Page 83 - DMGT554_RETAIL_BUYING

Retail Buying

Notes From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society’s material requirements
and its economic patterns of response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through exchange
processes and building long term relationships. In fact, it’s the process of communicating the
value of a product or service through positioning to customers. Marketing can be looked at as an
organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value
to customers, and managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and
its shareholders.

Notes Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and
market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing
superior customer value.
There are five competing concepts under which organizations can choose to operate their business;
the production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and the
holistic marketing concept. The four components of holistic marketing are relationship
marketing, internal marketing, integrated marketing, and socially responsive marketing. The
set of engagements necessary for successful marketing management includes, capturing
marketing insights, connecting with customers, building strong brands, shaping the market
offerings, delivering and communicating value, creating long-term growth, and developing
marketing strategies and plans.

Did u know? 73% of Consumers love a brand because of friendly customer service.
Any organization’s growth and survival in the highly competitive market depends on how well
it understands its customers and responds to their current and potential needs. In the retail
industry, understanding the retail customers plays an important role in the success of a retail
store. The development of technology and globalization has led to a new era of consumerism
where retailers focus completely on meeting the needs, wants and priorities of the consumer.
To understand the nature of the retail market, a retailer should analyze various factors like
population, demography, and the geography of a particular area. Population analysis helps the
retailer to understand potential markets. The population of an area is based on various parameters,
like immigration and emigration rates, race and ethnicity. Immigration and emigration rates
help the retailer to understand the actual population of a particular area. Race and ethnicity help
the retailer to understand the choices and buying patterns of the consumers.
Under demographic analysis, the retailer classifies customers on the basis of their age, sex,
education, income, occupation, race, nationality, etc. This allows the retailer to understand the
customers in a better way and customize its products and service accordingly.

Geographic analysis allows the retailers to understand the buying population, based on the
total population. Moreover, the population is classified on the basis of region – metro and
non – metro – which helps the retailer to have more accurate data about the buying population.

Example: A supermarket may offer only the top 50 bestseller paperbacks, but a specialist
bookstore will typically offer a choice of thousands of books.

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