Building Loyalty in Retailing through In-Store Management and Communication
C. Brătianu, G. Brătucu, D. Lixăndroiu, N. Al. Pop, S. Văduva (Ed.), 7th International Conference on Business Excellence – Business Excellence Challenges During the Economic Crises, 12-13 October 2012, Volume I, 2012, pp.166-172, Editura Universităţii Transilvania din Braşov, ISBN 978-606-19-0103-6
6 Pages Posted: 19 May 2013
Date Written: October 12, 2012
Abstract
A difficult and real challenge that retail brands must face lies in managing to gain the customers’ loyalty and bind them to a particular store. To accomplish this desideratum, the management of retailers will have to ensure that consumers enjoy a positive experience in the retail unit, that is, a minimal degree of satisfaction is achieved. Regardless of the means used — good prices, excellent service or a rich and diverse assortment — the retail brand will have to make remarkable and ongoing efforts to cope with the customers’ dynamic and fickle behaviour in order to create in their mind a positive image and gain their loyalty, for that matter. To help accomplish this desideratum, in addition to the above mentioned elements one may also resort to ambience/atmosphere or in-store management as well as communication. In order to become operational, these measures must be directed with high precision towards the target customers.
The research conducted by the authors on about 2000 Romanian consumers reveals that while the in-store design and decoration has a major contribution to generating satisfaction with and loyalty toward the retail unit, communication rather exerts an indirect, negative impact on consumers. The current research is based on the multivariate analysis by means of which the authors attempt to find an explanation to the resulted phenomenon and provide possible solutions for the food and non-food retail formats under consideration.
Keywords: loyalty, satisfaction, retailing, communication, in-store management, retail format
JEL Classification: M30, M31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation