Hello, i am a year 2 student currently studying in Hong Kong Baptist University. This is a English term paper, please read the guildlines carefully and complete the work with good quality. I have pr

Hong Kong Baptist University

SAMPLE

College of International Education

Associate Degree Programme

Follow the format requirements on the PPT and samples on memos. Both the company name and the word “Memorandum” have to be centered, preferably in capital letters

Take-Home Assessment: Sample Answer

Part 1

AMAZON

MEMORANDUM

DATE: 12 April 2021

TO: Regional (Asia) Marketing Department

FROM: Jenny Ma, Correspondent

SUBJECT: Consumer Council’s Report on HK Online Shoppers: Analysis

Hong Kong’s Consumer Council has recently published a research report on the local citizens’ attitudes on and habit of online shopping. As requested by James, please find below for a brief summary of the major findings:

1. Most active online shoppers (by age)

In Hong Kong, the younger workforce engages in online shopping the most. Almost half of those aged 25-34 shop online. The slightly older age group of 35-44 years old follows with 35% of them making purchases on the Internet. The youngest age group, those between 15-24 years old, has the third highest proportion of online shoppers with 34% of the sampling interviewees shop online.

1. Most popular online commodities

Nearly all of the respondents likes to buy clothes or/and accessories online. Books and toys are the second most popular products with more than half of the interviewees make purchases online. Slightly behind are travel-related products like air tickets.

1. Biggest drives for online shopping

When being asked for the reasons behind their online shopping, more than 80% of the respondents replied that they were encouraged by their friends or family. The convenience and fast delivery of their online orders encourages over 70% of them to shop online. Close to 60% of them are attracted by the cheaper prices of the goods or services online.

Come up with a specific and clear subject line. Same as that in an email

Since this correspondence is to inform the readers of your analysis, this is a neutral message. Use direct, simple, and short language to introduce the purpose of this message from the beginning. Don’t write too much background information and avoid including irrelevant details.

As James asked for a number of details, it would help the readers if you can present your analysis in point form. Make good use of bullet points and / or numbering to arrange this part. To facilitate understanding, use short, simple headings for each item

Since this is a brief summary of a much longer report, there is no need to provide the exact figure every time. Writing the exact figures may not help the readers get the overall picture sometimes as numbers take long to process and digest. Think of the most appropriate way to show the numbers to your reader. For example, it means more to tell the readers that “almost half of 25-34-year-old respondents shop online” then “46% …”

Think of ways to present the given information in different ways. While it is correct to begin each sentence with “XX% of respondents from the age group XX-XX shop online”, it does not show that you have good business written skills. Think of more variations in terms of both sentence structures and vocabulary.

1. Factors generating fear among non-shoppers

Surprisingly in a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong, the majority of the population still have not experienced online shoppers. Some of the non-online shoppers reported that they were afraid of online shopping. Among these respondents, almost one-third of them do not trust the system security of online shops. They are worried that their personal information will be leaked to third parties.

The lack of confidence in the online product or service quality is the second most common reason that creates fear within the non-online shoppers. More than 20% of them believed that it is quite common to receive products or services that do not meet the descriptions.

10% of them replied that they regarded online shopping as an unsafe and unprotected activity. They think that it is easy for fraud or scamming to happen when shopping online.

The complete report can be obtained online: https://www.consumer.org.hk/sites/consumer/ files/competition issues/online-retail/full%20report_e.pdf.

Paraphrase in your own words whenever possible. Copying the exact wordings from the provided details may show that you are lazy, or worse, you are plagiarizing.

If the information under that point / part is quite a lot, use paragraphs to organize the details. Don’t cramp too many things in one paragraph as the focus can be easily lost.

A memo is a typical business correspondence that mainly informs people. No need to use any praises or positive angles in most cases. You can actually end at the previous paragraph. However, if you find it a bit awkward, you can end with a new paragraph like this one to provide some useful follow-up actions or reference information.

A memo doesn’t need salutation nor closing.

Part 2

As the question paper requests, your answer should start with the subject line. Come up with a clear and specific subject line that can summarize the purpose of your message. Make it eye-catching as you are selling ideas here

Subject: Ways to Attract HK Non-online-shoppers

Dear Mr. Alexander,

Hong Kong is a well-developed city with substantial consuming power, but a large number of Hong Kongers is still not used to online shopping or even fears it. There is a huge potential market for online shopping in Hong Kong. As our company targets at breaking into the rising consumer market in Hong Kong, I have devised two marketing strategies that we can adopt after studying the local Consumer Council’s research report. To establish a firm and lasting stand in a market occupied by non-online shoppers, our company should emphasize on our hassle-free refund policy and comprehensive complaints procedures in our promotion campaigns to instill confidence in those virgin online shoppers.

Providing easy and quick refund on reasonable returns can attract those non-online shoppers who are uncertain about the qualities of the products bought online. According to Consumer Council’s report, quite an alarmingly proportion of the non-online shoppers quoted fear as the main cause for their resistance against online shopping. Among them, many of them are worried that what they get does not match what they see on the websites. In view of this, we should highlight our comprehensive refund policy that covers returns due to defected items, unwanted goods, unsuitable fits, delayed delivery, and even a change of heart. It may seem that the refund policy may add cost to our business, but with our fully featured website which provides zoom in and out function for our product images and detailed product descriptions along with our top picks products, we are confident that the demand for refund will be remained at a reasonable or even a low level. Therefore, if our target customers know that our refund policy supports a wide variety of reasons and the procedures are simple and free, more of them would be encouraged to try online shopping. This policy is particularly tempting in a market whereas most shops still refuse any forms of refund or exchange.

Another significant factor to deter our target customers to shop online is the perception of lack of guarantee and protection in the e-market. Some Hong Kong non-online shoppers regard online shops as a breeding ground of fraud and scams. They fear that a lot of companies are not genuine and are out there to take advantage of the customers. As the leader of the global e-commerce market, Amazon always takes pride in our supportive complaints system. We need to let our target customers know of our designated team of customer service officers who work around the clock to handle customers’ complaints. If the complaints are found valid, the vendor will be eliminated from our supplier list and reasonable compensation has to be made to our customers. When they know that suspicious activities on our website will be monitored and investigated when needed, they will feel reassured to browse and buy our products.

Hong Kong is a new market with prominent potentials. If we can react well to the consumers’ attitudes and perceptions towards online shopping, our venture there can bring huge success. I can present my suggestions with more details if you can spare me 15 minutes in the coming meeting. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Jenny Ma

Regional (Asia) Marketing Correspondent

Amazon

Provide background as this is an unsolicited message

State the main purpose of your message.

Highlight the reason / goal / benefit of your proposal

You must summarize very briefly your proposed idea(s) in the introduction.

Begin each main body paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces your idea OR the problem you want to tackle.

In business correspondence, unlike reports, we don’t use in-text citations or referencing. However, you still need to provide reference to the information you use. A good way is to mention the source directly in the main text like what I do here.

If the details in Part 1 can support your idea here, use them but remember to paraphrase. Mention them briefly so the focus is still on your proposed ideas.

Provide necessary explanation or details of your idea.

Reducing resistances by anticipating objections and countering them

Call for action by suggesting some follow-up tasks with specific details: what, when, and how to do them.

Briefly summarize again why adopting your ideas will benefit the reader / the company.

Most importantly, show your reader the benefits of your proposal. What can your idea help the company / Keith to achieve?

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