Corporate Project "fall 2023”

"Creating a footfall increase strategy for the Carrefour

Gujranwala “

Supervised By:
Corporate Supervisor: Miss Hira
Academic Supervisor: Dr.Umer Mukhtar
Submitted by:
"Maryam Ehsan, 22201240003"
"Sana Rafi , 22201240007”
"Iram Zaman, 22201240006”

GIFT BUSINESS SCHOOL

GIFT UNIVERSITY. GUJRANWALA

FINAL PROJECT

1
 GIFT BUSINESS SCHOOL
GIFT UNIVERSITY GUJRANWALA

Certificate of Project Submission

It is certified that MBA final project titled " creating a footfall increase strategy for the
Carrefour Gujranwala " has been prepared by students, "Maryam Ehsan 22201240003",
"Sana Rafiq , 22201240007", "Iram Zaman,22201240006", has been approved for
submission.

Project Academic Supervisor: Dr.Umar Mukhtar

Project Director:

2
 Acknowledgment

Our group has taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible

without the kind support and help of many individuals around us. We would like to

express our special thanks of gratitude to our university for giving us opportunity to explore

new knowledge and after that, our teacher’s specially Suleman Anwar, Dr.umar mukhtar and all

other teachers who gave us the opportunity to do this wonderful project on Carrefour. We are

thankful to all for aspiring guidance, constructive criticism, and friendly advice to us during our

project work. We would also like to acknowledge and express our deepest appreciation to Miss

Hira from Carrefour. And all her team for their hospitality in welcoming us as well as for

providing information about their company their opinions regarding to our project and to their

support in our group in completing the project furthermore, a special gratitude we give to each

one of us in our group, for all of our efforts, for our contribution in stimulating suggestions and

encouragement and for understanding and helping each other to accomplish the project last but

not the least. We are very thankful to our Heaven Almighty for giving us knowledge and

wisdom. We thankful for not letting us have a misunderstanding. We thank him for

strengthening us and for guiding us.

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 Dedication

We dedicate this project to the Carrefour Gujranwala we all thank full to the kindness and to the

warm welcome that they showed to us. We sincerely appreciate all the information that they

give to us for it is very significant to our project. We are thanking them for accepting our

project for their barangay. We are looking forward that our project can be a big help and can

create a big impact to their community. We dedicate this project to our teacher who give us the

opportunity explore the things and work on them without his help and guidance we would not

able to do this. We highly dedicate this project to each one of us in our group to give credits for

all of our efforts and contribution to make this project accomplish. Giving credits for all the

time and patience that we gave just to make the project be wonderful.

Group Members signatures

Sana Rafiq

Iram Zaman

Maryam Ehsan

4
 Executive summary

Carrefour is one of the leading giants in the retail industry of the world. This report is an account for

a successful journey of Carrefour form one store to numerous outlets in the world. Mainly focusing

on the Carrefour in Middle East, this report accounts for detailed analysis of the Carrefour

Operations in the region and their supply chain structure and strategy. Supply chain and structure

deals with their product selection, site selection and the use of technologies and offers to attract their

customers by striking a right balance between efficiency and responsiveness. Marketing strategy by

taking an account of 4 P's competitive strategy, logistics warehousing and procurement strategy also

give a detailed analysis of the operational side of the Carrefour structure. In order to implement these

strategies, they issue they are facing globally and locally are also brought under discussion following

by the roadmap of their future plans in the coming five years with a brief view of improvements that

are needed to be address.

5
Table of Contents

Pakistan retail marketing...............................................................................................................................

Market Size:................................................................................................................................................

Urbanization:...............................................................................................................................................

Consumer Preferences:...............................................................................................................................

E-commerce:................................................................................................................................................

Formalization:.............................................................................................................................................

Challenges:...................................................................................................................................................

Consumer Demographics:..........................................................................................................................

Payment Methods:......................................................................................................................................

Logistics and Delivery:...............................................................................................................................

Regulatory Environment:...........................................................................................................................

Competition:................................................................................................................................................

Localization:................................................................................................................................................

Sustainability:..............................................................................................................................................

Collaboration with Local Partners:..........................................................................................................

Data Privacy and Security:........................................................................................................................

How is Retailo supplementing the tech revolution?.....................................................................................

Problems in the retail sector in Pakistan......................................................................................................

6
 Retailers:......................................................................................................................................................

Wholesalers/Distributors:..........................................................................................................................

Manufacturers.............................................................................................................................................

How does Retail tackle these challenges?.....................................................................................................

Retailers:......................................................................................................................................................

Improved Order Cycle:..........................................................................................................................

Competitive Prices:.................................................................................................................................

Order Convenience:................................................................................................................................

Wider Product Range:............................................................................................................................

Wholesalers/distributors:...........................................................................................................................

Wider Customer Base.............................................................................................................................

Sales Convenience:..................................................................................................................................

Improved Communication:....................................................................................................................

Manufacturers:............................................................................................................................................

Distribution as a Service Model:...........................................................................................................

Tech Enabled Penetration:.....................................................................................................................

ABOUT GUJRANWALA...............................................................................................................................

HISTORY........................................................................................................................................................

MODERN........................................................................................................................................................

ECONOMY.....................................................................................................................................................

PEOPLE OF GUJRANWALA.......................................................................................................................

Traditional Values:......................................................................................................................................

Bargain-Oriented:.......................................................................................................................................
7
 Brand Consciousness:.................................................................................................................................

Social Influence:..........................................................................................................................................

Seasonal Shopping:.....................................................................................................................................

Online Shopping:........................................................................................................................................

Value for Money:.........................................................................................................................................

Cultural Influences:....................................................................................................................................

Economic Factors:......................................................................................................................................

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................

Carrefour in Pakistan.....................................................................................................................................

Carrefour Gujranwala....................................................................................................................................

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE........................................................................................................

Vision statement..............................................................................................................................................

Mission statement............................................................................................................................................

Logo..................................................................................................................................................................

Slogan...............................................................................................................................................................

Products...........................................................................................................................................................

Marketing mix:................................................................................................................................................

Importance of marketing mix........................................................................................................................

Retail marketing mix:.....................................................................................................................................

Marketing mix of Carrefour..........................................................................................................................

Product.........................................................................................................................................................

Different SKUs........................................................................................................................................

Price..............................................................................................................................................................
8
 Placement.....................................................................................................................................................

Company-operated stored (centralized)...................................................................................................

Promotion....................................................................................................................................................

People...........................................................................................................................................................

Prices............................................................................................................................................................

Physical Evidence.........................................................................................................................................

Swot analysis....................................................................................................................................................

STRENGTH................................................................................................................................................

WEAKNESS................................................................................................................................................

OPPORTUNITIES......................................................................................................................................

THREATS....................................................................................................................................................

Interview of Imtiaz super store......................................................................................................................

Introduction:....................................................................................................................................................

GM Introduction:............................................................................................................................................

Question and Answers:...................................................................................................................................

Marketing Department and Strategy:......................................................................................................

Store Location Selection:............................................................................................................................

Slogan:..........................................................................................................................................................

Product Range:............................................................................................................................................

Pricing Strategy:.........................................................................................................................................

Employee Training:.....................................................................................................................................

Departments:...............................................................................................................................................

Female Staff Training:................................................................................................................................

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 New Hiring:.................................................................................................................................................

Experience Labor Costs:............................................................................................................................

Promotions:..................................................................................................................................................

Discounts:.....................................................................................................................................................

Customer Perception:.................................................................................................................................

Competition.................................................................................................................................................

Customer Care:...........................................................................................................................................

Quality Maintenance:.................................................................................................................................

Adaptation to Local Market:.....................................................................................................................

Events and Promotions:..............................................................................................................................

Recommendations:..........................................................................................................................................

Event Planning:...........................................................................................................................................

Marketing and Promotion:........................................................................................................................

Timing..........................................................................................................................................................

Collaborations.............................................................................................................................................

Customer Engagement:..............................................................................................................................

Word of Mouth:...........................................................................................................................................

Follow-up Offers:........................................................................................................................................

Kid-Friendly Amenities:.............................................................................................................................

Family Discounts:........................................................................................................................................

Children's Menu:........................................................................................................................................

Kids' Entertainment:..................................................................................................................................

Themed Events:...........................................................................................................................................
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 Seasonal Events:..........................................................................................................................................

Collaborate with Schools:...........................................................................................................................

Feedback and Improvement:.....................................................................................................................

Interview of chase up retail stores.................................................................................................................

Store introduction:..........................................................................................................................................

Slogan: low price and good quality................................................................................................................

Products: chase up serve both food and non-food products.......................................................................

Interview Introduction:..................................................................................................................................

Introduction of Floor manager......................................................................................................................

Question and Answers of interview...............................................................................................................

Retail marketing in Pakistan:....................................................................................................................

Marketing department and strategy development:.................................................................................

Unique selling point of store (USP)...........................................................................................................

Process of starting in Gujranwala:............................................................................................................

Marketing strategy:....................................................................................................................................

Create awareness:.......................................................................................................................................

Location parking:........................................................................................................................................

Pricing strategy and quality.......................................................................................................................

Targeting Segment:.....................................................................................................................................

Increase footfall...........................................................................................................................................

Employee training.......................................................................................................................................

Location.......................................................................................................................................................

Promotional activities.................................................................................................................................
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 Enhance the quality of product..................................................................................................................

Product mix.................................................................................................................................................

Availability...................................................................................................................................................

Let’s customer try before buy....................................................................................................................

Focus on expertise.......................................................................................................................................

Improve presence in local community.......................................................................................................

Level up customer services:.......................................................................................................................

Host an event...............................................................................................................................................

Interview of meridian hotel and restaurant.................................................................................................

Restaurant introduction.................................................................................................................................

Interview introduction....................................................................................................................................

Introduction of General Manager.................................................................................................................

Interview of AL Fatah retail stores................................................................................................................

AL Fatah business introduction:.........................................................................................58_Toc145934619

(1) Name & Designation.................................................................................................................................

Name: Ghulam Yaseen Chishti......................................................................................................................

Designation: Store General Manager............................................................................................................

(2) Retail Marketing Experience...................................................................................................................

Having more then 7 years of experience.......................................................................................................

(3) Promotion Strategies.................................................................................................................................

(a) We use different marketing strategies for each new marketing campaign. Mainly............................

We use BTL (below the line marketing) marketing campaign. We use following tools to.......................

(b)Engage the customers and to enhance the awareness of products in-store:.........................................

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1. In-store free sampling.............................................................................................................................

2. In-store free tasting.................................................................................................................................

3. In-store free gifting.................................................................................................................................

4.In-store free testing/trial for Home Electronics & Toys & Games..........................................................

5.In-store Playing Games...............................................................................................................................

(b) We use leafleting or flyer distribution door-to-door as a tool of marketing to enhance

Marketing campaign.......................................................................................................................................

(c) We also use road steamer for our marketing and promotional campaigns..........................................

(d) We also target audience through social media by our official Facebook page and use......................

different channel of marketing through digital marketing campaigns......................................................

(4) How do you introduce Al-Fatah Store in Gujranwala?.........................................................................

Al-Fatah have a different positioning in the retail paradigm of Pakistan. Al Fatah have

different............................................................................................................................................................

Unique position and is a high-end retail. Al Fatah have a range of assortment which no one else

...........................................................................................................................................................................

In Pakistan can have means Al Fatah have its unique positioning w.r.t. assortment...............................

(5) What is your point of different as compared to other competitors?.....................................................

(6) What is your marketing tool?...................................................................................................................

(7) Why do people use or why do people prefer Al Fatah?.........................................................................

(8) Why do you relocate?................................................................................................................................

(9) What is your high profit generating products?......................................................................................

(10) Successful Campaign?.............................................................................................................................

(11) Qualification, experience........................................................................................................................

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Recommendations:..........................................................................................................................................

Cleanliness of products:..................................................................................................................................

Interview of AL - Amin retail stores..............................................................................................................

Store introduction:..........................................................................................................................................

Slogan: everything you get under one store..................................................................................................

Products: we serve both food and non-food products.................................................................................

Interview Introduction:..................................................................................................................................

Introduction of Floor manager......................................................................................................................

Cleanliness of products:..................................................................................................................................

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................

GM Introduction.............................................................................................................................................

Retail Marketing.........................................................................................................................................

Suggestions:.....................................................................................................................................................

Customer Engagement and Loyalty Programs:.......................................................................................

Online Presence:..........................................................................................................................................

Inventory Management:.............................................................................................................................

Visual Merchandising:................................................................................................................................

Price Optimization:.....................................................................................................................................

Product Diversification:.............................................................................................................................

Marketing Campaigns:...............................................................................................................................

Customer Feedback and Improvement:...................................................................................................

Local Partnerships:.....................................................................................................................................

Employee Training:.....................................................................................................................................
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 Community Engagement:..........................................................................................................................

Competitor Analysis:..................................................................................................................................

Data Analytics:............................................................................................................................................

Mobile Marketing:......................................................................................................................................

Sustainability and Green Initiatives:.........................................................................................................

Regular Store Renovations:.......................................................................................................................

Collaborative Promotions:.........................................................................................................................

Feedback Loop:...........................................................................................................................................

Importance of The Footfall Metric............................................................................................................

footfall is important in retail:.....................................................................................................................

Benefits of Service Blueprinting................................................................................................................

Knowledge gap......................................................................................................................................

Standards gap........................................................................................................................................

Communications gap............................................................................................................................

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Pakistan retail marketing

Pakistan's retail sector has experienced substantial transformations in recent years, primarily due to

the burgeoning middle class, shifting consumer preferences, and the surge of e-commerce. Some key

aspects of Pakistan's retail landscape are as follows:

Market Size: Pakistan's retail market is not only substantial but also on a growth trajectory. It is

estimated to be valued at around $150 billion, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of

approximately 6% from 2016 to 2021.

Urbanization: The rapid urbanization of Pakistan is fueling the demand for modern retail formats

such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, and shopping malls. By 2025, it has projected that urban

dwellers will make up 50% of the total population.

Consumer Preferences: Pakistani consumers are becoming increasingly brand-conscious and

seek high-quality products at competitive prices. The advent of e-commerce has empowered

consumers to compare prices easily and make informed purchasing decisions.

E-commerce: Pakistan's e-commerce sector is in a state of rapid expansion, driven by rising

internet penetration and smartphone adoption. Numerous local and international e-commerce

platforms have entered the market, including Daraz, Amazon, and Alibaba-owned Daraz.

Formalization: The retail landscape in Pakistan is undergoing formalization, with a notable shift

away from traditional, informal retail setups such as street vendors and small family-owned stores.

This shift is partly due to regulatory changes aimed at enhancing tax collection and consumer

protection.

Challenges: Despite its growth potential, Pakistan's retail environment faces several challenges.

These include the need for modern infrastructure, limited access to financing, security concerns, and

16
the prevalence of counterfeit goods. Additionally, the high cost of doing business presents a

significant obstacle.

Consumer Demographics: Pakistan has a predominantly young population, with a significant

portion under the age of 30. This youth demographic is tech-savvy and more inclined towards online

shopping, making it a crucial target for e-commerce businesses. Understanding the preferences and

behavior of this demographic is vital for retailers.

Payment Methods: Payment methods and digital financial services play a crucial role in the

growth of e-commerce. Mobile wallets and digital payment solutions are gaining popularity in

Pakistan, making it essential for retailers to offer secure and convenient online payment options.

Logistics and Delivery: Efficient logistics and delivery systems are vital for the success of e-

commerce. Improvements in logistics infrastructure, including last-mile delivery services, are

necessary to meet the growing demand for online shopping and ensure timely and reliable deliveries.

Regulatory Environment: As the retail sector formalizes, regulations governing e-commerce,

taxation, and consumer protection are evolving. Retailers need to stay compliant with these

regulations, which may vary across provinces or regions within Pakistan.

Competition: The retail landscape in Pakistan is becoming more competitive, with both local and

international players entering the market. Competition can drive innovation and benefit consumers

but also poses challenges for businesses seeking to establish their presence.

Localization: Successful retailers often tailor their products and marketing strategies to local

preferences and cultural norms. Understanding the diverse consumer preferences across different

regions of Pakistan can be a key to success.

Sustainability: As global awareness of environmental issues grows, consumers are increasingly

looking for sustainable and eco-friendly products. Retailers should consider incorporating

sustainable practices into their operations and product offerings to meet this demand.

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Collaboration with Local Partners: International retailers entering the Pakistani market may

benefit from collaborations with local partners who have a deep understanding of the market,

including sourcing and distribution networks.

Data Privacy and Security: With the growth of e-commerce comes an increased need for data

protection and cybersecurity. Retailers must prioritize the security and privacy of customer data to

build trust and ensure regulatory compliance.

In conclusion, Pakistan's retail environment is indeed evolving rapidly, driven by changing consumer

dynamics and technological advancements. To succeed in this market, retailers must adapt to these

changes, embrace digital transformation, and address the unique challenges and opportunities

presented by Pakistan's retail landscape. Pakistan's retail sector is evolving and expanding, offering

opportunities to both local and international retailers. The increasing formalization of the industry,

coupled with the rise of e-commerce, is expected to drive further transformations in the years ahead.

The retail sector in Pakistan has been amongst the fastest growing markets, contributing almost 20%

to the national GDP. It is the third largest sector of the country and the second highest employer,

employing 15% of the labor force. Pakistan has around 2 million retailers, of which 0.8 million

represent the FMCG modern trade and general trade channels, including kiryanas, general stores,

medical stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, etc. With the fifth highest population in the world at

220 Million, there is massive potential in the market due to ever-increasing consumerism. Sales in

the retail sector in Pakistan have nearly doubled in the last 10 years. This consistent growth makes

Pakistan an interesting prospect for international investors and brands, with Dutch giant Royal

Friesland Campina’s acquisition of Engro Foods in 2016 providing greater confidence for

stakeholders in this market.

Sales in the retail sector in Pakistan have nearly doubled in the last 10 years

Retail sales by category (PKR B)

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Young population presents a massive opportunity for growth

A major driver of growth in the retail sector in Pakistan is the country’s youth bulge. Pakistan has

one of the youngest populations in the world with an estimated 35% under the age of 15. With the

recent influx of technology and internet penetration, the economy is well positioned for growth.

