Page 139 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Retail Business Environment

Notes Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
5. Groups that have a direct influence and to which a person belongs are called
.................................. groups.

6. A .................................. consists of the activities people are expected to perform according to
the persons around them.
7. An individual’s pattern of living is referred to as his ..................................

8. .................................. is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information
to form a meaningful picture of the world.
9. .................................. is a descriptive thought that a person holds about something.

10. .................................. refers to changes in one’s behaviour arising from experience.

7.4 Customer Decision-making Process

There are three fundamental patterns which a consumer can follow and they could be:
(i) Brand first, retail outlet second

(ii) Retail outlet first, brand second
(iii) Brand and retail outlet simultaneously.
A consumer wanting to buy a car may collect information on brands and purchase it from a
retail outlet based on his perception of price offered or after-sales service provided by the outlet
(typically, search for information on brands is followed by retail outlet selection in durables). In
certain product categories, especially where ‘category killers’ exist, consumers may think of the
retail outlet initially and then the brands.

Example: Television, refrigerator and audio products retailed through outlets like Vivek
and Co. in the South.

One more dimension may be to compare brands in the evoked set at retail outlets which also
exist in an evoked set of their own. This is highly possible, especially in the Indian context where
dealers develop a social relationship with consumers, especially in semi-urban and rural areas.
Primary research could be used to discover the specific sequence involved in a situation of this
kind. A ‘brand first’ dimension may need feature-based advertising and a ‘retail outlet first’
dimension may require a set of point-of-purchase (POP) materials and special training to sales
personnel to recognise the needs of consumers.

!
Caution Further, if it is known that a number of consumers may be oriented to visit their
favourite retailer (before obtaining information on brands) in a geographical area, there
would have to be more emphasis on regional/local advertising which highlights the
retail shop rather than regular brand-based national advertising.

Retail Outlet First and Brand Second

When a number of consumers follow this sequence of decision-making, display of point-of-
purchase material and building the image of the outlet becomes important. The manufacturer of

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