Thesun 2009-09-14 Page14 The Customer Is King

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theSun

| MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14 2009

media & marketing getstough tough ... when the going gets

The customer is king by Hemananthani Sivanandam [email protected]

MALAYSIA Airports (Niaga) Sdn Bhd is emphasising on taking customer service excellence to a higher level to entice airline passengers to spend more at its outlets. “Due to the global financial downturn, people have become more watchful on how they spend their money, so we need to provide customers better service to encourage them to spend,” Malaysia Airports (Niaga) CEO Umar Bustamam said. The company, also known as Eraman, is a fully-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd that focuses on retail, duty-free businesses, and food and beverage in airports throughout the country. “Our business is very dependent on passenger movement at airports, so it is crucial that we improve our level of service to draw business from the 27 million passengers who pass through our airports,” Umar said. “We need to entice them to our shops. With good customer services, they might be more willing to splurge,” he said, adding that the company had increased its training budget towards raising service excellence. Umar said, however, that Eraman has had to trim its advertising and promotion budget and be more selective in its choice of mediums for advertising. “We still continue to advertise in international and local magazines. Initially we proposed many magazines to the group to advertise in, but due to the economic crisis, we had to implement cost-cutting measures.

“We finally decided to advertise only in 14 local magazines and newspapers and other international magazines.” He said the company was also taking the opportunity to negotiate better terms with other brands that are in the midst of seeking new partners. Asked about the company’s marketing strategy, Umar said it was focusing more on promotions. “We are doing more promotional programmes such as sales campaigns, gift with purchase campaigns, our loyalty programme for frequent fliers and other monthly promotions with our principle product suppliers.” Eraman has expanded and redesigned most of its 40 outlets nationwide. Currently, however, the company is focused on promoting its new outlet at the KL International Airport – the Contact Pier – which opened this year. “The Contact Pier is an open concept, duty-free shopping mall with core products such as liquor, cigarettes, chocolates, perfumes, cosmetics and fashion, but for children, we decided to try something interesting,” Umar said. “People have been complaining about how KLIA has been unfriendly for children, so we came up with the ‘Smart Tunnel’ that has everything children like such as chocolates and toys,” he said. In terms of performance, Umar said that although there had been reduced passenger movement globally, Malaysian airports had faired well since January.

“We’ve been fortunate that despite the global financial meltdown, the drop we have been experiencing for the past six months is almost negligible.” He said while 60-70% of the company’s revenue is generated from KLIA shops, the two outlets at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) had been doing well too. “My counterparts in Europe are often surprised when I tell them our LCCT model here is a success. “When the LCCT opened in 2006, sales were only about RM130,000RM150,000 a day, but now it has doubled. Now we can ring up to as much as RM400,000 a day, although we generally average RM300,000 a day.” Umar said the food and beverage business contributes only a small part of the company’s revenue as “the duty-free business is the money maker”. Eraman projects RM350 million in sales this year – a slight revision from the RM400 million announced earlier. “This is based on negative 5% growth because we expect there could be a drop in terms of passengers. “However, our projection is still higher this year compared to the RM306 million we chalked up last year, due to our outlet expansions and increased passenger movement at LCCT,” Umar said.

Our business is very dependent on passenger movement at airports, so it is crucial that we improve our level of service to draw business from the 27 million passengers who pass through our airports.” – Umar Bustamam

As close to real life as possible Crispy golden

brown succulent shrimp

(From left) Toshiba managing director Yutaka Nakanishi, sales general manager Tan Hock Leong and sales and marketing director Shunji Kamimura.

TOSHIBA recently launched its HD-ready Regza AV600 – a television which enhances the viewer’s experience. The Regza comes with Power Meta Brain technology that delivers real, clean, clear, smooth and original quality pictures for great entertainment pleasure. With the Regza’s 10 bit-processor which makes colour tones and intensity come as close to life as technology allows, viewers will get naturally defined colours in the highest HD resolution. Even black appears richer in dark movie scenes without any loss of detail. That’s the brilliance of Regza’s Intelligent Backlight Control which makes skin tones look more natural as they are shown in their truest forms. Regza LCD TVs also feature HDMI – an alldigital audio/video connection which combines audio and video in a single digital interface between various digital video and audio devices, and component video output for DVD players

and certain game consoles. The Regza also features S-video cable for better satellite TV connection quality and VGA Input – the standard analog interface for computer displays. With this technology, HDMI pictures are smoother and sharper, and video noise distinctly reduced. Sound is crisp and taut without any distortion. As an assurance of Toshiba’s quality, all Regza series TVs come with a two-year warranty and one year’s insurance for fire, theft, lightning and general accidents. Apart from the Regza, other Toshiba audio visual and home appliances such as DVD players with superior HDMI clarity, refrigerators from its Glass Collection Series and its Star Crystal Drum washing machines, all help raise the benchmark of quality living. For more information, call toll-free 1-300-887899 or log on to www.toshiba.com.my

SHRIMP STIX is KFC’s latest offering in conjunction with the month of Ramadan and Hari Raya. The rectangular pieces of succulent shrimp dipped in flavourful shrimp batter, coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried to a crispy golden brown, will be available at KFC restaurants nationwide until mid-October. “The shrimps are convenient to eat. Coating it in breadcrumbs and deep frying makes it crispy on the outside, while keeping it succulent on the inside, making for a delicious eating experience,” KFC Holdings managing director Jamaludin Mohd Aliat said. Shrimp Stix can be enjoyed on its own as an ala carte dish priced at RM5.15 for four pieces, or as part of a combo meal priced at RM10.70 for two pieces of Shrimp Stix, two pieces of fried chicken, one regular coleslaw, one regular whipped potato and one regular rose syrup drink. “The combo meal provides great variety and is delicious and affordable with the Shrimp Stix acting as the perfect complement to our fried chicken,” Jamaludin said. “As much as our customers love our fried chicken, they are also always looking for variety and new and interesting things to eat. You won’t believe its KFC. That’s why the tagline for Shrimp Stix says ‘it’s a catch like never before’.”