Customer Service + Communication Method

Customer Pyramid on customer service:

Platinum Customers are served immediately with customer service that exceeds their expectations by providing customisation and spend the most time to build relationships as they are the most profitable customers.Gold Customers are served immediately after Platinum customers with customer service that exceeds their expectations by providing customisation and more time is spent to build relationships as they are more profitable customers.

Iron customers are served later than gold or platinum customers with better customer service than lead customers and spend less time to build relationships as they are the not as profitable customers.

Lead customers are served with basic customer service of answering their questions or queries that they have and spend the least time upon to build relationships as they are the least profitable customers.

Communication Mix:

Paid Impersonal Communication Mix:

Advertising

Kinokuniya has paid advertisements on the newspapers to advertise their Christmas and new year sales.

Sales promotion

They have occasional promotions and bundling for the books during different seasons. During their 10^th anniversary, they had store wide Promotions

“PROMOTIONS (7th – 10th AUGUST 2009)

20% off storewide promotion

From 7th – 10th August 2009, all customers can enjoy 20% off* storewide at all Kinokuniya Singapore stores!”

taken from a Singapore forum http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/archive/index.php/t-2458541.html

and another article on the 10^th anniversary

http://livinginsingaporetoday.com/9629/20-off-storewide-at-kinokuniya-liang-court/

Store atmosphere

Kinokuniya provides a relaxing and enjoyable environment for customers to browse through the books. It also provides clear directions on different segments and categories eg. Fiction, design, etc.

Non Paid Impersonal Communication Mix:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/info/kinokuniya.html

Kinokuniya has many different forms of free publicity on newspapers and magazines when there are events regarding Kinokuniya, for eg. When there are openings of new outlets of Kinokuniya in the country or when there are releases of new books and Kinokuniya invites the authors over for a storytelling and signing event. There would also be free publicity for Kinokuniya on blogs posted by the public based on the books Kinokuniya carries as certain books can only be purchased at Kinokuniya.

Done By: Stacie, Cyn , Gerald

Sales and service companies rely on new customers and repeat business to expand the profits of their businesses. This can be achieved through better customer service.
Customer will return when they are satisfied with the initial transaction which includes
the level of service, price, and follow-up, such as refunds and guarantees.


As products become more technologically evolved, customers look to sales and service people to be more knowledgeable in the products they sell. Because of this, good customer service continues to be an essential aspect of a successful business.


These are the pitfalls that should be avoid:

#1 Incompetence
If sales and service staff do not have adequate training and expertise, they may give out antiquated or incorrect information. As most customers are rely on sales and service staff to know the products(specifications and performance), it is imporant for them provide accurate informations such as to answer enquries or to demonstrate the product.

With reference to the customer's pyramid, we feel that it is very important to service the platium and gold's customer well. As people usually refer as the "VIPs" who are very profitable to the organization. Organization should be able identify this profitable group as they are the regular people who patronize the store.

As such, these people shold be treated like a king in the organization, and organization should assign peole with relevant skil to serve this group of imporant customers.

As for those silver and lead in the customer's pyramid, they should not be neglect as they also bring profit to the business. They can spread positve word of mouth

#2 Disorganization

Disorganiaztion refers to messiness in business . When customer service personnel can’t find anything, don’t know anything, customer will see this as a poor reflection on the business. Customers like to feel that sales and service employees are in control of the situation. Providing organized customer service makes customers want to come back and also result in postitive word of mouth, bringing extra profit for the business.

With reference to customer's pyramid to retain all these customers, it is imporant to have proper shelving, being able to showcase your merchandise and advertisement with proper visual merchandising.

Staff would have to be trained to be familiarized with the store’s layout too, such that they would be able to understand where are the various merchandise located, so when the times that a customer asks for the location of a merchandise, the staff can find it easily, and get back to the customer if the stocks are available with much ease and faster as well. Sophisticated inventory recording system would also far increase the efficiency of the store, such as directory services provided for the customers, and a recording system used by the staff to properly organize their stocks by SKU.

