Yönetim ve Organizasyon

ALTI SİGMA NEDİR

Altı Sigma’nın ne olduğuna ilişkin farklı bakış açıları ve farklı yaklaşımlar bulunmaktadır. İş dünyası, Altı Sigma’yı genellikle “mühendis ve istatistikçiler tarafından ürün ve proseslerin ince ayarını yapmak için kullanılan ileri derecede teknik bir yöntem” olarak tanımlamaktadır. Kısmen doğrudur. Ölçüm ve istatistik Altı Sigma’nın anahtar bileşenleridir, fakat resmin tümü değillerdir.
Altı sigma bir çok şirket için hedefi “Mükemmel olmak” olan bir kalite ölçümüdür. Hizmetten üretime her türlü süreçteki hataları azaltmayı hedefleyen disiplinli ve veri odaklı bir metodolojidir. Altı sigma metodunun en temel hedefi, şirket bünyesinde altı sigma iyileştirme projeleri ile değişkenliğin azaltılmasına ve süreç iyileştirmeye odaklanan ölçüm esaslı bir strateji yerleştirmektir.
Altı sigma; bir yönetim stratejisi (Motorola ve diğer pek çok şirketi olağanüstü başarılara taşıyan yönetim stratejisi), bir hedef (milyonda 3,4’den daha az hata oranı ile müşteri ihtiyaçlarını kusursuza yakın karşılama hedefi), istatistikî bir yöntem (ürün ve proseslerdeki değişkenliği azaltmak için kullanılan ileri istatistik yöntemi) ve bir kültür değişim süreci (şirketin müşteri tatmini ve karlılığını arttırarak rekabetçi konumunu güçlendirmesi için gerekli kültürel degişim süreci) olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Genel anlamda;"altı sigma; organizasyonun temel süreçlerini, müşteri ihtiyaçlarını karşılayacak şekilde, değerlendirmek ve iyileştirmek için, şimdi ve gelecekte, tüm çalışanların bilgilerinin ve kantitatif metotların etkin olarak kullanılmasıdır".
“Temel” kelimesi altı sigmanın öncelikle müşteri tatminine en fazla etki eden süreçlere uygulanması gerekliliğini vurgulamak için kullanılmıştır. Müşteri tatmini ile doğrudan ilgili olan ve şirketin bilanço rakamlarını doğrudan etkileyen faaliyetler “temel süreçler”olarak adlandırılır. Bu yaklaşımla organizasyonun kıt kaynaklarının önemsiz konular için harcanmasını önlenecektir. Ayrıca, bu yaklaşım tüm personelin faaliyetlerini içerdiğinden dolayı, herkesçe doğru anlaşılması ve uygulanması gerekmektedir.
“Sigma” terimi herhangi bir süreç ya da ürün karakteristiğinin bir ortalama etrafındaki dağılımını tanımlamada kullanılır. Sigma, süreç yeterliliğini gösteren istatistiksel bir ölçü birimi ve standart sapmadır. Sigma ölçüsü, birimdeki hata sayısı, bir milyondaki hatalı sayı ve hata olasılığı gibi karakteristiklerle doğrudan ilişkilidir. Herhangi bir hizmet ya da üretim süreci için, altı sigma sürecin ne kadar iyi işlediğini gösteren bir ölçüttür ve sigma değerinin yüksekliği sürecin iyiliğini gösterir. Sürecin hatasız işleme yeterliliğini gösterir. Hata; müşterinin hoşnutsuzluğuna yol açan herhangi bir bileşendir. Sigma arttıkça maliyet düşer, çevrim süresi azalır, müşteri memnuniyeti artar. Altı sigmada esas olan, müşteri taleplerini karşılamada mükemmele yakın hedeftir. Temel parametre, “ürün başına hatadır”. Burada ürün, temel bir parça, yönetsel bir form, zaman uzaklık gibi herhangi bir bileşen olabilir.
Örneğin, 1 sigma seviyesinde çalışan bir işletme 1 000 000 işlemde yaklaşık 700 000 hata yapar. Eğer, işletme 2 sigmada çalışıyorsa, bu onun 1 000 000 işlemde 300 000 hata yaptığı anlamındadır. Şirketlerin büyük bir kısmı, 3 ile 4 sigma arasında faaliyet gösterir. Bu da yaklaşık 1000 000 işlemde, 67 000 ile 6 000 hataya karşılık gelir.%99 doğrulukla çalışan bir işletmenin, 3,8 sigma seviyesinde faaliyet gösterdiği söylenebilir. Fakat %1’lik hata oranı dahi pek çok durumda kabul edilemez. Bu oran günde 20 000 mektubun kaybolması, haftada 5 000 hatalı ameliyat ve günde 4 uçak kazası anlamındadır.
Peki bu %1’lik hata oranını daha iyi motive ederek ya da kötü ürünleri ayıklayarak gideremiyorsak ne yapmalıyız? Sadece sonuca odaklanmak yerine, istenmeyen çıktıların nedenlerini araştırmaya çalışmak bir başlangıç olacaktır. Pek çok kalite programı sizi sakat bir futbolcuyu uyuşturucu iğneler ile oynatmaya sevk eder. Oysa, futbolcuyu tedavi etmek daha iyi değil midir? Öyleyse hatalı parçalar üreten makineleri niye sürekli ayarlıyorsunuz? Bunun yerine sapmaların nedenini bulup, ortadan kaldırmak daha akıllıca bir yaklaşım olacaktır. Çünkü altı sigma problemi yönetmeye çalışmaz, ortadan kaldırır.
Altı sigmayı diğer müşteri odaklı yaklaşımlardan ayıran nokta ise kendisinden önceki pek çok yaklaşımın en başarılı yönlerini bünyesinde toplaması ve sahip olduğu güçlü araçlarla bu yaklaşımların vaat ettiklerini gerçeğe dönüştürmesidir. Motorola, GE, Allied, Signal, Nokia, Ford, Shell, Arçelik, Polaraid gibi çok sayıda şirketin altı sigma uygulamaları ile birlikte karlarının milyonlarca hatta milyarlarca dolar arttığını ifade etmeleri, altı sigmanın bu iddiasını doğrulamaktadır.
Altı sigmanın başlangıcı kabul edilen Motorola’nın bu yaklaşımı kabulü, bir Japon firmasının ABD’deki TV şirketlerini almasına dayanır. Fabrika yönetimi Japonlara geçtikten sonra hata oranının bir anda 20 kat azalması Motorola yöneticilerinin ilk kez kendi yönetim şekillerini sorgulamalarına yol açmıştır. Sonuçta, hatalı işleyişlerini kabul edip, kaliteyi dikkate almaya başlamışlardır. İncelemeler sonucunda tüm birim ve ürünler için uygun olan, objektif ve verilere dayalı bir yaklaşımı benimsediler. Tüm ürünler imalat sırasında uygun olan ya da olmayan basamaklardan geçerler. Dolayısıyla her bir süreç hata olasılığıdır ve bu olasılık standart bir ölçü birimi olarak kullanılır. Basit ürünler daha az karmaşık ürünler daha çok hata olasılığına sahip olacaktır. Öncelikle 1985’te MHO ölçütü ve 1987’de altı sigma hedefinin 3.4 hata hedefi belirlendi. Bunlar için hazırlanan iyileştirme alt yapısının şirketçe benimsenmesi ile de bir kültür değişimi yaşandı.
Bir yönetim sistemi olarak tanımlanan Altı Sigma’nın temel ilkeleri altı başlık altında incelenmektedir (Pande, Neuman, Cavanagh, 2003)

ALTI SİGMA İLKELERİ

Gerçek Müşteri Odağı
1990’lı yıllardaki kalite hareketi ile birlikte çok sayıda şirket duvarlarını, “müşteri beklenti ve şartlarını karşılamak ve aşmak” benzeri politika ve misyon ifadeleri ile süslediler. Bununla birlikte çok az sayıda şirket müşteri ihtiyaç ve beklentilerini anlamak ve bu bilgiyi arttırmak için yoğun çaba gösterdi. Hatta bu çabayı gösteren şirketler dahi müşteri ihtiyaçlarının dinamik doğasını göz ardı ettiklerinden elde edilen verilerden sağlanan fayda kısa sürdü.
Altı Sigma’da müşteriye odaklanmaya büyük önem verilmektedir. Kurulumun ilk aşaması olan performans ölçümü müşteri ile başlamaktadır. Ayrıca iyileştirmeler de müşteri tatmini ve değeri üzerinde yaratılan etkilerle tanımlanmaktadır. Müşterilerin sadece bugünkü değil gelecekteki muhtemel ihtiyaç ve istekleri de önceden tahmin edilmeli ve işletmenin rekabet avantajlarıyla birleştirilmelidir
Verilere Dayalı Yönetim
Son yıllarda ölçmeye, geliştirilmiş bilgi sistemlerine ve bilginin yönetime verilen önemin artmış olmasına karşın, işletmelerin pek çok kararın hala daha belirli yorum ve varsayımlara dayandırılarak alındığını görmekteyiz. Hataların bulunması ve ortadan kaldırılmasında kapsamlı ve karmaşık verilerin toplanması ve istatistiksel analizlerinin yapılması Altı Sigma’nın temel noktalarından birisidir. Altı Sigma uygulamalarının ilk aşaması iş performansını değerlendirmesi için gerekli anahtar ölçütlerin belirlenmesidir. Belirlenen bu ölçütler, kritik değişkenlerin tanımlanmasında ve sonuçların optimize edilmesinde kullanılmaktadır
Daha açık bir ifade ile Altı Sigma verilere dayalı karar ve çözümleri desteklemek için yöneticilerin iki temel soruyu cevaplamalarına yardımcı olur.
Hangi veri/bilgilere gerçekten ihtiyaç var.
Bu veri/bilgileri en fazla yarar sağlayacak şekilde nasıl kullanabilirim.
Proses Odağı
Altı Sigma’da proses, faaliyetin olduğu yerdir. İster şirket yönetimi isterse ürün ve hizmet tasarımı, performans ölçümü, etkinliğin arttırılması ya da müşteri tatminin iyileştirilmesi olsun tüm alanlarda başarının anahtarı proseslerdir.
Altı Sigma uygulamalarında bu güne kadar sağlanan büyük kazançlar, proseslerin müşteriye değer sağlamak için kullanımı ile gerçekleştirilmiştir.
Proaktif Yönetim
“Proaktif” kavramı çoğunlukla “reaktif” kavramının tersi olarak düşünülür ve olaylardan önce harekete geçme anlamı taşır. Gerçek dünyada ise proaktif yönetim başarı için kritik iş alışkanlıkları ile ilgilidir; iddialı hedefler oluşturmak, bunları sık sık gözden geçirmek, açık politikalar geliştirmek, problemlerin önlenmesine odaklanmak, kör bir şekilde işleri nasıl yaptığımız savunmak yerine, işleri niçin böyle yaptığımızı sorgulamaktır.
Gerçek proaktiflik sıkıcı ve aşırı analitik olmanın ötesindedir. Değişim ve yaratıcılık için bir başlangıç noktasıdır. Reaktif hal tarzının sonucu krizden krize atlamanız sizi çok meşgul eder ve sizin işlerin üzerinde olduğunuz gibi yanlış bir imaj verir. Gerçekte bu durum yönetimin kontrolü kaybettiğinin işaretidir.
Altı Sigma reaktif alışkanlıkların yerini dinamik, ihtiyaçlara gerçekten cevap veren proaktif bir yönetim tarzının almasını sağlayacak araç/yöntem ve uygulamaları içerir.
Sınırsız İşbirliği
Sınırsızlık iş başarısı için Jack Welch’in deyişlerinden birisidir. Şirketin tedarikçileri, müşterileriyle ve şirket çalışanlarının da birbirleriyle kuracakları işbirliğinin getireceği fırsatlar büyüktür. Müşteriye değer yaratmak için ortak çalışması gereken gruplar arasındaki rekabet ve irtibatsızlıklardan dolayı her gün milyarlarca dolar masada bırakılır.
Altı Sigma insanların büyük resimdeki yerlerini görmelerini ve faaliyetler arasındaki ilişkileri anlamalarını sağlayarak iş birliği fırsatlarını arttırır. Altı Sigma’daki sınırsız işbirliği karşılıksız fedakârlık anlamında değildir. Bununla birlikte son kullanıcıların gerçek ihtiyaçlarının ve prosesler arasındaki ilişkilerin anlaşılmasını gerekli kılar. Ayrıca müşteri ve proses bilginin tüm ilgili şahıs ve birimlere yarar sağlayacak şekilde kullanımını öngörür.
Burada sınırsız işbirliğinde anlatılmak istenen kişinin kendisini bilinçsiz bir şekilde feda etmesi değildir. Altı Sigma ile anlatılmak istenen, hem son kullanıcıların gerçek taleplerini hem de bir süreç ya da üretim zincirindeki iş akışını ayrıntılı bir şekilde anlaşılmasıdır.
Mükemmele Yöneliş ve Başarısızlığa Hoşgörü
Kusursuzu isterken başarısızlığa nasıl tolerans gösterilebilir? Fakat bir takım riskler içeren fikir ve yaklaşımları uygulamaya koymaksızın bir şeyler elde etmek ve bir yerlere ulaşmak mümkün değildir. Eğer insanlar alacakları kararların ya da yapacakları uygulamaların sonuçlarından korkarlarsa daha iyi hizmet, daha düşük maliyet, daha yüksek kalite vb.lerine ulaşmayı denemezler. Sonuç; durgunluk, yozlaşma ve ölümdür. Ayrıca performans iyileştirmesi için Altı Sigma’nın sunduğu araç ve yöntemler önemli ölçüde risk yönetimi içermektedir. Altı Sigma’yı hedefleyen her işletme, kendini sürekli olarak mükemmel olmaya zorlamalı, (çünkü müşterilerin mükemmel tanımı sürekli değişecektir) arada sırada karşılaşılacak başarısızlıkları kabullenebilmelidir.

