COMPREHENSIVE ASSIGNMENT

POM M-8179 Thursday 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Date: 19th November 2020

Student Name: ____Laiba Rizwan___________ ID: 20191-

26233___________

Read the given scenario carefully and answer questions given below (Total Marks: 15)

Trader Joe’s isn’t really a gourmet food store. Then again, it’s not a discount food store either. It’s
actually a bit of both. One of America’s hottest retailers, Trader Joe’s has put its own special twist on the
food price-value equation—call it “cheap gourmet.” It offers gourmet-caliber, one-of-a-kind products at
bargain prices, all served up in a festive, vacation-like atmosphere that makes shopping fun. “When you
look at food retailers, there is the low end, the big middle, and then there is the cool edge—that’s
Trader Joe’s,” says one food marketing expert. Whatever you call it, Trader Joe’s inventive price-value
positioning has earned it an almost cult like following of devoted customers who love what they get
from Trader Joe’s for the prices they pay. Trader Joe’s describes itself as an “island paradise” where
“value, adventure, and tasty treasures are discovered, every day

Customers don’t just shop at Trader Joe’s; they experience it. Shelves bristle with an eclectic assortment
of gourmet quality grocery items. Trader Joe’s stocks only a limited assortment of about 2,000 specialty
products (compared with the 45,000 items found in an average Safeway). However, the assortment is
uniquely Trader Joe’s, including special concoctions of gourmet packaged foods and sauces, ready-to-eat
soups, fresh and frozen entrees, snacks, and desserts— all free of artificial colors, flavors, and
preservatives. Trader Joe’s is a gourmet foodie’s delight, featuring everything from wasabi peas, organic
strawberry lemonade, dark-chocolate dipped spiced dry mango, and fair trade coffees to chili lime
chicken burgers and triple-ginger ginger snaps. “Where else can you find Soy & Flax Cereal clusters,
Ginger Cats Cookies, and Jalapeño Blue Corn Bread Mix?” asks one shopper. Another thing that makes
Trader Joe’s products so special is that you simply can’t get them anywhere else. More than 80 percent
of the store’s brands are private label goods, sold exclusively by Trader Joe’s. If asked, almost any
customer can tick off a ready list of Trader Joe’s favorites that they just can’t live without—a list that
quickly grows. “People get hooked on something and they keep coming back for it. That’s how it starts,”
says a Trader Joe’s store captain. “They end up filling up their baskets, then entire carts. That’s the most
common complaint that we hear. They came in for one or two things, and ended up with a whole cart
full of stuff.”

Q1.Suppose Trader Joe has decided to start its operations in Pakistan. Explain how Microenvironment
forces will affect its marketing decisions. (05 marks)

Ans. Microeconomics forces are basically all the factors that are close to the company, that affects its
ability to serve its customers. It consists of the company, the suppliers, the intermediaries, the
competitors and the public. If Trader Joe decides to start its operation here in Pakistan then the
Microeconomic Forces will affect its decision in all the given way below

The Company: Trader Joe has a long Hierarchy Structure with a lot of middle managers in between, So if
the same structure prevails in Pakistan then here it can create a lack of communication between the
Employees and the top management since mostly the system is autocratic in Pakistan. Secondly, The
Process and criteria of Research and Development Criteria will also be different as they will have to work
around the things that will be Halal and a lot more different in taste like something with which the
people of subcontinent can resonate with. They will have to work hard to establish their chains and
make customers trust them like they trust the Local chains such as Imtiaz.
The Suppliers: As trader Joe’s will be new in Pakistan so here it might initially have a difficulty in finding
suppliers that gives out amazing product in cheapest price. However, Trader Joe can consider Supplying
its material from abroad as Pakistanis have this mindset where anything brought from outside the
country is considered to have a better quality instead the once produce here One of its example can be
how we always look for imported Shampoos and buy the exact same brand of Sunsilk but at a higher
price just because it’s made in Malaysia. So this strategy can give trader Joe an edge. Moreover, they can
also outsource it from small struggling Pakistani Businesses which will not only cost them cheaper but
also help them build their brand image on the basis of CSR.

Marketing Intermediaries: Here in Pakistan, Trader Joe will need to hire market intermediaries to convey
their brand image to the audience. Pakistani audience is very different than the one that trader joe has
been serving so trader joe will have to come up with such marketing campaigns that makes the audience
look at trader joe in a different light and not consider them as a foreign or alien brand. The marketing
intermediaries will need to create such ad campaigns that taps on the emotions like National and Shan
does and to add that desi touch in trader joe’s they will have to advertise their product in the most desi
way like ads featuring saas or bahu, or relation between a father and daughter. Also they will have to
increase the availability of their product through increasing physical distributions firms and resellers so
that slowly it starts to become a part of the people’s daily life.

