Best in Marketing Award
Before the setting up of Big Bath, the company was just a hardware retail shop known as Leonfast Sdn Bhd with only a handful of salespersons. One of them is the founder’s son Shane Mun Phang Choong.
Every day, Mun and other salesperson had to go door-to-door to meet clients and market their products. Not only that, the company also spent a lot of money advertising their products in print media. Despite their hardwork, the business was still struggling to survive.
However, the exposure has provided Mun the insights on the weaknesses of traditional sale and marketing approach. He realised that this strategy has restricted its target market as each salesperson could only reach out to a small number of customers.
“We could only go so far and many people still did not know about our products. On top of that, the advertising cost in print media is very high and its outreach is limited by time and space,” Mun said.
After Mun took over the business from his father, he began introducing different marketing initiatives. Amongst them are email marketing and the setting up of the company’s Facebook page to raise brand awareness and keep customers informed about its latest products and services.
“When we first started using Facebook for digital marketing in 2008, we were criticised by our competitors and veteran staff for being unrealistic as they could not see the impact of social media and how far reaching it could get to our target market.
“They believe only by advertising in print media will we get the outcome that we intend to achieve.
“However, the result showed that the small amount of advertising cost we spent on social media is way more effective than what we have always been doing with print media,” Mun said.
The company also invested in information technology as the business gears towards digitalisation.
Its online-to-offline (O2O) business strategy combines the strengths of both online and brick-and-mortar marketing to achieve higher sales in its physical stores.
“We identify customers in the online space, such as through emails and internet advertisement, before enticing them to our showrooms to make purchases. Through this approach, we have successfully attracted a higher number of retailers and customers online and stopped our reliance on door-to-door sale.
“Not only has it increased our sales revenue but we have also managed to reach out to more potential customers in a time- and cost-effective way,” Mun said.
“We have organised many Facebook campaigns, giveaways, games, questionnaire to engage with our customers. We regularly upload bathroom and kitchen design ideas to inspire our customers with the latest trend and build awareness on our products.
“Through our ‘Did You Know’ campaign, consumers are educated on how to choose good quality bathroom and kitchen products,” Mun said.
Other than that, Big Bath also relies on customers’ recommendation to attract new customers.
“Buying a new house and doing renovation are some of the major events in most people’s lives and many would trust their closest friends to recommend any good products or services that they have used before.
“We want to leverage on that and that is why we encourage our customers to leave good reviews on our Facebook page if they are happy with our products and services,” Mun said.
For customers who have spent a certain amount in our shops, the company also sends out invitation cards and vouchers to be used at its open house.
Before every Chinese New Year, the company will send out workers to carry out free maintenance such as the cleaning of shower screen and water filter, for VIP customers.
“When they share photos on their Facebook and Instagram accounts about our services, we are reaching out to their friends who may not have heard about our company,” Mun said, adding that SMS are also sent out to survey the satisfaction level on our customer service and products.
To ensure that its effort in marketing and engagement is not done in vain, promotional activities and sale events are organised regularly in all its showrooms throughout the country “to close the deal”.
Other than that, Big Bath has also introduced membership system to reward loyal customers.
“Not only does it bring us repeat customers, it also helps us to understand our customers’ needs,” Mun said.
He said the company’s marketing strategies are proven to be a great success as Big Bath continued to record a double digit growth in 2015 to 2018 when there is a slowdown in the property market.
“Every time when we have sale events, our customers will start queuing up an hour before the door is open,” he said. - 24 Oct 2018
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