CHAPTER 3: THE COUNTERMEASURE AND SOLUTION TO COMPLET AND IMPROVE THE MARKETING MIX OF GATEXCO 20 FOR
3.2. The countermeasure and solution to complete and improve Marketing Mix of Gatexco 20 for boosting the sales and expanding the market
3.2.1. Improve continuously product quality and product diversification
As we know, regarding (04) four factors of the marketing mix, the product is the most important and core factor. Thus, to increase sales, promotion of market expansion, product diversification, it is necessary for Gatexco 20 to find the solution to improve the product’s quality and diversification. This is a vital factor of Gatexco 20 and it should be a top priority in business strategy of Gatexco 20. To do this job well, Gatexco needs to conduct a number of following solutions:
(*) Continual improvement of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system Gatexco 20 has to carry out and control the performance of works under the provision, regulation and procedures that have been established as ISO 9001:2000 quality management system. The control of product quality must be top priority in order to ensure the supplied products on the market will meet the criteria required by the customer, having stable and guaranteed quality.
In addition, Gatexco 20 also need to conduct a self-assessment, internal audits to determine the situation of Gatexco 20's products, the current Stages of their product life cycle, the weak points in production so that they can have the appropriate solutions and consider how to develop new products, what changes or improvements accordingly the issues related to quality packaging, trademarks, service and can be compared with the similar products of competitors to be able to see clearly the weaknesses of the product
(*) Enhance the fashion design and new product development
The garment commodities are seasonal and highly fashionable products.
Therefore at a certain period of time, the design, models and fashion of the products play a very important role to determine the amount of consumption of apparel products on the market. For an apparel products, besides the issues of durability, price of the products, the design, models and fashion of the products also play a very important role to establish the reputation of the brand of the product.
On the other hand, it is necessary to have the data and latest information about the market trend of the products to update to the design center. Based on the data collected, the fashion design department will be able to be active in research to create products to suit each market for each type of product and Gatexco is able to provide the nice design products to the markets and matching with the tastes and desire of the consumers..
Through advertising, Gatexco can quickly introduce new models and design of the products to the customer and collect their opinions and feedback to have the necessary adjustments for matching with the demand of the market.
Therefore, Gatexco should concentrate on the investment effort to develop and build up a modern Centre for Fashion Research to take the initiative to produce the quality products with nice design and competitive price. It will be also useful to Gatexco 20 for shortening the new product development cycle, getting more value- added.
In addition of the construction of facility system, Gatexco 20 should invest more budget for upgrading the modern production equipments and synchronous production line to improve the efficient of the production and design activities, creative form. The technical and management staffs should be trained and coached regularly through the collaboration with universities, Textiles associations, textile experts and scientists.
(*) Initiative of material sources
Due to the quality of garment products is closely related to the quality of fabric and other input raw materials, Gatexco 20 must be more active in purchasing, strict control of the quality of input raw materials that are purchased from local partners as well as exporters. To produce the good quality fabrics, on the one hand, Gatexco 20 has
to invest more budget for procuring the modern equipments and production line and on the other hand, their staff and workers should to be trained to improve their qualification to be able to operate the modern production equipments and controlling product’s quality strictly. Gatexco 20 should also pay attention to the material quality and color of the fabric. Beside it, Gatexco 20 should invest more for the advanced and modern fabric production line that are made by famous supplier in the world. Gatexco may consider for investing in a variety of sewing machines that are controlled by IC circuit to improve the quality of garment products.
Diversify the raw material supply sources and fabrics to find out the supply resources that have competitive price guaranteed quality, matching with quality requirement for each type of product and group of customer
(*) Improve the Quality Labels & Package Designs
Packaging is playing very important role in creating the attractive products and attract more attention of the customers at the first sight and observation. Besides the function of protection of goods, it is also the means for transferring the features and specification of the product to customer. In fact, this is the fastest way to advertise the products to consumers. Therefore, many marketers have considered the packaging as the fifth tools of Marketing Mix. Currently, regarding the packaging and labeling issues, Gatexco 20 mainly depends on available samples provided by the customers. Example for export shirt products, the sales contract signed between the two parties often has the terms of quality, price of the products and the terms of the label and trademark.
Normally, the customers will request Gatexco to sewing or embroidering their label and logo on the oursourcing products and Gatexco 20 has not had a chance for branding their products. In the next time, Gatexco 20 should invest more in the branding for creating own brands for their products. In fact, to the traditional and familiar importers, Gatexco 20 should request them to consider the terms of the sales contract concerning the brand issues so Gatexco 20 can export the products with its logo and label to the importers.
However, if Gatexco would like to have the acceptance of the importers for branding issues, they have to improve the quality of color, materials, packaging of the products to
produce nice products for attracting the attention of customers and easy for the transportation, preservation and use.
(*) Improve the quality of customer service
Customer service is an indirect factor to plays an important role in promoting and raising customers’ awareness about the product’s quality and brand image of Gatexco 20. Gatexco must continuously improve the quality and diversification of the forms of service such as: improvement of the service attitude of the sales staff during contact and communicate with customers and for solving the customer’s complain about the quality of products properly and fairly, diversification of delivery modes to the customers , allowing for changing of error products in term of type and size within three days since the purchasing day. Applying the of flexible payment term and delivery mode for bulk orders.
There are clear policy regarding the warranty period, warranty content and the incurred costs that will be applied for all type of products and consider to extend the warranty period for special cases with the prior negotiation between the parties before the deals.
Gatexco should provide free consulting services to help customers to choose right products that are the best suits to their requirements such as style, size, colors, materials and give the detailed instructions concerning the remark during the use such as laundry, storage conditions. For the clients are large organizations, Gatexco 20 should assign the staff to come to see customers for discussion directly, conducting the free shipping, flexible payment term to these customers. Gatexco should consider about big discounts for the large orders.
Gatexco 20 must hold the annual customer and partner conferences and seminars to introduce their new products as well as get the comment and feedback of the customer to learn about the strong and weak point of the products, market situation, the information of competitors so they are able to carry out the improvements and increasing the quality of the service and products.
(*) Product diversification:
Apparel products are necessities and indispensable goods. But in the different stages, the demand is also different. The needs of dressing is varied by the age, season, region, customs, tastes and income levels. Therefore the demand for garment products are very different. The more development of the society, the higher requirement to the garment products. Thus, garment products need to be very diversified in term of size, form, class, design and fashion so Gatexco 20 should not only produce the traditional products like the men's shirts or jackets but they also produce other type of garment products for implementation of product diversification.
With the goal of expanding the market and meet the needs of many customer groups with different age, occupations and regions. Gatexco 20's products will not only provide to the large cities where customers have high income, but their products also has to penetrate the huge and potential markets like provincial market where their customers have lower income. Therefore, the diversification of products according to different quality class on the basis of building up the different production facilities specializing in different type of products to supply and meet the demand of the certain and specific markets is also mandatory to Gatexco 20.
Currently, Gatexco 20 has about 10 member enterprises so it is necessary for them to classify clearly the types and quality class of the products to each member enterprises matching with their capacity, experience of the production to get highest efficiency in business. On the other hand Gatexco 20 can conduct self-investment or joint venture with the partners to build more factories in the different location and province to save the cost for delivery and labor.