ALTI SİGMADA ROLLER

Altı Sigmada başarının anahtarı görev tanımının en iyi şekilde yapılmasına bağlıdır. Bu oluşumun insan gücü tarafıdır. Roller verilirken en alt düzey çalışandan en üst düzey yöneticiye kadar herkesin görev, yetki ve sorumluluk alanları en uygun şekilde düzenlenmelidir. Bu nedenle Altı Sigma organizasyonlarında tüm personele aldıkları eğitimin türüne göre farklı roller, bu roller ışığında da farklı sorumluluklar verilir. Uzakdoğu sporlarının kuşaklarını andıran bu yapı, işletmenin ve projelerinin yapısına göre farklılık gösterebilmekte ve genel kabul gören unvanlara sarı, mavi vb. kuşaklar eklenebilmektedir.
Üst Kalite Konseyi
Altı Sigmada projelerin başarısında en önemli faktörlerden biri üst yönetim tarafından sağlanacak destektir. Bu nedenle özellikle büyük çaplı işletmelerde Üst Kalite Konseyinin kurulması büyük önem taşımaktadır. Bu konseyin belli başlı görevlerini şöyle sıralayabiliriz:
*Altı Sigma uygulamasının kapsamını belirleyip, çalışanların görev, yetki ve sorumluluklarını belirlemek,
*Değişen ihtiyaçlara göre projelerde kapsam değişikliğine gitmek,
*Projeler için gerekli kaynakları sağlamak ve çıkan büyük problemleri çözümlemek,
*Projeleri takip edip, gerektiğinde müdahalede bulunmak ve iyi sonuçları tüm şirkete yaymak şeklinde özetlenebilir.
Yönetim Temsilcisi
Altı Sigmada projeler üst yönetimden etkili bir lider tarafından yönetilmediği sürece başarısızlık şansı yüksektir. Bu nedenle kurulan bu unvan, üst yönetim adına konsey toplantılarını beklemeden karar verebilmekte ve işleyişi hızlandırmaktadır. Yönetim Temsilcisinin başlıca görevleri şunlardır:
*Altı Sigma eğitim planını hazırlayıp, eğitimin yapılmasını sağlamak,
*Gerektiğinde Altı Sigma konusunda yardım almak ve istendiğinde yardım etmek,
*Proje seçiminde kalite şampiyonuna yardımcı olmak, proje ve proje takımlarını onamak,
*Takımların ihtiyaçlarını değerlendirip, yetkisi dâhilinde olanları temin etmek
*Kalite Şampiyonlarına destek olup, proje sonuçlarını üst kalite konseyine raporlamak şeklinde özetlenebilir.
Şampiyonlar (Sponsorlar)
Projeleri saptayan ve başarıdan sorumlu olan kıdemli yöneticilerdir. Projeleri onaylayan, projelere kaynak sağlayan ve aksaklıkları çözümleyen altı sigma çalışanıdır. Şampiyonların çoğu direkt işletme liderlerine rapor verirler. Bunlar projelerde tam zamanlı olarak çalışmak zorunda değillerdir ve bunun için bir hafta eğitim alırlar. Başlıca görevleri:
*İyileştirme projelerinin işletme amaçları ile uyumlu olmasını sağlamak,
*Takımların kaynak ihtiyaçlarını yönetim temsilcisine bildirmek,
*Takımlar arası koordinasyonu sağlamak, gerektiğinde müdahalelerde bulunmak,
*Projelerin tamamlanma sürelerini belirlemek,
*Projelerdeki konu ve kapsam değişikliklerini onaylamak şeklinde özetlenebilir.
Uzman Kara Kuşaklar
Bunlar sıra dışı niceliksel ustalıkları ve öğretim ve liderlik yetenekleriyle tam zamanlı öğretmenler olup, en az on kara kuşaklıya göz kulak olup işletme şampiyon ekibi tarafından onaylanarak sertifika alırlar. Uzman kara kuşaklar öğretmek ve rehberlik etmek için en az iki hafta eğitilirler. Başlıca görevleri:
*Takımlara başta istatistik yöntemlerin seçimi olmak üzere teknik destek sağlamak,
*Kalite şampiyonlarına projelerin tamamlanma sürelerinin belirlenmesinde yardımcı olmak,
*Projelerden elde edilen sonuçları yönetim temsilcisine özet olarak sunmak,
*Altı Sigma konusunda eğitim vermek,
*Altı Sigmanın işletmenin tamamında uygulanmasına katkı sağlamak şeklinde özetlenebilir.
Kara Kuşaklar
Projelere öncülük eden ve kilit süreçler üzerinde odaklanan, sonuçları şampiyonlara raporlayan tam zamanlı kalite yürütücüleridir. Bunlar müşteri tatmini veya verimlilik artışını etkileyen ölçme, çözümleme, geliştirme ve kontrol etme gibi kilit süreçlerden sorumludurlar. Bir usta kara kuşağın himayesinde veya iki bağımsız projeyi tamamlayarak sertifika alırlar. Aynı zamanda şampiyon ekipleri tarafından onaylanmalıdırlar. Başlıca görevleri:
*Projeleri belirlemek, gerektiğinde değişiklikler yaparak kalite şampiyonuna teklif etmek,
*Takım üyelerini belirlemek veya belirlenmesinde yardımcı olmak, görev dağılımı yapmak,
*Projeleri yönetmek ve zamanında tamamlanmasını sağlamak,
*Bilgi ve kaynak ihtiyacını kalite şampiyonuna bildirmek ve takım üyelerine teknik destek sağlamak şeklinde özetlenebilir.
Yeşil Kuşaklar
Yeşil kuşaklar takım elemanları olup daha çok ölçüm araçlarını kullanırlar. Projelerde tam zamanlı çalışmazlar ancak başarının sağlanmasında etkili role sahiptirler. Şirketlerin yapısına göre çeşitli eğitim aşamalarından geçerler.

ALTI SİGMANIN YARARLARI

Altı Sigma’nın, firmalar arası rekabette kalitenin fark yarattığı düşüncesinden hareketle ortaya çıkan bir oluşum olduğu söylenebilir. Altı Sigma’yı uygulamanın yararlı olduğu apaçık bir gerçektir. Bu yararları belli başlıklar halinde şöyle toplayabiliriz:
Başarının kalıcılığını sağlar
Günümüzde işletmeler ağır rekabet koşulları altında ezilmemek ve pazarın değişkenliğine ayak uydurabilmek için kendi içlerinde sürekli yenilik yapmak ve organizasyonlarını da bu değişkenliklere uygun şekilde yapılandırmak zorundadırlar. Bu noktada Altı Sigma kapalı döngü sistemi olarak isimlendirilen sürekli gelişmeyi sağlayan yetenek ve kültürü oluşturmaktadır (Pande,Neuman,Cavanagh,2003).
Tüm çalışanlar için ortak bir performans hedefi sağlar
Büyük, orta ya da küçük yani kısacası ne büyüklükte olursa olsun bütün işletmelerde herkesin tek bir noktaya odaklanmasını ve aynı yönde faaliyet göstermesini sağlamak ciddi bir başarı göstergesidir. Çünkü işletmelerde departmanlar, çalışma birimleri ve bireylerin kendilerine belirledikleri hedefler(hedef tanımları) birbirinden farklıdır. Herkes için ortak olan tek nokta ürün ya da hizmetlerin işletme içinde veya dışında müşteriye sunuluyor olmasıdır. İşte Altı Sigma kalıcı bir hedef oluşturmak için süreç ve müşteri şeklinde tanımlanabilecek ortak çalışma yapısından yararlanır. Altı Sigma yaklaşımının çıkış noktası da bu ortak özelliktir. Bu ortak çalışma yapısında Altı Sigma sürecin kusursuza yakın çalışmasını ve müşteriye sunulan ürünün veya hizmetin milyonda 3.4 gibi çok küçük bir olasılıkla hatalı olmasını sağlar.( Karaköse, 2004, s.14)
Müşteriye verilen değeri arttırır
Günümüzdeki ağır rekabet koşulları nedeniyle bir işletmenin ürettiği ürünün veya sunduğu hizmetin “iyi” veya “kaliteli” olması işletme için herhangi bir başarı garantisi oluşturmaz. Altı Sigma yapısında barındırdığı müşteri odaklılık sayesinde müşteri için nelerin değerli olduğunu anlamayı ve bunun müşteriye en karlı bir biçimde sunmanın yolunu bulmayı sağlar (Ergün,2003, s.43).
İyileştirme oranını arttırır
Şirketlerin karşı karşıya olduğu rekabet koşullarında sadece iyileştirme yapmak değil, yapılan iyileştirmelerin ne kadar hızda yapıldığı da önemlidir. Çünkü takdir edilir ki yarış olan bir ortamda en hızlı ve önde giden yarışı kazanmaktadır. O halde işletmenin bu yarışı kazanması için önde gitmesi, bunun içinde ivmelenmesi gerekmektedir. İşte bu noktada Altı Sigma bünyesine kattığı pek çok araç ve düşünce sayesinde sadece performansın iyileştirilmesini değil, aynı zamanda iyileştirmelerin de iyileştirilmesini, ivmelenmesini sağlamaktadır (Pande, Neuman, Cavanagh, 2003).
Stratejik değişiklikler yapabilmeyi sağlar
Günümüz rekabet koşullarında işletmelerin ayakta kalabilmesi için yenilik yapmak, kendilerini yenilemek zorunda olduklarını söylemiştik. Bu yenilikler yeni ürünler sunmak, yeni pazarlara açılmak, yeni işletmeler satın almak kısacası yeni riskler almak olarak adlandırılabilir. Fakat, bütün bunların yapılabilmesi ve yeni riskler alınabilmesi için işletmenin tüm süreç ve prosedürlerinin çok iyi bilinmesi gerekmektedir. Altı Sigma içerdiği ileri düzeydeki istatistiksel analiz yöntemleriyle süreç ve prosedürlerin ayrıntılı olarak bilinebilmesini sağlayarak bu yüzyılın iş dünyasındaki işletmelerin başarı için yapması gereken gerek küçük gerekse büyük çaptaki değişimleri kolaylaştırır. Foster bu konuda “Altı Sigma, operasyonel etkinliği geliştirerek darboğaz durumlarındaki sorunları çözmek için etkili bir yoldur (2004) derken Ergün Altı Sigma’nın küçük ve büyük çaplı değişimleri anlamak için daha büyük bir elastikiyet sağlayacağını söylemiştir (2003, s.44).
Maliyetlerin azalmasını sağlar
Bütün işletmelerin Altı Sigma ve benzeri kalite metotlarına yönelmesinin en büyük sebebi maliyetlerini olabildiğince düşürmek istekleridir. Çünkü eskiden fiyatlarla istediği gibi oynayabilen üretici kesim günümüzde rekabetle karşı karşıyadır. Yukarıdaki faydalara ek olarak çevrim zamanlarının azalması, stok seviyelerinin düşmesi ve verimliliğin artmasının sağlanmasıyla Altı Sigma işletmenin üretim maliyetlerinde %10 ila %40 arasında bir düşüşün gerçekleşmesini sağlar ( Karaköse, 2004, 17). Verimlilik artışının sağlanması konusunda ise Tuncel “Altı Sigma iletişimi, etkinliği ve verimi arttırır.” demiştir.(2004, s.48)
Kârın artmasını sağlar
Maliyetlerin belli bir ölçüde azalmasıyla yükselen müşteri tatmini işletmenin pazar payının artmasını ve artan bu pazar payının da işletmeye kâr olarak geri dönmesini sağlar. Motorola, GE, Sony, AlliedSignal gibi dünya çapındaki şirketlerin Altı Sigma’yı kullanarak 1 ila 4 yıl içerisinde 100 milyon ile 2.2 milyar arasında Amerikan Doları kâr etmesi de bunun en açık bir kanıtıdır (Karaköse, 2004, s.17)

