Carrefour A French Multinational Retailer Marketing Essay

Carrefour A French Multinational Retailer Marketing Essay Introduction Carrefour, a French multinational retailer, was establised by the Fournier and Defforey families as a supermarket in 1959. In 1963, new concept hypermarket, was discovered and invested. Since then, Carrefour owned up to 5,200 stores worldwide, reaching out to 26 countires and region (refer to appendix A). In particular, for Asia, Carrefour have invested in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India as well as Singapore with approximately 361 hypermarkets, 17 supermarkets and 2 other formats of stores (refer to appendix B). Opening its first store in 1997, Carrefour was the first to introduce hypermarket concept in Singapore, where everything can be purchased under one roof (aisaone business 2012; Krishnan 2012). Oxford dictionaries (online) defines hypermarket as a very large self-service store with a wide range of goods and a large carpark typically situated outside a town. Carrefour had two stores in Singapore; Suntec City and Plaza Singapura. Subsequently, in 2000, Giant, a major hypermarket retailer, joined the market, competing with Carrefour. As a result, Carrefour was not progressing well. Reported by numerous news (refer to appendix C), in a press release on 28 August 2011, Carrefour announced the decision to close its two stores in Singapore by the end of 2012. This decision was reached because Carrefour realized that there is no expansion and growth prospect in Singapore that brings them to a leadership position in the long term. Marketing Problem Segmentation/ Customer Research For 15 years, Carrefour has been providing consumers with one-stop service but it did not turn out as expected. Concluded by Krishnan (2012), Carrefour came in with the mind-set that consumers in Singapore would avoid frequent shopping and hence, would buy as much as possible within a trip. Unfortunately, this prediction was not accurate as this behaviour was not seen popular in Singapore. In addition, both Carrefours outlet was located in central hub which in customer perspective brings significant inconvenience such as high travelling cost and traffic congestion. Moreover, Carrefour does not offer unique products that appeal to consumers, enticing them to choose Carrefour over other retailers and local grocery shops (Krishnan 2012). As a result, Carrefour was observed to be targeting at the wrong country and customer segment, facing huge hurdle in attracting consumers with their one-stop shopping proposition, location and products offered. Sales and Distribution Research Being a hypermarket that offers a wide range of food items and non-food items such as appliances and clothing, Carrefour is in a direct competition position with grocery retailer, supermarket such as NTUC FairPrice (Ng 2012) as well as appliances chains such as Best Denki (Krishnan, 2012), which might eventually affect their sales. On top of these competitors, Giant, a hypermarket open by Dairy Farm Group, is their major competitor. Reported by Krishnan (2012), Giant offers consumer lower price, compensating and outweighing travelling cost. Giant is also able to control consumers behaviour as products sold seems to be more appealing to broader segment of market. Hence, with these competitors at hand, Carrefour did not operate as well as expected. Looking at Carrefours 2011 sales report, illustrated in the pie chart below, the highest contributor of 43.2% is France. Aisa, has the lowest contribution of merely 9% which is approximately à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬73 Million (with the closure of Malaysia and Thailand stores). Source: http://www.carrefour.com/cdc/finance/key-figures/our-key-figures-/key-figures-folder/breakdown-sales.html In addition, reported by TODAY news (2012), in 2009, Aisa has accounted for 7.9% of Carrefours total sales of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬85.9 billion, with Singapore contributing only à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬85 Million (TODAY/CNA 2012). Comparing it with 2011 annual report, sales revenue in Singapore have decreased. Therefore, the failed in Carrefour may be due to its strong competition in Singapore with its direct and indirect competititors. Objectives The main purpose of this research proposal is to investigate the perception of consuerms towards Carrefour against their competitors in Singapore. The objectives of the research proposal are as follows: To evaluate Carrefours performance in comparision to its competitors To examine factors influencing consumers behaviour in patronizing its preferred hypermarket/supermarket retailer To ascertain what kind (demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural) of consumer frequent Carrefour To investigate the degree of brand loyalty consumer have towards Carrefour Research Design Research Question With the aim of achieving the objectives set, research questions have to be formulated. The following are some example pertaining to the research proposal. Which of the supermarket respondent most frequent? In selecting a supermarket, what are the factors that respondent consider most? Rate the level of awareness respondent have towards Carrefour (1 being the most and 7 being the least) How frequent do respondent shop at any of Carrefours outlet? What are the prominent difference between Carrefour