Gardenia Marketing

Food & Beverages industry – Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Berhad

TABLE OF CONTENT

PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

4

2.0 COMPANY BACKGROUND

4

3.0 SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING

5

3.1

SEGMENTATION

6

3.1.1

PSYCHOGRAHIC FACTORS

6

3.1.2

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

7

3.2

TARGETING

7

3.3

POSITIONING

8

4.0 MARKET ENVIRONMENT

8

4.1

COMPETITIVE FACTORS

8

4.2

ECONOMIC FACTORS

9

4.3

POLITICAL AND LEGAL FACTORS

9

4.4

TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES

10

4.5

SOCIOCULTURAL FORCES

10

5.0 MARKETING MIX

10

5.1

PRODUCT

11

5.2

PLACE

14

5.3

PRICING

16

5.4

PROMOTION

18

6.0 CONCLUSION CONCLUSION

21

7.0 REFERENCES

23

1

1.0

INTRODUCTION

In this assignment, we will focus about the marketing strategies of Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd (Gardenia) in the consumer market. Although Gardenia Bakeries launch a lot of products in South East Asia, here we will only focus on products and marketing activities done by Gardenia Bakeries in Penisular Malaysia. We are going to analyse the marketing strategies by Gardenia Bakeries such as how Gardenia Bakeries does it market segmentation, targeting and positioning. Segmentation, targeting and positioning helps Gardenia Bakeries to find out which area or segment should the company focus in. Besides, we will also look at its marketing environment that plays an important role in implementing marketing activities.

Next, marketing mix like place, product, price and promotion are also the core and most important element. At the end, we will be able to know more about how Gardenia does its marketing activities to overcome the highly competitive environment and remains as the biggest bakery or breads manufacturer among its competitor such as Massimo and Appolo. The aim of doing this analysis is to help us to find out what actually is marketing and how Gardenia manages to remain as the strongest brand in the highly competitive environment and to be different among all other competitors with di fferent strategies, plans and ideas.

2.0

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Gardenia Food Industries (Gardenia) is a multinational company that founded in Malaysia on year 1969 in East Malaysia. Gardenia originaly was founded by an American named Horatio Sye Slocumm, an employee of International Executive Service Corps. Mr. Slocumm who had 35 years of baking experience together with America’s leading chain of bakeries, Gardenia was born successfully. After 45 years of hardship, Gardenia now has become a Malaysia leading brand of breads manufacturer. Gardenia produced the first loaf of bread in year 1986. Gardenia became the leader in the bakery market with an outstanding 99% brand recall rate and 80% top-of-mind recall within 4 years. Gardenia’s multiply its products chain through the years, which slowly become better and soon best.

2

Leveraging on its brand strength, Gardenia now supply a lot of breads to fulfill consumers’ demands. Gardenia Food Industries is a group of franchise related companies incorporated in East Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak), Brunei Darussalam and the Republic of Indonesia established for the manufacturing, packaging and trade distribution of Gardenia Brand bakery ices and creamery products.

S. E. Asia’s Gardenia Breads and Creameries 1

In 1969, Gardenia Food Industries production of Gardenia bakery ices and

creameries foods was first established in Kota Kinabalu Sabah by its founder Datuk Wong Tze Fatt with North American bakery technical knowhow provided by Mr Scy Slocum of Atlanta USA and creamery technical knowhow provided by Mr Jim Humphries of California USA. Gardenia International Pty Ltd (Singapore) was subsequently set up in the Republic of Singapore as Datuk Wong Tze Fatt’s franchise development arm to promote his Gardenia Brand throughout South East Asia region.

