Relationship Marketing - Essay Example

?“Relationship Marketing may still be regarded as an ‘umbrella philosophy’ with numerous relational variations rather than as a wholly unified concept with strongly developed objectives and strategies’. (Egan, J, 2004, Relationship Marketing: Exploring Relational Strategies in Marketing, Prentice Hall, p.19) Consumer behavior is rapidly changing in today’ s world. Most of this changing behavior stems from rapidly evolving technology and its growing importance in our life. The emergence of Web 2.0 has also made it possible. It has helped pave way for door to content driven information which could either make one’s business or bring it down. Thus technology has a strong relationship with consumer behavior and eventually its impact on the purchasing behavior of customers. Social networking sites have opened new paradigms in marketing and relational marketing. Most social networking sites, for instance facebook are educational model tools that voice out what that niche of people wants. Models like yahoo, msn and other search engines have come up before but could never generate the community like feeling. Today companies are very accessible to the consumers because people are talking back to back with them. Other factors have also affected relational marketing.With the advent of the retailing era, products and pricing alone cannot target customers. Customers who enter a store with the advent of purchasing might return empty handed due to a number of factors. Though one of the factors is the unavailability of the products they need but there are a number of factors which might deter them. They include not being able to find the product, being unsure about the product because the store atmosphere doesn’t allow them to judge it properly and being uncomfortable in the store. The store might not appeal to them and the shopping experience is not as convenient as they would like it to be and they leave in order to buy that better shopping experience. Marketers need to come up with new strategies to attract and hold on to their customers and one of these promotional strategies is visual merchandising and store design and layout. Walters and White have defined visual merchandising as the activity, which coordinates effective merchandising selection with effective merchandising display. (D Walters and D White, 1987). It involves communicating a positive product image to the customer and also ensuring that the customer decodes it well thus leading to positive behavioral outcome leading to purchase. The basic aim of the retailer is to trigger a customer to make a purchase. For this three major steps are to be followed. The first one should cause the customer to enter the shop. This can be caused by the shops exterior including both the exterior landscape, the board and the window display. The second effort is made to retain the customer in the store for as long as possible which is attained by making the ambience pleasing and the store comfortable. The third and the decision making process of buying is greatly affected by the product display and availability which is ensured by clean products on display in an efficient manner. The interior design of the store can greatly affect the customers psychologically, lowering their defenses and removing their doubts, encourage them to make purchases and maintain interest in the store. (Kotler, 1974). Thus all marketers are unanimous in agreeing with the fact that store design is one of the main factors behind customer store choice decisions. Other factors include pricing, distance and size of the outlet. Previously the emphasis was on the display of the products but now marketers also have to lay emphasis on the elements which excite the senses of the shoppers. Frequently used elements are smells, lighting, flat screen videos and graphics and flooring (McGoldrick, 1990) Visual merchandising involves using four basic design elements namely lighting, cleanliness, design layout and product display. These are also called orienting factors, signage and atmospherics by other marketers. Shopping is not just a need. For many shoppers it is a recreational activity. Therefore shoppers would like to choose stores which are high on entertainment value (A.G Woodside, 1992)as compared to their peers. Display does not completely determine the purchase of an article but makes it four times more likely. (Kerfoot, Davies, & Phillipa Ward, 2003). Therefore visual merchandising is equally important as the product itself. When a customer enters a store he is immediately affected by the sights, smells and sounds in the store. These sensory directions along with the quality and the price of the product will guide him to make the purchase. Effective displays along with other promotional measures such as advertisement compel a customer to buy a object as researchers have found that 64.8 % of all purchase decisions are made inside the store. A customer is attracted to a display in 3 to 8 seconds and within that time he develops interest in the object. Thus all principles of product display and design such as balance, emphasis, harmony, proportion, rhythm and color are to be used. Depending on the type of products symmetrical or asymmetrical balance should be used. Asymmetrical balance should only be used when the products are required to create excitement otherwise it might be perceived as imbalance. Emphasis can be created by repitition foreg sale banners all over the store. It can also be created by setting things on the focal point of the customer where they are most likely to be visible. The objects must be placed at the right place, on the right place and at the right distance from the customer. Shiny surfaces and unusual textures emphasize objects. Main display objects should be frequently changed to ensure that the shoppers do not perceive the store as monotonous. Customers will only enter the store if they are convinced from the store exterior that the store has something new to offer. Thus like store display on the inside, the store exterior is also very important. Signs outside the store should immediately convey what the store is selling and also have a strong relation with the products inside. They should be unique, readable and noticeable. Banners are another visual aid employed by store keepers to interest shoppers. Frequent banner changes are viewed as a sign that new and exciting changes are taking place in the shop thus encouraging customers to enter. Window displays also encourage a customer to enter and is wont be an exaggeration to say that there are stores in which one in four purchases are made as a result of efficient and attractive window display. Both structural and decorative harmony should be employed when arranging the products for display. Structural harmony implies that the products fit in with its neighboring products thus allowing the shopper to find them easily. Decorative harmony implies that the decoration or the ambience of the store should follow a single theme thus allowing coherence and proper relation of one part of the store from another. Lighting can make products shine and liven the colors. Customers do not generally like to shop in places where lighting is low as it is a general perception that dim lighting is used to hide defects. A study of shoppers in Srilanka shows that 66% of them are strongly influenced by the lighting in stores (Wanninayake, 2007)primary lighting is a must in all stores whereas accent and atmosphere lighting should be employed where required. References: A.G Woodside, R. R. (1992). Finding out why customers shop your store and buy your brand: automatic cognitive processing models of primary choice., . Journal of Advertising Research , 59-78. Bloomingdale press releases. (n.d.).(online), from Bloomingdale: http://www1.bloomingdales.com/about/company/press/detail.ognc?newsID=121 Retrieved November 22, 2010 Colborne, R. (1996). Visual merchandising: the business of merchandise presentation . Cengage learning. D Walters and D White. (1987). Retail Marketing Management,. Basingstock: Macmillan Press,. Kerfoot, S., Davies, B., & Phillipa Ward. (2003). Visual merchandising and the creation of discernible retail brands . International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management , 143-152. Kotler, P. (1974). Atmospherics as a marketing tool. Journal of Retailing , 48-64. McGoldrick, P. (1990). Retail Marketing,. Maidenhead.: McGraw-Hill, . Retail design diva. (2010, 16 August)(online)., from retail design diva: http://retaildesigndiva.blogs.com/retail_design_diva/new_stores/ Retrieved November 22, 2010 Wanninayake, W. (2007). THE IMPACT OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING ON CONSUMER STORE CHOICE DECISIONS IN SRI LANKAN SUPERMARKETS. 7th Conference on Business and Economics. Rome. Read More