Uni-president Enterprises Corporation

One of the products that have a great impact on the market is the Fast Moving Consumer Goods. They have a great influence on the market and are very influential to the seller. The Fast Moving Consumer or rather Consumer Packaged Goods are known to be products that are sold quickly after production and their cost is relatively low. Some of these products include goods that are regarded to be non-durable such as soft drinks, grocery items, together with toiletries. Since the profit margins that are made in these products are normally low and in most cases for the retailers as compared to the producers and suppliers, they are in most cases sold in large volumes so as to be able to make reasonable profits. These products are classified as the most classic case of low margin but high volume business since they involve large volumes of sales with little profit margins .

The main topic for this study is the social media marketing for Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector at Uni-President Enterprises Corporation. The reason why this study is important is due to the fact that these products are very influential to in the market especially to the retailers and producers. The main target of this research is the retailers, suppliers, and producers of these products. One of the major dealers of these products is Uni-President Enterprise Corporation which is a business enterprise located in China and which deals with these type of goods. The research aims at coming up with strategies that can be used by the company through the use of social media so as to improve the volumes of their sales and the profit margins as the commodities are associated with low-profit margins. The research is aiming at coming up with appropriate measures that can be employed by the enterprise in improving their profit margins. The research is similar to other researches that have been being carried out by different key participants in the market as the business market is always competitive and which involves different revolutions. This makes it important for any player in the market to put efforts so as to be able to come up with strategies that will enable them to prosper in the market despite how competitive it may be.

Since the Fast Moving Consumer Goods have low prices and also that many brands, as well as companies, are involved in the manufacturing process of goods of similar category, it is, therefore, difficult to project customers’ mind to a particular place. Due to this, it is important for the marketers to come up with special plans together with ways that they can use to attract consumers towards their products not only during a favorable economic state of the market but also during boom seasons of the economy. Due to these, difficulties to increase to a greater extent during the time of recession as compared to the peak times. Due to the well-known recession that took place in the last few years ago, many companies were heavily affected by this. These are also affected by the dealers of FMCG. Due to the fact that it is low-profit margin and a large volume, it also became a problem for the dealers of these products to either make or increase their profit margins. The main reason why this is important is that due to needing to save money especially during recession periods, people will normally prefer buying cheap products as compared to the expensive ones so as to be able to keep the extra money to use during peak seasons.

Research Objectives

As far as this topic is concerned, there are several study objectives that can be developed depending on it. The following are some of the study objectives that this study is likely to be base:

• The study will carry an analysis of key aspects, sales promotion, HH expenditure as well as product attributes media in the process of moderating the purchase attitude-behavior of the Uni-President Corporation.
• The research will also aim at finding the impact of Socioeconomic demographic of the consumers on issues to do with purchase behavior and any other difference between the behavior of the consumers and the corporation.
• An examination of the influence of the buying motive as well as attitude on the purchase behavior will also be carried so as to determine how this can influence the sales volume.
• The research will also aim at bringing out an understanding of the attributes of shops and how they influence the purchase behavior.
• In the course of the research, the most preferred as well as the six ranked top brands of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods and which has salient attributes to the consumer.

Market for any product varies depending on different seasons. During recession periods, the market always has a low number of consumers as compared to during peak seasons. The reason is that consumers tend to keep their money so as to spend during those times that the market is favorable to them. Since Fast Moving Consumer Goods have lower profit margins as compared to other industries, it becomes very difficult for these companies to sustain themselves and also to survive in the market during such situations when the market is a recession. Brands that normally take a proactive stance and also use the recession period as an opportunity of improving their market situations are normally likely to come out of the recession period being stronger than how they were at the beginning of the season. These research is thus aiming at coming up with a solution that can be used by these industries so that they can improve their profit margins even during the recession periods.

Because the nature of the research topic involves both quantity of the sales of the FMCG as well as their quality in the market, the research is going to apply both qualitative as well as quantitative research approaches so as to be able to effectively collect adequate information that can be used by the economist to formulate the measures that can be taken by the market players in improving their volumes of sales during peak as well as recession periods.

Quantitative research

This type of research approach is mainly associated with positivism or post-positivist paradigm. The process normally involves collecting and also the conversion of data into numerical form so that researchers can carry out any necessary statistical calculations and also draw conclusions from the findings. There will be more than one or more hypotheses that will be involved in the study. These include the questions that the research aims at addressing and which also involves predictions about the possible relationships between the variables that are likely to be involved in the research. So as to be able to get answers concerning these research questions, various instruments and materials must be involved in the research. The researcher must also have a clear definition of the research plan so as to be able to carry out each duty effectively .