However, Pakistan has one of the lowest penetration levels in South Asia with internet users standing

at 27.5% of the population, and total broadband subscribers at 46.4%. However, there is still great-

untapped potential within the existing base, and the increase in smartphone penetration has ensured

the economy keeps moving in a growth trajectory. Figures suggest that mobile phones

production during the first 2 months of 2021 stands at 1.2 million devices, compared to 2.1 million

and 119,639 smartphone devices produced in 2020 and 2019 respectively.

Tech dependency has become a business critical need

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The ongoing pandemic has accelerated the impending tech boom, and the need for digitization and

servitization of the economy has taken center stage, accelerating the paradigm shift towards a digital

economy. This transition has also had a great impact on Pakistan’s economy, which has experienced

a surge in tech startups, having raised over USD 65 M in funding during 2020, a sharp increase from

USD 47.5 M raised in 2019. The run rate has been on an upward trajectory in 2021, with over USD

34 M raised to date. The country has seen some very promising start-ups launch in the B2B space,

with Retail Technologies leading the pack with one of the highest pre-seed and seed rounds raised in

the MENAP region. Launched in peak pandemic lock-down times in early 2020, the company

continues to disrupt the B2B supply chain industry, serving over 30,000 retailers in Karachi and

Riyadh.

Despite the pandemic, startups in Pakistan have raised the most financing since 2015

Amount raised by Pakistani Startups (USD)

How is Retailo supplementing the tech revolution?

Retailo is an online B2B marketplace that aims to technologically supercharge retail supply chains in

the region. Retailo’s platform allows manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors to get access to a

wide range of retailers that are outside of their existing target markets. It aims to economically
20
empower the 10 Million SMEs operating in the retail sector across the MENAP region with

technology and real-time data to make complex supply chains ‘beautifully uncomplicated.’

Currently the B2B space in the country works through multiple channels. Retailers can access the

manufacturers through either a distributor or a wholesaler. Each of these players charge a

commission that leads to reduced margins for both the manufacturer and the retailer. We believe

there is an opportunity to replace these layers with a technological solution.

Problems in the retail sector in Pakistan

Retailers:

Retailers struggle with a lack of supply predictability, and slow (weekly) replenishment cycles

resulting in regular stock outs.

Unlike modern trade players, the general trade players face challenges in accessing competitive

prices, with product search also a major problem.

On average, a retailer spends 25 hours/week in procurement alone. 5 visits to the wholesale market,

spending 2-4 hours per visit and around 60 distributor interactions/week with approximately 10

minutes/interaction. This conventional structure results in higher effort and greater time spent in

procurement.

Working capital restrictions are a result of the above 3 factors. To mitigate stock outs, the retailers

invest more working capital into their stores. This also results in a skewed category mix, since

working capital limitations prevent the retailers from increasing product range.

Wholesalers/Distributors:

They have a limited customer base, restricted by geographical and logistical limitations.

The channels are characterized by information asymmetry, owing to lack of visibility of trade offers,

and challenged product discovery.

21
Their over-reliance on human capital results in an overall higher effort required to generate orders

Manufacturers

High sales management and engagement costs since retailer acquisition and order booking require

extensive investment in human capital

Logistics cost to serve individual retailers are high, and un optimized routing and inefficient vehicle

utilization increase the logistics overheads

Building supply chains across a spread geography requires a difficult skill set and talent

How does Retail tackle these challenges?

Retailers:

Improved Order Cycle: 24/7 on demand ordering channel leading to lower inventory costs, higher

working capital availability, and more predictability

Competitive Prices: Aggregation of demand for products enabling small retailers to get competitive

prices even without scale

Order Convenience: Mobile based solution leading to reduced time and effort in interacting with

distributors or travel to wholesalers. One stop shop for all retailers.

Wider Product Range: Ability to order higher assortment/volume of products due to better working

capital availability

Wholesalers/distributors:

Wider Customer Base: The mobile application enables marketing the products to a larger base of

customers, which is not restricted by geographic limitations

22
Sales Convenience: Significantly lower engagement cost, and reduced efforts to build retailer base

and sell the product

Improved Communication: Easy dissemination of information, greater transparency in sharing

trade offers with the market, and convenient product discovery for the user base

Manufacturers:

Distribution as a Service Model: Leading to lower sales management and logistics costs. Dynamic

routing places great emphasis on route optimization, which results in minimizing logistics costs.

Tech Enabled Penetration: Enabling a wider geographical spread, and un complicating access into

deeper pockets at much reduced costs

Retailo’s value proposition for retailers is superior to both distributors and wholesalers.

Retailo Wholesaler Distributor

Prices Competitive Competitive Competitive

8 x 6 (During working 6 x 6 (During working

24 x 7 – On demand
hours hours

On average 52% of orders

Order Window
are outside normal 10 AM – 6 PM for 6 (10 AM – 4 PM for 6

working hours (Post 5 working days) working days)

PM / Before 10 AM)

Daily 2-3 times per week (out 1-2 times per week (in-
Delivery Cycle
of store) store)
(in-store)

Procurement Low (One stop shop for High (Category specific Medium (high number of

Effort price and product wholesalers and limited interactions but delivered

23
 discovery) delivery to store options) in-store)

High (Cross cutting Medium (Restricted to

Low (Restricted to
SKU Range inventory and range wholesaler type –
distributor products –
(Availability) across the FMCG typically one type of
typically one company)
spectrum) product e.g., oil etc)

Retailo’s vision is to create a go-to-market channel that is faster, cost-effective, and more

engaging

On-demand ordering channel – Allows retailers to place orders 24/7 from anywhere at any time

using the mobile app without any human intervention.

Cost effective distribution channel – Low demand generation costs, because of a tech-enabled

ordering channel with minimum human intervention. Retailo’s distribution costs are lower because

of higher value deliveries to customers owing to portfolio aggregation.

Faster distribution channel – Retailo does next-day deliveries to customers for orders placed

before 12 AM. The weighted average turnaround time for orders placed on the platform is currently

less than 24 hours for 80% of the deliveries.

Engaging channel for new products/offerings – Easier for brands to deploy trades offers and deals

directly to customers because of transparency created through end-to-end digital ordering.

Becoming one of the highest funded startups in just 9 months, Retailo’s journey has however only

just started. There is great room for innovation, and many verticals and regions to explore. With

other tech players also investing heavily in developing the channel, the future looks very bright for

Pakistan’s B2B space.

ABOUT GUJRANWALA

Gujranwala is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is also known

as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. The city is Pakistan's 5th most-populous
24
metropolitan area, as well as 5th most populous city proper. Founded in the 18th century, Gujranwala

is a relatively modern town compared to the many nearby millennia-old cities of northern Punjab.

The city served as the capital of the Sukerchakia Misl state between 1763 and 1799, and is the

birthplace of the founder of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Gujranwala is now Pakistan's third largest industrial centre after Karachi and Faisalabad, and

contributes 5% of Pakistan's national GDP. The city is part of a network of large urban centres in

north-east Punjab province that forms one of Pakistan's mostly highly industrialized regions. Along

with the nearby cities of Sialkot and Gujrat, Gujranwala forms part of the so-called "Golden

Triangle" of industrial cities with export-oriented economies.

HISTORY

The exact origins of Gujranwala are unclear. Unlike the ancient nearby cities of Lahore, Sialkot, and

Eminabad, Gujranwala is a relatively modern city. It may have been established as a village in the

middle of the 16th century. Locals traditionally believe that Gujranwala's original name was

Khanpur Shansi, though recent scholarship suggests that the village was possibly Serai Gujran

instead - a village once located near what is now Gujranwala's Khiyali Gate that was mentioned by

several sources during the 18th century invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali

MODERN

The influx of Muslim refugees into Gujranwala drastically altered the city's form. By March 1948,

over 300,000 refugees had been resettled in Gujranwala District. Many refugees found post-Partition

Gujranwala lacking in opportunities, causing some to move south to Karachi. The refugee population

mostly settled in localities that were mostly non-Muslim, like Gobindgarh, Baghbanpura

and Nanakpura.

Suburban districts were rapidly laid, including Satellite Town in 1950, which was designed mostly to

house wealthy and upper-middle-class refugees. D-Colony was built in 1956 for poorer Kashmiri

refugees, and Model Town in the 1960s. The city experienced strong industrial growth during this

25
period. In 1947, there were only 39 registered factories - a number which rose to 225 by 1961. The

city's colonial-era metal-working industry continued to grow, while the city became a centre of

hosiery manufacturing that was run by refugees from Ludhiana. The city's jewellery-trade had been

run by Hindus but came under the control of refugees from Patiala.

Gujranwala's economy continued to grow into the 1970s and 1980s. New development continues,

such as the opening of a 5,774-foot long flyover that functions as an elevated urban expressway, as

well as the nearby Sialkot International Airport which serves the entire Golden Triangle region, and

is Pakistan's first privately owned commercial airport. Institutions of higher learning have also been

established in the city since independence. The Sialkot-Lahore Motorway, opened in 2020, passes

near Gujranwala.

ECONOMY

Gujranwala is the Pakistan's third largest centre of industrial production,

after Karachi and Faisalabad. Gujranwala, along with the nearby industrial cities

of Sialkot and Gujrat City, form what is sometimes referred to as the Golden Triangle in reference to

their relative prosperity and export-oriented industrial base. The city's industries employ up to

500,000 people, while the city's GDP makes up 5% of Pakistan's overall economy.

An estimated 6,500 small and medium enterprises, 25,000 cottage units, and some large factories,

are located in and around the city as of 2002 -and are engaged in the manufacture of a wide variety

of goods. The city is the centre for manufacture and export of sanitary fittings and wares in Pakistan,

with over 200 producers based in Gujranwala. More than 60 producers of auto parts are found in the

city. The city is well known as a centre for manufacturing electric fans - with 150 small and medium

enterprises in Gujranwala tied to the electric fan industry. The city is Pakistan's third largest centre

for iron and steel manufacturing - reflecting Gujranwala's historic association with metalworking

since the migration of the Lohar clan of blacksmiths to the city during the colonial era. The city has

been a centre of hosiery-manfuacture since the migration of refugees primarily from Ludhiana in

1947.

26
Textiles, apparel, yarn, and other textile goods are also produced in Gujranwala. Other

manufacturing based in the city include rice, plastic, cutlery, coolers and heaters, agricultural tools

and equipment, carpets, glass goods, surgical equipment, leather products, and machinery for

military uses, domestic appliances, motorcycles, and food products. The rural regions surrounding

Gujranwala are heavily engaged in the production of wheat and are yield more wheat per acre than

the national average. Gujranwala District is also the most productive region for rice-growing in

Punjab.

In 2010, Gujranwala was rated number 6 out of Pakistan's top 13 cities in order of ease of doing

business by the World Bank, and was ranked the second-best in Pakistan for construction

permits. Pakistan's electric shortages of the 2010s severely stymied the city's growth. Industrial units

in the city suffered an average of 2872 hours per year in Gujranwala in 2012. By the end of 2017, the

supply of electricity had drastically improved with augmented electric generation as a result of new

power-stations coming online. Improved supplies of electricity contributed to the country's double-

digit rise in exports in the second half of 2017.

PEOPLE OF GUJRANWALA

Psychology and consumer behavior can vary among individuals and communities, so it's important

to remember that not all people in Gujranwala, Pakistan, will share the same attitudes and behaviors

when it comes to retail shopping. However, I can provide some general insights into factors that

might influence the psychology of retail shopping in this region:

Traditional Values: Gujranwala, like many other parts of Pakistan, has a strong emphasis on

traditional values and family ties. Many people may shop with their families or consider the opinions

of their family members when making purchasing decisions.

Bargain-Oriented: Bargaining is a common practice in Pakistan, and Gujranwala is no exception.

People may enjoy the process of negotiating prices with shopkeepers, and getting a good deal is

often a source of pride.

27
Brand Consciousness: While some individuals in Gujranwala may prioritize brand names and

luxury items, others may be more focused on practicality and value for money. It's essential to

recognize that there's a diverse range of consumers in the city.

Social Influence: Social networks and recommendations from friends and family can play a

significant role in shopping decisions. Word-of-mouth and personal experiences can heavily

influence where people choose to shop.

Seasonal Shopping: Like many places, Gujranwala residents may engage in seasonal shopping,

especially around religious holidays like Eid. This can lead to increased spending during specific

times of the year.

Online Shopping: With the growth of e-commerce in Pakistan, including Gujranwala, more

people may be turning to online shopping for convenience and a wider range of options. However,

some may still prefer the tactile experience of traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Value for Money: Given the diversity of income levels in Gujranwala, people may have varying

priorities when it comes to shopping. Some may prioritize getting the best value for their money,

while others may be more focused on luxury and prestige.

Cultural Influences: Cultural factors, including local customs, traditions, and religious beliefs,

can influence shopping choices and behavior. For example, modesty and appropriateness in clothing

may play a role in fashion shopping.

Economic Factors: Economic conditions and personal financial situations also influence shopping

behavior. Economic fluctuations, inflation, and job opportunities can impact how much individuals

are willing to spend.

It's important to remember that these are general trends and that individual shopping behavior can

vary widely based on personal preferences, socioeconomic status, and other individual factors. To

gain a more accurate understanding of the psychology of retail shopping in Gujranwala, conducting

specific market research or surveys within the region would be necessary.

28
Introduction

Retail is defined as the sale of goods, products or you can say services from some business to a

customer for one’s personal use. A retail transaction purpose to handles small quantities of products

while on the other hand wholesaler tend to deal with the purchase of goods on a large sector. Retail

transactions are different from the online transactions; goods must be sold from a sole point directly

to a customer for end users. A retailer is a person from which one buy goods. Retailers typically do

not produce their own items or goods. They buy items from a manufacturer, producer or a wholesaler

and sell these items to the consumers in relative small quantities. Retailing is known as distribution

process of a retailer, obtaining goods or services and then selling them to customers for use. This

process is well explained through the supply chain. The very first Carrefour shop (not a

hypermarket) was introduced in 1960, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads. The group was formed

by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey in 1958, who attended many seminars and

because of these seminars in the United States led by "the Pope of retail" Bernardo Trujillo.

Carrefour group was the first one in Europe to open a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a

departmental store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket in Sainte- Geneviève-

des-Bois, near Paris in France on 15 June 1963. Carrefour launched a private label Products libres

(free products – libre meaning free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) in April 1976, line of

fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits (crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded

white packages at notably lower prices. It merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its

major competitors in the French market in 1999. Carrefour updated its logo in September 2009. In

May 2011, Carrefour assessed its situation under conditions of stagnant growth and increasing

competition in France from their rivals including Casino Guichard Perrachon SA, and then planned

to invest $2.1 billion to change the supermarket with the new concept of Carrefour Planet. In April

2015, Brazilian businessperson Abílio Diniz disclosed that he was in talk to raise his 5.07percent

stake in Carrefour and also had the support of shareholders to take a board seat. The Board of

Directors chose Alexandre Bompard on 9th June,2017 as the new Chairman and Chief Executive

Officer of Carrefour with effect as of 18 July 2017. In 2017, Carrefour was working with a small

29
French start-up, Expliceat, on a trial basis. Expliceat built a commercial mills which is map to crumb

down leftover bread. It rent mill for commercial bakeries and then uses these crumbs to bake

cookies, pastry and pancakes. Alexandre Bombard announced a strategic plan for the company in

2018,january entitled "Carrefour 2022" that intends to make Carrefour the "leader of the food

transition for all". The plan includes measures for better food and package sustainability, limitation

of food waste, development of organic products, e-commerce partnerships, two billion euros in

annual investments from 2018 as well as organizational and cost reduction measures.

Carrefour in Pakistan

Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the

Middle East, Africa and Asia, has announced to rebrand “Hyperstar” to “Carrefour” across Pakistan

effective 20 December 2018. Majid Al Futtaim holds rights to operate Carrefour in 38 countries

across the Middle East along with Africa and Asia. Today it has a portfolio of more than 257

hypermarkets and supermarkets in several countries. From 2009 Majid Al Futtaim had presence in

Pakistan through the Hyperactive star brand which encourage introducing modern retail to the

country. Hyper star grew from one store to six hypermarkets and then expanded to three major cities

in Pakistan which includes Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The rebranding to carrefour will boost

modren retail further in pakistan and provide customer with the retailers exceptional shopping

experience along with customer service offering. The rebranding to Carrefour is an important

milestone for Majid Al Futtaim in Pakistan that comes with major development plans in the country.

As part of the rebranding, Majid Al Futtaim will also launch a loyalty program for Carrefour, along

with a mobile application for the first time in Pakistan. To reduce the environmental impact,

Carrefour continues to use bio- degradable, reusable bags.the store offer a wide selection of food and

non-food products at low price, Moreover, free Wi-Fi and power banks are available across the stores

for customers. Carrefour start its first store in Lahore, Pakistan in a joint venture with MAF in 2009

under the name of Hyperstar, and a second one in Karachi in 2011. Hyperstar has 7 stores in total

that is 3 in Lahore, 2 in Karachi and 1 in Islamabad. In 2019, Carrefour opened in Faisalabad.

30
Carrefour Gujranwala

Carrefour inaugurated its tenth Pakistan store at Gujranwala with an investment of PKR 1 billion.

The investment from Carrefour’s owner and operator, Majid Al Futtaim, will provide economic

support to 170 households Carrefour, owned and operated by UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim in

Pakistan, has added further PKR 1 billion rupees to its current investment of PKR 9.5 billion in the

country with the inauguration of a new hypermarket in Gujranwala. And Carrefour Gujranwala

opened in January10, 2022.

Carrefour interview

Interviewee: Miss Hira

Designation: customer care

Interview questions and answer, s:

01: What is the pricing strategy for your products/services?

Our Pricing strategy for product and services is set by head office we cannot set it or change these

strategies depends on heads office.

2: What promotional activities have done till now?