and other supermarket? Research Method Aliaga and Gunderson (2000) quoted from Muijs (2011, p.1) defines quantitative research as a method that explains the phenomena of collecting numerical data that are analysed using some mathematically based methods, in particular statistics. The researcher will thus be adopting a quantitative approach, employing primary research personal survey method, focusing on the phenomenon of consumers decision for patronizing a supermarket; their intentions, behaviour and attitude (A study on factors considered by consumers for patronizing a retail outlet 2010) and gather information on consumer awareness towards Carrefour compared to its competitiors. Personal Survey Malhotra and Birks (2007, p.265) and Malhotra (2010, p.211) defines survey as a method that gathers information based upon questioning respondents a variety of questions regarding their behaviour, intentions, attitudes, awareness, motivations and demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Most researcher noticed that survey is simple to administer and hence is a popular quantitative measure amongst all. Although it is argued that survey can be uncontrollable as respondents may be unable or unwilling to provide accurate responds (especially to motives or sensitive questions), it is recognised that due to the limited alternatives available, data collected will be consistent across and variability of results will be reduced (Malhotra 2010; Malhotra and Birks 2007; insights from decision point 2012). Rea and Parker (2012) further argues that commercial enterprises often use surveys to formulate market strategies for the potential widespread use, performance of new and existing products as well as finding out their market value. These aligns to the researchers aim and objective, to gather information on factors that affects consumer patronage behaviour as well as perception of consumer towards Carrefour. Furthermore, due to the surveys fixed-response alternative questions nature and consistent data gathered, coding, analysing and interpreting of survey results are relatively simplier for researchers compared to observation or experiment method. Appendix D shows a diverse survey techniques, and compares them against numerous factors, shown on appendix E. Personal interviwing street survey, occurs when respondents are intercepted while shopping or walking on the street (Malhotra and Birks 2007). Personal survey technique is a method to collect relevant data from target group and evaluation becomes easier (A study on factors considered by consumers for patronizing a retail outlet 2010), generalising the entire target population from a small amount of data gathered (Rea Parker 2012). Additionally, personal survey allows the researcher control the environment, to source for potential surveyee personally, collecting data from the right target segment (Gibran 2010; Rea Parker 2012). Moreover, response rate in persoanl survey can be significantly high as compared to other methods such as mail survey and speed of collecting data is also moderately high. Due to the characteristics of personal survey in appendix E, personal survey will be conducted by the researcher on consumers who patronize any supermarket or hypermarket in Singpaore to collect valuable data on their patronizing behaviour and their level of awareness towards Carrefour against their competitors. Formulate a plan Gibran (2010) suggested that, survey techniques includes selecting respondents randomly from the studied population in an unbiased mannar and having a standardized questionnaire for all respondents. However, Rea and Parker (2012) claims that physical characteristics of surveyee such as attire, cleanliness, manners etcetera is important when selecting respondent. On top of that, sample survey, where data will only be collected from a fraction of the studied population (Statistics Canada 2003, p.2; Rea Parker 2012), will be exploited by the researcher. It is noted that sample survey provides a economical and quicker way of obtaining sufficient information in the field. Hence, in this research, studied population refers to a representative number of consumers, particularly middle-aged women, who patronize any supermarket in any given time. As mentioned, there are two different issues. To attain the objectives, the questionnaire will be targetting at these two issues seperately where specific questions will be asked sequentially. First part of the questionnaire will focus on the factors affecting consumer partonage behaviour while the second part on consumers awareness towards Carrefour. Structured questionnaire, the degree of having a standardisation on data collection (Malhotra and Birks 2007), will be executed by the researcher in a formal and prearranged order,thus having a direct collection process. Although unstructured questions allows respondent to best express their attitudes and opinions towards the topic discussed (Malhotra 2010, p. 343), it will not be address as this is a quantitative research. Hence, the questionnaire will only contain structured questions. Most questions in the questionnaire will be in a likert scale (nominal scale) and respondents will be required to rate them accordingly base on their attitudes and behaviour. Rea and Parker (2012) recommends that sample size must be selected in an appropriate microcosm of the working population. They further concludes that larger samples yield higher degree of accurancy than smaller samples and hence researcher have to weigh the degree of accurancy with time and cost available. Analyze Data Before collating the results through computer-assisted programme, coding will be employed to facilitate capturing of data. This means that researcher will be allocating numerical values to every possible result of each question, giving it meaning (Malhotra 2010; Malhotra Birks 2007). Structured questions will be coded before the fieldwork is performed, while for unstructured questions, responses will be coded after the fieldwork (Statistics Canada 2003; Malhotra 2010, p.455). After which, coded values will be stored into the computer to analyse the questionnaires. As explained by Statistics Canada (2003, p.3), computer-assisted programme enables researcher to directly enter questionnaires into the computer and data will be captured and transform into readable format. Another benefit to computer-assisted programme is that inconsistent and invalid data will be identified instantly for researcher, providing a user-friendly and convenient form of identifying invalid data. The computer-assisted programme used will be SPSS, where data will be analysed into tabular or graphical form (Rea Parker 2012), making comparisons and interpret results for statistical analysis that will be reflected in the research proposal. As this research is about consumers behaviour towards patronizing, the research requires multivariate statistical technique where there are two or more measurements of each element and the variables are analysed simultaneously (Malhotra 2010, p.466). As mentioned, this research involves understanding the patronage behaviour. Hence, responses of the factors that affect respondents behaviour are dependent on each other. For example, respondent patronage behaviour will depend on the location, price, products offered etc. As such, referring to appendix F, a classification of multivariate techniques, the researcher is able to evaluate results with several methods such as cross-tabulation. Conclusion In summary, with the intention of discover the factors to consumer behaviour as well as establishing Carrefours market position in Singapore, the researcher have decided to employ personal survey method. Survey results will be analysed through coding followed by SPSS thereafter by the researcher to interpret these surveys into readable tables and graphs. Limitation Survey may seem to be the best suitable method for this research but it is time-consuming. As mentioned, this research is base on sample survey, which implies that it will not be 100% accurate as not everyone in the studied population is surveyed. Expected contribution With the mentioned objectives, and the methods used to meet these objectives, the researcher believes that this research will be able to contribute to Carrefour in analysing the reasons to their failure in Singapore, thus making improvements in other countries. This research can also set Carrefours management to react fast to changes in other international market, expending their market and prospects.

The Scarlet Letter Review :: essays research papers

Adultery, betrayal, promiscuity, subterfuge, and intrigue, all of which would make an excellent coming attraction on the Hollywood scene and probably a pretty good book. Add Puritan ideals and writing styles, making it long, drawn out, tedious, wearisome, sleep inducing, insipidly asinine, and the end result is The Scarlet Letter. Despite all these things it is considered a classic and was a statement of the era. The Scarlet Letter is a wonderful and not so traditional example of the good versus evil theme. What makes this a unique instance of good versus evil is that either side could be considered either one. Hester could very easily have been deduced as evil, or the "bad guy," as she was by the townspeople. That is, she was convicted of adultery, a horrible sin of the time, but maybe not even seen as criminal today. As for punishment, a sentence to wear a scarlet "A" upon her chest, it would hardly be considered a burden or extreme sentence in present day. Or Hester can be seen as rebelling against a society where she was forced into a loveless marriage and hence she would be the "good guy," or girl, as the case may be. Also the townspeople, the magistrates, and Chillingworth, Hester's true husband, can be seen in both lights. Either they can be perceived as just upholding the law -she committed a crime, they enforce the law. On the other hand are they going to extreme measures such as wanting to take Pearl, Hester's daughter, away just because Hester has deviated from the norm, all to enforce an unjust law that does not even apply to this situation? Although the subjects of the novel do apply to important issues in history and could have had influences on the time period, they were not great. During the times and in the Puritan community this did not have a large affect on anything. Sure, they did not want anyone committing adultery, most were killed if convicted, but it was not something that upset their way of living in any permanent manner. To an individual or group who was battling something backward in the Puritan society, as were many things, this would have been an inspirational book and possibly a revelation. In short, this book could have been exceptional; it had all the elements of a superb book.

