The Relationship between Marketing Strategies and Performance in an Economic Crisis - Dissertation Example

?Findings and Data Analysis: A research conducted by the firm McKinsey indicates that the economic crisis has strictly affected people’s preference to shop online and it has been noted that several developed countries have noticed a considerable decline with respect to online shopping because of economic hardships and the conditions faced by consumers. Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) have discovered that retail has been affected quite severely in the European countries because of the economic crisis. As a result, many retailers have had to struggle in order to survive these financially unviable conditions. However, Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) also indicate that over the past several years there has been considerable progress in retail sales and in 2007 it was note that there was more than 30 percent increase in retail sales in the Netherlands, France, in Germany and in Italy. Moreover, the researchers have also viable proof to suggest that sales in the United Kingdom actually spiked by more than thirty percent in 2008 in comparison to previous years while actual retail stores suffered losses in the sales in accordance with the data collected by British Retail Consortium. In accordance with online retail marketing, Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) suggest that retailers have a lot to learn if they would like their online sales to increase, “such as levels of broadband penetration and the shopping attitudes that differentiate European retail markets”. Constantin (2010) states in his research that because of recession, many countries and many organizations face a significant challenge to maintain themselves in the economy. Many sectors within the economy have been affected, top of them being automobile manufacturing, tourism, health insurance and retail. He states that because of recession, there has been a general slowdown in the economy and thus buyers have actually reduced traditional shopping. In this case, Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) support this research’s hypothesis that online sales have actually increased over time due to recession. They believe that the patterns of sales show increase because of broadband penetration which has led to people shopping more and more online. Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) along with other researchers also suggest that retail outlets online will have to work on finding the right niche in order to actually obtain sales in these recessionary times since buyers are ready to purchase goods online however, they are primarily targeting their needs instead of their wants. (Grewal and Tansuhaj, 2001; Gronroos, 1989; Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011; Koksal and Ozgul, 2007; Li and Zhang, 2002; Lian and Lin 2008) The study conducted research on ninety three respondents within an age bracket 18 to 51 with maximum respondents (83 percent) being in the age group of 18 to 23 and about 75 percent being males amongst the respondents. Various questions were asked from the respondents to evaluate the concept of traditional shopping versus online shopping and how people have actually moved to this type of shopping particularly in the recessionary times being experienced in this day and age. Based on survey results, a summarization of the results can be that there has not been much impact in online sales of these respondents because they continue with their patterns of purchase irrespective of how the economy has been functioning. The reasons behind this continued pattern of purchase is for reasons other than economic recession where most find it convenient, easy and time saving to actually shop online in comparison to shopping traditionally in shops. Evans (2009) suggests in her forecast for online shopping for 2013 that despite the negative effects of the economy on shopping, both traditional as well as online shopping. There are various reasons because of which people have reduced their short term online and traditional shopping. Evans (2009) believes that such reasons include various aspects of spending such as lower levels of credit availability, decreased amount of spending towards luxury goods in comparison to necessity goods, more behavioral changes towards price consciousness and decreased confidence in the industry. However, in the long run particularly in 2012 and 2013, there has been a prediction in increasing sales, especially online sales because purchasers within the industry are actually less susceptible when it comes to being hit by financial difficulty, which will result in increased sales in the online retail industry. Evans (2009) suggests that because of this increasing trend towards online shopping, the compound annual growth rate has been predicted at 10% which is in line with the suggestions given by Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009). When considering the responses gathered through the survey, it was revealed that most of the responses gathered were from students who have limited income and therefore have to make extremely intelligent decisions with respect to how they earn their money. The responses included the following: Occupation of the Respondents Students 59% Employed Individuals 39% Unemployed 2% The above table indicates that most respondents were students and in this respect should have very limited budgets to actually be able spend either online or on traditional ways of shopping. Therefore, in this analysis, it can be assumed that people would actually reduce their spending due to the economic recessionary times. Corroborating this analysis through the economic conditions of the respondents and the occupation of these respondents, the assumption is being enhanced that there would be a significant reduction in spending towards online shopping over time because of recessionary times. As seen by the table below, it is evident that 35 percent of the people are earning very limited income per month which is even less than ?1,000 which is before taxes, while more than 24 percent people are not evening earning any income on a monthly basis. Therefore, it would be assumed that online shopping would not be on the top of the list with other necessity items such as groceries. What is your personal yearly income, before taxes? Answer Options Response Percent Under ?10,000 35.5% ?10,000-?19,999 16.1% ?20,000-?29,999 17.2% ?30,000-?39,999 3.2% ?40,000-?49,999 