Project on a Departmental Store
INTRODUCTION OF SULTAN SONS
HISTORY
The history chapter of this departmental store requires us to go even beyond the partition. The
business age and strength of Sultan and family is quite difficult to trace out. However, there is
a list of diversified businesses with different names but owned and managed by the same
team and they are:
· Pak Gases Pvt. Ltd.
They supply CO2 (carbon dioxide) to Pepsi and Coca-Cola throughout Pakistan.
· Suppliers of Electric Bulbs and tube lights to
o Al-noor Bulb Pvt. Ltd.
o Shafaq Lamps Corporation
o Pak Lamps
· Sultan Sons Enterprises supply tractors for Multan division
· Retail Outlets
o Sultan Sons Khanewal Road, Mutlan.
· New Sultan Sons Electronic Showroom Cantt.
o Sultan Sons Electric Motors, Chowk Shaheedan, Multan
o Sultan Sons, Siemens Electronic Motors, Lahore.
PRESENT
Sultan Sons, a departmental inaugurated on October 9, 2004. The store is located on
Khanewal Road. There are certain outlets owned and managed by sultan & family, but as the
Departmental Store is concerned we are having the only outlet named as Sultan Sons. The
management cum owners are:
· Chief Executive Sheikh Javed Sultan
· Executives Khalil-ur-Rehman
Sheikh Faisal Javed
Sheikh Muzammil Javed
Sheikh Musaddiq Javed
The service hours of the store are 9:00 am to 12:00 midnight. They are having 20 employees
in the store and 6 are women out of these 20 and two watchmen. The store is a double story
building and deals with various product lines and various brands in each of these lines. And
as for the product line’s deptt and breadth is concerned they vary with different lines. The
different product lines are:
· Electronics
· Supermarket
· Bakery
· Groceries
· Toys
· Children wear
· Children shoes
· Ladies garments, fabrics
· Ladies shoes
· Ladies bags
· Gents garments
· Gents shoes
· Cosmetics
· Bath department
· Crockery
· Cards
They consider electronics to be their basic product line to deal in and the various brands they
business in this very line are:
· Philips
· Sony
· Samsung
· Dawlance
· Waves
· LG
· Kenwood
· Haier
· Hisense
· Pak
And the other lines dealt with in depth are cosmetics, toys, children-wear, and bags. The
brands for children wear are Hurley’s and elegance mostly. And for gents garments they
claim that they were the only franchisee of Levis for more than 5 years and then they have
Laser’s mens wear, ranging from Rs. 350-1300, first time in Multan after Islamabad and
another famous brand is NUNUK i.e.
N = New
U = Universal
N = Naturals
U = Unbeatable
K = Known
According to them, they emphasize on price worth quality but in case of few convenience
goods they claim to have lower prices as compare to the market, for example Sasso olive oil
they sell at Rs. 1095/- compare to the market price Rs. 1300/-
As a mean of sales promotion, they have arranged a scheme to provide a coupon against the
shopping of Rs. 500/- and at the end of each month they use to have a lucky draw and certain
prizes and a surprise lucky draw for those who went for the shopping of Rs. 1000/-
FUTURE
They are also willing to introduce a new brand of ice-cream ‘Haagen Dazs’ of England for
the first time in Multan. For future they have planned to open new branches and even more
vast chain of stores.
METHODOLOGY
In order to study what people think about Sultan Sons we conducted a survey.
DEVELOPMENT OF QUESTIONNAIRE
In order to check the opinion of people about Sultan Sons a questionnaire consisted of nine
questions was developed for customers of this outlet and for management we developed an
interview form.
In this way we analysed our study.
COLLECTION OF DATA
For the purpose of analysis questionnaire response were first listed out and then analysed by
using percentage method. In this way we summarized the whole data.
INTERVIEW FROM MANAGEMENT
To conduct our report on retailing strategies of “Sultan Sons” we had to visit the outlet. We
went there and met the management. Basically there are one Chief Executive and four
executives. But the person dealing with the retailing strategies is Mr. Sheikh Muzamil Javed
who provided us the comprehensive information about their strategies and he is one of the
executives over there:
We interviewed regarding the strategies of:
· Location
· Assortment
· Regulatory issues
· Customer profile
· Marketing
· Budgeting techniques
As for as the location is concerned he told that they have chosen this location to fill the gap of
departmental store in this area. They have covered the space of twenty thousand (20,000)
square feet approximately.
The criteria they follow for floor location is that they have placed “electronics” at the start of
the store for the movement convenience of their customers. Electronics are the base work of
Sultan Sons. Super market is at the end of the ground floor. They are having beverages and
electronics at the display of ground floor. Their strategy for having electronics at the front of
their store is the impulse buying from their female customers for home appliances.
When we asked about the assortment he answered that they are having the product liens
which have mentioned in the introduction portion of our report. But the product lines they are
dealing in depth are:
· Cosmetics
· Ladies Garments
· Baby Baba Garments
In answer to our question of providing extra services to their customers he told that they are
providing the following services.
· After Sales Services
· Demonstration
· Warranty
We also asked him about the customer profiles he told that they are having mass market for
their retail outlet. And their customers belong to upper class and middle class because
according to them they are providing high quality to their customers therefore they charge
them the prices accordingly.
The customer traffic at Sultan Sons is more during the Eid and the season of marriages
because they offer the facility of complete dowry under one roof. The calendar timing of high
sales for the outlet are:
· Weekends
· Week days
· Night time
Marketing strategies of Sultan Sons was also the part of our interview form management. Mr.