Promotional activities are also decided by head office we follow we cannot do at our own decision is

centralizes we have done promotion like activities, call influencers when we open open the store

distribute pamphlets, advertise on billboards.

3: How do you decide on the product assortment and variety in your store?

Product assortment is also set by head office we follow the instructions of head office.

4: Tell about distribution channels that You us to utilize to make your products

Available to customers?

We are not allowed to share our distribution channels it is confidential.

5: How do you differentiate your store from competitors in terms of branding?

And positioning?

Our USP is our Services. We provide the best services and satisfied customer.

31
6: do you use digital marketing and social media into your overall marketing

Strategy?

We use social media marketing but this is also set by the head office they do or tell us and we work

and do marketing according to that.

7: What is your positioning strategy?

Our promotional strategy is also designed by head office we use billboards, pamphlets for

promotion. We can do promotional activities like sale etc. but not on overall stock only one products

which are not selling out.

8: In how many days your resolve any customer issue?

We solve in short time with in 24hours.

9: What is layout pattern of your store?

10:You’r parking area measurements?

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The structure of Carrefour is hierarchical with a more functional managerial organizational

structure. The top of the hierarchy in Carrefour’s organization comprises of presidents of

management board and supervisory board. Under them are Directors of organization, systems,

Merchandize and Marketing. Also, there is a director for every specific zone in which Carrefour is

located.

This kind of structure proved to be very efficient for Carrefour. It authorizes to important functions

the abilities to take care of pivotal business dealings of each division. It helps in comparing the

performance of each division with the performance of other divisions. In addition to this, it also

32
helps in coordination among the functions of each division, reducing the chances of confusion and

of overlapping responsibilities.

Vision statement

Carrefour vision is to become most preferable store among the consumers, suppliers, employees and

shareholders.

Mission statement

Carrefour totally focused on the meeting expectation of customer. Our mission is to ensure that we

fulfill the customer need through providing them quality services, products and food accessible to all

across all distribution channels. And set a benchmark in modern retailing in each of our markets. As

a global retailer, Carrefour is committed to enabling as many people as possible to purchase

consumer goods, in accordance with the principles of fair trade and sustainable development. Our

mission is to offer the largest number of customers the widest range of quality products at the best

possible price

Logo

33
“Nobody does better than the first",

Hierarchy chart of Carrefour Gujranwala

CEO

General Manager

Section Manager ,s
34
 Supervisors

Department -1 Department 2 Department 3 Department 4

Staff member,s

Merchandiser,s

Stocker,s

Marketing mix

The marketing mix is an important set of marketing tools and characteristics that a firm uses to

increase penetration in the target market groups. Using the marketing mix strategically includes

focusing on seven important aspects of marketing and branding for an organization, namely: product,

place, price, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.

Importance of marketing mix

35
The marketing mix helps a company choose and decide on a suitable marketing strategy. The

marketing mix also helps a company in resource and budget allocation to different aspects of the

marketing strategy and product development. The marketing mix also allows a company to choose

the right and effective marketing tactics for its promotional needs.

Retail marketing mix:

Retail marketing mix refers to the variables that a retailer can use in variable methods to arrive at an

effective marketing strategy to attract his prospects. The variables are the varieties of merchandise

and assortment along with the services that are offered, including advertising pricing layout and

promotion and also store location design and visual merchandising. Retailers of an employ a variety

of combinations to promote their business and to ensure proper reach to their prospective customers.

The use of multiple methods depending on their objectives to promote themselves and create

a market profile. The choice of methods of promotion varies and is dependent on the nature of the

business, the goods that are kept in the retail store, and other such multiple factors. The credibility,

control, and flexibility along with the cost that is associated with the retail promotion methods

determine the choice of method of promotion.

Marketing mix of Carrefour

This analysis of the marketing mix of Carrefour (7ps of Carrefour) sheds light on how the company

has developed several techniques and strategies to communicate with its target audience. Carrefour

makes use of the marketing mix strategically to achieve not only the marketing objectives but also

the broader organizational objectives.

36
Product

Carrefour sells food and non-food items including mobile phones, electronics, beauty, and many

more. It has many own branded products, which enable it to it to cut the cost. Carrefour’s product

mix includes a variety of goods, which include “groceries, manufactured foods, soft drinks, apparel,

kitchenware, bakery products, restaurant food, plastic goods, home appliances, Thus, Carrefour’s

product strategy focuses on differentiation in order to meet the needs of the Pakistan’s population

37
The company has also adapted its products to the Islamic culture in order to meet the needs of the

Pakistani population. The company also changes its product mix according to the seasons and

religious holidays in the Pakistan.

Product is one of the most important components of the Carrefour Marketing mix. The distinctive

characteristics of the product by Carrefour are:

 Carrefour maintains the high quality of products

 Carrefour procures raw materials from trusted suppliers only

 The raw materials are processed under carefully maintained environments to maintain high

and consistent quality of the products

 The products manufactured and sold by Carrefour are relatively easy to use

 Also, retail representatives provide detailed instructions and explanations regarding the use

of the product at the time of the sale

Different SKUs

 The products by Carrefour are available in different sizes

 Carrefour has made use of different SKUs to increase market penetration

 Different SKUs can be brought and used as per the consumption needs of the consumers,

and the target markets

Price

Carrefour generally maintains a low price for many of the products, which are sold at its stores. It

focuses on selling large quantities at lower prices in order to gain long-term profits. Carrefour

generally follows ‘low prices every day’ policy, but frequently switches between a mixes of

policies. Carrefour usually keeps a low price for the sensitive products i.e. the products, which are

highly price elastic, non-sensitive products are reasonably priced and imported products, are priced

very high. While the major portion of the revenue comes from. The sale of Carrefour’s own brand
38
products, which are priced as per the demand. This gives awareness about the pricing strategy in the

marketing mix of Carrefour.

The marketing mix Carrefour uses a combination of a number of techniques for pricing its products,

which are detailed below:

 The current pricing strategy to set the price level that follows is a competitive based pricing

strategy. This is because the data on competitors is easily available due to a large number of

competitors that exists within the industry.

 It also takes costs into consideration to set prices for a few products for which either

information is not available on competitors, or are costlier to make,

 Sells its products at a higher price than competitors. This is because it offers more features,

and the high price makes up for these.

 It currently uses product bundle pricing as well, where products are bundled together and

sold at prices lower than the total of individual items.

 It also uses an optional product pricing strategy products, where it offers a price for the base

product and separate prices for the accessories that come along with it.

 It charges a greater price for the products it sells online. This is because delivery costs have

been included in the price of the product.

Placement

Carrefour places high importance on the placement of its products because it directly relates to

accessibility for consumers.

 Carrefour has9 store in Pakistan 2 in Karachi 3 in Lahore 1 in Islamabad and 1 in Faisalabad

and one in Gujranwala.

39
  Sells its products through two marketing channels. The first is where it sells directly to its

customer through its online website. The second is where it sells to wholesalers who then

sell to different retailers located all over the Gujranwala. These then sell to its customers.

 Has a substantial amount of online sales with frequent traffic on its websites? In order to run

its online operations, has collaborated with numerous delivery service providers in order to

provide timely deliveries.

 It follows an Omni-channel distribution system where it has integrated its online and offline

stores to allow customers easy access to its products.

 Has a network of over 500 suppliers that provide it with the raw materials needed for

production? It has developed a close working relationship with its suppliers allowing the

company to work with them to innovate and introduce new and attractive features on its

products.

Company-operated stored (centralized)

 The company maintains stores operated by the management of Carrefour in all markets

 Company head office have higher control over operations as well as store layout and design

 Carrefour also interacts directly with the consumers and gathers important details regarding

consumer behavior and consumer feedback through company-operated stores

 The Carrefour Gujranwala is centralized in terms of decisions regarding the stocking of

different product items.

Promotion

 It uses traditional media, which includes an advertisement on television and radio.

 It advertises on various social media platforms with a focus on, Facebook and due to the

high monthly usage of this. It has over one hundred thousand likes or customer following on

these pages, which are exposed to frequent content uploaded by.

40
  Undergoes various sales promotion taking part in various trade exhibitions and events

around the year.

 Undergoes personal selling, with a large sales force to increase its presence in retail stores.

 Uses a percentage of sales method to determine the promotions budget for the year.

 Carrefour uses simple packaging on most of its products.

 Carrefour, as a part of its Relationship Management Strategy launched “My CLUB” loyalty

card for its retail customers to achieve their loyalty and ensure customer retention. This

card enables customers to earn points on every purchase, which can be redeemed in place

of cash on their next visit.

People

Carrefour puts in a lot of effort and funds to train its existing employees not only to provide

excellent services to the customers but also to pass on their expertise and ultimately raise the

service standards. In addition to salaries, employees are offered various other facilities like-

medical benefits, supplementary pension scheme Carrefour offers a lot of options for the employees

to enhance their skills and climb the ranks, like- individual training paths and annual interviews.in

Gujranwala they hire new people also and untrained also to enhance the store capabilities with

fresh and new mind.

 People working under its sales team that play a vital role in its marketing efforts. These

people have been trained in persuasive techniques, but also to show respect to the business

customers taking into consideration their preferences.

 People working in its customer service department. Customers in case of any issues within

the product contact these, and these people guide customers through the process of getting

the issues resolved. These people are trained to respect the customers and try their best to get

their issues resolved.

41
  Has people working with suppliers to obtain raw materials. These people play a vital role in

maintaining or improving the quality of the final product produced.

 Has people working at retail stores who help the customer on site, by answering any

questions or helping them decide the product that best suits their needs.

Prices

 To make sure that its products are always available at retail stores has systems installed

where retailers can notify when their inventory levels are low. Provides them with more

products while ordering its productions to replenish its stock. This ensures that products are

always available to customers when needed.

 Carrefour makes sure that all employees undergo regular training sessions for skill

development and enhancement

 Trainings at Carrefour are not the only field related, but also focus on essential management

and organizational skills

 Training sessions and activities at Carrefour also identify with the employee's own needs of

progression, development and growth.

 Has an online delivery process, where orders are received in the computer system and based

on these orders, the relevant product from the inventory is shipped to the delivery service

provider.

 Is actively involved in researching market opportunities in order to understand customer

needs.

42
Physical Evidence

Carrefour constantly tries to update itself as per the preferences of its customers. It adapts itself to

the market of Pakistan Gujranwala in both (urban and rural), this is not restricted to the products

only, and this extends to giving and additional services.

 Sells its products in a distinct color packaging that easily identifiable on retail shelves. These

are placed on special shelves provided by the company, which also have a distinct color and

design. This makes it easier for customers to locate such shelves in busy retail stores.

 Has an online website that is user-friendly and allows customers to view its products in high

quality images taken from various angles.

Swot analysis

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a method for identifying and

analyzing internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats that shape current and

future operations and help develop strategic goals.

43
Swot analysis in retail business

The retail industry comes in various forms ranging from digital storefronts, tower squares, and

coffee machines to departmental stores. It plays a significant role in the growth of a country’s

economy. A healthy economy would suggest high production and consumption, and it happens due

to the concentration of retailing.

Retailing comprises all the activities of the company dealing with the sale of products and

services directly to the end consumer and they buy it for their personal and family use. The retailer

could be institutional and retail and they both have to carry out a great number of small transactions.

Swot analysis of Carrefour

STRENGTH

The first step in SWOT analysis for retail entitles identifying certain strengths. CARREFOUR has

the basic strength of low prices with high quality, serving the customers with a wide range of

products, covering all business solutions under one roof named as CARREFOUR and having the

strong reputation all over the world. There is Cafeteria in the building for the refreshment of

customers.

One possible strength may include retailer's financial backing, meaning it has plenty of capital and

access to bank loans. Strength may be the retailer's cheaper wholesale prices. Moreover, the retail

company may offer unique products compared to other retailers. For example, a clothing store may

sell high quality but slightly defective clothing at a low rate. Whatever the case, a retailer should

make a list comprising of all its strengths vs. key competitors.

1. Carrefour has a wide Market Presence and a strong brand name

2. Carrefour is one of the world’s largest retailers of groceries and consumer goods.

3. Owns popular private-label brands which are popular

44
4. High Quality maintenance and good customer service offered

5. More than 50,000people are employed with Carrefour

6. The business operations are carried out very effectively

WEAKNESS

When reporting weaknesses, the Carrefour retail store or company should start with its

weaknesses. Carrefour may have discovered it has a weak brand image versus key competitors.

The Carrefour may also lack an identity. For instance, the store may sell cheap as well as

expensive brands. Carrefour should list all weaknesses, and then make improvements as needed.

In Gujranwala, the threat foe Carrefour is the local retail stores they are taking more place in

customer mind. Which is a biggest threat for Carrefour

 Reduce operating expenses.

 Weak position in domestic level customer in Pakistan.

 Labor relations.

 Taking too much time in establishing new stores.

 Not been able to attract middle class customers.

 Poor E-commerce performance.

OPPORTUNITIES

Another step in a retail SWOT analysis is to identify key opportunities in the market. Online

shopping is much better option for time saving and contracting with major hotels and restaurants.

There are infinite opportunities that a retailer may discover through both its sales force and market

research. Opportunities can include an unfilled consumer need, according to an online business

reference site. For instance, a small web design company may see an opportunity to add consulting
45
services, if it has customers that need it or a retail company may have the opportunity to purchase a

smaller retailer in order to increase market share.

 Joint ventures and acquisition for more expansion

 Discount in store to development customer.

 Improve sale performance

 Reduce operating cost

 Research and development required in marketing area for understanding the dynamics of

different segment.

 Maintain better labor relations.

 Focus on growth through strategic tie-ups and innovative marketing

 The fast growing ecommerce & online shopping sector is a big area of opportunity for Carrefour

THREATS

A retailer can identify certain threats through a SWOT analysis. Threats can include a decrease in

consumer demand, a recession, price wars among key competitors, or even an increase in

competition. Even a change in shopping habits can be a major threat to a retailer.

 Rising competition from other discount stores in Gujranwala.

 Rising Labor costs and Economic slowdown to increase costs

 Strict government policies and taxation can affect business of Carrefour

 Threat from Imtiaz and Metro, who are bigger player than Carrefour.

 Rising competition from other discount stores in France and abroad.

 Rising Labor costs and Economic slowdown to increase costs.

 Strict government policies and taxation can affect global business of Carrefour

46
Target market and segmentation

Target marketing segmentation is where you divide your potential customers into segments.

You will then focus on a few segments (or groups of people) that align most with your

product or services.

Target and segmentation in retail industries

Identifying a target market for a retail store helps establish successful marketing

communication strategies for your business. A target market/target audience is a group of

people that have common needs or characteristics that your firm aims to represent.

Carrefour segmentation targeting and positioning (STP)

Price sensitive and middle class working population who wish to

Segmentation
obtain maximum value at affordable prices

Middle and low income households

Targeting

47
 Carrefour is known for offering the best quality products at the
Positioning
lowest possible prices

Research Method

Thematic Research

Qualitative Data Collection Method:

1- Interviews of Academic Marketing Experts

2- Retal Outlets Marketing Managers and General Store Managers
3- Ghost Customer

Quantitative Data Collection Method:

2 types of Questionnaires

1- Customer Perception Survey

2- Service Quality Survey

48
Interpretation of Data Collection

Customer Perception survey

Respondents Demographics

Parameters

1- Price
2- Service Quality
3- Location
4- Ambience
5- Cleanliness
6- Convenience to reach.
7- Easiness to locate Products
8-

49
Perceptual Map Model:
Perceptual mapping is the visual representation of consumer perceptions of brands,
products, services, and organizations. Indeed, perceptual mapping asks consumers to
place competing products relative to one another on a graph to assess how they perform
with respect to each other in terms of perception.

We use perception mapping to access the carrefour perception in the consumer mind as
compared to the other competitor in the Gujranwala city. It helps to identify the gaps in the
marketing strategy and help to improve company marketing strategy towards main

objective and goals. perceptual maps are an excellent tool for communicating
and analyzing positioning.

We collect date about customer perception. We visited 5 main stores in of

the Gujranwala and asked 5 customers review from 5 different retail stores
in the Gujranwala.

Retail Stores in Gujranwala:

1- Imtiaz Super Store

2- Carrefour
50
 3- Rainbow
4- Chase up Super Store
5- Al-Fateh

Carrefour and Al-Fateh are the international brands but the remaining
three Imtaiz, Chase up and Rainbow are the local brands.

Questionnaire (Appendix )

1- Comparison of Product Price and Product Choice

2- Comparison of Price and Service quality
3- Location & Easiness to reach
4- Staff Behavior & Store Convenience

51
 1- Comparison of Product Price and Product Choice
Wide
Retail Stores Choice

Al-Fateh , [Y VALUE]

ChaseUp , Rainbow
[Y VALUE], [Y VALUE] Imtiaz , [Y VALUE]

Price
Prod-
High
uct
Prod-
Price
Low
uct

Carrefour , [Y VALUE]

Limited
Choice

Data is collected by using a questionnaire from the visitor of these retail stores from different area of
Gujranwala for comparing two variables:

1- Product prices
2- Product Choices available
In Gujranwala, 5 big retail stores are working.

Result shows that Imtiaz, Carrefour and Chase Up have low and competitive same prices but Imtaiz
super store is offering wide choices to the customers. Produce choices is less at the CARREFOUR.

52
 2 - Comparison of Cleanliness and Ambience
s
s
e
n
i
l
n
a
e Gujranwala Retail Stores Good Clean-
l liness
C

d
o
o
G

Al-Fateh ,3[Y VALUE]

Ambi
Ambi
ence
ence
Good
Good
Ambi
Poor

ence
-

ChaseUp ,3[YRainbow
VALUE] ,3[Y VALUE] Imtiaz , [Y
3 VALUE]

-
-
Carrefour ,3[Y VALUE]

Poor Cleanliness

Data is collected by using a questionnaire from the visitor of these retail stores from different area of
Gujranwala for comparing two variables:

1- Store Ambience
2- Store Cleanliness
In Gujranwala, 5 big retail stores are working.

Result shows that Imtaiz has good ambience and good cleanliness as compared to the Carrefour. And
Customer perception about the Service ambience and Store cleanliness other stores comparatively
better that Carrefour.

3- Comparison of Service Quality and Product Assortment

53
 Gujranwala Retail Stores
Good PA

Imtiaz 3

ChaseUp 3

Good
SQ
Poor SQ

Rainbow Al-Fateh
3 3

Carrefour 3

Poor PA

Data is collected by using a questionnaire from the visitor of these retail stores from different area of
Gujranwala for comparing two variables:

1- Service Quality
2- Product Assortment
In Gujranwala, 5 big retail stores are working.

Result shows that Imtaiz is providing good service and good product assortment as
compared to the Carrefour. And Customer perception of all other store is low as compared
to the Imtiaz.

4 – Comparison of Store Location & Easiness to reach:

54
 Gujranwala Retail Stores Easy
Easy

ChaseUp 3

Rainbow 3 Imtiaz 3

Al-Fateh 3

Good
Good
Loca-
Loca-
tion
tion
Loca-
Loca-
Poor
Poor

tion
tion

Carrefour 3

Difficult

Data is collected by using a questionnaire from the visitor of these retail stores from different area of
Gujranwala for comparing two variables:

1- Store Ambience
2- Store Cleanliness
In Gujranwala, 5 big retail stores are working.

Result shows that Imtaiz has good ambience and good cleanliness as compared to the Carrefour. And
Customer perception about the Service ambience and Store cleanliness other stores comparatively
better that Carrefour

Strategic Group Map:

55
 Chart Title
High
Imtiaz - Low price

- highvariety

- high sales

Chaseup
fairprices
Product goodVari-
ety
variety

Carrefour
fair price
low vari-
ety

Low

Product Price High

Low

It helps to analyze the competitive landscape and positions of products.

It helps make informed decisions to improve competitive strategy.
It helps communicate strategic direction & align all stakeholders.

Result shows that Imtiaz and Chase up are two big competitors of the Carrefour
in the Gujranwala. Prices are competitively same, but the choices and ambience
of the Carrefour is far less than other retail stores are operating in the
Gujranwala.

Servqual Model:

56
Services are intangible, heterogeneous, and inseparable. In the service industry it is always
very crucial for the company to measure the services so that they can evaluate the service
standards to increase customer satisfaction and find the areas where they lack. From many
years different instruments have been developed for measuring services quality. Among
these models, SERVQUAL(Parasuramanetal.,1985) model is the most prominent and most
used model for measuring service quality.

Five key areas

It has five key areas where we measure the service quality of the organization.

Tangible

Reliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

Perception and Expectation

Through questionnaires we collect both data of perception and expectation. Perception is

about customer experience and their decision and thinking after the visit of retail store.
Expectation score shows the data what they want what it should be.

57
Gap:

The gap is Expectation- Perception score. From the gaps we can analyze the lacks in the

service quality of the organization. gaps emerge when there is a discrepancy

between the needs or wants of the consumer and the services the
organization provides.

Types of Gaps in the Serqual model:

The serqual model measure five gaps that can occur between customer’s
expectations and the services provided by the organization.
These are as follow

58
 Knowledge gap

A gap in the service arises if the organization is not aware of what customer wants. If the
organization fails to understand customers' expectations, it will prevent them from serving
customers better.

Standards gap
The organization has already formulated its ideas about what kind of services the customer
wants. These ideas do not match up with what customers really want. There is, therefore, a
high chance that the organization will translate them incorrectly into a quality policy and set
of rules.

Delivery gap
Let's assume that the organization has clearly understood what the customer wants (no
knowledge gap) and has appropriately formulated the customer's needs into their policies
and work processes (no standard gap). Still, there is a possibility that the organization
might fail to deliver the service in the planned way. This will be the delivery gap.

Communications gap
To avoid creating false expectations or misleading promises, organizations should ensure
that their external communications accurately reflect what they can deliver. Over-promises
and under-delivery could raise customer expectations high, and the organization fails to
deliver at that standard. This will be the communication gap.
To reduce the risk of communication gaps, organizations should ensure that they
communicate clearly about their products or services.

Satisfaction gap
Customers are unhappy because they expect a certain level of service but get something
different. Eventually, customers will be dissatisfied with the product or service they receive

Gap Diagram:

59
Applied on Carrefour:

We applied this serqual model on the Carrefour for measuring the service quality of the
organization. We use 22 questions-based instruments for collecting data ( appendix )

Data we have collected showing the following result about the service quality of the
carrefour

Service Blueprint:
Issues and pain points we find out while using the Service Blueprint model.

60
 3 5 6
1 4

1- Issues related to ambience.

2- Welcoming staff

3- Absence of Guiding Map of Category of

4- Cleanliness issues /Untidy Racks

5- Less Variety of products

61
 6- Billing issues

Poor Ambience

The shopping experience of the customer is the most important factor for the success of
any type of retail store. It must be innovative and different to compete with rivals Shopping
experience depend on the three things:

1. Merchandise

2. Customer support

3. Store Ambience

In the era of globalization, competition among businesses is increasing day by day. People
like to shop in a good atmosphere, which in retail is the store ambience. The store ambience
is an environment that is created by visual communications, lighting, music, colors to
generate a stimulus among the customer’s perceptions & emotions that will affect their
purchasing behavior. Now a days stores have been a hotspot for youth entertainment. The
youth like to visit, mostly impressed by the ambience of retail shops. It is one of the
important factors for increasing footfall in the retail shops. Comfortable feeling in the
ambience makes easier the shopping regardless of heavy burden of prices. Carrefour
Gujranwala ambience is not up to the standard as compared to the competitors in the
Gujranwala. Ambience gives a bored feeling. A poor ambience will have a negative effect
on the presentation of the customers.

Absence of Guiding Map:

A visual display at the entrance of the stores improves the customer’s ease to locate the
products that he or she wants. Without any guiding category board, customers find it
fatiguing to find products. It has been observed that there is no guiding category map at the
front of Carrefour store. No guiding staff or frontline staff to greet the customers.

62
Greeting Staff:
A small greeting between customer and sales staff is a great way to break the ice and gives the shopper the
caring gesture to the customers. It helps to build a connection between the customer and salesperson. Rude and
careless behavior leaves odd feelings for the customer.

Problems arises from absence of greeting:

Lack of acknowledgment
Lack of acknowledgement is one of shopper’s biggest complaints about shopping and it
could be a contributing factor to why one Salesforce report found that only 32% visit stores
because they enjoy the experience.
The greeting is the first impression that customers get of your brand, at least as it relates to
that specific in-person experience. A good customer greeting is one of the factors of the
customer’s first shopping experience. It has been observed that there is an absence of
greeting staff in the carrefour. Mainly at the entrance one attendant to say customers few
words like

“Good afternoon, good evening”.

“Sir or Madam, May I help you?”
“Can I help you to find required product.”

Only in the makeup section and Electronics, few attendants are prompt to help customers
and interested to show products to the customers.

Cleanliness issues /Untidy Racks:

Today’s retail environment is more competitive than ever. Big retail companies

of local and global chains are launching their own apps, installing the latest

technology in their locations, and offering an omnichannel shopping

experience. It makes the retail industry the most competitive industry in the

world. Uncleanliness and unmanaged inventory are a big retail turnoff for the

customers and shoppers.

63
A recent Harris Poll surveyed U.S. customers to find out what their biggest

retail turnoffs are, and the results may surprise you. A clean, well-maintained

store makes a huge difference in whether customers will return to a particular

store. Dirty racks and tearing packages is the biggest turnoff for customer,

company will bear heavy loss of customer by not providing them cleanliness

services up to the standards. It has been observed that many racks and

products in the carrefour are untidy, and there is a lot of dust on the racks.

Products are placed poorly. For all that lacks Carrefour is bearing heavy costs

by losing their potential customers. It is one of the factors that its footfall is

decreasing day by day.

Less Variety of Products:

Stock shortage and less variety at the retails store as compared to the competitor is also a
big turnoff for the customers. Today’s customers want more variety and range in the
products. Carrefour Gujranwala is facing less variety available in the and low level of sale
person knowledge issues. It is hurting customer satisfaction and customers are switching
towards other options for their monthly grocery.

Billing Counters:
Less trained staff at the counters is causing a situation for the customers. It has been
observed that customers with billing issues are many. It is another touchpoint area where
customer experience. The checkout counter is the heavy hitter in turning prospects into
paying customers. This your final shot to increase customer satisfaction customers, but it’s
also last opportunity to put your employees’ suggestive selling to work.

Your checkout counter is more than just a place to swipe or tap credit cards; it’s a major
selling opportunity. Whether it’s training your staff on cross-selling techniques or revamping
your set up.

64
These are the main value addition areas where the concerned department lacks, we select
a ghost customer to check these areas. Customer satisfaction and trained staff are crucial
points for any service company where customers make their decision for further visits and
create word of mouth. Carrefour lacks at major these areas are creating hurdles in
achieving the positioning objectives for the customer.

Interview of Imtiaz super store

Introduction:

On the 04th September 2023, we visited the Imtiaz Super Store for our project interview and we met

with Mr. Adnan Abbasi GM of the Imtiaz Super Store Gujranwala. We interviewed him about

twenty-five minutes as he was busy in his daily routine and we got just half an hour to interview

him. We tried our best to get all the necessary information from him about the marketing strategies

used by Imtiaz super store in Gujranwala to engage the customers.

GM Introduction:

Mr. Adnan Abbasi is working as GM of the store since the opening of the store. He has worked in

different super stores in the Karachi. He was the person who gave the courage to the management

that he can engage the customers. He worked hard with his team to enhance the sales of the store.

As he has explained all the challenges in the interview.

Question and Answers:

Based on the information, which we have gathered through interview, here are some key points

about retail store's marketing and operations: (The highlighted headings are the questions from our

side)

Marketing Department and Strategy: Marketing department is located in the Karachi head
65
office. We have used pamphlets, cable networks, and media promotions in marketing efforts. We

have positioned our grocery products at the top in Pakistan for quality and affordable prices. The

main strategy, which worked, was Mock Marketing. I think word to mouth marketing was the edge

of our sales.

Store Location Selection: We gave significant importance to parking when selecting our store's

location. Our team visited six months to this location for the finalization of store location. Our store

is located out of the city, but it is suitable for parking and car safety. Families came here for 40 to

50 thousand of grocery and why they will make unsecure their cars of rupees 2 to 3 million. So yes,

the car parking was the main reason we have selected this location. You can see the chase up they

are facing parking challenge a lot. We may get the hottest location in the main city but we were

unable to get the parking like this we have here. There are about 1000 cars can be parked in the

parking area.

Slogan: Our slogan is to provide the customers top rated products on the lowest rates.

Product Range: Our store offers both locally manufactured and imported products, with a

significant emphasis on imported items. We have almost 55k products in our super store under one

roof.

Pricing Strategy: We have priced our products lower compared to the market, and all the

products are genuine and hundred percent original. In the market, some are providing electronics

products on installment but in these products there will be minor faults. However, we are providing

original products on the lowest rates from the market.

Employee Training: Our staff attends training and development sessions and briefings on every

Friday and twice in a month. Fridays to Sundays are family days. Therefore, we know that our staff

must be trained to handle them. Training is also very important for the staff and we always take

care of it. International brands have their own staff to assist the customers and they provide 3

months training to their staff.

Departments: Our store has two departments - food and non-food, which include grocery and
66
garments, perfume electronics etc.

Female Staff Training: Imported brands typically provide training for their staff for up to three

months, and they usually hire experienced staff. We also provide training sessions to our female

staff a day in a week.

New Hiring: We are hiring know experienced staff to avoid training time and complaints from

the customer. It also effects the sale of the store.

Experience Labor Costs: Labor costs are expensive, but this results in better sales.

Promotions: We negotiate deals and promotions with companies for our products to benefit

customers.

Discounts: We provide deals and discounts from the company to our customers, ensuring they get

better prices.

Customer Perception: Initially, customers were hesitant to visit the store due to the perception

that it might be expensive. It was the big challenge for us that how to engage the customers to the

store. However, we faced this challenge and believed in the competitiveness of our prices.

Competition: The presence of international brands like Carrefour posed a challenge. Managing to

compete effectively in a market where an established international brand is present can be difficult.

Customer Care: We emphasized customer care and established a customer care hotline with

PTCL. Promptly addressing complaints and focusing on customer satisfaction are important

aspects of managing this challenge.

Quality Maintenance: We maintain quality through regular inspections and cleaning. We do not

compromise on quality and ensure that standards are upheld.

Adaptation to Local Market: Adapting to the local market's unique preferences and demands

can be challenging, but we have chosen to align our store with the preferences of our customers

rather than imposing our own vision. It is happening with the Carrefour. Everyone is trying to get

67
the hold of the store. No one is looking to the customer’s needs.

Events and Promotions: We organize events, especially around occasions like the 14th of

August, and offer surprises to children. Lucky draws were also conducted, but due to changes in

the country's economic situation, they have been temporarily discontinued.

Recommendations:

Suggestion from our side are mentioned below. By organizing a family festive event, you can

indeed attract more people, generate word of mouth, and increase publicity, potentially enhancing

your sales. It is a creative way to increase customer footfall. Holding this festive event at the

beginning of the month is a smart choice, considering that many people are salaried workers, and

they can easily visit during that time.

Here is more detailed advice that could be helpful for you:

Event Planning: First, you will need to plan a great event. This should include:

 Entertainment options such as music, games, or performances.

 Food stalls or food trucks offering diverse cuisines.

 Shopping stalls or kiosks for various products.

 Activities for both kids and families.

 Lucky draws or contests to attract people.

Marketing and Promotion: Properly promote the event through social media, local

newspapers, community groups, and flyers.

Timing: Scheduling the event at the start of the festive month is ideal, as it aligns with people

receiving their salaries and being able to participate easily.

Collaborations: Collaborate with local businesses or sponsors to expand the event. Their

financial and promotional support can be beneficial.

Customer Engagement: Focus on engaging attendees during the event. Collect feedback
68
through forms and ask for suggestions for future events.

Word of Mouth: Due to the memorable event, people will engage in word-of-mouth marketing,

which will boost your business's reputation.

Follow-up Offers: After the event, provide special offers or discounts to encourage event

attendees to revisit your business.

Kid-Friendly Amenities: Make your establishment more kid-friendly by offering amenities

such as a play area, kid-sized furniture, and high chairs for younger children. Ensure that your

environment is safe and welcoming for families.

Family Discounts: Offer special discounts or family packages to attract families with children.

For example, you can provide a discount for a family meal or group admission for attractions.

Children's Menu: If you have a restaurant or cafe, create a dedicated children's menu with kid-

friendly options. Consider including healthy choices along with the usual favorites like chicken

nuggets and pizza.

Kids' Entertainment: Host events or activities specifically for children, such as storytelling

sessions, construct workshops, or live entertainment like clowns or magicians. These events can

draw families to your location.

Themed Events: Organize themed events or parties related to popular children's themes or

characters. For example, a "Superhero Day" or "Princess Tea Party" can be a big draw.

Seasonal Events: Plan special events around holidays or seasons, such as an Easter egg hunt,

Halloween costume contest, or visits with Santa Claus during Christmas.

Collaborate with Schools: Partner with local schools for educational programs or field trips.

This can introduce your business to a new generation of customers.

Feedback and Improvement: Analyze the collected feedback to make improvements for future

69
events. Listen to feedback from families and make necessary improvements. Word-of-mouth

recommendations from satisfied families can be very powerful.

The example of DHA Gujranwala shows that events like these can attract local communities and

be profitable for them. This way, you can promote your business, expand your customer base, and

achieve long-term success.

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 Interview of chase up retail stores

Store introduction:

Chase Up was founded in 1984. Initially selling quality readymade garments at affordable prices

under one roof, we have always focused on maximizing customer convenience. We firmly believe

that fashion & style is achievable for all even when inexpensive. Chase UP is a known Brand, which

focuses on maximizing customer convenience by providing a wide range of quality and affordable

products and services that customers can afford to pay. Over the past decades, Chase UP success

story continued to grow and became a trendsetter in Local Modern Trade.

Slogan: low price and good quality.

Products: chase up serve both food and non-food products.

Interview Introduction:

We visit chase up retail store on 04 September 2023 because it was necessary and vital part of our

final year project and in this regard, we met the floor manager of chase up retail store

(Gujranwala) his good name was. The time duration of interview was about 35minutes and he was

so corporative and open while giving interview. We tried our best to get all the important

information which was necessary for our project from him we get information about the marketing

strategies used in chase up super store in Gujranwala to engage the customers.

Introduction of Floor manager

Mr. Is working as FM at CHASE UP retail store. He is working there for last 4years in chase up

Gujranwala. He has 3-year experience in international retail and then he came back to his home

country and he worked with CHEN ONE, DINNERS, and HYPERSTAR in Pakistan. He is the

person who is working hard and giving motivation to enhance and maintain Engagement of the

customers. He is giving his best to maintain and increase the sales of store. He explain all the

difficulties and how to handle and increase the footfall and what are reasons and strategies are
used to enhance it.

Question and Answers of interview

According to the information, we have gathered through interviews. We analyses some key points

about the marketing strategies and operations of the store. We highlighted them below with the

highlight of questions.

Retail marketing in Pakistan:

Retail store is a modern concept Before retail stores people goes to different stores or shops to buy

different things but retail stores provide all under one roof basically Retail stores offer several

benefits such as immediate product availability, personalized customer service, and the ability to

physically see and try products before purchasing.

There are different models that are used by retail stores that are.

 LMT (Local moderate trade)

 Hyper market

 Super store

Chas up fall in LMT (Local moderate trade).

Marketing department and strategy development:

Marketing department is in head office Karachi. They use upward to down model to launch any

activity first head office took the decision then transferred to us but we can give our suggestion

according to the area how we can launch that.

Unique selling point of store (USP).

Sup of store is low price and good quality. Their strong point is non-food items (cosmetic, jewelry,

apparel) because there are stores who are giving low price but on food items. The products, which

are giving more sale their best sale products, are grocery, boys and girls, men apparel.

Process of starting in Gujranwala:

This was the decision by company ownership. They have already 2 stores in Punjab one in Multan

and the other one is in Faisalabad they are doing good so by seeing they start in Gujranwala too.

Marketing strategy: They do marketing through Facebook, social media we don’t really use

traditional marketing because now people don’t have time for that and they don’t pay attention

people spend more time on social media.

Create awareness: They create awareness through social media about their store and did grand

opening ceremony in which we invite all the important bodies from all the consult institutes.

(Police, Punjab food authority, quality check) and before launching business have to invite them to

ensure them about your products.

Location parking: We select location by seeing area because we want to open our store in the

area where the reach of customer should be easy. They can come even by using local transport and

the local transport reroute in that place. In addition, our store should be convenient for every

customer not only for the specific part of customer. The front parking area is small but they have

full back area for parking but the parking is paid they charged 20pkr for parking because it is the

decision of mall. The reason behind is the premises is rented not owned by them. Still people come

and do shopping there. Promotion customer response: promotion is a very important part of our

business for these lots of activities are needed and organize some cultural event, which shows the

culture of Gujranwala. We have done lots of gift giving activities in this regard the best promotional

activity until now is mango festival.

Pricing strategy and quality: give low price but on good quality so the products are affordable

but they don’t compromise in the quality assure that quality is up to the mark according to customer

need

Targeting Segment: middle and upper both but their focus is on middle class.

Increase footfall: we use social media to increase footfall because it is the most convenient

way of increasing footfall. In addition, their prices are sow economical they do not have to

generate footfall people come by their selfs.their challenge is to meet the demand of

customer and availability of stock.

Employee training: we give training to employees related to customer service ,sales and

all others who are related to store because training is the key to success without it we can’t

survive in market customer will get offended if untrained person will serve them and may

be never come again. There are certification of and modules of training

Recommendation:

After conducting interview and after analyzing everything we have some recommendations

for Carrefour.

Location: this the main and biggest problem for Carrefour they should work on that

because the store should be at place where people can come easily and convenient and

customer can reach Easily.

Promotional activities: Carrefour should do promotional cultural activities as they are in

Gujranwala they should do some promotional activities according to that and in this regard

they should organize an event which shoes Punjabi culture with complete Punjabi dress

code so that customer feel sense of belongingness and they feel attached.
Enhance the quality of product: focus on product quality rather than quantity Carrefour

cannot import right now because restrictions and some issues so should focus on national

suppliers and venders and create good relationship with them.

Product mix: design a product mix that should be familiar to customer and customer is

ready to buy. It should be according to customer demand and need.

Availability: one-time customer gain is easy but to retain customer availability of products

is very important what customer want should be available to him/her. The availability of

product should be constant. Cannot import much products right now but can provide

alternate to that in best quality should focus on national assortments rather than

international assortments.

Let’s customer try before buy: Gujranwala is known for food so develop the taste lets customer

try food item before they buy in this way the customer taste and preferences will be visible and also

it will help in bringing new customer.

Focus on expertise: At first step should focus on the product, which is giving more sale, make a

strong positioning in customer mind about that product once customer made up his/her mind and

trust with store then slowly focus on other products too.

Improve presence in local community: try to overcome the barrier of international collaborate

with different organization that are matched with with company vision and mission e.g. if someone

has training center near you support him by giving machines and if a person enroll there will some

discount. In addition, if there is any eating-place near you provide products to them on discount

support them they will support the store. Create good relation with them in the market
Level up customer services: while hiring staff choose the right person for job who can fit in that

job.so that the employees wow client or customer who comes in the store. Customer should feel

he/she is important for you.

Host an event: the best way to gain customer is organize an even it can be any workshop, gaming

show, studio workshop and make it irresistible with giveaways, gifts or may be give reward to

customer with raffle entry with each purchase they make.

 Interview of meridian hotel and restaurant

Restaurant introduction

The restaurant is owned by Asghar it is basically belongs to the master tiles group of industries

they are working in this industry from 1986.in 2007 they bought this plot and in 2014 they start

construction and it was completed in 2016.and in 2017 they start the hotel. The budget we needed

was 16cror building was their but to start a proper hotel we need this much amount we manage

this cost in capital and start our hotel in 2017.we open to halls at that time after that 0n 14august

2018 we start restaurant with name of muss, s kitchen. Then we open marque on 11noveber

2018.then we start room and still this is continues effort we are working on us to do more.

Interview introduction

We visit meridian hotel on 13 September 3023 because it was necessary and vital part of our

final year project and in this regard, we met the general manager of hotel meridien in

Gujranwala his good name was Mr. Luqman. The time duration of interview was about

37minutes and he was so corporative and open while giving interview. We tried our best to get

all the important information which was necessary for our project from him we get information

about the marketing strategies used in maridien hotel and how it can help any retail store.

Introduction of General Manager

Mr. Luqman Is working as GM at maridien. He is working there for last 7years. He has 7-year

experience of working in marine hotel. He is the person who is working hard and giving

motivation to enhance and maintain Engagement of customers in the hotel because this business

is so direct customer give response at the spot after getting services. He is giving his best to

maintain and increase the sales of the hotel by giving best services. He explain all the

difficulties and how to handle and increase the customer and what are reasons and strategies are

used to enhance it.

Role of general manager

His role is to look after all the procedure in hotel related to customer and employees.

Qualification of interviewee:

His qualification is MPhil marketing. He did his BBA from Fast University and did his MPhil

from UMT.

Slogan: inspiring hospitality

Interview questions:

Service marketing:

Service marketing is majorly depends on word of mouth especially in service industry it is

important how you serve hoe you make customer comfortable with food. When a customer

enter in to the restaurant how the ambiance catches his action how much value you give to them.

What customer want is the cleanness aroma the importance to do all this have to understand the

departments of the organization and then give or provide services according to that. Our selling

method is direct customers come to us and we serve them so in our field or any field services

are so important because the service we provide to the customer it will play the role of word of

mouth.so if the services are good the response and word of mouth marketing will be good too.

Marketing strategies:

There are different tools for the marketing, which are very important for creating any marketing

strategy.

Word of mouth is the main key of any business which is depend on variety of product, taste how

we serve and ambiance these are all very important things for marketing.

In addition, the second most important tool for the marketing is social media we use different

social media platform for awareness. We did personal call and messages to people and aware

them about us and offer them to visit us. We did phone calls through chamber of commerce

because it is the place where you can find lots of people and this help us a lot.
Recently we start a new cafe we had a place we figure out how can we utilize this place we

decided to start a cafe for that what we did we went to Lahore and we the most finest cafés there

and analyses them and after observing what they are doing we researched how can we make it

work in our area and what is our target marketing then we start that cafe.

Promotion:

promotion is very important for all business not just hotel business so we did our promotions

through social media and by texting and calling the well-known people in Gujranwala what we

did is we get the list of businessman’s from chamber of commerce and call them through phone

and even now we do promotions because promotion is ongoing process when we launch any

new product we promote it on social media or give sometimes complimentary with food to our

regular or known customers.

Analyze the other restaurant:

We visit some best restaurant in Lahore and Islamabad and we did very précised d study on

them we check their menu their production method dinning we check their social media pages

what they are posting and how people are responding through comments and likes. We get all

awareness through social media and after doing all researched, we start our restaurant.

Product knowledge:

product knowledge is very important not in only hotel field but also in any other business

because to become profitable in sales should know what we are or we can facilitate customer

and it will increase the customer satisfaction and promote word of mouth too can we make sure

that our employees have the complete knowledge of product because the complete

understanding of product to our staff will help them effectively communicate with customer and

present them the way customer want.

Communication

Communication is key for any business we make make strong communication with our

customer to get their loyalty and satisfaction.

Positioning

in hotel business positioning is very important because when we serve to customer the taste

serving style everything he/she store in the mind and create image this image is positioning of

our business we have to make that image strong and this will not done by the one time we have

to continuously do knocking through social media and services.

Location:

location is a very important and vital part for any new business if your business before starting

hotel first we start marque because nation is growing so marque was the best initiative to create

awareness in customer mind now for us location is not a very big problem because we already

create our image and we select the location which covers more areas so that more people can

come.

Kitchen concept:

We start with the very basic food so that when people come everything they see in the menu

will familiar to them and they can relate to because where we live in our society the concept of

people is they want to sit at the most lavish place but they want to eat very desi food. In

addition, we catch that concept, work according to that, and give the same environment they

want.

Price control:

A penny you save a penny you earn now word is smart, cost cutting is very important we do

cost cutting on daily basis e.g. if a vender giving us the same product with low price we will

move to that vender and the one more example is we started a cafe and we hire only 5

employees we are moving towards self-serving customer will place order and pay bill after that

there is a bell set on table when the order ready the bell will rings and customer will receive

their order from counter. This is the best way of cost cutting.

Collaboration with brands:

We do collaboration with brands and the example is we did 4year agreement with Pepsi in they
give us specific number to sale if we fulfill that they give us a specific amount in that. This is

the oxygen for organization. We do our lots purchasing through departmental store.

Awareness of new product:

We shot proper videos and post is on social media. We create awareness for ever product

because we use different platform for every new product or the customer who is very known to

us we serve them and make them try.

Training of employee:

We do long training time by time but we do training on daily basis too by giving daily Briefing

to the employees and managers too to do work effectively because all know that training is very

important to run any kind of organization and in service sector it is more important to tell

employees hoe to behave with customer and handle them.

Recommendations:

Employee training:

Employee training is very important and vital part of any organization to survive should focus

on that do employee training on daily basis train them how to make feel customer valuable and

satisfied them how to give them extra value so that come again because of their behaviour.

Collaboration:

Should do collaboration with hotels and other organization and provide them product they

needed and in this way can gain customer and increase their sales too. Gujranwala is known for

food so if they collaboration with them this will benefit them to increase sale.

Analysis of other stores:

Should do deep study of other stores how they are working in the area how they are serving to

their customers and follow that in this way they will know where they are lacking and will

improve that area and in this way they can increase customer and sales too.

Word of mouth marketing:

Should give customer value, importance, and this will create automatically word of mouth

marketing. Satisfied customer will create good good image of store and will increase sale and

customer too

Ambiance:

Should create the attractive ambiance so that when customer entered in the store he/she feels

good attractive so that customer buy and enjoy shopping there.e.g

Additional value to customer:

Should give additional value to customer e.g. When they are shopping in the store give those

free products for testing and if they like it then launch it it will also increase sales and customer.
Interview of AL Fatah retail stores

Al-Fatah is the leading departmental store of the land of pure, Pakistan. Serving since

1941, Al-Fatah has been offering an assortment of products to its precious customers.

From groceries to toys to kids, wear, kitchenware to ornaments, electronic gadgets to

fitness equipment, beauty products to health care accessories, our valuable customers

find each product of the best quality under one roof. Around thousands of customers per

day quench their thirst of shopping from this landmark that has been their trustworthy

shopping mall for more than seven decades now.

AL Fatah business introduction:

Al-Fatah business is very wide business. Because its deals in different kind of products.

Al-Fatah is a departmental store. Al-Fatah import different kind of goods in different

countries and serve in Pakistan. Therefore, in keeping this thing in mind we make an

online store too for serving more and more customers from all over Pakistan.

(1) Name & Designation

Name: Ghulam Yaseen Chishti

Designation: Store General Manager

(2) Retail Marketing Experience

Having more than 7 years of experience

(3) Promotion Strategies

(a) We use different marketing strategies for each new marketing campaign. Mainly
We use BTL (below the line marketing) marketing campaign. We use following tools to

(b)Engage the customers and to enhance the awareness of products in-store:

1. In-store free sampling

2. In-store free tasting

3. In-store free gifting

4. In-store free testing/trial for Home Electronics & Toys & Games.

5. In-store Playing Games

(b) We use leafleting or flyer distribution door-to-door as a tool of marketing to enhance

Marketing campaign.

(c) We also use road steamer for our marketing and promotional campaigns.

(d) We also target audience through social media by our official Facebook page and use

Different channel of marketing through digital marketing campaigns.

(4) How do you introduce Al-Fatah Store in Gujranwala?

Al-Fatah have a different positioning in the retail paradigm of Pakistan. Al Fatah have

different

Unique position and is a high-end retail. Al Fatah have a range of assortment which no

one else

In Pakistan can have means Al Fatah have its unique positioning w.r.t. assortment.

(5) What is your point of different as compared to other competitors?

Al-Fatah have bigger difference w.r.t. assortments as compare to another store. We

could
Summarize, as the main difference is due to assortments such crockery department. No

one in

Pakistan have such a huge range, unique and expensive range of dinner sets, gift items,

Decoration. The other department due to which we could differentiate Al-Fatah from

competitor is "Perfume Section". The only store in Pakistan, which provide a wide range

and high-quality Perfumery in Pakistan.

(6) What is your marketing tool?

Now a days digital marketing is the main tool to boost promotions and to enhance

footfall of

Customers.

(7) Why do people use or why do people prefer Al Fatah?

Al Fatah has its roots since 1941 in subcontinent. The long-term fair policy and strong

Commitment to customer loyalty is the reasons that most of people from Upper class

believe.

(7) Why do people use or why do people prefer Al Fatah?

Al Fatah has its roots since 1941 in subcontinent. The long-term fair policy and strong

Commitment to customer loyalty is the reasons that most of people from Upper class

believe in

AI-Fatah.

(8) Why do you relocate?

Al-Fatah relocate due to the geographic decision-making. Now we have our desire

targeted
Location w.r.t. our marketing position.

(9) What is your high profit generating products?

(1) Crockery as no one in Pakistan have this type of imported products. Almost in all

department, we have unique branded products.

(10) Successful Campaign?

"Sunday Special" we have weekly campaign for ultra-fresh products.

(11) Qualification, experience.

I am a science graduate with major in Mathematics. I have a blend of unique credential

And have a series of local and international certificate in Purchasing, Logistics and

Supply chain .Management including a specialization in Omni-channel Retail Marketing

and much more and have more than 17 years of experience of Local and international

market.

Recommendations:

Cleanliness of products:

Check products on daily basis weather they are clean or not and make sure that

everything is clean. Motivate employees by giving them reward if their department is

properly cleaned.

Feedback and Improvement:

Analyze the collected feedback to make improvements for future events. Listen to feedback

from families and make necessary improvements. Word-of-mouth recommendations from

satisfied families can be very powerful.

Marketing and Promotion:

Properly promote the event through social media, local newspapers, community groups, and

flyers.

Word of mouth marketing:

Should give customer value, importance, and this will create automatically word of mouth

marketing. Satisfied customer will create good good image of store and will increase sale and

customer too.

Ambiance:

Should create the attractive ambiance so that when customer entered in the store he/she feels

good attractive so that customer buy and enjoy shopping there.e.g

Additional value to customer:

Should give additional value to customer e.g. When they are shopping in the store give those

free products for testing and if they like it then launch it it will also increase sales and customer.

Interview of AL - Amin retail stores

Store introduction:

The store is owned by Mr. Arshad Amin the store was opened on 1march.we finalized

the purchasing in 6month and open the store.

Slogan: everything you get under one store.

Products: we serve both food and non-food products.

Interview Introduction:

We visit Al-Amin hyper store in Gujranwala on 16 September 2023 because it was necessary

and vital part of our final year project and in this regard, we met the branch manager of Al-

Amin hyper store (Gujranwala) his good name was Mr. Muhammad shoaib. The time duration
of interview was about 30 minutes and he was so corporative and open while giving interview.

We tried our best to get all the important information which was necessary for our project from

him we get information about the marketing strategies used in Al-Amin hyper store in

Gujranwala to engage the customers.

Introduction of Floor manager

Mr. Muhammad shoaib is working is working as branch manager at Al-Amin hyper store from

March 2023. He is working in retail sector for last 8years. He has also experience of working in

imtiaz at its initial phase in Gujranwala Carrefour in Karachi. He is the person who is working

hard and giving motivation to enhance and maintain Engagement of the customers. He is giving

his best to maintain and increase the sales of store. He explain all the difficulties and how to

handle and increase the footfall and what are reasons and strategies are used to enhance it.

Roles of branch manager

The branch manager's responsibilities include managing resources and staff, developing and

attaining sales goals, delivering customer service, and growing the location's revenues.

Interview questions:

Price control:

We try to give low price on food products specially. We are new in the market our purchasing

power is not very high but we are working on it in garments and cosmetics we have wide range

and in low price too.

Promotional strategy:

For promotion we have done lots of gaming shows and activities e.g. one of

them was we set up stall at entrance of store and people play game there

and win gift we also have done some eating compition activities because
Gujranwala is known for food and we hire different companies and

organize gaming shows and gifting and we get children’s attraction through

cartoon characters and also we use social media for promotion.

Business type:

Right now we are just doing b to c business that business to consumer because right now we are

new in the market so firstly we are trying to position our store in customer mind but we are

planning to start B to B soon.

Unique selling point:

We start new concept in Gujranwala in our pharmacy there is no pharmacist in pharmacy

MBBS doctors are handling it and we are giving free checkup to customer who comes to

pharmacy .this is our unique point because not a single retail store is giving this service we are

first. We have our own bakery we make bakery items freshly at store.

Location:

We did a lot research on it we design team for that. In addition, we select the area where people

can reach so easily. Right now, we are hitting master city, ajwa city full Sialkot road. Location

is very important for any business.

Traditional marketing:

We advertise our store through signboards and distribute pamphlets to households give ads in

newspapers. These all things help us a lot in gaining customer attraction and attention and after

one time attraction we make sure that customer stay in touch with us.

Marketing tool:

Mainly we use social media for marketing, WhatsApp group and we have Facebook page,

newspaper and pamphlets so we do marketing by using these tools.

Training of employees:
We have mixed staff both train and untrained we give training sessions to staff .we brief our

department heads of floor managers and they give training to employees .initially we hire only

train staff because we were launching new business at that time but now we hire untrained staff

also and train them. Because.

Retention of customer:

To retain or gain customer what we do is we analyses our sales and compare products with other

stores and try to give low price then all of them. Try to give them best services .