ALTI SİGMA AŞAMALARI

Tanımla
Bu aşamanın amacı projenin amaç ve uygulanabilirliğinin tanımlanmasıdır. Bu aşamada, kaliteyi yükseltebilecek bir projenin tanımlanması ve ele alınan problemlerin mümkün olduğunca sayısal veri toplamaya uygun olması gerekir. Non-parametrik sınamalar, burada problem çözümü için temel oluşturmaz , çünkü problem, üzerinde çalışılabilip gelişmenin takip edilebileceği forma dönüştürülemez. Sayısal verilere ağırlık verilmelidir. Seçilen problemin ise, şirkete mali külfet getiren ve müşteri tatminini olumsuz etkileyen , yani kiritik kalite faktörü (KKF) olması gerekmektedir.Örneğin(TEZİN YAZARI VE YAZILIŞ TARIHI)savaş sırasında bir pastanenin bombalanması sivilleri bir süre güzel tatlılardan mahrum edebilir fakat savaşın kazanılmasına katkı sağlamaz.Ayrıca, problemin herkesin anlayabileceği şekilde –yine sayısal olarak- ortaya konulması gerekir. Çünkü problemlerin yazıyla ifadesi, çözülebilme olasılıklarını artırdığı gibi çözüm süresini de kısaltır.
Ölç
Ölçme aşamasında içinde bulunulan duruma ait tüm bilgiler toplanır. Burada dikkat edilmesi gereken, neyin bilgisinin toplanması gerektiğidir. İhtiyacımız olan veri toplanmazsa, problemi çözmek için yapılacak işlerin hepsi boşa gitmiş olur.Örnek verecek olursak, (TEZIN YAZARI VE YAZILIŞ TARIHI) doktorunuza kendinizi iyi hissetmediğinizi söylediğinizde, nerenin ağrıdığı, ağrının ne zaman başladığı gibi sorularla olasılıkları azaltarak problemi daraltır ve en son olarak testleri ister. Burada genellikle küçük bir problemle karşılaşılmaktadır. Aşamanın sonunda , bir an önce analize geçmek için sabırsızlanan ekipler tam sağlıklı verilere ulaşamaz. Bu da daha sonra tekrar ölçüm gerekeceğinden maliyet olarak firmaya geri döner. Bu aşamada akış şemaları ve neden-sonuç (balık kılçığı)diyagramları, hem problemin neden ve sonuçlarını tatbikte, hem de nerede başlayıp nerede bittiklerini anlatmada etkili tekniklerdir.
Analiz Et
Bu safhada, tanımlanan ve ilgili verileri toplanan problemin performansa, karlılığa, maliyetlere, pazar payına ve müşteri tatminine etkileri araştırılmalıdır. Gerekli görülen yerlerde, özellikle çok sayıda büyük firma olan pazarlarda, benchmarking yöntemi ile firmanın hangi noktada bulunduğuna dair bir sonuca ulaşılmalıdır. Bu yöntemin amacı, firmanın probleminin çözümünde, diğer şirketlerin neler yaptıkları, ve bunların ne derecede etkili olduğudur. Bu da ister istemez rakip firmalarla iletişim içinde olmayı gerektirir. Bir diğer can alıcı nokta ise, hataların ne zaman, nerede, ne kadar sık yapıldığını bulmaktır. Eğer kaç kilo olduğunuzu doğru olarak biliyorsanız, hedef bir kilo belirleyebilir ve bu hedefe ulaşmak için diyet ve egzersiz programı içeren bir uygulama planı hazırlayabilirsiniz. Bu nedenle, Kara Kuşaklara, verileri en etki yollarla toplamaları için, istatistik düşünme yeteneği de kazandırılır.
İyileştir
Bu aşamada problemin çözümüne başlanır. Yapılması gereken, etkilerin ortadan kaldırılması , tamamen kaldırılamıyorsa bile azaltılmasıdır.Bu aşamaya gelinmeden önce, problemin ne olduğu, hakkındaki verilerin analizinin çözümünde etkili olacağı, yapılacak olan iyileştirmenin tüm takım tarafından anlaşılmış olması ve problem çözüldüğünde bunun şirkete ve çalışanlara kesin olarak pozitif etkiler getireceği belirlenmiş olmalıdır. Aksi takdirde, daha iyi bir duruma, sadece çalışanların daha çok çalışmasını isteyerek varmak mümkün değildir. Bu herkeste “neden daha çok çalışayım ki?” Sorusuna yol açar. Herhangi bir genel kurul toplantısında, satışları %4 artırma kararı alınır ve tüm şirkete duyrulur. Ama bunun nasıl yapılacağı kimseye anlatılmaz. Sonuçta hedefi tutturmak zorunda kalan orta kademe yöneticilerinin tek umudu çalışanlarının daha çok gayret göstermesidir.Bunun yerine görev dağılımı ve yüzdeleri takımlara bölüştürmek gerekir.
Kontrol Et
Bu aşamada, yapılmış olan iyileştirmenin kalıcılığının sağlanmasına çalışılır. İstatistiksel proses kontrol tekniklerinden yararlanılır. Bu aşamada, sürecin ne ölçüde geliştirilip hataların düzeltildiği, bundan sağlanan kazançlar ve bu kazançların sürekliliğini sağlamaya yönelik fikirler tartışılır. Sürecin geldiği noktada kalmasını sağlamak için temel skor kartı (ve buna ait diyagramlar), storyboard(toplanan verileri ve yapılan işleri anlatan bir tablo) ve tekrar düzenlenmiş sürecin haritaları hazırlanır. Bunlar üzerinden 6 sigmaya ulaşabilmek için düzenleme ve istatistiksel testler her defasında tekrarlanır. Aksi takdirde yapılan iyileştirme kalıcı olmaz. Özetle, önceki dört aşamada sağlanan kazançlar değerlendirilir, başarının devamı için yapılması gerekenler uygulanır ve 6 Sigma’nın araçları ile proseslerin performans kabiliyetlerinin sürekliliği sağlanır.

ECZACIBAŞI VE FORD OTOSAN’DA ALTI SİGMA UYGULAMALARI

1995 yılında Türkiye’de de bu uygulamaya başlayan Eczacıbaşı Vitra yöneticileri de dünyadaki daralan kar marjları, arzın talepten daha hızlı büyümesi sonucunda yaşanan fiyat düşüşleri, tüm dünyada azalan yenilenebilir kaynaklar, birim maliyetlerdeki artış ve rekabet piyasasının zorlukları vb. gibi sebeplerden dolayı toplam kalite çalışmalarına başlamıştır. Altı Sigma’nın, bir proje yönetim sistemi olduğunu kabul ederek en iyi çıktıyı elde etmek için en uygun girdi bileşenlerini sağlamayı amaçlamışlardır.1999’da “Avrupa Mükemmellik Ödülü”nü ve 2001’de de Arçelik’le “EFQM Başarı Ödülü”nü almışlardır. Türkiye’de bu uygulamaya tek başına başlayan Vitra, 6 sigmanın bir gömlek olmadığına ve her şirketin 6 sigma anlayışının kendi yapılarına uygun olması gerektiğine inanıyor.
Altı sigma uygulamaları ile tüm dünyada bu konuda bench-mark olan Ford Otosan da, 2000 yılında bu yaklaşımı kabul eden bir Türk firmasıdır. 2000 yılında siyah kuşaklar ile başlayıp, 2001 yılında yeşil kuşakların eğitimi ile devam eden süreçte Ford Otosan 2004 yılında 1 milyar dolara ulaşan bir Altı Sigma kazancı elde etmiştir. Ford Otosan yöneticileri özellikle 2004 yılında 133 projeyi tamamlayarak net olarak 17 milyon dolar net kazanç elde ettiklerini açıklamaktadırlar.
Proje için görüştüğümüz uzman karakuşak Ertan Ersoy’dan elde ettiğimiz bilgilere göre başarılarının ardında yatan nedenleri analiz ettiğimizde Altı Sigma ilkelerini uygulamaları ile şu başlıkları görüyoruz.
Etkin Veri Toplama Sistematiği
Eczacıbaşı’nda uygulanan Barkodlu üretim takip sistemi sayesinde özellikle fire düşürme projelerinde 6 Sigma analizlerinde kullanılacak verilerin derlenmesi problem oluşturmadı. Ürün dökümhanede şekillendikten sonra müşteriye ulaşana kadar geçen sürede ürün üzerine işlenen her türlü bilgi barkod bilgi toplama terminalleri sayesinde toplanmakta ve elde edilen veriler ana sistemde derlenerek online ve real time raporlar haline getirilmektedir. Bu sistem Altı Sigma çalışmalarının verimli ve etkin bir biçimde yürütülmesinde çok önemli bir pay almıştır
Ekip çalışması
Eczacıbaşı bünyesinde çalışan elemanların etkin ekip çalışmasına yatkınlığı vardır.
Prosese önem verme
Eczacıbaşı’nda ürünün üretim süreci son derece dikkatli takip edilmektedir.
Müşteriye odaklanma
Eczacıbaşı 6 Sigmayı derinlemesine incelerken üretimde oluşan hataların ve müşteri şikâyetlerinin azaltılmasına yönelik etkin bir sistem olduğunu belirlemişlerdir. Bu gerçek çevresinde müşteri memnuniyetine odaklanarak başarıya ulaşılmıştır..
Kusursuzu hedefleme
Vitra’nın ana faaliyet konuları seramik üretimi olduğu için hata, fire, ıskarta, tamir ve yeniden işleme terimleri ve bu sayede oluşan maliyetler diğer sektörlere göre bu sektörde daha alışılmış terimlerdir. Zira seramik üretimi toprağın şekillenmesi, sırlanması ve ısıl işlemden geçirilmesi ile gerçekleştirilir. Üretimin her aşamasında fire ve tamir işlemi oluşur. Üretim bölümlerinde günlük iş hayatının büyük bir bölümünü fire azaltma çalışmaları oluşturur. Bu sebeple Altı Sigma proje yönetim sisteminin vitraya çok uygun bir model olduğunu belirlemişlerdir.(Altı Sigma teknik manada milyonda 3.4 adet hata anlamına geliyor)
Proje için görüştüğümüz Burak Hoşgören(Ürün Geliştirme ve Araç Mühendisliği)’den 6 Sigma ilkelerini ve bu uygulanın önemini çalışanlara nasıl aktardıklarını sorduğumuzda aldığımız cevap:
“ Bir konunun önemini astlarınızla paylaşırken, hedefler vermek sözlü yönlendirmeler yapmak yeterli olmuyor. Konunun önemli olduğunu, siz kendiniz o işin içine dahil olarak, sistem içinde rol olarak göstermelisiniz. Liderlik ve yöneticilik başarısı bunu yeterince, gerçekten yapabilmenizde yatar.
Her 6 sigma siyah kuşak eğitimini başlangıcında yaklaşık 2 saat süren, hedeflerin ve amacın paylaşıldığı bir bölüm vardır. Bu bölüm öncesinde veya sonrasında siyah kuşaklarımıza, yaklaşık yarım saat 6 Sigmanın ne anlama geldiğini, beklentilerimizi, hedeflerimizi anlatıyoruz. 6 Sigma yayılımı bir üst yönetim stratejisidir ve bu hedefe bizi götürecek kişilerle düşüncelerimizi program başlangıcında paylaşırız.
Tüm yürütme komitesi toplantılarının başlangıcındaki yarım saatlik kısımda şirketimizin 6 Sigma çalışmalarında hedefe göre nerede olduğumuzu, alınması gereken tedbirleri her bölümü birbiriyle karşılaştırarak anlatır, akabinde ise iki adet 6 Sigma projesi sunuşu yapılır” olmuştur.
Genel olarak Eczacıbaşı Vitra ile Ford Otosan altı sigmada rollerin işleyişi ve görevlendirme sürecinde farklılıklar göstermemekle birlikte küçük ayrımlara da gitmişlerdir. Çünkü altı sigma ve bunun uygulanma süreci sabit olmayıp işletmenin yapısına ve işleyişine göre farklılıklar gösterebilmektedir. Bu amaçla Ford Otosan kendi bünyesindeki yeşil kuşaklılara da projelere istatistikî veriler sağlamanın dışında projelerde aktif roller vererek süreçte daha etkin bir rol oynamasını sağlamaktadır. Böylece yeşil kuşakları da takım elemanı yaparak onlardan daha verimli yararlanmayı hedeflemiş ve bu yolda da başarı sağlamıştır. Ayrıca her departmandan kara kuşaklıların seçilmesini sağlayarak şirketin tamamına hâkim bir süreç oluşturma amacını taşımaktadır. Eczacıbaşı Vitra’da ise görev tanımı ve dağılımı standartlara uygun olmakla birlikte amaç bunu bir şirket kültürü haline getirebilmektir. Bu nedenle eğitim sürecine çok fazla önem vermekte ve özellikle şu aşamalardan geçilmektedir. Çalışanları gruplara ayırarak geniş bir salonda farklı konumlardan uzak mesafedeki oyuncak ayıyı uçak maketiyle vurmaları istenmektedir. Başta herkese imkânsız görünen bu olay maket uçağın oyuncak ayıyı vurabilmesi için gerekli girdileri yani uçağın atış hızı, kanat genişliği vb. belirledikten sonra hedefi vurmaları sağlanmış böylece başta imkansız gibi görünen bir olayın altı sigma süreci sayesinde başarılabileceğini eğitim sırasında çalışanlarına aşılamıştır.
Bu ödev kapsamında gidip görüştüğümüz Eczacıbaşı Vitra ve Ford Otosan için Altı Sigma’nın yararlarını da maddelendirdiğimiz başlıklar için söyleyecek olursak;
Eczacıbaşı Vitra’nın seramik alanında dünya çapında 5.sırada olması ve Ford’un dünya çapında 1 milyar $ lık bir kazanç elde etmiş örnek bir bench-mark olması Altı Sigma’nın başarının sürekliliğindeki en açık kanıtlar olmaktadır. Eczacıbaşı Vitra’nın Altı Sigma ile kendisine süreçlerdeki hataların olabildiğince azaltılmasını; Ford Otosan’ın ise ürünlerindeki hataların minimizasyonunu ortak bir performans hedefi olarak belirledikleri ortaya çıkmaktadır. Vitra Altı Sigma kullanımındaki amaçlarının müşteri şikayetlerinin azaltılması olduğunu belirterek Altı Sigma ile bu amaçlarına ulaşmanın mümkün olduğunu kaydetmektedir. Ford Otosan ise Altı Sigma yolculuklarının en başından sloganlarını “Müşteri Odaklı 6 Sigma” olarak belirleyerek Altı Sigma için müşterinin olmazsa olmaz olduğunu vurgulamaktadır. Vitra’da gizli fabrika diye isimlendirdikleri geri dönüşüm sürecinin işlemesinin azalması ve Ford’da proses kayıplarının azalması Altı Sigma’nın iyileştirmeleri hızlandırdığının da bir göstergesi olmaktadır. Her iki firmada da verilerin sürekli takibinin olması ve bunların kullanılan istatistiksel yöntemlerle anlamlı sonuçlara dönüştürülmesi sayesinde süreçler hem daha kolay hem de daha doğru analiz edilebilmekte ve böylece doğru sonuçlar çıkarılarak doğru adımlar atılması sağlanmaktadır. Ayrıca hata oranlarının azalmasıyla maliyetlerin de azalması sağlanmakta ve bu da elde ettikleri kâra yansımaktadır. Eczacıbaşı Vitra 2002 senesinde 1.325.150 ; 2003 senesinde 918.000 ve 2004 senesinde 800.000 $ kâr ile üç yılda toplam 3.043.150 $ kâr elde ederken Ford Otosan’da bu kâr miktarları kademeli olarak artmakta ve 2002 senesinde 550.000 ; 2003 senesinde 5.300.000 ve 2004’te 17.000.000 $ olarak toplamda 22.850.000 $’a tekabül etmektedir.
Aşamaların uygulanışı açısından, genel bir bakış açısıyla Ford ve Vitra günümüzde işleyen, oturmuş bir 6 sigma felsefesi göstermekteler. Ancak uygulamada her iki firma da güçlüklerle karşılaş mıştır. Bunlardan biri, hem Ford’da hem de Vitra’da , siyah kuşak eğitimi verildikten sonra iyileşme sağlanmış olması, ancak kazanılan başarının kalıcılığının istenen ölçüde sağlanamamasıdır. Bunun sebebi olarak Ford, karakuşak olan kişilerin zaten birçok sorumluluğu olduğunu, ve bununla beraber kendilerini projelere tam veremediklerini, Vitra ise karakuşak eğitimi verdikleri kişilerin bunu zamanla unuttuklarını, veya zaman içinde eski önemi veremediklerini öne sürmektedir. Bunu önlemek amacıyla, Ford, yöneticilerinin, karakuşakların sorumluluklarını azaltarak , 6 sigma projelerine odaklanmalarını sağlamaya çalıştıklarını,Vitra ise sırf bu projelerle ilgilenmek üzere 20 tane yeni eleman alıp yetiştirdiklerini ifade etmiştir. Bir diğer husus, Ford’da 6 sigmanın uygulanma sürecinin, 2000 yılında başlanmış olduğu ancak, yeni fabrika kuruluşu ve yeni araç modelleri devreye giriş aşamaları yüzünden sekteye uğradığı anlatılmıştır. Vitra’da ise geçen yılki firma karının(altı sigma projelerinin maliyetleri azaltmadaki getirisi açısından) bir yıl öncekine göre yarıya düştüğü açıklanmıştır. Bu yıl ise, firma 6 sigma projeleri ile getirisini 4 katına çıkaracağını (tamı tamına 2 milyon dolar) söylemektedir. Daha önce, Ford’un, yeşil kuşakların da en az birer proje yapmalarını istediğini söylenmiştik.İşte bu projelerin takibine de siyah kuşakları getirmiştir.Vitra’da ise yeşil kuşaklara sadece projelerin veri toplama aşamasında görev düşmekte, proje yaptırılmamaktadır.Her iki şirketin ortak yönleri ise, 6 sigmayı bir kültür, siyah kuşakları da bu kültürün temsilcisi olarak yetiştirmeleri ve sayılarını da az tutmalarıdır. Her iki firma da çıktıyı kontrol altına alabilmek için girdinin çıktı haline dönüşürken bağlı olduğu değişkenleri tam olarak çok değişkenli bir fonksiyon gibi yazmakta, ( f=(x1,x2,x3,x4,...xn) ve bu değişkenleri kontrol altına alma yoluna gitmektedir .Altı Sigma’yı her iki firma da rekabette en etkili araç olarak görmektedir ve uygulanmasını şiddetle tavsiye etmektedir.

