Page 165 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Retail Business Environment

Notes ‘stuffy’ places and booksellers as ‘snobby and condescending’. New employee induction
is, however, typically brief and conducted by the store manager, often involving little
more than a chat as they ‘walk the shop’. The only demarcation of staff on the shopfloor is
between café and store workers. Store workers typically work wherever needed in response
to demand. Following induction, training activity for customer service advisors is limited.
All shop staff are trained in the use of the point-of-sale technology and given a brief
tutorial in the shelving system. Staff are trained as and when necessary if new technology
is introduced into the store (for example, there is talk of introducing an Espresso book
machine into some stores which can create bound copies of out of print books to order).
Café staff are given training in using the coffee machine and in basic health and safety.
Drawing on all the information gathered in the review process, Wellread has devised a
five-year growth strategy focused on increasing sales and efficiency, improving customer
perception and awareness of the brand and differentiating itself in the marketplace.

Question:
Discuss the outcome of employee attitude survey as discussed in the case study.
Source: www.sagepub.com/.../Extended%20Cases/Case%20study%20Nine.do...

8.6 Summary

Learning is a concept and no one has ever “seen” learning. It is a continuous process and
gets modified or changed as a result of exposure to new information and personal
experiences and often becomes the basis for future observable behaviour. We infer that
learning has taken place if an individual behaves, reacts, or responds as a result of experience
in a manner different from the way this person formerly behaved.
Behavioural learning theories are sometimes also referred to as connectionist or stimulus
– response theories. Behaviourist psychologists believe in observing changes in an
individual’s responses that result due to exposure to specific external, environmental
stimuli.
Instrumental conditioning also involves developing association between stimulus and
response but requires the subject to discover a correct response that will be reinforced.
Classical conditioning theory helps explain how consumers accomplish learning of
relatively simple behaviours and instrumental conditioning is quite helpful in explaining
relatively complex, goal-oriented behaviours.

An attitude is an enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual and
cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of our environment.
Understanding functions of attitudes helps in learning how they serve consumers. Using
this approach, marketers attempt to influence affective responses by using messages that
appeal to consumers on the basis of one or more of these four types of functions.

Consumers sometime purchase new products without any prior experience with the
category based on their favorable attitude towards a brand name.

Personal experience with a product or service is an important factor in the formation of
attitudes. Attitudes thus developed tend to be more enduring and resistant to change,
compared to indirect experience that consumers develop as a result of exposure to ads.

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