C K Tang A Case Study Marketing Essay

This article is about the marketing strategies that should be used by the C K Tang company. C k Tang Company has various activities like departmental store retailing and merchandising. Which are general? It has other stores also like its flagship store for selling huge range of merchandise, fashion store named as Tangs studio and also the Tangs studio shoes and Tangs shoes shop. At present the location of the Tang studio is in the flagship store and shoes shops are located in Center point and Causeway point. Here we are going to discuss about the philosophy of Tangs like honesty, value for money etc also about its aim, mission, objectives and strategies that are implemented by this company in the market. In this article we are going to discuss various marketing strategies like Re-posting strategies, product strategies which are directly related with the products of this company, price strategy which includes how prices should be set by the company, place strategy and many more for C K Tang Company.

REPOSITIONING STRATEGY:

Repositioning strategies are the strategies which involves the identity change of a product, repositioning can be relative to the identity of the product produced by us and in the minds that are collective of the target market. Repositioning strategies should be adopted by the C K Tangs Company to change the identity of the product and it should be dependent on the taste and specially the demand of the people of Singapore. One of the repositioning is done in the brands which mean changing the positioning of a brand. For example the fashion store of C K Tangs Company was positioned as the latest fashionable things store for children and this was not related to its core values. C K fashion store, the parent brand (fashionable clothes) was known for its futures to sell fashionable clothes to the people of Singapore according to the taste of the local people. So this store or brand had needs repositioning and after the repositioning they are going to fare extremely well in the market. This is one of the best examples of repositioning in the C K Tangs Company and this company should apply this strategy if they want to grow uniquely in the market of Singapore. Repositioning in the C K Tangs company should be applied by:

Increasing relevance to the consumers by providing different types of fashionable products like shoes etc, Repositioning should be applied by making the brands very serious like their brands of clothes, shoes etc. (Ries, 2003)

The most important thing for repositioning that should be kept in mind by the C K Tangs company is bringing in the new customers. Though, C K Tangs is already providing the latest fashion clothes at the low price with a strategy to bring in the new customers. More strategies should be adopted for bringing the new customers because this helps in repositioning policies. Repositioning can be applied in various brands of C K Tangs Company like the brands of shoes etc and this should be done by the company by making the brands contemporary. This company should follow some suggestions for using the repositioning like they should identify the performance pathway signals that should convey and convince the customers of the position of new brand. They should develop programs related to products or services for ensuring the continuous performance of the signals mentioned above. Repositioning is considered as the good strategies so one of the advantages of repositioning is moving a product. The meaning is to move any product in the minds of the customer to a different place. It helps in setting the mind of the customers towards the particular product or service. So C K Tangs Company should use the repositioning strategies to set the minds of the customers towards their product in the Singapore.

PRODUCT STRATEGY:

Product is that thing which decides the establishment and success of the company so every business company needs strategies related to the product which they are deciding to launch in the market. C K Tangs company have used different product strategies which include the type of product which is based on the taste of the local people etc and it also includes the strategies for the production, supply and distribution of the products to the customer. They have always launched the product with the different strategies like they made strategy of their product which is fashionable clothing and accessories but they still need ways for making product strategy. When C K Company introduce their product in the market they should ask themselves some of the questions for the product strategy and these are what is the product aimed at? What benefits they are expecting? Other questions that they should ask themselves are how do they plan for positioning the product in the market? And the last question to be asked them is what differential advantage will the product offer over the competitors in the market?

Before product strategy this company should keep in mind that marketing is not only the thing for giving products and services but they should keep in mind that market is essentially about providing changing benefits to the needs which are also changing and also the demands of the customer. C K Tangs Company should view the products in different levels like firstly they should see the core product, then the actual product and at the last they should look at the augmented product. The best market factors and decisions that should be considered by this company before placement of product are:

Design of the product, the quality of product, different features of the product which also includes the unique features that the competitor’s product don’t have and the last and the most important is branding. C K Tangs should follow all these factors to get success in the whole market of Singapore.

PRICE STRATEGY:

For every company the price of their product is very important and various strategies are needed by the company for pricing their product. The main problem that C K Tang Company is facing is of sales and their market share. So for removing this type of problem they are suggested to adopt the penetration pricing strategies in which they should set a low price of their product and this is going to help them in increasing the sales of their product and also their market share. Another pricing strategy that should be used by the C K Tang company is the competition pricing strategy. In which the price is set in comparison to the price of the product of their competitors. This company has many competitors in the market so before setting price for their product they should take into consideration the price of the competitors. For example if the price of the shoes of the competitor is around $100 then C K Tang company should set a price of $90 for the same quality shoe to be sold in the market. This strategy is going to help them in increase of demands and the large profits and also in capturing the whole market step by step. Pricing strategy for the tourists should be done in the different manner which should be based on the type and budgets of tourists. This strategy is needed by the C K Tangs company because exchange has made it cheaper for the tourists to visit Singapore. C K Tang should focus on the maximum merchandise at affordable prices for attracting more and more customers. (Learning objectives)

PROMOTION STRATEGY:

Promotion of a product means to make the product that ties launched in the market popular by the owner of that product. C K Tang should follow a promotion strategy in which they should hire some individuals for promoting their new launched product like they launched the Citibank Tangs Visa Card so to make it more popular among the audience they should follow third strategy. They should use the local magazines and local newspapers for the promotion of their retailer shop business C K Tangs company should follow the sales promotion strategy in their retail, shoes etc for increasing the sales in the short term and they should use the promotional strategies like money off coupons and special offers on various items. The two types of strategies that must be followed by the C K Tangs company for promoting their different business products are push and pull strategies. A push strategy uses the sales force of company and also promotion activities related to trade and its purpose is same that to create demand for their product by the consumers. They should use this strategy for their fashion store as the product is promoted by producer to wholesalers, then the wholesalers promote it to retailers and finally from them it is promoted to the consumers. The strategy of push promotion helps in selling directly to the consumer for example selling credit cards directly. (Product strategies)

Another strategy that should be used by them is the pull strategy. Though this strategy requires more spending on advertisement and consumer promotion for building demand but for C K Tangs Company this strategy is very helpful because they have a business of retailing. A very good example of pull strategy is the advertising and promotion which should be very heavy of children’s cloth according to new fashion mainly on the television. This company should adopt the updated promotional strategies like the full promotion of their updated fashion clothing and accessories to people know about their updated. So, all these strategies must be followed by C K Tangs Company to grow at rapid rate in the market.

PLACE STRATEGY:

For each and every business company in the whole world, place plays a very important role in its set up and its success. From the starting of the business to the success or failure of business, place has a very big hand in all these things. The best thing about C K Tangs Company is place where it is at present. This company is situated at the Orchard road and this place is correct because it is easily reachable by buses, cars and the other means of transport. The Orchard road where this company is situated is always packed with the shoppers all the time and specially on weekends and on the holidays of public. These all things help this company in increasing the demands of their products as every time they are surrounded by the people. This company is opening its store day by day so they should follow various things related to place.

The main thing for the selection of the place is totally based on the products that are to be sold. For example if we want to open a non vegetarian restaurant then the best place for this type of restaurant is the place where majority of population favors non vegetarian things. So the C K Tangs should keep in mind the product and then decide the place accordingly. If they want to open the new store for selling the fashionable clothes and accessories for young people then they should open in the place where major population consists of young people or the place which is regularly visited by the youth with the demand of fashionable clothes and accessories. They should also keep in mind that this place should be easily visited by the local people of Singapore by buses, taxis etc. They should choose the place which is approved by the government and all the rules should be taken into consideration before opening the shop. So these are strategies that should be adopted by this company for choosing the place. (Keller, 2007)

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY ADVANTAGE:

Competitive strategy is related with how a company is able to get advantage of the competition through a way which is totally distinctive from the competitors in the market. According to the model of porter which is based on the competitive advantage and for creating the defendable position in an industry competitive strategy takes some actions which are offensive or defensive and the main purpose is to face competitive forces successfully and then able to generate a return on investment which is superior. There are three strategies which includes leadership of cost, differentiation and focus. The first strategy is cost leadership strategies in which for a given level of quality it calls for being the producer of low cost in an industry. In the price war C K Tangs Company should produce more cheaply so that they can remain in profit for a long period of time. From the competitive advantage and by keeping cost leadership strategy in consideration this company should target a market which is very broad. Though the market of Singapore is quite broad but in future they should look to find more broad markets. This company should acquire the ways like improvement of process efficiencies, unique access gaining, optimal outsourcing and vertical integration decisions making etc for acquiring cost advantage. This strategy has some risks also so Tangs Company should use this strategy carefully and should apply in the correct place.

Another strategy is the differentiation strategy and this type of strategy demands for the product or service development that offers unique attribute that is appreciated by the customers. Tangs Company should use these differentiation policies like for their fashion store they should use this strategy and should make differentiation on the basis of the new innovations in the clothing sense and the latest accessories according to the likes and dislikes of the different people of Singapore. By giving various discounts on the new fashionable clothes is the way that should be used by the Tangs Company for making differentiation. This uniqueness provided by the company will allow a premium price change for it by the company. All these things also allow the company’s product to be better than and different products that are in competition. Like in the electrical products of Tangs company differentiation should be based on the working capabilities of the electrical components and one electrical product can work for 24 hours in continuation etc should be launched for making the differentiation. These unique features of the product also helps when the prices are increased by the suppliers’ then company may be capable of passing along the costs to its customers and the customers who cannot find the products which act as its substitute.

For making the differentiation strategy the tangs company should have access to the research which are leading in the market; teams for the development of highly skilled and also the creative product; a strong sales team should be developed by the Tangs company which have the ability of communicating the strengths which are perceived by the product successfully. Differentiation should be based on the features like in furniture’s prepared by the Tangs company should have a unique feature of more durability and attracting capabilities and this type of uniqueness are very important for the management of differentiation strategies. For succeeding the most important thing that should be done by this company is making the image of the brand which is strongest in the whole market. Every strategy has risk associated with it and this strategy of making differentiation also have some risks. The most common risk that is associated with this differentiation strategy is the imitation done by the competitors and the changes that occurs in the taste of the people. One of the greatest risks for the differentiation strategy is the firms which uses the focus strategies may be able to get more differentiation in their segments of market.

Another strategy is the focus strategy and it is based on the segments which are narrow and under the limits of this segment attempts are made for achieving either an advantage of cost or differentiation. Tangs Company should sometimes use the focus strategy also because from this the company enjoys the high degree of the loyalty of customer and this loyalty by the customers discourages the other firms or organization from competing directly.

Tangs Company should have lower volumes and must have less powers of bargaining with the suppliers. It is suggested that this company should pursue a strategy that is differentiation-focused and they must be capable of passing higher costs to the customers. The risk related to this strategy is the imitation and target segments changes. So C K Tangs Company should follow these strategies for the competitive advantage and all these differentiation strategies are important for the Tangs Company. (Porter, 1996)

CONCLUSION:

After reading and discussing all the works and strategies of C K Tangs company and suggesting the strategies that they should follow it is concluded that C K Tangs company have so much opportunities because favorable exchange rate has allowed the tourists from Europe and North America to visit Singapore cheaply so all these tourists represents a new market for C K Tangs where they can sell their products. C K Tangs have much weakness but one of the biggest weaknesses of them is that of long term terms that they have taken with banks for financial helps and it is heavily indebted with liabilities so C K Tangs Company should also focus on this. This company has many threats also but all the strategies discussed are going to help them to face all the threats. It is concluded that C K Tangs Company should hire purchase systems for making easier for the customers. The $2.5 million investment of SAP retail is going to help company’s management for long term as it provides the IT infrastructure. The Final conclusion is that If C K Tangs Company follows the above suggested marketing strategies then they will definitely grow in all their business in Singapore and will be able to compete with the competitors as all these strategies are unique and must for every company for marketing.