RELATIONSHIP MARKETING - LOYALTY CARD

Abstract

The thesis was conducted with BigC supermarket and Metro Cash and Carry Center as the based companies of successful loyalty cards in relationship marketing area. Big C, one of the biggest supermarket in Vietnam, takes retailers and routine customers as a prior target group. And Metro, which is considered the pioneer of the modern wholesale model in Vietnam, focuses primarily on professional customers such as restaurants, hotels, canteens, as well as small-medium sized retail stores, service companies and offices. The aim of this thesis was to analyze the succeed of both BigC and Metro by using loyalty cards to remain long term relationship with customers although these supermarkets were quite different in target objectives. The thesis was started with literature review, then adopted a combination of practical issuesand theoretical research in order to achieve its goals. The empirical research was conducted into BigC supermarket, and Metro Center, as well as the competition faced within the market and some of the external forces that affect the market. A questionnaire was conducted into customers shopping habits in using loyalty cards to gain some quantitative information that could be used for further analyses. The final target was not only to find out but also to compare the way of using loyalty cards in attracting and managing customer relationship of two of biggest supermarkets in Vietnam. The personal recommendations included some ways to better attract customers by widening delivery systems, multifunction cards and developing a Smartphone App to shop online.