< Example 7 > Here is the point!
Guidance in sales strategy |
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#Overview of a business instructed
Sector: Retail of tea and laver (nori)
Yearly turnover: 30 million yen
Workforce: 1 worker
History: 35 years
#Commercial and industrial association
Maoka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tochigi Prefecture
#Management instructor:
Hiroyuki Tsutsumi
#What triggered the guidance
| 1. Guidance by inspection tours |
2. Consultation at the counter
3. Consultation on the phone
4. Other
#Guidance items
1. Finance
2. Taxation
3. Labor
4. Transactions
5. Digitization
7. Managerial reforms
8. Environmental measures
9. Other |
#Issues and challenges
Since the shopkeeper's performance is in a recession and the shop is aged, he intends to restructure his business, possibly switching to a different sector. If such business shows some potential, he wishes his son, who works for a financial establishment now, to take over his business. The sales is a half of the peak level. It is considered to be due mainly to the fact that equipment related to Buddhist masses has come to concentrate in ceremony halls and related facilities, that the distribution of cheap products through quantity stores has increased, and that kettles which do not turn into garbage are no longer needed as a result of people's orientation toward simplicity and handiness, along with the quick spread of simple and convenient products. However, the reality is that the shopkeeper cannot take advantage of the priority of its being located along the main street in the center of the town and located in the district visited by the greatest number of pedestrians in the city. He cannot find the solutions to the lack of the appeal of promotion (promotion) and to the shortage of ability to draw customers. |
#Advice of the management instructor
The advantage of the situation of the shop makes its business promising. The attitude (motivation) of the shopkeeper and his wife toward business and their fastidiousness with "tea" are great strengths. Based on the present condition, I advised them to set up a sales strategy based on "tea" and designed for "providing solutions for a comfortable life," remember always to "find effective ways to lure comparatively numerous pedestrians nearby to the shop" and "display its specialization and take meticulous measures suited for a specialty shop." More specifically, to render such new services as "establishing a tea-drinking corner for tasty tea and sweets," "reorganizing the facade" to display its classiness, use "product lineups and display methods" that match the season and scene, and "provide letters of information about products and projects by direct mail and other means" to appeal to new customers. |
#What the business did
To follow my advice faithfully, the shopkeeper changed the plan to have the shop scheduled to be renovated dismantled and to build a new one and made a fresh start as a shop specializing in tea having a tea-drinking corner. The half of the shop measuring about 50 square meters is named "Tea Room for Guests at Leisure" (Yukyaku Sabo). It displays its characteristic by combining tea with Japanese sweets of the four seasons imported from Matsue, Ehime Prefecture. |
#Results and effects
A tea-drinking corner in a shop is the first attempt to have been made by any shop specializing in tea in Tochigi Prefecture. Being reported on a trade newspaper and otherwise much talked about, the new shop made a steady start. This has had a great combined effect, so that not only tea but tea ceremony utensils which had rarely sold before started to sell. Sales at stores is also rising gradually. The project has proved effective even if the shop is a small one run only by a husband and wife. |
