psychology, behaviour of each type of customer in order to plan suitable marketing strategies
to attract and maintain loyal customers.
To the first target customer - housewives from 30 - 40 year old with middle - high income, they tend to look
for products that are good for their families regarding of maintaining good health, high innovation and
creativity, they are likely to buy products based on recommendations from relatives, friends and reviews
online. They prefer products that looks good on theirs kitchen, good material, good durability and
sustainability.
To Professional Cooks, their standards of products are higher, they care more about products quality and
special features, they tend to believe in professional chef recommendations rather than friends or random
online reviews. They also do many researches about cooking products on website and cooking channels.
To Expats who are culinary experts with high income, their knowledge about cooking, cuisine styles,
culinary and cooking products is significant, they also care about health and innovation. However, this type
of customer is still new in Vietnam, they are still having trouble looking for places to buy cookware.
To the last target customer which is SME, as they look for good products to use in small-medium enterprises,
they tend to buy high quality products with high durability and good price. They mainly make decision
basing on the information about products and reviews from social media and other e-commerce websites,
they also take advice or introduction from retailers about the products.
Understanding about profile, psychographics, tendency and buying behaviours of customers can help Q
industries build a better marketing plan to gain more brand awareness and attract these target customers. The
advantages and challenges to approach these types of customers and customers buying behaviours stages are
also clearly analysed by the company before planning marketing strategies to get the highest results.
3. Competitive Analysis
3.1 Direct and indirect competitors
Kitchen Art and Kitchen Koncept is direct competitors of Q industries on E-Commerce platform. These
companies are also providing similar products for hospitality establishments, with similar target customers
but they have their own core competences. They mainly focus their business on e-commerce site with strong
digital marketing strategies.
3.2 Using benchmarking criteria to compare the advantages and disadvantages of Q industries and its
competitors.
Benchmarking criteria are based on brand name, website usability, product quality and mobile marketing. Q
industries are evaluated as low competence compared to others. Brand awareness is one of the main concerns
for Q industries, although its target customer is household users, there is not many activities to reach
household and attract their attention, therefore, it is difficult for them to buy the products online because of
low awareness and trust. Besides, customers nowadays have tendency of buying online on the website if they
already know about the brand and quality, however, the website of Q industries is quite difficult for
customers to remember and read (www.http://qulinaryessentials.vn/). Digital marketing toolkit of Q
industries also does not work very strong in analysing the keywords. In contrast, website of competitors are
very informative, clear content and easy to use for customers, especially household users. In speaking of
product quality criteria, Q industries needs to improve its reputation and brand awareness regarding about
product quality to customers, although it aims to deliver products with innovations, creativity and simplicity,
the quality of products is still not yet well-known and recognised by household users. This is a big
disadvantage of Q industries compared to its competitors. Also, Kitchen Art and Kitchen Koncept offer
customers a wide rage of products from different brands that customers can choose from that Q industries
does not have. In addition, although Q industries is now developing its E-commerce site, the mobile platform
which is used by a big number of customers is still not efficient due to the long domain name and not strong
SEO. While its competitors are doing very well on these criteria, Q industries is facing difficulties, if the
company can improve these drawbacks, the competitive competence will be getting higher, it can increase
brand awareness from customers and achieve more targets in Asia as well as international markets.
The Five Forces analysis of Q.ulinary Essentials based on the intensity of: Supplier Power, Buyer Power,
substitute power, new entrants and degree of rivalry. The supplier power in the kitchenware industry is
average, customers can choose kitchenware from many multiple suppliers, in addition, there are a lot of
international potential suppliers supplying famous kitchenware brands. Customers have their buyer power as
with the development of internet and e-commerce sites, they can decide which brand or kitchenware stores to
want to buy. Their bargaining power, as a result, is getting higher. In contrast to supplier power and buyer
power, substitute power is very low as kitchenware such as pots, pans, kitchen utensils, knives, spoons and
bowl are daily essential things and cannot be replaced. In terms of new entrant threat, it is considered as
moderate due to many external factors, customers are easily to change from Q.ulinary Essential to other new
kitchenware firms because of low switching cost. Finally, rivalry among competitors in the kitchenware
industry is very competitive, Q.ulinary Essentials not only has to compete with domestic manufacture brands
but foreign firms as well, which in the long term may influence the profitability of the organisation.
