Fairprice Case Study

LB5302 - Strategic Brand Management

Brand Audit - FairPrice

23rd August 2012

Executive Summary

FairPrice is the leading retail chain in Singapore which has set benchmarks in terms of marketing and branding of a retail chain. The market description gives an overview of the current operations of FairPrice and how their revenues have increased with time. FairPrice has an interesting brand architecture which includes many sub brands targeting different segments which results in their high brand equity. The Brand name, logo & slogan have achieved their purpose of brand awareness by staying in sync with the purpose of the company. FairPrice has been successful in positioning itself against other competitors and creating value to its customers time and again.

A comparison with the other retail chains has helped in identifying the strength of the brand. Popular retail chains like Carrefour, Cold Storage, Shop n Save and Giant have been considered to assess its competitive advantage.

In the Brand Audit we have assessed its health and its reach to the customers. We have conducted a survey with a sample size of 40 respondents and also conducted 5 interviews to explore and analyse the brand "FairPrice". The survey has given us insight on the Brand Personality and CBBE model (Consumer Based Brand Equity) has helped us analyse the brand persona.

The results from the questionnaire offer guidelines which will help the Brand achieve success in the future and be sustainable in the long run. Recommendations regarding future development have been also given which complement the mission and vision of the company.

Company background

NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd was founded by the labour movement in 1973, who had a social mission to moderate the cost of living in Singapore. The first NTUC Welcome supermarket at Toa Payoh was opened by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 22 July 1973. In 1983, NTUC Welcome merged with the Singapore Employees Co-operative to form NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd (Fair Price, 2009).

From one supermarket, FairPrice has developed and prospered to become Singapore's largest retailer, having a network of more than 230 outlets consisting of FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra, FairPrice Xpress and Cheers convenience stores. It also owns a Fresh Food Distribution Centre and a centralised warehousing and distribution company (Fair Price, 2009).

Today, being a multiple retail format serving the varied needs and interests of people from different walks of life, the social mission has always been to evolve to make the dream of living well accessible to everyone by moderating the costs of the good life (Fair Price, 2009).

Vision - To be Singapore's Leading World-Class Retailer with a Heart (Fair Price, 2009).

Mission - To provide customers with the best value, quality products and excellent service, be a preferred employer, to moderate the cost of living in Singapore, and serve the needs of our members, the labour movement and the community (Fair Price, 2009).

FairPrice aims to be the

➢ Best Place to Shop

➢ Best Place to Work

➢ Best Corporate Citizen (Fair Price, 2009)

Our Core Values

➢ Customer Focus

➢ Teamwork

➢ Professionalism (Fair Price, 2009)

Brand Promise

Quality - We ensure quality products through regular audits and compliance with regulations and standards.

Value - We offer value for money through rebates, Link points, discounts, Everyday Low Price items and FairPrice House brand products.

Service - We deliver good service by training our staff and rewarding good performance (Fair Price, 2009).

Brand Inventory

Market Description

The total revenue of the group topped S$2.4 billion in the 2011 fiscal year (FairPrice, 2011). Even though it has grown to become a big player in the industry, NTUC FairPrice has always stood to its stand to moderate the cost of living in Singapore by providing quality products and excellent service at best value and added convenience to its customers. Despite changes in the social landscape and economy, NTUC FairPrice continues to live up to its stand while evolving its social mission to advance with times (Singapore National Cooperative Federation, 2010).

Competitors

In 1963, Carrefour invented the concept of "Hypermarket" & gave the world a new level of convenience. In Singapore too, Carrefour was the first to introduce the hypermarket store format in the year 1995. They now have two stores in the city area, one at Suntec city & the other at Plaza Singapore; they also have an online store which delivers throughout Singapore (Carrefour, 2011).

Established in 1903, Cold Storage was the child of the Industrial Revolution and Pax Britannica, when Singapore was the "Clapham Junction of the Eastern Seas". Together with electricity and refrigeration, it allowed European agents of change - the colonial civil servants, merchants, miners, planters, traders - to acclimatise to living in the tropics. It can thus be said that if there were no Cold Storage the modern history of Singapore would probably be quite different. There are 44 Cold Storage outlets in operation. The Fresh Food People supermarkets strategically located across the island in city centre, affluent suburbs and HDB estates (Cold Storage, 2008).

Spanning 60 Stores Island wide, Shop N Save is a familiar neighbourhood supermarket in Singapore providing convenience and savings to customers. To cater to customer's differing needs, 36 Shop N Save supermarkets are currently operating 24 hours while most of the remaining stores operate at 7am daily (Shop n Save, 2011).

Giant Hypermarket is a major retailer chain in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam