Page 14 - OCS Workbook - Day 2 Suggested Solutions (May 2018)

CIMA MAY 2018 – OPERATIONAL CASE STUDY

Place

Place considers the physical location of the factory, offices and sales outlets.
Mansako currently owns 119 stores, the vast majority of which are in Lowerland and the rest of
Europe. Our stores are mainly located in city centre locations, high-end shopping malls and airport
shopping areas.
Moving forward, whilst the factory, warehouse and offices are no doubt close to a good labour
supply in Lowerland, Mansako should consider economies of scale in production versus extra
distribution costs of being located in one place. A cost/ benefit analysis could be undertaken to
establish whether changes should be made in this respect. We recognise that our customer value
the fact that our products are ‘Made in Lowerland’ but aspects of our support operations could
potentially be moved from their centralised location.

Promotion
Promotion relates to how a business communicates with its customers. By understanding what
elements of the product are valued by the customer we can then use these as the focus of the
communication to promote our products and thus increase sales.
Promotion includes such things as advertising, sales promotions, direct selling and public relations
activities. At Mansako, we already have a well-established brand in Lowerland and Europe, easily
recognised by our golden ‘M’ logo, but in order to stimulate growth further, we should build upon
brand recognition with consumers.

We want to maintain our position in the growing personal luxury goods market and establish our
brand firmly in the more rapidly increasing market in Asia. Not only will we want to make
customers aware of new product lines/ designs, but also educate them about how seriously we
take our Corporate Social Responsibility. Increasingly, customers are avoiding buying products
that do not have ecological sustainability.

Moving forward, we are already moving away from mass, “push” based marketing, and towards
more personalised, 1:1 communication with consumers, through the many channels and on the
many devices they use. We need to ensure that we provide a seamless experience, regardless of
channel or device. Consumers can now engage with us in a physical store, on an online website or
mobile app or through social media. Each piece of the consumer’s experience should be
consistent and complementary.
We should regularly review the experience our customers go through in order to research,
purchase, and connect with our products. We should test the experience by placing orders,
interacting via all available channels, and more. If possible, these tests should be performed by
external and internal testers. We want to establish whether there are any unnecessary barriers.

70 KAPLAN PUBLISHING