Customer satisfaction-does it offer a competitive advantage?

The changing demographics and lifestyles of Singaporeans, coupled with the competitive retail environment, have made retailers become more aware of the sophisticated needs of their customers and therefore, the need to tailor their marketing strategy accordingly. Typical shoppers of the 1970s, who were considered to be especially brand loyal and value conscious, have now given way to several demographic groups with diverse spending habits. Indeed, these "new breed" of consumers are brought about by the greater flow of information and higher standard of living, generating higher levels of expectation. Consequently, the current trend amongst retailers or grocery chains is to react quickly and move aggressively to "niche marketing" to cater to their customers. An important facet of this movement includes broadening the services available to consumers. In a grocery retailing front, fresh supplies such as fish, meat, vegetables and fruits as well as delicatessen and bakery units proliferated in supetmarkets during late 80's, as did, the availability of nutritional information. With changing consumer demand not only dictating a broader variety of products, supermarkets also aim to improve greatly on their levels of services, such as store layout, customer service, queuing time, accessibility and parking.In view of the above, the objective of this academic exercise is to examine how a supermarket chain in Singapore like Smart Supermarket (S) Pte Ltd, is able to capitalise on such a trend by supplementing it with better customer service and fmally establishing a foothold in the competitive grocery retail market. From the detailed case study modelled after the strategic management process, the authors gained an invaluable insight into how Smart Supermarket (S) Pte Ltd substantially altered store formats and product mix to maximise selling oppmtunities. These strategies changed and gave way to a more flexible, market-oriented approach that is essential to satisfy the fast changing consumer tastes.ACCOUNTANC