Branded Space: Wal-Mart - Term Paper Example

Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation Introduction We often take the world we live in, for granted. Often times, passing by a place, we do not consider the implications and considerations that went in while planning the space. The spaces that one comes across in daily interactions are usually carefully designed to create the right experience for the audience. Even while shopping, the customers are the audience. The customers are presented with a well-constructed design that includes not just the products that they are buying but also the graphics and the interiors. In this manner, companies create spaces that allow culture to transcend into commerce without the customer understanding the difference. One such example is the retail giant Wal-Mart. Almost everyone is aware of the brand Wal-Mart even if they have not visited the store, which is not possible in countries where Wal-Mart operates. The company began as an American company but has been able to take the American culture into other countries and created a uniform retailing culture in almost every country where it operates. In this paper, the branded space that will be analyzed is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart will be analyzed using different concepts studied in relation with branded spaces. The aim is to uncover How The Retail Giant Has Been Able To Develop A Strong Retail Culture within not just United States but also in many other parts of the world. Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores is an American retail giant that has been growing in popularity for its large discount department stores. The company began in the US by Sam Walton in 1962 but quickly expanded nationwide and then worldwide. The company now maintains operations in around 27 countries including UK, Canada, and Brazil etc. The company has been named as the world’s second largest company and the largest retailer by Fortune 500 (Wal-Mart, 2014). The success of the company has been attributed to its slogan ‘Low Prices, always’. Customers, especially in today’s recession economy, are considering buying their commodities from discount stores. The popularity of the company stems from the fact that the company promises the best prices for its customers and allows the customers to shop for all their needs in one place. The company buys its products in bulk at good prices and by keeping overhead costs to a minimum; it is able to guarantee its promise of the best price (Daniel, 2010). Staging the Experience Pine and Gilmore define today’s economy as the experience economy. Today’s businesses present their products and services as a complete experience for their customers. Sometimes, it is not the product that the customer wants but rather the experience (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). The experience that Wal-Mart provides to its customers is that of best prices. When customers enter into a Wal-Mart store, they believe that their money will now be saved. Even if Wal-Mart charges the same as other retail stores in the area, the general perception of the customer is cost saving. Often on the aisles of the stores, the management places placards showing goods offered to very cheap offers. This is meant to compel the customer to buy the offer even if they do not actually need the product. As an example, consider the picture above. On every price placard, the store places the slogan of ‘low price’. This plays with the psyche of the customers as they assume that the product is being sold at low price even when the price is similar in any other retail stores. Also customer, when buying products, does not consider the total cost of his purchases. Rather his mind comforts him by telling him that each product is being available at very low prices. When the customer reaches the check-out counter, the total often surprises him. By then, he can do nothing but buy the products he put in his cart. Another experience that the store provides to its customers is finding everything at one place. Small mom and pop stores are increasingly closing down because customers no longer shop in such stores. They wish to save their time when they come to a Wal-Mart store. Along with the shopping experience, Wal-Mart also provides its customers with free trials. Companies often use Wal-Mart as a place for the promotion of their new and old products. Often customers when shopping at Wal-Mart meet sales representatives who offer test products to the customers. These products range from food testing to skin checkups. In this way, Wal-Mart offers a non-shopping experience to the customers. The customers feel valued when the representatives ask for their suggestions. McDonadization of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is the McDonald of retail stores. The company has become synonymous with retail and discount stores. Ritzer (1993) in his article, The McDonalidization of Society’ has discussed how the society is impacted by McDonalds. McDonalds has come to represent the American culture. Millions of Americans enter the golden arch each day. The popularity of McDonalds stems from the fact that it is difficult to understand where McDonalds aligns its strategy and culture with that of the society or whether the society has adapted itself to the McDonald way of living. The same theme is apparent in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has come to represent the American shopping culture. It is difficult to understand whether Americans visit Wal-Mart because they