ING201

NON-STOP IMPROVEMENT: CHINA


After the World War II, countries aimed to struggle with each other strategically. Their new strategy was growing their own economy by producing. International commerce started to improve rapidly after the war. The amount of exportation and importation has reduced quickly. All of the countries increased their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) more than 20 times which measures the output produced by factors of productions located in the domestic economy regardless of who owns these factors. China is one of the good performers of the trade owing to its big potential. Industry and electronics are the most important weapons of present Chinese. China is the second big economy after the US in the world and it has been the focal point of World Economy. Most of the powerful countries follow the improvement of Chinese Economy to protect their economy. Although Chinese Economy has boomed lately, it threatens the World Economy due to its poor quality of products and the process of ad-copy.
First of all, cheap input and various products have a big role in the boom of Chinese Economy. The cost of production is very low in China due to its cheap input. In China, labour and electric energy are cheap; besides, Chinese people have no social security (Narin, 2004). This means that they have all opportunities to charge low price for their products. Labour isn’t expensive because many people are waiting for a job. So, people have to accept to work for low salary. Moreover, according to Bajpai (n.d.), China’s great dynamics are based on low rate taxation system that courages firms to invest much more. Most of the big producers have factories in China because of receiving a little amount of tax from them and proximity to the Asian market.
China has a great potential of productivity. In 2000, Yee&Wa stated, ‘Mainland Chinese firms should put more capital and efforts on the products design and package and think of something innovative since Hong Kong consumers like something special and innovative. An attractive appearance of the product can attack more people and hence increase competitive power.’ It makes no difference to consumers if the products are Chinese or not. People cannot become aware of which one is produced in China. In addition, China is the biggest producer as far as vegetables, fruits, textile and electronic instruments are concerned (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘The New Competition’ section). China can produce and serve all kinds of products.
Secondly, China threatens the World Economy due to its speedy development and negative effects on other countries. Chinese Economy becomes bigger and this cannot be stopped. Üzülmez (2003) asserts that although the World Economy grew 2.5% in 2003, whereas in China, this ratio was 9.1%. This proportion may increase if China enters the WTO (World Trade Organization). Membership of WTO mostly rescues countries from quota. Additionally, the industrialized countries do not desire to import excessive Chinese products due to fact that their capitalist system which is based on exports may worsen (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘The New Competition’ section). Nearly half of consumption is provided from importation; therefore, countries don’t want to export cheap products more from China. Otherwise, it will be a big loss to their producers.
There are serious negative effects of Chinese Economy to other countries. ‘The People’s Republic’s massive production and exports of low priced goods to leading industrial countries have contained inflation’ (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘A New Force Propels the World Economies’ section). If cheap products enter the economy, native producers are obliged to decrease their production. The decline in production increases prices which causes inflation. Furthermore, Wickman (n.d., para. 4) stated the problem of high taxes due to inclination to capital and creative labour forces EU countries which make them trade under pressure. Moreover, Üzülmez (2003) thinks that because of lack of quality in products, Chinese manufactures cause troubles for consumers and producers of other countries. Poor quality of products are aged quickly, so although they are cheap, they cause many disadvantages. In addition, As a result of reduction in China’s necessity to raw material such as iron, steel, zinc and copper, the World Economy has been discouraged (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘China’s Growth Stimulates Other Economies’ section). China raises the price of raw material by this way. When demand increases, the price increases.
Thirdly, the reasons why China’s products have poor quality are mass production and cheap raw material. Massive production has a vital importance in China to be continued its citizens’ life. Baker (2000, para. 2) indicates that population of China reduces inextinguibly and they must increase their food production to overcome this difficulty. It isn’t an easy job to feed this amount of population or to serve all needs. What’s more, US and EU are afraid of China’s effective production strategy which provides China to compete globally including its huge potential of output (Syed, 2005, ‘WTO Tasks Sour’ section, para. 5). Providing its consumption necessity isn’t enough, countries have to produce more than their need, so they can earn from exportation. For instance, due to low wages and mass production, China competes America in many industries such as textile and bicycle products (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘The New Competition’ section).
China has an advantage of providing cheap resources and raw materials. As mentioned in ‘Natural Resources’, China is the third country in the world regarding the mineral resources. All nonferrous metallic minerals exist in China (n.d.). Industries are one of the most important signs of improvement and their own resource provides more advantages for China. Besides, China has its own resources itself such as agricultural, mineral and energy; thus, it can compete with other countries (‘China Rises and Rises’, 2004, ‘The New Competition’ section). Additionally, Ito (n.d., para. 8) emphasizes that the progress in China is one of the good examples in the world concerning the import of cheap goods and services. China generally imports the inputs of products and they sell value added outputs.
Lastly, process of ad-copy resulted in unethically copying of big trade marks and this process has negative effects on them. Chinese can copy all of the products especially the big trade marks’. Tavassoli&Lee claim that ‘Visual cues such as meaningless logos (e.g., Nike’s swoosh), images (e.g., the Michelin baby), and colors (e.g., UPS brown) should be more potent retrieval cues in Chinese’ (n.d., para. 3). Chinese not only copy the big trade marks unethically, but they also sell them all over the world. Moreover, ‘The purchase intentions of consumers have not been affected by the ‘made-in China’ sign’ (Yee&Wa, 2000, p. 14). Their only interest is the trade marks. ‘Since the reason that people like to buy products from positive country of origin is mainly because of their confidence in the products’ quality and design’ (Yee&Wa, 2000, p. 64).
Process of ad-copy causes several negative effects on big trade marks. Şener explains that the design of Turkish products have been copied by the Chinese, so their price decreases in the Turkish Market (2005, p. 20). People usually buy the cheap ones; consumers tendency to products are generally same except the conscious ones. Producers of other countries have to decrease their price and sometimes they don’t make a profit. In addition, Yee&Wa (2000, p. 43) point out that although Chinese products are unattractive, researches show that they have a positive impact on consumers. After the Chinese widened their market, China’s strategy changed to produce quality products with low price.
In conclusion, despite the improvement of Chinese Economy, the World Economy is affected negatively because of less quality of Chinese products and unethical behavior of ad-copy. Consumers don’t make a profit on Chinese products. Countries cannot prevent Chinese products in the global World, because China is getting ready to become member of WTO. This shows that no country can plan to use quota on Chinese products. Only one way remains: taking all preventive measures. Cost reduction and prohibition of copied products are the most important facts that provide producers of countries to compete with Chinese. Cost reduction theories such as six sigma, TQM (Total Quality Management) must be used in all sectors. Governments have to pass new laws to protect their own producers. Making laws isn’t enough, taking precautions and controlling must be done by governments which are the last and the most important stages.

Marketing-Pazarlama

Retail Marketing Management & Developments in Retail Industry
Retail Marketing Management
In our fast changing world, almost every minute we are subjected to change and development. Every day, on tv,ads,in the places we go, in the streets we walk, can we easily see new marketing tools used by the companies in order to support their position and their products in the harsh market.
The world is in such a hurry that, every minute that passes without innovation, is a wasted piece of time. In such a world, retail industry is also affected in many ways which make it harder for the companies to achieve their goals in the market.Okalov states in the Strategy Magazine that In today’s world, everything changes rapidly, and the companies have to keep up with these quick changes (Nov.2004). Retail marketing world is a fascinating, people-oriented business based on service to consumers like all of us.Kristy and Mark indicate in Journal of Personal Selling&Sales Management that a relationship customer’s loyalty to the salesperson is significantly related to store loyalty as well as the important store-level outcomes of share of purchases, word of mouthand competitive resistance in an upscaleretail context (2000). It is to say that we have been involved in retailing all our life.From the first time we bought chocolates from a grocery, to the time we bought new trousers from a shop, we have all been involved by retailers and retail marketing. Then what is retail marketing in real? It is one of the kinds of marketing, we can call the last link in the marketing chain of distributors, beginning with the producer and ending with the consumer. Retail marketing includes all functions involved in selling goods and services to customers including households, individuals and others who are purchasing goods and services for final consumption.
Retailing companies have some major activities in their life cycle. These are purchasing goods and services for sale, storing, displaying, pricing, advertising, selling, financing, and servicing in order to complete the sale with buyers. All these activities should be performed carefully and feedback should be taken about them in order to develop the full marketing process. For instance, among these activities, in-store communication plays a vital role in the marketing process. It is stated in the Strategy Magazine that in-store communication supports the marketing process because customers are in the frame of mind to buy and are also more open to suggestions (L.D’Innocenzo,2004). We can consider these activities in a cycle, which begins with identifying target market needs and wants. The kinds of products and/or services, sizes, shapes, amounts, time and place are to be considered at this stage. Later on, the price to charge should be determined, since the costs of the company should be covered and profits should be earned. At this point, the company should decide what to offer at which price, because the price should represent the value customers place on the product or service. ‘If the customer thinks that what you are offering isn’t worth much, then how can you ever hope to charge a high price?’ says Noel Peebles in his article.Of course, charging a high price isn’t necessary in every situation, but if the company considers positioning its products at a higher point in the customer’s minds, then this point shouldn’t be missed.Continuing with the process, the customers should be informed about the products.All information and decisions about advertising, displaying the product, and sales methods should be covered without any points missing. Then, in the period of taking the goods from producer to consumer, transportation methods, financing, and services should be taken into consideration.In addition to this, the valuable distribution strategies vary from one retailer to the other according to the company profileand should be considered seriously. It is indicated in the European Journal of Marketing that, although the UK retailers follow high cost, high efficiency distribution way with a large and small number of RDCs, the rest of the other Europeans opt a low cost, non-composite model which’s aim reach the stage of centralizing their distribution(Fernie,J.1992). The last and most important point is making sure that the customers are satisfied. However, while taking these steps, not only the marketing department but also all the other functions of the company are responsible. As mentioned in the European Journal of Marketing, different marketing activities carried out by different functional departments, and identified overall interactive marketing cultures support the company’s total marketing process (1993; 27,3, p.51). The modern marketing process begins with the customers and ends with the customers. Therefore, a company should decide which of its products or services are really filling the intended need or want. Peebles believes that in the long run, it is always better to add perceived value to the product rather than decreasing the price for selling more.(Marketing Leaders Ltd.). If the time shows that changes should be made, then the firm should revise itself fast to survive in the market.
As we have learned from Human Resources Management and Management& Organisation courses, management issue exists in every situation when there are two people in the same environment. There is the manager, and the ones that are managed. In retail marketing, we can also observe management functions deeply. These functions are planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling as in almost all of the cases. Firstly, we have to decide what we are going to do and develop a plan to achieve our goals. In this point, our mission and vision becomes important. Later, we must decide how the work is to be divided and coordinated. As every retailer aims to construct long term customer relationships, it must be ensured that there are enough qualified staff to carry out the work. In addition to this, top management should direct its employees to perform, lead them toward goal achievement, and inform them about their work assignments.The final step is the controlling part, which focuses on measuring performance (by using methods like bench-marking, balance score cards, game theories), setting standards, and taking corrective action for developing the abilities of the marketing personnel.(Meyer, 1988).
Before we introduce the developments in the retail industry, we have to create a broad look at Turkish retail industry. An increasing number of Turks prefer to shop at shopping centers rather than corner shops, and retailing in Turkey offers other big attractions. First, it provides a source of cash - particularly lucrative in such a high-inflation environment as Turkey. However, falling inflation rates will shift their strategy to becoming operationally lucrative as these days’ economy. The rise of organized retailing in Turkey is due to several reasons. One of the major reasons is pricing: since organized retailers buy large quantities at lower prices and on better payment terms than their smaller counterparts, they are able to offer lower prices to consumers. They also offer a greater variety of products under one roof thanks to their larger sales areas. Increased use of credit cards (the number of credit cards grew eight-fold between 1991 and 1997) is another reason why consumers prefer organized retailers, as traditional grocers generally accept cash only.(A.C. Istanbul Office). In addition, as more and more women are employed in Turkey and urbanization is increasing, demand for organized retailers is swelling. Urban population levels have increased to 6 percent, compared to an average population growth rate of 1.6%.(D.İ.E.). These developments indicate that Turkish people have been familiar with large retail outlets for a short period of time, but they are getting used to these shops-most widely many similar shops belonging to the same big business groups-very fast. Almost every child has a mobile phone, wants to wear clothes of popular brands as a self-esteem and gives more value to the products that symbolize modernization and popularity in the urban areas. Furthermore, the companies that recognize this flow, place their products in such a way that people who don’t buy their products feel deficient. There are many retailers competing in the same market, so challenge gets harder every day. In order to deal with these problems, companies try developing new strategies for their target markets. For example, they create special combination offers, choose small customer segments in order to be effective and establish a subtal referral program that begins with the final consumers.(B.Leduc).