#3 Unprofessional manner
Language, dress, and basic manners can be important to many of your customers. Customer service personnel need to be trained in how to handle customers in a professional manner, one that makes the customer’s interaction with your company a positive experience.

The way to overcome such problem would be to standardize the dressing for the staff, as well as having them to go through customer service trainings to improve, and of course, maximize the customer service. Although the staff greets differently and have their own personalized service for the customer, the organization can rest assured that with proper training and standard operation procedure to follow, the staff would be able to provide optimum level of customer service.

#4 Lack of a standard policy

The company policy toward your customers should be clearly spelled out and consistently followed. Customers do not like it when one salesperson tells them one thing and another salesperson tells them something completely different. Any discounts, return policies, and guarantees should be spelled out in writing to customers as well as reinforced by your customer service employees at the time of a sale. It is not fair that customers are treated differently for the same situation encountered.

All staff would have to follow and adhere to their standard operations procedure strictly, in order to provide maximum customer service, as well as to know each other’s duties well, to prevent confusion internally. The policies should be incorporated into the staff’s mission statement or objectives, so that the staff would be constantly reminded of their duties for the various department of a retail store

Technology would also play a part in helping to prevent such problems, such as recording the purchase of every customer by receipt or merchandise number, so that when the customer seeks to return a faulty product and they did not have any evidence of purchase, the staff would be able to use these sophisticated systems to trace back to the customer’s purchase using their name or date of purchase. It would also help if they made their purchase with credit or debit card, so that the records could be traced must faster and easier.

#5 Delays and unreliability

Company should deliver products and service on time. E.g. furniture will be send to customer's house in 3 days should be deliver on time. In any case in which company fails to deliver the product on time, they should inform the customers and compensate or find other ways to make up for customers. Assure that it would not happen in future will increases the chances the customer will return for the product and service again.

No matter what category of customers belongs to (platium, gold, silver and lead) it is always better to reliable in customer's eyes, which is a good way to build reputation.

Jin Jing , Justin

Services Offered by Kinokuniya

Acceptance of credit cards - Kinokuniya accepts all credit cards, from visa, american express, to diner's club.

Deep selection - Kinokuniya offers a wide selection of books from novels, how-to books, art books, manga, magazines, and even graphic novels.

Delivery to home or work - Bookweb Singapore, an online book-ordering service by Kinokuniya, delivers the desired book to consumers on the next working day with a minimum fee.

Demonstration of merchandise - The event section of Kinokuniya has books on display there with authors of the books coming frequently to read some parts of their books aloud as part of the promotion for their book(s). Kinokuniya also plays certain parts of the movie dvds they are currently selling at the featured section of the store.

Display of merchandise - Kinokuniya's merchandise are displayed very neatly in rows across shelves in the store according to their genre and their titles by alphabetical order.

Extended store hours - The Kinokuniya store in Ngee Ann City is open til 9:30pm on weekdays but on weekends the closing time is extended to 10pm.

Easy returns to brick-and-mortar location or online - Consumers are able to return the books if they are found to be damaged when they are opened

Gift wrapping and notes - Kinokuniya provides gift-wrapping services to consumers who buy their products as a gift to friends or family.

Personal Assistance in selecting merchandise - There are various customer service counters located across the store to assist consumers in locating the books they desire

Return Privelleges - Consumers are able to return the books if they are found to be damaged when they are opened

Shipping to store or home address - Bookweb Singapore, an online book-ordering service by Kinokuniya, delivers the desired book to consumers on the next working day with a minimum fee.

Shopping basket - Kinokuniya provides shopping baskets located near the entrance for consumers to place their books in when patronising their store.

Signage to locate and identify merchandise - There are signages all over Kinokuniya directing consumers to the section of the genre they are looking for.

Cafe - There is a Coffee Club located in the Ngee Ann Kinokuniya store, allowing consumers a place to relax and read the books they have just bought in this area.

