The Next Strategic Move for Twining’s Singapore

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The Next Strategic Move for Twining’s Singapore

Assignment 2B

by

Isaac Ong Yi Jie (S9346283A)

G1

Programme in Writing and Reasoning (PWR)

WRIT001/Term 2 – AY2014/15

I declare that this Assignment is my original work and all information obtained from other sources has been cited accordingly.

                                                                        Turnitin

_______________________                                                Similarity

Signature and Date                        Assignment Word Count:        Index

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2000        

Course Instructor:        ____Ms Norazida Johar_______                                  %

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CEO, Twining’s Singapore

Prepared by

Isaac Ong Yi Jie

Marketing Director, Twining’s Singapore

Executive summary

The first portion of the report will accentuate the importance of customization in our current industry. Within the tea industry, most companies’ products revolve around similar tealeaves and there is a saturated product market.

Twining’s itself is experiencing a mainstream product line and is open to the idea of customization as a competitive advantage.

The second part of the report will mention the effects of customization and personalization on products, providing examples and explaining how customization can attract consumers by creating novel products. Issues regarding uncertainty with novelty will also be discussed. After which it will illustrate how personalization will create product-consumer emotional bonds and enhance innovation, leading to customer retention.  Similarly, there will be discussion of some implications.

Following from the trend justification, will be a recommendation to firstly, open a Twining’s outlet and secondly, serve customized products, which can be personalized by the consumers in terms of flavor and tealeaves.

Table of Contents

Introduction        5

The importance of customization for customer attraction        5

Novelty as an appealing factor        5

Evidence of Current Trendsetters        6

Potential Issues        6

User-led personalization to retain customers        7

Emotional bond with the product        7

User-led innovation        8

Potential Issues        8

Recommendation        9

Stakeholder Analysis        9

Feasibility        10

Strategic Risk Analysis        10

Conclusion        10

References:        12

Introduction

In light of the food and beverage industry, there is a general trend of increasing interest in the customization of goods (Euromonitor, 2008). It is evident in most consumer goods and several leading food and beverage sectors. The tea culture in Singapore is believed to be moving along a similar trajectory. As such, customization should be the target for Twining’s in its next strategic plan. It is a growing trend that has two aspects. The first is the combination of flavor by companies to provide specialty and the second is personalization, which is the user-led personalization of  products. The support for the general trend will focus on the two mentioned aspects of customization.

This is particularly important for Twining’s because we provide a very mainstream product line, only having one customized tea product for commemorative purposes. For example, there is only the Royal Wedding Tea, which is in memory of the Royal Wedding (Twining’s Singapore, 2014). The products within the fine tea industry are mostly similar and we fear the absence of a distinguishing factor may cause our customer growth to plateau. Hence, customization is of utmost consideration.

The importance of customization for customer attraction

Combinations of flavor will bring Twining’s greater patronage because customization will bring about a novel product. 73% of customized product purchasers think that customized products are unique products (Euro monitor, 2008) It has become apparent that people are interested in exploring possibilities and the idea of novelty, where novelty is derived from new combinations

Novelty as an appealing factor

The scientific precursor to this argument is that there is an innate presence in people to seek novelty as studies have shown novelty as human stimuli for dopamine (Bunzeck, 2006). Dopamine presents the perceived “feel good” factor, which will entice consumers to buy our products. From a psychological point of view, a product’s novelty can alter its perceived usefulness and in turn affect decisions as to whether the product is favorable or not (Im, 2015). The tea industry has many products. Customers often cannot decide which tea to choose because there is no one best option. Novelty is our fast track towards capturing the attention of our consumers. This translates into an even larger consumer base for Twining’s because, the new products will attract consumers who have never considered us before.