Retail Marketing and Marketing Concepts - Essay Example

?Retail Marketing Retail Marketing Introduction Retail is the selling of goods and services from other businesses and orindividuals to the end users. Therefore, retailers are often part of the large integrated supply chain. In most cases, retailers often purchase products or goods from wholesalers or directly from the manufacturers in large quantities, then sell them to the end users into small quantities. They often sell these goods and services to the consumers at a profit (Burrow and Bosiljevac, 2012; pg. 09). The retailing process may be conducted in fixed locations such as in markets or stores. In other cases, it often conducted through door-to-door delivery. Notably, retailing sometimes retailing engulfs subordinating services including delivery of services (Pradhan and Pradhan, 2009; pg. 37). In other cases, the term retail is often used to refer to a situation where the service provider often quench the needs of a magnitude of individuals including in areas of public utility such in the supply of electric power. Therefore, it is vital for the targeted organization to understand the nature of the retailing it is about to franchise before such actions are taken. The type of the cloth products chain to be distributed will influence the location and other business environment required to run the intended retail shop. The retailing shops are sometimes located on residential streets, places with few or without houses, or along shopping mails. The retail shops along streets may be targeting mainly pedestrians (Zarrella, 2010). On the other hand, the current technological enhancement has led to electronic or online commerce that is often used for business to customer (B2C) transactions including the mail order that are non shop retailing services. These internet services can be used to market the newly franchised cloth retail business depending size of the mother business and the target customers (Pradhan and Pradhan, 2009; 79). Most people shop to obtain necessities including clothing and food. In some cases, people do shopping as if it where a recreational activity. Most of the commonly practiced recreational shopping involves browsing for items, products, and services over the online shopping services, window-shopping that involves just looking at goods but not buying, and other shopping practices that do not involve actual purchasing of goods or services. Therefore, the organization can embark on one or two of these practices to reach their customers. There are numerous retail outlets that are defined by activities and nature of stocking of good or products in relation to services provided under the same. The marketplace retail site is a location where the cloth products can exchanged. In most cases, it is often defined as the market share where traders often erect stalls where buyers browse merchandise. Marketplaces are the oldest existing retail points in the world (Zarrella, 2010). Despite the existence of markets for over centuries, in the recent past, they have been increasingly taken over by retail chains. The retail services or shopping is often classified considering the type of the products that a given retail shops and most retails often venture distinctively on food products, durable goods, hard goods, and soft or consumable goods (Michman and mazze, 2000; pg. 68). Other than recognizing the retail shops with types of goods and services they sell, cloth retail shop should recognize these shops with the marketing strategies that would make the business viable. These strategies have led to different recognized retail outlets that the cloth retail shop can adopt and some of them include: Departmental stores; are large stores selling huge assortment of goods. They usually bear intense resemblance to the specialty stores. Retailers under these ventures often carry variety of categories that includes broad assortments at average prices. In addition, other than selling cloths they can also offer considerable services to customers. The cloth retail shops may also be conducted under Discount stores are stores that tend to provide a wide array of services and products; however, they often compete mainly on the prices that they offer on their extensive assortments of merchandise. Most of them often remain avoidable through their cut-rate prices (Michman and mazze, 2000; pg. 72). In most cases, this category of retails often retail on less fashion oriented brands. The warehouse stores are also retail stores that offer low cost commodities; nonetheless, their products are often of high quality and they are usually piled on steel shelves or pallets. In some cases, they create warehouse clubs that charge a membership fee on its members (Michman and mazze, 2000; pg. 99). Warehouse stores can sometimes associated with variety stores; however, the variety stores often offer their products and services at extremely low costs with limited selections. Other stores include demographic and Mom-And-Pop retail stores. The demographic stores mainly aim at a particular segment of customers. For instance, high-end retailers who mainly focus on the wealthy customers usually operate them. On the other hand, the Mom-And-Pop retails are stores that are operated and owned by individuals (Burrow and Bosiljevac, 2012; pg. 19). Additionally, they operate on highly selective products and they are few in number. The Mom-And-Pop stores are usually found among the local communities and they are often run as family businesses. There sizes often depend on the store holder. There are other numerous retail shops with different specification, targeted customers, and marketing strategies. It should be noted that the most significant marketing strategies often pegged on the specialty of every retail store. Different stores often have there unique way of displaying their goods and services to the customers. Moreover, some have remained specialized on certain specific goods and services throughout their lifetime (Zarrella, 2010). The introduction of computer and internet technology also introduced another form of retail marketing known as the E-retailers the cloth business can equally adopt. In the E-retail, customers are capable of ordering and buying cloths among other related services through internet. In most cases, the goods and services bought through the internet are often dropped at the buyers or customers’ doorsteps. The most conversant products delivery techniques in the E-retailing are the use of shipping techniques (Zarrella, 2010; pg. 88). Therefore, this will target customers who need the cloths in large quantities. The E-retailers often accept payment from their customers; however, the products are usually sipped directly from the wholesalers or the manufacturers. This type of marketing strategy often targets customers who are ever reluctant to travel to the retail stores to obtain products or goods that they intend to purchase. Additionally, the cloth retail management can mix retailing techniques to provide different or mixed retail services and products for their customers (Michman and mazze, 2000; pg. 142). This technique will allow them to study their customers’ lifestyle, demographics, and purchase behaviors before venturing into these retail activities especially within a new business environment. Effectively studying of these factors often leads a perfect format to displaying products towards enticing the targeted customers thereby achieving spawned sales. Retail Marketing After adopting proper location and layout of the business, it is vital that the management embark of proper marketing strategies. Marketing is communicating the value of services or products to the targeted customers. It is actually the art of selling products and services; however, selling of products and services is only a fraction of marketing process. If marketing may be used to replace advertising, then it may be considered as the process of promoting strategies and functions of selling products and services to customers. According to the American Marketing Association, marketing is the set of activities that are initiated by institutions towards creating processes that communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings that have value to customers, partners, clients, and the larger society. In relation to the cloth retail services and activities, marketing is the process that links materials required by the society with the economic pattern of response among customers. Retail marketing often aims at satisfying the needs and wants of the society through exchange processes that aim at building strong and lasting relationships between cloth business and consumers (Sivakumar, 2007). Therefore, the marking processes herein must aim at communicating the value of cloth products among other related services to customers through positioning. It is the function of the cloth shop to create, deliver, and communicate value to their customers (Wright, 1999; pg. 26). Moreover, it should manage the developed relationship between them and their customers with the aim of benefiting the organizations and stakeholders. Additionally, through marketing, the shop may choose its target market through analyzing the market segment towards understanding the consumers’ buying behavior thereby developing superior customer value. Numerous marketing concepts can be adopted to understand and operate the cloth businesses. Nonetheless, there are usually five concepts that the cloth business can utilize to achieve its marketing goals and objectives. These concepts include the product, production, selling, marketing, (Sivakumar, 2007; pg. 40) and the holistic marketing concepts. There are other four holistic concepts that the cloth businesses must consider in their marketing activities including relationship, integrated, internal, and social responsive marketing. Other than the marketing concepts, the retailers must engage in marketing management techniques that shall ensure that they succeed in achieving their marketing goals and objectives. Some of the marketing management techniques include connecting with customers, capturing marketing insights, delivering and communicating value, shaping the market offerings, developing long term marketing plans and strategies, and creating long-term growth of the business. Marketing Concepts The main marketing concept is the earlier orientation that involves production, product, and selling orientation. The production orientation is where firms or retailers focus on the production of specialized services or products. This concept makes the retailers to specialize on certain specific products thereby targeting specialized or specific consumers (Macdonald and Tideman, 1997; pg. 62). In this sense, the cloth shop will be exploiting economies of scales while minimizing efficient scale. The production orientation will only come to play when the management realizes that there is high demand for its products. Moreover, this realization must be coupled with certainty that is relative to the testes of consumers that is hardly altered. The cloth retail shop may also adopt the production orientation concept that targets that quality of the product. This concept was used in the 1960s when firms were primarily oriented on the quality of the products they were selling. In this case, the business will only be complete by maintaining the quality of their products and services as high as possible (Omar, 1998; pg. 92). This marketing strategy is best for this cloth business since buyers will often target firms with good and services worth their cash. Therefore, the cloth shop should offer services that are of high quality or standard quality to attract more consumers compared. Selling orientation focuses on the selling method that the shop adopts in distributing or selling its cloth products. Under this concept, shop will focus primarily on promotion or selling of cloths. This concept is never concerned with determining the desire of new customers. However, the shop will adopt this concept with the aim of selling the already existing products (Burrow and Bosiljevac, 2012; pg. 189). The concept is never concern with introducing new products, goods, and or services to the market towards quenching the rising needs of customers. The most used marketing techniques under this concept include promotion that aims at attaining the highest sales as possible (Zarrella, 2010). This marketing technique will hold if the shop has dead stock or selling cloths that has high demand and has a highly like hood to change in consumers’ tastes thereby diminishing the demand. Marketing orientation often aims at fulfilling the already established wants and needs of the customers. Fulfillment of customers’ needs and wants is the contemporary concept in retail marketing. These concepts are essential for the cloth selling firms since they form part of the marketing plan within the marketing concept; thus, the role of the shop under this concept is to supply products that meet the needs of the consumers (Wright, 1999; pg. 47). Notably, consumers will only go to the shops that meet their new needs and wants; therefore, the organization must meet the rising and emerging consumers’ needs and or wants often maximize their profits alongside attracting many buyers. Likewise, the cloth business should adopt the twenty first century marketing concept also know as the holistic marketing that regarded marketing a complex activity. The holistic concept acknowledged that everything is vital in marketing; thus, nothing should be leave to chance (Gilbert, 2003; pg. 91). In addition, it considers an integrated and broad perspective in developing, designing, and implementing marketing activities and programs. Holistic marketing naturally targets relationship, integrated, and internal marketing, as well as social responsive marketing (Stokes and Lomax, 2008; pg. 18). The relationship marketing focuses on the customer. The social marketing focuses on how the business will benefit the community. The cloth retail marketing can embrace internet marketing since this type of marketing offers broad scope marketing and has currently embraced a very large community. The internet marketing incorporates the use of wireless media and e-mails. Many people have embraced the use of internet that includes the social media; therefore, the cloth shop may opt to advertise on these pages so that if their targeted customers load on the pages, they get in touch with the advertised commodity or services. The contemporary marketing has adopted the holistic marketing that does not only focus on customers but also the community and the other related organizations (Mills, 2002; pg. 81). The holistic marketing focuses on relationship marketing or the relationship management that aims at building and keeping amicable relationship between customers and the business. This marketing technique has been applied since the 1960s and has gain recognition since then (Stokes and Lomax, 2008; pg. 130). This phenomenon usually emphasizes on the whole relationship between the suppliers and their customers. The main aim of this principle is to provide customers with the best services that will in turn built loyalty between customers and the business. Thus, for the cloth shop to maintain everlasting relationship with its customers, it must embrace this technique. Another holistic marketing technique marketing that this cloth shop must embrace is the business marketing or the industrial marketing. This marketing technique builds and maintains the relationship between organizations. Under this circumstance, the marketing often takes place between organizations or businesses (Gilbert, 2003; pg. 121). In this case, the cloth shop will mainly focus on capital goods or industrial goods rather than products or the customer products (Sivakumar, 2007; pg. 34). Different marketing activities are often engulfed under this practice and they include advertising, promoting, and communication to the customers. Notably, this shall ensure best products or cloths are supplied to the customers. Additionally, the holistic marketing employs that use of societal marketing that aims at benefit the society. Notably, this technique was initiated in the 1990s and it has taken effect to the present days. The societal marketing has similar characteristics to the marketing orientation; however, it has added provisions that eradicate any harmful activities that may affect the society’s products, production, or selling methods (Stokes and Lomax, 2008; pg. 142). Finally, the shop should adopt the holistic marketing that focuses on products or services branding towards adding value to these products and services. Branding is a marketing philosophy that makes customers to identify a given service or product to a given product or service. Customer Orientation The cloth should as well understand and adopt customer orientation principles. Market economies often survive by trading on goods and services that consumers are willing and able to buy. Nonetheless, ascertaining customer demands is profound for the future viability of the business and this should be a major concern for the business (Macdonald and Tideman, 1997; pg. 78). Thus, the business should change its focus to customers where most of its activities and products must aim at fulfilling the demands of customers. The business can achieve this through the customers driven approach, product innovation approach, and market identification approach. The customer driven approach needs the cloth business to adopt marketing strategies and decision-making based on wants and needs customers. Hence, there is no strategy or decision to be made until it passes the customer research test. All aspect of this kind of marketing provides the product nature that must also be driven by the needs and wants of the potential customers (Sivakumar, 2007; 34). The main rationale for the customer driven approach is to evade unreasonable spending on the R&D funds to develop the cloths that customers will never buy. The cloth shop should also adopt customer-focused marketing that is sometimes known as SIVA that means Solution, Information, Value, and Access (VISA). This process is also adopts the Ps concept that is renowned for providing customer focus marketing (Spillecke, 2012; pg. 78). The SIVA model provides customer or demand centric alternative that is often referred to the Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion or the 4Ps supply side model of marketing management. The 4Ps model translates to SIVA perfectly with product translating to solution, promotion to information, price to value, and place or distribution to access (Gilbert, 2003; pg. 111). The lack of any of the 4Ps in the marketing factor will lead the business into some problems that may in turn affect other businesses surrounding the cloth business. These problems will affect the customers’ demands on certain clothes. Therefore, the 4Ps marketing strategies will make the business to understand and meet the rising demands of the customers. Notably, if the shop intends to supply services alongside selling cloths it may introduce additional 3Ps leading to a total of 7Ps marketing strategies (Mcgoldrick, 2002; pg. 130). The other 3Ps are strictly concerned with service marketing and they include process, physical environment, and people (Omar, 1998). It should be noted that these qualifications do not contradict or invalidate the principle of the customer focus approach; however, such qualifications only add additional dimensions of caution and awareness to the already existing ones. Moreover, the cloth marketing strategies should ever consider the effect of technology on its marketing strategies. However, Disruptive technologies have produced theoretical framework that often lead to business failures. The failure is not pegged on the inept of the technology but the values of such networks (Burrow and Bosiljevac, 2012; pg. 211). The profitability of the disruptive technologies has been noted to operate on customers who do not value the disruptive innovations. Moreover, such customers do not understand the capability of the emergence; therefore, the business should dissuade from developing or adopting such technologies since they will interfere with the sales of cloths that shall be affected by such technologies. Nonetheless, the cloth shop may on the other hand use the disruptive technology for its advantage by focusing on the gain rather than failure. The disruptive technology can be used to predict the future demands, needs, and or wants of the customers even if the customers discount such predictions. Additional, the same strategy may be used to pursue new markets that will add valued networks to the business (Gilbert, 2003; pg. 191). Therefore, the shop should not concentrate on the commercial inferiority or unattractiveness of these new venture, but it should simply dwell on the growth and interactive in the established market and the identified value networks (Sivakumar, 2007). The tasks that must be considered in undertaking this strategy include buying stakes in small stocks for smaller firms, acquiring outrights, or incubating small financial units within the business entity. Nonetheless, the business must ever ensure that the wants of the customers coincides with the customers’ purchasing decision. Finally, the cloth business must adopt the Herd Behavior marketing strategy that explains dependency of mutual behavior of customers. The buying habits of customers often depend on the human behaviors that are also known to be adaptive (Miller, 2008; pg. 56). In most cases, the herd behavior often lead to impulse buying where people or consumers to buy their products and services through herd instinct. Manipulation of this behavior often increases buying nature of the consumers; thus, once it is adopted, there is immense likelihood of increased sales. The cloth shop must put different marketing strategies in play. There are numerous and different avenues that cloth shop may adopt to ensure their marketing strategies are implemented effectively (Mcgoldrick, 2002; pg. 261). Some mediums that it can adopt to ensure effective implementation of these strategies include the use of new programs on the televisions, newspapers, websites, and promotions among other media. The proper and successful use of a given medium of marketing will depend on the success of the marketing research conducted on such media in relation to the nature of cloths and services offered. The marketing research often involves conducting activities that support other marketing activities (Macdonald and Tideman, 1997). Despite such research work, the success in the application of the findings often depends on the interpretation of data or information gathered from the research work. The marking research information is quite for retail making since the same information is often used in managing and planning marketing activities thereby gauging the nature of the marketing environment that the firm mighty be subjected (Sivakumar, 2007). Additionally, the same information will be used to advice the supplier on the specifications of the clothes required by the customers. The main aim of the marketing research is to provide the business management with the relevant, reliable, accurate, current, and valid information that will help in marketing activities. Conclusion Marking is profound for every retail business. Proper marking activities depend on the understanding the marketing environment and the customers’ needs (Gilbert, 2003; pg. 91). Marking environment are the forces and factors that affects the ability of any business to build and maintain relevant and successful relationship with customers. Therefore, if this cloth clop understands these phenomena, they will be able to understand what it must include in its management strategies. The major marketing environments that the cloth shop must consider include micro or the internal environment, Meso environment, and the macro or national environment (Burrow and Bosiljevac, 2012; pg. 219). Despite adopting and implementing the crucial retail marketing strategies, the management of the cloth shop must ensure that it is operating on clothes that meets the needs and demands of its customers; otherwise, the shop may be stocked but without a single customer buying from the same enterprise. Additionally, retailers must consider the effects that the society has on its marketing system. Therefore, retailers must ensure that their businesses have good relationship with the society that they are part of or that they serve. Moreover, retail marketing is vital for every retail business since it is the avenue that businesses tap its potential customers. Thus, there is a dire need for the cloth shop to understand the needs and wants of customers before combating on marketing. Business that thrive under any business environment are often enlightened on the marking environments under which such businesses operate; therefore, it is vital for shop business to understand the marking environments that the business operates in order to create and maintain good relationship with its customers and the entire society it operate within. References Burrow, J., & Bosiljevac, J. (2012). Marketing. Mason, Ohio, South-Western Cengage Learning. Gilbert, D. (2003). Retail marketing management. New Delhi, Harlow, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Macdonald, M. H. B., & Tideman, C. C. S. (1997). Retail marketing plans: how to prepare them, how to use them. Oxford [u.a.], Butterworth-Heinemann. Mcgoldrick, P. J. 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