The major objective of this paper is to provide an indication as to the manner in which an internationally successful brand retailer views its approach to the expansion of its image and trading base in the international market place. The Laura Ashley Group has grown rapidly on an international scale over the last decade. This growth has taken place in an environment which is, itself, becoming increasingly competitive and innovative in nature. Throughout the process of development the core management of the business feels it has gained a great deal of skill and knowledge, not only in relation to retailing within the international market, but also the building of a brand or lifestyle that its customers can relate to. Laura Ashley have a powerful brand image and recognise the requirement of ensuring this image is consistent around the world. In addition the Group also recognise the value of flexing its retail formula to meet the local market requirements rather than maintaining a constant, fixed package that suits no single market. The paper discusses the flexibility of the Group's marketing approach, gained through the separation of the brand and retailing components. This is discussed, not only in terms of providing an established concept with a greater chance of success in a new retail market place, but also the opportunities it creates in relation to the generation of further retail concepts and sub-brands. This innovation flexibility allows the Group to realise greater potential on an international scale than that that may accrue from a process of opening up additional retail outlets carrying a retail name. In essence Laura Ashley are selling a lifestyle concept.
As the retail trade faces up to the reality and consequences of retail saturation together with an increasingly demanding customer, so it is being forced to understand and react to that consumer. Gone are the days of pile it high, sell it cheap merchandising. The retailer today is conscious that every square foot of sales space needs to be optimised. Before space is even considered though, the first concern is get the merchandise offering right: meet, even create, the consumer need. This is true, whether the merchandise be food and groceries, electrical goods, baby clothes, or a mix of all three plus fifty or more other categories - as in the variety or department store. This paper discusses how market research can help the retailer to improve and develop his merchandise offer: to meet better the needs of shoppers in the catchment of his stores and according to the type of shopping trip they are on. This does not just concern the goods themselves but also where they are positioned in the store, presented and even promoted to consumers. The paper draws on basic research conducted into consumer shopping behaviour and decision-making in the shop and a number of case histories are used to illustrate the various techniques which can be applied.
This paper concentrates on two main areas - the positioning of a furniture retail store using the added value of a two year guarantee on all products and a suggested typology of shoppers. In 1975 it was decided to position the Morkels furniture retail chain on a service platform. However, intensive research was not carried out and gut feel was relied on. The positioning chosen was that of a "two year guarantee store". For the next eight years this positioning was adhered to, but, in the absence of market research, the problems in communicating this positioning, as well as its credibility, were not fully realized. Morkels market share remained static. In 1984 it was realized that there had been a failure of the service focus. An intensive research program was embarked upon to establish the reasons for the failure of the positioning, and to help revitalize the program. Since then, the success of the positioning has been impressive. The research studies that contributed to this were ones designed to improve understanding of the lifestyle of consumers, in terms of the way they relate to their homes and their furniture, as well as studies designed to improve understanding of "service in consumer terms. An ongoing customer satisfaction study was also commissioned. Changing needs and perceptions were tracked at regular intervals. A service task force was created, focusing on the issues highlighted by the research. In addition, an operational restructuring took place in order to assist the organization to focus more fully on service and sales. It was found that demographics were inadequate in terms of target market definitions, and it was decided to investigate a typology of smart shoppers versus traditional shoppers. Simply put, the smart shopper is not store loyal, shops around for the best buy and puts little importance on customer service. The traditional shopper is one who is more store loyal, makes extensive use of credit and attaches more value to customer care. It is shown that this typology does have application in the furniture retail environment, but the typology differs according to the type of merchandise being bought.
This study is focussed on the consequences of these so-called tele-information services for the structure and the developments in the distribution of consumer goods in the nineties. The study was based on literature-research and a lot of expert-interviews. Because of the important role of electronic communications in the distribution channel, a wide application of electronic payment and various forms of teleshopping, the structure of retailing will change: the difference between trade and services will fade the difference between small and large retailers will fade the borderlines between lines of business in retailing will fade (cross-trading) vertical relations in the distribution channel will be strengthened European integration (EC 1992) will reinforce internationalisation of retailing and will also give impulses to tele-information services. Small independent shopkeepers as well as large retail-chains have to deal with the positive and negative consequences of tele-information services. The consequences offer both threats and opportunities. The profits from efficiency which can be gained by the adoption of telematics have to be invested in service quality. The combination of an efficient use of telematics and top quality personalised service offers the best opportunities for retailing on its way to the year 2000.
In the present paper the main findings from a study done in Barcelona's Metropolitan Area are presented with the purpose of determining the most important existing segments by lifestyles and the implications of these styles in the future of Barcelona's retailing. The lifestyle, defined as a set off attitudes, opinions, scales of values that are reflected on the individual's behavior is becoming a key aspect in retailing, because buying constitutes a significant part of a person's life and therefore is a important way of expressing oneself. Knowing consumer's lyfestyles can help retailers to develop marketing strategies. But also can help to understand and identify the future trends in retailing. After analyzing the responses to 1.000 questionnaires administered in Barcelona's Metropolitan Area, nine lifestyles Were detected which have been "baptized" as Pensive, Settled, Modern, Resented, Involved, Modest, Mature, Indifferent, and Active. The differences in their purchase behaviors, specially the aspects related to store selection, were analyzed as well. Finally, the implications on Barcelona's presente and future retailing are presented.
This paper examines the current Australian plastic cards and payment systems situation and describes how and why a 'dominant' retailer is attempting to shape retailer/supplier relationships in this particular channel of distribution so as to add value to their retail offerings.
This work has proved very successful as it has provided retailers with a technique for assessing the functionality of their stores as selling machines. The technique has two main areas of application. Merchandising performance can be effectively assessed especially when the customer information is linked to EPoS data. Analysis of sales to traffic can identify merchandising successes and failures. The video technique can be used to assess display techniques and packaging response and yield better results than a pure analysis of sales. All the display area work can be used for Direct Product Profitability analysis by adding to the subjective areas of the technique such as space rating. The second area of application is that of store monitoring and planning. The models can highlight the difficulties that people encounter when trying to shop a store such as aisle widths, queues and staffing levels. It is now possible to empirically analyse the functionality of store design principles. For example go-track aisles are designed to allow store penetration and separate browsing and movement. However many such tracks prevent merchandise penetration via psychological barriers. The most exiting aspect of this work is the possibility of store planning scenarios. The modelling units above allow the examination of the relationships between the fundamental units of the store and how people move between them. Such data should allow the determination of optimum layouts for new stores given certain physical parameters and managerial objectives. This technique provides retailers with the chance to in- crease the service element of his offer and the efficiency of the selling unit. The competitive advantage offered by this technique can be high as the shopper will be better served by the space around him.
Shopping in the past 150 years has moved from the town square to main street to the mall and, now, to television and computers. Unlike earlier forms of shopping at home (catalogs, direct mail)j today the process is interactive and almost instantaneous. Home shopping's success is related to three societal factors: the increased number of women in the workforce; the continued growth of credit; and the electronic era in which we live. Earlier research suggests that home shoppers tend to be more educated and affluent than average shoppers, be more venturesome and place a high value on convenience. Indeed, savings in time and money are two of the key benefits such services offer. In addition, several of the home shopping networks on cable television see themselves as entertainment services, with special features or guest presenters. Despite their very real success, however, some problems remain. The retailer must work hard to fulfil orders speedily and efficiently. Any difficulties in billing or delivery are likely to deter customers from buying this way a second time. The cable networks face high costs for satellite usage and also have to fight for desirable slots in the cable channel line-up. Then, the technological sophistication of the newer services may put off some consumers who fear change and dislike the notion of buying goods sight unseen. The fully interactive home shopping services need to ensure that items can be viewed properly and that the decision making process is flexible. Nevertheless, since most of the problems home shopping currently faces in the U.S. are either technological or psychological, it seems likely that as we move towards the twenty-first century, home shopping will become a standard feature of society. Home shopping is a reality that is here to stay.
Grocery chain supermarkets, are subject to local conditions which may greatly influence their performance. The marketing function has the responsiblity for investigating the current conditions and the potential for each store. The companies Information System is capable of providing only some of the data needed, usually total volume and number of sales. However, an effective analysis, in terms of marketing, requires accurate estimates of the market. Is it possible to accurately measure the level of cover of a supermarket? Is it possible to estimate the number of its customers and segment them by class of purchase, salary, area, and type of behaviour? Is it possible to estimate the number of non- users? Many supermarkets perform regular customer surveys, in- store, with the intention of evaluating its area of influence, the customers perception of its services, and its position with respect to the competition. These surveys have the advantage of being low cost and quickly completed. It is our belief that an accurate use of these surveys, the use of data from internal Information Systems and the estimation of some market variables, allow the data obtained to be utilized much more effectively, without great increasing the resources employed, and estimate very precisely the crucial variables required for the definition of the marketing strategies of the store. The key to the problem lies in the awareness that it isnt sufficient to analysis the sales statistics separately from the qualitative and quantitive data on the market, but that it is both necessary and possible to estimate the market share, the variables which determines it, the number of customers served and their average expenditure. In this paper, we discuss the principle implications that derive from this approach, also presented are the main results that can be obtained as regards the objectives stated above. With this in mind, the results obtained by the analysis of the customers of 20 grocery supermarkets, of various sizes and from different chains, situated in central Italy, are presented.
This paper considers the issues involved in developing a customer service strategy concurrently with the overall strategy for the business. It takes the view that customer service is as important a component of the retail offer as is the merchandise assortment or the trading environment, possibly more so. An effective approach to customer service is to develop a corporate philosophy towards customer service and to build this into the culture of the company.
This lecture is about successful retailers, we can also speak of lesser successful retailers. GfK has chosen to research diverse structures in the electrical retail trade to make a difference between successful and less successful valid. The best criterium is of course "profit". Because this aspect is difficult to define objectively GfK used the term "sales-development" as an important criterium: Successful : Growth-rate in sales 1987 vs. 1986 above the average . Less successful : Growth-rate in sales 1987 vs. 1986 below the average. We managed to interview over 1000 electrical retailers with a total average growth-rate of 8%. This criterium (growth-rate) gives us the possibility to present the first figures: -39% successful retailers -61% less successful retailers. You probably expected a 50/50 split up. These first facts show us that the successful retailers score a growth-rate that was more above the average than that the less successful-growth rate was below the average. We now come to the presentation of diverse aspects that can be seen as the key-facts of becoming a successful retailer.
The complexities of differentiating between Brand and Store Loyalty are best documented in FMCG - and in particular Packaged Groceries. This paper addresses that industry but its findings are also relevant to all other product areas which involve separate companies for manufacture (in its loosest possible sense) and retailing to the end consumer. The paper examines developments in the past - what were the key factors which have influenced relationships between manufacturers and retailers. It then examines the role played by research today in those relationships, before concluding how they are likely to change and how research (and researchers!) must change to keep pace.