are bargain hunters by nature of whether Wal-Mart has ingrained this culture within the Americans. Wal-Mart, just like McDonalds, has seamlessly integrated itself in the American culture. The American and almost every other country have given in to a busy lifestyle where both the parents work. People usually do not have the time to shop for groceries separately. In this way, Wal-Mart offers convenience to the shoppers where they can buy almost any product in the retail stores. Products range from sewing needles to electronic equipment. Millions of Americans come to visit Wal-Mart each day making it the largest company in terms of sales accomplished. Just like McDonalds, Wal-Mart has become equally successful outside the United States. Wal-Mart has come to represent retail shopping in the same way that McDonalds has come to represent fast food worldwide. In another aspect where Wal-Mart duplicates the McDonald model is the way that it offers products. Ritzer (1993) states the people in America has come to associate bigger with better. In a similar manner, these people have begun to associate Wal-Mart with low prices. The emphasis here is not on quality but rather on quantity and price. When customers visit Wal-Mart, they calculate or compare the price of the product with that of what the other stores are offering. Wal-Mart also offers predictability to its customers. Customers shopping in any Wal-Mart store are welcomed with almost the same layout. From the entrance to the exit, the layout is quite similar. The goods are categorized in the same manner such as bed sheets will be found in the home décor department while vegetables will be found in the grocery or fresh produce section. Even though these sections may not be placed exactly in the same position in every store but the customers can predict easily where to find a specific item in the vast retail store. The employees at Wal-Mart are also quite predictable. They have been trained to perform a specific set of action without questioning the system. Sometimes what they say is also quite predictable. From their charming smiles to their efficient answers, the similarity in the employees is often quite surprising. It would seem that Wal-Mart, just like McDonald, has given over its control to machines. Wal-Mart was the first retail store to introduce the bar coding system in its outlets. The company relies extensively on technology in order to get ahead of its competition. In fact Wal-Mart has become the supply chain leader on account of the way it has used technology to manage inventory, keep stocks refreshed on the shelves and finally to keep overhead costs to a minimum (Traub, 2012). The service that Wal-Mart offers to its customers comes with both advantages and disadvantages. In terms of advantages, the company offers a wide range of products to its customers. The availability of these products has become both cheaper and more efficient. Wal-Mart has been able to diffuse cultural boundaries by serving and employing people from all kinds of cultures. The company has been able to transcend cultural barriers and come to represent the retail phenomena worldwide. However, the model is not without its disadvantages. The company has been repeatedly criticized for the pressure it puts on its supplies to cut down the price of their products. The employees at Wal-Mart are often paid below the minimum wage in order to keep the products cheaper for the customers. The Layout of Wal-Mart According to Adamson (2009), careful consideration is given into the planning, design and layout of a shopping mall in order to increase the ‘dwell time’ of the customers in the mall. This is done on the belief that the greater the time the customers spend inside the mall, the greater would be their spending. If the same theory is applied when considering the layout and design of Wal-Mart, a similar psyche would be seen. The layout of Wal-Mart stores in UK is basically the same everywhere. This is important because often customers do not shop from the same Wal-Mart. If they wish to shop from a different outlet, they would not have to spend precious minutes in understanding the layout and navigating within the store. The picture below shows the basic layout of the store. The entrance and exit of the stores is placed near the car park so that customers do not have to walk long distance from either the entrance or while exiting when they have to carry loads of shoppers. Carts are placed at the entrance so that customers can easily put all their purchases in the cart while shopping. Also the customers, when entering the retail store, expect the carts to be available readily. The store places similar goods together. For instance, all home décor items are placed together while the fresh produce is placed in another area. Dividing the stores into such portions allows the customers to easily navigate in the store. They know where they will find a particular product. If navigation had not been easy, the customers would be frustrated and would not consider coming back to the store. Also the aisles are neatly spaced out with wide spaces between the aisles. This prevents the aisles from being crowded which increases the dwell time of the customers. Customers do not skip aisles because they are crowded. Rather they have all the time to view and consider their purchases. The ambiance of the store is also designed in the manner so as to increase the dwell time of the customers. Adamson, in his article, ‘If you built it, will you shop?’ has also mentioned simple tricks that planners use