Since its early beginnings the Gardenia Food Industries (GFI) group of franchise related companies incorporated in East Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia were acquired in 2004 by JWPK Holdings and managed as subsidiaries. GFI remains a group of franchise related companies committed to its founding principles, with a singular customer driven purpose in responding to popular demands to produce quality fresh foods locally, which meets with international food processing and handling safety standards and respective country requirements for both “green” and halal certified food handling processes. 1

3.0

 http://www.jwpkholdings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=136

SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING

2

Segmentation, targeting and positioning also known as strategic marketing, it

include determine a suitable segment to market your goods or services, identifying the correct target market and positioning the respective goods or services to create maximum profits. The core part of segmentation, targeting and positioning is to find out exactly what

3

advantages your goods or services give and who will get the most benefits. Segmentation, targeting and positioning is the most common strategy used by marketers in today world. This is because it can help them to analyse which target market should they enter and concentrate in. Besides, this is one of the most accurate tools to help marketer to set their marketing plans. Furthermore, this is the basic concept to understand the market needs and develope marketing strategies. 2

Marketing 12th Edition by Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel (2011)

3.1

SEGMENTATION 3

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into meaningful,

relatively similar and identifiable segments or groups. The purpose of market segmentation is to enable the marketer to tailor marketing mix to meet the needs of one or more specific segments. Gardenia had segmented their consumers into two main categories which are Psychographic Psychographic and Demographic. Demographic. 3

Marketing 12th Edition by Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel (2011)

3.1.1

PSYCHOGRAHIC FACTORS

Known as a factor that divides customers into several sectors according to their basis of personality, motives or lifestyles, how they carry out their daily lives and their behavior. First of all, Gardenia focuses on the psychographic factor in separating the Gardenia markets which is lifestyle. Therefore, Gardenia focuses on customer who demands for freshness, convenience, variety and uncompromising taste. Customers nowadays demand for not just a simple loaf of bread, they also looking forward for a fresh and convenience bread that they can consume at low health risk and can get it easily. To fulfil the demands, Gardenia had did its very best to provide daily baked bread to their customers and have more delivery channel such as supermarket, grocery shop or even hawker along the road.

4

3.1.2

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Known as how marketer will divide the market into categories such as age, gender, income and ethnic background. Gardenia focuses on age factor. Gardenia segments their consumer into teenagers, adults and senior citizen. In doing that, Gardenia provides variety of products to fulfil all needs. Teenagers which are very energetic will require some source to fight their hunger and in the same time they are more likely to consume products with sweet taste. So Gardenia had come out with the new waffle products to meet their demands. Not forgetting adults and senior citizens that demand for a healthy diet, Gardenia launch whole wheat fiber bread and the latest Gardenia Breakthru that contain a high level of vitamins a nd fiber.

3.2

TARGETING

After Gardenia segmented the market according to the segments, Gardenia will need to find out its target market. There is no a strategy that can suits all consumer groups, so Gardenia must able to develop specific strategies for its target markets to achieve maximum profits in least costs. The targeting strategy used by 4

Gardenia is differentiated marketing or mass marketing. Using a differentiated marketing strategy, a firm might decide to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each. Gardenia targets its consumer market by offering variety of breads and offering. By offering product and marketing variations to customers, Gardenia hope for higher sales and a stronger position within each market segment. The disadvantage of using this strategy is Gardenia will face difficulty in develops and produce new products because it requires extra research based on each segment it serves. Example of differentiated marketing strategy did by Gardenia are post advertisement about Gardenia whole wheat bread in newspaper to target senior citizens and do online advertisement for Gardenia waffle products that aim mainly teenagers. 4

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013)

5

3.3

POSITIONING 5

A product positioning is the way a product is defined by consumers on

important attributes the place the product occupies in consumers’ mind in relative to competing products. Gardenia has positioned their products strongly against competitor’s products in the consumers’ minds. For example, Gardenia has its own song to make consumers remember its bread which is “So good...You can even eat iton its own”. By listening to the song, people will think of the convenience of Gardenia bread that it can be consume directly without any side dishes. Besides, Gardenia also positions itself as a healthy, fresh and high quality product in consumers’ minds. By developing a stronger position within segments, Gardenia will be able to create more sales and attract more business opportunity. opportunity. 5

4.0

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013)

MARKET ENVIRONMENT

A marketing plan usually will be affected by some internal or external factors that are closely related or indirectly related in the business. Those factors are known as 6

marketing environment. Marketing environment is the forces outside marketing that affect marketing decisions. Marketer need to be highly sensitive about these factors which will affect their plans and make them more competitive. 6

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013)