Challenges of retail marketing:

Buying power: the biggest challenge is buying power customer is aware of prices and other

things so to attract them we have to increase our buying power.

Recommendations:

Availability:

Everything should be available according to customer demand e.g. in every size should be

available there should be stock of all products.

Customer shortage:

To gain customer should organize some events gaming shows gift giving and try to attract

customer in every possible way and do these activities often so that customer get attract quickly.

Cleanliness of products:

Check products on daily basis weather they are clean or not and make sure that

everything is clean. Motivate employees by giving them reward if their department is

properly cleaned.

Word of mouth marketing:

Should give customer value, importance, and this will create automatically word of mouth

marketing. Satisfied customer will create good good image of store and will increase sale and
Customer too.

Ambiance:

Should create the attractive ambiance so that when customer entered in the store he/she feels

good attractive so that customer buy and enjoy shopping there.e.g

Employee training:

Employee training is very important and vital part of any organization to survive should focus

on that do employee training on daily basis train them how to make feel customer valuable and

satisfied them how to give them extra value so that come again because of their behaviour.

Interview of Rainbow retail stores

Introduction

On 12 September 2023, we visited the Rainbow Cash & Carry for our project interview and we

met with Mr. Zafar Abbas Butt GM of the Rainbow Cash & Carry Gujranwala. We interviewed

him about thirty-five minutes. We tried our best to get all the necessary information from him

about the marketing strategies used by Rainbow Cash & Carry in Gujranwala to engage the
customers.

GM Introduction

Zafar Abbas Butt has a Bachelor's degree in Arts and boasts 26 years of experience in retail

marketing. He began his career at a bookshop and then worked at Metro Cash and Carry, Spar in

Faisalabad and Karachi, and Rainbow. His experience is rooted in practical knowledge,

particularly during his time at Metro, where he provided practical training to LUMS (Lahore

University of Management Sciences) students. The training encompassed various aspects,

including customer service.

Retail Marketing

Retail marketing refers to products that reach the end consumer. When products are made

directly available to consumers, it falls under the category of retail. Imtiaz and Metro serve as

good examples of this concept. Rainbow, on the other hand, is exclusively a business-to-

consumer (B2C) retailer, adhering to the definition of retail. Imtiaz seek both strategies B2C &

B2B.

Questions and Answers

Journey of Rainbow: Carrefour is an international chain based in Dubai. For Rainbow, the

challenge is that customers in Gujranwala are very price-conscious but not as focused on

quality. Carrefour has a good location, while Rainbow's challenge is that they have limited

advertising. It took us about a year to establish ourselves, and during that time, we focused on

offering competitive prices. Afterward, we expanded our product range significantly. In the first

year, our focus was on establishing ourselves as a premium retailer. Afterward, we decided to
reduce prices and expand our product range. Rainbow has been in operation for 13 years and

has 5 branches in Lahore. We have been operating in Gujranwala for 2 years. Rainbow describes

itself as a brand, and we have a store in another city as well through a partnership.

Spacing & Verity: Of course. We have increased our floor space and diversified our product

range, offering a wider selection of items to our customers.

Shifting of Products: Initially, customers were not aware that we offered meat and similar

products. Therefore, we decided to shift these items to the upper floor to make them more

visible and accessible. The primary reason for shifting certain products to the upper floor was

that customers were not aware that we offered items like meat and related products. Moving

those upstairs made these products more visible and accessible.

Display: The decision to change displays largely depends on the branch manager's discretion.

Display placement practices may vary slightly between branches. At Rainbow, we have made

comprehensive changes in our displays. We prioritize necessities like sugar and oil towards the

end of the store layout, ensuring that customers have the opportunity to explore other products.

Customer perception is greatly influenced by how items are displayed, and this approach

attracts their attention to a broader range of products. We have an online application for

Rainbow, which is now being introduced in Gujranwala after its successful launch in Lahore.

Competition: Certainly. We compete actively with Chase up, but competing directly with

Imtiaz is challenging because they offer wholesale rates to shop owners, which is not something

we can match.

Importing Products: We import a variety of products, including perfumes and toys. This

allows us to offer a more extensive range in these categories compared to stores like Imtiaz. We

also have a substantial furniture range, which sets us apart in the market. We import some

products, and Carrefour is not a direct competitor for us. Al Fatah is also not in direct
competition with us. Rainbow has a wide range of perfumes and toys, which Imtiaz does not

offer. We also have a substantial furniture range.

Carrefour Impact: Carrefour is an international chain based in Dubai. While they have a

good location advantage, our main challenge with customers in Gujranwala is that they are

highly price-conscious but not as focused on quality. Carrefour's presence in the market does not

directly affect us.

Advertisement: Advertising through billboards and offering a 50% discount in the initial two

days had a positive impact on our business. It helped increase awareness and attract customers

to our store.

Centralization: Absolutely. In our case, the branch manager holds significant decision-making

authority and plays a vital role in shaping the vision of the store. This approach allows for a

more tailored and responsive management style.

Customer Care: We have actively engaged with our customers, gathering feedback and proof

of their purchases to better understand their preferences. We adjust our prices based on market

fluctuations and offer discounts to loyal customers. This customer-centric approach has been

successful for us.

Toys Section: Certainly. We maintain a record of our customers' official numbers, and every

weekend, we offer a 10% discount on toys to our regular customers. Even those who primarily

shop for groceries receive a 10% discount on toys. It is a highly effective strategy to boost sales

in the toys section.

Events: Initially, we used to organize events for advertising purposes, but we have not done so

recently. In the past, we followed a structured planning approach, similar to what we did in

Metro. Events were scheduled and planned in advance, allowing us to manage our product

offerings and inventory accordingly.

Vendor is Feedback: We have had excellent feedback from our vendors. They guide us well

and emphasize the importance of cleanliness, which we take seriously. Our store maintains a

high level of cleanliness, giving us a significant edge.

Challenge: Our current challenge is employee retention. It has been a struggle to keep

employees for an extended period; they tend to resign relatively quickly after we have trained

them. This is a significant challenge for us. One of their main challenges is pricing. Maintaining

price stability and dealing with price fluctuations can be problematic. Product availability is also

a challenge, and they actively monitor customer demand and gather feedback at the counter.

Employee Training: We conduct weekly meetings with employees to provide ongoing

training and engagement opportunities. However, once an employee leaves, we do not rehire or

engage with them again. Our training process is based on six basic principles: Presentation,

Price, Promotion, Security and Safety, Product Knowledge, and Personality (PSPSPP). These

principles are followed everywhere, and employees are trained accordingly. These principles

cover aspects such as first impressions, pricing, communication, security, product knowledge,

and overall personality.

Suggestions:

Certainly, here are some suggestions for Carrefour after interviewing Rainbow Cash and Carry

to enhance sales and maximize profits in the realm of retail marketing:

Customer Engagement and Loyalty Programs:

Implement a robust customer engagement strategy that includes loyalty programs, discounts,

and rewards for regular customers. This can encourage repeat business.

Online Presence:

Strengthen your online presence and e-commerce platform to cater to the growing demand
for online shopping. Ensure a user-friendly website and mobile app for a seamless customer

experience.

Inventory Management:

Optimize inventory management to reduce carrying costs and minimize stock outs. Utilize data

analytics to predict demand and adjust stock levels accordingly.

Visual Merchandising:

Enhance the in-store shopping experience through effective visual merchandising. Highlight

promotions, best-selling products, and seasonal items to attract customers.

Price Optimization:

Continuously monitor market prices and adjust your pricing strategy accordingly. Offer

competitive prices on essential items while maintaining healthy profit margins on premium

products.

Product Diversification:

Expand your product range to cater to a broader customer base. Introduce niche or specialty items

that may not be readily available at competitors' stores.

Marketing Campaigns:

Launch targeted marketing campaigns that focus on your unique selling points, such as a wide

product range, competitive pricing, or exceptional customer service.

Customer Feedback and Improvement:

Actively seek feedback from customers to understand their needs and preferences. Use this

feedback to make improvements in your product offerings and services.

Local Partnerships:

Collaborate with local businesses and suppliers to source unique or exclusive products. Joint

marketing efforts can help increase foot traffic to your store.

Employee Training:

Invest in comprehensive employee training programs to ensure that staff members are

knowledgeable about products, customer service, and safety protocols.

Community Engagement:

Engage with the local community through charity events, sponsorships, or initiatives that

demonstrate your commitment to the region.

Competitor Analysis:

Keep a close eye on your competitors' strategies and pricing. Identify gaps in their offerings and

capitalize on opportunities to outperform them.

Data Analytics:

Utilize data analytics to gain insights into customer behavior, sales patterns, and inventory

turnover. Data- driven decisions can lead to more effective marketing strategies.

Mobile Marketing:
Leverage mobile marketing techniques, such as SMS campaigns and mobile app notifications,

to reach customers directly and inform them of promotions and discounts.

Sustainability and Green Initiatives:

Consider adopting sustainable practices and promoting eco-friendly products. Many customers

are now conscious of environmental issues and prefer businesses that align with their values.

Regular Store Renovations:

Periodically refresh the store layout and design to create an inviting and updated shopping

environment.

Collaborative Promotions:

Collaborate with suppliers for joint promotional campaigns. Manufacturers often have marketing

budgets that can be leveraged to increase sales.

Feedback Loop:

Establish a feedback loop with employees and customers to ensure that ideas for

improvement are consistently shared and acted upon.

Implementing a combination of these strategies tailored to Carrefour’s specific market and

customer base can help enhance sales and maximize profits in the competitive retail industry.
Interviewee:

Qualification: HEC approved MBA. Marketing manager in Gift University. MBA from

Lahore University of Management sciences (LUMS), Pakistan.

Experience: Marketing Manager

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction

Mr. earn his MBA (master of business administration) from LUMS University Pakistan in

2021. He has vast teaching, research, marketing and how to develop the strategies. Right now,

he is working as marketing manager in Gift University.

Important points that we draw after conversation with Mr.

Retail marketing:
 Retail marketing encompasses all of the ways a consumer business attracts customers and

generates sales of its goods and services. Retail marketing strategies touch virtually everything in

a company’s operations, including signage, store layout, sales and promotions, pricing strategies,

advertising, checkout processes, and customer service. Retail marketing has two part.

1. Commercial

2. Conventional

Commercial retail marketing:

Commercial marketing is efforts to promote and sell products profitably. The keyword here is

profit. That is the antithesis of social marketing, which has a non-profit motive and seeks to

educate consumers about collective social issues.

 Purpose: the purpose of commercial marketing is to make a profit by selling a product.

 Target: people who are willing to buy products to satisfy their needs and wants.
 Marketing strategy: less attention towards marketing values while developing strategies. The
main focused areas are revenue and cost.

Conventional marketing:
Conventional marketing is also known as traditional marketing.in this we do marketing in
traditional and old ways, which are listed below.

Print marketing: Advertise in paper form and it often makes use of the newspaper. Although

print marketing is the oldest form of advertising, now a day it lags behind the digital form of

marketing via Internet

Broadcast marketing: This includes advertisements through television and radio. With the

technological advancements in the form of the internet, radio is outdated, but still proves effective

for advertisements. The efficiency can depend on what age you are targeting with your marketing.

Direct mail marketing: In this form of marketing printed materials are in the form of brochures

and sent directly to houses. Postcards and letters were used for sales promotional activities.
Customer driven price strategy: set price after understanding consumer insight through

understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and feedback after collecting the

entire data draw conclusion that can improve product development and customer supports.

Pricing strategy: pricing strategy should be set according to ability to pay, market conditions,

competitors etc.

Competitor: set your pricing strategy after analyzing the competitor what they are providing

and what is their pricing strategy. Set product's prices in line with competitor prices.

Behavior of people: Set prices according to customer behavior of buying product analyze how

people feel and think when they are deciding whether to buy a product. Consumer behavior,

research tells what people buy, when and how often they buy it, where they usually buy it, why

they buy it and more.

Nominal discounts: give discount is reduction on current price. Before setting price, focus on

nominal discount.

Complementary goods: give two or more goods that are typically consumed or used together, in such

way a change in the price or availability of one good will affects the demand for the other good.

Bundling: sell products in bundling and set price according to bundling instead of giving one

product give bundle.

Shelf positioning assortments: where the product should be located in a retail store shelf. It

could be top, eye, middle, or bottom shelf. Products can also be placed next to your own brand, a

competitor brand, or complementary items.

Price parity: while setting price strategy focus on price parity reveals a global vision of your
vertical and consequently, an advantage over your rivals. Often competitors can have products at

a lower price than the one you have in your store.

FMCG price: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods products sold quickly and relatively cheaply.

Retail stores should give more discount and set the prices of FMCG products comparatively low

then others some examples of FMCG products include packaged foods, beverages, toiletries,

cosmetics, cleaning supplies, and other low-cost household items.

Footfall increase:

Seasonal promotion: seasonal promotion is important to increase footfall because it gives

retailers the ability to connect with existing customers and entice new ones at a time when they

are most likely to buy. It will help to attract attention to your business and increase brand

awareness. Boost product sales and revenue at certain times of a year. Increase visibility among

your customers.
Interview with Sir. Suleman Anwar

Name Interviewee: Sulemen Anwar

Designation: Director MBA, HR professor in Gift University

Experience: 25 years

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction of Interviewee:

Mr. Sulemen Anwar is Director Graduate Program, Assistant Professor & Knowledge

Unit Head, and GIFT University. Certified Professional Trainer, Member IAPPD Global

Ltd. Suleman Anwar did his MBA in 2001 and after serving a few years in the corporate sector,

he was led by his interest in the theoretical study of business practices to connect with academia.

He did his MPhil in Human Resource Management in 2010 and since then he has taught several

generations of students in various institutes of repute. His academic interests include Knowledge

Management, Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Strategic Human Resource Management.

He is currently serving as Assistant Professor at GIFT Business School.

Side by side with full-time passionate teaching, he is involved in Corporate Consultancy in the

region, has attended, and conducted several workshops, training and short courses aimed at

enhancing the development of human capital and knowledge management in business and

industry.
Question & Answers

We have asked questions about retail marketing strategies and the traditional marketing strategy.

What would make a retail store successful in retail competition?

Retail Marketing:

Retail marketing is a way to achieve economies of scale. Increase your sales through offering the

maximum variety of products. A way to give the audience maximum variety as per their

affordability. Retail increases the one-to-one interaction with the customers.

1-Placement of products in display:

Retail marketing is a way to get the customer “attention by placing the products in the shelfs

and encourage them to buy these products. Like many stores put chocolates and battery cells near

the cash counters because it gives them a moment to decide and to recall these things.

2- Customer Relations:

Customer relations are the most important part in retail marketing. It is the way where

customers come closer to your company’s employees. Salesperson attitude and behavior affects

its future visits at your stores. Energetic and It is directly affecting your footfall rate in the store.

3- In-store display

In-store display, signage, and other promotional materials in a physical retail store to attract

customers and promote products. In-store marketing can also include tactics such as product

demonstrations or sampling to encourage customers to purchase.

4-Sales promotions:

In sales promotion retail, marketing groups offer customers special discounts, coupons, or

other incentives to encourage them to purchase. This type of marketing can be particularly

effective during holiday or seasonal periods or when a business is trying to clear inventory.

Objective of marketing strategy:

A marketing strategy depends on the objective e you want to achieve. Different stores have

different objectives, some focused on the market shares, revenues and some focused on

increasing customer awareness. To make a successful marketing strategy you must have a clear

objective.

Sales Boost:

Every retail store’s focus is always sales boosting. It depends on two things.

1-incraese the number of sales

2- Increase the usage rate of the customer

To increase the number of customers by attracting new customers and encourage existing

customers to purchase more.

For increasing usage rate of the customer, it must increase the affordability of the customers. So,

that they can buy more.

Brand Loyalty:

Brand loyalty depends upon two things.

1- Brand affordability

2- Brand availability

Quality always subjected to price range.

Best medium for traditional marketing:

The word of mouth is the best medium for traditional marketing. WOM Word-of-mouth

marketing (WOM marketing) happens when consumers talk about a company's product or

service to their friends, family, and to others with whom they have close relationships.

Customer trust:

WOM marketing is one of the most powerful forms of advertising as 88% of consumers trust

their friends' recommendations over traditional media.

Exceed the customer expectations:

Companies can encourage WOM marketing by exceeding expectations on a product, providing

good customer service, and giving exclusive information to consumers.

WOM strategy:

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) cites the best word-of-mouth marketing

strategies as being honest, credible, social, repeatable, measurable, and respectful.

Types of WOMM:

WOM marketing includes various marketing techniques, such as buzz, blogs, and social media

marketing.

Create Customer lead:

WOM marketing increases the customer lead, and it results with fusion reaction of

customers.
Customer Survey:

To know real issues, it is important to conduct a customer survey.it helps to generate the

Strategic group map and Perception map.

Strategic Group Map:

A strategic group map helps a business identify its rivals and understand the competitive

landscape. It further helps with identifying the industry gaps and revealing untapped

opportunities, along with helping to recognize alternative success routes in an industry for a

company.

Perception Map:

They are called perceptual maps because it maps the “perception” of consumers and how they

understand the positioning of competing brands. Perceptual maps capture how consumers

perceive brands, which may differ from the actual positioning.

Positing Statement:

It depends on the two things POP & POD. POP means point of parity and POD means point of

difference.

USP (unique selling point):

A unique selling point defines the company unique and competitive advantage as compared to

other customers. It separates you from the rest of the market players. It depends how effectively

you serve your target audience.

Advertisement success:
For measuring the success of advertisement, AIDA model is used.

A stand for Attention

I stand for Interest.

D stand for desire

A stand for action

The AIDA Model, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action model, is an

advertising effect model that identifies the stages that an individual goes through during the

process of purchasing a product or service. The AIDA model is commonly used in digital

marketing, sales strategies, and public relations campaigns.

Seroquel Model:

To measure the service quality of the organization, serval model used. Servqual is a model generally

used to measure service quality of the different organization made by Parasuraman,

Zeithaml, and Berry. It helps businesses measure and control the quality of their

services. The Servqual model is based on the idea that customer views of five key

dimensions.

1-Tangibles
2-Reliability

3-Responsiveness

4-Assurance

5- Empathy Map

Interview with Sir. Muhammad Kashif Saeed

Designation: Assistant Professor & Associate Dean

Ph.D. Marketing

University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Experience: 17 years

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction of Interviewee:

Dr. Muhammad Kashif Saeed is currently working with GIFT University, Pakistan, as Assistant

Professor, GIFT Business School (GBS). He holds 17 years of full-time teaching experience

within Pakistan and as a visiting professor in several countries abroad. Dr. Kashif has supervised

several applied research projects for national and multinational companies and has published 65

manuscripts (as per November 2022) in international journals and textbooks. Additionally, he
worked as a guest editor for highly reputed journals such as the British Food Journal and the

Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration. He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of

the South Asian Journal of Marketing. In addition to teaching and research, he is working with

Emerald Publishing as Brand Ambassador and has offered more than 60 online and on-site

training programs in countries such as Tunisia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Turkey,

Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Morocco. Currently, he is supervising academic and applied research

projects from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Retail Marketing & 3Ps:

In retail, we have to put more emphasis on the three things of the marketing mix. Service

marketing mix has 7 Ps. So, in retail more focused on the three Ps

1- Physical Evidence

2- People

3- Process

Physical Evidence:

The environment in which service is delivered. It is a platform where customers and

employees interact. Physical Evidence includes all tangible components that facilitate

performance and communication of the service. Physical evidence includes equipment and

tangibles things used in providing the service to the customers. For example

1- Website

2- Retail location

3- Price tags

4- Store signage

5- Employees name tags

 6- Store receipt

7- Cash counters

8- Promotion pamphlets

9- Credit cards

10- Loyalty cards

11- Security equipment

These are the things on which customers mostly judge the actual quality of service. The ambience

of the retail store has a great impact on the customers. Stores must make lively through effective

lighting, temperature, less noise, and music.

Prices:

The actual procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activity through which service is delivered to

the customers. It includes all the service delivery and operating systems.

The actual delivery system that a customer experiences during purchase give them an evidence on

which they judge the service quality of the retail company. Complicated and extensive services of

action to complete their process will escape your customers. If the racks in the retail stores are not

put properly and things are put in the right category. The customer will find that it requires all of

effort and feels it is fatiguing to visit that retail store. It will leave the question marks on the

service quality of the organization.

People:

All human actors play a part in the service delivery and thus have direct effect and influence on

the buyer’s experience and perception.

1- Personnel
 2- The customer

3- Other customer in the service environment

Humans participating in the delivery of a service provides cues to the customer regarding the

nature of the service. The attitude and behavior of the people and how they are dressed and their

appearance. Customers not only influence their own service outcome, but they can influence

other customers. It creates the WOM.

Human resource in Retail Industry:

Human resources have the supreme importance in the retail industry. Proper training and

welcoming staff are an integral part of the service industry. In the modern world, human

resources are treated as an asset. Investment in the employee increases the profitability of the

organization. More emphasis on leadership style, on department head training. Leaders should
help to instill confidence and inspiration in their team for a more productive output. Allow to

build morale among employees or team. Foster commitment and loyalty to the company

Behavioral Loyalty:

If most of the customers visits when promotions are on then it means customers are occasional.

Problem lays in the loyalty status. Behavioral loyalty means consistent and repeat actions

displayed by customers towards a particular brand or business by the customers. But if customers

do not visit frequently for their needs so they are giving preference to retail shops. A behavioral

loyal customer do not find it easy to switch to other brands.

Brand Pyramid & Brand Performance:

The Brand Pyramid is a tiered tool that helps businesses clarify who they are, who they are for,

and how. A framework can help companies put into perspective the journey a customer takes from

brand recognition to loyalty. Many brands in the markets are widely aware and recognized by the

customer but brand performance is not up to the mark. Consumers are aware of your products or

services but have no real attachment to your brand. In relevance stage, where you need to ensure

that your product’s price matches both its value and your target audience’s budget. The consumer

decides here if repurchasing from your company is worth it. In the performance stage, customer

evaluate your brand with other brand that you really have a worth of repurchase. In this stage

customer, attach your feelings and judgement with your brand. If they fail to achieve the

performance stage, customer feel reluctant to build bonding with your brands. Customer loyalty

based on these things. The emotionally attached consumers now buy your product without

hesitation and likely promote your brand to others. Trust has been established. This is where
positive word of mouth generates that will help the brand to attract the new customers while

retaining the old ones.

Marketing Mix and Marketing strategy:

The marketing strategy of the brand depends on the positioning of the brand. The full marketing

mix must support product-positioning goals. All marketing mix elements, particularly the

product mix, need to be consistently focused at the end-positioning goal. An inconsistent

marketing mix will simply confuse the marketplace and result in a weak positioning outcome

and/or limited repeat sales. If the desired positioning has been effectively and clearly chosen, then

deciding on the marketing mix elements should be relatively straightforward (although

implementation is always a challenge). Issues in brand positioning, targeting and segmentation,

causes issues in brand marketing mix and strategy. So in marketing strategy market segmentation,

target marketing and marketing mix must be align and towards same goals and objectives.

Because of this inconsistency of the marketing mix, which is not supportive of the overall

positioning goals, the following outcomes would be expected:

Poor Sales

Overall sales would be quite poor, as the product does not appeal to it any particular target

market.

Hurt Satisfaction of Consumer:

Consumers who do buy the product would probably be very dissatisfied and would be very

unlikely to rebuy the shoes.

Negative Feedback

The retailers themselves might be disappointed with the consumer feedback and may discontinue

stocking this product.

Negative WOM

Negative word-of-mouth

Negative Media reviews

Negative media and Internet reviews are also likely, further brand equity.

Example:

In this case, using a running sports shoe, the goal is to position the product as a shoe ‘for serious

runners. The firm has invested in an advertising campaign in specialist running magazines and

websites. While that part of their program is good, unfortunately the balance of their marketing

mix offering is not aligned to that positioning.

For fixing that problem

This problem is easily rectified by simply aligning the marketing mix to a consistent end. If the

firm does want to position the shoe for serious runners,

1- Need to invest in product improvement with higher quality materials,

2- Place shoes at access sporting and specialty shoe stores, and the product is to be priced

higher.

3- Celebrity endorsement for showing it at premium position.

For Foot Fall Increase:

“Footfall is the number of people who visit a retail store during a specific period of time”

Footfall is also referred to as foot traffic.

Importance of The Footfall Metric

footfall is important in retail:

High Foot Traffic, High Sales

High foot traffic usually translates into high sales.

Helps to track business:

The business tracks it to be able to plan its budgets and retail scheduling in advance, based on

foot traffic trends in the past.

Selection of location of retail store:

Retail businesses also base very important decisions, such as whether or not to open a store at a

certain location, based on the expected traffic this store will get. A high foot traffic means the

location has a good potential to generate high sales.

Footfall is KPI:

Footfall is the key performance indicator of the retail stores.

Footfall Calculation methods:

Footfall is also included in some calculations in retail, such as The Sales Equation and

the conversion KPI, which is an important performance indicator for any retail business to help it

assess the customer service level and shopping experience at the store.

Footfall decide the customer trend:

Footfall in the retail store decides the customer trend. When organizations continuously measure

the decrease of the footfall then it means sales is dropping. It gives an alarming sign to the

organization, as it is now time to change the marketing strategy.

Best ways to increase Foot Falls:

1-Events are the best ways to increase the footfall in the retail stores.

1- Organized Events

2- Celebrations

3- Festival celebration

4- Musical shows

5- Bridal shows

6- Kids modeling shows.

7- Exhibitions

8- Event based strategies.

9- Upcoming events

10- Lucky draws

Retail stores must be flexible and should always try to find new ways of businesses.

2 - Focused on target audience

Fulfill the demands and needs of the audience and target customers.

3 – Ambience and location of the store ‘

Retail store ambience and location is very crucial for increasing the footfall.

4 – Staff Training and attitude

Service Blueprint:

A service blueprint is a diagram that visualizes the relationships between different service

components.

1- people

2- physical or digital evidence

3- processes — that are directly tied to touchpoints in a specific customer journey.

Like customer-journey maps, blueprints are instrumental in complex scenarios spanning many

service-related offerings. Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are:

1- omnichannel

2- multiple touchpoints

3- require a cross functional effort.

A service blueprint corresponds to a specific customer journey and the specific user goals

associated to that journey. This journey can vary in scope. Thus, for the same service, you may

have multiple blueprints if there are several different scenarios that it can accommodate. For

example, with a restaurant business, you may have separate service blueprints for the tasks of

ordering food for takeout versus dining in the restaurant.

Service blueprints should always align to business goals

1-reducing redundancies

2-improving the employee experience

3-converging siloed processes.

Benefits of Service Blueprinting

Comprehensive Understanding:

Service blueprints give an organization a comprehensive understanding of its service and the

underlying resources and processes that are seen and unseen to the user.

Increase Focusing:

Focusing on this larger understanding (alongside more typical usability aspects and individual

touchpoint design) provides strategic benefits for the business.

Discover weakness:

Blueprints are treasure maps that help businesses discover weaknesses. Poor user experiences are

often due to an internal organizational shortcoming. While we can quickly understand what may

be wrong in a user interface (bad design or a broken button), determining the root cause of a
systemic issue (such as corrupted data or long wait times) is much more difficult. Blueprinting

exposes the big picture and offers a map of dependencies, thus allowing a business to discover a

weak leak at its roots.

Identify opportunities for optimization:

Blueprints help identify opportunities for optimization. The visualization of relationships in

blueprints uncovers potential improvements and ways to eliminate redundancy. For example,

information gathered early on in the customer’s journey could possibly be repurposed later on

backstage. This approach has three positive effects:

(1) customers are delighted when they are recognized the second time and the service feels

personal and they save time and effort;

(2) employee time and effort are not wasted regathering information;

(3) no risk of inconsistent data when the same question isn’t asked twice.

Improves Cross Department Efforts:

Blueprinting is most useful when coordinating complex services because it bridges cross

department efforts. Often, a department’s success is measured by the touchpoint it owns.

However, users encounter many touchpoints throughout one journey and don’t know (or care)

which department owns which touchpoint. While a department could meet its goal, the big-

picture, organization-level objectives may not be reached.

Unconcealed the Hidden areas:

The Service blueprint helps in the understanding of complete customer journey in the.

organizations. It unconcealed the dependencies of the different departments. It highlights the

pitfalls and the real experience of the customers. This way, it helps upper management to improve

those areas to make performance better for the next time.

Service blueprint of a retail Store

Interviewee:

Qualification: HEC approved MBA. Marketing manager in Gift University. MBA from

Lahore University of Management sciences(LUMS),Pakistan.

Experience: Marketing Manager

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction

Mr. earn his MBA(master of business administration) from LUMS university Pakistan in 2021.

He has vast teaching, research,marketing and how to develop the strategies . Right now, he is

working as Marketing manager in Gift University .

Important points that we draw after conversation with Mr.

Retail marketing:

Retail marketing encompasses all of the ways a consumer business attracts customers and

generates sales of its goods and services. Retail marketing strategies touch virtually everything in

a company’s operations, including signage, store layout, sales and promotions, pricing strategies,

advertising, checkout processes, and customer service.retail marketing has two part.

3. Commercial

4. Conventional

Commercial retail marketing :

 Commercial marketing is efforts to promote and sell products profitably. The keyword here is

profit. That is the antithesis of social marketing, which has a non-profit motive and seeks to

educate consumers about collective social issues.

 Purpose: the purpose of commercial marketing is to make a profit by selling a product.

 Target: people who are willing to buy products to satisfy their needs and wants.
 Marketing strategy: less attention towards marketing values while developing strategies. The
main focused areas are revenue and cost.

Conventional marketing:
Conventional marketing is also known as traditional marketing.in this we do marketing in
traditional and old ways which are listed below.

Print marketing: Advertise in paper form and it often makes use of the newspaper. Although

print marketing is the oldest form of advertising, now-a-days it lags behind the digital form of

marketing via Internet

Broadcast marketing: This includes advertisements through television and radio. With the

technological advancements in the form of the internet, radio is outdated, but still proves effective

for advertisements. The efficiency can depend on what age you are targeting with your marketing.

Direct mail marketing: In this form of marketing printed materials are in the form of brochures

and sent directly to houses. Postcards and letters were used for sales promotional activities.
Interviewee:

Qualification: HEC approved MBA. Marketing manager in Gift University. MBA from

Lahore University of Management sciences(LUMS),Pakistan.

Experience: Marketing Manager

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction

Mr. earn his MBA(master of business administration) from LUMS university Pakistan in 2021.

He has vast teaching, research,marketing and how to develop the strategies . Right now, he is

working as Marketing manager in Gift University .

Important points that we draw after conversation with Mr.

Retail marketing:

Retail marketing encompasses all of the ways a consumer business attracts customers and

generates sales of its goods and services. Retail marketing strategies touch virtually everything in

a company’s operations, including signage, store layout, sales and promotions, pricing strategies,

advertising, checkout processes, and customer service.retail marketing has two part.

5. Commercial

6. Conventional

Commercial retail marketing :

 Commercial marketing is efforts to promote and sell products profitably. The keyword here is

profit. That is the antithesis of social marketing, which has a non-profit motive and seeks to

educate consumers about collective social issues.

 Purpose: the purpose of commercial marketing is to make a profit by selling a product.

 Target: people who are willing to buy products to satisfy their needs and wants.
 Marketing strategy: less attention towards marketing values while developing strategies. The
main focused areas are revenue and cost.

Conventional marketing:
Conventional marketing is also known as traditional marketing.in this we do marketing in
traditional and old ways which are listed below.

Print marketing: Advertise in paper form and it often makes use of the newspaper. Although

print marketing is the oldest form of advertising, now-a-days it lags behind the digital form of

marketing via Internet

Broadcast marketing: This includes advertisements through television and radio. With the

technological advancements in the form of the internet, radio is outdated, but still proves effective

for advertisements. The efficiency can depend on what age you are targeting with your marketing.

Direct mail marketing: In this form of marketing printed materials are in the form of brochures

and sent directly to houses. Postcards and letters were used for sales promotional activities.

Customer driven price strategy: set price after understanding consumer insight through

understanding and interpretation of customer data, behaviors and feedback after collecting all the

data draw conclusion that can improve product development and customer supports.

Pricing strategy: pricing strategy should be set according to ability to pay ,market

conditions,competitors etc
Competitor: set your pricing stratefy after analyzing the competitor what they are providing and

what is their pricing strategy. Set product's prices in line with competitor prices.

Behavior of people: Set prices according to customer behavior of buying product analyze how

people feel and think when they are deciding whether to buy a product. consumer behavior,

research tells what people buy, when and how often they buy it, where they usually buy it, why

they buy it and more.

Nominal discounts:give discount is reduction on current price.before setting price focus on

nominal discount.

Complementary goods: give two or more goods that are typically consumed or used together, in such

way a change in the price or availability of one good will affects the demand for the other good.

Bundling :sell products in bundling and set price according to bundling instead of giving one

product give bundle.

Shelf positioning assortments: where the product should be located in a retail store shelf. It

could be top, eye, middle, or bottom shelf. Products can also be placed next to your own brand, a

competitor brand, or complementary items.

Price parity: while setting price strategy focus on price parity reveals a global vision of your

vertical and consequently, an advantage over your rivals. Often competitors can have products at

a lower price than the one you have in your store.

FMCG price : Fast-Moving Consumer Goods products sold quickly and relatively cheaply.

Retail stores should give more discount and set the prices of FMCG products comparatively low

then others some examples of FMCG products include packaged foods, beverages, toiletries,

cosmetics, cleaning supplies, and other low-cost household items.

Footfall increase:

Seasonal promotion: seasonal promotion is important to increase footfall because it gives

retailers the ability to connect with existing customers and entice new ones at a time when they're

most likely to buy. It will help to Attract attention to your business and increase brand

awareness. Boost product sales and revenue at certain times of a year. Increase visibility among

your customers.

Interviewee: Dr Qasim Saleem

Qualification: HEC Approved Ph.D. Supervisor, Assista Professor, Ph.D. Finance

University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Malaysia

Experience: Teaching and Retail Marketing

Interview Duration: 00:30

Introduction:

Dr. Qasim Saleem earned his Ph.D. in Finance with focus on Corporate Finance from the

Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Malaysia.

Earlier he got his M.Phil (Finance) from Lahore Business school , University of Lahore, Lahore

and MBA (Finance) from Punjab University. He has vast teaching, research, and Industrial and

corporate experience. He has also served in the management positions of GIFT University. Right

now, he is working as head of the Department of Management Sciences, GIFT Business School.

Moreover, his research work has been published and presented in internationally recognized

conferences and Journals.

His experience also includes launching degree programs and courses in the field of Business

Studies and Management Sciences. He has conducted numerous national and international

workshops, currently teaching MS, MBA and BBA level courses. Dr. Qasim also supervises

dissertations and currently a few students are working on their theses under his supervision. His

experience also includes working with multinational and national companies on different projects

in the areas of Corporate Finance.

Important points that we draw after conversation with Sir Qasim.

Retail marketing:

Retail Marketing globally has focus the FMGCs. Fast-moving consumer goods is a big market that

occupy a wide range of products, including food and beverages, personal care products, household

care, and other home appliances.

It is a highly competitive market due to its extensive product coverage. Therefore, retailers operating in

this industry must understand the market deeply to sustain their business and incrementally grow

profits over time. Retailers must be aware of the FMGCs market trends and keep the products up to

date according to the market demands. Now a days, increasing rate of inflation hurt Retail stores

business. Most of the people in retail stores are price conscious and make less focus on luxury goods.

Inflation has a great effect on the purchasing behavior of the consumer, so people are more towards
saving and price consciousness. The availability of stocks according to the consumers’ needs and

preference generates the high footfall in the retail stores. Two important things need focus in retail

marketing.

Target Audience

Identify the competitors.

