Topics still left to be covered:

1. Promotional strategies names from ch14

Product-244
Boards, doors, furniture, danish, builders

Services-244

Partex Star Group manufactures both consumer products (246) as well as industrial
products (246).
● Under consumer products:
Convenience products: Danish Food’s Biscuits, Candy, Chanachur, Edible
Oil, Ghee, Herbs, Instant Powder Drink, Noodles, Semai, Snacks, Spice,
Tea, Wafer
Shopping products: Partex Furniture, boards, etc
● Under industrial products:
Materials and parts:
1. Raw materials: Partex Agro’s seeds
2. Natural product: Partex Power Generation Company Ltd.
3. Component materials: Star Bond’s solvent cement
4. Component parts: Boards, Doors, PVC Sheets
Capital Items:
1. Installations:
Fixed equipment: hospital and academic furniture
Supplies and services: None

Read page 249 and relate

Brand development (270)

● Line Extension: Partex Furniture’s industrial furnishing is relatively new.
● Brand Extension: While Partex started in the 1960’s with tobacco trading,
Partex Furniture was established in 1999 to make the company more
diversified while maintaining sustainability.
 The Medi-care line includes the same brand name but different product
category - hospital furnishing and tools.
● Multibrands: Danish foods
● New Brands: Corvee Maritime Co. Limited (sea going oil tankers),

Partex Furniture-product (245)

Core Customer Value- Functionality, Storage, comfort, durability and even luxury
(beds priced at almost 2.5lac)
Actual product:
Features
● Offers not only timber but also timber-substitutes such as special
particleboard and decorative plywood furniture. This helps customers to
purchase the cost effective and eco-friendly alternative for natural timber for
modern day furniture.
● Multiple colour options are also provided.
● Affordable prices/wide price range
Design- Innovative and elegant designs.
Quality level- High quality raw materials and technological machineries are used
to manufacture these furniture items in order to ensure excellence in quality.
Brand name- Partex Furniture is a renowned brand as it was established in the
1960s and has now become one of the largest Bangladeshi diversified private
sector businesses.
Augmented product:
● after sales services for all of their furniture
● 24/7 customer care
● Delivery to customer homes

Product Line (256): All kinds of furniture, ranging from living, dining, bedroom,
industrial and office, hospital and academic furniture, kitchen furnishing and doors
can be found at Partex Furniture.

Customer value driven marketing strategy is used throughout the company. This
means that Partex Furnitures identifies its target market and reacts to their needs
thus, retaining old customers and using them to help themselves gain greater
market share and profit in return. Hence, profitable customer relationships are
built.

1. Selecting Customer To Serve: Segmentation and targeting

2. Choosing Value Proposition: Value proposition basically answers to the

question- why customers choose Partex Furniture. The value proposition is
simply a full mix of benefits through which a brand is differentiated and
positioned.

“By offering such a vast range of furniture, at affordable prices, Partex

furniture effectively meets the demands of households, offices and schools
for furniture. Additionally, customers can customize their furniture
according to their taste and budget. Partex Furniture Industries Limited also
provides 24/7 customer care just to improve their customers’ lifestyle.
Through these methods of creating value for customers, the company has
been able to broaden its target market which in turn has accelerated sales”
(page 10 Ch 2.1 Introduction to Partex Furniture Industries Limited)

3. Marketing Management Orientation:

● Product Concept:

Consumers favour Partex furniture as they ensure excellence in

quality, performance, and innovative features. Hence, Partex furrniture
continually makes product improvements by launching new designs
and extending their line.

● Marketing Concept:

Partex Furniture has realised that achieving organisational goals

depend on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and
delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do. Hence,
they are now offering full customisation. Following the-
*sense-and-respond philosophy*

● Societal Marketing Concept:

 This is the idea that a company’s marketing decisions should consider
consumers’ wants (elegant, high quality furniture), the company’s
requirements (annual revenue of 111.9 million USD in 2020),
consumers’ long run interests, (affordable, value added services), and
society’s long-run interests (timber-substitutes such as special
particleboard and decorative plywood furniture are eco-friendly
alternative for natural timber for modern day furniture).