4.1

COMPETITIVE FACTORS

In Malaysia, there are 3 main bakeries which are Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn.Bhd, Stanson Bakeries Sdn.Bhd (High 5) and The Italian Baker Sdn.Bhd (Massimo). The Malaysian bread industry are mostly governed or dominated by these 3 bakeries. They compete with each other through prices, quality, variety types of products, products characteristics and many more. For example, the white bread selling by Gardenia was selling at RM2.10, High 5 selling at RM2.80 and Massimo selling at RM2.50, although Gardenia is selling at the lowest price among these 3 bakeries, but consumers will choose according to the quality they perceive

6

for each bakery. For an example, if consumers perceive Gardenia’s quality is not as good as Massimo, they might choose Massimo although the price is higher.

4.2

ECONOMIC FACTORS 7

Economics factors are factors that affect consumer purchasing power and

spending patterns. Consumers with different occupations will have different income levels and thus they will have different spending patterns. For instance, high and middle income level consumers will demand for a better standard of living, they demand for good quality products, same goes to foods like bread, although it is a daily basic need, but for high and middle income level consumers, they will likely or tend to choose a high quality qual ity and features products.

Consumers with higher income will choose those breads which are more expensive such as Toast’em (one of Gardenia products) that offers special features like raisin oatmeal. On the other hand for low income level consumers, when they are making decisions to purchase something, they will try to reduce the expenses incurred, so they may just buy a classics white bread to fulfill t heir daily basic need. Hence, a company’s marketing plans might be influenced by this economic force. 7

4.3

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 104

POLITICAL AND LEGAL FACTORS 8

The political environment contains of laws, government agencies and

pressure groups that influence and limit various organisations and individuals in a given society. Developments in the political and legal environment will definitely affect marketing decisions. A special Halal Committee is formed at Gardenia to supervise all aspect of Halal regulations. Officer from JAKIM will conduct a regular factory inspection to monitor and assure that the overall operations are comply with the guidelines set by them. Besides, an Independent Syariah Advisor had been appointed by Gardenia to safeguard their Halal status and refer to in “Syariah” related matters. 8

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 108

7

4.4

TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES 9

Technology are improving rapidly in this modernisation era. Technology

brings to mind scientific advances such as information technology which is having resulted in the Internet, cell phone and many more. To improve the producing speed and bigger market, Gardenia forced to upgrade the technology in the factory. In the year 1986, Gardenia produces about 3,000 loaves a day without machine. In the year 1991, Gardenia can produce about 6,000 loaves an hour capacity with using bread maker machine. In the year 1994, the technology upgrade, Gardenia’s machine also upgrade and can produce 10,000 loaves. Now, each of the Gardenia’s factories with six fully automated bread lines, each of the factories can produce more than 900,000 fresh loaves a day. Now Gardenia is the largest bread producer in Southeast Asia. 9

4.5

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013)

SOCIOCULTURAL FORCES

Sociocultural Forces will influences in society and culture that bring about people’s beliefs, customs, life styles and many more. For bigger market and more profit, Gardenia forced to produce a HALAL certified product to the Malay and Muslim customer. Due to the reason of Malay and Muslim’s culture is cannot eat pork. So Gardenia Gardenia put the HALAL HALAL logo on every product. product. Malay and Muslim customer saw the HALAL logo then they will buy for breakfast without any hasitation. With the market of Malay and Muslim people, Gardenia can earn more profit and plan for future market.

5.0

MARKETING MIX

10

The term marketing mix was first introduced by Neil Borden, the president of the

American Marketing Association in year 1953. The marketing mix are products, places, prices, promotions, physical evidence, people and partners. Here, we will only cover a few of them that are more familiar and most used by marketer which are products, places,

8

prices and promotions. The

ain function of this analysis is to form a right combination to

meets customers’ wants and needs. 10

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix

5.1

PRODUCT 11

Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,

acquisition, use, or c nsumption that might satisfy a want or need.

here are 2 type

of product in gene al, consumer products and industrial produ cts. Consumer product is product bought for for pers ersonal consumption ion such as con enient product while industrial prod ctis product that bought for further processing se such as raw mat materia erials ls.. Produc oducts ts s ld by Ga Gardeni enia ar are un under co consumer products cts ca category. 11

Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2005)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Gardenia pro ides variety goods to suit different age group based on their market segmentation. Gardenia produced variety of breads such as the Breakthru, Waffle Waffle,, Twig Twiggi gies es an many more. Every Every product product has its its own own speci special features and tastes to suit suit differen different age group as segmented by Gardenia in the arly stage. For example, Gardenia

rodu roduces ces Squi Squigg ggles les,, Twig Twiggi gies es,, Toas Toas’t ’tem em,, Fl ffy Buns and

Quick Quick bite bitess (ref (refer er t

figure 1) 1) th that ma mainly aim for child an and teenagers’ market

because because of their their swee sweet tas taste te and and use use main mainly ly choco chocola late te,, van vanill illaa and and ot ers sweet taste ing ingredient ent. Besides t at, Gardenia Gardenia also also produce produce Delicia Delicia (refer (refer to figure 2) and white bread bread (refe (referr to figu figurr 3) that target mainly adults market. In doing that, Gardenia offe offerr th those ose pro produ duct ct with lower price and use mainly wheat as main

aterial so that

adults will feel worth buying because those products can fill their hunger. Not forgetting senior citizens, Gardenia came out with European Cottage Style Bread (refer to figure 4), Gardenia low fat fibremeal (refer to figure 5) and the latest Gardenia Breakthru (refer tofigure 6) that are made as healthy products. Those breads contain Beta Glucan which aids to lower cholesterol level.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Referring to the product level, the core advantage show what the customer is really buying. For Gardenia, it provides an experience to its customers that they are not only consuming the breads but also a healthy diet. For example, the latest Gardenia Breakthru breads contain low Adipose Tissue Fat-Storing Capacity that assists us in having better control over obesity. It is also Diabetic Friendly which aids to keep stable blood sugar level that typically follows a meal. All the breads of Gardenia have no artificial and preservative. Gardenia values its quality by providing convenience for customers. They offer affordable price for customers without abandon the quality. Gardenia products are aimed mainly people who need more conveniences and also looking for a saving plan. As for safety assurance, Gardenia ensures that the breads are all baked daily and are distribute immediately throughout Malaysia. Gardenia always store bread in cool dry place and sent their staffs to attend training at American Institute of Baking and other professional institutions around the world.

Figure 7

In packaging, labelling and branding its products, Gardenia purposely make its products’ packages in a colourful ways to attract teenagers and children. The entire prices are clearly stated on the package to ease customers make decisions while purchasing Gardenia breads. Besides, Gardenia has its own brand logo (refer to figure 7) printed clearly on the package. By doing that, customers can easily identify Gardenia product even it is a new product. Therefore Gardenia did a very good effort in creating a strong brand in customers’ minds. List of gardenia products available in Penisular Malaysia are European Cottage Style Bread, Gardenia low fat fibremeal, Delicia, Squiggles, Twiggies, Toas’tem, Fluffy Buns, Quick bites, Gardenia Breakthru, and Gardenia original classic white bread. Meanwhile in East Malaysia, Gardenia launches a lot of products that not related to bakery such as soft drinks, ice cream and creameries.

To meet customer’s expectations, Gardenia always ensure that they produce the best and most quality bread daily. Gardenia is well known of its breads’ qualities which are preservative free, no unnatural artificial coloring added and baked daily and are to send right after packaging. In order to fulfil the increasing demands for not just freshness but healthy as well, Gardenia is trying its best to increase the nutrient level contain in the breads. According to a scientific investigation, an intake of 4 slices of Gardenia white breads is equal to a cup of fresh milk. Furthermore, Gardenia products also are the Low Glycaemic Index which contains a lot of proteins and fiber with lower carbohydrate and caloric attributes.

5.2

PLACE

Place also called Distribution Decisions. It is developing product that can satisfy customers, but not enough guarantee to successful marketing strategies. Nowadays people in Malaysia can find Gardenia’s product in any mini-market, supermarket (e.g:7-Eleven), hypermarket (e.g: Tesco, Giant) in any corner of Malaysia.

According the research, all of the supermarket and hypermarket did not have any specialist to promote it. It is because Gardenia’s product is the most of the people like to buy without any hesitation such like thinking which bread the customer will buy. Gardenia’s product is any age of the people such as Gardenia white bread is for any age of the people because all people such as low income and high income also will choose to buy gardenia because they want convenience and swift breakfast and will not late for work. Squiggles and Twiggies are for children and Gardenia Wholemeal bread is for senior citizen. Gardenia sells their product directly to the reseller such as a s mini market and supermarket.

According to the survey, Gardenia provides a catalog to their customer such as the owner of the mini market to book Gardenia’s product. Some primary school also place their order through catalog to Gardenia to book breads for students. Selling through the catalog is for the places that hard to find supermarket or a mini market such as village or remote area. a rea.

Wonder how Gardenia sells their product into village? In the village, there are some people ride the motorcycle and sell many kind of Gardenia’s bread (refer figure 8), they go to find the owner of the shop and ask for the help for booking Gardenia’s bread to sell to all resident in village.

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Figure 8

The Gardenia’s factory is at Shah Alam, Selangor. They produce the bread at night until 4 am they will start to send their products to all mini market, supermarket, hypermarket and many more in Selangor. Mini market such as TSK segar in Puchong, supermarket such as KK Speedmart, 7-Eleven, hypermarket such as Tesco, Giant, AEON Big always receive Gardenia’s products in 8am without delay. So the final buyers can buy the fresh Gardenia’s product and feel satisfy.

Actually, Gardenia success in manufacturing products and making them available to final customers requires building and managing a continuously evolving value delivery network. Delivery network is a ne twork that made up of the company, suppliers, distributors and ultimately customers who work together with each other to improve the performance of the entire system. This network consists of both ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ partners. Upstream partners are the set of firms that supply the raw materials, components, parts, information and finances in order to create a product.

Most of the convenience stores, which is selling necessary stuff for customer such as snacks, beverages, shampoo and many more in Malaysia are selling Gardenia’s product. The convenience stores are at every corner of shop lots. For example, every residential place have ha ve many of shops, in those shops sure have a convenience store, in the shop they can buy Gardenia’s product which the customers like to buy. The convenience store can call as Reseller.

Most of the people who ride motorcycle to sell Gardenia’s product always park in front of the primary school to sell Gardenia’s product when after school. Most of the children like Gardenia’s product such as choc-a-lot, squiggles, twiggies and many more. The school canteen also selling Gardenia’s product when the break time of study.

The hypermarket, which is the target to many kind of segmentation such as age and so on have a department to sell breads. Housewife like to buy bread because bread is cheap and economical. Gardenia’s focus on this situation and sell their products at the hypermarket. Due to the reason that most of the housewives have no time to enjoy breakfast because some of their kids go to school early in the morning such as 7.30 am, so bread is the most easy and convenience for family.

Their competitors such as Massimo and Hi-5 try to reduce the price of their product to compete with Gardenia. In this case, we can see the competition with their competitor. Gardenia should have an advertisement about the quality of their product such as their bread is fresher than other competitors’ product, this can make Gardenia’s market grow bigger.

5.3

PRICING

Price is a value that when you purchase a product and services. Four elements in marketing mix, price is the only element to produces revenue. Price is an essential element for buyer choice. It also have important role in a firm market share and profitability. Besides that, it also can build the customer relationship and creating the customer value. Gardenia Bakeries is using competition-based pricing when setting price of bread.

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Competition based pricing involve setting price based

on competitors’ cost, price, strategic and marketing offerings. Gardenia Bakeries when setting the price for a kind of bread such as the latest-one Butterscotch, Breakthru, Delicia, Twiggies and so on. Gardenia will be comparing the product value with price of product. The price setting must be set between the price ceiling and floor. Gardenia also has been considering the several of environment when

14

setting prices. Gardenia has set the species price for the reseller and gives the fair profit, encourage their support and help them to sell the product effectively. 12

Principles of Marketing 14th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2011) page. 291

This is because if the consumers perceive the price of bread is higher than the product value so that Gardenia will lose its customer. “You can even eat it on its own” is slogan of Gardenia Bakeries Sdn. Bhd. Its mean the bread of Gardenia is healthy, fresh and convenience.

The Gardenia’s price is controlled by government. This is because the main ingredient of bread such as flour which is the one of the product that under controls by the government in Malaysia. The producer cannot change the price as they like and they must follow the price given by government. Gardenia when when setting price will considers a few important aspects. First, they must take consider about the product cost. They also want to consider the price set is giving the profitable for company and in the same time also a lso want to maximize the customer satisfaction.

Besides that, they also consider about the market demand and market strategic. The price must be acceptable by everyone and it also must be understand where the location the bread sold in Malaysia. According in a website survey, the customers of Gardenia are very sensitive about their product price. Past years, Gardenia has adjusted the price of bread because of increasing price of flour. The responses of customer are shown that product price of gardenia are quiet important in their daily life. Some customer says the increasing of bread price will become burden in their life. This is because many customer of Gardenia custom eat the bread in the morning. However, the increasing of price no affects the customer run off. The customers fast increase because the quality of bread still constant.

The price of Gardenia’s products is cheaper than theirs competitors such as Hi-5 and Massimo. Gardenia use psychological pricing to attractive the customer. The psychological pricing is reference prices, prices that buyer carry in their mind and refer to when looking at a given product.

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The reference of price might be

formed by noticing current prices, assessing the buying situation or remember the

15

past price. For example, the price set at RM2.35 and RM2.40 for Gardenia bread. However the price is difference 5sen, but the study found that the psychological difference was much greater. Gardenia Bakeries also have giving the discount for any mini market, supermarket (e.g:7-Eleven), hypermarket (e.g: Tesco, Giant) in any corner of Malaysia. Gardenia is giving the discount for attractive this “middle man”. Every day, lorry of gardenia will be sent the fresh bread on time to the minimarket, supermarket and hypermarket for make sure the quality of bread. This action make sure all the final buyer everyday can eat fresh Gardenia’s product. 13

Strategic Marketing by David Craven and Nigel Piercy (2007) page. 302

When the time of recession, Gardenia careful adjusting the price of bread because adjustment will affect their demand and burden the household. Gardenia trying to find the one ways benefits for both the company and consumer. Past few years, the increasing of raw material forced Gardenia adjusts the price because the increasing cost of product. However that adjustment of price received some comment by customer but the customer also can accept because when comparing with another competitor of Gardenia the price of Gardenia is lower than other.

5.4

PROMOTION 14

Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the product and

persuade target customers to buy. A good promotion is very important for the growth of the company. There are so many ways to promote a product. One of the ways that Gardenia had used to promote their products is advertising. Gardenia advertises their products through various media like television, radio and newspaper. Television advertising ia a main media used by Gardenia to promote their new products as television advertising offers a good mass marketing coverage. Radio was also used by Gardenia to remind existing customers about their products as it is low cost. Besides, newspaper is also an effective way to promote or advertise their new products as it offers good local market coverage and it is able to reach specific target market. 14

Principles of Marketing 11th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2006) page. 48

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Figure 9

Gardenia also advertises their products through various social media like YouTube, Facebook Fans Page, Corporate Blog and official website. Nowadays, most of the people own a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop and many more. They can easily access to these social media via the Internet by simply tapping on their smartphone. YouTube was used by Gardenia to broadcast its existing and new products through videos (Refer to figure 9).

By doing so, it makes consumers know more about Gardenia products and maybe it helps in getting their interest for buying or purchasing the products. Moreover, a Facebook Fans Page had been created by Gardenia (Refer to figure 10). By doing so, it helps Gardenia to increase their brand brand and online visibility. visibility. This is because when a user “Likes” or comment on your post, this action or information will be automatically posted to the particular user’s Facebook feed and in the end, it helps to spread the brand to the user’s friends.

Figure 10

Gardenia also set up corporate blog (Refer to figure 11) to promote their products, corporate blog is a blog that is published and used by an organization, corporation and so on to reach its organizational goals. Gardenia used blog to provide information on their products, promote their products since it is free-ofcharge and it allows Gardenia to connect with their customers and exchange feedback which may improve their product’s quality. Gardenia also set up their own official website (Refer to figure 12), and their website contains information like contact number, company background, products information and so on, through website, consumer can look or find the products that they like or favor among the variety types of products that Gardenia offers.

Figure 11

Figure 12

Sales promotion is also a way that gardenia used to promote their products. In October 2003, a campaign was organized by Gardenia which customers are required to collect 4 empty packaging of the Gardenia original classics white bread to redeem one free load of Gardenia original classics white bread. Eventually, this campaign was very successful in creating awareness for the public and this result a significant increase in the sales of Gardenia. Ga rdenia.

Lastly, Gardenia also used the public relation to promote their products and make their brand more visible.

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Public relation meaning building good relations

with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity and building up a good corporate image. Gardenia had been actively involved in charitable event. For example, Gardenia donates their bread to fl ood victims in Kuala Terengganu on December 2013 and during special events, Gardenia also contributes free Twiggies to schoolchildren. By doing so, it helps Gardenia getting well known and gains their reputation. 15

Principles of Marketing 15th Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 385

Another example is that since 1991, Gardenia has opened their doors to the public for visiting them in order to share their journey, aspirations and progress with customers. Currently, Gardenia had been welcome over 26,000 visitors annually and take them on a personal tour of Gardenia bread factory which is free of charge. The visitors will be given free sample of bread during the factory tour. Gardenia also delivers their fresh bread to over 45 charitable organizations like old folk’s homes, orphanages and center for the disabled each day these charitable organizations have been on Gardenia’s delivery list since 1991. Gardenia also helps a lot in fighting the obesity epidemic in Malaysia. It is working closely with the National Diabetes Institute (NADI) on the “Fight Against Diabetes” program, which brings public awareness on the prevention of diabetes and management of diabetes. This program is very useful and helpful for those people who face or confront the disease of diabetes. By doing so, Gardenia is not only helping the public but they are also getting getti ng their reputation and getting well known too.

6.0

CONCLUSION

Gardenia had segmented their consumers into two main categories which are Psychographic and Demographic. Psychographic factors are known as a factor that divides customers into several sectors according to their personality, lifestyles, their daily lives and behavior. Gardenia focuses on the psychographic psychographic factor in separating the Gardenia markets which is lifestyle. To fulfill the demands, Gardenia had did its very best to provide daily baked bread to their customers and have more delivery channel such as supermarket,

19

grocery stores or even hawkers along the road. Gardenia focuses on age factor. Gardenia segments their consumer into teenagers, adults and senior citizen. In doing that, Gardenia provides variety of products to fulfil all needs.

The targeting strategy used by Gardenia is differentiated marketing or mass marketing. Using a differentiated marketing strategy, a firm might decide to target several market segments and designs separate offers for each. Gardenia targets its consumer market by offering variety of breads and offering. By offering product and marketing variations to customers, Gardenia hope for higher sales and a stronger position within each market segment.

Gardenia has positioned their products strongly against competitor’s products in the consumers’ minds. For example, Gardenia has its own song to make consumers remember its bread which is “So good...You can even eat iton its own”. By listening to the song, people will think of the convenience of Gardenia bread that it can be consume directly without any side dishes. Besides, Gardenia also positions itself as a healthy, fresh and high quality product in consumers’ minds. By developing a stronger position within segments, Gardenia will be able to create more sales and attract more business opportunity.

All the breads of Gardenia have no artificial and preservative. Gardenia values its quality by providing convenience for customers. They offer affordable price for customers without abandon the quality. Gardenia products are aimed mainly people who need more conveniences and also looking for a saving plan. As for safety assurance, Gardenia ensures that the breads are all baked daily and are distribute immediately throughout Malaysia.

20

7.0

REFERENCE 1

http://www.jwpkholdings.com/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=136

2

th

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Marketing 12  Edition by Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel (2011) Marketing 12  Edition by Charles W. Lamb, Joe F. Hair, Carl McDaniel (2011)

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Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 104 Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 108 Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Marketing_mix

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Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2005)

12

Principles of Marketing 14  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2011) page. 291

13

Strategic Marketing by David Craven and Nigel Piercy (2007) page. 302

14

Principles of Marketing 11  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2006) page. 48

15

Principles of Marketing 15  Edition by Philip T. Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013) page. 385

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