4. Identification strategic for E-commerce
With the aim of targeting, understanding and maintaining its potential customers, E-commerce is considered
to be very important to Q industries. E-commerce can help to solve geographical problems as the location is
quite far from the city centre, causing loss of business. Besides, e-commerce contributes to increase sources
of revenue for Q industries and sales from retail business. E-commerce also expands customer database. Q
industries is planning some E-commerce strategies for the business development. First of all, increasing
brand awareness and revenue as current objectives, besides, developing e-commerce website by improving
its interface on Wordpress platform, mobile and tablet responsive and online payments integrated; by
developing products line and implementing digital marketing strategies by running advertisements on
Facebook, Google and using Search Engine Optimization. Finally, the E-commerce team plays an important
role in the success of E-commerce, the working efficiency among top management team and members must
be always ensured. Re-evaluating marketing efforts and efficiency of strategies is also one of the most
important stages.
5. Costs and Benefits Analysis for Q industries website.
5.1 Reach
From the main website of Q industries, the management can keep up the reach and views of customers, they
can compare to the reach of advertising websites such as Lazada, shopee, etc…then deciding the cost they
should invest into the website as the customers may need to look for company, products information and
products quality review before they make decision on online shopping websites.
5.2 Scalability
Website of Q industries has potential to expand content build up more information. Beside the main content
about company, visions, solutions, products, etc…the company can spend more money to invest into the
content with more update about price, delivery, sources, and customer reviews for instance. The website can
be expanded with online buying payment, customers may buy the products they want directly from the
website instead of by online shopping websites.
5.3 Information Richness
The website has many information about the company, core competence as well as future vision, however,
information about the products and options for customers is quite limited. In addition, the website does not
contain as many as information around the brands and products like what customers expect, the interface is
quite simple and not attractive enough for viewers. The company should invest more into the interface of
website.
5.4 Costs of affiliation
In order to prepare for affiliation, the company has to budget for costs related to affiliate program platform,
creative inventory, product feed and affiliate landing pages, and affiliate program management. These
affiliation information will provide viewers of the website more detailed information about the company, the
affiliated sides, products, partnerships, etc.
5.5 Trust and Security (Payment)
All customer data should be controlled strictly. Besides, the company must be active on communicating and
providing customer service.
References
Q industries, 2019a. About us. [online] Available from: https://qindustries.com/about-us/the-company/
[ Accessed 24 August 2019]
Q industries, 2019b. Solutions. [online] Available from: https://qindustries.com/solutions/international/#
[Accessed 24 August 2019]
Q industries, 2019c. Quantum Pro. [online] Available from: https://qindustries.com/brand/quantum-pro-q-
industries-collection/ [Accessed 24 August 2019]
Q industries, 2019d. Clientele [online]. Available from: https://qindustries.com/clientele/hotels/ [Accessed
24 August 2019]
Viet Nam News, 2010. Local kitchenware exports get fired up. [online] Available from:
https://vietnamnews.vn/economy/business/203120/local-kitchenware-exports-get-fired-
up.html#CiarsqLO1MlSUlDh.97 [Accessed 25 August 2019]
Vietnam Sourcing Reports, 2010. Kitchenware. Available from:
http://www.chinasourcingreports.com/sites/default/files/DSRVKW.pdf [Accessed 26 August 2019]
Hubspot, 2019. The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2019. Available from:
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [Accessed 26 August 2019]
Asia-Plus, 2016. Survey about Vietnam EC Market and its consumer behavior. Available from:
http://www.asia-plus.net/pr/Vietnam-EC-Market-Survey.pdf [Accessed 25 August 2019]
Chu W, 2017. Vietnam’s Consumer Preference for “Affordable Luxuries. Economist’ Pick
of Hong Kong Trade Development Council.Available from: http://economists-pick-
research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/Research-Articles/Vietnam-s-Consumer-Preference-for-
Affordable-Luxuries/rp/en/1/1X000000/1X0A9WQM.htm [Accessed 26 August 2019]
Fissler, 2019. About us. Fissler.international. Available from:
http://www.fissler.international/company/about_us/the_brand.html [Accessed 26 August 2019]
Fissler, 2019. Vi sao chon Fissler. fissler.com.vn. Available from: http://fissler.com.vn/ve-fissler/vi-sao-
chon-fissler/ [Accessed 26 August 2019]
Fissler, 2019. Membership. fissler.com.vn. Available from: http://fissler.com.vn/membership/ [Accessed 26
August 2019]
VNA, 2018. Vietnamese consumers’ demand for online shopping. Vietnam Investment
Review. Available from: https://www.vir.com.vn/vietnamese-consumers-demand-for-
online-shopping-61787.html/ [Accessed 27 August 2019]
Sisson, 2018. Cookware Home Cook Kitchenware Misen Material-Kitchen. Curbed. Available from:
https://www.curbed.com/2018/3/22/17152398/cookware-home-cook-kitchenware-misen-material-kitchen
[Accessed 27 August 2019]