Supply Chain:

In the modern era, retail industry has become very competitive. Big chain tries to reduce the cost by

cutting the middlemen and channel. Reducing the supply chain and becoming direct to the different

manufacturing companies. It cuts the cost of freight and other transportation costs. Besides that, stock

level in retail stores must be streamlined in order to fulfill the customer demands. Retail supply chain is

important due to below mentioned factors.

1-Manage inventory costs

2-Avoid stockouts

3-Build customer trust

4--Gain competitive advantage

Manage inventory costs:

The greatest cost that retail stores bear is the inventory management cost. It depends on the ordering

and holding stocks in the warehouse. The proper management of the stocks and flow of inventory

reduce its cost. It is the main factor that helps the retail stores to reduce their costs.

Avoid Stockouts:

Stockout is the major turnoff for the customers. Mostly customer switch their retail stores due to this

factor.it affects the retailers’ profits as it hurt the buying behavior of the customer.

Build customer trust:

Customers of retail stores are always happy when they find the products they want on the shelves in

better and prominent way. They want things they want to buy, easily get without any fatigue. If they

have to move one place to another it may hurt them. It directly hit the trust of customers and their future

visits.

Gain competitive advantage:

Competitive advantage is mostly gained in the retail outlets by adopting an efficient supply chain. It

leads to higher profits.

Diversify your Products:

Multiple options and the range of products gives the customer choices so they can buy the product

according to their budget and needs. Retail stores bring these things into the market to save the

customer time and cost. Instead of hoping in the open market from shop to shop, they find these easy-
to-get products from one place. It is always a wonderful idea to display a variety of the same products

in the shelves.

Customer Perception:

Customer in the Gujranwala is price conscious. They want low-price products. Retail stores

must compete the prices with Imtiaz store and try to change the customer perception by giving

them knowledge through staff about the prices. Income of the people reduced after the high

inflation. So, they want the option where they can save maximum.

Footfall Increase:

Big retail stores chain makes their focus on the footfall, it is a indication of the customers likes and

dislikes as well. In a retail store a person will stay for hardly 15-20 minutes and will form their

perception about the area. So, it requires multiple other options to increase the footfall.

Attach other brands:

Make collaborations with famous brands.

Ladies’ garments brands:

Ladies garment s store are always a hotspot, new collection in every season and seasonal sales

is always makes female interesting in shopping and watching clothes.

Kids Areas:
Kids zone, different types of puppets shows and cartoons characters to attract the kids to the

retail store.

Car repairing & Washing Areas:

Install Car repairing and washing areas in the retail store, so that if people visit retail store,

they have multiple options to avail and they save their time.

Different activities in the premises will generate footfall and attract the multiple segments of

the Gujranwala.

Incentives for students:

Distribute different discount offers for the students.

Price comparision of retail store in Gujranwala

Products Imtiaz Chase up Al fatah Rain bow Carrefour

Oil 590 595 589 587 488

Sugar 145 155 160 160 160

Rice 289 290 295 293 275

Detergent 617 618 620 620 619

Soap 100 110 175 174 125

Daal 200 210 215 215 222

Lemon max 35 35 38 39 39

Shampoo 789 790 795 792 795

Harpic 230 235 275 275 270

Tea 1445 1455 1495 1490 1490

Milk 390 395 245 240 245

Tooth paste 140 143 150 150 155

Total 4970 5031 5052 5035 4883

Bar chart for price comparison

Product availability

Products Carrefour Imtiaz Cahse up Rain bow Alfatah

Oil Available Available Available Available Available

Sugar Available Available Available Available Available

Tooth Not Available Available Available Available

paste available

Tea Available Available Available Available Available

Lemon Available Available Available Available Available

max

Soap Available Available Available Available Available

Milk Available Available Available Available Available

Unique selling point of stores

Stores Usp

Imtiaz
Provide the customers top rated

products on the lowest rates.

Chase up Low price and good quality.

Rain bow Toys section is their usp no one

has the range of toys which they

have

Al- Fatah

Wast range of crockery is their

usp
 Carrefour

Comparison of stock keeping unit availability

Imtiaz

Sku,s 230ml 240ml 600ml 1 liter

Products

Oil Available Available Available Available

Juice Available Available Available Available

Milk Available Available Available Available

Yogurt Available Available Available Available

Kg,s 1kg 3kg 5kg 10 kg

Rice Available Available Available Available

Sugar Available Available Available Available

Comparison of stock keeping unit availability

Rain bow

Sku,s 230ml 240ml 600ml 1 liter

Products

Oil Not Not Not Available

Available Available Available

Juice Available Available Available Available

Milk Available Available Available Available

Yogurt Available Available Available Not

Available

Kg,s 1kg 3kg 5kg 10 kg

Rice Available Available Available not

Available

Sugar Available Available Available Not

 Available

Comparison of stock keeping unit availability

Al -Fatah

Sku,s 230ml 240ml 600ml 1 liter

Products

Oil Not Not Not Available

Available Available Available

Juice Available Available Available Available

Milk Available Available Available Available

Yogurt Available Available Available Not

Available

Kg,s 1kg 3kg 5kg 10 kg

Rice Available Available Available Not

Available

Sugar Available Available Available Not

 Available

Comparison of stock keeping unit availability

Carrefour

Sku,s 230ml 240ml 600ml 1 liter

Products

Oil Not Not Not Available

Available Available Available

Juice Available Available Not Available

Available

Milk Available Available Available Not

Available

Yogurt Not Not Available Not

Available Available Available

Kg,s 1kg 3kg 5kg 10 kg

Rice Available Available Available not

Available

Sugar Available Available Available Not

 Available

Comparison of stock keeping unit availability

Chase up

Sku,s 230ml 240ml 600ml 1 liter

Products

Oil Available Available Available Available

Juice Available Available Available Available

Milk Available Available Available Available

Yogurt Available Available Available Available

Kg,s 1kg 3kg 5kg 10 kg

Rice Available Available Available Available

Sugar Available Available Available Available

Comparison of all stores cleaness, shelf setting, ambiance, aisle setting

Carrefour
Chase up
Al- Fatah
Rainbow
Imtiaz
Comparison with the Carrefour Lahore and UAE

Carrefour Gujranwala comparison Lahore Carrefour and UAE Carrefour. UAE and Lahore Carrefour

stands out due to its larger store size, offering a wider range of products compared to Gujranwala

Carrefour. The stores provides a more extensive selection of groceries, household items, electronics,

and clothing. Additionally, they have a spacious layout, making it easier to navigate and find what you

need. On the other hand, Gujranwala Carrefour have a smaller store size and a slightly more limited

product range. However, there is huge difference between the store orientation, ambiance cleanness and

customer services .If we see in Lahore 3types of counters are there.

1. General counter

2. One contest which entertain up to 10 items only.

3. Self-scanning ( customer pay by their self’s go)

Gujranwala Carrefour faced challenges due to various reasons differences in market demand,

competition, and local consumer preferences. Additionally, the economic and demographic factors of

each city and impact the performance of a retail brand. It is important to consider that success in one

location does not guarantee the same outcome in another. Each market has its own unique dynamics,

and brands need to adapt their strategies accordingly to meet the specific needs and preferences of

consumers in each location.

We have done some real time comparison with pictures given below:
Research Method

Thematic Research

Qualitative Data Collection Method:

4- Interviews of Academic Marketing Experts

5- Retail Outlets Marketing Managers and General Store Managers

6- Ghost Customer

Quantitative Data Collection Method:

2 types of Questionnaires

3- Customer Perception Survey

4- Service Quality Survey

Interpretation of Data Collection

Customer Perception survey

Respondents Demographics

Parameters

9- Price

10- Service Quality

11- Location

12- Ambience
 13- Cleanliness

14- Convenience to reach.

15- Easiness to locate Products

Perceptual Map Model:

Perceptual mapping is the visual representation of consumer perceptions of brands, products,

services, and organizations. Indeed, perceptual mapping asks consumers to place competing

products relative to one another on a graph to assess how they perform with respect to each other

in terms of perception.

We use perception mapping to access the Carrefour perception in the consumer mind as compared

to the other competitor in the Gujranwala city. It helps to identify the gaps in the marketing

strategy and help to improve company marketing strategy towards main objective and goals.

perceptual maps are an excellent tool for communicating and analyzing

positioning.

We collect date about customer perception. We visited 5 main stores in of the

Gujranwala and asked 5 customers review from 5 different retail stores in the

Gujranwala.

Retail Stores in Gujranwala:

6- Imtiaz Super Store

7- Carrefour

8- Rainbow
 9- Chase up Super Store

10- Al-Fateh

Carrefour and Al-Fateh are the international brands but the remaining three

Imtaiz, Chase up and Rainbow are the local brands.

Questionnaire (Appendix )

5- Comparison of Price and Variety

6- Comparison of Price and Service quality

7- Location & Easiness to reach

8- Staff Behavior & Store Convenience

Retail Stores
Wide Choice

Imtiaz

Chase Up

Price
High
Price
Low

Rainbow AL- Fateh

Carrefour

Limited Choice

1- Comparison of Product Price and Service Quality

Retail Stores
Low Quality

Rainbow Chase Up Imtiaz

Carrefour AL- Fateh

Price
High
Price
Low

High Quality
1- Location & accessibility

Retail Stores
not good

Rainbow Chase Up Imtiaz

Carrefour AL- Fateh

Not eas-
acess-
able
ily
acess-
Easily
able

Good
4 – Store Ambiance & Store Convenience
 Retail Stores
Convenient

Rainbow Chase Up Imtiaz

Carrefour AL- Fateh

Excel-
lent
Bad

Inconvienet

Strategic Group Map:

 Chart Title
High Imtiaz - Low price

- highvariety

- high sales

Chaseup
fairprices
Product goodVari-
ety
variety

Carrefour
high price
low vari-
ety

Low

Product Price High

Low

Servqual Model:

Services are intangible, heterogeneous, and inseparable. In the service industry it is always very

crucial for the company to measure the services so that they can evaluate the service standards to

increase customer satisfaction and find the areas where they lack. From many years different

instruments have been developed for measuring services quality. Among these models,

SERVQUAL(Parasuramanetal.,1985) model is the most prominent and most used model for

measuring service quality.

Five key areas

It has five key areas where we measure the service quality of the organization.
Tangible

Reliability

Responsiveness

Assurance

Empathy

Perception and Expectation

Through questionnaires we collect both data of perception and expectation. Perception is about

customer experience and their decision and thinking after the visit of retail store. Expectation

score shows the data what they want what it should be.

Gap:

The gap is Expectation- Perception score. From the gaps we can analyze the lacks in the service

quality of the organization. gaps emerge when there is a discrepancy between

the needs or wants of the consumer and the services the organization

provides.
Types of Gaps in the Serqual model:

The serqual model measure five gaps that can occur between customer’s expectations and

the services provided by the organization.

These are as follow

 Knowledge gap

A gap in the service arises if the organization is not aware of what customer wants. If the

organization fails to understand customers' expectations, it will prevent them from serving

customers better.

Standards gap

The organization has already formulated its ideas about what kind of services the customer wants.

These ideas do not match up with what customers really want. There is, therefore, a high chance

that the organization will translate them incorrectly into a quality policy and set of rules.

Delivery gap

Let's assume that the organization has clearly understood what the customer wants (no knowledge

gap) and has appropriately formulated the customer's needs into their policies and work processes

(no standard gap). Still, there is a possibility that the organization might fail to deliver the service

in the planned way. This will be the delivery gap.

Communications gap

To avoid creating false expectations or misleading promises, organizations should ensure that

their external communications accurately reflect what they can deliver. Over-promises and under-

delivery could raise customer expectations high, and the organization fails to deliver at that

standard. This will be the communication gap.

To reduce the risk of communication gaps, organizations should ensure that they communicate

clearly about their products or services.

Satisfaction gap

Customers are unhappy because they expect a certain level of service but get something different.

Eventually, customers will be dissatisfied with the product or service they receive

Gap Diagram:

Applied on Carrefour:

We applied this serqual model on the Carrefour for measuring the service quality of the

organization. We use 22 questions-based instruments for collecting data ( appendix )

Data we have collected showing the following result about the service quality of the Carrefour

Service Blueprint:

Issues and pain points we find out while using the Service Blueprint model.
 3 5 6
1 4

7- Issues related to ambience.

8- Welcoming staff
 9- Absence of Guiding Map of Category of

10- Cleanliness issues /Untidy Racks

11- Less Variety of products

12- Billing issues

Poor Ambience

The shopping experience of the customer is the most important factor for the success of any

type of retail store. It must be innovative and different to compete with rivals Shopping

experience depend on the three things:

1. Merchandise

2. Customer support

3. Store Ambience

In the era of globalization, competition among businesses is increasing day by day.

People like to shop in a good atmosphere, which in retail is the store ambience. The store

ambience is an environment that is created by visual communications, lighting, music,

colors to generate a stimulus among the customer’s perceptions & emotions that will

affect their purchasing behavior. Now a days stores have been a hotspot for youth

entertainment. The youth like to visit, mostly impressed by the ambience of retail shops.

It is one of the important factors for increasing footfall in the retail shops. Comfortable

feeling in the ambience makes easier the shopping regardless of heavy burden of prices.

Carrefour Gujranwala ambience is not up to the standard as compared to the competitors

in the Gujranwala. Ambience gives a bored feeling. A poor ambience will have a

negative effect on the presentation of the customers.

Absence of Guiding Map:

A visual display at the entrance of the stores improves the customer’s ease to locate the products

that he or she wants. Without any guiding category board, customers find it fatiguing to find

products. It has been observed that there is no guiding category map at the front of Carrefour

store. No guiding staff or frontline staff to greet the customers.

Greeting Staff:

A small greeting between customer and sales staff is a great way to break the ice and gives the shopper the

caring gesture to the customers. It helps to build a connection between the customer and salesperson. Rude

and careless behavior leaves odd feelings for the customer.

Problems arises from absence of greeting:

Lack of acknowledgment

Lack of acknowledgement is one of shopper’s biggest complaints about shopping and it could be

a contributing factor to why one Salesforce report found that only 32% visit stores because they

enjoy the experience.

The greeting is the first impression that customers get of your brand, at least as it relates to that

specific in-person experience. A good customer greeting is one of the factors of the customer’s

first shopping experience. It has been observed that there is an absence of greeting staff in the

carrefour. Mainly at the entrance one attendant to say customers few words like

“Good afternoon, good evening”.

“Sir or Madam, May I help you?”

“Can I help you to find required product.”

Only in the makeup section and Electronics, few attendants are prompt to help customers and

interested to show products to the customers.

Cleanliness issues /Untidy Racks:

Today’s retail environment is more competitive than ever. Big retail companies of local

and global chains are launching their own apps, installing the latest technology in their

locations, and offering an omnichannel shopping experience. It makes the retail industry

the most competitive industry in the world. Uncleanliness and unmanaged inventory are a

big retail turnoff for the customers and shoppers.

A recent Harris Poll surveyed U.S. customers to find out what their biggest retail

turnoffs are, and the results may surprise you. A clean, well-maintained store makes a

huge difference in whether customers will return to a particular store. Dirty racks and

tearing packages is the biggest turnoff for customer, company will bear heavy loss of

customer by not providing them cleanliness services up to the standards. It has been

observed that many racks and products in the carrefour are untidy, and there is a lot of

dust on the racks. Products are placed poorly. For all that lacks Carrefour is bearing

heavy costs by losing their potential customers. It is one of the factors that its footfall is

decreasing day by day.

Less Variety of Products:

Stock shortage and less variety at the retails store as compared to the competitor is also a big

turnoff for the customers. Today’s customers want more variety and range in the products.

Carrefour Gujranwala is facing less variety available in the and low level of sale person

knowledge issues. It is hurting customer satisfaction and customers are switching towards other

options for their monthly grocery.

Billing Counters:
Less trained staff at the counters is causing a situation for the customers. It has been observed that

customers with billing issues are many. It is another touchpoint area where customer experience.

The checkout counter is the heavy hitter in turning prospects into paying customers. This your

final shot to increase customer satisfaction customers, but it’s alsoa last opportunity to put your

employees’ suggestive selling to work.

Your checkout counter is more than just a place to swipe or tap credit cards; it’s a major selling

opportunity. Whether it’s training your staff on cross-selling techniques or revamping your set up.

These are the main value addition areas where the concerned department lacks, we select a ghost

customer to check these areas. Customer satisfaction and trained staff are crucial points for any

service company where customers make their decision for further visits and create word of

mouth. Carrefour lacks at major these areas are creating hurdles in achieving the positioning

objectives for the customer.

Traditional Marketing Strategy to Increase Footfall in the Carrefour

Gujranwala and Improve the Customer perception.

Market Segmentation

Target Market

Service Marketing Mix

Product

Price

Place
Promotion

Physical Evidence

People

Process

Conclusion

Recommendation
References:

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/servqual/

https://fourweekmba.com/servqual-model/

https://www.ipsos.com/en/ipsos-encyclopedia-behavioural-loyalty

https://theharrispoll.com/briefs/leveraging-the-brand-pyramid/

https://www.segmentationstudyguide.com/all-about-positioning/positioning-and-the-marketing-

mix/

https://www.retaildogma.com/footfall/

https://www.retaildogma.com/drive-traffic-to-retail-store/

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-blueprints-definition/

“An empirical assessment and application of SERVQUAL in a Mainland Chinese department

store”

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiande-Zhao-2/publication/229035474_An_empirical_asses

sment_and_application_of_SERVQUAL_in_a_Mainland_Chinese_department_store/links/

54e4705e0cf2b2314f610203/An-empirical-assessment-and-application-of-SERVQUAL-in-a-

Mainland-Chinese-department-store.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349847728

“Creating a Difference – The Store Ambience in Modern Day Retailing

“https://globaljournals.org/GJMBR_Volume11/1-Creating-a-Difference-The-Store-Ambience-in-

Modern-Day-Retailing.pdf#:~:text=People%20like%20to%20be%20in%20good%20atmosphere
%2C%20which,%26%20emotions%20that%20will%20affect%20their%20purchasing

%20behavior.

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/retail-turnoffs.html

Appendix