Page 95 - DMGT554_RETAIL_BUYING

Retail Buying

Notes and value orientation may also affect the choice of store, for example, Globus and Provogue
target people who like to be seen as trendy and fashion Conscious. There is an increasing
trend of people following life style of health and sustainability thus creating market for
chains offering healthy and low calorie food and Pure Cotton/Natural Fiber apparels.

Behavior is critical for marketing strategy because only through behavior can sales be made and
profits earned. Although many marketing strategies are designed to influence consumers’ affect
and cognition, these strategies must ultimately result in Overt Consumer Behavior to have
value for the company. Thus, it is critical for marketers to analyze, understand, and influence
overt behavior. This can be done in many ways, including offering superior quality (Toyota),
lower prices (Circuit City), greater convenience (Peapod online groceries), easier availability
(Coke is sold in millions of stores and vending machines), and better service (Briggs & Stratton
lawn mower engines are serviced at 25,000 locations). Marketers can also influence overt behavior
by offering products, stores, and brands that are trendier (The Gap), sexier (Calvin Klein jeans),
more popular (Nike), and more prestigious (Mont Blanc pens) than competitive offerings.

Task Visit a retail buying house and analyze the behaviours of buyer and purchaser.

7.2.3 Consumer Environment

The consumer environment refers to everything external to consumers that influence what they
think, feel, and do. It includes social stimuli, such as the actions of others in cultures, subcultures,
social classes, Reference Groups, and families, that influence consumers. It also includes other
physical stimuli, such as stores, products, advertisements, and signs, that can change consumers’
thoughts, feelings, and actions.
The consumer environment is important to marketing because it is the medium in which stimuli
are placed to influence consumers.

Example: Marketers run commercials during TV shows that their target markets watch
to inform, persuade, and remind them to buy certain products and brands.

Marketers can send free samples, coupons, catalogs, and advertisements by mail to get them
into consumers’ environments. Stores are located close to populated areas to get them in the
proximity of consumers. Web sites become part of a consumer’s environment if they are contacted.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
4. Behavior refers to the chemical actions of consumers that can be directly observed and
measured by others.

5. Stores are located close to populated areas to get them in the proximity of consumers.
6. Web sites become part of a consumer’s environment if they are contacted.

7.3 Relationships among Affect and Cognition, Behaviour, and the
Environment

In Figure 7.2 each of the three elements is connected by a two-headed arrow signifying that any
of them can be either a cause or an effect of a change in one or more of the other elements.

90 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY