Family Mart’s Top Management Message

Family Mart’s Top Management Message

FamilyMart is the main competitor of 7-ELEVEN in Taiwan. According to the statistic data until December 2011 in Wikipedia, there are only eight stores in the United States. FamilyMart mainly focus operating area on Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Thus, I would like to share some basic backgrounds of FamilyMart and the comparisons between 7-ELEVEN and FamilyMart in Taiwan.

For FamilyMart, the number of store visitors increased due to increased patronage by the over-50s and housewives, the usefulness of convenience stores in remote areas, growing recognition of the variety and high quality of their products. Given these changes, they worked to transform stores into hubs in the infrastructure of daily life of their neighborhoods, through more appealing displays and services, by improving product development and showing renewed commitment to service, quality and cleanliness.

In Japanese operations, FamilyMart developed original product lineups centered on mainstay ready-to-eat items, and worked to raise product quality and differentiate our brand through variety of lineup. A case in point was the broad-based customer appeal of the "Fresh Frozen" range of frozen ready-to-eat meals with a just-cooked taste, developed with the know-how of am/pm Japan Co., Ltd. In store development, they aggressively opened stores in off-street sites such as Tokyo Skytree Town and other retail complexes, in addition to targeting areas with high growth potential such as the three metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya) and leading provincial cities. In order to develop new store business models, they opened FamilyMart + drug Higuchi Awajicho store, combining FamilyMart convenience with the professional expertise of the pharmacist in one outlet.

In overseas operations, FamilyMart are expanding the number of stores in Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand, and are tailoring store displays and layouts to each of these local markets so as to provide greater satisfaction to customers. FamilyMart has managed to improve the profitability of Thailand operations significantly, as a result of new store openings and improved average daily sales due to a commitment to service, quality and cleanliness, supported by a pickup in the national economy after the severe flooding last year (2011). In China, in addition to opening stores aggressively in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou, they strengthened lineups of ready-to-eat items and improved the gross profit ratio.

For the observation in my country Taiwan, I think the advantage of 7-ELEVEN is providing more and diverse services for customers. In addition, the number of 7-ELEVEN in Taiwan is much more than FamilyMart. Thus, customers build brand loyalty for 7-ELEVEN more easily than for FamilyMart. However, the advantage of FamilyMart is that they often keep a comfortable and clean shopping environment in their stores. In my opinion, it’s really a key point for attracting more customers if FamilyMart would like to compete with 7-ELEVEN in Taiwan.

For my observation in channels, although FamilyMart is a Japanese store, it doesn’t show Japanese characters obviously no matter in products or customers’ needs. If FamilyMart in Taiwan could show  Japanese characters more clearly and innovatively, I believe FamilyMart will has their own competitive advantages because of operation differences.

7-ELEVEN plays an important role in Taiwan!

In my country, Taiwan, has highest density of 7-ELEVEN stores in the world, with stores everywhere from mountains to ocean-side. There are only 23 million people in Taiwan, but over four million consumers visiting 7-ELEVEN each day. The feature of the 7-ELEVEN stores is that they set up their stores in intersections. Intersections are 7-ELEVEN’s favorite locations and are usually located in there. It’s more obvious and also can catch consumers’ eyes. Besides, 7-ELEVEN also sets up in subway stations, schools, hospitals, and rest areas of highways. Sometimes, it is not an unusual scene for two 7-Eleven shops to stand face to face across an intersection. 

For the products, 7-ELEVEN utilizes team merchandise and international procurement to launch foreign top sellers, and has developed a range of beverages and foods that contain strictly selected ingredients to strengthen product structure. They have daily products such as lunch boxes, breads, coffee, noodles, smoothie, sandwiches, and so on. The target of these convenient foods is that people prefer not to spend time waiting for their meals. Besides, their food-products will follow the seasons and occasions to change the flavor to meet customer needs. For example, during winter, 7-ELEVEN provides some hot beverages and offers cold noodles in summer.

Modern convenient store cannot satisfy consumers by only selling products. With the combination of financial service and information, 7-ELEVEN have launched the “Bill Payment Service” allowing customers to pay their public service bills. In addition, 7-ELEVEN stores in Taiwan also provide the following various services like: digital image printing, bill collection service, Takkyubin (similar to UPS), direct marketing shopping service, pre-order service, telephone and bus fare cards, stamps, envelops, and free calls for ringing up radio taxi etc. Furthermore, 7-ELEVEN develops demand strategy such as reservation system by which customers are able to get popular products using online ordering in advance.

For 7-ELEVEN marketing strategies in Taiwan, 7-ELEVEN uses television commercials with many famous stars to reach their consumers in Taiwan. Besides, the two famous slogans “7-ELEVEN always open” and “It’s nice to have 7-ELEVEN” which easily able to be memorized and understood by the public in Taiwan. Furthermore, they have created a cartoon character “Open-jiang” to represent them and has it’s own products, commercials, blog and songs as the picture I post.           

In order to enhance consumers’ loyalty, 7-ELEVEN provides i-cash card which is like Starbucks’ Stored-value card. I-cash card enable customers to conduct transactions faster and easier. For instance, buying some products with i-cash card can have discounts. In addition, consumers can purchase i-cash of various designs online and can also make personal i-cash card.

7-ELEVEN is top service organization in Taiwan, and there are over four million consumers visiting 7-ELEVEN each day. It meets consumers’ needs and has been innovated new products and marketing strategies depending on environment and market trends. Therefore, 7-ELEVEN has become everyone’s necessary good neighbor in Taiwan.

Any one see a 7-ELEVEN around ?

       

       In 2011, there were 4,600 7-ELEVEN stores opened, bringing the retail brand to more than 46,000 locations across the globe. That’s the most units of any company in the world, 7-ELEVEN Inc. claims. While other retailers struggle to export their store concept away from home, 7-ELEVEN has expanded into 16 countries. The company started out in Dallas in 1927 but now is based in Japan. Today 7-ELEVEN is aiming to grow mostly in South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Canada.
 
       Convenience doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. The localization strategy of 7-ELEVEN is more than just quirky. 7-ELEVEN has local partners who understand the environment in their market very well. This allows them to grow very rapidly and at much lower investment. In Hong Kong, shoppers snack on fresh pasta at the 7 Café and pay their phone bills at the store. In Japan, shoppers can receive online shopping purchases at their local 7-ELEVEN, a concept the company is also testing in the United States with Amazon.com.

      In my country, Taiwan, locals use the store to pay traffic tickets and utility bills, pump up bicycle tires and send and receive packages. In addition, the stores are so ubiquitous that when the Taiwanese government decided to offer free health checkups for residents, it collaborated with 7-ELEVEN to use its stores. Furthermore, a lot of universities in Taiwan provide a space for 7-ELEVEN selling products for students. In my opinion, 7-ELEVEN cooperating with universities and hospitals is really a special expansion strategy and operation idea that is unique from its expansion strategies in other countries.  

Hey guys, 

Welcome to my blog! Hope every one will be interested in the lectures I post for this summer course. Thank you~~!!!

Yi-Ting Yang