Muzammil told us that they are using advertisement as the promotional mix. They are using
“Product appeal” as their message content that means they are offering the right product with
best quality to their customers. They are also using the patronage appeal to their customers
because they have opened the departmental store in such area where there is no other
departmental store. So it is convenient for the people of that area to make their complete
purchase under one roof. As for as pricing appeal is concerned they are charging the price
worth quality that means the prices are according to the high quality of their products. So as a
whole they are using comprehensive appeal to their customers that means the emphasis is on.
· Rightness of their product
· Rightness of their place
· Rightness of their price
About the discount and allowance strategies he said that they offer off season discount to the
people at the end of each season. They are using percentage of sales method for the allocation
of budget to their outlet. The future plan is to open chain of stores in the city.
FINDINGS FROM CUSTOMER SURVEY
Q.1) Is this location convenient for you to
visit?
Yes No
70% 30%
Q.2) What elements in the store layout attract you the
most?
In store location display Position Shelf position floor
location
50% 20% 20% 10%
Q.3) What do you think about the pricing policies being followed by the store?
High Low Moderate
50% 0% 50%
Q.4) Do you think that the product variety is according to your needs?
Yes No
50% 50%
Q.5) What promotional techniques are responsible to
bring you here?
Handouts Publicity Family Ads any other
0% 10% 50% 30% 10%
Q.6) What are the elements attracting you for
shopping in this outlet?
Cust.Serv. Clean. Atmosph. Comfort. Demo. Testers
parking any other
20% 10% 30% 20% 10% 0% 0% 10%
Q.7) Do you think people visit this store as status
symbol?
Yes No May/May not
40% 30% 30%
Q.8) Would you like to be the customers of the
outlet in future?
Yes No May/May not
30% 20% 50%
ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER SURVEY
To conduct our report on retailing strategies of “Sultan Sons” we had to visit the outlet. There
we got questionnaire filled by the customers of sultan sons.
When we asked about the convenience of this outlet for customers in that we found that for
most of the customers its location is convenient. In the answer of question regarding
attractive elements of the outlet most responses from the customers were in favour of in store
location.
About the pricing policy of the store half of the respondents responded that they have to bear
high prices on this outlet but rest of the half responded that they pay moderate prices. In
another question about product variety on this outlet half of the respondents thick that it is
according to their needs and rest of the respondents think that it is not according to their
needs.
When we asked that what promotional techniques are responsible to bring them here then
most of the respondents respond that they heard about this outlet from some friends and
family and some of the respondents came to know about this outlet from advertisements and
publicity. When we asked about the attractive elements of the outlet then most of the
respondents respond that they are attracted by aosphere and to some extent by customer
service, clearness and comfort.
When we asked about their opinion that either people visit this outlet for status symbol then
most of the respondents agreed with this opinion and when we asked about the future loyalty
with this outlet then half of the respondents respond that may or may not be and in
suggestions most almost all of the customers suggested that they should decrease their prices
and should enhance quality.
CONCLUSION
No doubt, our study is limited in our findings due to the lack of enough time, however, we
have tried our level best to deal with the contents of the report as were required.
To conclude in terms of our findinds w.r.t. Sultan Sons, it was found that mostly the people
visited the outlet due to the word of mouth concerned with public relations in the promotional
mix, and advertisements were also responsible to take them there. It was found that mostly
people feel the location convenient and the customers one way or the other were satisfied
with the store layout and design, more specifically in context of the in store location.
When we talk about the product variety, half of they considered it according to their needs
and opted for the atmosphere as being the highest, and customer service and comfort to shop
in the outlet to a lower extent comparatively as the reasons for attraction however, cleanliness
and demonstration do contribute a bit. The other half of the customers who were not in favour
of the variety of products as per their needs and the most solid reason for this responses was
the high price variety of the products and even the responses were that the prices were higher
as compare to the market. Anyhow, 50% of the customers do consider the prices to be
moderate or in other words being worth of quality.
When we tried to find out that is status symbol having any sort of influence regarding the
visit to the outlet, almost 40% of the people had concert with it. However, among the
remaining people half neglected the view of this status symbol and half of them were
indifferent w.r.t. the issue.
Future visits to the outlet by customers mostly wasn’t sure, but 20% claim to be the patrons,
however, remaining were not willing for any near future arrivals to the store and forwarded
the suggestions of lower prices.
SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
After conducting the report on “Sultan Sons” according to our knowledge and limitations of
our study we have arrived at the following suggestions.
1. They should reduce their prices because according to their customers they are charging
high prices to them. Most of the people do not make their purchases from here due to the high
prices as compared to the market.
2. The existing location of the outlet is not convenient to all the people in the city. Therefore
they are losing their customers due to the location so they should open another branch in the
main trading area (s) of the city.
3. The high quality they are offering in the outlet is not according to the requirement of the
people of Multan. So they should also carry the variety of product with lower prices.
4. Last but not least the final suggestion is in concert with the views of the management as
there is lack of place w.r.t. the variety and number of product lines, so they should try to
manage some solution for this problem either by widening space or excluding any product
line.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In conducting our research report on “retailing strategies of Sultan Sons”. Our research
criteria for consultation was as follows:
Interview from Management:
ð Mr. Javed Sultan Sheikh Chief Executive
ð Mr. Khalil ur Rehman Executive
ð Mr. Faisal Javed Sheikh Executive
ð Mr. Muzammil Javed Sheikh Executive
ð Mr. Musaddiq Javed Sheikh Executive
