An Appraisal of Marketing Mix Application in Retail Businesses
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This research work will be guided by the following objectives
- To know whether high price is responsible for low sales in retail outlets
- To know whether lack of promotion is responsible for low patronage
- To know the distribution channel to be used that will suit the need of the customers and meet the objectives of retail outlets.T
- To inform the retailers the blend of variable that makes up the marketing mix
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Retail Formats
Retail formats today have made the life of the customers hassle free and convenient. This has eventually resulted in aggressive competition amongst retailers and opened a gateway of metamorphic innovating store concepts in the market (J.Maronick & M.Stiff, 1985). Retail formats can be classified into a number of ways. Based on ownership, Merchandise offered, nonstore, service based etc. For this particular research, we have taken four kinds of retail formats. Hypermarkets, Department Stores, Specialty Stores and Convenience Stores. Hypermarkets are self service retail formats that provide a vastly wide variety of merchandise for the consumers to choose from. A Hypermarket is a large establishment combining the characteristics of a supercentre and a department store. These establishments are generally larger in size and cover 1, 00,000 sq ft or more floor space in a retail outlet. Their business model focuses on high volume and low margin sales. They stock around 35, 000 to 60, 000 Stock Keeping Units (SKU). Food items constitute around 60 to 70 percent of the total sale of hypermarkets (Castrillo, Mira, & Gurdjian, 1998). Department Stores usually deal with the sale of apparel, furniture, home appliances, and electronics. They stock high quality assortment with an emphasis on the length and breadth of the assortment. They give limited variety to the consumers and focus more on quality. They cover area of Less than 10,000 sq ft. These are the general merchandise retailers offering various kinds of quality products and services. Specialty stores offer a vast array of product for every category of the goods that they deal in. A conventional specialty store concentrates on a limited number of complementary merchandise categories and emphasizes on a high level of service. They are generally small in size whereas the size can vary from large to small depending upon the type and category of the product. These are highly specialized stores with limited assortment of products. High emphasis is paid on customer service and after sales follow-ups.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to an appraisal of marketing mix application in retail business
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source and Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain an appraisal of marketing mix application in retail business
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of marketing mix application in retail business
Summary
This study was on an appraisal of marketing mix application in retail business. Three objectives were raised which included; To know whether high price is responsible for low sales in retail outlets, to know whether lack of promotion is responsible for low patronage, to know the distribution channel to be used that will suit the need of the customers and meet the objectives of retail outlets, to inform the retailers the blend of variable that makes up the marketing mix. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staffs of selected retails outlet in Auchi town. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made managers, sale representatives, secretaries and junior staffs was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
We can conclude that retail companies the closest entities to the consumer which are in a state of fierce competition with other traders, need to combine and apply different marketing strategies related to marketing mix variables in a more innovative way and, at the same time, in accordance with the legislation and the consumer demands. The contribution this work aimed at was to identify the six variables of the marketing mix for retail companies. As it can be seen, besides the 4 traditional pillars of the marketing mix, in the retail sector there are two more: the spatial location of the business unit and the store (point of sale) as image, ambient and atmosphere. These two elements are very complex due to their characteristics. The store location selection is the most important marketing decision for a retailer because the location appears to be the least flexible element of the retailer’s business strategy. Regarding the second element, creating and maintaining a retailer’s image is a complex process that takes place in several stages and is permanent. Then, the product policy is based on the idea that retailers must have the right assortment of products and sell them in a manner compatible with their marketing view. Speaking about price, the value-oriented pricing strategy offering more value for a lower amount of money has grown strongly in recent years and will further develop. Distribution has a particularity related to the retailer decision to integrate in a marketing channel. This decision influences all other marketing decisions (concerning the location, image, atmosphere and ambient, products, price and promotion) and the market success for the company.
Recommendation
Retail companies should be more emphasized in order to have greater influence on performance. In addition to price leadership strategy, formula based pricing strategy and fixed pricing strategy on retail stations, the firm can also have psychological pricing strategy in various market segment. The firm can also increase physical presence from six countries in Africa to more locations in other continents in order to have a global presence.
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