Marketing environment

Competitive factors
In Malaysia, there are 3 main bakeries, which are Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd ,
Stanson Bakeries Sdn Bhd (High 5) and The Italian Baker Sdn Bhd (Massimo). The
Malaysian bread industry are mostly governed or dominated by these 3 bakeries. They
compete with each other through prices, quality, variety types of products, products
characteristics and so on. For example, the white bread selling by Gardenia was selling at
RM 2.10, High 5 selling at RM2.80 and Massimo selling at RM2.50, although Gardenia
is selling at the lowest price among these 3 bakeries, but consumers will choose
according to the quality they perceive for each bakery, for an example, if consumers
perceive Gardenias quality is not as good as Massimo, they might choose Massimo
although the price is higher.

Economic factors
Economics factors are factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending
patterns (Kotler and Armstrong 2013, p.104). Consumers with different occupations will
have different income levels and thus they will have different spending patterns. For
instance, high and middle income level consumers will demand for a better standard of
living, they demand for good quality products, same goes to foods like bread, although it
is a daily basic need, but for high and middle income level consumers, they will likely or
tend to choose a high quality and features products. Example, consumers with higher
income will choose those breads which are more expensive such as toastem (one of
Gardenia products) that offers special features like raisin oatmeal. On the contrary, for
low income level consumers, when they are making decisions to purchase something,
they will try to reduce the expenses incurred, so they may just buy a classics white bread
to fulfill their daily basic need. Hence, a companys marketing plans might be influenced
by this economic force.

Political and Legal factors

The political environment contains of laws, government agencies and pressure groups
that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society (Kotler
and Armstrong 2013, p.108). Developments in the political and legal environment will
definitely affect marketing decisions (Goh, 2014). A special Halal Committee is formed
at Gardenia to supervise all aspect of Halal regulations. Officer from JAKIM will conduct
a regular factory inspection to monitor and assure that the overall operations are
compliance the guidelines set by them. Besides, an Independent Syariah Advisor had
been appointed by Gardenia to safeguard their Halal status and refer to in syariah
related matters.

Marketing Mix: Promotion

Promotion means activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade
target customers to buy it (Kotler and Armstrong 2006, p.48). A good promotion is very
important for the growth of the company (Liza, 2013). There are a lot of ways to promote
a product.
One of the ways that Gardenia had used to promote their products is advertising.
Gardenia advertises their products through various media like television, radio and
newspaper. Television advertising was usually by Gardenia to promote their new products
as television advertising offers a good mass-marketing coverage. Radio was also used by
Gardenia to remind existing customers about their products as it is low cost. Besides,
newspaper is also an effective way to promote or advertise their new products as it offers
good local market coverage and it is able to reach specific target market.
Gardenia also advertises their products through various social media like YouTube,
Facebook Fans Page, Corporate Blog and official website. Nowadays, most of the people
own a smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop and so on, they can easily access to these social
media via the Internet by simply tapping on their smartphone. YouTube was used by
Gardenia to broadcast its existing and new products through videos (Refer to figure 1).
By doing so, it makes consumers know more about Gardenia products and maybe it helps

in getting their interest for buying or purchasing their products. Moreover, a Facebook
Fans Page had been created by Gardenia (Refer to figure 2). By doing so, it helps
Gardenia to increase their brand and online visibility this is because when a user Likes
or comment on your post, this action or information will be automatically posted to the
particular users Facebook feed, and in the end, it helps to spread the brand to the users
friends or even more. Next, Gardenia had set up corporate blog (Refer to figure 3) to
promote their products, corporate blog is a blog that is published and used by an
organization, corporation and so on to reach its organizational goals (Steven, 2014).
Gardenia used blog to provide information on their products, promote their products
since it is free-of-charge and it allows Gardenia to connect with their customers and
exchange feedback which may improve their products quality and so on. Furthermore,
Gardenia also had been set up their own official website (Refer to figure 4), and their
website contains information like contact number, company background, products
information and so on, through website, consumer can look or find the products that they
like or favor among the variety types of products that Gardenia offers.
Sales promotion is also a way that gardenia used to promote their products. In
October 2003, a campaign was organized by Gardenia which customers are required to
collect 4 empty packaging of the Gardenia original classics white bread to redeem one
free load of Gardenia original classics white bread. Eventually, this campaign was very
successful in creating awareness for the public and this result a significant increase in the
sales of Gardenia.
Lastly, Gardenia also used the public relation to promote their products and make
their brand more visible. Public relation meaning building good relations with the
companys various publics by obtaining favorable publicity and building up a good
corporate image (Armstrong and Kotler 2013, p.385). Gardenia had been actively
involved in charitable event. For example, Gardenia donates their bread to flood victims
in Kuala Terengganu on 12 December 2013 (Refer to figure 5) and during special events,
Gardenia also contributes free Twiggies to schoolchildren (Refer to figure 6). By doing
so, it helps Gardenia getting well-known and gain their reputation.