Nu12 #4 By Marta Fretheim - Mall maps

Nu12 - #4

What pisses you off at the mall?

"Mapplication" – a smart phone map application

There are a lot of really big malls here in Manila. And I find it really easy to get lost or loose direction. There is no real system or organization of the shops either. Unless you spend a lot of time in the shopping malls there is no way of knowing what shops are in the mall and where to find them. Since I did not find any map of powerplant mall I went around to see if there are any maps in the other malls and found a couple in Greenbelt. But not nearly enough, there should be maps placed around the malls on all levels and by all entrances. I find shopping at the malls here in Manila very time consuming and often I end up leaving, its just not worth it.

Since the big malls like Power plant, Mall of Asia, greenbelt etc. are fairly expensive one can assume that most of their client owns a smartphone. This is why I would suggest the malls to create a mall application including all shops, restaurants and cinemas. The application would also use the phone GPS in order to track the customers exact location.  With this app the customers can now just type in a category of shops or a specific shop and get the location and the way there, including distance and estimated time walking there. There would also be maps accessible of the whole mall in order to get a better overview.  This map would have color codes for the different shop categories and floors.

A lot of people with smart phones have internet on them as

well, however I noticed that there is already free wifi in most malls. This is already a good start so that all of their customers can easily download the app when arriving to the mall and start using it right away. There should also be information about the application (preferably besides a traditional mall map) at all of the entrances. 4 <one such thing is sidewalk ads apps or proxiwoo>

This would make the shopping a lot easier and convenient for the mall customers.

Best regards

Marta Fretheim

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Nu12 #3 By Marta Fretheim - New Online booking process

NU 3

New routines/processes in the office

Working for an action sports travel agency, Lapoint Travels AS, the bookings are an important process. I have spent a lot of time fickeling with the now-being system, 

The process now:

At the moment we are using an online booking form. When a customer books the booking is aggregated in our online booking sheet in an excel format. The form is off cores only accessible to Lapoint Travels staff. When booking, our customers also have to confirm and approve our booking terms. Our booking responsible will then check the availability and send a confirmation within a working day. When the confirmation is sent this is registered in the booking sheet and within 5 days an invoice is sent by mail to the customer. 

The new process:

I would like everything to happen automatically. Primarily I would try to make our own database (if there is non premade applicable). This way our customers would know immediately if there is availability or not and there would be less work with the bookings. Also I would like the payment to be done when the customer books. At the moment there is a lot of work sending payment reminders, this could easily be avoided. When all the information is stored in a single database it would be easier to access information about the customers and the packages we have sold and write reports. The process would now look something like this:

-       -  Customer goes to our booking page at lapoint.no

-       - Fills out the necessary information

-       - The online database will immediately signal whether the indicated dates are available or not

-       - If not available customer will get a message saying the dates are not available, please try another date.

-       -  The customer is then asked to read and confirms our terms

-       -  Then the customer will do the online payment (by credit card)

-       - And will get a receipt for the payment.

-       - There will be an automated email sent to their email address confirming their booking and payment as well.

There will be a lot less work with the bookings as the whole process is automated.  Also making the invoices and monitoring the payments and reminders will no longer be necessary. Salary is expensive in Norway and this will definitely help reduce the labor costs. 4

MF

Med vennlig hilsen

Marta Fretheim

Lapoint Travels AS

Mob: +47 46 63 92 28

WWW.LAPOINT.NO

NU 12 - 2 - by Marta Fretheim Philippine version of Zara

Dear Professor,

Here is my first NU 12 #2:

NU 12 – 2

New business idea: Tara clothing and accessories

I have been visiting some of the many malls here in the Philippines I noticed there are some international fashion company`s. So I had a look at Zara and it didn't take long before realizing that it was actually more expensive than in Europe. I started asking myself why is this? I would have thought the other way around that production costs are lower here and therefor it would be cheaper. Since this is not the case, I see two possible answers to my question: 1: the branding is different, could be that the brand image is sold as more expensive and exclusive being a European company. 2: Zara produce their apparel in Europe and there are more costs related to selling in the Philippines, such costs could be import taxes, shipment etc.

As I googled the Internet I found out that Zara produces most of their products in Europe. A Philippine version of Zara would entail lower production costs, lower costs related to salaries, lower costs related to garments and also there would be no shipping costs or import/export taxes (since Tara is produced and sold in The Philippines). That's why I think there is a potential of a cheaper version of Zara here in the Philippines.

One of the success factors of Zara is their delivery time of new products, innovation and the fact that they control most of their value chain. It is said that it only takes Zara 2 weeks to develop a new product and get it in the stores. For Tara to become successful I think this is would also have to be one of their goals. Tara also needs to stay tuned in on the fashion development and have nearby clothing factories, like Zara where most of their factories are stationed in Spain and Portugal. Tara would be a fashion imitator, they would not try to predict the next season's fashion but focus on understanding their customer's needs and preferences and then delivering them.  I think the costs could be lowered significantly on the products and also the product margins. Being cheaper Tara would also target a bigger market segment while staying up to date on fashion and quality.

This business idea would imply a lot of investments. The clothing would in the beginning be produced at an external factory, as this would not be as resource-intensive as starting up an own factory. To pursue this Idea I would start with a convincing and appealing business plan. I would then start looking for investors, fashion executives, cheap factories, a marketing manager, garment suppliers and a good location to open up the first store.  To get publicity in the start I would try to get on national TV, promoting myself as an exotic innovator from the west trying to support the economy and creating thousands of jobs here in the Philippines. This will also help on getting investors. 3.5

By Marta Fretheim