Partex Furniture uses differentiated marketing which occurs when a firm decides
to target several market segments and designs a separate offer for each group.
Partex furniture can be seen doing this because they have a wide price range. For
example, a low to middle income family can purchase a bed from them as the price
for beds start at Tk15,000. On the other hand, a high income family looking for
premium quality and comfort can also purchase a bed from them as they also offer
beds whose prices exceed tk2,00,000.

Brand equity: is the differential effect that knowing the brand name has on
customer response to the product and its marketing. For partex it is affordability,
elegant furniture with a number of design options. However, one downside to this
maybe that even though they are offering furniture within a high price range, many
high income families may avoid purchasing from them as the brand is known for
its affordability.

Building Strong Brands (265)

Capturing value from customers and building strong customer relationships-

Partex Furniture has successfully created satisfied and loyal customers which in
turn brings large share of revenue back to the company. (111.9 USD in 2020).
Therefore, as customers stay loyal and keep coming back for more, Partex
Furnitures experiences greater long-run returns. Additionally, they provide
augmented services as mentioned earlier which builds and maintains both strong
and profitable customer relationships with the firm.
Product Lifecycle Stage:
Maturity:
● Peak sales
● High profits
● Customers are mainstream adopters who prefer timer substitute affordable
furniture
● Stable number of competitors including hatil, otobi, etc and even RFL to an
extent.
● Marketing objective is to maximize profit while defending market share.
Even though partex furniture faces fierce competition, they have been able
to sustain their market share through various marketing strategies.
1. Product: Partex furniture has diversified its brand by meeting the
needs of consumers as well as industries as they sell everything from
bedroom, living, dining, kitchen, office, hospital and academic
furniture. They are continually introducing latest models as well as
product lines in order to remain competitive in the market.
2. Price: Partex Furniture, even though known for its affordability, it
offers a range of prices. For example, a single bed can be purchased at
around Tk15,000 but it can also exceed the price bar of TK250,000
depending on who the buyer really is and what the buyer prefers. This
allows them to remain competitive by serving customers who want
affordable furniture thus competing against affordable furniture
brands such as RFL while also ensuring better quality and more
durability than their furniture. On the other hand, by offering furniture
at a higher price, they are being able to compete with brands such as
Hatil by showcasing that they also have premium furniture and
furnishing to offer to their customers.
3. Place: At this stage, more intensive distribution is required. Getting
the product to consumers when and where they want is critical to the
market success of any business and it is no doubt that Partex Star
Group has one of the widest distribution channels in the country
which enables steady flow of distribution of its products. Partex
Furniture effectively creates customer value with its successful
provision of products through a number of platforms. They provide a
number of purchase location options such as physical stores that
 include 59 operative outlets that consist of 29 showrooms, nationwide,
online platform such as their own official website as well as usage of
intermediaries such as evaly.com and due to the pandemic they are
offering virtual shopping to their customers.Moreover, they also
provide nationwide home delivery of all their products which makes it
even more convenient for customers and further adds to customer
value.
4. Promotion
a. Advertising: Partex Furniture stresses brand differences and
benefits. This includes personal Selling via SMS, mails, calls,
etc. the company remains connected with existing customers in
order to increase brand loyalty as it is a gesture that goes on to
show how much customers are valued in Partex Furniture
Industries Limited. Moreover, they advertise in newspapers and
magazines, television, billboards, radio and several social media
platforms such as Facebook which make customers aware of
discounts and enhance brand awareness.
b. Sales Promotions: have been increased to encourage brand
switching such as Lucrative discounts in order to make their
extensive range of furniture even more affordable.

Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behaviour: (159)

1. Cultural factor:
● Social class: As social class is determined by the combination of
occupation, income, education, wealth and etc, Partex furniture offers
affordability and elegant designs. So, people from middle to high
income families prefer to buy from them
2.

Customers go through dissonance reducing buying behaviour when they

purchase furniture from Partex. This is because anyone who is buying furniture is
highly involved with this expensive, infrequent purchase but see little difference
among brands such as Hatil or Otobi, as all these companies sell similar furniture
and now all of them offer similar colours and designs as well. In such cases, buyers
respond to good prices and purchase convenience. Of course, partex offers very
competitive prices and even value added services.
If, after the purchase, they experience postpurchase dissonance and partex
furniture has the solution for that as well as it offers 24/7 customer care.

Distribution channel:

Upstream partners: Raw materials such as knobs, handles, etc, obtained

externally. Boards obtained internally.
Downstream Partners: Own stores and website, evaly.com
Value delivery network (359) :
Partex makes great furniture. But to make and market these products , they manage
a huge network of people in the company in several departments such as finance,
marketing and sales. These people are part of the 5000 employees’ workforce that
the group has. It also coordinates the efforts of thousands of suppliers of raw
materials required in the making of the furniture and its own showrooms and
outlets and intermediaries such as evaly. The entire network functions together to
create customer value and establish the brand’s “Partex Furniture: Total Care”
positioning.

❖ Partex furniture uses a direct marketing channel as they sell the furniture
they produced through their own showrooms and website.
● Physical Stores
Partex furniture Industries Limited has 59 operative outlets that consist of 29
showrooms, all over Bangladesh. This allows customers to visit these stores
and choose their desired furniture items by seeing them upfront. Since
customer value is given top priority, these physical stores offer one-on-one
customer service which also helps in creating an engaging brand experience.
● Official Website
To make shopping easier for those who might not be able to visit the
physical stores, Partex Furniture Industries Limited has its own website
which is www.partexfurniture.com. This has allowed customers to order
furniture items they desire from Partex, at the comfort of their homes and at
any time they want. Partex furniture has an official Facebook where products
can be viewed. So, when a potential customer stumbles upon posts of that
 page, view the products and potentially want to buy the product, they are
redirected to the official website, where they can make the purchase.
● Virtual Shopping
To make sure Partex furniture does not lose its prominence in the market, the
company came up with an innovative idea to make the purchase of furniture
from them easier for their customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. They
launched a new method of shopping called “Virtual Shopping Tour” where
customers can contact any showroom via Whatsapp and request a video call
tour of the showroom, during which they can place an order for any furniture
of their choice.
By facilitating online purchasing, customers can make purchases anywhere
and at any time. Through these online platforms, customers can view all the
products the company has to offer at one place, make comparisons and even
view all ongoing discounts. This convenience aids the consumer buying
decision process while also improving brand equity.

❖ Partex Furniture also uses indirect marketing channels containing an

intermediary such as evaly.com. So customers can purchase the furniture
they desire from this website as well. This is an example of a conventional
distribution channel as Partex Furniture is a separate business entity which
is only using evaly.com, a separate business entity that sells a vast range of
products, to sell its furniture. Using this method of distribution channel
Partex Furniture has been able to increase its sales and market coverage as
evaly is a large platform. So, there could be people visiting the website
without the intent of making a purchase from Partex but stumbling upon its
products and developing the desire to buy something. Since only a limited
number of intermediaries are purposely used, they are thus using exclusive
distribution as it allows control over promotion, service policies,
intermediary's price and several other factors and as the name suggests,
remain exclusive.
Marketing Distribution system
Distribution- Producer to directly the consumer as there the targeted segment of
the consumers are now shifting to online shopping . Again, partex produces its
furniture pieces and sells them at their own stores so they are the producer and
distributor themselves.
Mobile marketing- their whatsapp service through which they can have a store
tour over video call.
Promotion with respect to COVID 19 - for promotional strategy they used by
Partex is public relations. They use the advertising platform to spread awareness
among their employees and customers
Social Marketing- By spreading awareness and introducing virtual store tours,
online shopping, fast home delivery services for avoiding mass gathering at the
stores, sanitization of the products and maintaining social distancing measures,
Partex is ensuring benefits to both the company and the public aka their targeted
customers.
Digital Marketing- www.partex.com is the online service site. Customers can
have a virtual tour, online and hotline service, get all their queries done by staying
home or anywhere in the world.
Pricing - Partex uses customer based pricing strategy as the value of customers is
the first priority for us. This customer based pricing uses the buyer’s perception of
value, not the seller's costs the key to pricing. Here price is considered before the
marketing program is set. . This kind of value based pricing is always customer
driven.here the most challenging part is the company has to understand the targeted
customer and their desires from beforehand because if customers perceive that a
product's price is greater than its value they won't buy it. If the company prices the
product below its costs profit will suffer. So here the solution is, between these two
extremes the “right’ pricing strategy is one taht delivers booth value to the
customers and profits to the company. For this pricing strategy the following steps
are to be considered by order,1) assess customer needs and value 20 set target price
to match customer perceived value 3) determine cost that can be incurred 4) design
product to deliver desired value at target price.
Product mix pricing strategies- pricing strategy is necessary as various products
have related demand and costs and face different degrees of competition. The
pricing strategy of Partex is - product line pricing- where the company sets prices
across an entire product line. The price steps should be taken into account for cost
differences of different pieces or products the company desires to sell to its
targeted customers.
Price adjustment strategies - For situations like the covid 19 pandemic and
lockdown the company faced downfall in the sales sector as like the other
companies around the globe. So to fix this companies usually adjust their basic
prices to account considering the various segmented customer needs and changing
situations, this process is called price adjustment strategy. The strategy Partex took
into consideration by analysing the company sales, customer needs and demands
favourable environment is discount and allowance pricing. And dynamic and
online pricing. ------ Relate to the definition page 336, 340 .

Promotion mix- “Big Savings Offer” which allows upto 35% discount, “Eid Carnival Offer”
offering upto 20% discounts and many more” all these are in sales promotion category of
marketing communication mix---- relate to book pg.425

Segmentation- 1) Demographic - age,gender economic situation

2) Geographic -urban
3)Psychographic- lifestyle

When concentrated segmentation(for long term growth of the company) is done to

prioritize one or more specific segments two main target audiences are mainly
considered- a) Household furniture buyers b) corporate furniture buyers

Read the term paper and relate with the book <3

4. Requirements of effective market segmentation concept (pg 13 Chapter: 3

Market Segmentation and Targeting)

1. Measurable-Each segment is big enough for the company to attend to and

respond to their customers needs and preferences.
2. Differentiable-segments of Partex are internally same but externally
different.
3. Accessible-since the segments are measurable, that is of adequate bulk, it
makes them perfectly actionable as well. Partex Furnitures communicates
 well with their customers and thus responds well with appropriate products
and services.
4. Substantial-It is big enough to be cost-effective and to be potentially
profitable Since they attract a measurable bunch, Partex Furniture is able
to serve their customers with absolute quality.
5. actionable-Their advertising - be it on television or billboards or through
SMS or their website or online sources – conveys the firm’s response to
COVID-19. These are all promotional efforts that are put in by the company
which makes their targeted segments actionable as well. (5.1.2.
Promotion, pg 18 and 19) “Putting light on Partex Furniture, they have
put up a COVID-19 awareness post sourced by World Health Organization
on their website which acknowledges the basic symptoms after being
infected and urges their customers to not delay in seeking medical advice if
such symptoms are seen. They also promote via noting the measures they
are undertaking in their showrooms, which includes store sanitization,
regular employee and visitors’ temperature check, hand sanitization,
wearing mask and maintaining social distancing, on their website. Besides
taking a pause in promoting furniture in their Facebook pages, they have
also shared posts regarding COVID-19 updates; one of which would be
featuring Avayaa that provides emergency oxygen supply and doctoral
advice and help right to patients’ homes. The post contains further details
of this along with the contact numbers that people can reach out to for this
help which is a responsible usage of their promotional platforms by Partex
Furnitures Limited.”