1.1% ?50,000-?59,999 1.1% ?60,000-?69,999 0.0% ?70,000+ 1.1% Do not have an income 24.7% However, further in the questionnaire, the respondents were requested to indicate whether there has been any effect on their salary because of the recessionary times and the responses indicate that many people have either not been affected or most of the respondents choose not to indicate whether they have been affected at all or not. This clearly would be critical in answering whether recession has played any role in decreasing online shopping for people or not. Research indicates that short term recessionary problems have been faced however, in the longer term it can be expected and has been noticed in recent years that there will be an increase in online sales as people realize its importance and are able to shop at a more convenient schedule online. Has the recession affected your income? Answer Options Response Percent Strongly Agree 9.7% Agree 17.2% Neutral 46.2% Disagree 15.1% Strongly Disagree 11.8% Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) conducted deep rooted analysis to discover as to why people would actually increase their online purchases knowingly when their salaries are taking a hit, inflation is rising and prices of their favorite goods and services are on the rise. Segmentation in the survey was conducted to reveal that there are various different types of groups who shop online. In this case, it is advised to all the marketers that they need to focus on the right target segments in order to ensure that their sales stay the same or increase in this difficult time period. One of the segments suggested is one where people have an affinity to shop online and they would spend their time exploring various products online. Other people generally try to save their time and shop online because it helps them buy things easier and faster without spending too much effort or time. There are several others who would rather go to a physical store and purchase items from that store because they tend to enjoy the social experience. There is another category of shoppers who prefer to go and purchase products because they are anxious about their purchases and would rather be able to see and handle the product in hand before purchasing it. The survey conducted by Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) indicated clearly that UK and US are two of the major countries where people actually have these strong categories of purchasers, two of whom would rather purchase online while the other two categories would prefer to shop offline. The responses received from the respondents on the survey indicate very similar categorization with respect to online shopping and offline or traditional shopping. When evaluated as to why people would actually prefer to shop online or shop in the traditional manner, it was discovered that most people prefer the ease of purchase online and the fact that it helps them save a lot of time. However, when comparing these results to the question whether recession has made people cut back on their expenses, it indicated that a number of people had actually cut down on spending which clashes with the fact that people actually shop online: Has the recession made you cut back on retail shopping? (Excluding food shopping) Answer Options Response Percent Strongly Agree 2.2% Agree 41.9% Neutral 22.6% Disagree 25.8% Strongly Disagree 7.5% The above table indicates that more than 41 percent of people actually faced a reduction in their retail shopping because of recessionary times and therefore, they should actually reduce their online shopping in comparison to what other researchers actually indicate. Nonetheless, further questions when evaluated do give the impression that despite recession, people have faced considerably good deals online and thus they have increased their online shopping when compared against traditional shopping. The ninety three respondents also indicate that their traditional and online shopping expenditure combined would be very limited in nature particularly when corroborated with the salary earned by the individual respondents. The individual responses indicated were as below: What is your average spend on retail a month? (Traditional & Online) Answer Options Response Percent Under ?50 25.8% ?50-?99 24.7% ?100-?199 31.2% ?200-?299 9.7% ?300-?399 5.4% ?400-?499 1.1% ?500-?999 0.0% ?1000-?1999 2.2% ?2000+ 0.0% The above table clearly mentions that more than 80 percent people actually have very limited spending in retail, both traditional as well as online. This clearly indicates that even if people may have not reduced their spending online, they have limited income and limited spending on actual retail purchases and therefore, in such economic times it is difficult to evaluate whether there would be any increase in retail sales particularly online or not. When compared with how often people actually shop online, it was seen that there was a significant response where people actually shopped online, about twenty eight percent people actually shopped frequently online while infrequent purchases online were about forty one percent. When compared against the amount of purchase it was seen that very limited funding was actually used to purchase goods and services online. In this respect, it can be concluded that even though people would love to shop online but their purchases are limited and they would prefer to go offline and shop through traditional modes of shopping instead. How many times a month do you shop online? Answer Options Response Percent Very Rarely 10.8% Rarely 19.4% Infrequently 40.9% Frequently 28.0% Very Frequently 1.1% Taking this case forward, Monroe, Sinclair, and Wachinger (2009) actually state that there are various reasons why people would choose traditional mode of shopping over online modes of shopping. In comparison, people also choose online modes of shopping over traditional modes of shopping for particular reasons. One of the reasons why people would choose traditional ways of retail shopping are primarily enjoyment and being able to compare prices and feel the need to see the products in real life as indicated by the table below: What are your three most important factors when traditional shopping? Answer Options Response Percent Convenience 61.3% Price 83.9% Enjoyment 61.3% Asses product in real life 41.9% Service 29.0% Other (please specify) 6.5% When comparing this area of research against the factors that influence people to move towards online shopping, it is seen that similar factors are quoted by those who prefer to shop online than through traditional modes of shopping: What are your three most important factors when shopping online? Answer Options Response Percent Convenience 61.3% Price 92.5% Enjoyment 31.2% Trust 58.1% Service 38.7% Other (please specify) 8.6% With this evaluation, we can see that the ideology behind people working towards online shopping are more inclined to think about convenience and price. When these results are compared to all those who answered with respect to traditional mode of shopping, again the result is similar where people are looking for convenience as well as price. However, it is important to distinguish that people are also looking for service, trust and enjoyment while they shop online; whereas people who are inclined to shop traditionally are more inclined to see the product and feel it before they purchase it and thus online mode of shopping technically does not work for them. (Bhatnager, Misra, and Rao, 2000) Therefore, the question arises whether online shopping needs are being met for such customers who prefer to shop online or not. If such needs are not being met then there is no point in continuously marketing such elements of online shopping when customers will not come online to shop, especially during times when marketing is tough and the economy is rougher as well. To compensate for this ideology, a research conducted by Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) published in McKinsey Quarterly, indicates that there has been a significant downturn noticed by retail stores along with apparel sellers, drugstores and other product sellers. These industries have gone down because of the recession and have to build their product and customer base from ground up now. When the industry begins to boom again, the time would be right that retailers come on to the bandwagon and develop key skills to actually sell their retail products, which is how a business cycle functions, where some organizations will lose while others will gain immensely. Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) “believe that for companies coming out of the current recession, investing to build robust multichannel capabilities provides an attractive opportunity for retailers to set themselves apart from their peers.” (2009, p.2) The researchers have also observed that online retailers have actually grown over the years while the United States faces lower or reduced sales in physical or traditional retail stores. In this capacity, despite the recession, online sales have continued to grow since 2009 indicating that people are actually buying their products and services online and for them convenience, time and ease of use matter the most. Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) conducted their research in the previous years while they state that, “by 2011, we believe the Internet will play a role in more than 45 percent of US retail sales, as either a research tool or a sales channel. What’s more, consumers who shop across a number of channels—physical stores, the Internet, and catalogs—spend about four times more annually than those who shop in just one (exhibit). Companies that get multichannel retailing right can enjoy larger profit margins and yearly revenue growth more than 100 basis points higher than companies that don’t.” (2009, p.2) In this respect it is easy to evaluate that online sales have actually increased despite recession and people continue to shop online while other people also decidedly have joined the bandwagon of shopping online. When results of the next question are evaluated whether people shop online often or not, it was noticed that most people fall between the category of rarely to frequently with most people shopping sometimes over the internet. In this regard, it is actually noticeable that even though people earn a lower amount of income, they generally tend to spend more or less equal or more amounts of money with respect to shopping online in comparison to shopping through traditional or conventional modes. How often do you make a purchase when shopping online? Answer Options Response Percent Very Rarely 8.6% Rarely 23.7% Sometimes 47.3% Frequently 19.4% Very Frequently 1.1% Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) suggest for marketing and promotional purposes that organizations should focus on strategies that target multiple channels such as IKEA and JC PENNY use. It has been noted that IKEA does not generally allow online sales but does allow people to select and see its products online for easy choice and selection. It also uses live inventory updates in its stores in order to ensure that people are able to plan their shopping trip to IKEA more effectively. This is one of the modes of online shopping that IKEA offers to its customers. On the other hand, JC PENNY has a different approach to selling on the web where its products are available online as well and people can choose whatever categories, types, sizes and style that they want. Moreover, the store also allows people to use coupons and discount cards that they have found online or have received on their phones. The ideology behind this concept is that multiple channels can help JC PENNY in building a strong customer base since people can couple both traditional as well as online modes of shopping in order to earn revenues and balance the decline in one mode by supporting it through the other mode of shopping. When the ninety three respondents were asked as to how they believe should be their mode of shopping and which mode of shopping they prefer, the responses were based on a sixty to forty ratio where traditional mode of shopping was preferred over the online mode of shopping: What form of shopping do you prefer, regardless of recession? Answer Options Response Percent Traditional (High Street) 57.6% Online 42.4% Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) suggest several ways through which organizations can thus couple both of these modes of shopping and thus build a stronger and more loyal customer base despite the times of recession. They believe that the first step towards building a multiple channel strategy is to evaluate and comprehend the customer and then the technology against which the customer stands. Competition has to be studied as well in order to evaluate whether they are using strategies that are helping them build a stronger customer base and what are the ways through which the organization can then target customers through a multi pronged strategy. Shopping behavior for customers also has to be evaluated because it has changed significantly with the advent of the internet. Therefore, multiple channel strategy has to be used where organizations can benefit through this methodology. Another approach that the organization will have to use is then focus on the very specific channels and the ways through which the organization needs to target in order to build n its online customer base. Moreover, the organization then has to evaluate whether it indeed fulfills the various needs and wants of the online customer otherwise, such customers will not be inclined to come towards shopping from the organization’s website. There are various other elements that the organization should focus on suggested by Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) and these elements include elements of the right products which need to be modified such that they cater to various channels that will be used to sell the product forward to the customer. The customer requires that the product is available to them at the right time at the right price. This is one of the key areas that organizations need to worry about. (Fisher, 1997) Pricing and channelization are some of the key areas that need to be catered to especially areas such as web site where the product is going to be sold. Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) also explain that there are various decisions that an organization needs to make such as increasing sales in the physical store or implementing mobile commerce or simply allowing ecommerce. They also state that, “retailers need to focus on capturing that success by changing the organizational design, incentives, or both. To change behavior, you must first change incentives.” (2009, p.3) Another insightful question that was targeted towards the ninety three respondents of the survey was whether the shoppers prefer to shop on pure play or click only shops online such as Amazon.com or on click and mortar options such as Apple Store and it was discovered that those organizations which are click only are actually preferred with respect to those which have physical shops or stores as well. The result indicates that fifty six percent people actually prefer to shop on such pure play shops which means that in some cases organizations that prefer to continue or start with multiple channel or multi pronged strategies may not be going in the right direction for sales in the first place. However, it has been noted by Noble, Shenkan, and Shi (2009) that online retailers who have physical shops or stores actually gain more sales with respect to those stores which do not have a physical store and only an online store, or an online store without a physical existence of a store. Do you prefer to shop online with...? Answer Options Response Percent Retailers that have high street stores (Apple) 44.0% Pure play online retailers (Amazon) 56.0% When evaluated whether more people would prefer to shop online in the coming year, many people tended to agree to this significantly, adding to the fact that online shopping is becoming more of a norm and people would prefer to shop online despite recessionary times as well. In this case it is noted that more than twenty eight percent people would prefer to increase their shopping online and thus this makes it more important for actually organizations to come on board and start online stores for the purpose of allowing organizations to sell online: Do you plan to shop more online in 2012 than 2011? Answer Options Response Percent Strongly Disagree 0.0% Disagree 8.7% Neutral 55.4% Agree 28.3% Strongly Agree 7.6% Conclusion and Avenues for Further Research: The key areas of learning through out this research have been why people actually buy online and how this experience can be enhanced in order to ensure that people continue to make their purchases online instead of through other media and channels such as physical retail stores. Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) indicate that online shopping is one of the biggest and most famous ways of shopping and people prefer to buy their items online as well. However, insights as to why people would actually refer to buy online rather than through traditional modes of purchase is still unclear. Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) state that “although it is implied that consumer acceptance of online shopping is affected by different products not many studies have adopted this view.” Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) have studied and found that by 2014 online sales will reach a significantly large figure of more than seven hundred billion US dollars. As a result, retailers should significantly focus on finding opportunities to ensure that they reach this milestone and add their online stores as well to participate in this thriving market. When recessionary times are studied, it has been noted in various studies and through current research that there are very low level impacts in online shopping when it comes to recession and thus this industry is bound to increase irrespective of any growth declines in the economy. With the advent of the internet it has been noted that various activities have come to rise, including general browsing, being able to compare prices and also shopping through online media. However, many people still prefer to shop through traditional modes primarily because of the fact that they are worried about security as well as privacy on the internet, especially when it comes to sharing credit card information. Then again, there are various options online that one can use to ensure that such issues are quelled, like wire transfer payments, payment through checks, cash on delivery and various other mechanisms of payment. In other cases, there are motivations behind traditional mode of purchase which does not relate to sharing of information but to the fact that people prefer to feel and see the products before they purchase them. (Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011; Belanger, Hiller, and Smith, 2002; Celik, 2011, Chang and Chen, 2009; Collier, 1995; Flavian and Guinaliu, 2006) Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) state however, that “in spite of this, online shopping is continuing to grow as online enterprises become more sophisticated […] which results in the dramatic change of how consumers buy products and services. […] approximately half the internet users have bought a product or service through the internet and […] online shopping is the third most popular internet activity. The most recent global report shows that global online retail sales grew by 14.5% in 2009 to reach $348.6 billion, which yet only accounts for 2.5% of the total global retail sales. By 2014 global online retail sales are expected to reach $778.6 billion, increasing at a 22.2%” (2011, p.32) The research conducted concludes that despite the recession people will continue to fuel their purchases and will do so over the internet because they would prefer to either purchase online or at least study products online before they purchase. However, Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) “support the view that due to the special features of the internet its suitability to market products and services depends on the features of the products and services being marketed.” (2011, p.32) And thus organizations should actually focus on putting up such products and services, or make their products such that their marketability on the internet is enhanced. One may argue that this is not the only way through organizations should focus on selling their goods and services online. Rather, one should also focus on how consumers actually behave and feel towards particular products and services and what their motivations to actually go online and conduct a purchase. Therefore, it becomes critical that one must also try and study the various elements of customer or consumer behavior in several categories such as social and personal factors, along with psychological and cultural factors. Consumer characteristics can help an organization to focus to see how they can promote their products and which products are generally ignored by people online while they shop. (Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011; Byrnes, 2007) When consumer insights are gleaned then organizations can safely valuate how their products can go on the market and how people would actually purchase their product. In such a case, the various areas of research that one should focus on include social classes as well as cultural elements along with sub cultural elements. Culture of people can include numerous factors such as ethical norms, customs, beliefs, along with knowledge and habits of people being part of a society. There are various elements of sub culture as well that one should focus on during research to study consumer behavior. Such factors include religious beliefs along with nationality, geography and group as well as tribal norms. In social classes, the first and foremost element to focus on includes elements such as areas of social norms and beliefs along with the hierarchies that exist within the society and area. Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) Researchers should also target areas such as social factors where status and roles, group norms and family norms should be studied to see how people actually prefer to go online shopping in comparison to shopping traditionally. Reference groups should be studied along side because they help determine how people get influenced with respect to shopping online and what and who influences the consumer’s decision making process. One should also be able to determine the various elements of family relationships. (Close and Kukar, 2010) Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos (2011) state that family orientation and relationships can be of two types and includes the family that one is part of and the family that one creates. Therefore, individual study of the person or the family’s role and status in the society has to be evaluated as well. “The term role contains the actions that a person has to take in relation to the people that surround him / her. Every role is connected to a status which shows the corresponding respect of the society.” (2011, p.33) In other areas, personal factors such as occupation, life style, age, gender, economic state and self concept also play a major role in determining what people believe about shopping online. It has been noted that when the advent of increasing age, people do change their preferences towards the product that they purchase. Maturity and time that people spend, along with the experiences that a person gleans, all impact the purchases that a person actually makes. Occupations also have a significant impact on the kind of products that a person would purchase. “People of different occupations have different needs and thus purchase different products and services.” (Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011, p.33) Research on such areas can help determine how one can focus and target its customer base online and focus on obtaining more and more customers through online stores considering the fact that recessionary times do not have much impact on the amount of shopping that people conduct online. (Anderson, 2006; Bates, 2006; Dholakia and Uusitalo, 2002; Oppenheimer & Co., 2007; Pearson and Clair, 1998; Rayport and Sviokla, 1995; Roberts, Varki and Brodie, 2003) Other elements of research include psychological factors of the consumer also where learning and beliefs, perception and attitudes, along with motivation, all form the key towards understanding a consumer. “Motivation is an internal and complex process which influences people’s behavior and is caused by particular motives such as hunger, thirst, recognition and devotion.” (Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011, p.33) The consumer has certain perception and based on such nuances and perceptions. “The largest part of human behavior is learnt. It is said that a person’s learning is produced through the interaction of motives, stimuli and reactions” (Keisidou, Sarigiannidis and Maditinos, 2011, p.33) One must understand that the entire purpose of the study is not just to see whether there is any change in the way people shop online or through traditional means but also to evaluate whether there is any change in the types of people who actually shop online. This is one of the reasons why study of consumer behavior can actually help determine if there are any different profiles of people who shop online in comparison to people who prefer the more traditional forms of shopping instead of shopping online. References: Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. New York: Hyperion. Bates, B.J. (2006). “Consuming choice: Audiences and added value in media products,” paper presented at Consuming Audiences workshop, Copenhagen, Denmark. Belanger, F., Hiller, J. S. and Smith, W. J., (2002). 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