Developments In Retail Industry and the Future of Retailing
In today’s marketing environment, consumer attitudes change rapidly in accordance with changing life-styles, age groups, education, social perspectives and so on. To be able to carry on retailing successfully, retailers have to adapt these changes by developing themselves and evaluating their technology, process and organizational structure. As a consequence, the life cycle of retailer structures are getting short and new strategies or marketing compositions are aging rapidly. To adapt this cycle, new firms that are planning to steal the market shares of existing retailers introduce themselves as low-priced but same or high quality companies, and later they increase their prices slowly.For example, three years before, we were introduced shops in which you could buy any item at 1 million Turkish Liras.(1YTL). Now, these shops have increased their priced to 2 or 5 YTL.
Another aspect of today’s and most probably tomorrow’s marketing is non-store marketing, which allows the consumers to get anything they want by the use of internet, extranets, telephone and mail. What are the advantages of e-retailing? Most beneficial ones are cost effectiveness and time effectiveness. A person living in Kadıköy easily make his/her shopping from a store in Merter by just clicking on his/her mouse and giving his/her credit card number and have goods delivered at her address. On the other hand, e-retailing has some disadvantages. The evolution of electronic retailing will exponentially affect retailers’ market serving internationalization efforts, removing some of the existing barriers yet creating new ones (Vida,I., Reardon,J.,Fairhurst,A.,2000). For example, most of the customers do not prefer to use credit cards for e-shopping because of the probability of being hacked.
Moreover, retailers that are selling a group of products are being challenged by other retailers in the same category but under a different name. As an example, we can buy trousers from a tailor, from Network, or from a different retailer such as Carrefour or Metro Grosmarket that acts in mostly food retailing. In addition to this, big retail chains gain more power over the other small shops because they have the ability to purchase large amounts of goods by decreasing the sales price of their suppliers. This gives them the bargaining power which is a milestone in supply-chain management.
In a way, big companies gain more power in the market than the small ones because of the consequences that are considered above. However, if a retailer only focuses on its products without paying extra attention to the other variables that may change the leader in the market, losses can be faced which can put the company in a very bad economic situation. A recent study was conducted including 300 typical consumers in order to measure the importance of target marketing and two big retailers were taken into action using different approaches. These retailers are TopShop and Gap, which recognized that only thinking on merchandise isn’t enough and sufficient if fine-tuning of the stores have not been considered carefully (Newman,J.,Patel,D. 2004).
Retailers use competitive tools for taking advantage in the market. One vulnerable tool is the technology that the retailer uses to support its in-store activities, constructing relationships with its customers, developing the store’s security, and accelerating the information flow throughout the store chains. In order to achieve these goals, they are adopting checkout scanning systems, online transaction processing, electronic funds transfer (EFT), electronic data interchange(EDI),in-store tv and improved merchandise-handling systems (P.Kotler,2001).
The retailers that have been successful in their actions are trying to move to the other countries and sell their products abroad to increase their profit.Turkey is one of the many countries which are affected by diversification. We can see many different retailers and brands belonging to different countries in almost every popular street. For example, we can come across Starbucks Coffees , Marks and Spencer, Carrefour, IKEA superstores easily.
In the future, of course challenges in the retail industry will be harder, so some big retailers in Europe and U.S.A. are making outsourcing studies in order to prepare their retailing strategies with an outsider look. A study that can be a good example is scientific retailing, which is a kind of reinventing everything from weekly promotions to store formats by being able to predict future customer behavior based on past customer response to merchandising and marketing activities. This kind of study is not only a way of implementing new software systems for developing functions in the stores, but also developing the decision making process that improves inventory turns, sales, margins and drives stock price appreciation. By applying this methodology, J.Sainsbury PLC is now forecasting and replenishing more than 60,000 products across more than 450 stores, using customer demand to determine the precise products, frequency and order amounts that will maximize sales, profits and customer satisfaction (Accenture,2002). Lastly, during a conference in Istanbul Technical University Şahin Tunga indicated that in the past, the companies had the power to affect their environment, bu now this power has shifted back to the environment. So the companies should be very careful in adapting themselves into their target markets( 06.12.05).

Analysis Report
PARK BRAVO
The firm was founded in 1970 by Kamil Özçoban in Ankara. At that time, the name of the company was DOLFIN. Later in 1972, the second store was opened under the name of BRAVO. In 1973, the names DOLFIN and BRAVO were combined together as BRAVO&DOLFIN and in the years that followed they opened new stores under this name. In 1980s the company changed its name as PARK BRAVO and moved its headquarters to Istanbul.In 1988 the company started producing in Istanbul under the name ‘FOLK LIMITED’ and within production their wholesale also started. The company has four brands under its structure which are Park Bravo, Nine West , Fizz, La SENZA. They have 18 stores in Istanbul and 62 in total. Among these, Park Bravo is a brand which is active in clothing industry, but the sales are being supported with Nine West for shoes and Bags, Fizz for young wear and La SENZA for underwear. The reason behind this is widening their customer portfolios. The company used to target business women, but with the effect of the challenge in retail market, the target market is widened by brands of different customer profiles. The old philosophy in the management was ‘life-style of a business woman’, but now it is the ‘life-style for everyone’.
In the stores, night dress and high boots are their core products. Especially, since we are in the fall season the focus is also on high boots. In addition to this, the products are presented as jewels to the customers because the same product is not produced twice. By this method, they attract the customers strongly since the party of a product is limited. The buyer who manages to buy the product considers herself lucky.We see this point a strong milestone in retail marketing. It is also asserted in the Strategy Magazine that In-store marketing, when done properly, works - mainly because the consumer is in the frame of mind to buy. And as a result, they're also more open to suggestions(D’Innocenzo, L,2004).
The firm’s main aim is to preserve its existing customer portfolio and gain new customers. In order to achieve this, the customer needs and wants are investigated and the production process is directed in this way. New products are demonstrated to the last detail. The store manager narrated the marketing process as welcoming the customers like guests with a sincere smile, briefing the desired product in a detailed way, selling the product and taking customer feedback.
We were not informed about customer classifying directly, but the company calls its ‘special’ customers during discount sales according to the customer identification cards.Also we were informed that buying frequency and purchased item’s price is a strong separator between the customers. This period indicates that the company classifies their customers due to their buying power.
Furthermore, the company measures customer satisfaction by e-mail and by customer valuation forms. These forms and e-mail are examined and used for future product&service development.
Being able to attract the customers is not an easy process, so the company cares strongly about new store place and store design issues. They prefer places corners and big shopping malls and famous streets which attract customers’ attention easily. Moreover, in-store design and placement is also an important aspect. The company doesn’t have a store-design team and this process is the responsibility of every employee. This is also a part of total quality management as they call it.
In order to make the products visible, the spots are places in the departments. Also, new products are placed in the middle of the stores to direct the attention to these places. The music playing in the store is the mix of popular songs but the tracks are not dynamic. The managers pay extra attention to leaving a wide space for the customers. They are not using any odors to attract the consumers, which they think they don’t have to. The sales personnel wear daily clothes in order to make the consumers feel more comfortable.
Technology is used both for stock tracking and in-store design. For instance LCD monitors are placed in the stores both for showing the new products and fashion shows. Also, NEBIM program is used for stock checking. By this way, the company is able to see all the stocks of all the stores at the same time. Rapid information transfer enables the company to arrange its stocks fastly.Furthermore, they are benefiting from the tehnology by the usage of lcd monitors in the stores.

Analysis Report
POLO GARAGE
The company was first founded in 1977 by Levent Özçoban, who is still the head of management committee. The company has five brands that are registered throughout the world. These brands are Polo Garage ,Polo Garage Night, Polo Garage Sport, Polo Garage Active, Polo Garage Jeans and PG Rest. With these brands, the company aims to satisfy all kinds of customer needs and wants coming from all age groups.
The company has 7000 m2 of sales area and 550 employees who are working under different departments such as fashion design, shopwindow design, showrooms, marketing, finance, sales and accounting. The firm also opened a new factory that is 4000m2 wide in order to decrease the unit cost of trousers and dresses sold. The company is working with 28 stores, 15 vendors and 10 corner shops. In Romania there are 4 stores exist ehich belong to Polo Garage, and in Moscow, there is one store. Among the franchisees, 6 stores in Ukraine, 2 in Philipinnes, and 12 exists in total.
Among its products, trousers, shirts, t-shirts and dresses are the core products of the company. However, there are 1500 different kinds of products sold in total. According to the company, the main source of their marketing and sales force is product variety and rapid product design. The firm educates its designers in its headquarters and also abroad in order to be able to produce various kinds of products in limited times. Also, they have teams who make the in-store preparations for music, store design, and visibility of the products. These teams are also trained inside the company.For the in-store communication, sales consultants are trained, but every single sales assistant does not have his/her own customer portfolio, as mentioned in The Journal of Personal Selling&Sales Management(Reynolds,2000). No outsourcing is used.
The main aim of the marketing strategy is to gain as many new customers as possible. For that reason, the company tries to produce as many different kinds of products as possible. For the existing customers, SMSs are sent in their birthdays, in christmas, and in bayrams. The store managers say that the company has its own customer portfolio who are accustomed to the store service and the products of the company. Among these customers, many of them prefer the brand for its shirts and t-shirts. Quality of sewing type and fabric are the main reasons of this huge demand. Although the products are produced in Turkey, the fabric of these products are purchased from outside Turkey. By this method, the company tries to preserve its sales prices by avoiding the possibe economic fluctuations in Turkey. However, the inflation rates are stable in the last two years so the sales price of the company is decreasing when compared to 2003.
During the selling period, when a customer gets into a store, he/she is not interfered by a salesperson for learning his/her demand. The customer is left alone for a short period of time, but the sales force watches her as she is trying to decide on a product. At that moment, the customer is supported by the sales consultant with a welcome and continued through the end of the process. In order to be more effective, the last person who is to give the product to the consumer is the store manager himself.
Looking from another point of view, we guess that the firm uses both market development and diversification because both existing and new products are introduced to foreign markets in many different European countries. In addition to this, they admit that serving all types of consumers is not a logical and possible marketing decision. So, the company has developed a new strategy in which it segments the market into two different age groups that are 16-35 and over 35. It is believed in the firm that people from younger age groups have generally middle buying power who are students or new employees and who use more colorful clothes in their daily life. So a large number of colorful and fashionable products are targeted to this group. Also, in the stores the walls are painted with joyful colours that are supported with live music in order to make the shopping more attractive. For the older age groups, suits and dresses are pointed because the people who prefer these suits are generally the ones that are in contact with the company since 1980s and that have begun the middle age business groups who acquire more serious clothes for their meetings and offices.
The supply-chain management in the company is just simple. When a new party of products are produced, the only important thing to measure is how many of them are sold. If the sales number is high, the stores rapidly repeat the order at a larger quantity. If not, the party’s last products are sold at a discount price. Furthermore, for a part of the customer relationship management, the products with errors, or the products with which the customer is not satisfied, a call center in the company exists. By this service, the CRM process is tried to be preserved at a high satisfaction level.
The firm is not used to giving advertisements on anywhere, since the top management is not accustomed to this idea. In the past years, they did not give any advertisements because they did not have to. The sales were alright, the customers were continuously coming and so on. However, with the stagnant foreign exchange prices, the company’s profit margin began declining, and so they had to begin giving ads on the popular streets and on the billboards.
The sales price of the company was higher than the average market prices, but now, it has declined. Since most of the fabric is purchased from abroad, the dolar is used for the purchasing decisions. As a result of this, fort he last 3 years, the sales prices of the company is below its competitors in the market.
The company has a ROCI process, with which it decides opening a new store or not. The ROCI (Return on Capital Investment) process gives the company the information about how long it will take before the new store covers its opening costs. For a new store which is called ‘suitable’ in the company, it is allowed to take 1 year fort his period. The stores that have high rocis are not allowed to open by the top management.
For the demographic elements that affect the consumer buying behavior, a feasibility analysis is made covering te age groups, genders, education, purchasing power and social class. After that, the design teams get into the process of designing new products, and astly, the products take their place in the stores.
For the pricing issue, the company is not using competition pricing even if there is a competition between many retailers of the same group. They charge their prices based on their costs, which does not begin with the customers. So, the aim of decreasing the prices passes through cost reduction.
In their pricing strategy, the firm use optional pricing too.For instance, while selling sports shoes or sports trousers, they also charge an optional price for sports socks, and place these products together. No cash discounts or quantity discounts are used, but we can say that the company uses segmented pricing, by charging different prices to allow for differences in customers, products or locations.
Moreover, the company can be considered as using a corporate vertical marketing system which combines successive stages of production and distribution under single ownership.
The distribution channels of the company are veing developed, but we can not exactly say that they are able to use integrated logistics management in their area. First because there is not a team working for providing better customer service and trimming distribution costs. Whenever a new product is developed, it is transported to the stores even if the trucks are half-full or not. This makes the process costly, which also affects the sales price. In order to overcome weak CRM, the company developed a strategy in which the problem of the consumer should be solved 90% in the store. By this way, respondiing time is shortened, which makes the smile on the customer’s face bigger.