Customer Service Strategies

Personalized Approach

• Greater benefits to customers
• Greater inconsistency
• Higher costs

Kinokuniya basically adopts the personalized approach for its customer service strategy, as they would be able to provide the appropriate service for the different segment of customers.

Store
Employees are constantly walking around the store and when a customer requires help on the book that they are unable to find, the employee would be available to help.
Different employees have their different way of greeting, and ways to provide help for the customer. The various personalized service catered by the employees allow the customer to feel the employee's effort and sincerity to help him/her. The customer would also feel appreicated, as they notice the extra mile the employees would go just to provide the service, instead of just a standard greeting or assistance.

Telephone Channel
When there are enquires on the books, such as availability and pricing, customers who are not IT-savvy would prefer to seek information through the use of phone, instead of the website. Upon connecting the call to Kinokuniya, it can be noticed that Kinokuniya does not make the customers wait by having them to select various options, before the operator picks up.
The call to Kinokuniya is directly answered by a staff, and they would greet the customer, and politely listern to the enquiry the customer has in mind, before providing the information. Some of the staffs would also chat politely with the customer, as they are checking for the information, keeping the customer occupied, instead of having them to wait on the line. When the information is gathered, they would let the customer know, and the whole process takes less than five minutes.
The strategy taken up by Kinokuniya is more personalized and efficient, compared to its competitors, who are using a standard approach to the customer service provided.

Electronic Approach
Online Self-help
When customers faces problems on Kinokuniya's online book store, Kinokuniya BookWeb, there are two tabs that the customers can refer to; the 'Help' and 'FAQs' tabs. The problems and solutions listed in the 'FAQs' tabs are common questions asked by most customers, whereas the 'Help' tab provides solution to the general questions about Kinokuniya. There is also a tab in the 'Help' page that would allow the customers to email their questions to the staff or call them, if the problems faced by them could not be resolved by the available solutions.
Directory Booths
Customers would usually get upset when the staff are unable to find the products they want. Kinokuniya is able to help greatly reduce such issues with the use of the directory booths, where customers just have to go to the booths when they are unable to find the book they want. The booths is totally electronic and the customers just have to key in the key words of the book they wish to locate, and the machine would print out a slip of paper to let them know which shelf the book is located at. Those who are still unable to find the book or do not know how to use the directory system can still look for the staff, and they would gladly help the customer to locate the shelf and find the book the customer requested for.
The use of such machines can help to save waiting time when most of the staffs are busy, and also help customers to locate the books easily.

The customer service strategy practiced by Kinokuniya is the personalized approach, as it can be understood from the various ways they try to assist the customers and provide high level of service excellence. The company believes in their philosophy that the staffs are to provide clear directions to the books the customers requested. The core values also includes 'Professionalism' that the staffs should try to achieve, which is through their commitment and sincerity to provide a personalized and pleasant experience for the customers.

What does good customer service means?

Kinokuniya core values includes service excellence.

as seen from their website: http://www.kinokuniya.com.sg/corp_core.html

Their policies are:

1. Privacy policy

We are committed to protecting your privacy. All information obtained through transactions with you will not be transferred to any third party.

Explanation:

As they remain confidential about their customers personal particulars, customers will feel assured in entrusting their particulars to the company. Therefore, this is good customer service as the description of service is specific such that employees as well as customers are able to comprehend easily.

2. Exchange policy

1. Exchanges will be accepted within seven days from the date of purchase with receipt and in saleable condition. All exchanges will be processed only at Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store, Customer Service Counter.


2. Pictorial Book(s) (写真集) can only be exchanged for the same title(s).


3. We regret that no cash refund will be made.

How to exchange

• Please contact us by phone or email at least one working day in advance if you have intention to exchange your purchase.
  
  Kinokuniya Book Stores of Singapore Pte. Ltd.
  Online Department
  Phone: (65) 6276 – 5558
  E-mail: sims@kinokuniya.com
  
  Operation Hours: 9.00am - 6.00pm
  (Monday to Friday, except Public Holidays)

Explanation:

As they allow consumers to exchange their books should they find it unsatisfactory within a reasonable period of 7 days and are specific that the customer has to call a day before to inform them of their intention. Customers also have to bring along original receipt and the book has to be in saleable condition. These instructions are precise enough for employees and customers to comprehend and have a greater acceptance of the service excellence goals. Hence, it is good customer service.