Book of Exodus Essay

Birthstones are essentially stones with special shapes or colors used for warding off diseases or misfortunes and as facilitators to being about the user’s wishes (Dunwich, 2003). These stones are usually associated with the day or time or month etc. a person is born, hence the name. The use of such stones has been a part of many religions in different parts of the world, and in the modern day too finds many followers. The purpose of this paper is to give a history of the use of stones as symbolic references, and trace their usage as birthstones. Stones as Symbols Stones are the foundation of human civilization. The body of earth comprises of stones of various shapes and sizes, and people from ancient world considered stones as the most stable of all elements, because of its capacity to remain steady. Hence, stones came to be associated with permanence by people from ancient cultures, who gave them special importance as sacred symbols (Tresidder, 2005). Some of the cultures even today follow the practice of worshipping stones which have a special shape. In general, all the ancient cultures stones held a special symbolic value. Tresidder (2005) gives some examples like, the individual standing stones of specific shapes being worshipped, sacrificial stone axes or knives in the Neolithic age, and using stones to mark sacred places or act like altars etc. In funeral ceremony stones were used, as also by certain religion in the modern world for symbolizing eternal life. In addition to the above examples Tresidder (2005) also mentions that the stones having specific shapes, sizes and colors were also used as amulets. Many people used to believe that these stones bring the wearer good luck, while others used them to ward off certain mishaps. Many theorists believe that this was the origin of birthstones as we know today. Gemstones Schumann (1993) says that gemstones have been known to men for more than 7000 years. The earliest gemstones belonging to the precious category were the amethyst, garnet, amber, jade, emerald, turquoise, lapis lazuli etc. Possession of these stones was considered to be a status symbol among the royal and other wealthy people. Hence, these stones came to be associated with power in addition to being used as amulets and talismans. These stones depending on their history were used to sustain health or bring seafaring people safely and mainly to ward off evil. As time passed on, special stones started to have specific meaning based on various myths, legends and symbolic meaning attached to them. (Dunwich, 2003). Schumann (1993) also says that people used these stones as remedies in powdered form as remedies or were placed in contact with the body, a practice followed even today. Gemstones are usually categorized as of precious and semi-precious type. (Schumann, 1993) says that in olden times very few stones were designated as precious stones based on their rarity and beauty. In modern times this number has increased multifold. The semi-precious stones were the stones which were less valuable and not very hard. These stones even today are used to denote the stones which are of lesser value than the precious stones, though the difference between them is not very clear. In present times the quality of stone and at times even their occurrence i. e. natural or synthetic, decides whether a stone is of the precious or semiprecious type. Gemstones associated with Zodiac The association of gemstone with the zodiac was not just associated with a single race or religion in ancient times. Many cultures had similar beliefs. Walker (2002) says that, since ancient times Christians and Jews related certain stones as to the twelve tribes or Israel and to the twelve apostles. Ancient Jewish cabalists believed that the stones each one having an anagrm of the name of the God had mystical power over the twelve angels. This is given by Walker (2002 ) in his book as follows: ruby over Malchediel, topaz over Asmodel, carbuncle over Ambriel, emerald over Muriel, sapphire over Hercel, diamond over Humatiel, jacinth over Zuriel, agate over Barbiel, amethyst over Adnachiel, beryl over Humiel, and jasper over Barchiel. In addition to this, gemstones were also related to the twelve months of the year, twelve parts of the human body, the twelve hierarchies of the devil etc (Walker, 2002). Each sign of the zodiac was associated with a stone and assisted it in exerting its influence over men. The gemstones hence started as being allocated as to the signs of the Zodiac and from these birthstones and month-stones started to emerge. In addition to this the gemstones were also related to medicines. For instance jade was said to be originally applied by the Spanish conquerors as a cure for kidney ailments. The stone was referred to as pie-dras de yjada or the stones of the side i. e. the kidney stones. From the yjada the name jade came (Walker 2002). However Gleadow (2001) says that, while the ancient cultures associated stones as being related to zodiac the wearing of birthstones was not very common in those times. He refers to George Kunz who suggested that this practice arose in Poland in the eighteenth century among the Jewish population there. Walker (2002) also has a similar opinion who mentions that the Jews of Poland related a gemstone to the birth month of the wearer. This was because of their interest in the significance of the original twelve stones in the breast of the Jewish High Priest. The above Jewish practice can be traced back to biblical times, specifically to the breastplate of Aaron (Dunwich, 2003), who was a Hebrew High Priest and a brother of Moses. This breastplate is known as the Breastplate of High Priest and is said to be the oldest amulets known to man. Dunwich (2003) says that according to Bible this breastplate was made of the following gemstones: sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald, sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, and jasper. These twelve stones, as mentioned earlier used to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve months of the year and the twelve signs of the zodiac. Gleadow (2001) says that the most common list of birthstones can be derived from the Book of Revelation, beginning with St. Peter, Aries and the month of March and assuming the Jasper of that month to be red. However, there were many changes made to this list and the list available by different religions or different countries differ a lot and tend to disagree. Also, there is no possibility to get an authentic list because there was no such list to begin with and also the difficulty in recognizing the various gemstones. Gleadow (2001) gives examples for this in his book. He says that the Authorized Version has the reversed order of third and fourth stones in the Book of Exodus. The topazion is said to be a greenish stone, which means that it cannot be the modern day topaz. In addition, the association of the Apostles with the twelve stations also leads to confusion as all the Gospels do not mention the name of the Apostles in the same order. The list is hence different for people in different countries though it holds similar meanings and significances. Hence the lists are different for ancient Jews, Romans, Arabians, Poles, Russians and Italians, even though the source for all these is same.

Visions Of Reforms And Reformation - 1488 Words

Aidan Garfield Professor Lee POLS 1002 26 March 2017 Visions of Reforms and Reformation Compare and contrast Wollstonecraft’s and Marx’s thoughts on the following questions. (a) What does progress consist in? (b) How does progress occur? (c) Where is progress headed? Mary Wollstonecraft and Karl Marx both viewed progress as overcoming an reclaiming a true sense of humanity, but defined that humanity, the means of achieving that humanity, and their general worldview in different ways. Wollstonecraft sought progress by reforming private life virtues through voluntary education and action. She wanted to change the hearts and minds of the people, while Marx sought progress through direct means -- political upheaval and reformation of†¦show more content†¦Wollstonecraft also praised the concept of reason over passions. This is an instance in which political or philosophical timing is important. Wollstonecraft (1999, chap. 1) described reason as a chief component of women’s improvement in direct opposition to the then-popular temperance movement and claimed that the popular adherents of temperance and their â€Å"use of soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste† were contributing to the ir own oppression, similar to the Marx worker contributing to his own alienation. Karl Marx wrote on the systemic issues facing workers and the proletariat in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844. Marx (1993, chap. 9) described the unjust exploitation of workers in almost biblical terms, comparing alienation to the work of the Devil and said it would cause a variety of ailments not limited to deformity, denial, misery, unhappiness, a lack of free mental and physical energy, and would mortify the worker’s flesh and ruin his mind. Wollstonecraft and Marx agree on the concept that progress consisted in equality, reason, and some sort of action, but differed on the ways of facilitating progress and differed on who would enjoy said progress. Wollstonecraft thought that all individuals should enjoy the benefits of true moral equality and enlightenment, while Marx wished to punish the ruling class forShow MoreRelatedThe Inevitability Of The Reformation1689 Words   |  7 PagesThe Inevitability of the Reformation The Reformation is largely attributed to Martin Luther. And, although he is the most recognized individual, his personal struggles with sin and salvation were not the driving force behind the diverse theologies that emerged during this period. 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