Customer Value Analysis And Marketing Strategy Suggestion Of Gas Station Convenience Store

According to Measures for Administration of the Crude Oil Market and Measures for Administration of the Refined Oil Market issued by the Ministry of Commerce on December6th,2006, the management right of wholesale as well as retail of the crude and refined oil in China has been released since January1st,2007. As state-owned enterprises like CNOOC (CHINA NATIONAL OFFSHORE OIL CORPORATION) and other large-medium-size private enterprises swarmed into the domestic market of refined oil, the monopoly of CPCC (CHINA PERTROLEUM&CHEMCAL CORPORATION) and CNPC (CHINA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION) has gradually been broken. Profits from the refined oil market can hardly be expected to remain at the same high level as before, so finding new margin growth points will lead the developing tendency of the refined oil enterprises.Drawing on the experiences of the joint ventures, CNPC began to explore the business of gas station convenience stores, while CPCC launched its programs of selling non-oil products in2008, putting priority on the non-oil products business highlighted by gas station convenience stores. However, the counterpart in China is still underdeveloped as is affected by market circumstances and polices. It is thus less competitive than other retail formats within the identical or similar business scope and target market. The gas station convenience stores business does not have a well-defined market positioning and effective ways to attract customers. Meanwhile, domestic researches of the business based on customer value which focus on comparison, analysis, positioning and strategy studies of convenience stores are not rich in amount, so they can offer very limited guidance to the business which is in competition with other retail formats.Based on surveys and analysis of the market circumstances and target customers of the gas station convenience stores, this thesis tries to compare the gas station convenience stores with supermarkets and neighborhood convenience stores with similar target customers and commodity composition. Comparisons and analysis are made based on a few key customer values, such as prices, varieties, convenience, services and environment. And curve tables are obtained about customer value offering, value concern, value consciousness and so on. It is concluded according to the study that the gas station convenience stores should try to lower the prices and increase the varieties of their commodities to offer their customers more choices. They should also take measures to convey the information to the customers about the services they offer. By giving suggestions, the thesis hopes to offer references for the operation and development of the business of gas station convenience stores.