Analysis Report
DESA
The firm was founded by Melih Çelet in earlier 1970. In 1980’s firm enter to global market and started to export its products. Desa opened office in New York in 1986 and in England in 2000. The firm now exports to the 42 countries and its customers are the some famous brands of the world such as Ralph Lauren, John Lewis, Liz Claibourne and in 2004 El Cortes Ingles from Spain. Within the 40 stores, Desa presents its products in 140 selling points. The firm has two franchise programs: ‘Desa go’ and ‘Desa in’. First ‘Desa in’ store was opened in İstanbul in 2004 and Ordu, Samsun, İstanbul, Bodrum, Bolu and Ankara ‘Desa go’ franchises followed this. Desa has created two brands of Desa and Desa Interiors for confection and home products to diversify its market. All of its products are sold under its name Desa. Young and educated people in the 20-35 age group are the target of the firm. Desa provides its customer fashionable, high-quality, practical, spruce and fitted price products and widens its portfolio day by day. Firm envisaged thin clothes without lining beginning of this spring-summer season by the way it use product development strategy for growing its market. Desa creates image of self-confident, successful and well-kept for men; entertaining, spruce and energetic for women.
Desa produces leather products and market them in its stores. Shoes, bags, leather clothes, suitcases, confection and decoration are areas of using leather; furthermore, confection is the Desa’s core product. Design and development of the products are made in Turkey from Turkish group.In addition to this, Desa is the distributor of Samsonite (brand of suitcase) and Aerosoles (brand of shoe) which is recognized the slogan of ‘Style and Comfort’.The firm uses this power to preserve as many customers as possible, since the Samsonite brand is a generally known brand.The most powerful factor that firm introduces itself is high-quality. According to this, Desa –is one of the big supplier of the Marks&Spencer- has gained The Marks&Spencer Quality Requirement (MSQR) which is being owned by 25 producer in the world. High-quality is presented to customers at a high price that is to say its target customers are in high level of income.
Desa isn’t content with its current customer, so it aims to gain new ones for its portfolio. The firm has 108 thousand kinds of products with the combination of colour and model. In every season, it provides new products and classics of Samsonite to its customer. Within the receiving order from internet, telephone and catalog dependent on quantity, in the stores special sewing are prepared according to customers’ body measurement. Moreover, Public offering provides advantage to the Desa such as recognition more and economic addition.
Desa classifies its customer as A and B classes depending on their income-level. Business and sports groups are building the biggest share in the company’s customer portfolio. All of its salespeople have their own customer portfolio. Additionally, it has the team that only care about customers. Stores and customers are valorized from ‘Store-check’ group with outsourcing and they report the result to the center.
Furthermore, the company measures customer satisfaction by an e-mail of customer valuation forms. Firm has a center for customer satisfaction and collects information in its database. Customers are informed for discount sales, coupons are given and birthday messages are sent to the customer from this center. Additionally, polls are taken from customers by using outsourcing.
The company chooses not only the famous streets, but also big shopping malls are preferred to open a new store. Desa has a visual team to design its stores. Products which can be used with the others are placed close to each other to attract customers. However, the store which is in the Cevahir Alışveriş Merkezi isn’t designed good enough, quantity of products are too many for this small store. Music isn’t used and the odor of leather spread to the store. Salespersons wear suit and they care to customer by firstly waiting for their look and asking their need. Additionally, price of products are different in outlets that are placed in different locations.
Technology is used in all of the stage. Not only in the design stage, but also technology has a vital factor for testing stage of leather products. For example, water proof tests, durability tests and flexibility tests are performed in order to produce the best quality proucts. Moreover, all the stores and foundations are related to each other on internet for inventory control. Screens are one of the ways that recognize its products.
Lastly, all workers in foundation are passed to health control in every six months according to risk of catching cancer, so the firm cares about security of its workers.

Analysis Report
KOTON
The firm was founded in 1988 in a very small store/shop with a 25 m² area in Kuzguncuk by Gülden Yılmaz. In 1991, the second Koton store of 90 m² was opened in Beşiktaş, Istanbul. After 2 years, the firm opened a wholesale store in Istanbul. In 1996, Koton overhauled its organization with a view to design and manufacture its own products and the same year Koton opened a whole sale in Munich, Germany, which was Koton’s first point of sale abroad. The next year, the new Koton concept reflected to the design of the new stores. In 1999, Koton focused on franchising stores and opened 2 new stores under a franchise contract. The firm renewed and accelerated its information systems and logistics infrastructure in 2002, also the first franchise store abroad was opened in Kuwait that year. This went on and the number of the stores increased year by year. The number of domestic sales points was 182 in 2004 and 280 in abroad. These numbers increased to 208 in domestic and 297 in abroad in 2005. Koton objects to reach 282 domestic sales point and 320 abroad in 2006 and 350 and 405 in 2007 respectively. The company has three categories in their products. Koton category covers collections specifically designed for women who work and live in big cities. This target market of this category is the people who are between the ages of 20 and 30, loyal followers of fashion, able to keep pace with new trends and easily adopted to the modern life style. Koton Men as a second category is the “men version” of Koton. The age interval is from 20 to 35. The firm defines this category “as much meticulous and spruce as women when it comes to outlook” and “fond of night-life and social relations”. The third target market category of Koton is Olé. Olé is for younger and trendy women who are between 17 and 25. This target market is defined as “prioritizing comfort and fashion when selecting their clothing.” Presenting various products to different customer profiles brings a wide customer portfolio to the company.
Koton presents 20 collections for 2 different seasons in each year. Every collection has 750 models and 350 of them are presented to sale. This means 15000 models is produced every year and 7000 of them can be seen in sale. With an easy calculation, it can be seen that nearly 20 new products are presented every day. Also, the same product is not produced twice. The firm aims to attract customers with the idea of “limited products”. According to the firm, the core principle that made Koton a leading brand both domestically and internationally within the past 17 years is rejuvenating itself everyday and offering its customers different and “can’t miss” products every time they step into a Koton store.
The firm not only aims to preserve its current customer portfolio, but also to gain new customers. In order to achieve this aim, they make different things such as serving food to the customers, giving them the choice of smoking in the store and reading a newspaper while waiting the person who shops.
Koton serves the same quality with a low price according to its competitors and uses this as a strength in the market which is compatible with their mission “to gain advantage over its competitors and become a worldwide brand by designing and offering a wide range of high quality and affordable products that will go beyond the expectations of all of its customers around the world”.
Koton has no any define for “the best customer”. Every customer is equal for the firm; the most important thing is the pleased customer with the product he/she bought. There is no customer classification, they calls every registered customer in their databases at discount sales. Moreover, Koton uses some forms in order to measure customer satisfaction and also expectations and makes this with e-mails and customer valuation forms. Also the information comes from the customers about the firm is transmitted to the managers in order to use them at improving the products and services.
Making the person who passes through your customer is not easy, so the location of the stores is very important for the companies. This task is fulfilled by The Strategic Team of Koton. This team, on annual planning basis, pinpoints new locations where Koton stores should be opened. Koton’s marketing and sales power is planned for wholesale, retail and exports so, Koton focuses on main streets in big cities, shopping centers and mega stores for new stores in order to take attentions of customers. Moreover, the in-store design and placement is a very important issue. The firm considers the visual of the stores, so they not only have a team in their main office, but also 2 staff inside of the store.
In order to attract customers, the spots are used onto the products directly. The firm also uses music which is usually so dynamic for attracting customers. The personnel wear shirts in the same color in order to facilitate the contact between personnel and customer.
Technology is used for several things in Koton. The firm uses LCD monitors in order to make the customers aware of fashion and new products. Also, Koton has the Winner program in order to following the stocks in all stores with an online system. Moreover, customer complaints can easily been followed with the internet and this makes the solution faster. Lastly, Koton uses internet as an alternative sale channel.

Analysis report
NETWORK
Altınyıldız was founded in 1952, and for many years it has been the leader of Turkısh Textile sector. Altınyıldız Weaving and Apparel has been present related to Boyner Group in Turkey since 1985. Boyner Holding has specialized particularly in the fashion and textile sector. ıÜüWith a 200-year family history of experience in the textile sector, Boyner Group continues to operate in a number of fields ranging from ready-made garments to tourism. Boyner became a holding in 1991 and is now a leader of Turkish industry with its services in the retail market. Boyner Holding has specialized particularly in the fashion and textile sector. The brands of the holding are Altınyıldız, Network, Fabrika, Beymen, United Colors of Benetton, Sisley, Divarese, T-Box, Boyner Department Stores and Back-up. All brands of the Boyner Group are leaders in their sectors. But we will analysis Network one of the many brands in this study.
Network which is rady-made clothing firm is created by Altınyıldız in September 1999. The company's first stores in İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara and Antalya. Today the Network is present in many countries around the world. In 1999, Network starts out with total 3400 metrekare sales area and 15 stores. Then the company broadened rapidly. All of Turkey and whole world is their market and they are very proud that they will act as a source and sales network for Network. Now, in Turkey there are currently around 45 stores. Nevertheles they target to open 2 new stores in İstanbul, Kalyon and İstinye. The company opened 5 stores further abroad so, it had increased its endorsement about 170%.
The company's name, Network, and logo was distinguished because of their aim of world around brand. Network targets to be influential in the world with its quality and to strengthen its sector position thanks to helping experience and knowledge of Altınyıldız.
Global company of Turkey, Network is the first company especially addressed to woman. The company puts forward the ideal alternatives to modern man and woman for their smrtness of both day time and night.
Network replays to requirements of customer with product diversification that is increased obout 50%. The company designs 6 different collections which are fashionable and comfort every year. Target market of this category is the people who are between the ages of 25-45..
Network's collections of product are prepared for modern man and woman , so so they contain suit, night wear, shirt, tricot, blouse, cravat, amnd overcoat. However, Network's main collection is supported by accessory collection that consisted of bag, shawl, foulard, necklace, earring, and bracelet.
Network's core product is ancasual or formal man and woman wear. Althought the company focuses on formal (official) or not casual clothing, retailers are supported another more casual brands such as Fabrika and Intim. Fabrika was founded in 2001 like Network. Its average age of target customers is lower than Networks' and these customers have less power of purchasing than Network's, but they want to wear fashionable clothes. Another brand Intim is a new woman under wear clothing.
Network is pioneer company in fashion sector, so it carries out innovation for its main collections. İt uses special altınyıldız's tissue that is manufactured by Fomula I Technology that is shining. lmagine a fabric that delivers a better performance in elimination of puckering; durable natural lustre, long lasting "brand new" look, improved formability, and enchanced natural skretch. Altinyildiz's Formula 1 fabrics guarantee to strengthen your competitive edge and satisfy your customers' needs in terms of fashion, guality and comfort.
The firm not only aims to preserve its current customer portfolio, but also to gain new customers. Therefore, promotion and advertisement compaing are parts of Network’s growth strategy in marketplace. The company uses “one way vision” application on Maya building in scope of promotion. It is an enormous advertisement poster that is 2115 metrecares. Besides, “image catologues” are used to promote the collection of the season. While catolugues are prepared two times a year, professional Turkısh and foreign teams work together in order to create more value.
Network’s season “Fashion Show” is one of the most important advertisement strategies. Also, the company supports culture-art activity, and it is the sponsor for some activities. For example, sponsor of National Basketball Team’s clothes, Nişantaşı Spring Festival, Odeon Cineplex Cinemas’ Summer Festival, like these.
Price strategy of Network changes according to quality. Although it follows the marker value, its price is higher than market value. But, customers do not consider this because of its service and product quality
Network’s “definition of the best customer” is loyalty customer. In this respect, while they are accustomed the new customer, continuity of current customers is provided. In order to achieve this, the customers needs and wants are investigated, and products and diversificated according to these requiremnts then the customer satisfaction is mesures to take poll form is made by e mail, internet and face to face interview. Also, Stores are made atractive with music and visual disigning.
Retail store place and instore design are the most important topic of Network. They focus on main street in big cities, shopping centers and mega stores for new stores in order to take attentions of customers. For example, Network stores does not open in a sports wear floor in shopping centers. The stores are near the other business wear firms stores like Beymen, İgs. Also, visual elements are cosidered instore design. Network has own “visual team”. This professional team is responsible all design in stores.
Advanced technology is used from product design to sales. The firm uses Windows program for online connection between the stores. Network uses internet as an alternative sales channel like shopping online.
Lastly, Network goes forward (improve) to be brand of the world thanks to its retail marketing strategy. Ofcourse, contribution of Cem Boyner’s and Altınyıldız’s names is a known reality about this developing of Network.

Analysis Report
LCW
We are able to define the aim of LCW's marketing strategy is providing the same service and the same quality with the same product and the same price. Because of this, LCW has formed its marketing strategy on customer satisfaction so as to understand and provide the customers' necessities and requirements.
In Türkiye, L.C.Waikiki which is received the leader of ready_made clothing market, had started initially with the second quality production. In the same time with the developments of Turkish economy, L.C. Waikiki succeed in the production of its positionin market competition that became difficult with the entry of international brands in Turkısh ready_made clothing market. Although LCW began its life cycle with the products of children, it accomplished to being brand for all parts of people.
LCW's marketing concept consists of being more effective than their competitors in design, service and communication appropriate for their target market. Its marketing concept is being defined on the marketing mix or 6Ps ( product ,price,place,promotion,public relations and power). Another component of their marketing concept is lifestyle of target market. Due to this, LCW has diversity of their products that provide their needs, wants and demands.
Their growth strategies are the market penetration and the market development. They prefer to use market penetration with selling existing products in an existing market and market development with selling existing products in new markets. They started to use diversification with selling new things such as shoes, bags and belts.
L.C.Waikiki considers market researches important in order to apply their customers demands very well. They are using descriptive and exploratory method to gain suitable information because descriptive method describe market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the products and exploratory method gathers preliminary information that will help define the market problem and sugeest hypothesis. L.C. Waikiki have started to work with the system of store management due to the seperation of production and retailing since 2000. They are using this contact method and they are believing shop manmagement in order to gain the qualified data with the correct way.
Market segmentation is using by LCW so as to facilitate for making decision and increase the service quality.Demographic segmentation is being used for age and gender differentiation and psychographic segmentation is being used for lifestyle variation. While L.C. Waikiki is offering its products both every age and every part, they don’t prefer to present different quality or different price. Because LCW aims to supply either same quality for low price or high quality for high price in order to gain all kind of people.
Their posioning strategy focused on their basic qualifications such as the quality,variety and priceof their products.Widespread shop management nets, approciate price for approciate quality and the same service to everyone style are able to accept L.C. Waikiki’s superior features; however, huge investments for designs, studies in order to be international brade and poisining of its brade (from the brade of children products to the all parts of people product’s brade) are their reqirements so as to complete its weak qualifications.

CONCLUSION& SUGGESTIONS

Park Bravo
The PARK Bravo is at the marketing concept since they analyze and serve the customers’ needs, wants and demands in a way that they think they are better, but they do not care about the society’s well being. So we can not put them into societal marketing concept.
The market share of the company is nearly %15, and is still growing but slowly.
They are trying to add more value to customer satisfaction by in-store service. The company’s shoes and high boots are the cash cows and their bags are the stars.
Considering the 4Ps of marketing, the products of the company are well made, but low in variety, so the company began selling the other brand’s products too in order to make its product lines richer. By this way, they are working with Nine West, Fizz and La SENZA.
The average prices of the company is higher than the market, and they place their products in their ‘special’ stores which are placed in big shopping malls, well-known streets, and other famous places. Park Bravo, as a promotion, uses small gifts when special products are sold. For example, when a customer buys an expensive high boot, she can be given the bag which is made from the same leather. At that point, t is thought that the customer will come shopping to their store again.
As most of the stores in our study, Park Bravo is affected by some macroenvironmental forces too. The attitudes of their customers, the foreign exchange prices (since some of the leather is purchased from other countries), tax regulations and production technologies are the main factors that have a high impact on the company.
It is investigated that the consumers’ buying behavior involving Park Bravo is dissonance-reducing buying behavior, since the customers do not see a very big difference between these kind of expensive brands, but they are highly involved with expensive and highly risky purchase. Looking from the company’s point of view, they want to change this behavior to habitual buying with creating strong brand loyalty.
Market segmentation is a very important aspect in retail marketing. Kaufman also indicates in the Journal of Consumer Marketing that when retailers are able to understand challenges from the disabled consumer's point of view, the meaning of accommodation can be derived in terms of the specific retailer's sites of operation(1998, pp.94). Segmentation is highly involved within the company. It can easily be understood that they segment the market into three parts which are based upon the customer’s age groups and purchasing power. Education, or social class is not a very distinctive factor here. There is also customer separation such as A, B, or C class customers. This method is done according to the purchasing power or the frequency of buying of the customers. Demographic segmentation is also used by the company, but the main segmentation criteria is income segmentation. Also the type of marketing that the company does is differentiated marketing.
In differentiating, the company mostly does product differentiation. In a season, for 2 or more times, new products are demonstrated to the market. They do not use any services differentiation. The firm thinks that most of the customers are well satisfied with the products. In order to measure this satisfaction degree, they built customer forms in which you can write your personal information and interests in different product categories. Moreover, the company promotes its products by ‘important’, and ‘distinctive’ criteria since the products of the company are expensive, self-satisfying and considered as ‘special’ by the final users.
The firm has chosen its overall marketing strategy as ‘More for More’ because in their opinion, they are creating more value than the competitors do; at a price premium. With this aspect, the products of the company can be categorized as ‘specialty’ products of high price, strong brand preference and low price sensitivity. At this point, the usual customers’ demand elasticity of price is very very low.
In order to grow and take bigger slices of the total cake in the market, the company uses both brand extension and line extension in its growth path. Brand extension emerges because they introduce new brands and line extension emerges since they produce new products under the same brand name Park Bravo.
The company, in order to increase its profit, has conducted both market development and product development. It made market development by identifying new market segments for its core products, and product development by introducing new brands and new types of products such as leather bags, gloves etc. However, if we are to investigate which growth strategy played a more important role, it is the product development phase. We recommend the firm to conduct market penetration, by adding new sores in current market areas to make it easier for more customers to visit. Also, improvements in advertising, sales and service might encourage customers to buy during each visit.
Among the four well known marketing objectives, the company aims to become the product quality leader in the market, and employs special design employees for this reason. Also , in the production process, as much as possible, they try to use new techniques in order to produce higher quality products in shorter time periods.
Furthermore, Park Bravo uses direct marketing by conducting with the customers with the help of customer forms and e-mail. Also, they use sales promotions in order to encourage customers to buy more at each visit and increase the frequency of the visits to the store. In the store, there are sales consultants, but there is no personal selling and there is not any consultant having his/her own customer portfolio.
The company makes its total promotion budget according to the Competitive-Parity method, since they regulate their budget considering their competitors. It is not a very effective budget planning for a company aiming to become the quality leader-not the market share leader- in the market. If they use the Objective and Task method it will be more useful to the company.
Lastly, considering about the promotion mix strategies, the firm uses the push strategy because they use the sales force in the stores and trade promotions in the market to push the product through channels. We recommend using the pull strategy in order to satisfy the true customer demands and since the market is a consumer market. Also, with the new products developed, the buyer readiness stage should be considered and advertisements, sales promotions and other things should be added in this strategy.

POLO GARAGE
When we searched the information that we could gain, we understood that POLO Garage is at the Marketing concept among the marketing management philosophies. This is because they consider that achieving organizational goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors do.
The company’s market is a growing market, and its growth rate is %10-%15. However, the company’ relative market share is %18, with which we can call that according to the BSC growth-share matrix, the company’s products are mostly stars.
When we think about the 4Ps of marketing, we can say that the company is producing confectional products such as shirts- and t-shirts which are the core products. For the Price, relatively to their few competitors, their price is low, but relative to the total market, their price is very high.
POLO GARAGE places its products in its big stores in order to increase the shopping quantity, and they use discount sales during the lat parties of the products. Also, POLO GARAGE gives some gifts when a group of products are purchased together.
Investigating the macroenvironmental forces that affect the marketing strategy, we consider demographic factors such as age groups between 16-35 and 35+. Economic factors such as foreign exchange prices. Technological factors such as developed software programs for stock tracking, and political factors such as regulations.
For the consumer buying behaviour, we observed that the consumers that are used to the brand again chooses this brand for their shopping. It is to say that habitual buying behaviour is effective here. However, the products of the company are not as cheap as salt, so we can say that there is also a strong effect of dissonance-reducing buying behavior.
The company segments the market into small parts in order to serve all of them. This is a strong strategy if a company has the ability and power to serve many different sizes of segments. But they are not doing niche marketing. If they do, probably they will achieve ths because they also have age groups that wear business-class clothings and have enough purchasing power for these premium goods.(eger yaparlarsa tabiii bu bir oneri)
The company in short, uses demographic segmentation.
Differentiated marketing is done by the company.For the product differentiation, the company continuously designs new products, and tries to use the latest fashion trends while producing these newly designed products. There is very little services differentiation in the company. That is the repair services for the products including errors in them. In considering which differences to promote, the firm uses ‘important’ and ‘affordable’ aspects because for most of the products of the company, the buyers benefit from long-lasting life-cycle of the products and their price- when compared to the competitors-is lower.
The overall positioning strategy of the company used to be ‘More for More’ for many years, but now it has to change. These days we recommend the top management to decrease their prices a little and try the ‘More for the Same’ strategy in order to survive and make profit.By this way, they can keep up with the harsh market in which many similar firms compete. In our interview with Bora Erkuş, we were also informed about this change, when we offered our idea. He told us that the company was planning to do the same in the following days as matter of competency.
In the subject of different products, the company sells specialty products because their price is high, there is strong brand preference and loyalty, special purchase effort and low price sensitivity among the usual customers. However, in order to attract the young people the prices are discounted often. Also, there is not an exclusive distribution at one or a few outlets. There are many stores existing in many locations.
There are 4 brand development strategies. Among these, the company uses line extension, since they introduce additional items in a given product category under the same brand name Polo Garage. Also, they use brand extension, since they introduce new clothings such as trousers, jackets under the successful brand name Polo Garage, which used to sell mainly shirt types and pullovers. In addition to this, as a growth strategy, the company conducts product development since they produce new products very fast to their existing market. Market development can also be considered as an alternative for a big company like Polo Garage, since they segment and target their market systematically.
The company strongly tries to preserve its patent, since there are many illegal producers who try to produce a similar product and sell it at the half price in the market using the brand name without permission. Product warranties also occur when a product is sold; in a given period of time, if there is a dissatisfaction, the customer can give the product bask or change it with another product from the store.
There are 4 marketing objectives which are survival, current profit maximization, market share leadership and product quality leadership. Polo Garage, as most of the firms do, aims to survive in the market, but the main aim of the company is to maximize its profit. There are other strong competitors in the market so Polo does not plan to become the market share leader in the short and middle run. Also, they do not plan to become the quality leader, since that process requires very high capital investment in the short run.
Moreover, as a marketing communication mix, Polo is directing most of its power to sales promotion and direct marketing. By e-mail, telephone, fax and internet, they are trying to communicate with their target customers effectively. There is no personal selling existing in the firm.
Lastly, as for setting the total promotion budget, the company uses the affordable method, with which they think they can be successful.The budget of the company is regulated by the top management, and they do not want to put their money into risk for an open-ended promotion application. However, this is not a very suitable method for big companies like Polo, so we recommend using the Objective-and-Task Method by which they can achieve what they want by using promotion. In addition to this, pull strategy is more effective than push strategy for Polo Garage in setting their promotion strategy, which is a suitable method ince it begins with the customer demands.

DESA
If we evaluate Desa, these results are known from it: Firstly, Desa is in the product concept, because the firm offers the most quality, performance and innovative products –superior products- to its customers. Although the company serves superior products to its customer, this may lead to marketing myopia. If we think that Desa has many competitors in the market and it sell for high price, this can be important factor for its future. According to this Desa may sell its products under current price or produce lower quality products to serve in cheaper price.
Secondly, Desa has market growth rate of 10-15% and 20% of relative market share that shows Desa is in stars group due to BCGs growth-share matrix. The company has high growth and share, so it has big profit potential and it doesn’t need to invest more for growing. Desa’s marketing mix elements (4P’s) are constituted by leather products (product), high price (price), big stores (place) and discount sales and coupons (promotion). Company follows many ways to growth its market. For example, firm penetrate the market by opening new stores, develop its market by being international and develop its products by making new trends like summer season products. Company succeeded to be lead according to this growth strategy.
Thirdly, Desa is in the consumer and international market. Some macroenvironmental factors force firm. For example, its customers are generally in between the age of 25 and 40, both sex, business and sports areas (demographic). Turkey has an industrializing economy, so it creates different class of income level. These rich and middle classes demand new types of products that the result of this economy (economic). Animal leathers are the sources of products that the firm import from Italy and this animals are fed specially (natural). Desa has to make practical, affordable and quality versions of products, so it has to use technology all stages of the production (technological). Also, laws are the other challenges for company; Desa has to obey the rules like all the other companies (political). Moreover, workers are in the risk of catching cancer, so firm care about it and they are controlled periodically (social-cultural). Desa use these macroenvironmental forces for segmenting their consumers. If we assume that Desa most wants to reach its customers, we can say that the company uses the differentiated target market strategy (segmented marketing). Many of the products designs are made according to their needs and demands. In addition, the competitive advantages that the firm have producing high-quality, good style&design, high performance and innovative features (product differentiation). However, serving superior products is company’s best promoting criteria. Although firm follows more fore more positioning strategy, its basic strategy is more for the same. Desa has strong brand equity with high brand awareness and charging high price than the competitors. We mentioned that quality and price are important for Desa. That is why firm’s products are in the class of shopping products. Desa is one of the manufacturer brands that can be pronounced and remembered easily and mentioned with quality and only recognized by under its name (no meaning in other languages). Desa has the other brand names such as ‘Desa go’ and ‘Desa in’ for franchising, Desa and Desa Interiors for confection and home products under its name. These separate family names show that how Desa made its brand name decision. Furthermore, Desa go and Desa in are examples of line extension, leather products for summer under its name is example of brand extension, distributing of Samsonite and Aerosoles are examples of multibrands and lastly Desa and Desa Interiors for confection and home products are examples of new brands which are strategies of brand development. Finally, according to product decision and social responsibility, product quality and safety and product warranties are important for firm.
If we continued, Desa mostly use descriptive approaches (survey) to valuate own customers and itself. Attitudes towards the products and buying behaviours are collected by outsource for firm. Factors that affect its customers buying behaviour are cultural, personal, social and psychological. Generally, their occupation, income level and personality are the most effective factors of changing Desa’s consumers’ attitudes and generally, same customers prefer leather products that prove they have habitual buying behaviour.
Finally, all information above proves that Desa follows two marketing objectives. First, company chooses the way of continuing its market share leadership but not the way of serving low price. Second and the basic purpose is being the product quality leader by the way of presenting higher performance quality with high prices. Moreover, marketing communication mix strategy of direct marketing is applied from company with direct communication.

KOTON
The orientation of Koton towards the marketplace is marketing concept because the company considers important in knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering them better than competitors do. Marketing concept focuses on customer needs and integrates all the marketing activities that affect customers,so does Koton. There is not any information about Koton’s market growth rate and relative market share, so, the category of Koton can not be known according to BSC.
Koton has a variety in its products with high quality and a good design. The price of products is below the market price as acompetitive advantage for Koton. Koton is very selective while choosing the places for its stores and usually prefers main streets, shopping centers and mega stores for store-placing. As a last component of marketing mix, Koton uses discount sales for promotion.
The only one macroenvironmental factor for Koton is demographic. The younger part of Turkey’s population has a great ratio in total population. Koton also targets the people between 17 and 35 ages. This is a positive factor for Koton.
Koton has two growth strategies: market penetration, selling existing products in existing markets and market development; selling existing products in new markets.
Companies make market researches, so does Koton. Kotoh uses descriptive method as a research approach, which fits with Koton in describing market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product. Koton generally uses mail and personal contact methods in order to collect data.
There are some effects affecting consumer buyer behaviour, Koton is also affected by some of them such as age, economic situation and lifestyle as personal effects. Koton has a target market in an 17-35 age interval, so neither a child nor a very old person can not be in Koton’s target market. In addition, Koton defines its target market as the people who likes modern life style and being spruce, so, lifestyle is another effect for consumer buyer behaviour.
One of the points of marketing is market segmentation. Koton makes the market segmentation according to the demographic factors such as age and gender and psychographic factor such as lifestyle. Company has three segments; Koton, Koton Men and Olé. Koton Men provides seperation from Koton and Olé according to the gender. Olé is another segment different from Koton according to not only age but also lifestyle factors due to targeting younger female with connecting comfort and fashion together.
Koton uses undifferentiated marketing as a marketing strategy. The company produces its products and sells them under the same brand, in the stores which have the same formats. In market positioning, Koton uses product differentiation with serving bags and accessories in the stores with the clothes, and services differentiation with some offers and giving smoking opportunity inside of the stores. Koton also sells its products having the same quality for less price, shortly-according to “the same for less” strategy.
Koton’s products are classified as shopping products which are less frequent purchased consumer products and services that customers compare carefully on suitability, quality, price and style.
The brand Koton has high consumer awareness and helps when introducing new products. Koton uses line extension – existing product category with existing brand – as a brand development strategy. Additionally, the products of Koton have patent protection and product warranties.
Koton applies less price for the same quality in order to achieve its marketing objective ; market share leadership with reducing the price and also the profits.
Koton’s marketing communication mix has four components ; discount sales as sales promotion, press&media relations as public relations, fashionshows as personal selling and internet sales as direct marketing.

NETWORK
Altınyıldız based clothing retailer Network has been carried on management and development of the brands commercial activities in Türkiye and in the European countries. Network is a leader company of its own sector thanks to Cem Boyner’s signature and Altınyıldız’s quality. Network operation has been a source of pride and joy and has always had an increasing trend and brand value. The company has spread throughout in Türkiye like the other brand.
The marketing concept of Network consists of focusing on needs/wants of target consumers and delivering value better than the competitors in the market.Network Company Orientations Towards the Marketplace is marketing concept. It Focuses on needs/ wants of target markets & delivering value better than competitors. Key to achieving organizational goals consists of being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating customer value to target markets. There are four important components of Network’ marketing concept: Target market; Customer needs; Integrated marketing; Profitability through customer satisfaction. The company’s main taget market is business man and woman wear. For the customer needs, consumers are fully conscious of their needs. They wants to wear modern business clothing, not classical. They may use words that require some interpretation.
The company focuses on 4P (product, price, place, promotion) and realizes the works successfuly as we mentioned in our study. The company has quality products and they should continue to serve.For the first of the four p’s which is product, the company produces modern business clothing products.The sales price is higher than the competitors and besides, they use components efficiently in order to promote their products. Network is very careful about selecting the place where they open a store and sell their products. However, its store position is important about growth strategy in retail marketing. Also, the firm uses advertisement posters, image catalogues and fashion shows in order to promote its products.Summerfield states in the Strategy Magazine that many new Technologies make advertisers able to target their target customers well, and with the help of the web-based distribution, national and local flexibilities are earned(Oct.2005). The company uses this flexibility to gain power by its adds.
The macroenvironmental forces that affect the company are various. Among the demographic factors, the age groups between25-45 (generally), both sex, and business men/women. The economic factors such as industrialization,create a new rich class and a small, but growing middle class, both demanding new types of goods.
The technological factors are the production technologies.In today’s production era, new technologies enable many firms to earn the competing power as in the example of Network. For example, the products of Network are produced by Formula 1 Technology.By this method, the company can produce highr quality products than its competitors. Furthermore, the political factors are the laws and regulations of the government. As a component of marketing concept, the target market of Network is the people who like modern business lifestyle between 25-45. The company can consider their quality and well-design components together and add new styles in order to have a large target market age interval. The company continues the operations in its politic, economic and technologic makroenvironment.
The company conducts surveys and asks individuals about attitudes, preferences or buying behaviors. We can say that the kind of research that the company use is descriptive research. The desciriptive method is to describe market potetial for a product or the demographics and attitudes of comsumers who buy the products. In order to obtain the qualified data with a high speed , the company should consider the contact methods such as e-mail , phone etc..
Network’s “definition of the best customer” is loyal customer. In this respect, while they are accustomed the new customer, continuity of current customers is provided. While Network’s customers do the shopping, their buying behaviors change according to their social class, roles and status, age and life cycle, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, personality and self-concept. Besides, Psychological Factors such as attitudes are important topic about Consumer Buyer Behaviour so, it is desciribed a person’s evaluations, feelings and tendencies toward an object or idea and they are difficult to change. At this point, we group the customers according to their buying behaviors; and say that their buying behavior is habitual buying behavior. This is because they don’t even think about risk when they make shopping from Network.
Network also makes market segmentation like many others company such as ; Koton , LCW, PoloGarage. They used age and gender factors for making demographic segmentation and lifestyle for psychographic segmentation , too. Also , server differantiation is used as a compantative advantage. In addition to this, market targeting of Network is high level income owner customers that want to wear modern business clothes. Also, The Fabrica brand targets younger man/woman than targeted Network.
Network conducts differentiated marketing as mentioned in the article of Besanko, ‘…there is differentiated forms of products which provides flexible distribution to a non-homogeneous customer profiles’(Sep.2003). Besides this, fot the technological issues, Network uses special Altınyıldız's tissue that is manufactured by Fomula I Technology and which is shining. Therefore it has quality products and special designed clothes.
Also, image differentiation is used by Network. Cem Boyner’s and Altınyıldız’s names are known realities about the development of Network. The company has been using the same model for catalogues for 7 years, so they provide that integrity of brand –model.
The company uses ‘important’, ‘distinctive’ and ‘preemptive’ images for the competitive advantages. Also, the positioning strategy of the brand is ‘More for More’, since the prices of Netwrok is higher than the competitors and the market. Network’ customers pay more money for more benefits so, they have had more quality and more distinct designed products.
The firm’s product classifications can be considered in two groups. Most of the products are specialty products, bu the brands Cem Boyner and Altınyıldız symbols the convenience products related with their price. Also, since the Network uses a special production technology and special design, their products can be grouped as special.
Network has high consumer awareness, strong brand loyalty and charges a higher price than competitors. These are the advantages of the brand equity that the firm benefits from.Also, when we think about the brand development strategies of Network, we see that the company uses line extension by producing different kind and colors of products under the same well-known brand name.
Product decisions and social responsibility are carefully considered in the firm. Under this issues, Network strongly protects its Boyner and Altınyıldız patent, its product quality and safety. Also, all the products sold have warranties because the firm also considers social responsibility as a vital factor in consumer satisfaction and society’ velfare.
The marketing objectives of Network are both Market Share Leadership and Product Quality Leadership. The company aims to stay as the quality leader in the future both by developing its production process and developing its fabrics.It is a leader in fashion wear sector in Turkey thanks to its product quality leadership. Its market share is 20% among the business high class clothing category.
Since the company aims to stay on top, it uses public relations, promotions and advertising to reinforce its sales. It uses “one way vision” applications on big building, fashion shows and image catologies. Also, it is the sponsor of National Basketball Team’s clothes, Nişantaşı Spring Festival, and Odeon Cineplex Cinemas’ Summer Festival.
As a result, Network’s retail marketing strategy is successful in general. Its retail network of many stores around the world is increasingly focused on large floor-space points of sale offering high quality customer services and now generates a total turnover of approximately 4 billion euros, net of retail sales. From this point of view, it is seems that the company will continue on this line in the future.

LCW
Consumers will favor those products that offer the most quality and good service features. Managers in product-oriented organizations concentrate on making superior products and improving them over time. According to this assumption, the customers will prefer to take the well-made products and can evaluate product quality, service and price. When we considered the market growth rate of LCW (%15) and relative market share together (%35), L.C.Waikiki is taken charge of stars according to the Boston Consulting Group’s Growth-Share Matrix. LCW’s marketing mix includes the 4Ps that are consist of product such as spruce, sports and casual products, price which is claimed normal level, place in big stores and promotion with discount sales. They have some macroenvironmental forces that includes demographic factors such as ages from 5to 45, both male and female sex, spruce and casual man/woman or sports areas; economic factors that are affected on their industrializing economies. In addition, cotton which is their big sources is called in natural factors; the effects of technological factors are perceived from both technical and commercial challenges; politic factors that are arranged by laws and social-cultural factors are organized suitable for society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences and behaviors. They are using market researches to gather data by observing people, actions and situations with exploratory method and ask individuals about attitudes, preferences or buying behaviors with descriptive method. Consumer buyer behaviour is influenced by lots of effects like social effects such as roles and status; personal effects that consist of age and life cycle, occupation, economic situation and lifestyle; psychological effects such as attitudes and beliefs. LCW’s customer behavior is called the variety-seeking behavior as to types of Buying Decision Behavior.Market segmentation is observed as geographical segmentation, demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioral segmentation in LCW so as to provide facility in making decision. In L.C.Waikiki, target market segment is selected as the differentiated (segmented) marketing appropriate for their customers. Product and services differentiations are able to describe competitive advantages that are superior and preemptive than others in market positioning. Their market positioning strategy focused on fewer prices for same benefits or more prices for more benefits. LCW’s products are classified in convenience products. The brand of L.C.Waikiki has some competitive advantages like high consumer awareness, strong brand loyalty. Line-extension and new brands strategies are using in order to develop their brands. Product quality and safety, patent protection and product warranties are vital point for LCW so as to provide product decisions and social responsibility. LCW aims to obtain marketing objectives as market share leadership and product quality leadership. According to Marketing Communication Mix (or Promotion Mix), LCW are using advertising, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing.