Urgent summary questions
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ch_10.docxSection 3: Consumers as Decision Makers
Chapter 10: BUYING, USING AND DISPOSING
Chapter objectives
When students have finished reading this chapter, they should understand why:
1. Many factors at the time of purchase dramatically influence the consumer’s decision-making process.
2. The information a store’s layout, Web site, or salespeople provides strongly influences a purchase decision
3. The growth of a “sharing economy” changes how many consumers think about buying rather than renting products.
4. Our decisions about how to dispose of a product are as important as how we decide to obtain it in the first place.
Chapter SUMMARY
Many factors at the time of purchase dramatically influence the consumer’s decision-making process.
Many factors affect a purchase. These include the consumer’s antecedent state (e.g., his or her mood, time pressure, or disposition toward shopping). Time is an important resource that often determines how much effort and search will go into a decision. Our moods are influenced by the degree of pleasure and arousal a store environment creates.
The shopping experience is a pivotal part of the purchase decision. In many cases, retailing is like theatre—the consumer’s evaluation of stores and products may depend on the type of “performance” he witnesses. The actors (e.g., salespeople), the setting (the store environment), and props (e.g., store displays) influence this evaluation. Like a brand personality, a number of factors, such as perceived convenience, sophistication, and expertise of salespeople, determine store image. With increasing competition from non-store alternatives, creating a positive shopping experience has never been more important. Online shopping is growing in importance, and this new way to acquire products has both good (e.g., convenience) and bad (e.g., security) aspects.
<inst><NOXMLTAGINDOC> <DOCPAGE NUM="373"> <ART FILE="SOLOMONOBJ2ARTPART3.eps" W="28pt" H="26pt" XS="100%" YS="100%"/> </DOCPAGE> </NOXMLTAGINDOC><division id="ch09div1sec05" label="1"><title id="ch09div1sec05.title"><inst></inst>The information a store’s layout, web site, or sales people provides strongly influences a purchase decision.</title>
Because we don’t make many purchase decisions until we’re actually in the store, Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli are important sales tools. These include product samples, elaborate package displays, place-based media, and in-store promotional materials such as “shelf talkers.” POP stimuli are particularly useful in promoting impulse buying, which happens when a consumer yields to a sudden urge for a product. Increasingly, mobile shopping apps are also playing a key role.
The growth of a “sharing economy” changes how many consumers think about buying rather than renting products.
In a sharing economy people rent what they need rather buying it. Websites allow individuals to list services and rating systems that allow buyers and sellers to rate their experiences,
</para></division>
Our decisions about how we dispose of a product are as important as how we decide to obtain it in the first place.
<para>Product disposal is an increasingly important problem. Recycling is one option that will become more crucial as consumers’ environmental awareness grows. Lateral cycling occurs when we buy, sell, or barter secondhand objects.</para></division></summary>
Chapter Outline
I. Situational Effects on Consumer Behavior
A. A consumer’s choices are affected by many personal factors, such as his or her mood, whether there is time pressure to make the purchase, and the particular situation or context for which the product is needed. Figure 10.1 illustrates these relationships.
*****Use Figure 10.1 Here *****
B. A consumption situation is defined by factors over and above the characteristics of the person and of the product that influence the buying and/or using of products and services.
1. The day reconstruction method can be used to understand mood changes and consumption situations throughout the day.
2. Situational effects can be behavioral (e.g., entertaining friends) and perceptual (e.g., being depressed or feeling pressed for time).
3. A person’s situational self-image , the role she plays at any one time, can also affect the purchase process.
4. Table 10.1 gives one example of how a marketer fine-tunes its segmentation strategy to the usage situation.
*****Use Table 10.1 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask the class to think of situations where situational self-image would be very important to consider in formulating strategy.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What are some products that are tied to your self-image? Explain.
C. A consumer’s physical and social environment can make a big difference in motives for product usage and affect how the product is evaluated.
1. Examples of the physical environment would include the decor, smells, and even temperature within the selling environment (such as a store).
2. If other consumers are present when sales are made, they are called co-consumers. The presence or absence of other customers can be positive or negative.
3. The presence of a large number of people in a consumer environment increases physiological arousal levels, which are subject to the consumer’s interpretation.
4. Store density refers to the actual number of people who occupy a space while the psychological state of crowding exists only if a negative affective state occurs because of this density. Crowds can make the experience more intense.
5. The type of consumers who patronize a store can affect our evaluations (e.g., people tend to shop where other shoppers are like them).
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of a local “hot spot.” Describe its characteristics. If you were going to design a similar “hot spot,” what additional features would you add? Why?
D. Temporal Factors: Time is one of the consumers’ most precious resources. The time available before a decision must be made affects the choices we make.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What is your view toward time when shopping? How could time affect your shopping behavior?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to compare “time” when considering shopping on the Internet versus traditional shopping in a store. Consider the advantages and disadvantages.
1. Open rates (the percentage of people who open an email message from a marketer) vary throughout the day, with the peak at mid-day on weekdays.
2. Time is an economic variable. It is a resource divided among activities.
3. An individual’s priorities determine his or her time style, which is the rate at which we choose to spend the time resource.
4. Many consumers are affected by what they would call time poverty, or the perception that they are pressed for time.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of ways marketers attempt to appeal to consumers that have a sense of time poverty. Give a product illustration.
Discussion Opportunity—Give an illustration of a polychronic activity that you perform. What can a marketer learn from this activity to better present products or services to you?
5. Psychological time refers to the subjectiveness of time perceptions.
6. Researchers have identified four dimensions of time: 1) social dimension , 2) temporal situation , 3) planning orientation , and 4) polychronic orientation dimension that have resulted in the identification of five metaphors that capture consumers’ perspectives on time:
a. Time is a Pressure Cooker—Analytic in planning, other oriented, monochronic.
b. Time is a Map—Analytic planners, temporal orientation, polychromic.
c. Time is a Mirror—Analytic planners, polychromic orientation, past temporal orientation.
d. Time is a River—Spontaneous with a present focus.
e. Time is a Feast—Analytic planners with a present temporal orientation.
7. Different societies have different perspectives on time. These include:
a. Linear separable time—Events proceed in an orderly sequence and different times are well defined.
b. Procedural time—People simply decide to do something when they want to. Clocks may be ignored.
c. Circular or cyclic time—People are governed by natural cycles.
8. There is a psychological dimension of time or how it is experienced. This is important in queuing theory (a mathematical study of waiting lines). It has been found that a consumer’s experience of waiting can radically influence his or her perceptions of service quality.
*****Use Figure 10.2 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of a positive and negative experience that they have had with a waiting line. Relate how the marketers handled these situations.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Do “waiting lines” exist on the Internet? When do you have to wait? Is it irritating? How can it be overcome?
II. The Shopping Experience
A. Emotional States and the Shopping Environment
1. Your mood or physiological condition can affect purchases and how products are evaluated.
2. Two dimensions (shown in Figure 10.3), pleasure (enjoyment) and arousal (stimulation), determine if a shopper will react positively or negatively to a consumption environment.
3. A specific mood is some combination of pleasure and arousal.
4. In general, a mood state (either positive or negative) biases judgments of products and services in that direction.
5. Moods can be affected by store design, the weather, or other factors specific to the consumer (such as music or even television programming).
6. When a consumer is in a good mood, s/he processes ads with less elaboration/pays less attention to the specifics of the message and relies more on heuristics.
7. Research companies study facial reactions to understand emotional reactions to new products, looking for a true smile (which includes a relaxation of the upper eyelid) and not a social smile (which occurs around the mouth).
*****Use Figure 10.3 Here *****
B. When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Go Shopping
1. Shopping is an activity that can be performed for either utilitarian (functional or tangible) or hedonic (pleasurable or intangible) reasons.
2. Consumers can be segmented based on their shopping orientations, or general attitudes about shopping.
3. Hedonic shopping motives include:
a. Social experiences
b. Sharing of common interests
c. Interpersonal attraction
d. Instant status
e. The thrill of the hunt
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Can you think of other reasons for shopping? How could the marketer use these (and the ones listed in the chapter) to design strategies to attract you into the store?
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Are the reasons for shopping on the Internet the same as those for shopping in a store or mall? Compare and contrast the differences. How do Internet marketers appeal to your shopping motives on the Internet? Do they consciously try to lure you away from the traditional shopping format? If so, how?
C. E-Commerce: Clicks versus Bricks
1. The experience of acquiring goods online may be different from offline.
2. E-commerce sites take advantage of technology to provide extra value.
a. Sites allow customers to try on and customize offerings.
b. Sites allow customer to crowdsource offerings.
c. Pretailers provide exclusive styles that would not be produced without public interest.
3. Online shoppers tend to value these aspects of a website:
a. The ability to click on an item to create a pop-up window with more details about the product including price, size, colors, and inventory availability.
b. The ability to click on an item and add it to your cart without leaving the page you on.
c. The ability to feel merchandise through better imagery, more product descriptions, and details.
d. The ability to enter all data related to your purchase on one page rather than going through several checkout pages.
e. The ability to mix and match product images on one page to determine whether they will look good together.
Discussion Opportunity—Compare the pros and cons mentioned in Table 9.2. Ask: Which do you think are the most important? Which of the cons are the easiest to overcome? What could you add to the list? If you have not shopped online, why not? How could a marketer get you to shop online? If you have shopped, what do you like the best? What could be improved in your shopping experience?
D. Retailing as Theater
1. Malls are becoming giant entertainment centers to lure customers back to malls as non-store alternatives multiply.
2. Many stores are designed around an image environment. This is a strategy known as retail theming and can be described based upon four basic kinds of themes:
a. Landscape themes —rely on associations with images of nature.
b. Marketscape themes —built on associations with man-made places.
c. Cyberspace themes —incorporate images of information and communications technology.
d. Mindscape themes —draw on abstract ideas and concepts, introspection, and fantasy.
3. Cutting-edge retailers are figuring out that they need to convert a store into a being space that resembles a commercial living room where consumers can relax, be entertained, hang out with friends, etc.
4. Some being spaces cater to minipreneurs (one-person businesses).
5. Another type of retail environment is the pop-up store that open to do business for a few days or weeks and then are dismantled.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenges Here *****
Discuss #11 and #13
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: Is there a mall or store that you like to go to even if you do not want to buy something? What is the attraction?
E. Store image includes location; merchandise suitability, and knowledge and congeniality of the sales staff.
*****Use Consumer Behavior Challenge Here *****
Discuss #4
Discussion Opportunity—Describe a store that you think has a unique personality or image. How do you think the store maintains that image? Do you think this image was part of their original strategy?
1. Atmospherics are the “conscious designing of space and its various dimensions to evoke certain effects in buyers.”
a. This could include colors, scents, and sounds and important to the store’s image.
b. Consumers who enjoy their experiences spend more time and money in a store.
2. Activity stores are a new trend. They allow the consumer to participate in the production of a good or service.
3. Light and music also affect consumer behavior.
***** Use Figure 10.4 Here; Use Consumer Behavior Challenges Here *****
Discuss #10
Apply #2
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to describe the atmospherics of (a) McDonald’s, (b) Wal-Mart, (c) a prestigious department store in your area, and (d) a bar or nightclub in your area. Do you think the atmosphere in these places accomplishes what the management intended?
F. In-Store Decision Making
1. Marketers increasingly recognize the significant degree to which many purchases are influenced by the store environment.
a. Consumers have mental budgets for grocery trips that have an itemized portion and in-store slack that is reserved for unplanned purchases.
b. Stores should use samples and reminders at the point of sale to encourage consumers to spend all of their mental budgets.
2. Mobile shopping apps can help consumers locate merchandise and can help employees provide product information.
3. Spontaneous shopping occurs when a shopper suddenly decides to buy something and it can occur under one of two different processes:
a. Unplanned buying may occur when a person is unfamiliar with a store’s layout or perhaps when under some time pressure.
b. Impulse buying, in contrast, occurs when the person experiences a sudden urge that he or she cannot resist.
i. Impulse items include candy and gum.
ii. Retailers use wide aisles to encourage browsing of high margin items.
iii. Credit card usage is associated with unhealthy and impulsive food products.
*****Use Figure 10.4 Here *****
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: When it comes to shopping, would you describe yourself as a planner, partial planner, or an impulse purchaser? Give an illustration.
4. Point-of-purchase (POP) stimuli are being increasingly used to instigate impulse shopping. This can range from displays to free samples.
Discussion Opportunity—Have students list some interesting or unique POP materials that you have seen. Do you think that it is ethical to put marketing materials in public places such as restrooms or waiting rooms?
G. The Salesperson: A Lead Role in the Play
1. The effect of a competent salesperson, which adds value via expert advice that makes the shopper’s choice easier, can be understood in terms of exchange theory that stresses that every interaction involves an exchange of value.
2. A buyer/seller situation is as in many other dyadic encounters (two-person groups); it is a relationship where some agreement must be reached about the roles of each participant during the process of identity negotiation .
a. A salesperson’s role and effectiveness is affected by age, appearance, education level, motivation to sell, ability to adapt, and similarity to the customer, including incidental similarity such as a shared birthday or common birthplace.
b. People differ in their interaction styles from assertive (and aggressive ) to nonassertive .
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What stores do you like to go to because you like the salespeople? What do you like about them? What are some of the stores you hate to shop at because of the salespeople? How do they make you feel? What specifically do you not like about them? What would you do to correct the situation if you were the management of the store?
III. Ownership and the Sharing Economy
A. Sharing economy or what is sometimes called collaborative consumption. In this business model people rent what the need is rather than buy it. Collaborative consumption communities typically offer a web site that allow individuals to list their services and rating system that allow both buyers and sellers to rate their experiences. Technology has dramatically lowered transaction costs, so that it’s much easier to share assets and track them across large numbers of people.
IV.. Post-purchase Satisfaction and Disposal
A. Consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (CS/D) describes the overall feelings a person has about a product after it has been purchased.
B. Postpurchase Satisfaction?
1. Consumers want quality and value. We infer quality when we rely on cues such as brand name, price, product warranties, and so on.
2. According to the expectancy disconfirmation model, consumers form beliefs about a product’s performance based on prior experience with the product or communications about the product that imply a certain level of quality.
3. Managing expectations —To avoid customer dissatisfaction, marketers should avoid promising something they cannot deliver. The power of quality claims is most evident when a company’s product fails.
4. Consumers that expect too much may be fired if it is not feasible to meet his/her needs or underpromising or setting expectations low so they may be exceeded can alter expectations.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: What do you usually do when you are dissatisfied with a product or service? Have you ever made a legal or public complaint? If so, describe the event and the outcome.
IV. Product Disposal
A. Because people often do form strong attachments to products, the decision to dispose of something may be a painful one.
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to describe a painful disposal situation that you have encountered. What was the result? Would you do it differently if you had it to do over again? (An example might be the selling of an old car that was a favorite or throwing away something that would now be valuable, such as old baseball cards.)
Discussion Opportunity—Ask: How can marketers use the consumer’s reluctance to part with favorite products in their marketing strategy? Apply this to a situation where you would like the consumer to part with an old product and buy a new one.
B. Disposal Options
1. Abandoned products include as much as 12% of grocery products we buy which do not get used.
2. Some adults are pack rats.
3. The perceived effort associated with recycling is the best predictor of whether people will recycle (not attitudes).
4. Lateral cycling is a disposal option in which one consumer exchanges something she owns with someone else.
a. This is part of an underground economy.
b. Sharing sites allow people to share rent and exchange goods locally.
c. The process of lateral cycling is literally a lifestyle for anti-consumerists who call themselves freegans.
d. Free meets are flea markets where no one exchanges money.
5. People who are attached to their stuff may hire a professional organizer to help them declutter and simplify their lives.
6. Some researchers examined how consumers practice divestment rituals, where they take steps to gradually distance themselves from things they treasure so that they can sell them or give them away. The rituals included:
a. Iconic transfer ritual (taking pictures and videos before disposal)
b. Transition-place ritual (putting items away in a garage before disposal)
c. Ritual cleansing (washing, ironing, and wrapping the item before disposal)
Discussion Opportunity—Ask students to think of an example where you have lateral cycled something. Describe the experience. Think of something where you have purchased something that has been lateral cycled. What did you feel about the experience? How did you deal with doubts? How should the marketer try to persuade you to buy new rather than used? Where do you think new industries in lateral cycling will occur in the future?
Discussion Opportunity—Have students share and discuss experiences they have had buying/selling items on eBay or other online auction sites. How do they think such sites have had an impact on the underground economy?
End-of-Chapter Support Material
SUMMARY OF SPECIAL FEATURE BOXES
1. Net Profit
Virtual currency has increased in use, leading to digital wallets, which are electronic devises that individuals to make e-commerce transactions.
2. Marketing Opportunity
Stores are being converted to being spaces, places that act as social living rooms. These places, such as coffee shops, offer comfy chairs and sofas, Wi-Fi, and work spaces.
3. CB As I See It: Julie Baker, Texas A&M University
Consumers depend heavily on visual cues in the physical environment when making purchase decision. Features such as windows, doorways, lighting, and architectural style are visual cues that shape perceptions of and feeling about a store.
4. Net Profit
Because of frustration and hassles associated with brick-and-mortar stores, the use of shopping apps has increased. Those who use a handheld mobile computer reported an improved shopping experience.
5. CB As I See It: Jean-Charles Chebat, HEC-Montreal, Canada and Technion, Israel
Store atmosphere affects emotion, basically arousal and pleasure, that affect shopper’s cognitive activity and behavior, mostly how much time and money shippers spend in stores. Shopper behavior also changes based on who they shop with.
6. The Tangled Web
The site customerssuck.com allows those who work in the retail and food industries to vent about customers and their questions, and attitudes.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
10-1. What is time poverty, and how can it influence our purchase decisions?
Many consumers believe they are more pressed for time than ever before. It may increase usage of convenience goods and decision-making shortcuts.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-2. What are the two dimensions that determine whether we will react positively or negatively to a purchase environment?
Pleasure—–a person can enjoy or not enjoy a situation and arousal—he can feel stimulated or not.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking,
10-3. List three separate motivations for shopping, give an example of each.
Social experiences: The shopping center or department store has replaced the traditional town square or county fair as a community gathering place.
Sharing of common interests: Stores frequently offer specialized goods that allow people with shared interests to communicate. Interpersonal attraction: Shopping centers are a natural place to congregate. The shopping mall has become a central “hangout” for teenagers.
Instant status: As every salesperson knows, some people savor the experience of being waited on, even though they may not necessarily buy anything.
The thrill of the hunt: Some people pride themselves on being able to find the best bargains.
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-4. What are some important pros and cons of e-commerce?
Numerous benefits and limitations of e-commerce are listed in Table 9.2 for both the consumer and the marketer.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking,)
10-5. List three factors that help to determine store image.
Color, scents, and sounds.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-6. What is the difference between unplanned buying and impulse buying?
Unplanned buying may occur when a person is unfamiliar with a store’s layout or perhaps when under some time pressure; or, a person may be reminded to buy something by seeing it on a store shelf. In contrast, impulse buying occurs when the person experiences a sudden urge he cannot resist.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-7. How do business models in the sharing economy differ from traditional purchase processes?
We’re witnessing the rise of the sharing economy, or what is sometimes called collaborative consumption. In this business model people rent what they need rather than buying it. Collaborative consumption communities typically offer a Web site that allows individuals to list their services and a ratings system that allows both buyers and sellers to rate their experiences. What is fueling this revolution? Primarily technology that dramatically lowers transaction costs, so that it’s much easier to share assets and track them across large numbers of people. Online payment systems make it easy to exchange money. Social networks create communities and build trust among strangers who can access each other’s histories. Sellers can make money from assets they don’t use much; think about how many hours a typical owner actually uses an electric drill compared to how much it costs to buy one.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-8. What is the difference between recycling and lateral cycling?
During lateral cycling, one consumer exchanges something he or she owns for something the other person owns. Reusing other people’s things is especially important in our throwaway society because, as one researcher put it, “there is no longer an ‘away’ to throw things to.” Although traditional marketers don’t pay much attention to used product sellers, factors such as concern about the environment, demands for quality, and cost and fashion consciousness make these “secondary” markets more important. In fact, economic estimates of this underground economy range from 3 to 30 percent of the gross national product of the United States and up to 70 percent of the gross domestic product of other countries. The new trend of recommerce (a play on the term e-commerce) shows that many consumers want to squeeze more value out of their possessions by selling or trading them.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking) CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
DISCUSS
10-9. Are pop-up stores just a fad or a retailing concept that is here to stay?
Given that there are so many strategies that have circulated through retailing, it is likely that nothing is “here to stay.” Students should be engaged in a discussion as to how long they thing that this trend will last and possible reasons that it might end (no longer providing the benefits of promoting the new idea; stores so profitable that they remain open, etc.).
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-10. Think about exceptionally good and bad salespeople you have encountered as a shopper. What qualities seem to differentiate them from others?
The instructor might ask students to recall the last time they went shopping. In the context of that shopping trip, students should describe the characteristics of the salespeople who assisted them. The instructor, or a member of the class, should generate a list of the most common traits mentioned and use the class discussion to profile both good and bad salespeople. The students also should be encouraged to consider the text discussion of source credibility, including such characteristics as similarity, attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, and likeability.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-11. Discuss the concept of timestyle. Based on your own experiences, how might we segment consumers in terms of their timestyles?
The concept of timestyle reflects how individuals allocate their time to various activities. You might want to discuss your own timestyle with the class and encourage students to do the same. A discussion of how consumers might be segmented based on their timestyles should be included. Products that benefit from different timestyles also could be discussed. For example: How much time do you spend teaching, grading papers, researching, and doing college and community service? How much time do you spend with your family, doing household chores, eating, sleeping, exercising, and having fun?
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-12 Consumers who participate in the sharing economy seem willing to interact with total strangers. Despite safety and privacy concerns, what is the long-term outlook for this change in the way we think about interacting with people whom we don’t know? How can businesses help to diminish worries some people may have about these practices?
Consumers no longer want to buy them. Instead we’re witnessing the rise of the sharing economy, or what is sometimes called collaborative consumption. In this business model people rent what they need rather than buying it. Collaborative consumption communities typically offer a Web site that allows individuals to list their services and a ratings system that allows both buyers and sellers to rate their experiences. Technology that dramatically lowers transaction costs, so that it’s much easier to share assets and track them across large numbers of people. Online payment systems make it easy to exchange money. Social networks create communities and build trust among strangers who can access each other’s histories.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-13 Several men’s clothing retailers nationwide now provide free booze to their male clientele to encourage them to hang out in their stores. Is it ethical to encourage customers to become intoxicated before they shop?
This is an extension of what salons have been doing for some time for women. Student opinions will vary with students pointing out that it is up to the customers to choose how much to consume. Make the connection for students that offering such refreshments are a part of store image and atmospherics.
(5 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities)
10-14 Some retailers work hard to cultivate a certain look or image, and they may even choose employees who fit this look. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, seems to link itself to a clean-cut, all-American image. At one point, a lawsuit claimed that Abercrombie & Fitch systematically “refuses to hire qualified minority applicants as brand representatives to work on the sales floor and discourages applications from minority applicants.” (Abercrombie replied that it has “zero tolerance for discrimination.”) We know the Hooters restaurant chain is known for its attractive female waitresses. Should a retailer have the right to recruit employees who are consistent with its image even if this means excluding certain types of people (e.g. non-Caucasians, men) from the sales floor? What are some positive and negative aspects of a policy that requires employees who interact with customers to wear a uniform?
Traditionally, the law has allowed for hiring people with a certain look or body type if it can be proven that this is a necessary component of the product or service. For example, airlines can refuse to hire flight personnel that exceed a weight and size limitation (or terminate them if they exceed the limitations after being hired) because there is limited space to work on the airplanes. Ethnic restaurants can choose to only hire people of that ethnicity. Modeling agencies and movie/TV production companies make hiring decisions based almost exclusively on the way people look. However, for many chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch, it is difficult to justify this link. In addition, in a case such as its, they would be unwise to attempt such a link for reasons of public perception. Since this lawsuit, Abercrombie & Fitch has implemented personnel policies to ensure that this problem will be eliminated. Whether or not students feel retailers should have the right to exclude certain types of people will vary based on the students opinion. The discussion on the use of uniforms should include the role of identity negotiation. A uniform is a factor that helps to define a salesperson’s role in the organization.
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 2 and 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-15The store environment is heating up as more and more companies put their promotional dollars into pointofpurchase efforts. Some stores confront shoppers with videos at the checkout counter, computer monitors attached to their shopping carts, and ads stenciled on the floors. We are also increasingly exposed to ads in non-shopping environments. A health club in New York was forced to remove TV monitors that showed advertising on the Health Club Media Networks, after exercisers claimed that the programming interfered with their workouts. Do you feel that these innovations are overly intrusive? At what point might shoppers rebel and demand some peace and quiet while they shop? Do you see any market potential in the future for stores that “countermarket” by promising a “handsoff” shopping environment?