to increase the dwell time. Wal-Mart also employs some of these tricks which include no clocks, clear spaces and lots of daylight so that the customers wish to prolong their stay without realizing the time they spend at the store. The Culture of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart, with its presence in 27 countries around the world, has begun to promote a new culture among the people. Zurin (1998) claims that competition among companies and even countries have not promoted uniqueness. Rather it has led to the development of standardized products. The attractions offered by one city or state are quite similar with other countries. Even if a country manages to develop a unique product, it is quickly replicated or expanded into the other country. Wal-Mart promotes the same culture. The products offered at almost all stores at Wal-Mart have the same standard of quality. The store design is also similar not just within a country but also across different geographical boundaries. The organizational system of Wal-Mart does not support uniqueness since the store’s prime attraction as discounted prices which can only be offered if products are bought in bulk quantities. When Wal-Mart offers products at the lowest prices, it has to reduce its overhead costs to the minimum. Here again Wal-Mart copies the structure of institutions developed in today’s urban and suburban centers according to Zurin. Companies such as Wal-Mart offer a large 0only attractive to the immigrant population who finds employment even as illegal immigrants. Wal-Mart, with its standardized product offering, has been quite helpful in removing racial and cultural barriers to a certain extent. Employees, from any background, can find employment at a local Wal-Mart without facing any prejudice in terms of their different racial or cultural features. Also when Wal-Mart opens its stores in different countries, it does not adapt its operations to suit the culture of the new country. Wal-Mart stores remain essentially the same in every other country. A person travelling from USA to UK would be greeted with the same Wal-Mart store. In this manner also, Wal-Mart has been able to erase racial and cultural barriers. It has focused on the universal human psyche of best offering the best price. Another feature that can be seen in the culture that Wal-Mart promotes is presenting a wide kaleidoscope of culture and people. Everyday millions of customers enter Wal-Mart stores around the world. These present an interesting mix of people who are constantly changing with the hour. If one was to observe just the check-out counter of Wal-Mart, he would discover people from different racial background and even different social status. The rich and the poor both shop at Wal-Mart. While the rich may also shop at shopping centers, they also visit the local Wal-Mart store regularly, if only just to shop for groceries. Before the culture of Wal-Mart or other retail stores became common, it was highly unusual to find products displayed within the reach of the customer. Products were usually within the reach of the shop owner who would give the customer the product that he demanded. With Wal-Mart, the products were displayed on shelves placed throughout the store. Wal-Mart allowed customers to touch the product and consider his buying decision before actually buying it. The management of Wal-Mart did not have any fear regarding these products being stolen. To prevent this, CCTV cameras have been placed throughout the store to monitor the customers and the employees. CCTV cameras reduced the number of thefts within the store as the management relied on the Foucault’s theory of Panopticism. According to Foucault (1975), when a person is aware that he is being monitored, he assumes responsibility of his actions and performs within the preferred social and legal decorum. Therefore, by placing the CCTV cameras throughout the store, Wal-Mart made the people behave. Conclusion Wal-Mart is a retail store that has become popular not just within the United States but also in many other parts of the world. The success of Wal-Mart can be attributed to the fact that it copies that the McDonald model that has been extremely successful around the world. Wal-Mart does not adapt its culture to suit the needs of the society in which it operates; rather it has developed a uniform culture that has come to represent the retail culture throughout the world. References Adamson, G (2009), If you build it will they shop?, Retrieved from at http://www.vam.ac.uk/b/blog/sketch-product/if-you-build-it-will-they-shop Daniel, F., (2010) Head of Wal-Mart tells WFU audience of plans for growth over next 20 years, Retrieved from http://www.journalnow.com/business/head-of-wal-mart-tells-wfu-audience-of-plans-for/article_5ad539d5-d616-55ba-ab27-aeaf45b06074.html Foucault, Michel, (1975) ‘Panopticism’, in Hazel Clark and David Brody, eds., (2009) Design Studies: A Reader, 238-245. Pine, J. and Gilmore, J. (1999) The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Ritzer, G. (1993) The McDonaldization of Society. California: Pine Forge Publication. Traub, T. (2012) Wal-Mart Used Technology to Become Supply Chain Leader, Retrieved from http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/85508/wal-mart-used-technology-to-become-supply-chain-leader?page=all Wal-Mart (2014) Our Business, Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-business/ Zukin, S. (1998), Urban lifestyles: diversity and standardisation in spaces of consumption, Urban Studies, 35 (5/6): 85-40 Read More