Done by: Gerald, Justin, Cynthia, Stacie

Kinokuniya Visual Merchandising & Store Design :
Racetrack Layout (Loop):

Kinokuniya uses a racetrack layout such that consumers are being "forced" to walk through the different section of books from the entrance through the featured section near the entrance and the event section in the middle of the store in order to reach the desired section of books the consumers are looking for. This concept would expose the consumers to the new and featured books of Kinokuniya to the consumers, attracting them to make a purchase from these sections they're walking through, and in order to exit Kinokuniya from the main entrance, consumers have to walk back through the whole line of books again, further enticing the consumers to make a purchase of any of the books featured "along the racetrack".

Usage of Signage & Graphics:

This booth was near the POS counter.

It shows promotional posters and signage on:

- Kinokuniya's privilege card

- Having n eco-friendly kinokuniya tote

- Kinokuniya's store poster

Location signage:

Kinokuniya has large signages hanging from the ceiling so as to aid customers in easily going to the section where they are looking for their items.

Category signages further specifies from the location the type of goods located there.

example:

Location Signage:Design & the Arts

Category Signage: Interior Design

Feature Areas:

Feature areas
Areas within a store designed to get the customers' attention.

Entrances

Popular products were place at the entrance of kinokuniya. e.g Latest publish- storybook (toy story novel after the release of the movie), top selling book, mazagine etc..
Frontal presentations were used at all entrances to attract potential customers

Wall

Kinokuniya also make use of the pillar to display useful information to for cusotmers
(My kinokuniya bag)
(priviledge card)

Books were also display at the wall on th transparent shelf rack like a 3D display to attract customer's attention .

Certain product were place in the glass so as to bring out different atmosphere in kinokuniya.

Check out machine

customer can locate the book at different section by using the check out machine. The machine will provide the shelf no. so customer can easily search for the books without wasting much time and effort.

The machine also provide th map of the store so customer can view the layout of the book store and travel to the right place where they want to be.

Location of Merchandise Categories:
Impulse Merchandise
Japanese Manga is placed near the cashier which is a heavily trafficked area as many book lovers would pass by the section to get to the other side of the store.

Demand Merchandise
Popular Storybooks such as the Twilight Saga or well known literature books that are placed deep inside the store on table-like fixture.

Special Merchandise
Stationery placed inside the right corner of the store with origami whereby few people pass by the area as it is lightly trafficked. Therefore, people hardly pay attention to it when they are searching for books to purchase.

Adjacencies
The complementary products are like writing pad which is placed next to pens/pencils. This encourages Kinokuniya's customers to buy a pen when they want to buy a writing pad for the ease of their convenience.

Merchandise Presentation Techniques:
By Language

Kinokuniya presents their merchandise in terms of language as they place the english books & magazines together in one part, the chinese book section together with the chinese magazines, the Japanese books with the magazines in another corner.
Therefore, they present their merchandise by Language.

By Animated presentation
They provide animated presentation on LCD television screen to show the latest DVD which is available in store. This not only captures the audience's attention but also encourage impulse purchase upon looking at the presentation.
Therefore, they present their merchandise by Animation Presentation.

By Frontal presentation

For Kinokuniya, most of their books are displayed using frontal presentation even on shelves to allow consumers to look at it from a further distance. This would capture the attention of consumers if they happen to look and catch the title of a book. Therefore, it encourages buying with frontal presentation as customers can see it directly.
Hence, they present their merchandise using Frontal Presentation.

Store Atmospherics:

Colour:
The colours used by Kinokuniya in its store layout are mainly blue for Kinokuniya's Logo, white for walls, bright red for shelves, dark brown and black for its shelves.

The store has parquet flooring and the overall mixture of colours used in the store gives the customers a warm and cosy feeling, allowing them to feel more comfortable in browsing through the books.

The dark-coloured shelves help to add a sense of elegance and class, which would affect the customers' image of the store.

The ceiling is white in color, which could be used to allow the store to feel really spacious and the store would also appear brighter, compared to a dark-coloured ceiling.

Lighting:

Kinokuniya has bright lighting in its stores.

The soft white lights that are fixed onto the ceiling helps to light up the store and allow customers to browse through the book.

The spot lights focuses on the both the books and the path leading to the different sections of the store. They have extra spot light shining on books that are placed on the shelves on the wall to emphasize the merchandise.

There are also lights that have paper lamp-shades, and these are located just right above the 'Best-sellers' section, which is then located in the middle of the store, where most human-traffic would be, so that they would be able to notice the classy touch of the lighting and pay attention to the books located in that area.

Done By: Stacie, Jin Jing, Justin, Cynthia, Gerald

Competition:

Kinokuniya have both English books and Japanese books for sale in their retail outlet.

English books:

Kinokuniya is well-knowned for their variety and assortment of English books. Customers that shops at Kinokuniya however are also aware of the prices and are able to compare the merchandise with the other book retailers like Borders and Popular who might also have the same selection. Hence Kinokuniya make adjustments to markup price based on customer price sensitivity and competition.

Example:

Price at Kinokuniya: $42.70

Price at Borders: $45.90

Japanese books

They price the Japanese books by predetermined markup and merchandise cost as they have no direct competitors to compete with. (Borders do not sell Japanese books)

Cost:

Retailers maximize their profits by setting prices based on the price sensitivity of customers and the cost of merchandise and considerating the prices being charged by competitors.

We used (http://www.allbookstores.com/), a book comparing price website to find out how various retailer mark up the prce of the book.
This book bot will compare prices at all of the merchants stores to find the lowest price include :Shipping Cost, Shipping Time, Sales Tax (when required), Availability and Condition (New or Used).


Same book to do comparison across other online book store @:

http://www.allbookstores.com/book/compare/9780307269980

Title: The girl who played with fire




As for kinokuniya, it is price at $18.19

https://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/bookseaohb.cgi?ISBN=0307474569&AREA=04&LANG=E

Variable Pricing & Price Discrimination :

Extracted from the Kinokuniya's website:
"As a Kinokuniya Privilege Card member, you are entitled to our 10% off privilege all year long.
The 10% off privilege is applicable at all Kinokuniya Singapore stores and our online book-order website, BookWeb Singapore, as well as with our preferred partners."


Technique: Kinokuniya does Variable Pricing by Market Segments ( Third Degree of Price Discrimination).

Explanation: As Kinokuniya has a Privilege loyalty card for its members, offering a 10% discount off the bill each time hence they are charging a group of customers -their loyal customers, different prices as compared to non loyal customers.

Therefore, it is Variable Pricing by Market Segments.

Referencing: http://kinokuniya.com.sg/card_about.html

High/Low Pricing:

Kinokuniya's prices for their regular books that can be found at any other bookstore such as Times or Borders for books like the Twilight saga or the Harry Potter series are priced very similar with only a difference of a few cents. However, the Japanese manga (comics) and magazines they offer are valued at more expensive prices for example, $15.80 for a japanese version of the "ViVi" girl's fashion magazine when you can purchase the same issue in chinese at any local magazine store like "buzz" at around $6.90. This could be due to the fact that most of these japanese books and magazines can only be found in Kinokuniya and not at any other bookstore.

To add on, there would be frequent sales promotion in Kinokuniya throughout the year giving about 10-20% discounts on all books within the store, and if you are a member of Kinokuniya, you can enjoy a further 10% discount on top of the sales discount already offered, attracting more customers who are price conscious and in turn increasing their sales.

Kinokuniya would also hold book promotions almost every month on certain books that are not selling well or those that have a high stock value, displaying them at the cashier counters to attract customers to purchase them when queueing up for payment.

Odd Pricing:

A price that usually ends with an odd number, which most retailers use to allow consumers to perceive the price as low.

Example from Kinokuniya Online Bookstore:

Title: You're the one that I (don't) want - SGD18.95

The Shadow Effect - $39.59

Happiness in Hard Times - $23.43

Prince of Persia, The Chronicles of Young Dastan - $25.15

Consumers would perceive the price of the book to be $18.00, instead of $18.95, which is close to $19.00 .

When the retailers uses such pricing techniques to set the price for the products, it would appeal to the consumers that the products are lower in price and it would help to increase the sales by outlining the various products that are priced in such a way.

Kinokuniya - Many of the books, magazaines and other reading material on the online bookstore, known as Kinokuniya BookWeb, has prices like $14.87, $29.95, $44.90 and $52.95. When consumers view through the online catalogue of books, they would feel that the price of the books are lower, due to the odd pricing techniques.

As Kinokuniya also have promotional books and magazines, such as the Movie Tie-In promotions and the various promotions, Kinokuniya uses the odd pricing techniques to appeal to the consumers, allowing consumers to perceive the price of the books on promotions to be much lower than Kinokuniya's competitors, who probably priced their products at a few cents more.

Kinokuniya also have a whole range of Japanese reading materials that are only available in their stores, which they set the prices such as $0.99, $8.95 and $22.90. When consumers look at the books priced at $0.99, they would perceive that the price is less than a dollar and definitely low, they would make their purchase.

This would then show that other than those that have nett prices set by the publishers, Kinokuniya had used the odd pricing techniques to set the price for most of their products, which would then psychologically suggest to the consumers that the price is much lower compared to other retailers.

Reference(s): http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/indexohb.cgi?AREA=04&LANG=E

Done By: Stacie, Jin Jing, Justin, Cynthia, Gerald

HRM

Open house discussion and feedback mechanism
Great organizations recognize, nurture and execute great ideas. Employees are the biggest source of ideas. The only thing that can stop great ideas flooding through organization is the lack of an appropriate mechanism to capture ideas. Open house discussions,employee-management meets, suggestion boxes and ideas help to identify & develop talent.

Recommend: Kinokuniya can get the staff to be more involved and committed to the organization by encouraging them to be more participative in the company.It is always good to hear the voice of the staffs as they are the one who are closest to customers, representing the organzation.

Open book management style
Sharing information about contracts, sales, new clients, management objectives, company policies, employee personal data etc to ensures that the employees are as enthusiastic about the business as the management.

Recommend: Through this open book process organzation can gradually create a culture of participative management and ignite the creative endeavor of the work force.. It involves making people an interested party to the strategic decisions, thus aligning them to business objectives.

Service Retailers
E.g. Singapore Safety Driving Centre [SSDC]

Open-book Management style
- The company does not only focus on its mission statement, but it also focuses on every staff’s believe and objectives, therefore under their staff directory, they not only share the name and staff code, but also the staff’s opinion on his/her job, as well as what he/she wishes to achieve.
- The company also regularly updates the company’s status, such as collaborations, events, and its policies.



Merchandise Retailers
E.g. NTUC Fairprice
Open-book Management style
- As NTUC has several concept of supermarket, they had various slogans under their brand name; however their mission statement and objectives still remain the same, which is to provide customers with the best value, quality products and excellence services.
- The organization also has a ‘milestone’ link in its portal, which would allow the public to see the growth of the organization and its progress in both Singapore, and foreign nations.


Safe, healthy and happy workplace

Creating a safe, healthy and happy workplace will ensure that employees feel homely and stay with the organization for a very long time. This means employees's loyalty toward the organzation.

Recommend: Organize bonding sessions and post photos on website/specific blog to show that organiztion's effort in creating the most ideal workplace for the staffs.Since the website already have a career section (http://www.kinokuniya.com.sg/corp_joinus.html#positions),
it can show more of the intersting working environment at kinokuniya.

Some good examples, radio DJ show photos at the offiical radio station website.(from events etc..) http://entertainment.xin.msn.com/en/radio/987fm/

Training and development
Employees are aware of what to expect from organization. e.g. training, upgrade skills. For those staff working at the origami section, they should stay updated with the new trends.

Employee benefits
Basic incentives for the staffs. e.g. medical, insurance etc.

Recommend: The benefits are not shown to public.It canbe more open.

updated by Jin Jing , Justin

Week 5 Merchandise Management

Merchandise Classifications & Organization:

Buying Organization:

For Kinokuniya, there is one chairperson to many division managers in charge of different departments such as books, magazines, stationery, audio & visual materials, biblography, articles/news and art gallery as well!


Under books, they have different buyers for different classification of books! [Ranging from Fiction to Politics]


They have both category for kids as well as adults.

The SKUs for kids would be for books like Magic books, Fairytale and Mystery.
The SKUs for adults would be for books such as Romance & Murder.

http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/06f/d04/2011saiyou.pdf

Merchandise Category:

A merchandise category:

Refers to an assortment of items that customers see as substitutes for each other.

Merchandise categories allow us to classify and structure the entire range of goods offered for sale by Kinokuniya (breadth and depth)

The aim of merchandise category management is the better coordination of various customer considerations at each business location (for example, stores), including elements such as variety, price structures and advertising

Category Management:
Category Management is a retailing concept in which the range of products sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories.

The focus is to affect the turnover of the category as whole, not just the sales of individual products.

Kinokuniya's store layout is simple and categorizes the books according to, fiction, non- fiction, and then sub categorize into smaller groups like Arts, Geography, food, movie titles, best seller, mangas, etc. They classify books for the convenience of the shoppers in the store and they advertise on the items by category.

Example:

Kinokuniya held an event called Lolita and Maid Fashion Day

Quoted from the website:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16683

"Anime And Manga Discount: Any customer who comes into Kinokuniya Bookstore at 1073 Avenue of the Americas on Saturday, June 7 wearing a Lolita or Maid dress or anime, manga, or video game cosplay will receive 10% off all anime and manga purchases."

They were giving discounts for ALL anime and manga purchases although the event was in collaboration with only Del Rey Manga

Category Captain:

NO!

From Kinokuniya's Japan Site: "まず、日本の和書の出版流通から説明します。メーカーにあたる出版社（版元とも言う）が新刊を 出版すると、それが問屋にあたる取次へと流れ、小売である書店でお客様に販売する形をとっていま
す。"

This translates that Kinokuniya does not have a category captain (a selected vendor responsible for managing a category) as the books it carries are from the publisher to the wholesaler and then to the retailer.

Therefore, there is no vendor or supplier who helps the retailer understand the consumer behaviour of buying that category of books nor does kinokuniya creates any assortment that satisfy. Therefore, Kinokuniya does not have a category captain.

http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/06f/d04/2011saiyou.pdf

Merchandise Management Planning Processes:
Two distinct Types of Merchandise Management Systems
Staple (Basic) Merchandise Categories:

• Fiction Books


• Non-Fiction Books


• Language books
  

As fiction and non-fiction books will have a continuous demand over an extended time period as they have limited number of new product introductions and it is the most basic form of reading for book lovers.Therefore, it is in staple merchandise categories.

As Language books are hard to have new product introductions and the demand for the books are easy to forecast, having continuous replenishment hence it is in staple merchandise categories.

Fashion Merchandise Categories:

• Politics


• Comics- Manga Comics

As politics are fast moving, they are something that would be in demand for a relatively short period of time. For instance, the red blood protestors in thailand and the Obama election period. After obama was elected, the books were less popular! Hence, it is under fashion merchandise categories

As Manga comics was a trend in Japan, the continuous production of new comic books increase as more and more teenagers started to follow the trend. However, the demand for it slowly decreased as teenagers grow up to be young adults and stop reading it. Hence, it is only in demand for a relatively short time. Thus, being under fashion merchandise categories.

Done By: Stacie Tan, Cynthia Neo