Student opinion will vary based on their knowledge/experience and feelings/beliefs about place-based media. You might ask your students if they ever encounter this type of promotion and explore their reaction at the time of exposure. Students might also be asked to consider a more objective opinion, in light of what they have learned from this course. They should be challenged to view the advantages and disadvantages of these practices from the perspectives of both consumers and retailers.
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-16 Courts often prohibit special-interest groups from distributing literature in shopping malls. Mall managements claim that these centers are private property. However, these groups argue that the mall is the modernday version of the town square and as such is a public forum. Find some recent court cases involving this freespeech issue and examine the arguments pro and con. What is the status of the mall as a public forum? Do you agree with this concept?
This exercise will challenge the student to conduct primary and secondary research. Encourage exploration of this issue with other students, faculty members, and consumer advocacy groups. A search should be conducted of published sources such as court cases and the Law Review. They might call the management office of a local mall for additional information.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
The psychological dimension of time—how we actually experience it—is an important factor in queuing theory, the mathematical study of waiting lines. As we all know, our experience when we wait has a big effect on our evaluations of what we get at the end of the wait. Although we assume that something must be pretty good if we have to wait for it, the negative feelings that long waits arouse can quickly turn people off. Student discussions ontheir “pain points” will vary.
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
APPLY
10-18 Conduct naturalistic observation at a local mall. Sit in a central location and observe the activities of mall employees and patrons. Keep a log of the nonretailing activity you observe (e.g., special performances, exhibits, socializing, etc.). Does this activity enhance or detract from business the mall conducts? As malls become more like high-tech game rooms, how valid is the criticism raised that shopping areas are only encouraging more loitering by teenage boys who don’t spend a lot in stores and simply scare away other customers?
Students tend to like this exercise. Now that they have been exposed to a variety of consumer behavior constructs, they are likely to see things in the retail context that they did not notice before. They will probably notice a wide variety of non-retailing activities in the mall. Encourage your students to think about the advantages and disadvantages of these other activities from both the consumers’ and retailers’ points of view. Encourage students to develop a specific plan for dealing with teenage loitering that would work, be legal, and would not interfere with normal store and mall traffic. Students might interview mall officials or security officers to get their viewpoint about loitering. (Possible Field Project Idea)
(90 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Analytic Skills)
10-19 Select three competing clothing stores in your area and conduct a store image study for them. Ask a group of consumers to rate each store on a set of attributes and plot these ratings on the same graph. Based on your findings, are there any areas of competitive advantage or disadvantage you could bring to the attention of store management?
Students should review the section on store image (including Atmospherics) before beginning this exercise. You might encourage the students to select stores that are very different from each other rather than “direct competitors.” Consider using this as an opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this type of market research. (Possible Field Project Idea)
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Analytic Skills)
10-20 Using Table 10.1 as a model, construct a person-situation segmentation matrix for a brand of perfume.
You might want to ask different groups of students to construct a matrix for other very different types of products, such as convenience versus specialty goods. Tell students to look up these terms in the glossary and index for further information. Allow students to experiment with variables to construct their matrix. (Possible Field Project or In-Class Group Project Idea)
(25 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking
10-21 Many retailers believe that when they pile a lot of stuff around their store, this cluttered look encourages shoppers to hunt for items and eventually buy more. Dollar General recently raised the height of its shelves to more than six feet; J. C. Penney transformed empty walls into jewelry and accessory displays; Old Navy added lanes lined with items like water bottles, candy, and lunchboxes. Best Buy is even testing the impact of filling aisles with bulky items like Segways and bicycles to compensate for the smaller space that thin TVs and smaller speakers take up. Walmart recently did an abrupt about-face: The company only recently remodeled its stores by eliminating the pallets of items it used to stack in the centers of aisles, and it reduced overall inventory by about 9%. Customers loved the leaner, cleaner look. Only one problem: They bought less stuff. As a senior Walmart executive commented, “They loved the experience. They just bought less. And that generally is not a good long-term strategy.” Now, Walmart is adding inventory back in and is once again piling stacks of merchandise in aisles. What is your take on these store-stocking strategies? Visit several “big-box” stores in your area, such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Costco, and so on. If possible, interview shoppers about their experiences. Do they have trouble navigating around the store? Do they enjoy the clutter? Does it feel like a “treasure hunt” when they have to pick their way around piles and pallets? If you were designing a store, how would you craft a stocking strategy that would make it easy to shop there?
A variety of responses will emerge from this activity because students may have different motivations for shopping and may have different experiences within the store depending on the shopper density when they shop. Students should recognize the trade-off between the convenience of making things neat, orderly and easy to find and the messy, cluttered store with things stacked high, which customers associate with lower prices.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-22 Identify three people who own electric coffee makers. Then, “go to the gemba” by observing them as they actually prepare coffee in the appliance at home. Based on these experiences, what recommendations might you make to the designer of a new coffee maker model that would improve customers’ experiences with the product?
Student responses will vary
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
10-23 Interview three consumers who have used a sharing economy service, such as Zipcar, Airbnb, Snapgoods, etc. How would you characterize their experiences compare to more traditional models?
Student responses will vary.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 3, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
CASE STUDY TEACHING NOTES
Chapter 10 Case Study: Furnishing An Experience
Summary of Case
Walk into a Jordan’s Furniture store on a Saturday afternoon. If you have the time, you watch the latest 3-D IMAX movie in a 500-seat theatre before you pick out your new sofa. This might sound like a crazy in-store activity for a furniture store, but events like this are what drive sales at Jordan’s Furniture stores in the Boston area. The company’s slog, “not just a store…an experience,” keeps customers coming every day and literally illustrates the concept of “retailing as theater.”
Suggestions for Presentation
Have students discuss other businesses that use “theater” to keep customers coming in.
Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions
CS 10-1. Evaluate the shopping experience at Jordan’s. Why is it so successful? Be sure to consider how they have incorporated concepts related to physical and social surroundings, as well as atmospherics. Is there any downside to this approach to retailing?
Jordan’s shopping experience is successful because consumers can try out products in the same way they would use them at home. The only downside is that this method of retailing is very expensive.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
CS 10-2. Do you think the appeal of Jordan’s and its attractions is universal across all demographic groups? For example, if Jordan’s were building a new location near colleges, what “shopper-tainment” features would draw college students? Do you believe this would motivate students to purchase furniture from Jordan’s?
Jordan’s shopping experience is more likely to attract younger more affluent customers.
(10 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Analytic Skills)
CS 10-3. How was Jordan’s used the brand community around the Boston Red Sox to its advantage? What other communities could it use?
Consumers have an emotional relationship to their favorite sports teams.
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Analytic Skills,)
Additional Support Material
STUDENT PROJECTS
Individual Projects
1. Have students employ the method of Day Reconstruction to document their own behavior for a day and report on the findings. What trends do they notice? Are there things that they found that they did not expect?
Students may notice effects of mood and other situational factors that they may not have recognized without the exercise.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 1, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
2. Have students go to a shopping mall. Have them analyze the behavior of shoppers based on observation only. Can they determine the nature of people’s reasons for shopping? Have them keep track and present the results to the class.
Students may observe the pace at which the consumers are shopping, the number and types of purchases they have made from shopping bags, the number of people in the shopping group, the gender composition of the group, and the time of day, among other things, and make inferences about the shoppers motivations.
(90 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
3. Ask a student to visit competing discount houses, supermarkets, department stores, or specialty shops in your area and describe the image they have of each store. What factors account for the image differences? For the poorest image store, design a strategy for upgrading its image.
Student responses will vary depending on the stores visited, but they should recognize that there is often a cost associated with atmospherics. Therefore, stores with a higher image may also have higher margins on the products they sell. At the same time, some stores may try to look bare bones and cluttered because consumers associated these store designs with lower prices.
(120 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
4. Have students talk to other students at the university or college. What forms of complaint behavior do they observe? What strategies could the university or college follow to alleviate these complaints?
Students may enjoy this project. Student-to-student complaint interactions would be categorized as word of mouth. If the student complained to a third party or directly to the university, their complaints would fit in different categories. The strategies to alleviate complaints may be directed at the student or at the problem.
(60 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
5. Have someone visit a local supermarket and question the manager regarding how shelf space is allocated. What and who determines which products are placed on the shelves, how much space they are allocated, and at what level they are displayed on the shelf?
Students may be surprised at the amount of thought that goes into shelf positioning. Students who find it interesting may also want to read Paco Underhill’s book, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.
(45 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
6. Many consumers have become more interested in conserving than in “throwing away.” Have students think of ideas they have for creative recycling. Then, see if they can figure out ways to profitably market these ideas to the public.
Some organizations provide rewards to consumers that recycle (e.g. recyclebank.com). Organizations like ebay.com, craigslist.org and freecycle.org help consumers recycle. People who run flea markets make money by renting space to people who often want to sell used merchandise. Students might also sell extended warranties or service plans on second-hand products.
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
7. Ask a student to relate to the class a purchase experience in which dissatisfaction resulted from the product or service purchased. Have the student tell the class how he/she reacted in terms of post-purchase dissonance. How could the seller avoid future similar incidents?
Post-purchase dissonance is a result of tension that often occurs because of a difference between expectations and reality. The student should recognize that lowering expectations or improving service is two ways of reducing the gap between expected and actual service.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking and Communication Abilities)
8. Have students interview someone older than fifty. What do they look for in a shopping environment? Compare this with your own and/or the student’s expectations. Discuss the differences.
Students should observe differences in expectations for customer service, atmospherics, crowding, the availability of technological tools, and social media access, among other things. Look for students to identify the differences and make inferences about why the differences exist.
(45 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Analytic Skills)
9. Freecycle something. Then, take something off of Freecycle.org. Report on the experience including the feelings of giving/receiving, the benefit or value to the giver/receiver, etc.
Individual feelings will vary; the value should include the value of the object and the reduced cost to the environment.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Reflective Thinking and Communication Abilities)
10. Have each student think of a time when they had to get rid of something that had been significant to them. Analyze this situation in terms of divestment rituals.
Divestment rituals include iconic transfer ritual (taking pictures and videos before disposal), transition-place ritual (putting items away in a garage before disposal); and ritual cleansing (washing, ironing, and wrapping the item before disposal).
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
11. Faculty often gets free textbooks from publishers in order to review and possibly prescribe them for their courses. Book buyers come by faculty offices to get books (sometimes, instructor copies), which are then “recycled” into the aftermarket. Is this activity ethical? Does this help keep the cost of books lower for students? Alternatively, should the faculty freecycle these books by offering them to needy students?
Many schools have policies against selling text books to book buyers. The costs for some students may be lower, but the publisher probably has revenue goals so it is likely to increase the costs for other students. Faculty members can put unused copies on reserve at the library; this provides the benefit of sharing the content with needy students without profiting from something that was a goodwill gift from the publisher, which may ultimately increase prices for other students.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 5, AACSB: Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Abilities
Group Projects
1. In groups, visit three or four different grocery stores, note the elements of the stores’ environment, and compare them. Based on what you have seen, make recommendations to the store manager in order to improve the retailing environment.
Look for students to select specific aspects of the store environment to improve and to tie their recommendations to the store’s overall positioning.
(90 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
2. Student teams should go to an activity store to interview the manager. Given that the concept of the store is built around participating in the production of a good, ask the manager what benefits they perceive in this model, both from the consumer perspective and from the company perspective.
Before assigning this exercise, make sure there is an activity store nearby that is willing to participate in the interview process. If there is only one activity store, you may want to select a single group to do this project so the manager is not overwhelmed with inquiries. As an alternative, you can ask students to explore the websites of activity stores online to find the same information. Publicly traded stores will have information about the company perspective in their annual reports, and the consumer perspective should be evident from the copy on the website, which is likely to explain the value of the shopping experience to the consumer.
(60 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
3. Assign each student group a competitive task. Each member of the group should attempt to get an item off Freecycle.org. The competition is: Which member of the group can come up with a free item that is worth the most? Which did the most good for the giver? Which did the most good in terms of keeping it out of a landfill?
The value of the free item in total dollars should be compared to the value of keeping the product out of a landfill.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
4. Have groups of students research and catalog recycling/reusing efforts in their community as part of the class project. They can think of this assignment as their contribution to public service. They can contact the local media to disseminate this information to the local public.
Look for students to focus on the positive dimension of existing efforts as well as the areas for improvement and to tie their recommendations back to what they learned in consumer behavior about product disposal.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking and Communication Abilities
eLAB
Individual Assignments
1. Go to www.bestbuy.com. The Best Buy website promises interactivity with the customer. What evidence do you find that this has occurred (if any)? Evaluate the Best Buy website as to ease of use and customer involvement. What are your impressions about the Best Buy approach? What is the company doing right and what are they doing wrong with respect to customer buying?
Students may note the ability to search, watch videos about “blue shirt test drives” of products, easy access to weekly promotional specials, the ability to compare products, etc. Look for students to provide support that relates back to the consumer behavior concepts in the chapter for what they company is doing right and what the company is doing wrong on the website.
(15 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking,)
2. Go to www.starbucked.com. What is the overall purpose of this website? Based on the information given on this website, discuss how consumers can become so dissatisfied that they would create or participate in such a website. Give examples of the different possible courses of action for reacting to poor service.
Starbucked.com is a complaint website. Strong brands are particularly susceptible to these kinds of consumer responses. This is because they tend to evoke passion and are a large target that generates enough buzz to attract other customers. Students should identify the ability for Starbucks to review customer complaints on this site to improve customer service.
(25 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
Group Assignments
1. Go to www.bananarepublic.com and www.oldnavy.com. Have your group compare these two websites as to online atmosphere. Next, if possible, go to a Banana Republic and Old Navy store to determine the differences between in-store atmospheres. Comment on what you find. How have the two organizations positioned themselves? Is there consistency between the approaches used on the Web versus the approaches used in the retail environment? Explain. What improvements should or both of the organizations make with respect to consumer buying? Explain how you arrived at your suggestion(s).
Both company websites are linked, as is gap.com and piperlime.com, and provides access to a common shopping bag. However, the designs of the websites are very different, as are the store images in the bricks and mortar versions of the store. Students should observe differences in the atmospherics, the sales people, the type and quantity of merchandise and relate these differences to the positioning of the stores. For the recommendations, look for students to provide support for their suggestions from the chapter.
(45 minutes, Chapter Objective 2, AACSB: Reflective Thinking and Analytic Skills)
2. Go to www.customerssuck.com. As a group, examine accounts given by employees as to the outrageous behavior observed in retail settings. Summarize the findings. What conclusions can be made from this?
The examples on this website are a little bit dated, but can still be useful for students to categorize findings. Students may have examples from their own retail experiences.
(20 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
3. Visit www.customerrespect.com/ and learn about what they do about treating online customers. Is this service necessary?
The service may provide online “listening” for companies that do not have the resources to perform this important responsibility in house. Student opinions will vary about whether the service is necessary, but should agree on the importance of designing websites to meet customer needs.
(30 minutes, Chapter Objective 4, AACSB: Reflective Thinking)
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