Retail Management: A Strategic
Approach
Thirteenth Edition
Chapter 7
Identifying And
Understanding
Consumers
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Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
7.1 To discuss why it is important for a retailer to properly identify,
understand, and appeal to its customers
7.2 To enumerate and describe a number of consumer
demographics, lifestyle factors, needs and desires – and to
explain how these concepts can be applied to retailing
7.3 To examine consumer attitudes toward shopping and
consumer shopping behavior, including the consumer
decision process and its stages
7.4 To look at retailer actions based on target market planning
7.5 To note some of the environmental factors that affect
consumer shopping
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Figure 7.2 What Makes Retail Shoppers
Tick
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Consumer Demographics and Lifestyles
Consumer Demographics Consumer Lifestyles
• objective, quantifiable, • ways in which individual
easily identifiable, and consumers and families
measurable population (households) live and
data spend time and money
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Consumer Demographics
• Consumers, both as groups and as individuals, can be identified
by such demographics as gender, age, population growth rate,
life expectancy, literary, language spoken, household size,
marital and family status, income, retail sales, mobility, place of
residence, occupation, education, and ethnic/racial background.
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Understanding Consumer Lifestyles:
Social Factors
• Lifestyle
– Culture
– Reference Groups
– Social Class
– Family Life Cycle
– Household Life Cycle
– Time Utilization
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Understanding Consumer Lifestyles:
Psychological Factors
• Lifestyle
– Personality
– Class Consciousness
– Attitudes (opinions)
– Purchase Importance
– Perceived Risk
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Retailer Strategies to Reduce Perceived
Risk by Shoppers (1 of 2)
• Functional– product usage testing by retailer; especially
private labels. Double check returned “B” goods. Simulate
wear for new goods.
• Physical- safety testing, reduce salt and fat in food
products
• Financial- money back guarantee and exchange privileges
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Retailer Strategies to Reduce Perceived
Risk by Shoppers (2 of 2)
• Social— co-branding of private label products with major
high-quality national brands (Kirkland by Starbucks)
• Psychological– showing empathy for consumer
• Time- double money back guarantee; auto dealers picking
and returning recalled cars
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Retailing Implications of Demographics
and Lifestyles
• Gender Roles
• Consumer Sophistication and Confidence
• Poverty of Time
• Component Lifestyles
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Consumer Needs and Desires
• Needs: a person’s basic shopping requirements consistent
with his or her present demographics and lifestyles
• Desires: discretionary shopping goals that affect attitudes
and behaviour
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Three Special Market Segments
• In-Home Shoppers
• Online/mobile Shoppers
• Out shoppers
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Attitudes Towards Shopping (1 of 2)
• Level of shopping enjoyment
• Shopping time
• Cautious Optimism and Disparity in Wealth Effect
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Attitudes Towards Shopping (2 of 2)
• Shifting feelings about retailing
• Attitudes by market segment
‒ Involved
‒ Spontaneous
‒ Apathetic
• Attitudes toward private brands
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Top Reasons for Leaving an Apparel
Store Without Buying
• Change in shopping goals
• Deficiencies in merchandise assortment (cannot find an
appealing style, right size, fit)
• Lack of salesperson support and unsatisfactory in-store
experience
• Cannot find a good value
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Cross-Shopping
• Shopping for a product category at more than one retail
format during the year
• Visiting multiple retailers on one shopping trip
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The Consumer Decision Process
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Types of Consumer Decisions
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Types of Impulse Shopping
• Completely unplanned
• Partially unplanned
• Unplanned substitution
• Retail atmospherics
• Enhanced service mix – related + unrelated to core
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Retailer Actions
• Mass Marketing
– Kohl’s Department Stores
• Concentrated Marketing
– Family Dollar
• Differentiated Marketing
– Foot Locker
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Environmental Factors Affecting
Consumers
• Several environmental factors influence shopping attitudes and
behaviour, including:
• Rate of inflation
• State of economy
• Emergence of new technologies
• Trend toward more people WFH
• Evolving societal values and norms
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Copyright
Copyright © 2018, 2014, 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