Competitor: When trader joe will launch in Pakistan it will face a lot of competitors in various
departments like imtiaz or chase as these stores also sells there inhouse products and they already have
a strong customer base. What trader joe can do is use their competitors as advantage and make an ad
against their competitor in which they blatantly mentions about their competitor and how they are
better than them. This will force the competitors to make an ad against trader Joe and just like that a
war over the ads will start and this will garner lot of attention and put trader joe in spotlight. Some years
ago Ufone a telecommunication company employed the same way and by this way it not only gained
attention but people also became aware of their brand and what they actually stand for.

Public: Lastly comes the public, it is basically any group that affects the organization. In Pakistan, Trader
Joe will actually have to be a lot more mindful of the public because it can easily fall prey to the
scrutinizing eyes of the religious groups of Pakistan and they can label it Haram or something just like
they did it with Lays because it was a foreign brand. So in this regard trader joe will need to keep their
eyes open and do not do any such thing that can hurt the sentiments of these groups. Trader Joe should
work to warm their ways into the heart of the general public by using media public by advertising their
products in morning shows as here morning shows have a really strong influence.

Q2.Suppose Trader Joe decides to launch its own range of Sports apparels and shoes in Pakistan. Discuss
how a college sports fan might go through the buying decision process, providing examples for each
stage. (06 marks)

Ans. If Trader joe decides to launch its own sports apparel and shoes in Pakistan then the concept that
would on what might go through the mind of the college sports fan is called consumer behavior which
refers to the buying behavior of the final consumer that consist of individuals or households.

The first stage will the need of recognition where the college student will realize that he actually wants a
any sport item or any shoes because college students are mainly sports enthusiast and with the PSL
going on their spirits are above the ground.

The next stage will be information search where the customer will search will search for product that
will meet their needs. In this case, the college student will start searching through all the possible brands
such as Nike, Adidas and in his pursuit will also come across trader joe’s.

Furthermore, now he will be on the stage of Evaluation of alternatives where the customer compares all
the given alternatives against one another. In this case, the student will compare the quality, Price of
Trader Joe’s Sports apparel or shoes with that of Nike or Adidas. As he is a college student so he will
want something that will last him very long and is good for rough use but should not be too heavy on
the pocket either.
Now the second last step would be the Purchase Decision which comes after the customer has
evaluated the options and is ready to buy. But the purchase decision can be affected or change due to
the influence of social circle of the customer such as friends or family or any unusual circumstances such
as any financial loss. In this case, the student settled to buy from trader joe but his decision can change
after one of his friends suggested him to buy from Nike and now all of a sudden the student will start
considering Nike. And that one suggestion can change the whole perspective.

The last step is the Post Purchase Behavior where the customer can suffer from a dissonance that after
purchasing the product that the product he brought is not good enough and he should have gone for the
other option. In this example, say that the college student brought shoes from Trader Joe’s and now
after buying them he will start to think that he should have followed his friend’s suggestion and brought
the shoes from Nike since it’s a very old brand whereas, Trader Joe just started dealing in shoes and
Sports apparel. So the guilt or the regret is basically the post purchase behavior.

Q3. Which of the marketing management orientation(s) is/are being adopted by Trader Joe? Discuss in
detail (04 Marks)

Ans. There are five marketing management orientation that are Product Orientation, Production
Orientation, sales orientation, societal orientation and, market orientation. The marketing orientations
that are being adopted by Trader Joe’s are Product Orientation, Production Orientation and Market
Orientation.

Organizations that employ the Production orientation assumes that price is the only thing that matters
to the customers, so the mass produce the goods in the lowest possible cost in order to sell at a low
price. Trader Joe’s uses Production orientation as according to the above mentioned text trader joe’s sell
its customers at a very low bargain price as it is quoted that they are ‘cheap gourmet’ in the above text.

Furthermore, Organizations that use Product Orientation put their emphasis on improving and making
their product better. Trader Joe’s is known for its assortment grocery items that the quality of the food
sold at trader joe’s is so good that it is not a gourmet place but still the quality of its product is similar to
gourmet products. The food that trader joe sells is free of addictives, and artificial colors and flavors
which shows that trader joe believes in improving the quality of their products and selling product that
are good for health and is of high quality.

Lastly, organizations that introduce Market Orientation into their system always give importance to its
targeted audience and the market before considering anything else. And Trader Joe’s fits well into the
definition because it produces products according to the needs of its audience. Because it contains food
that are ready to eat but also are really good in taste so basically its audience is the ones who are too
busy to cook food themselves but they want something that is easy to make and equally good in taste so
that it doesn’t taste like store brought but rather something your mom would make at home. And
keeping that in mind Trader Joe’s offers a variety of foods ranging from wasabi to cereal, you name it
and they have it. And the most amazing part is that the customers will not be able to find these items
anywhere.