There are various means that are used in the collection of data following a strict procedure and the collected data is then prepared for statistical analysis. Sophisticated computer packages are nowadays involved in the analysis of the data and our research will not be an exception to this. The analysis of the data collected enables the research to determine if there exists any relationship between the variables that are involved in the study. In our case, the variables that will be involved is the number of customers that are served by Uni-President Enterprise Corporation, the volume of FMCG that are involved in the sales as well as the profit margin that is made by the company from dealing with these variables. The relationship between these variables can either be a simple association or in other cases a causal relationship between the different variables. Statistical analysis gives the researcher an opportunity of discovering the complex casual relationships together with determining to what extent does one variable influence the other. The result of the statistical analysis are then presented in a research journal and the end product of the analysis is known as a P value .

One of the important terms that are normally used in quantitative research is objectivity. Due to this, it is the responsibility of the researchers to take a great care so as to avoid their own presence, attitude or behavior from interfering with the reliability of the data collected. The researchers also have to critically examine their research methods as well as conclusions so as to avoid any cases of bias. Researchers carry out an extensive research so as to ensure that what they are measuring is exactly what they are supposed to be measuring. So as to avoid making any mistakes, this is considered and also prepared for in advance so as to avoid any form of mistakes from arising in the process of carrying out the research.

For the reliability of the results that are obtained from this research to be maintained, the external factors that may affect the quality of the data collected must be controlled. In our case, some of the factors such as other side goods that the company deals with have to be excluded from the research so as to measure entire the FMCG that are involved in the study only. The main emphasis that has to be maintained in the course of carrying out this research is on deductive reasoning which always seems to be moving from general to the specific. This situation is in most cases referred to as a top-down approach. The level of validity of the conclusions that are drawn from such a research is usually shown to be dependent on one or more premises that are being valid to it. In the case where the premises of the argument are considered to be inaccurate, then the entire argument is considered to be incorrect .

Researchers in most case do not have access to all members of the group, that is, all the consumers of FMCG of Uni-President Enterprise Corporation. Despite this, their main interest is in being able to make inferences from their study that they carry out on these large groups. Due to this reason, it is always important to only involve a sample of the entire population that is in the study and then to draw a conclusion from the findings that are made from there. Despite this, the extent to which one is able to carry out generalization usually depends to a certain extent on the number of participants, the selection criteria that was used in picking the participants and if they are a sample of the larger group. In most cases, random sampling is preferred to any other method that may be used in picking the participants despite that the researchers may wish to involve certain people in the research who may have certain characteristics which cannot be done using random sampling. Generalizability of the data collected is not only limited to the groups of people that may be involved in the study but also to the situations that surround the research.

The P value is very important when looking at the results of the research. P represents probability. It is used in measuring the likelihood that a particular finding or rather an observation is due to chance and that there is no difference between the group and the variables. The closer the value is approaching one, the greater the likelihood that the observed difference is due to chance and the closer the value is approaching zero, the less the chance that the observed difference is due to chance.

Consumer motive

It is normally related to a wide variety of needs together with wants. Consumer motivation is defined as an internal state that drives people in identifying as well as buying services or products that are able to satisfy their different types of needs. The state of fulfillment of such needs by a certain product may then motivate the buyer to make a repeat purchase of such product or also to find different products that are able to fulfill their needs in a better way than the current ones. Human needs can be classified into different categories that may include utilitarian, positive, negative, hedonic, unconscious or conscious and human beings formulate according to goals so as to be able to satisfy their needs. A human being is said to have endless goals which need continuous satisfaction and in the situation where the needs are not effectively satisfied leads to frustration for such a consumer. These needs can be satisfied by a consumer by coming up with targeting substitute or other related goals or by coming up with a defense mechanism which may include aggression, withdrawal, regression or rationalization. A motive is defined to be a human need that forces an individual to look for measures so as to satisfy it. A human need is considered to be a motive in the case whereby it has aroused to a level of intensity that can be considered sufficient for the consumer to look for measures on how to satisfy such a need. One of the key categories that a human need can be classified into is a biogenic need which is known to arise from psychological states of tension which includes the need for needs for esteem or belonging as well as the need for recognition. Some of the advantages that are associated with motivation are that it increase initiatives of a consumer, it also strengthens the ambitions that such a consumer may have, and also it gives the consumer directions, energy as well as courage and the persistence for one to follow the goals that one has put in place. Motivation is always present in the case where there is a clear vision and it is important in the process of allowing an individual to satisfy his or her goals. Consumer behaviors are heavily influenced by human needs. Unsatisfied human needs to have a stronger ability to influence the behavior of the consumer than satisfied needs. An individual always satisfies the lower needs before advancing to the higher needs. Motivational conflict is a term that is used in to deal with conflicting motives of the consumer. The degree of motivation of a consumer in buying a certain product is influenced by the level of consumer involvement. The source of stimulation as well as the particular situation that an individual may be in when one comes in contact with the product also determines the level of involvement between the consumer and the product.