Research Report
Executive Summary – Purpose of main document – MDP/MRP – Background of the company – Research design and how was it analyzed – Main findings, recommendation and limitations Background The Lulu hypermarket is a retail endeavor started by the EMKE group situated in Abu Dhabi, IJAE. The managing director of Lulu hypermarket chain is MM Yusuffali. The company has hired employees above 20,000 of all with different nationalities. It has been expanding all over the world. Lulu is also the biggest retail chain in Asia and in the Middle East.
Amongst the 22 countries, there are 102 outlets of Lulu in the GCC ountries. Lulu hypermarket has its headquarters in the capital city of IJAE, Abu Dhabi that is a growing city. In a very short span of time Lulu has grown firmly, from an enterprise to an international group, hence has spread over 3 continents (Khalidtyah Mall, 2013). Lulu hypermarket is a retail division, which is multidimensional and multinational. The EMKE group is known to be the trendsetters in GCC covering up the market share more than 32% (Khalidiyah Mall, 2013).
Recently they have opened up there 100th outlets in Ras Al- Khaimah in April 2012. The marketing environment in which Lulu urvives is quite competitive where it deals with a large market demands and deals in massive variety of products from grocery to clothes and home appliances. The EMKE group has recently launched a logistic center in Birmingham U. K. The main purpose behind is to serve the GCC countries with broader variety along living with their international standards of providing wider range of products.
The group has invested massively around 20 million pounds, reason being to buy and export the products produced in the U.
K. to Dubai. However the target market is highly ulturally associated, so their main focus is to alter date coding and labeling of the products according to the understanding of an Arabic speaking nation (LuLu Group International, 2013). Conversely, not only Lulu contributes towards the growing retail sector of serving to their people but also equally participate and show immense contribution towards corporate social responsibilities (CSR).
Recently, on the 29th of March 2013 they held a wellness walk in Zabeel park for creating awareness for diabetes and raising funds for diabetic patients Another venture made by Lulu was to support the government of U.
A. E. y adopting two schools in Gaza and Nepal. This was one of their major CSR activity (LuLu Group International, 2013). The managing director Yusuffali has received Padma Sri and Pravasi Bharatiya Being an active member of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he has also received Asian Business Award (ABA) for best Business leader and the Arabian Business Award (LuLu Group International, 2013).
However, Lulu’s major competitors are Carrefour followed by Spinneys and Union co-op. Marketing Research Question/ Objective, Components In reference to the respectable background and progressive services offered by LULU, here have been many issues in terms of their customer service and the availability of products in the hypermarket (complaints boards, 2013). Management Decision Problem: How to attract customers to Lulu Hypermarket? Marketing Research Problem: Know the preferences of the customer for grocery shopping.
Research objectives and components: What criteria do you consider while going shopping at a hypermarket? To specify the factors an individual would consider before going shopping for groceries. What are the major factors that are perceived as convenient to the consumers? May also verlook at benefits offered such as loyalty cards, more offers along with excellent customer service.
The frequency of your visit and the satisfaction with the availability of the products at Lulu? By directing this question to the respondent’s, it will enable Lulu to know how often consumers go to shop for groceries.
Also this will indirectly indicate the amount of satisfaction consumers get while shopping in Lulu. Do an individual consider Him/herself to be loyal towards a grocery store? This would help Lulu to know the loyalty of an individual towards the store. and also ake appropriate measures that could be taken accordingly for increasing reliability. Hypothesis (HO): The majority of the population based in Dubai prefer going to Lulu hypermarket to shop. Presenting 60 exclusively proposed questionnaires collected a set of primary information.
Each questionnaire was enclosed with 17 questions with the set of multiple choice, scale and open-ended questions. Multiple-choice questions: This type of questions helped us to gain insight of persons buying pattern or behavior, as well as giving affirmative knowledge of a persons spending. Questions uch as “How much do you spend on grocery shopping per month? ” enabled us to have the accurate knowledge to know the background of the buyer. Scale questions: Questions such as “Rate the customer service at Lulu hypermarket; 1 being lowest and 5 being highest” were asked in the type of scale questions.
This set of questions enabled us to study the buyer’s attitude and sensitivity towards Lulu. Open- ended questions: This question helped us to acquire knowledge on what brand image a person perceives towards Lulu.
Questions like “How was your shopping experience at Lulu ypermarket” were asked. However the process of completing 60 questionnaires was successful. The group then proceeded further to understand data better, analyze and evaluate the results. Lastly graphs are used to portray and to support the findings accurately.
Data Analysis QI) what criteria do you consider while going shopping at a hypermarket The above chart depicts, that the majority of the people consider offers and promotions followed by quality, when they go for grocery shopping at a hypermarket. excellent quality products.
However, it is noted that none of respondents have onsidered location as their foremost criteria. Lastly, the respondents have also given a large preference towards variety of the products being offered by the hypermarket. Q2) How often do you visit Lulu hypermarket and reason for limited visits? Limited visits No. f people visited Poor Customer Service Less Variety Poor hygiene Other 31 8 6 9 No. of total people not visited Inconvenient Location Unaware 29 Statistical data: Mode- 31 . In reference to the above table no.
1, it is seen the number of people visited Lulu is greater the number of people not visited Lulu. Reasons for limited visits being, most of the respondents have stated that they are unaware of the hypermarket and few said it is inconveniently located. However, the respondents have also mentioned about the poor hygiene and customer service of Lulu being the key factor for their limited visits.
There have also been complains regarding the variety of products offered and few said the products are comparatively of cheap quality. Q3) Is the quality of the products at Lulu worth the price? Quality worth the price Yes 94% No 6% The above table portrays that 94% of the respondents have agreed over the point hat the products offered at Lulu are quite compatible with the price tagged. Since the questionnaire included a question asking for suggestions, many of the the customers are not willing to pay any extra money on these products.
Hence the price quoted by Lulu is propionate to the products offered. However, 6% have denied this fact the reasons could be in various divisions, the price charged by Lulu would be higher or equal to the products of better quality offered by different stores. Q4) Rate the customer service at Lulu, 1 being lowest and 5 being the highest. The above graph shows that, out of 31 people who have visited Lulu out of 31, 23 have given rating of 3 and 4, hence it could be stated that – people who have visited lulu have found their customer service quite satisfactory.
