Arabian oud is an international organization specializing in the sale of fragrance and perfumes. The organization concentrates on fragrance of the Arabian origin. As the name “The Scent of Luxury” suggests the company is one of the most popular retailers of Arabian fragrance in the world. The company also sales oil perfumes and incense at reasonable prices to all its customers. The organization has various branches all over the world and wishes to expand its network. Such expansion assists in the representation of the culture and heritage of the Arabian people. As a marketing strategy, the company wishes to undertake a project On Henna Tattoo Design Product. This project’s intention is to improve on its sales volume, customer awareness on their products and in marketing and promotion of the Arabian culture.

Terms of Reference

Oud- a musical instrument used by Persian, Arabic and Middle Eastern cultures.

Henna- cosmetic dye used in tattooing, dying hair and decorating nails.

Mehndi- Another name for Henna

Background Information

Arabian Oud is an international organization specializing in selling beauty products and sprays. The company has various branches an online shop where individuals can purchase their products. It sells various products in the market while at the same time satisfy individuals with keen interest in Arabic culture. Most of its products represent a true Arabic culture and spirit. Products in its online stores and stores include, incense, sprays, oil blend, accessories and pure oils. The company is there to satisfy demands of every individual interested in Arabic beauty and culture. These products satisfy the needs of women, men and the whole family. Products at this company are relatively affordable and people can make orders wherever they are. The online shop provides logistical support and home delivery of purchased products.

Oxford and Westfield branches of the company have been true to its customers over years. The company lately has introduced Henna Tattoo as new products for its customers. Through an initiative, the company recruits Henna artists on Friday’s and Saturday’s. These artists offer free tattoo for willing customers visiting the store on such dates. Henna tattoo should not be confused with permanent tattoos. Customers may get these tattoos on almost any part of their bodies for free. With such artwork customers get to experience true Arabian art and spirit of beauty and elegance. Henna tattoos have been part of the Arabian culture for centuries. The most important aspect of this tattoo is that it is temporary and healthy. The process of application does not leave customers in pain as compared to other types of tattoos.

Recruitment and selection at Arabian Oud

Job description

Arabian Oud being an equal employer wishes to recruit 2 Henna design artists to assist in their marketing. The company observes sound human resources principles. These three designers will assist in the marketing of the company’s product. Their task will ensure that clients receive free Henna Tattoo on their bodies. This artist will work for a period of four months on a contract. This contract has a specified amount pay for a four-month period. The contract is value is depended on terms. The company values employment contracts and understands all the process of recruitment. In respect to laws governing employment, the company advertises for four positions for artists (Leisink and Bram, 2008). This advertisement is relayed through gum tree platform. The contract terms includes a job title, the position and the responsibilities.

Identification of Employment gaps

It is the strategic goal of the organization to promote its products through the use Henna Tattoo design project. Therefore, recruitment for the two designers follows all human resource principles. The company wishes to recruit additional artist with competencies of designing Henna Tattoos. The company already has two artists working on their premises. With the perceived increase in customers, the company needs additional artist. The additional artist will assist in timely application of Tattoos on customers. These artists need to have practiced for a period. The company wishes to pick two a list of five applicants. The job description of these is placed on the advertisement.

Terms of the Employment Contract

The job description insists on the applicant having a three-year experience. The duration of the time of service is four months with a chance of extension. The contract stipulates the time of work and compensation per hour. The job will take a period of 7 months and compensation is $8 per hour. The minimum requirements would be through the evaluation of pictures of designs of applicants. Each applicant will avail the recruitment team with pictures of previous designs. Such designs will assist team in identifying the suitable candidates (Leisink and Bram, 2008).

Interviewing Process

The company expects to call preferred candidates by phone for an interview. The recruitment team includes a panel of four. These four individuals include one of the company’s designers in identifying the best designs. The merit of this job depends on the artistic design of Tattoos. Five of the top artist of the five best designs gets a chance to be recruited. The next step includes interviewing of those selected. Specific questions are asked at the interview period. These questions are important in identifying key skills from applicants (Leisink and Bram, 2008).

Selection of Applicants

It is during the interview step that applicants are selected. At this step only 2 applicants from 5 will selected based on companies criteria. The criteria for this selection revolve around analysis of their pictures. Applicants are asked through telephone calls to avail themselves at the interview location. These artist need to come with prove of service for over two years. A picture of recent design will assist the panel in the selection process. The interviewing team needs to identify important skills and competencies on applicants. These include communication skills, accuracy and other social skills (Leisink and Bram, 2008).

Job posting

After the interviewing process, the selection team rest for a day contemplating. After a day they come to a conclusive decision in selecting the applicant with the best design. The design of the artist picture sample seems to be a strong point for job posting. From all the designs selection teams rely on their judgement to select on those with good picture designs. After this meeting, successful candidates are the called to sign their contract. In this contract every applicant gets a chance to read all terms and conditions before signing.

General Purpose of the project

Arabian Oud as an organization answers the needs of individuals who love the Arabian culture. Many individuals of Arabian origin have migrated to various destinations in the world. With such migrations, many miss their native cultures which Arabian Oud wishes to answer. There also those individuals either through association or taste wishes to consume products that propagate the Arabian culture. The purpose of this project is to ensure that the Arabian culture is well represented. It also wishes to inform customers of the traditions and customs of the Arabic people. The other purpose for this project is to market the Arabian Oud as well as sell perfume products.

Short Term Goals

Arabian Oud as an organization wishes to make people aware of their products through the provision of free henna tattoos. The popularity of the company will therefore increase at its Oxford and Westfield branches. The company also wishes to increase the number of its tattoo artist since the number of customers demanding the service has doubled. This strategy by the company will also ensure that more people visit the shops. Such visits ensure that the organization projects a larger margin of sales.

Long-term Goals

The organization projects that this initiative should run for the next couple of years. There is a proposal that such initiatives should move from the organization’s branch offices. Such movement would popularise the company over a wider geographical area. By such initiatives the organization believes it would reach individuals at their places of work or at several neighbourhoods. With such initiatives the company will be able to make more sales. The other goal for this organization is to be a world leader in the sale of Arabian beauty products and sprays. The company wishes to open new branches over the world.

Questions Answered by Research

From this research by Arabian Oud with the use of Henna tattoo design product, the organization will be able to answer some questions. Through the research, the organization will be able to represent the True Arabian culture. Through the use of Henna Tattoo Arabian Oud will uphold Arabian tradition and be able to attract more customers in its branches. The process will ensure that individuals in this community become aware of its brand and other products. The other question that the research answers is that of increasing the number of people visiting its branches. By offering free tattoo design to the population, Arabian Oud drastically increases its number of customers; it also improves the awareness on its products to the population. The research further answers the question of increasing organizations sales volume. With this initiative, Arabian Oud will increase its sale volume and be able to open new branches around the world.

Review of Literature

Henna tattoos are popular with various cultures. Henna tattoos have been used for centuries for cosmetic as well as other cultural practices. This type of tattoo origins from dyes extracted from henna tree. Such extracts yield a temporary tattoo that may be applied on fingernails, skin and hair. The dye may also work well on leather, wool and silk products. Ancient discovery of the dye and its subsequent development as an art has made the plant significant to various traditions and cultures. In the ancient Egypt and roman empires the plant had cosmetic importance (Kumar, Sing, & Singh, 2005). It is further important to note that the following regions used it for almost same purpose: the horn of Africa, south and East Asian as well as the Arabian Peninsula. It was in the 19th century that the gained its popularity with European women.

Arabian Oud “The Scent of Luxury” has various branches all over the world. The organization specializes in selling fragrance and other products. The organization is one of the largest retailer in the sale of oil perform and incense. Through the years, the organization has been able to open new branches all over the world. Such initiatives by the organization have seen it open new branches at Riyadh. The organizations Oxford Street and Westfield branches have undergone various transformations. With the rise of competition and the need for Arabian products, the company has various products to meet customers’ needs. Oud as the name suggest is an Arabian term for incense. This term Oud also refers to musical instruments in the Arabian culture.

In the English the term Oud incense may refer to incense derived from Aloes of wood. These Aloes of wood refers to extraction from Agar wood. This type of tree has cultural significance for many Arabian cultures in the world. For centuries people in the Southeast Asia where the tree originates from consider use of products from it their culture. The tree has a unique way of responding to mould attacks. Prior to mould infection the tree is relatively light but once the infection sets it produces resin to respond. The resultant product by the tree, results in the production of various incense and other products valued by many cultures. It is the most expensive wood in the market and its rate of depletion makes it more vulnerable to extinction.

Perfumes and fragrance are essential elements for Muslims. For centuries Muslims have used various types of perfumes which are synonymous with their ancient heritage. When one visits streets in Cairo and in Dubai, it will be evident to notice various smells of perfumes and fragrance. Agar wood and Frankincense have been essential ingredients in manufacturing of almost all perfumes. Other important bases for traditional Arabian perfumes include musk, oud, amber and jasmine. Oud is applied on the skin or at times burnt to make the house smell or on ones clothes. Such cultural importance on perfumes by the people of Arabia has made such products popular in the Global market. The global industry of perfumes projected a sales report of $33 billion as at 2015. Of this data, perfumes manufacture in Arabia accounts to an approximately $270 million.

Methodology

The study takes place at Westfield and Oxford branches of Arabian Oud. Its goal is to observe the number of individuals taking part in free Henna decoration promotion. The study employs the use of participant observations to ascertain the number of people present. The study also collects information from sales data of the organization to ascertain percentage changes in sales volume. Three more henna artists are employed to assist in provision of the services while record on the number and perceptions of customers of the organization. The artists are provided with worksheets and writing materials to write on their observations for further analysis. The study uses tattoo customers as the sample size. The further employs graphical analysis to elaborate the influence of this strategy of free Henna designs on sales. The study dwells on the analysis of customers physically on the premises and on the online platform.

Findings

Free Henna product designs to customers at Westfield and Oxford branches, resulted in a significant increase in sale volumes. There was an increase in the number of individuals who visited the shops, people interested in the brand and those wishing to know more about perfumes.

A Graph of Improvement in Sale Volumes at Arabian Oud

Data From the above graph indicate that the number of individuals who visited Arabian Oud’s Westfield and Oxford branches improved the amount of sale volume by 39%. Their visits resulted in them purchasing more of the organizations products. On the other side, people who were interested in the organizations products improved sales volume by 19%. These individuals include those who visited the companies shop and those who placed purchase bids on the online platform. More over the number of individuals who were interested in organizations products significantly improved resulting to a 29% increase on the sale volumes of the organization.

Conclusions

From the study it is evident that Arabian Oud can make further positive projection on its sales volume. It is also evident that customers are interested in their products and wish to understand more about their products. This therefore shows that the organization has not done enough in marketing its products. It is also important to note that there are significant percentages of customers who use the online platform. This therefore means that the organization needs to improve on its response promptly on online queries. From the initiative of Hiring Henna artists and offering free designs the organization improved on its sales.

Recommendations

The project on providing a free Henna Tattoo Design projected a positive sale scale. Therefore it is recommended that the organization needs to come up with such initiatives in the future. It is also evident from the research that customers and the wider public are not well informed. Therefore it is recommended that the organization develops several awareness campaigns. From the study there are a number of customers who prefer online platforms. This means that the organization needs to improve on its website applicability. It is further recommended that Arabian Oud ventures into advertising on social media platforms. The organization may decide to use Facebook, Yahoo or other platforms in meeting customer demands.

Reference list

Kumar S., Singh Y. V., & Singh, M. (2005). "Agro-History, Uses, Ecology and Distribution of Henna (Law Sonia inermis L. syn. Alba Lam)". Henna: Cultivation, Improvement, and Trade. Jodhpur: Central Arid Zone Research Institute. pp. 11–12.

Leisink, P, and Bram S. (2008) "Recruitment, attraction, and selection." Motivation in public management: The call of public service Pp: 118-135.