Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

RETAILING AND PROFILE OF SHOPPING MALLS

1.1 Introduction

India, a country which had firm cultural links from medieval

time, is trying to match the standards of other developed countries. In
the last decade there has been a large increase in the number of malls
and shopping centers. There were about 190 malls by the end of the
year 2010, which swell to 280 in 2011-12. In Uttar Pradesh, there are
about 51.

1.2 Retailing in India

Retailing is one of the pillars of Indian economy and accounts

for 14 to 15 percent of its GDP. The Indian retail market is estimated
to be US$ 450 billion and one of the top five retail markets in the
world by economic value. India is one of the fastest growing retail
markets in the world, with 1.2 billion people .India's retailing industry
is essentially owner manned small shops. In 2010, larger format
convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for about 4% of the
industry, and these were present only in large urban centers. India's
retail and logistics industry employs about 40 million Indians (3.3% of
Indian population).Until 2011, Indian Central Government denied
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, forbidding
foreign groups from any ownership in supermarkets, convenience
stores or any retail outlets. Even single-brand retail was limited to
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51% ownership and a bureaucratic process. In November 2011, India's

Central Government announced retail reforms for both multi-brand
stores and single-brand stores. These market reforms paved the way
for retail innovation and competition with multi-brand retailers such
as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco, as well single brand majors such
as IKEA, Nike, and Apple. The announcement sparked intense
activism, both in opposition and in support of the reforms. In
December 2011, under pressure from the opposition, Indian
Government placed the retail reforms on hold till it reaches a
consensus. In January 2012, India approved reforms for single-brand
stores welcoming anyone in the world to innovate in Indian retail
market with 100% ownership, but imposed the requirement that the
single brand retailer source 30% of its goods from India. Indian
Government continues the hold on retail reforms for multi-brand
stores. In June 2012, IKEA announced it has applied for permission to
invest $1.9 billion in India and set up 25 retail stores. Fitch believes
that the 30% requirement is likely to significantly delay if not prevent
most single brand majors from Europe, USA and Japan from opening
stores and creating associated jobs in India.

On 14 September 2012, the Government of India announced the

opening of FDI in multi-brand retail, subject to approvals by
individual states. This decision has been welcomed by economists and
the markets, however has caused protests and an upheaval in India's
Central Government's political coalition structure. On 20 September
2012, the Government of India formally notified the FDI reforms for
single and multi-brand retail, thereby making it effective under Indian
law. On 7 December 2012, the Federal Government of India allowed
 3

51% FDI in multi-brand retail in India. The Feds managed to get the
approval of multi-brand retail in the parliament despite heavy uproar
from the opposition. Some states will allow foreign supermarkets like
Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour to open while other states will not.
Organized retailing, in India refers to trading activities undertaken by
licensed retailers, that is; those who are registered for sales tax,
income tax, etc. These include the publicly traded supermarkets,
corporate-backed hypermarkets and retail chains, and also the
privately owned large retail businesses. Unorganized retailing, on the
other hand, refers to the traditional formats of low-cost retailing, for
example, the local corner shops, owner manned general stores, paan
shops, convenience stores, hand cart and pavement vendors, etc.
Organized retailing was absent in most rural and small towns of India
in 2010. Supermarkets and similar organized retail accounted for just
4% of the market.

Most Indian shopping takes place in open markets or millions of

small, independent grocery and retail shops. Shoppers typically stand
outside the retail shop, ask for what they want, and cannot pick or
examine a product from the shelf. Access to the shelf or product
storage area is limited. Once the shopper requests the food staple or
household product they are looking for, the shopkeeper goes to the
container or shelf or to the back of the store, brings it out and offers it
for sale to the shopper. Often the shopkeeper may substitute the
product, claiming that it is similar or equivalent to the product the
consumer is asking for. The product typically has no price label in
these small retail shops; although some products do have a
manufactured suggested retail price (MSRP) pre-printed on the
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packaging. The shopkeeper prices the food staple and household

products arbitrarily, and two consumers may pay different prices for
the same product on the same day. Price is sometimes negotiated
between the shopper and shopkeeper. The shoppers do not have time
to examine the product label, and do not have a choice to make an
informed decision between competitive products.

The typical Indian retail shops are very small. Over 14 million
outlets operate in the country and only 4% of them being larger than
500 sq. ft. (46 m2) in size. India has about 11 shop outlets for every
1000 people. Vast majority of the unorganized retail shops in India
employ family members, do not have the scale to procure or transport
products at high volume wholesale level, have limited to no quality
control or fake-versus-authentic product screening technology and
have no training on safe and hygienic storage, packaging or logistics.
The unorganized retail shops source their products from a chain of
middlemen who mark up the product as it moves from farmer or
producer to the consumer. The unorganized retail shops typically offer
no after-sales support or service. Finally, most transactions at
unorganized retail shops are done with cash, with all sales being final.

Until the 1990s, regulations prevented innovation and

entrepreneurship in Indian retailing. Some retails faced complying
with over thirty regulations such as "signboard licenses" and "anti-
hoarding measures" before they could open doors. There are taxes for
moving goods to states, from states, and even within states in some
cases. Farmers and producers had to go through middlemen
monopolies. The logistics and infrastructure was very poor, with
losses exceeding 30%.Through the 1990s, India introduced
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widespread free market reforms, including some related to retail.

Between the years 2000 to 2010, consumers in select Indian cities
have gradually begun to experience the quality, choice, convenience
and benefits of organized retail industry.

1.3 Growth of Retail Sector over 1997-2010

India in 1997 allowed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in cash

and carry wholesale. Then, it required Government approval. The
approval requirement was relaxed, and automatic permission was
granted in 2006. From2000 to 2010, Indian retail attracted about $1.8
billion in Foreign Direct Investment, representing a very small 1.5%
of total investment flow into India. Single brand retailing attracted 94
proposals between 2006 and 2010, of which 57 were approved and
implemented. For a country of 1.2 billion people, this is a very small
number. Some claim one of the primary restraints inhibiting better
participation was that India required single brand retailers to limit
their ownership in Indian outlets to 51%. China in contrast allows
100% ownership by foreign companies in both single brand and multi-
brand retail presence. Indian retail has experienced limited growth,
and its spoilage of food harvest is amongst the highest in the world,
because of very limited integrated cold-chain and other infrastructure.
India has only 5386 stand-alone cold storages, having a total capacity
of 23.6 million metric tons. However, 80 percent of this storage is
used only for potatoes. The remaining infrastructure capacity is less
than 1% of the annual farm output of India and grossly inadequate
during peak harvest seasons. This leads to about 30% losses in certain
perishable agricultural output in India, on average, every year.
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Indian laws already allow Foreign Direct Investment in cold-

chain infrastructure to the extent of 100 percent. There has been no
interest in Foreign Direct Investment in cold storage infrastructure
build out. Experts claim that cold storage infrastructure will become
economically viable only when there is strong and contractually
binding demand from organized retail. The risk of cold storing
perishable food, without an assured way to move and sell it, puts the
economic viability of expensive cold storage in doubt. In the absence
of organized retail competition and with a ban on Foreign Direct
Investment in multi-brand retailers, Foreign Direct Investments are
unlikely to begin in cold storage and farm logistics infrastructure.

Until 2010, intermediaries and middlemen in India have

dominated the value chain. Due to a number of intermediaries
involved in the traditional Indian retail chain, norms are flouted and
pricing lacks transparency. Small Indian farmers realize only one-third
of the total price paid by the final Indian consumer, as against two-
third by farmers in nations with a higher share of organized retail. The
60%+ margins for middlemen and traditional retail shops have limited
growth and prevented innovation in Indian retail industry.

India has years of debate and discussions on the risks and

prudence of allowing innovation and competition within its retail
industry. Numerous economists repeatedly recommended to the
Government of India that legal restrictions on organized retail must be
removed, and the retail industry in India must be opened to
competition. For example, in an invited address to the Indian
parliament in December 2010, Jagdish Bhagwati a Professor of
Economics and Law at the Columbia University analyzed the
 7

relationship between growth and poverty reduction, then urged the

Indian parliament to extend economic reforms by freeing up of the
retail sector, further liberalization of trade in all sectors, and
introducing labor market reforms. Such reforms Professor Bhagwati
argued will accelerate economic growth and make a sustainable
difference in the life of India's poorest.

A report which was published in the year 2007, noted that an

increasing number of people in India are turning to the services sector
for employment due to the relative low compensation offered by the
traditional agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The organized retail
market is growing at 35% annually while growth of unorganized retail
sector is pegged at 6%.

The Retail Business in India is currently at the point of

inflection. As of 2008, rapid changes with investments to the tune of
US $ 25 billion were being planned by several Indian
and multinational companies in the next 5 years. It is a huge industry
in terms of size and according to India Brand Equity Foundation
(IBEF), it is valued at about US$ 395.96 billion. Organized retail is
expected to garner about 16-18 percent of the total retail market (US $
65-75 billion) in the next 5 years.

India has topped the A.T. Kearney’s annual Global Retail

Development Index (GRDI) for the third consecutive year,
maintaining its position as the most attractive market for retail
investment. The Indian economy has registered a growth of 8% for
2007. The prediction for 2008 was 7.9. The enormous growth of the
retail industry has created a huge demand for real estate. Property
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developers are creating retail real estate at an aggressive pace and by

2010, 300 malls are estimated to be operational in the country.

1.1.1 Growth of Retail Sector after 2011

Before 2011, India had prevented innovation and organized

competition in its consumer retail industry. Several studies claim that
the lack of infrastructure and competitive retail industry is a key cause
of India's persistently high inflation. Furthermore, because of
unorganized retail, in a nation where malnutrition remains a serious
problem, food waste is rife. Well over 30% of food staples and
perishable goods produced in India spoil because poor infrastructure
and small retail outlets prevent hygienic storage and movement of the
goods from the farmer to the consumer.

In one of the report of Year 2011 it is mentioned that Indian

retail market as generating sales of about $470 billion a year, of which
a minuscule $27 billion comes from organized retail such as
supermarkets, chain stores with centralized operations and shops in
malls. The opening of retail industry to free market competition, some
claim will enable rapid growth in retail sector of Indian economy.
Others believe the growth of Indian retail industry will take time, with
organized retail possibly needing a decade to grow to a 25% share. A
25% market share, given the expected growth of Indian retail industry
in 2021, is estimated to be over $250 billion a year.

The Economist forecasts that Indian retail will nearly double in

economic value, expanding by about $400 billion by the Year 2020 .
The projected increase alone is equivalent to the current retail market
size of France. In 2011; food accounted for 70% of Indian retail, but
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was under-represented by organized retail. A.T. Kearney estimates

India's organized retail had a 31% share in clothing and apparel, while
the home supplies retail was growing from 20% to 30% per year.
These data correspond to retail prospects prior to November
announcement of the retail reform. The Indian market offers endless
possibilities for investors. It might be true that India has the largest
number of shops per inhabitant.

1.4 The Indian Retail Market

Indian market has high complexities in terms of a wide

geographic spread and distinct consumer preferences varying by each
region necessitating a need for localization even within the geographic
zones. India has highest number of outlets per person (7 per thousand)
Indian retail space per capita at 2 sq ft (0.19 m2)/ person is lowest in
the world Indian retail density of 6 percent is highest in the world 1.8
million households in India have an annual income of over
45 Lacs (US$82,659.60).

While India presents a large market opportunity given the

number and increasing purchasing power of consumers, there are
significant challenges as well given that over 90% of trade is
conducted through independent local stores. Challenges include:
Geographically dispersed population, small ticket sizes, complex
distribution network, and little use of IT systems, limitations of mass
media and existence of counterfeit goods.

Indian apparel retailers are increasing their brand presence

overseas, particularly in developed markets. While most have
identified a gap in countries in West Asia and Africa, some majors are
 10

also looking at the US and Europe. Arvind Brands, Madura Garments,

Spykar Lifestyle and Royal Classic Polo are busy chalking out foreign
expansion plans through the distribution route and standalone stores as
well. Another denim wear brand, Spykar, which is now moving
towards becoming a casualwear lifestyle brand, has launched its store
in Melbourne recently. It plans to open three stores in London by
2008-end

The low-intensity entry of the diversified Mahindra Group into

retail is unique because it plans to focus on lifestyle products.
The Mahindra Group is the fourth largest Indian business group to
enter the business of retail after Reliance Industries Ltd, the Aditya
Birla Group, and Bharti Enterprises Ltd. The other three groups are
focusing either on perishables and groceries, or a range of products, or
both.

 REI AGRO LTD Retail: 6TEN and 6TEN kirana stores

 Future Groups-Formats: Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central, Fashion

Station, Brand Factory, Home Town, E-Zone etc.

 Raymond Ltd.: Textiles, The Raymond Shop, Park Avenue, Park

Avenue Woman, Parx, Colourplus, Neck Ties & More, Shirts &
More etc.

 Fabindia: Textiles, Home furnishings, handloom apparel, jewellery

 RP-SanjivGoenka Group Retail-Formats: Spencer’s Hyper,

Spencer's Daily, Music World, Au Bon Pain, Beverly Hills Polo
Club

 The Tata Group-Formats: Westside, Star India Bazaar,

Steeljunction, Landmark, Titan,Tanishq, Croma.
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 Reliance Retail-Formats: Reliance MART, Reliance SUPER,

Reliance FRESH, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Living, Reliance
Digital, Reliance Jewellery, Reliance Trends, Reliance Autozone,
iStore

 K Raheja Corp Group-Formats: Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Hyper

City, Inorbit Mall

 Nilgiri’s-Formats: Nilgiris’ supermarket chain

 Shri Kannan Departmental Store (P) Ltd ., : Groceries, Clothing,

Cosmetics [Western Tamil Nadu's Leading Retailer]

 Lifestyle International-Lifestyle, Home Centre, Max, Fun City and

International Franchise brand stores.

 Pyramid Retail-Formats: Pyramid Megastore, TruMart

 Next retail India Ltd (Consumer Electronics)(www.next.co.in)

 Vivek Limited Retail Formats: Viveks, Jainsons, Viveks Service

Centre, Viveks Safe Deposit Lockers

 PGC Retail -T-Mart India Switcher, Respect India, Grand India

Bazaar,etc.,

 Aditya Birla Group- Formats: more., acquiuredPantaloon from

Future group, acquired Trinetra (Fabmall and Fabcity)

 Vishal Retail Group-Formats: Vishal Mega Mart

 BPCL-Formats: In & Out

 Shoprite Holdings-Formats: Shoprite Hyper

 Paritala stores bazar: honey shine stores

 Kapas- Cotton garment outlets

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 AaramShop - a platform which enables hybrid commerce for

thousands of neighborhood stores.

 Gitanjali- Nakshatra, Gili, Asmi, D'damas, Gitanjali Jewels,

Giantti, Gitanjali Gifts, etc.

 The world's largest retailer by sales, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Sunil
Mittal's Bharti Enterprises have entered into a joint
venture agreement and they are planning to open 10 to 15 cash-
and-carry facilities over seven years. The first of the stores, which
will sell groceries, consumer appliances and fruits and vegetables
to retailers and small businesses, is slated to open in north India by
the end of 2008. see also for more Detail Pick/Müller

 Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer by sales, is planning

to set up two business entities in the country one for its cash-and-
carry business and the other a master franchisee which will lend its
banner, technical services and know how to an Indian company for
direct-to-consumer retail. The world’s fifth largest retailer by
sales, Costco Wholesale Corp (Costco) known for its warehouse
club model is also interested in coming to India and waiting for the
right opportunity.

 Tesco Plc. plans to set up shop in India with a wholesale cash-and-

carry business and will help Indian conglomerate Tata group to
grow its hypermarket business.

1.5 Apparel Retail

Indian clothing retail sector accounts for 36% of overall organized

retail business. It is henceforth the largest sector; with growing middle
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class and working sector inclusive of women wearing western wear to

work, and working under time pressure, market provides ample
profitable room for readymade clothes which is likely to grow by
multifold.

A country where more than 1000 movies are made over a year,
where fashion dictates the persona of the general masses; clothing
retail provides booming platform various clothing brands. Movies not
only effect the clothing retail where as it has a brush off effect on
other sectors as well such as footwear, wedding and fashion
accessories.

With presence of Modern format retailers, leading foreign

clothing brands and with the use of plastic money affluent urban
populations are shopping like never before.

In the large urban centers, apparel retailers, like Shoppers Stop,

Westside and Pantaloon have popularized their private labels, which
have attracted urban shoppers. Metros having presence of world
leading brands such as Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Levis &
Strauss and various others attracts the Indian consumers drastically.

Small & Medium or single brand stores make commendable

marketing & customer loyalty programs in order to retain their loyal
customers. Large format stores such as Westside which carries only its
own private labels, while for the other stores, 20-30% of their apparel
turnover is from private labels. Customers have loyalty to a store
rather than any particular garment brand. This has led to a thriving
unbranded or local brand market for ready-to-wear clothes leading to
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severe competition. Customers look to design and fit of the clothes,

and use the shop’s name as a quality standard.

As apparel retail is led by fashion, a player needs to keep a

close watch on fashion amongst teenagers as they are the trend setters.
Role of Bollywood in spreading fashion needs to be understood.
Seasonal variations on stocking pattern and need to clear inventory at
the end of season should be understood by apparel retailer. Typically
once an item is sold from the outlet, retailer ensures that there is no
repetition of same. It gets replaced by different design, style, colour.
Importance of store layout, décor is very critical. A browser visiting
the store frequently likes to see changes in the layout otherwise he
may carry the impression that stocks are not moving out of the store.
Category management becomes very crucial function as
transformation of design into production and delivery has to be
completed before fashion or fad changes in the market.

This highlights the importance of sales promotions- short term

activities which induces trade or consumer to buy now rather than in
future as the value of apparel after the season goes down substantially
and inventory carrying burden turns out to be very high. Apparel
retailer needs to understand critical role of sales promotions.
Attractive promotions induces purchase acceleration, stock piling and
brand switching on the part of a consumer which substantially reduces
retailers financial and inventory risk and consumer’s financial risk and
psychological risk.

Communication activities followed by apparel retail stores in

organized sector. Both exclusive and multi-brand retailers in apparel
 15

retail sector are studied. On the basis of practices, it poses few

challenges which managers in the sector encounters several studies on
apparel retail sector .

Indian organized retail industry is poised for growth. Apparel

sector in particular has a great opportunity with alignment of Indian
economy to globalised markets. With the widespread use of
communication activities which provide material inducements to
consumers and trade it becomes imperative for managers to
understand such practices and understand challenges. This study
investigates communication activities of various apparel stores in
Lucknow & Gurgaon market and compares them on various
dimensions. It presents major findings and provides insights on
consumer behavior. Pantaloon, for instance, has a loyalty program
called `Green Card' Rewards programs, Westside has `Club West' to
woo the customers. Managerial challenges are posed in planning and
implementing such activities.

1.6 Need for the Study

In order to sharpen the marketing mix companies have been

moving from marketing at the aggregate level, called Mass Marketing,
to Mass customization to the level of 1-to-1 marketing where each
customer is treated as a separate segment. The factors that have
weighed heavily on this decision are the need to fine-tune the
marketing strategies and the realization that the cost of retaining
customer (read servicing) an existing customer is much lower than
acquiring a new customer.
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Customer acquisition and retention for a retailer is more critical

and difficult for the following reasons:

 Most retailers have a defined physical catchment area defined by

the distance that most of its shoppers would travel to visit the store.
Although it differs with the kind of product bought by the shopper,
there is a significant impact on the frequency of visit to the store.
Thus, a store has to work within a given geographical.

 Not every retailers is able to offer the merchandise that is very

different nor the positioning of the store is differentiated; and

 Every visit of the shopper is an encounter and a moment of truth.

Unless the interaction has been satisfactory, the next visit is not
guaranteed. In case the store provides a compelling reason for visit,
the amount of purchase per visit is likely to go down.

Under this condition, it is imperative that the store should

understand the shoppers it wants to attract and keep. Since retailing is
a service business, and is not just distribution, there are more “soft”
than “hard” variables that would lead to creation of a customer
franchise. It is not only important as to what is being retailed, it is
equally, may be more, important as to how it is being retailed. This
condition shifts the focus from the merchandise being handled to the
processes that make shopping a memorable experience. All the
retailers that believe in this paradigm would require that shoppers be
segmented on the basis of attitude and behavior than on demographic.
The latter is a pre-condition that works as eliminator and not
describing the segment the retailer would serve. Also, a retail outlet is
 17

likely to be patronized more when it becomes a part of the life of the

shopper

Most of the investment in a retail outlet is of fixed nature. It is

more like a sunk cost, as is in the case of an airline. Of all the
investments, the real estate costs are the highest and the store needs to
improve on its productivity by utilizing the space optimally. This can
be achieved by ensuring that there is high level of conversion rate
from visitors to buyers. This conversion is possible by impacting the
behavior using the variables, such as merchandise, display, layout and
other communication, within the control of the retailer. It is, thus,
necessary for the retailers to know how shoppers behave and whether
there are any patterns that can be used to design the retail mix for
specific set of shoppers. It can even be used for targeting and develop
the position.

Shopping is an activity aimed at collecting information. The

search processes give shoppers an opportunity to ensure that they take
the right decision. In addition, they also derive emotional satisfaction
(Tauber, 1972). It has been found that a high level of brand awareness
need not always translate into sales. Shoppers do take into
consideration the information they acquire in stores, rather than just
relying on out of store communication (Underhill, 1999). In a study
conducted by POPAI (2001), it was found that the sales of some
product categories increased by almost 60% due to effective
communication at the store. Shopping involves a “see-touch-feel-
select” sequence. The degree to which the shoppers follow the whole
or part of this process varies with brand, product category, and other
elements of the marketing mix (Connolly and Firth, 1998). In an
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exploratory study conducted in India (Sinha andUniyal, 2000), it was

found that the extent also depended on the association that the shopper
had with the store. Shoppers, who were new to the store or were,
considering buying a brand for the first time, showed a higher level of
information search. Those who were frequent buyers of the store
would either go straight to the stack or pick up the product or would
ask the retailers when trying a new brand. In some cases they would
pick up the product. In many cases they would buy the product
recommended by the retailers. In any case they would not do a very
elaborate information search. Such behaviour has been explained as
the routine, limited or complex buying behaviour in marketing
literature.

Demographic or psychographic, may not help the retailers

understand the shoppers in their true form. Behavior may be a better
base of profiling the shoppers and hence taking decisions that would
improve the profitability of the store. It is also possible to mould
shopper behaviour to suit the retailer’s requirements, especially in
Indian context where retailing is opening up as an organised activity.

In spite of the widespread use of communication activities in

India no study was found examining communication practices in
apparel retail sector. Apparel sector is poised for growth in domestic
and global markets due to liberalization. With the rapid growth
organized retailing in India, there is a dire need to understand such
practices, explore rationale behind it and pose managerial challenges.
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1.7 Objectives of the Study

Hence, the present study attempts study practices of

communication of apparel retail outlets

1) To explore the practices of communication strategy for retail sector

malls.

2) To compare exclusive and multi brand outlets.

3) To explore rationale behind such activities by examining consumer

behavior.

4) To study and compare the personal profile of the visitor related to

both formats of shopping malls.

5) To find out the motives behind visit to shopping malls.

6) To examine the problems faced by shopping malls in India.

1.8 Hypothesis

“A hypothesis is a special proposition, formulated to be tested in

a certain given situation as a part of research which states what the
researcher is looking for.”

Null Hypothesis for Communication Strategy on

Consumer Behaviour

Keeping in mind the above objectives following Null

Hypotheses are framed.

Ho (1) There is no significant impact of communication strategy for

retail sector malls depends on the profile for consumer.
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Ho (2) There is no significant difference between the exclusive

brand outlets and multi brand outlets.

Ho (3) There is no significant difference between the different taste

and preference of consumer behind visit to the shopping
malls.

1.9 Research Methodology

Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the

research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how
research is done scientifically. To do my study I have adopted
exploratory research design. The Primary Data is collected through
questionnaire Method. Through the various steps, which are involved
in the exploratory research, are as:

1. Research Design Exploratory

2. Data Source Primary & Secondary data

3. Research Instrument Questionnaire

4. Sample Plan Shopping Malls of Lucknow and Gurgaon

5. Sample Size 300 customers

6. Sampling Procedure Non Probability Sampling

7. Sampling Methodology Personal Survey

Visual Merchandising plays a very important role in apparel

retail sector due to this separate study is done on the effect of visual
merchandising which is discussed in chapter 3 and chapter5.
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Name of the Shopping Malls:

In Lucknow:

 East End Mall (Waves)

 Fun Republic Mall

 Phoniex Mall

 Riverside Mall

 Saharaganj Mall

In Gurgaon:

 Ambience Mall

 DLF Star Mall

 Gold Souk Mall

 DLF City Centre

Data will be collected using both primary as well as secondary

method. Primary data will be collected using structured questionnaire.
The population of the study comprises of customer visiting retail
malls. For the selection of respondents simple random sampling
procedure is adopted. For data collection, questionnaire will be filled
by personal interview technique. The respondent under study belongs
to different demographic groups like sex, educational level, income
level etc. A total of 300 customers will be approached to participate in
the study. A pilot study will be conducted on 20 respondents to finalize
the questionnaire items. Secondary data will be collected from
managers of various outlets, previous studies, retailer’s records and
journals.
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1.10 Limitations of the Study

Major limitation of this study is the sample size which is limited

to Lucknow and Gurgaon only. Most of the retailers in organized
sector will be hesitant in providing information about their private
brands, branding strategies and communication strategies. Most of the
customers will not be willing to divulge personal details.

1.11 Plan of the Study

1) Introduction( Retailing & Profile of Shopping Mall)

2) Review of the Literature

3) Practices of Communication Strategy for Retail Sector mall

4) Comparison between Exclusive and Multi Brand Outlets

5) Perception of Consumers towards Shopping Malls

6) Problem and Challenges of Shopping Malls in India

7) Summary and Findings

1.12 Shopping in Lucknow

Lucknow is an old style shopper's paradise. The city is fit for

those who believe that the art of shopping is a divine gifted quality
that can only be mastered upon in the congested alleys of old bazaars.
Lucknow has a number of sites to go shopping. Blended in history,
these shopping places also are used as the popular means of passing
time and lazy strolling. This does not come as a surprise for a city that
is not only famous for its lethargy but also have a sense of pride over
it. Shopping in Lucknow is fun as it is an entirely different experience.
The city of Lucknow does not have many glittering malls and
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multiplexes; yet shopping in those little markets for knick-knacks and

souvenirs has its own different charm. You wouldn't have to decide
what to buy in Lucknow, as the place is very famous for quite some
things. The first thing that comes to mind while talking about
shopping in Lucknow is of course the famous Chikan work of
Lucknow. Chikan is a very famous thread work that is done by the
skilled craftsmen of Lucknow. It is combines with Zardosi
(embroidery with gold and silver threads) and crystal work and
embroidered on clothes for women, men, kids, mats, bed sheets, table
mats and just about anything you can think of. They make great gifts
and beautiful souvenirs.

Shopping in Lucknow which had firm cultural links from

medieval time of the nawabs.Inspite of its shayri and mujras, the noble
city of Lucknow is famous for cotton textiles and chikankari work
from the ancient times. Perfumes of Lucknow are well known in
India.The most favored and flocked shopping destinations of the city
are located in old Lucknow area. Among them, Hazratganj (named
after Begum HazratMahal) is most frequented. Hazratganj market has
a big shopping area where the buildings are of colonial style building.
Hazratganj is actually a fashionable bazaar that overflows with shops
and restaurants. Strolling leisurely in Hazratganj and stopping for a bit
of window-shopping or meeting friends at your favorite corner is a
popular pastime here.

Lucknow is also famous for its shops of jewellery and

ornaments. Right from the nose pin to the waistband, you name it and
they will have it. These exquisite works of jewellery are exclusive and
are found only in Lucknow. The jewellery pieces have unique work of
 24

metal ornamentation that looks splendid. Another famous type of

jewellery found there is the Jadau, which means jewellery in which
gems are studded. Lucknow is famous for its big danglers and
Jhumkas that are found in the wardrobe of each and every girl.
Lucknow has its own share of shopping places.

Some malls that have sprung up in Lucknow are often thronged

by youngsters who come to shop for branded stuff. Among the malls,
one finds some malls like Sahara Ganj, Fun Republic and East End
Mall etc. One also finds some multiplexes like PVR, Waves and Fun
Cinemas, which provide entertainment around the clock. Lucknow
chikan is perhaps one of the finest works of embroidery that one can
find here in India. It is known for its exquisite style and fine
needlework and is unparalleled when it comes to refinement. The
Mughal queen Noor Jehan revived this style in 655 A.D. in India.
LucknowiChikan Kari gained an entirely new look as it was much
preferred and supported by the Mughal rulers. This lead to further
refinement and improvement of the Lucknow Chikan embroidery
work. Today, Lucknowichikan Kari is synonymous with fashion and is
worn by almost every celebrity at least once.

This chapter gives an account of different shopping malls in

Lucknow, which had firm cultural links from medieval time of the
Nawabs. There are lavish shopping malls in major shopping areas of
Lucknow. There are numerous big and small restaurants and eating
handouts around these famous market places. One can get
mouthwatering non-veg dishes and enjoy rich delicacies at an
affordable price. Lucknow is famous for Biryanis and travelers can get
plentiful shops selling this favorite dish. Otherwise Shikawat near
 25

Gymkhana Club and Tundeke kebab in Chowk are two well known
shops to the locals.

The two important shopping malls in Lucknow are the Zee Mall
(Fun Republic) and the East End Mall (Wave) in Gomti Nagar and
Sahara Ganj near Shahnazaf Road, Hazratganj that is visited by more
than thousands visitors daily. Aminabad, can be compared to
ChandniChowk in Delhi and is the largest shopping centre of the city
daily visited by a huge number of consumers. The Hazratganj market
has a big shopping area where the buildings are of colonial style
buildings. Malls like Riverside - Pyramid has lavish shops and
showrooms of reputed brands do a good business in Lucknow.

1.13 Profiles of Different Shopping Malls in Lucknow.

The malls like PVR, Wave, Sahara Ganj and Fun Cinemas
beside or inside the shopping malls of Lucknow offer world class
movie watching experience to the visitors. These malls are visited by
more than thousands visitors daily. A brief detail of these malls are
given as under:

i. East End Mall (Waves)

The East End Mall in Lucknow (Wave) can boast to be the

the first shopping mall-cum-multiplex opened in Lucknow.Located in
Gomti Nagar, this mall houses many leading brands including
McDonalds, Westside, Globus, Landmark, Kohli Brothers, Archies,
Women Store, etc. in addition to 4 Screen Multiplex run by Wave
Cinemas. It is first Multiplex to be opened in Lucknow and still
remains the best in terms of service and Seating Style. The multiplex
 26

also offers Gold Class seating which sets Wave Cinemas to set itself
apart from other Multiplex in the town. Malls are one of India's finest
shopping destinations, with the best infrastructure, technology and
management. Wave malls are designed with physically challenged /
handicapped friendly, senior citizen-friendly facilities like ramps in
addition to stairs and convenience utilities. Wave Malls have adopted
environment friendly service features like segregated garbage
collection, rain water harvesting, effluent treatment plants, and
sewerage treatment plants with latest technologies.

For the group, the security and safety of its patrons are of
utmost importance, which is reflected in all Wave Malls having
safety / security conscious designs of facilities / services. The group
has retained Asero Worldwide, one of the top homeland security
experts in the world to guarantee a safe environment for patrons to
enjoy the comfort and convenience of air-conditioned, one-stop
destinations for shopping, entertainment and food that Wave Malls
provide.

All aspects of mall maintenance and operations are self-

managed by professionals hired by the group to ensure a great
customer and retail experience. The group is a pioneer in developing
shopping malls in North India. The Centerstage Mall in Noida, Wave
Malls in Kaushambi, Lucknow, Moradabad and Ludhiana are
examples of its successful track record. Wave Infratech is the fastest
growing name in the retail landscape of India, having built, launched
and managed 1.4 million sq. ft. of commercial space.

ii. Fun Republic Mall

 27

The city of Nawabs was overjoyed when Fun Republic started

its operations.The Fun Republic Mall is located in Gomti Nagar,
Lucknow, India. Built by Zee Group in around 2000s on about 18,000
sq. m. plot in GomtiNagar.Overlooking the affluent township of Gomti
Nagar, the property has already become the hottest spot amongst
Indian retailers. Situated just a kilometer away from the River Gomti
that runs through the city of Lucknow, this area is fast emerging as the
state capital’s Central Business, it comprises of retail outlets of
branded companies, Multiplex, a food court, gaming zone for children
It has parking 500 cars. It is most preferred loation for shopping in
Lucknow.

iii. Phoniex Mall

The mall has a number of retails brands, a uniquely-themed

food court, a host of specialty restaurants, Lucknow's largest family
entertainment centre, an exciting nightclub and a 5- screen multiplex,
besides 80-room hotel towering above. This Mall is a most liked place
for the influential and affluent business community in the surrounding
areas such as LDA Colony, Sharda Nagar, Kanpur Road, Ashiana,
Krishna Nagar, Alambagh, Shingarnagar, Hindnagar and
RDSO colony. 3 levels of underground parking providing space for
more than 500 cars, Phoenix United is now becoming an ideal place
for shopping. In addition to 5 screen multiplex, an 80-room hotel will
be an added feature of the Mall.

iv. Riverside Mall

Riverside Mall is situated next to Hotel Taj Residency in Gomti

Nagar. Riverside - Pyramid has lavish shops and showrooms of
 28

reputed brands do a good business in Lucknow. The mall has brands

like Big Bazaar, Barista Lavaza, Barbeque Nation, and Zero Degrees
Pub in addition to Inox Multiplex. Although more brands are yet to
open their stores in this mall, the mall has good parking space.

v. Saharaganj Mall

A stylish designing, with all the parameters of a world class

mall, Sahara Ganj has become the 1st most beautiful place in
Lucknow for shopping and enjoying city's specialities, food and
chikan works. Now a pioneer in its class, Sahara Ganj has become
the standard in terms of quality and services for Lucknowties as well
as tourists. Lucknow went through a transformation in its lifestyle
with Sahara Infrastructure & Housing generating ample avenues. This
mall provided the city with the best entertainment arena. A brand
Super Mall, it is self-sufficient in its offerings & specifications of the
highest order. This fabulous Mall consists of 4 PVR, Games Corridor,
and a number of shops with beautiful display, most interesting Big
Bazar and the top floor ready to serve you specialties of Lucknow
foods.

Table 1.1 List of Top Shopping Malls in Lucknow

NAME LOCATION
Fun Republic/ Zee Mall Gomti Nagar, Adjacent Eldeco
Greens, Lucknow.
Khalsa Mall 318, New Ganeshganj,
Lucknow.
Pheonix United Mall Kanpur Road, Alambagh,
Lucknow.
Sahara Ganj Mall Hazrathganj, Shop No 421,4th
 29

Floor, Lucknow.
The East End Mall Gomti Nagar, Lucknow.

1.14 Shopping in Gurgaon

Gurgaon, the place is a shoppers' paradise and offers anything
and everything you can imagine. Be it clothes, accessories, electronics
or kitchenware, all is available here. Right from branded stuff to street
bits and pieces, you can shop everything. Known as city of malls,
Gurgaon has more than forty shopping malls that cater to the needs of
middle as well as high profile people. Commenced in 2003, the mall
civilization is still mounting and number of shopping malls is
increasing every year.

Gurgaon offers a whole different shopping experience. The

international brands, the taste of mall culture, great interiors and easy
parking attract lot of people from the city and nearby districts as well.

The best places to shop in Gurgaon are Ambience Mall, DLF

City Centre, DLF Mega Mall, MGF Metropolitan, DLF Grand Mall,
The Galaxy Mall, Sahara Mall, Gold Souk Mall, MGF Mega City
Mall, The Plaza, Gurgaon Central, The Landmark Mall, JMD Regent
Plaza, Omaxe Plaza, SRS and many more. The city also has numerous
supermarkets that fulfill all your basic and day-to-day requirements.
Some of them are Sunrise Mart, Perfect Mart, Needs Super Market,
Needs, MM Supermarts, KV Super Market, Essentials Super Market,
Crossroads Super Market and Allmart Super Market.

MG Road, stretching for 18 km from Andheria More in New

Delhi to IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon, is the birthplace of the prevailing
mall boom in northern India. The road forms the prime real estate
spine, with a large number of retail malls and A grade commercial
 30

developments all along it, apart from a few prime residential

complexes like Unitech Heritage City, Essel Towers etc, according to
a Knight Frank report.

The stretch of MG Road within Delhi has, over the last few
years, emerged as the hub of factory outlets of various top apparel and
accessory brands. A large number of designers also have their outlets
on this stretch, specifically clustered in ‘MG1’- the first of its kind
retail development in the city. It is also home to a large number of
furniture showrooms, housing several international and high-end
furniture brands. This is owing to the posh residential catchment that
this road commands. Along the road lies the farmhouse belt of Delhi,
which is home to a large number of HNIs and NRIs, adds the report.

Several years ago, MG Road, the main arterial road, had only
two lanes with no place to shop. The first mall, City Centre,
materialized in 2002 and was the first mall in Gurgaon and second in
India. Three years later, the number has risen to four and ten more are
expected to come up in the next three years. Apart from City Centre,
the other operational malls are Metropolitan Mall, MGF Plaza and
Sahara Mall. The new malls scheduled to come up include Grand
Mall, JMD Health & Beauty Mall, Agora by Vipul, Senior Builders
Mall and MGF Metropolis.

1.15 Profiles of Different Shopping Malls in Gurgaon.

An umbrella of multiple malls, world class ambience, renowned

Brand outlets provide all the choices for shopaholics and trend setters.
Gurgaon, the city with largest number of malls such as Ambience
mall, MGF megacity Mall, Gold Souk Mall, Omaxe Gurgaon Mall,
 31

DLF mega Mall and several others serve round the clock and all
requirements for the consumers.

AMBIENCE MALL

Ambience Mall, with the most appropriate location and

accessibility on national highway NH-8 offers a wide range of
international and domestic brands. Having around 250 outlets,
ambience mall provides an unmatchable shopping experience. With
state of the art infrastructure, car parking for over 2500 cars, leisure
activities for all age groups; Ambience mall truly inculcates all the
qualities of a ‘One Stop Destination Mall’

Ambience mall is the largest operational mall in India, Having

one kilometer of shopping experience on every floor.

Multiple exquisite brand outlets such as Esbeda, Satya Paul, W,

United Colors of Benetton, Tommy Hilfiger, Giovanni, Lacoste, CK
Jeans etc. setup a perfect platform for an overwhelming shopping
experience.

Further, Ambience Mall also inculcates Food Courts, Beer

Gardens, Meditation Centres, Kids Playing Zones, Bowling alleys.

i. SAHARA MALL

This mall has been introduced by Sahara group marks its foray
in the emerging field of integrated complexes. Sahara Mall is the
oldest mall established on M.G. Road, it has a presence of various
chain retail outlets such as Van huesen, Raymonds, Titan Etc. This
mall benefits the high level of skills and experience of its
management. With exposure to global lifestyle and various
international events through media, the average Indian consumer
 32

today has become more enlightened about his money’s worth and
wants to enjoy the facilities which are available in developed
countries. There is a vacuum of such facilities in India and Sahara
mall foresees a vast potential for development of integrated
entertainment facilities for shopping, entertainment, leisure and
amusement parks. The group has taken the initiative to fill this gap by
creating world-class shopping malls and multiplexes offering
entertainment, leisure, amusement, corporate and shopping facilities.

Further, Sahara Mall at Gurgaon also offers a breathtaking

Night Club as well.

ii. MGF Metropolitan Mall

The Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon is built over 3, 50,000 sq.ft.

The mall is fully operational providing top-notch brands such as
Shoppers Stop, Archies, United Colors of Benetton, Marks &
Spencers, Nike, Reebok, Guess, Lacoste and Sony Hidesign amongst
others. This particular mall in its first year of operation achieved 100%
occupancy.

MGF Mall provides a complete family joyful shopping

experience. The multiplex inside has shows of new releases from
Hollywood and Bollywood which attracts the style-conscious youth of
the city. With underground parking and large food court, this mall is
definitely noticeable and adheres to modern sensibilities.
1.2 List of Top Shopping Malls in Gurgaon

NAME LOCATION
Ambience Mall Ambience Island
Sahara Mall MG road
 33

MGF Metrolpolitan Mall MG road DLF Phase II

References:-

 Alexander, A.A & Muhlebach, R.F.(1992). Shopping Center

Management, Institute of Real Estate Management, Chicago –
Illinois.

 Levy, M & Weitz, B.A. (2007). Retailing Management. 6th edition,

Irwin Mc Graw Hill, Chicago.

 Research Article titled, “Retailing in India: The Way Ahead”

written by Binod Kumar Sinha, Faculty Member in ICFAI Business
School Raipur.

 Dutt, D.2004, ‘An outlook for Retailing in India, Vision2005’

(Form a presentation by KSA Technopak at MDI Gurgaon in
January and February).

 Kotler, Philip 2000, Marketing Management, 10th Ed., Prentice

Hall of India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.

 Majumdar, S.2002, ‘FDI in retailing: India as a supermarket’,

Business Line, Tuesday, Sep17.

 Levy, Michel; and Weitz, Barton A. Retailing Management .New

Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2002.

 Retail Marketing Management. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.

Guy, C 1994.

 Kuruvilla, S. J. and Ganguli, J. (2008), Mall development and

operations: An Indian perspective, Journal of Retail and Leisure
Property, 7 (3), 204-215
 34

 Rajagopal (2009), Growing Shopping Malls and Behavior of Urban

Consumers, Journal of Retail and Leisure Property, 8 (2), 99-118

 POPAI (2001), “In-Store Advertising Becomes a Measured Medium”, Survey

Report.(http://www.popai.com/frames/popmeas_research_fr.html)

 Sinha P K and Uniyal D P (2000) “Communication @ Point of Purchase”,

Working Paper, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad.

 Smith W R (1956), “Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as

Alternative Marketing Strategies”, Journal of Marketing.

 Connolly A and Firth D (1999), “Visual Planning - the Power of Thinking

Visually”, The Journal of Brand management, Vol.6, No. 5, 161-173.g, Vol.
21, July, 3 – 8.

 Tauber E (1972), “Why Do People Shop”, Journal of Marketing, 36 (Oct), 56

– 59.

 Underhill P (1999), “Why we Buy: The Science of Shopping”, Simon and

Schuster

-------:0:-------
 Chapter II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Review of the Studies

Research dealing with shopping malls’ and or hypermarkets’

attributes, especially in the Indian context, is very less in number. Not
many studies have empirically analyzed the influence of an assortment
of attributes on buying behavior in shopping arcades and malls and
customers’ shopping experiences. Mostly the researches undertaken so
far have been taken from the foreign experiences, as they have come
of age in the US, UK and European markets.

An earnest attempt has been made to delve into the relevant

researches done on the theme, presented henceforth as follows:

Martineau (1958), the first researcher to investigate specific

dimensions of store image, proposed four dimensions of store
attributes: layout and architecture, symbols and colors’, advertising
and sales personnel. The concept was expanded by later researchers.

Huff (1964 and 1966) concluded that the comparative size of

the centers and the convenience of access were the primary
characteristics that consumers sought when choosing a shopping
center to visit.

Brunner and Mason (1968) investigated the importance of

driving time upon the preferences of consumers towards regional
shopping centers. They expressed that although it is recognized that
population, purchasing power, population density, newspaper
 36

circulation, and other factors are influential in determining the

shopping habits of consumers, a factor which is generally overlooked
is the driving time required to reach the center. In this study, it was
established that the driving time required to reach a center is highly
influential in determining consumer shopping center preferences. The
most consistent and significant driving time dimension in delineating
shopping center trade areas was found at the 15-minute driving points,
as three-fourths of each center’s shoppers resided within this range.

Cox and Cooke (1970) determined customer preference for

shopping centers and the importance of driving time. The authors
concluded that location and attractiveness are important determinants
of consumer shopping center preferences.

Linquist (1974), who discovered nine different retail attributes

that contribute to store image, namely, merchandise, service, clientele,
physical facilities, comfort, promotion, store atmosphere, institutional
factors, and post-transaction satisfaction.

Mehrabian and Russell (1974) noted that the response that

store atmosphere elicits from consumers, varies along three
dimensions of pleasantness, arousal, and dominance.

Bearden (1977) identified seven salient store characteristics

that influence consumer patronage decisions concerning where to
shop. Those attributes are price, quality of merchandise, selection,
atmosphere, location, parking and sales people. He further stated that
store atmosphere, location, parking facilities and friendliness of store
people are the salient factors that influence consumer store patronage.
As a result store attributes such as service offering, activities, facilities
 37

and convenience have major influence on customer satisfaction and

loyalty.

Vaughn and Hansotia (1977) opined that merchandise and

convenience seem to be the two underlying dimensions which
consistently appear every time. Merchandise quality, merchandise
variety, atmosphere of shopping area, availability of sale itemsand
ease of shopping comparisons is all component parts of this
underlying dimension.

McCarthy (1980) attempted to include transport mode / travel

attributes in studying the role of the qualitative characteristics that
influence the choice in shopping destination. Using the factor
analytical technique, five sets of qualitative generalized attributes
were generated. These generalized attributes include trip convenience,
trip comfort, and trip safety, shopping area attraction and shopping
area mobility. He found that these generalized attributes, which were
obtained from attitudinal information, are significant in an individual's
choice of shopping area.

Kumar (1983) in his extensive research found ‘shelf exposure’,

‘exposure to others buying’ and ‘window display’ as major in–store
influences in hypermarkets. His study revealed that males (47%) are
more susceptible to shelf display influence than females (39%). He
cited ‘retail environment’ (25%) as the second major in–store
influence and ‘exposure to others buying’ (21%) as the third major
influencing factor resulting in buying behavior.

According to Sproles & Kendall (1986), identification of

these characteristics among consumers “helps to profile an
 38

individual consumer style, educate consumers about their specific

decision making characteristics, and counsel families on financial
management”. Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles
& Kendall (1986) was used by many researchers to study the
consumer decision making styles.

Feinberg, Sheffler, Meoli and Rummel (1989) considered the

social stimulation provided by malls, finding that the mall served as an
outlet for social behavior. Further examination of this issue was made
by Lotz, Eastlick and Shim (2000), who studied the similarities and
differences between mall entertainment seekers and mall shoppers.
Their results supported hypotheses that there are different motivations
for individuals who visit a mall for entertainment activities versus
those who visit for shopping purposes.

Hafstrom (1992) used the CSI to identify the decision-

making styles of Korean students. They confirmed seven of the
eight factors using Sproles & Kendall’s analytical methods and
conceptual framework. The only factor that was not confirmed was
‘novelty fashion consciousnesses. They attributed this to possible
links between ‘brand consciousness’ and ‘fashion consciousnesses
among young Korean consumers. Administered the CSI to 387 adult
consumers in China; their findings indicate that five decision-
making styles are valid and reliable in Chinese culture. There styles
were perfectionist, novelty-fashion conscious, recreational, price
conscious, and confused by over choice.

Durvasula (1993) administered the CSI on 210 undergraduate

business students at a large university in New Zealand. They found
 39

eight consumers decision making styles. These styles are

perfectionist, brand conscious, novelty-fashion conscious,
recreational shopping conscious, price-value conscious, impulsive,
confused by over-choice, and habitual/ brand-loyal.

Goss (1993) in his research established that the mall developers’

profit accrues from the construction and sale of shopping malls, lease
rent and deductions from the retail revenues. Unlike other forms of
real estate, where markets have rapidly saturated and are dependent on
urban and regional economic fortunes, shopping mall construction has
been a relatively secure investment.

Lorch and Smith (1993) concluded that customers coming

from a parking lot walk straight forward to the nearest shopping mall
entrance and only those shops which are immediately adjacent to this
entrance benefit from it.

Roy (1994) in his study considered several characteristics of

shoppers – such as functional shopping motivation, deal proneness,
recreational shopping motivation, age, income and family size, to be a
significant influence on mall shopping frequency. He demonstrated
that consumers go to shopping centers to seek entertainment, boredom
relief, social interaction with friends, fun, relaxation, and freedom
from concerns about personal safety, as well as a wide choice of
comparison shopping. However some research studies have found that
value perceptions.

Burns and Warren (1995) opined that since the store mix and
product offerings of many regional shopping malls are very similar,
often the primary discriminator between many of these centers is
 40

merely location. Making the choice to shop at a regional shopping

mall other than the one nearest to one’s place of residence, therefore,
does not appear to be a logical choice in many instances. Such
behavior, however, appears to be relatively common. It would appear,
therefore, that regional shopping mall choice may not always be based
solely on the offerings and location of the available shopping
alternatives.

Davies (1995) expressed that the way we think about retail

location is dominated by the idea that the primary role of the retail
store or the retail center is to attract the shopper to the location. An
alternative paradigm exists, of taking retailing to where there are
people, either at home or in crowds and this is likely to become more
important for a number of reasons. Just because a crowd exists does
not mean that the people in it can be easily converted to being
shoppers. A number of factors will determine the likely levels of sales:
the complementarily of the merchandise with the primary activity
being followed by the crowd; the ease with which they can exit from
that activity; the associated issue of how much time they perceive is
available to them; and the level of crowding.

Jackson (1996) in his study observed that malls have become

the place where senior citizens walk in comfort and security, where
parents lead their young to Santa Clauses, where singles court, where
teenagers socialize and where everybody consumes. Indeed a new
term, “Mall Rats” has been coined to describe the legions of young
people who spend their free time cruising indoor corridors. This
proliferation of uses and of customers has led to the frequent
observation that regional malls are the new downtowns, the centers of
 41

informal social interactions, the successors to the traditional

marketplace. He has also noted that new so–called category–killers
like Home Depot, Toys ’r’ Us, Staples etc are taking customers from
the malls. It is discount with a vengeance, a place of take–no–
prisoners, no–frills shopping, where mantra is value and where the
upscale shops and elaborate fixtures of the traditional malls are
dismissed as frivolous affectations of a bygone era.

Kaufman (1996) Because consumers are increasingly

undertaking multipurpose shopping trips (Arentze et al., 2005), they
are likely to favor centers that offer one– stop shopping (Kaufman,
1996).

Ashley (1997) and Templin (1997) both in their separate

researches, observed that over the years, the competition between
shopping malls had increased significantly, possibly due to the
overbuilding of retail centers and changing consumer shopping
activities. Advancement in the transportation system had further
accelerated the level of competition. Another contributing factor was
the similarity of the attributes of most shopping malls, with too many
stores offering too much of the same merchandise. So given the
apparent similarity in shopping center attributes, shoppers will
probably choose to visit the nearest shopping mall when faced with
the existence of more than one shopping mall within ‘reasonable’
traveling distance. However, not all shoppers seem to conform to such
normative behavior. Past research has revealed that many consumers
make a decision regarding where to shop based on their attitude
toward a mix of stores, the shopping center environment and
entertaining shopping experience.
 42

Fan and Xiao (1998) used a modified CSI with Chinese

students. They clearly identified five dimensions of consumer
decision making styles for German consumers. These factors were
brand consciousness, perfectionism, recreational/hedonism,
confused by over choice, impulsiveness, novelty-fashion
consciousness, and variety seeking.

Pashigian and Gould (1998) stated that consumers are

attracted to malls because of the presence of well–known anchors –
department stores with recognized names. Anchors generate mall
traffic that indirectly increases the sales of lesser–known mall stores.
Lesser–known stores can free ride off of the reputations of better–
known stores. Mall developers internalize these externalities by
offering rent subsidies to anchors and by charging rent premiums to
other mall tenants. The results of this article suggested that mall
developers are behaving rationally because they know that anchors
attract customers to the mall and increase the sales of other mall
stores.

Shim and Eastlick (1998) defined mall shopping attitude as the

shopper’s attitude towards a variety of dimensions including location,
variety of stores, parking, mall employee behavior, price, quality,
customer service, promotional activities, ambience, mall amenities,
food and refreshments and safety. They suggest that mall patrons’
attitudes to malls can be assessed by shoppers’ cognitive belief about
the importance and their effective evaluation of those attributes. After
an extensive review of store and shopping–center patronage literature,
12 shopping mall attributes were chosen to evaluate the importance
mall patrons place on them. They correspond to the most common
 43

attributes measured in past patronage research: price, tenants variety

of stores, personnel, customer service, promotions, merchandise
quality, mal facilities, parking, atmosphere / ambience, location,
refreshments available and safety.

Swinyard (1998) in a national US study of heads of

households, examined shopping mall behaviors and values in which
three–fourths of respondents reported visiting at least one shopping
mall during a 2 month period. Among mall customers, during this 2
month period the average number of mall visits was 4.69, resulting in
5.35 purchases averaging $60.00 (Rs 3,000 approx) each. It was
hypothesized and found that frequent mall shoppers have higher needs
than others for ‘sense of belonging’, ‘warm relationships’ and
‘security’. Their needs are also higher for ‘excitement’. It was also
hypothesized that needs for ‘self–fulfillment’, ‘self–respect’, and a
‘sense of accomplishment’ are negatively related to mall–visit–
frequency.

Waerden, Borgers and Timmermans (1998) discussed the

effects of changing the parking situation in the surrounding of
shopping centers on consumers store choice behavior. The consumers’
choice of supermarkets is influenced by store characteristics and also
by parking lot characteristics. The probability of choosing a parking
lot decreases with an increasing size, suggesting that customers want
to avoid long walking distances.

Wakefield and Baker (1998) examined the relationship

between three factors– tenant variety, mall environment and consumer
shopping involvement and studied the influence of these factors on
 44

shopper excitement and desire to stay at a mall. Their findings

indicated a differential influence from the three factors. Tenant variety
had the biggest impact on shoppers’ excitement, while the mall
environment had the greatest influence on their desire to stay.
Wakefield and Baker gave more in–depth consideration to
environmental factors by grouping them into music, lighting and
temperature, layout, architectural design and interior decor.
Interestingly, they also found differential influence from the
environmental factors on excitement and desire to stay. Architectural
design had the strongest positive influence on excitement, but no
effect on desire to stay. Interior decor, on the other hand, had the
strongest positive effect on desire to stay, but no effect on excitement.

Christiansen et al. (1999) examined the effects of mall

‘entertainment value’ from the consumers’ perspective on mall
profitability. Consumers basically defined entertainment as some
activity that provided a diversion or relief from normal day– to–day
activities and could include movies, theatre, people watching,
entertainment retail stores, shopping itself, restaurants, bars and even
the architecture and interior design of the mall itself. The study found
evidence that demonstrated that there is a positive relationship
between entertainment and mall profitability and value.

Severin (2001) and Yilmaz (2004) showed that convenient

location has the greatest impact on consumers’ choice of center.

According to Leo and Phillipe (2002), the shopping mall image

is a holistic entity created from the elements such as retail mix,
 45

infrastructure and atmosphere. Thus, the shopping mall image can be

managed to create a shopping destination for its potential shoppers.

Nicholls, Li, Kranendonk and Roslow (2002) investigated

changes in the shopping behavior of today’s mall patrons as opposed
to those in the early 1990s. Although not many differences were found
between the demographics of the respondents in the earlier and later
periods, they discovered significant differences in shopping patterns
and purchase behaviors. Compared with the shoppers in the early
1990s, today’s mall patrons tend to be more leisure driven, they have a
greater concern for merchandise selection, and they visit the mall less
often but make more purchases per visit. The findings also reveal that
situational variables are more likely to have an impact on shoppers’
purchase decisions today than they did before.

Sinha, Banerjee and Uniyal (2002) suggested a classification

of stores on convenience, variety and experience. They also propound
that there exists an interaction effect between the store benefit and the
level of information search that a customer would seek while
shopping.

Parsons (2003) in his paper analyzed common promotional

activities employed by shopping mall marketers, which were ranked
by a sample of customers on their likelihood of encouraging increases
in the two key performance indicators used by shopping malls – sales
and visits. Whilst mall–wide sales are the preferred promotion, a
combination of general entertainment and price–based promotions
were found to be a strong alternative way to encourage visits and
spending.
 46

Sinha (2003) suggested in his research that the evolving retail

environment in India seems to be affecting the orientation and Indian
retailing is facing a transition. He established that the shoppers have a
very limited choice of retail formats, an important variable in shaping
orientation. He suggested that retailers in shopping malls need to take
up the task of demonstrating the value added by the store – the format
of the store could be the prime driver. The retailers delivering the
experience of ‘fun’ would need to offer wider assortment and an
ambience where the shoppers would like to spend more time.

Ailawadi and Keller’s (2004) store–image dimensions may

apply equally to shopping malls. Access in the context of malls (rather
than stores) refers to the location of the mall that shoppers must travel
to. Malls located in areas highly accessible to shoppers are likely to be
perceived more favorably than malls that are less accessible. Recently,
using a qualitative mean–end chain analysis.

Tuli and Mookerjee (2004) found that some consumers placed

the greatest value on convenience and economic attributes including
convenience to home, accessibility, and the presence of services such
as banks and restaurants. Others however, emphasized recreational
attributes including atmosphere, fashion ability, variety of stores and
merchandise.

In a study of the impact of daily schedules on shopping

behaviour, Arentze, Oppewal and Timmermans (2005) found that
the busier the schedule, the greater the likelihood the nearest center
would be chosen.
 47

Changand Tu (2005). Indian consumers were also found to be

price sensitive and quality conscious.

Eppli and Tu (2005) examined the impact of 39 mall

renovations and expansions between 1995 and 1997 on the
performance of in–line retail stores. Some of the expansions were
entertainment–based with theatres, restaurants, and major bookstores.
They found that although entertainment–based expansions did not
significantly result in an increase in the per square foot sales growth
rates for in–line stores, it did increase aggregate sales and thus helped
the mall by establishing its presence of being the dominant regional
mall and enhanced its brand image.

Wilhelm and Mottner (2005) in their study focused on the

shopping mallpreferences of teens 12–17, a trendsetting segment that
tends to be heavy users of enclosed shopping malls. The findings
indicated that the most important attributes in teens’ choice of a mall
to frequent are, how friendly and welcoming the mall is to teens and
whether the mall contains ‘cool’ stores. Further, the most preferred or
‘ideal’ mall (i.e. the one with the greatest overall utility), across all
respondents, is one that has ‘lots of’ everything (cool stores,
entertainment options, etc.), is a good place to hang out with friends
and is very attractively designed. Teens are also almost twenty times
more likely to choose to go to a mall with lots of experiential
characteristics (skateboard and theme parks, cultural and live music
events, theatres, etc.) than to go to the typical status–quo mall with a
movie theatre (76% versus 4%, respectively), everything else being
equal.
 48

Anselmsson (2006) in his study found selection as the most

important determinant of shopping mall choice, followed by
atmosphere / ambience of the mall and third most important
determinant of satisfaction was convenience, which includes opening
hours, parking, ease–of–movement and ability to find one’s location in
the mall. If a shopping center enjoys high visiting rates, a better
strategy might be to focus on present customers and build
relationships by improving satisfaction management. The focus would
then be on atmosphere, refreshments, convenience, and performance
of the store personnel. On the other hand, if a center is behind
competitors and needs to increase sales and visit frequency,
management should focus more on promotional activities and location
aspects in terms of improving geographical convenience.

Gupta (2006) in his research examined the extent to which

different promotional frames attached shoppers’ perception towards
product service and made a positive buying decision. His study found
that significant difference is found in two groups of discount and non–
discount category, seasonal sales and non–seasonal sales, coupons and
non–coupons, so far as indicators like general characteristics and
physical characteristics. Location convenience is concerned but no
significant difference is found in two groups of membership discounts
and non–memberships discounts. He has further gone to suggest that
store retailers must provide a setting that will allow consumers to shop
for their needs and wants in the marketplace and they should find
ways to tailor their environments to attract customers and increase
patronage.
 49

Gupta and Kaur (2006), in their paper, examined the extent to

which different promotional frames attracted shoppers’ perceptions
towards product service and made a positive buying decision. They
stated that retail location of a store and the distance that the customers
must travel to shop are basic criteria in their store choice decisions.
Their analysis stated that customers consider price discounts as an
important promotional tool in the malls. They also found that seasonal
sales have a positive effect on both patronage and spending. Major
promotional tools on the basis of which the customers prefer to visit
the stores in the malls are promotional strategies. Stores using
advertising, promotions, seasonal sales, and private labels on a
particular category of products had caused people to perceive the
benefit of buying a product at one store to be higher than it is.

Kumar and Sarkar (2006) in their research pointed out that

emerging organized retailing will face stiff challenges from traditional
retailing or unorganized retailing – a sector which is deep rooted in
India. Traditional retailing has got relatively low cost structures,
mostly owner operated, has negligible real estate and labour costs and
little or no taxes. According to them distributors will no longer be
rewarded just on the basis of how much they sell. Instead, their
compensation will depend on the width of the merchandise stocked
and more importantly their prominence on the supermarket /
hypermarket shelves.

Lather and Kaur (2006) in their paper studied various malls

and established the relationship between the shoppers’ behavior and
various attributes / indicators of stores in malls. They observed that
most of the customers do not look at the pricing alone. They are
 50

looking for a sense of belongingness, a brand of quality and

innovation they can trust. Small retailers no longer remain the primary
source for the basic monthly shopping basket. The consumer normally
gets better prices, quality selection, and convenience for these
purchases at organized retail chains and shopping malls. Their results
also suggested that if proper window displays and other proper
methods of presentation of merchandising are done, the retailers are
able to attract more shoppers. They established that in the past few
years, there has been a significant shift in India from individual retail
outlets, owned separately, and managed distinctively, to professionally
managed retail stores. Their findings also supported the positive effect
of location on store traffic and sales. They established that the most
preferred retail outlets are multi–brand outlets and exclusive outlets.
Every type of shopper wants to visit the stores, while they may or may
not buy but curiosity is there for visiting the malls. The study also
examined alternatives to discounts when negative quality inference
was likely to occur, and it was found that free gifts were effective in
increasing sales and market share. They suggested that for shoppers to
have a good mall experience, the retailers should focus on creating a
pleasant shopping environment by using an optimum blend of
variables like temperature, air quality, lighting, scent, noise level and
layout amongst others. The desire for more open–air structures also
emerged as a result of the uniformity associated with enclosed malls,
and the yearning for unique shopping places that reflect the
characteristics of the locality. For all these reasons, many shoppers
now prefer more natural environments where there is daylight and a
feeling of contact with the outside world (Coleman, 2006).
 51

Mehta (2006) in her study examined the expectations of people

of Ludhiana, India, towards overall shopping experience and
entertainment towards shopping malls. She found that people don’t
just buy a product in a mall, they buy an experience. On being asked
to rank the features in the mall that would attract the customers,
people gave the following ranking in the order of preference: shopping
experience, eating joints, entertainment, apparel section, jewellery,
music / books section, reasonable prices, decoration items and beauty
salons. She gave certain suggestions to make the mall more appealing
to the customers like free parking for the regular customers / heavy
purchasers. Such customers may be issued a parking card, which
ensures free earmarked parking. Malls with PVR multiplex should
offer “weekend specials” like classics, movies for children, etc.

Memon (2006) cited in his study that about 50% of the people
purchase their products from organized retail stores (hypermarkets /
malls), 28 % still buy from wholesale distributors who sell in bulk and
rest 22 % buy from small kirana stores around their households. As
per his findings a combination of price and location policy is the
single most important factor for the buyer, and a combination of price
and availability of product is the second component. Availability of a
large array of products at one place is another factor scoring 20% of
the respondents’ liking for retailing stores, while ambience and service
quality scored only 16% and 6% respectively.

Rajaguru and Matanda (2006) in their paper studied

consumers’ perception of store and product attributes and customer
loyalty in Indian context. Store attributes are assessed in the
dimensions of store appearance, service quality and convenience of
 52

store. Product attributes dimensions investigated include product

quality, price, and availability of new products. In their study,
customer loyalty was considered as repeated purchasing behavior of
consumer towards a store. The results suggested that except product
price, other store and product attributes have positive effects on
customer loyalty. Store attributes such as service quality and
convenience of store and product attributes such as product quality,
price, and availability of new products, show significance towards
customer loyalty.

Rath (2006) in his article expressed his fear that global retailers
will quickly put the kirana shops out of business, leading to millions
of job losses. He pointed out that 95% of all retailers in US are single
store operations. They may not be as small as Indian Kirana stores, but
despite six decades of dominance by large chains these small players
had not been wiped out, the reason being the added advantages these
types of small retail or kirana stores enjoy:

 They are local and usually in small blocks that the customers are in

 Level of convenience in purchasing is very high

 Personal attention to their customers

 Investment as per customer needs and good inventory management

He further suggested that the move towards FDI shouldn’t be

opened such wide that no room is left for local kirana stores. He
suggested beginning with a 26% FDI approvals and then gradually
moving onto 100% in a span of 4–5 years.
 53

Zameer (2006) in his study defined effective mall management

as differentiating a mall from the rest, getting maximum footfalls,
converting footfalls to purchase and keeping the tenants and the
customers happy and satisfied. According to him mall management
entails retail–mix planning and tenant selection, lease management,
facilities management, utilities management, parking and organizing
events and collaborative promotions, which according to him are
critical factors for the success of any shopping mall.

Ahmed, Ghingold and Dahari (2007) assessed international

consumer behavior in regards to shopping malls in a non–western
country, specifically, Malaysia. A survey of Malaysian university
students was conducted to assess the mall–directed shopping habits
and shopping orientations of young adults in that country. A total of
132 usable surveys were obtained from five university campuses in
the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. The findings revealed that the
Malaysian students were motivated to visit malls primarily by the
interior design of the mall; products that interested them; opportunities
for socializing with friends; and convenient one–stop shopping.
Further analysis showed that younger respondents have more
favorable dispositions or shopping orientations towards malls than
somewhat older respondents. Post–secondary students in the Klang
Valley of Malaysia were frequent and long–staying visitors to
shopping malls, typically visiting six stores per 2.5 hrs mall visit. And,
more than one-third of respondents visited three or more different
shopping malls during the previous 30 days. Generally, the observed
Malaysian shopping behavior was similar to that observed of western
shoppers in prior shopping studies.
 54

El–Adly (2007) determined the attractiveness factors of UAE

shopping malls from the shoppers’ perspective and then segmented
shoppers according to these attractiveness factors. The study revealed
six mall attractiveness factors from the shoppers’ perspective: comfort,
entertainment, diversity, mall essence, convenience, and luxury.

Kaur and Singh (2007) opined that the retail boom in India has
brought tremendous opportunities for foreign as well as domestic
players. The changing lifestyle of the Indian consumer makes it
imperative for the retailers to understand the patterns of consumption.
The changing consumption patterns trigger changes in shopping styles
of consumers and also the factors that drive people into stores. Hence,
the key objective of their paper was to uncover the motives that drive
young people to shop in departmental stores or malls. A sample of 115
students was taken and their responses were gauged through a
personally administered, structured questionnaire. The results revealed
that the Indian youth primarily shop from a hedonic perspective. They
importantly serve as new product information seekers and the retailing
firms can directly frame and communicate the requisite product
information to them.

Lang & Meghraj (2007) concluded that Mall management has

been identified as a critical factor for the success of malls and the
retail industry across the world. Mall management broadly includes
mall positioning, zoning, tenant mix, promotions/ marketing and
facility/finance management. The Indian retail market lacks
designated mall management firms. Large real estate developers and
retail chains either have their own mall management arms operating as
subsidiaries or have contractual agreements with international
 55

property consultants. Till recently, mall management was limited to

facility management by a majority of developers in India, leading to
gaps in mall management practices. Given the high future supply of
malls and increasing competitiveness within the Indian retail market,
developers must correctly address these gaps to ensure success.

Millan and Howard (2007) examined shopping motives and

behavior in shopping centers in Hungary, which had seen rapid and
recent development in its retail structure. The data was collected
through a mall intercept survey of 355 shoppers at seven large
shopping centers in five major cities in Hungary. The findings
revealed that Hungarian consumers tend to approach shopping as
work, despite the rapid development of the retail industry in the
country. Four shoppers' segments were identified using cluster
analysis: relaxed utilitarians, strict utilitarians, committed shoppers
and browsers. The study highlighted that Hungarian consumers lay
emphasis on product–related shopping motives and they make most of
their purchase decisions prior to their mall visit, and therefore,
marketing campaigns should focus on providing information about
retailers’ offers beforehand. Social and recreational appeals for
attracting consumers to the mall may not work well.

Uniyal and Gandhi (2007) carried out a primary study in order

to understand the behaviour and attitude of shoppers towards malls in
Mumbai, India. Some of the findings are as under:

 Frequency of visit to malls clearly depends on whether the mall is

in the vicinity of their residence or workplace. Youngsters visit
malls more frequently as for them it is more of a hang out area
 56

where they indulge in window–shopping and entertain themselves

with games and food.

 The most preferred mode of transport to the mall is the car.

However, for those who don’t own a vehicle, the most preferred
means of local transport is usually trains and cabs / autos.

 Malls are visited mainly for shopping, the variety of brands they
house, entertainment (movies and other events), recreational
activities like sports and games, consumption of a variety of food
items, as an outing destination with families, as a sophisticated
hangout area with friends.

Wanger (2007) found that consumers perceive a convenient

shopping experience as a means to obtain physical and mental balance
contributing to contentment and shopping enjoyment (cited [Ahmed
et al., 2007], [Leo and Phillipe, 2002] and [Nicholls et al., 2003]).
Majumdar (2005) in his study on customer loyalty in shopping malls
found that mall accessibility and mall ambience have a significant
influence on mall loyalty. He also established that mall loyalty, value
perception (price-quality) and overall store impressions are found to
be significant predictors of store loyalty. He stated that if the
customers are not satisfied with the shopping malls as such, their
loyalty to a particular store will decline and therefore suggested that it
is essential for the mall managers to see that sound strategies are
implemented to maintain a satisfactory level of patronage and loyalty.

Chandok (2008) in his study pointed out that the location of a

retail store not only depends on the market and the product, but also
on kinds of customers it wants to target and the price band that the
 57

store needs to operate in. The author has discussed the factors that
need to be considered while choosing any business model for starting
up of a retail business, which primarily are: elements of the format,
information technology, location and finance, keeping in view the
overall strategy, the competitive forces and regulations.

Kainth and Joshi (2008) attempted to examine in depth the

customers and retailers satisfaction towards malls of Jalandhar in
Punjab, India. Their results showed that the quality is the most
preferred attribute of customer while shopping at a mall. Replacement
guarantee, cash discount, and free gifts are the most effective incentive
schemes which the retailers are using for attracting the customers to
their shops in the malls.

Patel (2008) investigated the decision making styles of Indian

shoppers in shopping malls and studied the variations in these styles
across different demographic variables. Mall intercept survey was
conducted across 128 active mall shoppers, to study the decision
making styles of Indian shoppers in shopping malls. The consumers’
decision making styles were identified by a structured questionnaire
and the responses captured in six styles by conducting factor analysis.
These decision making styles were: price consciousness, quality
consciousness, recreational, confused by over–choice, novelty
consciousness, and variety seeking. This study revealed that the
average Indian shopper was not very brand conscious, but quite price
and quality conscious. It was found that single (un–married)
consumers are more price conscious than married consumers. Indian
consumers are recreational in their shopping. Shopping is a fun
 58

activity for them. Young consumers between the age group of 11–20
years were found to be the most frivolous in their shopping.

Rathod and Patel (2008) attempted to know the importance of

different criteria for the selection of retail outlets amongst the
customers. They found that availability of variety has been given
highest importance by customers, second priority has been given to
service quality and third most important criteria is convenient
location.

Srivastava (2008) presented a picture of the changes in retail

taking place in India. His paper looked at the changing scene in the
retail sector in view of many MNCs and large industries entering into
this segment. The findings presented that malls are more developed in
the North and West part of India. Food, groceries, and apparel
purchase by customers contributed to 52%. On an average, 75% of
customers spend about 1 – 3 hours in the mall. Malls with multiplexes
such as cinema theatres, food courts, play–pens for children are
becoming the center of family outings. Small retailers have improved
their service to cater to Indian consumers. Credit limits and home
service are helping them to hold on to their customers. Retailing focus
is changing towards satisfying the different hierarchy of needs of
customers. The four attributes of a retail center that influence the
temporal convenience it offers are: one–stop shopping, trading hours,
enclosure and proximity to home / work.

Trivedi (2008) stated that where the organized sector poses a

cut–throat competition for the kiranas, the fact still remains that India
being a country with diversified social classes, there is a scope for
 59

both to survive. The emergence of a developed retail sector will pose a

competition rather than a threat to the traditional stores which would
help these stores change their outlook and ways of working. Looking
at the situation from a different perspective ‘Kirana’ stores target the
masses whereas organized retail services cater to a specific class of
people. The mall going consumers are more or less global, that is, they
have moved from price to value. This section is more value conscious,
as they will buy the most exclusive item and concurrently, will want to
acquire the finest price for it. A price conscious consumer,
alternatively, will look at price alone and choose a product which is
the cheapest.

White (2008) in his paper has elaborated that the customer and
their lifestyles have changed, and with that, shopping centers are
changing to continue to attract consumers. Entertainment centers,
entertainment and destination venues, once of little significance to
shopping centers and malls, are now growing in importance as an
essential part of the mix, since in order to attract today’s consumer,
goods alone don’t work. He further states that a survey by the
International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC, 1997) found that
movie theaters drew in potential shoppers who otherwise wouldn’t
have been exposed to the mall and that 60% of movie patrons shopped
in the mall during their movie visit, spending an average of 35% of
what all mall shoppers spent. The ICSC then conducted a second
study in 1999 that found:

 52% of moviegoers’ trips to the mall also involved visits to other

mall stores.
 60

 Moviegoers spent one–third as much on retail and food items as

shopper– only mall visitors.

 Movies attract younger audiences than general shopper traffic.

 Moviegoers and non–moviegoers have similar incomes.

According to White, malls and lifestyle centers now offer a fun

and a social experience. Today, shopping centers are in the out-of-
home entertainment and dining business as much as they are in the
retail goods business.

Anand and Sinha (2009). Studies have also indicated that

customers tend to prefer specialised stores in case of high involvement
purchases.

Bhatnagar (2009) in her paper examined the extent to which

the various factors comprising the internal vibes of the stores
influence the visitors. The author concluded that the seven attributes
against which the opinion was taken, were lighting in the store, colour
scheme, window display, smell, music, design layout and cleanliness.
She further explained that in the present age, goods are not only
consumed for their use or exchange value, but are also consumed as
signs of luxury, exoticism, and excess. Thus consumers need to be
seduced and delighted when they come to a store for shopping. Stores
with a beautiful display, perfect lighting coupled with appealing smell
and music can create sensations and affect consumer shopping attitude
and patronage behavior.

Bhattacharjee (2009) highlighted the attraction points of

shopping food and groceries in hypermarkets. He identified seven
attraction points to visit a store and a retail format: price, promotions,
 61

hangout place, product range, product mix, ease of travel and parking
comfort. He further said that the tolerance to commute is lowering.
The people are willing to go 4 km or even more for hypermarkets /
shopping malls, while for small format modern stores not more than
half a kilometre. Expectation for a kirana store is less than 500 metres.

Chebat, Hedhlia and Sirgy (2009) expressed that

understanding the antecedents of shopping mall loyalty remains one of
the crucial issues for both mall managers and retailing researchers.
They proposed a conceptual model that explained the psychological
process by which shopper–based mall equity (e.g., the perceived mall
value) generated mall loyalty. They collected data from shoppers in
two urban North- American shopping malls and the empirical results
generally supported the model: Mall loyalty was significantly
predicted by the commitment that shoppers held toward the mall; and
that commitment, in turn, was significantly predicted by shoppers’
positive awareness of the mall’s characteristics, and shoppers’ self–
congruity. The latter construct, in turn, was significantly predicted by
mall image dimensions such as the mall’s environment and the quality
of the products and services found in the mall. They also found the
model to be invariant between female and male shoppers.

Clulow and Reimers (2009) The term one–stop shopping

implies that all, but the most esoteric of shopping needs, can be
satisfied in the one center, all at the one time.

Hemalathaa and Ravichandran (2009) in their study

established the motivational factors that influence mall visit by older
generation Y consumers. The motivational factor, social shopping was
 62

seen as the most dominating factor. Most of the older generation Y

consumers go shopping with friends and family for the purpose of
socializing. They enjoy socializing with others when they do their
shopping. For them shopping with friends and family is a social
occasion. Idea shopping is the second significant motivational factor
for visiting malls by generation Y consumer. They go shopping to
keep up with trends, to keep up with new fashions, to see what new
products are available and to experience new things. Role shopping is
the third significant factor, that reflects the enjoyment that shoppers
derive from shopping for others, the influence that this activity has on
the shoppers’ feelings and moods, and the excitement and intrinsic joy
felt by shoppers when finding the perfect gift for others. Many
respondents talked about the enjoyment they obtained from shopping
for other people, explaining that shopping for their friends and family
is very important to them and that it makes them feel good. Some
respondents described the positive feelings they got from finding the
perfect gift for someone. In essence, people seek ego enhancement to
their self–concepts through the addition of satisfying roles and ‘acting
out’ the role’s responsibilities. Fourth important factor is the adventure
shopping. Adventure shopping refers to shopping for stimulation,
adventure and the feeling of being in another world. A significant
number of respondents reported that they go shopping for the sheer
excitement and adventure of the shopping trip. These informants often
described the shopping experience in terms of adventure, thrills,
stimulation, excitement, and entering a different universe of exciting
sights, smells and sounds. Fifth important factor is the value shopping.
Value shopping refers to shopping for sales, looking for discounts, and
 63

hunting for bargains. Many of the respondents talked about how they
enjoyed hunting for bargains, looking for sales and finding discounts
or low prices, almost as if shopping is a ‘challenge to be conquered’ or
‘a game to be won’. The last factor is the gratification shopping.
Gratification shopping involves shopping for, stress relief, shopping to
alleviate a negative mood, and shopping as a special treat to oneself.
Several respondents admitted that they go shopping to relieve stress or
to forget about their problems. Other informants view the shopping
experience as a way to wind down, relax, improve a negative mood, or
just treat themselves.

Kuruvilla, Joshi and Shah (2009) explored the possibility that

there are gendered differences in mall shopping attitude and behavior.
The study indicated that, overall, women have a more positive attitude
to mall shopping and that they purchase fashion related categories
more often than men. But men visit more often and spend more time
and money. While most men and women spend 2–4 hours on an
average at the malls, men reported spending more time and visiting
more frequently. If the fact that mall shopping is usually a family
affair is taken into consideration, it could be that men perceive
themselves as spending more time. But this explanation seems
improbable, as both genders have not shown significant difference in
their recreational approach to shopping. Malls seem to be popular
destinations to purchase clothes, footwear, and accessories for both
men and women. Footwear and accessories also seem to be popular
purchases. But in all categories women report more frequent purchase.
At the same time, it is also reported that men spend more. One
possible explanation can be that men spend on merchandise other than
 64

fashion, but it is more likely that as ‘the purse bearers’ of the family,
men do spend more than the women.

Rajagopal (2009) said that the shopping malls contribute to

business more significantly than traditional markets, which were
viewed as simple convergence of supply and demand. Shopping malls
attract buyers and sellers and induce customers providing enough time
to make choices as well as a recreational means of shopping.
However, competition between malls, congestion of markets and
traditional shopping centers has led mall developers and management
to consider alternative methods to build excitement with customers.
The study examined the impact of growing congestion of shopping
mall in urban areas on shopping conveniences and shopping behavior.
Based on the survey of urban shoppers, the study analyzed the
cognitive attributes of the shoppers towards attractiveness of shopping
malls and intensity of shopping. The results of the study revealed that
ambience of shopping malls, assortment of stores, sales promotions,
and comparative economic gains in the mall attract higher customer
traffic to the malls.

Sinha and Krishnaswamy (2009) stated that customers show

clear preferences in choosing a store. In most cases, they tend to set
their expectations based on the positioning of store. They tend to
associate store with the value propositions promised by the stores and
respective formats. Store formats stand for their own mix of values
that helps customers maximize the benefit.
 65

Uniyal and Sinha (2009). In another study of format choice it

was found that even in case of a planned purchase, customers tend to
show both affective and cognitive search based behavior.

Atiq (2010) in her article suggested that the Indian retailers

should understand that retailing has to be taken as a brand in itself. A
single large retailer should not be allowed to capture the larger market
share. The Indian government should not make haste in inviting the
foreign retailers; instead it should wait to see the great power of the
Indian retailers. But then, Indian retailers have to master both the art
and the science of retailing by looking at the way the giant retailers are
organizing and managing their activities. Indian retailer needs to be
innovative and needs to understand the regional variations in
consumer tastes.

Baltas, Argouslidis and Skarmeas (2010) demonstrated that

shopper characteristics are related to dispersion of patronage among
more stores. Shopping behavior appears to be partly driven by cost–
benefit tradeoffs, suggesting differential responsiveness to incentives
by customers. This is particularly relevant for retailers who wish to
design and implement communication and loyalty programs to defend
their customer base, since the responsiveness of targeted customers
determines the efficiency of these policies. They also suggested that
loyalty programs can be more than a defensive means of keeping loyal
customers and sustaining loyalty levels. The challenge rests in
targeting non-loyal customers who are more likely to respond to
marketing initiatives. They also showed that heavily spending and
multi-member households tend to disperse supermarket patronage and
both heavy groceries spend as and large families adopt such shopping
 66

patterns in order to find better deals and maximize value-for-money.

Moreover, large households shop around aiming at a more precise
matching of the diverse and heterogeneous product needs of their
members. Much as a multi-store patronage may be an established
shopping pattern for large families and heavy grocery spenders, retail
managers can still try to increase their loyalty.

Bhupta and Vaish (2010) in their study stated that developers

and retailers need to plan the merchandising by the customer needs.
Just the way a store has to choose appropriate merchandise, so does a
mall needs to have an excellent mix of good retailers. To get couple of
anchor tenants is not enough to make a mall successful.

Chebat, Sirgy and Grzeskowiak, (2010) opined that one way

to generate more traffic in a mall is to build a strong mall image
perceived by shoppers as delivering a unique bundle of benefits. Such
effort has to be guided by a performance metric, namely a
comprehensive measure of mall image. They hypothesized that mall
image could best be conceptualized in terms of five major retail
branding dimensions: access, store atmosphere, price and promotion,
cross–category assortment and within–category assortment.

Devgan and Kaur (2010) in their paper have mentioned six

factors, upon whose adaptability the success of any shopping mall
would largely depend. These were value for money, customer delight,
information security, credibility,store charisma and product
excellence. The authors explicated that the modern day customers lay
more emphasis on value for money; however, almost equal weightage
is given to comfort and enjoyment while shopping from malls. But
 67

simultaneously, customers also care for factors like personal

information security and payment security. Hence they wish to buy
from only that shopping mall which is more reliable from these
perspectives.

Martin & Knudsen (2010) examined the way post-industrial

Britain and Denmark undertake vocational training for low-skilled
retail workers. They evaluated whether leaders in training skilled
industrial workers are also doing the best job with low-skilled service
workers. While Danish retail is increasingly becoming a haven for
low-skilled workers, British workers are gaining in skills levels with
the transition to services even in the retail sector. While some suggest
that social democratic countries have sacrificed the political interests
of low-skilled workers in order to protect core manufacturing workers,
they find no evidence of this. Rather, the high expectations of
vocational training in Denmark have forged barriers to the easy
admission of low-skilled service workers, while the British system
provides more entry points for vocational training at different levels.
The structures of coordination that had narrowed the gap between
white-collar and blue-collar manufacturing workers during the
industrial age are creating new cleavages in the post-industrial
eonomy.

Rajagopal (2010) in his article “Coexistence and Conflicts

between Shopping Malls and Street Markets in Growing Cities:
Analysis of Shopper’s Behavior” was of the views that in urban areas
a marketplace achieves differentiation from different market formats-
shopping malls and street markets through the pursuit of singular
orientations following the hedonic and utilitarian dimensions of
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shopping. Furthermore, consumer beliefs on the choice of a

marketplace is found to positively influence the shopping behavior
Interestingly, urban orientation of urban shoppers is related to a triadic
factor relationship consisting of physical, economic and hedonic
elements towards choosing a right marketplace. This study discusses
the impact of growing congestion in urban marketplace due to
overlapping of market territories of shopping malls and street markets
in urban areas of Mexico. The analysis has been carried out in
reference to the shopping conveniences and shopping behavior. The
results of the study evidence the complex consumer decision-making
styles towards shopping malls and street markets based on competitive
advantages. Street markets are largely preferred by the shoppers as
they exhibit ethnic and cultural attributes while cross-cultural
attributes of stores and shopping ambience is found to be one of the
major determinants of shopping behavior. The discussions in the study
divulge that shopping arousal is the principal determinant in
developing preference of marketplace. Shopping arousal is driven by
mall attractions, inter-personal influences, ethnicity, shopping
ambience, sales promotions and comparative gains among urban
shoppers. Other factors that affect the preference of a marketplace
among urban shoppers include recreational facilities, location of the
mall, ambiance and store attractiveness in reference to products and
services, brand value, and price.

Ranjan (2010) in his research examined the impact of retail

outlets and malls on the purchase behavior of middle class consumers.
He comments that the successful organised retail chains and also the
malls in the country today operate at regional segments and are not
 69

aiming at the nationwide presence, at least for the time being.

According to the author, in order to reach all classes of the society in
India, organized retail formats should design a comprehensive and
prospective business model which offers the quality product / services
at affordable prices and generate more socially balanced business.

Sonia (2010) in her article “Changing Face of Indian Retail

Sector: Ethics, Challenges and Opportunities” observed that "As
consumer behavior and lifestyles changed, people no longer buy the
way they used to. Simply increasing 'width’ and 'depth’ of coverage no
longer seems to produce the magical results it once used to." The retail
sector has played a phenomenal role throughout the world in
increasing productivity of consumer goods and services. It is also the
second largest industry in US in terms of numbers of employees and
establishments. There is no denying the fact that most of the
developed economies are very much relying on their retail sector as a
locomotive of growth. The Indian retail industry is going through a
period of golden sunshine Retailers: The retailers’ management does
not have clear policies. They have not developed ethical code of
practice. They are concerned with ethical behavior and doing the right
thing. Since ethical conduct is largely an individual process, training
and individual related factors are important .Retail salespeople need
guidelines on ethical issues. This poses considerable challenges to
retail managers. If we focus on problems of retail industry and solve
them then Indian retail sector will boom.

Gopal & Suryaarayana (2011) depicts in his paper “Growth

Drivers and Challenges for Organised Retailing in India” that there are
a great many challenges that need to be addressed by the retailers as
 70

well as the government. Unlike FDI that requires policy changes, there
are other major issues that need to be addressed on a war footing.
Retailers have to invest heavily in technology to monitor stocks and
their movement, both in-stores as well as enroute. This will enable
them to adopt concepts such as QRDS (Quick Response Delivery
System) and ECR (Efficient Customer Response). Another focus area
is the supply chain. The entire supply chain in the country is
dominated by unorganized players with several layers of
intermediaries, thereby adding to wastage and pilferage at each level.
The country loses more than Rs 580 billion worth of agricultural food
items due to lack of post harvesting infrastructure such as cold chains,
transportation, and storage facilities. According to Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII), post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are
about 25% to 30%.India can ill afford losses of this magnitude. The
only way out is to focus on creation of road, rail and air links and
connect the same to cold storage facilities in different parts of the
country. Considering the contribution of retail towards the GDP of the
country it is time the government chips in with active participation.
The net result would be a win-win situation for all the parties
concerned.

Jackson, Stoel and Brantley (2011) in their paper expressed

that the customer segments seek out relevant shopping venues based
on their shopping wants and needs. Knowledge of the preferences of
distinct consumer groups is useful in the development of marketing
communications and promotional strategies, as well as for designing
mall configurations that are likely to generate patronage and
repatronage due to the value creating potential of the mall. Advertising
 71

materials could express the specific attributes the mall has to offer to
the cohorts comprising its customer base, either by gender, generation,
or both. When a retailer or mall owner finds that a large segment of its
consumers are from particular segments (e.g. generation, gender), the
company can focus on segment relevant ways to facilitate and
promote a shopping experience that will drive shopping value and
create potential for patronage.

Maiyaki & Mokhtar (2011) in his paper Determinants of

Customer Behavioral Responses: A Pilot Study aims that the validity
and reliability of the instrument of an ongoing project in preparation
for the large scale study. Hence, the conclusion of this study is tied to
its objective which is mainly statistical in nature at this stage. The
managerial implication of the variables under investigation would be
fully uncovered after the main study is carried out. The study explored
the small scale data that was collected during the pilot test. Both
content and face validity were conducted which subsequently led to
the rewording of several items and two items were removed on
grounds of high similarity with other questions. Furthermore, the
inter-item reliability test revealed that all the items were reliable with
Cronbach Alpha well above the benchmark of 0.70; thereby no item
was deleted. Finally, normality test using skewness and kurtosis shows
that the data as a whole is reasonably normal more especially with
skewness values not significantly different from zero.

Tanwar, Kaushik & Kaushik (2011) depicts in his paper Retail

Malls: New Mantra for Success that In India, while organised retail
has yet not been accorded the status of an industry, it is witnessing a
large number of formats emerging in the market at a very fast pace.
 72

Indian organised retail is moving with an exponential rate that no

other sector has witnessed. Ample opportunities are present as 94% of
the Indian retail is still unorganized. Moreover, Indian retailers can
learn from the mistakes committed by their global counterparts and
fuel the tremendous growth of Indian organised retail sector.

In the present scenario, making the biggest malls with top class
retailers is not the key to success. A cool and refreshing environment
is required which makes the shoppers to forget all worries of the day.
Malls are here for putting smiles on the face of shoppers. It is non-
crucial whether a purchase is made or not, entry into the mall has
given the right to courtesy. It should be the USP of the malls as the
window shopper of today is the prospective customer of tomorrow.
Further, malls should commune a feeling of oneness-with retaining the
individuality of each store. Something fresh and novel always attracts
shopper‘s attention but raises the bar for future innovation. Thus,
malls should be designed in a manner that the new and innovative
aspects can be added later on to keep up the consumer‘s delight.
Successful malls are those that will adjust its mall culture with the
consumer sensitiveness and preferences. Managing consumer attitude
and innovation are the keys to stay afloat amid competition.
Indubitably, malls have enlarged social fabric, cultural mixture and
retail feasibility. And when the core focus is on higher conversion than
footfalls, then mixed use and open malls is the way towards
accomplishing the aforesaid goal. The opportunities offered by young
India exhibits a bright road for malls. These architectural wonders
have changed the overall meaning of shopping, leisure and
entertainment. Ensuring a relaxing ambience and facilities like seating
 73

arrangements for elders to babies is not a child‘s play. But malls

managers are performing the tasks with ease. Malls- with a bouquet of
value propositions like value for time, value for quality, value for
experience, value for money is boosting India in becoming a
SHINING STAR of GLOBAL RETAIL.

Handa & Grover (2012) conducted a study on the “Retail

Sector in India: Issues & Challenges”. They concluded that India at
the crossroads with regard to the retail sector. Several emerging
market economics have gone ahead and reaped the benefits of modern
retail. Politics is an unfortunate reality that has been coming in the
way of success of organized sector and ultimately the overall retail
sector. The hue and cry created by unorganized sector against Reliance
Fresh, Wal-Mart especially in U.P., Jharkhand etc. is not appreciable,
it is the major hindrance in the growth of retail sector. There is need of
balanced approach to retail & govt. has to play a very vital role in
shaping the future course. Though tradition retail has been performing
a vital function in the economy, but it has to shed off its shortcomings
and inefficiencies and this is actually happening. Thus, the organized
sector is not only impacting the other sectors positively but also it has
benefited its own competition i.e. unorganized sector. So, organized
sector becomes the growth mantra of Retail sector.

Jain & Sukhlecha (2012) tries to establish the need of the retail
community to invite FDI in multi brand retailing. In between the
advocators and antagonists of FDI inflows in Indian retailing, there are
few issues to be addressed for the consumers ‘rights to be saved, for
the employment opportunities to be generated, for the regularization
of the different retailers working in different areas, etc. In spite of so
 74

many reasons behind allowing and not allowing FDI from entering our
Indian borders, there are few examples of other developing countries
who initially protested against the entry of foreign investment in retail
sector and then, later on proved out to be the most effective decision in
country‘s development and standing in the world. The final decision is
yet to be taken by the Indian Government for the same.

Manikrao (2012) concluded that in India, it can evidently

noticed that there are Mandis/Bazaars (place where vegetables and
groceries are sold) in county side, some daily and some weekly, but
most people recognize them as weekly mandis only where in all house
hold and vegetables are sold and later small stores came up at corners
of the streets or residential locality which were called as Kirana stores
now referred as Mom and Pop Stores, In the early 1980s
manufacturer's retail chains like Binny, S Kumars, Vimal, Bombay
Dying, HMT, Allwyn, etc started making their appearance in bigger
cities. Later in 1990s Branded retail outlets like Food world, Nilgris
and local retail outlets like Trinetra super market, Apna Bazaar, came
into existence. Now big players like Reliance, Bharti, Tatas, ITC and
other reputed companies are entering into organized retail businesses.
And the big multinational retailers are waiting to enter India in the
form of direct entrance eg: - Nike, Reebok, Metro etc or Joint Ventures
eg: - Bharti with Wal Mart and Tatas with Tesco. In their preparation
to face fierce competitive pressure, Indian retailers must come to
recognize the value of building their own stores as brands to reinforce
their marketing Positioning, to communicate quality as well as value
for money. Sustainable competitive advantage will be dependent on
 75

translating core values combining products, image and reputation into

a coherent retail brand strategy.

Manocha & Pandey (2012) analysed in his paper “Organised

Retailing in India: Challenges and Opportunities” that the retail
landscape in India is changing rapidly and is being scrutinized by
large scale investments by foreign and domestic players. Market
liberalization and changing consumer behaviour have sown the seeds
of a retail transformation. Indian retailing is growing fast and
imparting the consumer preferences across the country. Today retailing
is largest contributing sector to country's GDP i.e. 10% as compared to
8% in China, 6% in Brazil. Modern retailing is capable of generating
employment opportunities for 2.5 million people by 2010 in various
retail operations and over 10 million additional workforces in retail
support activities. Organised retail which presently account for only 4-
6 percent of the total market is likely to increase its share to over 30%
by 2013.It offers huge potential for growth in coming years. India is
becoming most favoured retail destination in the world. Sharma
(2012) depicts in his study “Customer Attitude Towards Shopping
Malls in Mumbai” that the “customer attitude towards shopping malls
in Mumbai” which is found to be positive. Today multi storey
shopping malls are a shopaholic’s paradise in Mumbai. These
shopping malls accommodate every taste, pocket and style. Also, the
city of Mumbai offers ample shopping opportunities to tourists who
come here to spend their vacation. it is revealed that a majority of
‘Mumbaikars’ do prefer to shop at shopping malls as it is a convenient
place to buy anything they desire. Most respondents expressed that the
shopping malls are just not a place to shop due to its constant
 76

availability, but has also created an ideal environment for social

interaction for people of all ages. shopping malls offer excellent
parking facilities, create value for money, credit / debit card facilities,
and so on. As a result, higher customer traffic is attracted towards
shopping malls. All thanks to shopping malls for bringing about an
overall development in Mumbai.

Sikri & Wadhwa (2012) concluded in his paper “Growth and

Challenges of Retail Industry in India: An Analysis” that Many
agencies have estimated differently about the size of organized retail
market in 2011. The one thing that is common amongst these
estimates is that Indian organized retail market will be very big in
2011. The status of the retail industry will depend mostly on external
factors like Government regulations and policies and real estate prices,
besides the activities of retailers and demands of the customers also
show impact on retail industry. As the retail market place changes
shape and competition increases, the potential for improving retail
productivity and cutting costs is likely to decrease. Therefore it is
important for retailers to secure a distinctive position in the market
place based on values relationships or experience. Finally, it is
important to note that these strategies are not strictly independent of
each other; value is function of not just price quality and service but
can also be enhanced by personalization and offering a memorable
experience.
 77

References:-

 Chandrasekhar, Priya 2001, ‘Retailing in India: Trends and

opportunities’, Business Line: Catalyst, February 15.

 Devasahayam, Madona 1998, ‘Big Deal’, Praxis Quarterly

Journal on Management, August, Vol.2, No.2.

 Majumdar, S.2002, ‘FDI in retailing: India as a supermarket’,

Business Line, Tuesday, Sep17.

 Kannan, S. 2001, ‘Huge potential awaits retailing’, Business line,

Thursday, September 13.

 Jagannathan, V.2001, ‘Vivek’s – a store more reputed than the

brands it sells’, Business Line, February 5.

 Bhushan, R.2002, ‘The show begins here’, Business Line,

Thursday, December 26.

 Aroor, S. and Singh, S.2004, ‘Market Dynamics: Cigarette Retailer

as The New King’, The Financial Express, Net Edition, May 4.

 Gupta, R., ‘Pharma retailing gains momentum in India’,

www.galtglobalreveiw.com

 Levy, Michel; and Weitz, Barton A. Retailing Management .New

Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2002.

 Mariton, John. Smart Things to Know about Brands and Branding

.Mumbai, Indian Books Distributors Limited, 2000.

 The Economic Times Knowledge Series :Retail 2000-2001",New

Delhi: Times Multimedia,2001(CD-ROM)
 78

 "Changing Gears :Retailing in India",New Delhi: Times

Multimedia,2003"ET in The Classroom", Times Multimedia ,
2003(CD-ROM) "Mall Management strategies"
www.pearlacademy.com

 Abramowitz, D n.d. R 174 m Renovations to Retail Centres

Increase Value of ApexHi Portfolio. Accessed online on10 May
2006 at http://www.eprop.co.za/news/article.aspx?idArticle= 7210

 Alexander, AA & RF Muhlebach 1999. Shopping Centre

Management. Chicago, IL: Institute of Real Estate Management.

 Anon 2004. Shopping Centre Marketing is an Investment, not an

Unnecessary Expense. Accessed online on 29April 2004 at
http: //www.biz-com/Article/196/11/2232.html.

 Barnes, A. 2002. Shopping Centres – More than Just a Tenant.

Shopping South African December 1,7: 11. Bloch, PH, NM
Ridgeway & SA Dawson 1994.

 The Shopping Mall as Consumer Habitat. Journal of Retailing

Spring, 70,1: 23-42. Brassington, F & S Pettitt 2003. Principles of
Marketing. 3rd Edition. Essex: Prentice Hall, Pearson Education
Limited.

 Business Day Newspaper 2004. Accessed online on 23 July 2004 at

http//www.businessday.co.za . Cloete, CI 003.

 Shopping Centre Management in South Africa. South African

Council of Shopping Centres. Dardagan, C 2006.

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 Chapter III

PRACTISES OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR

RETAIL SECTOR MALLS

3.1 Concept of Communication Strategy

Shopping mall is one of the most complete retail industry

carders. Strong market demands should result in continuous
flourishing sales and continuing increase in value of shopping mall, to
achieve a win-win situation between the shopping mall developer,
operator, property management companies and consumers. However,
in reality, most shopping malls have a high vacancy rate due to various
problems, and this situation has become more and more bad. The
expectation to make a win-win situation becomes a lose-lose reality.
First, this paper analyzed the character of products in shopping malls,
and then to probe into the problems on communication of the
shopping mall by making use of some relevant communication
theories and marketing theories. For instance: lack of strong
supporting points and cultural factors in communication contents, and
communication activities are short of systematicness, without clear
brand communication strategies. The three corresponding
communication strategies, clear and definite subject location,
including the necessity, methods of subject location and some
problems pertaining are needed to be taken care off. The brand-
oriented multi-brand strategies, covering functional characters and
components of brand communication, as well as mutual relations
between them have to be understood. Giving priority to Pro-shops,
 80

namely, pro-shops should enter shopping mall in advance, and the

necessity of business planning ahead of products planning for
shopping malls, on this basis, sum up some brand priority
communication strategies supported by pro-shop.

Communication is a critical function in organizations, from the

very small to the very large. Even one-to-one communications can be
fraught with challenges and misunderstandings. By communicating
usefully, emphasizing on results and relationships, businesses can
leverage effective communication strategies to generate solid results
with multiple audiences such as-

 Open: In an open communication environment, all members of the

organization feel free to share feedback, ideas and even criticism at
every level. Leaders who are committed to open communication
build an environment of trust that can be the foundation for
success.

 Inclusive: An inclusive communication strategy is one in which

explicit steps are taken to ensure that all employees feel they are
involved in decisions that affect their day-to-day work.
Organizations with a secretive communication environment shut
people out, which can stifle involvement and result in lost ideas
and opportunities. Employee involvement is a key factor that
affects employee satisfaction and success.

 Two-Way: Communication should never be one-way--either from

the top-down or the bottom-up. Effective communication strategies
involve two-way communication, or conversations, between
members of the organization. Companies whose managers
 81

successfully engage employees in conversations about their work,

their ideas and their perspectives on issues related to products,
services, customers and the business environment develop a culture
of inclusiveness that generates results.

 Results-Driven: Business communication should be results-driven

and strategically focused on achieving measurable results.
Organizations need to think about what employees need to know to
do their jobs effectively, to interact with customers effectively and
to serve as ambassadors outside of the organization. Effective
communication isn't just nice to do; it's need to do.

 Multi-Channeled: Effective organizational communicators know

that messages need to be delivered multiple times in multiple ways
to have the most impact. Employee communication needs and
preferences differ, different messages require different methods and
busy business environments can mean that messages get lost.
Using multiple channels to communicate with various audiences
will increase the odds that communications are received and
understood.

Communication strategies encourage consumers to make a

response, either by requesting further information or purchasing a
product. You can improve the effectiveness of your strategies by
building a greater understanding of consumers’ individual needs and
preferences and personalizing communications. Strategies that build
dialogue with consumers create trust and provide you with feedback
that enables you to fine-tune your communications even further.
 82

Business communication takes many forms. Companies

communicate internal information between managers or
employees, while external communication is used to inform
consumers about the company’s products. Marketing is an
important function for a new small business. Entrepreneurs and
business owners must inform consumers about the goods or
services they are offering.

3.2 Businesses Explore Marketing Strategies to Give

Specific Messages to Consumers in the Economic
Marketplace

The marketing strategy prevailing at the market place are as

follows:

 Awareness: Successful organization aim to build strong

relationships with consumers so they can retain those consumers as
long-term customers and maximize revenue opportunities.
Therefore, the first task for a communication strategy is to make
consumers aware of your company and products. When consumers
are buying, they make decisions based on the information they
have about an available product. By communicating through
advertising or other media, you can make consumers aware of your
product so it becomes one of the alternatives they consider.

 Choice: Product communication through media such as advertising

promotes choice for consumers, according to the World Federation
of Advertisers. Communication informs consumers about the
differences in price, quality or features of competing products,
enabling consumers to make informed choices.
 83

 Preference: The initial communication raises consumers’

awareness of the products. By communicating regularly, we can
make consumers aware of the benefits of your products,
differentiate your products from those of your competition and
create a preference for yours. If the communication strategy is
effective, it will convince consumers to choose the product over the
competition next time they make a purchase.

 Accountability: Communication strategies that encourage

consumers to provide feedback on your products demonstrate that
your company is accountable to its customers. Setting up an online
forum, for example, allows consumers to post their comments on
your products and share their views with other consumers.
Interactive communication like this recognizes the changes in the
way consumers respond to advertising, according to the Journal of
Interactive Advertising. Consumers can now source their
information on products and companies from other consumers via
social networking sites, rather than just responding to marketing
messages from manufacturers and retailers.

 Personalization: A strategy based on personalized communication

builds a one-to-one relationship between your company and
individual consumers. By collecting and analyzing information on
consumers’ purchasing patterns and communication preferences,
you can develop tailored communication via email. Personalized
communications give consumers information on products or
services that they are likely to be interested in. This indicates to
consumers that you understand their needs and will not waste their
time on irrelevant offers.
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3.3 Disadvantage of Providing Too Much Communication

Strategy

The retail space in India is attracting both international retail

giants and big Indian business houses. Entry of many players is
leading to increasing competition within the retail industry and the
managers’ last resort, to attract and retain customers, is to improve the
way they communicate with their customers. The methodologies
adopted currently by retailers for designing communication strategies
are neither structured nor robust; this paper aims to attend to this need
for a framework which can assist managers, of different formats, in
taking decisions regarding the communication strategies. The utility of
the framework has been illustrated by developing communication
strategies for a leading departmental store chain in India, and
comparing them with the existing strategies.

As everyone discusses the furious pace of development in

emerging markets such as India, one definite contributor to this
growth has been the organised retail industry. Even as the organised
retail industry in developed nations stagnates, we can see an
increasing rate of growth in the emerging markets. In fact, the
slowdown in the traditional hubs of organised retail is forcing the large
players to look for opportunities for growth in other nations – and they
have all set their sights on the emerging nations of Eastern Europe,
India, etc. These markets represent fast developing economies where
consumer spending power is on an upward trend. Also, the consumers
in each country belong to distinct groups which have varied needs and
demands.
 85

To fulfill to each of these customer groups, retailers have come

up with different formats within organised retail, the most popular of
which are Hyper-marts, Super-Markets, Departmental Stores, and
specialty stores. Each of these formats offers a different set of benefits
to the consumer, though there is a fine line separating them from each
other. To reach out to the customers, and to effectively communicate
its message, each format needs a separate communication strategy.
This need, in turn, has created a need for frameworks that the
marketers can use to promote their own store and format. To reach out
to the customers, and effectively communicate its message, each
format needs a separate communication strategy.

3.4 Some Research Practices Used in Retail Stores:

The retail malls can undergo some homework so as to identify

the current strategies and communication tools prevalent in the
market. The following ideas have been derived for the same:-

 Importance of Customers: As with any business, all the decisions

of the management take into account the customers. However,
since the formats target different customer segments – which are
differentiated on subtle factors, there are differences in decision
making across the stores.

 Positioning of the Store: Again, as with any business, the

positioning of the store is interrelated to the customer segment
which is being targeted. The positioning of the store and the target
customer segment are interdependent and together form the basis
for most other decisions taken by the management.
 86

 Customer Touch Points : The stores are looking at ways to

increase interactions with customers and one way to do it is to
enhance the interaction at specific ‘touch points’ – points where
there is an opportunity to actively communicate with the customers
such as wash rooms, trial rooms, billing counters, etc.
Communications through these touch points have a higher
probability of getting across as the clutter is removed and there is a
higher chance of gaining customer attention.

 Timing of Purchase: Every format observes a certain period in

each month where the bulk of the sales are achieved, and during
these periods all stores try to capture the attention of the customers
to maximise these sales. Big Bazaar, for instance, observes the bulk
of its sales between the 28th of the current month to the 8th of the
next month, wherein the staples and other essentials form the most
sought after products. During this period, the emphasis is on
maximizing sales and thus offers and discounts are offered on these
products.

 Similar Communication Tools across Stores: We observed that

almost all stores use similar communication tools, especially
instore tools. These tools have a proven track record in terms of
being able to garner customer attention, and the management is not
willing to experiment. This has also lead to limited use of new
media such as digital and interactive bill boards, which involve
higher costs and unproven efficiency. The stores use other media
generally only to promote specific schemes and offers.
 87

 Communication Strategies of Competitors: Stores give

consideration to the communication strategy followed by similar
format competitors, while they are designing one for themselves.
The market is large enough to accommodate all players, yet no
player wants to watch on the sidelines while one store makes use of
a new tool or media and thus the competition analysis.

 It would enable retailers to design a communication and promotion

strategy that would help them meet their unique requirements. The
communication need is derived from the marketing objectives of
the firm, which can further be categorized as strategic objectives
(long term) and tactical objectives (short term). The strategy would
be different for each of the objectives, but the basic framework
remains the same.

 Customer Analysis: Once the marketing objective is clear the

manager should identify the target group and develop a customer
profile. The manager should address a few questions such as: Who
is my customer? How do customers behave in the shopping centre?
When do customer purchase from our store? These questions lead
to identification of various customer-attributes such as -
Demographics, Psychographics, Income levels, Price sensitivity,
Fashion sensitivity, Loyalty and Media access.

 Retail Analysis and Environment : It is important to understand

the source of the communication (retailer) along with the receiver
(customer). The manager should identify the following factors:
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1. The communication practices of a retail chain and the

centralization of decision making which affect the capability
of store managers to address tactical issues.

2. The size, shelf arrangement, and location of individual stores

that help in attracting the walk-in customers. For e.g. retail
shop in a shopping mall would attract youth while a retail
shop at a shopping market would attract householders.

3. The positioning of the retail chain. The communication

strategy should not dilute the positioning and confuse the
shoppers. For e.g. Shopper’s Stop is known for luxury
brands and price-off promotions would be contrary to such
positioning.

 Competition Analysis: Currently, the scope of the retail market in

India is huge and the competition among organized retailers is low.
This has lead to a situation where most retailers are not concerned
with competitor activity. With the expansion of organized retail in
India, the competition among retailers will increase and therefore,
it is important for retailers to perform competitor analysis including
identification of competitor, their communication strategies and the
impact thereof on customers.

 Communication Analysis: Based on the communication

objectives, a manager should choose communication types
(Promotions, Public Relations, Direct Selling, Personal Selling, and
advertising) and corresponding tools (price promotions, coupons,
Signage, Posters, advertisements, consumer contact activities,
sponsorships, events etc.). He should also select suitable media and
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media vehicle based on communication objectives (high reach or

high frequency), past performance of media, etc. Attention should
also be paid to media accessibility of target customers, which also
helps in identification of new media which can be used.

 Market Environment: There are various market environment

factors which affect the communication strategy and force retailers
to adopt new or altered strategies. For example, Introduction of a
new product by a manufacturer can lead to increase in attention and
focus towards the new product, attention towards the existing
product declines. Also, externalities like recession can decrease
customer disposable incomes, causing higher demand for low price
items. The discount retailers can tap this opportunity by giving
price-off promotions. The premium retailers on the other hand
should not change their positioning but use different means of
retaining their customers such as longer credit period for loyal
customers etc.

The organization face several decisions, strategic as well as

tactical, and adopts communication strategies for each. The current
communication strategy development process involves a study of the
message to be conveyed, the target audience and the effectiveness of
media available based on past performance. The company treats each
communication need as an individual message and the same process is
repeated every time. The comparison between the existing and
proposed strategies distinctly brings out the advantage of having a
formal structure to follow. The current focus of retailers is on
traditional media as they have been unable to track the media
accessibility of the target customer to new media, which would be
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crucial for future communications given the emergence of mobile

phones, internet, and digital billboards etc as media types. This
information can be obtained in part by analyzing competitor’s
communication strategy to detect early adopters of media
technologies. The external market environment has also been ignored
by retailers, even though it can alter the consumer behavior - making
existing strategy of using past communication effectiveness as a
standard useless. The current shift in consumer preferences towards
low price offerings due to economic crisis is an excellent opportunity
for discounters. However, these lucrative opportunities should not be
utilized if they lead to dilution of the positioning of the retailer.

The external market environment has also been ignored by

retailers, making existing strategy of using past communication
effectiveness as a standard useless.

However, this can cause confusion among the loyal customers

who may switch towards other retailers offering more fashionable
products at reasonable prices. It was also observed that the
communication needs are largely considered by the management to be
tactical in nature (for a given period). The tactical decisions which
repeat over time however become strategic and should be tackled
uniformly across the retail stores. The Red Apple sales and Mahasale
are considered as tactical but as they are repeatedly undertaken, the
customers expect them to happen and thus the nature of these becomes
strategic, requiring top management involvement.

The proposed framework would immensely help management

to extensively analyse all the important aspects before designing a
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communication strategy for a given management objective. The

robustness of the framework is the key for successful realisation of
objectives.

3.5 Effective Communication Strategy at Malls:

Retailers should expect customer-centric retailing to continually

gain steam throughout 2013. Over the last few years, there has been an
exponential increase in the potential paths a customer can take in the
buying process.

 Right Positioning: The effectiveness of the mall developer's

communication of the offering to the target customers determines
how well the mall gets positioned in their minds. At this stage, the
communication has to be more of relative nature. This implies that
the message conveyed to the target customers must be effective
enough in differentiating the mall's offering from that of its
competitors without even naming them. The message should also
clearly convey to the target audience that the mall offers them
exactly what they call the complete shopping-cum-entertainment
point that meets all their expectations. The core purpose is to
inform the target customers about the offering of the mall, persuade
them to visit the mall and remind them about the mall. The mall
developer can create awareness about the offering among the target
customers in a number of ways. Various communication tools
available to the mall developer for this purpose may include
advertising, buzz marketing, celebrity endorsement, use of print
media, press releases and viral marketing .Once the message is
being conveyed through these channels, the mall developer must
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add a personal touch to his message by carrying out a door-to-door

campaign in order to reinforce the message of the product.

 Effective Visual Communication: Retailer has to give more

emphasis on display visual merchandising, lighting, signages and
specialized props. The visual communication strategy might be
planned and also be brand positioned. Theme or lifestyle displays
using stylized mannequins and props, which are based on a season
or an event, are used to promote collections and have to change to
keep touch with the trend. The merchandise presentation ought to
be very creative and displays are often on non-standard fixtures
and forms to generate interest and add on attitude to the
merchandise.

 Strong Supply Chain: Critical components of supply chain

planning applications can help manufacturers meet retailers' service
levels and maintain profit margins. Retailer has to develop
innovative solution for managing the supply chain problems.
Innovative solutions like performance management, frequent
sales operation management, demand planning, inventory planning,
production planning, lean systems and staff should help retailers to
get advantage over competitors.

Shopping mall development in the early days focused on

expansion of hardware such as enlarging building size and adding new
floors, but recent developers of retail centers consider, in addition to
physical expansion, expansion of software (functions) which includes
providing various services related to health, beauty, education and
entertainment. Such a change in trend continues. One-time visitors
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revisit a shopping mall to benefit from customized services, hence

contributing to vitalization of the shopping mall. The vitalized
shopping malls accumulate strengths that surpass those of existing
competitors while consistently reflecting their loyal customers’ needs,
and maintain this virtuous cycle until it is superseded by new
competitors. The mall and the retailer should work out a strategy
where the mall focuses and enhancing the overall experience and the
retailer focuses on the delivering a good variety of products, With the
retail business state will grow at a rapid speed, managing malls is a
huge challenge. The need for proper retail asset management is
critical.

It’s an old truism that retail starts and stops with the shopper.
Understand why shoppers behave the way they do and you can inform
and influence their shopping behavior . Influence their buying
behavior and you can get them to spend more at your store and less at
your competitor’s store. Sales go up, out of stock go down and all
stakeholders are happy.

Unfortunately, shoppers are fickle and unpredictable, and they

are constantly changing their minds and the way they shop. The
advent of mobile marketing adds to an already crowded mix of options
for information that includes television, print, Internet and more. This
makes the retailer’s job of buying what is going to sell less intuitive
and more dependent on data-driven insight.

It is clear that the omnichannel world of retailing is requiring

marketers and merchandisers adjust the way they attack the point
where there is a consumer interaction. They need to message and
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promote to that segment of one to gain ultimate relevancy. And along

the way they still need to do the basics of adjusting assortment to local
market, optimizing replenishment and anticipating challenges
throughout the supply chain.

While there is no panacea for this new world of retailing, there

is something that’s close — a Big Data approach that integrates
traditional sources of information like the transaction log and ASNs
with social media and other unstructured data to give the retailer a
quick and true picture of the business. By providing the marketers and
merchandisers with the technology that delivers a full view of the
potential impact their programs will have on sales and profits, retailers
can close in on the goal of giving shoppers what they want, when and
where they want it.

Innovative retailers will use Big Data analytics to derive

intelligence from the new and emerging data types that had previously
strained their systems. While creating the new applications for
analysis of multi-structured data requires a strategic investment in
specialized resources and tools, the payoff is immense. The
technology will help brick and mortar retailers to effectively combat
the challenges of show rooming. It will help e-retailers enhance their
personalization of offers to customers. And it will help multi-channel
retailers cross-sell a mobile shopper who happens to be in a physical
store.

Using advanced analytics technology is critical to leveraging

data to improving the promotional interaction with shoppers. The use
of a data warehouse to analyze both structured and unstructured data is
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critical for all retailers with the goal of being the store of choice for
shoppers. By using Big Data analytics to better understand behavior,
retailers will optimize the way they go to market with an increasingly
on the channel worlds this is important because shoppers are not
committed to a specific store or online retailer-they will go to
wherever their needs are met best.

Big data presents both an opportunity and a threat to retailers.

Those companies that are able to capture and analyze complex data
streams to extract new insights with precision will have a major
advantage over their less-informed competitors. On a positive note, it
is believed that more retailers will realize the need to integrate the
varieties of data to create insight for personalized experiences on any
and every channel.

3.6 Marketing Strategy for Retail Malls through Market

Segmentation

The shopping mall image is derived from the customer

perception toward the performances of shopping mall attributes such
as merchandising, accessibility, service, atmosphere, entertainment,
food, and services. There are four results from the market
segmentation processes; they are market or customer segments,
customer demographic profile, customer shopping behavior
description, customer perception and customer opinion toward the
shopping mall image.

Nowadays one of the global market main challenges for

shopping mall industry is the intense competition between the
shopping mall both in the same region and also in the different region
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as well. (Soriano, 2003). This competition becomes more intense

because the shopping malls not only compete with the other shopping
malls but also with the other shopping centers format such as strip
centers. Beside that, the shopping malls also have to compete with the
indirect competitors both for the stores formats such as department
stores, specialty stores, category specialist etc and for the non store
formats such as online retailers, television home shopping, direct
selling, etc as well. (Levy & Wietz, 2007, p.192)

Another global market main challenge of shopping mall

industry is the changing of consumer market. Spurred by several
demographic and life style trend, consumers have become a
heterogeneous market. One composed of numerous micro segments.
These trends include increasing ethnic diversity, an increasing
proportion of elderly, smaller households due to the lower birth rate,
higher divorce rate, greater double income, etc. (Dunne & Lusch,
1999, p.88).

In response to the intense competition and the changing

consumer environment, several industry practitioners and academic
experts have expressed the benefits of targeting specific consumer
segments, positioning or repositioning the mall to attract those
segments and differentiating the shopping mall’s attributes (Alexander
& Muchlebach, 1992, p.75). Shopping malls management realized the
efficiency and effectiveness of targeting a few segment of the market.
Before target markets can be selected, the market must be segmented
into meaningful group that can be realistically with the
communication and marketing mix (Kotler, 2004, p.9).
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The understanding for the need and characteristic of each

customer segment gives the advantages for management of shopping
mall in designing appropriate marketing strategies in order to attract
potential customer segments which result the increasing visitor traffic
and the increasing of tenants’ revenue within the shopping mall.

 Shopping Mall Images

Nowadays the development of shopping mall is growing very
fast especially in the developed and developing countries that leads to
tight competition within shopping centers, but although there are so
many shopping malls even in the same area, however each of
shopping mall has its own image in the customer perception. Shopping
mall attributes created distinctive shopping mall image as the result of
the combination of several attributes performance within the mall

 Merchandising
Merchandising is an important image attribute because it
represents the core product of shopping center based on Berman and
Evans study (as cited on Sit et al. 2003). The roles of merchandising
are also supported by Wakerfield and Baker (1998) that highlighted
the merchandising and tenant variety as stimuli that induce purchasing
in a shopping mall setting and thus influence the consumer image of
the mall.

 Accessibility
The definition of accessibility is the ease of getting in and out of
a shopping center (Levy and Weitz, 2007, p.594). Accessibility can be
further divided into macro accessibility and micro accessibility. Macro
accessibility concerns access road condition to the center and the
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proximity of the center from the customer’s work place or residence.

Meanwhile according to Sit et al. (2003), the micro accessibility refers
to parking facilities within the center and the ease of navigation within
the shopping center. The definition of accessibility is close related
with the site selection process and layout planning within the mall as
one part of retail mix.

 Service
Shopping center services are confined to behavior of retail
employees such as courtesy, knowledge, and friendliness. Thus these
services can be classified as personal service. By Lovelock et al (as
cited in Sit et al, 2003). However, according to Berman & Evans (as
cited in Sit et al, 2003) besides personal service, shopping mall also
provides communal services in terms of ambulance such as escalators,
lifts, and sign boards and amenities such as restrooms. Sit et al. (2003)
stated that both personal and communal services are central to the
shopping mall image because they represent the augmented product
that support the core product (merchandising) and also add value to
the total shopping experiences of the customers.

 Atmospherics
Atmospherics refer to the design of an environment via visual
communicators, lighting, colors, music, and scent to stimulate
customer’s perceptual and emotional response and ultimately to affect
their purchase behavior (Levy & Weitz, 2007, p.510). According to
Smith and Burns (as cited on Sit et al, 2003), the atmospherics are
critical because they act as environmental cues that consumers use to
imply the quality of a shopping center. Further, atmospherics have
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been reported to stimulate consumer purchase at a shopping mall

(Wakefield & Baker, 1998).

 Entertainment
Entertainment is pivotal for shopping center because it induce
an exciting or fun shopping experience, which in turn can entice
consumer patronage. Entertainment in the shopping center can be
categorized into special event entertainment and specialty
entertainment. The key distinction between these two types of
entertainment is the length of duration or span of operation. Special
entertainment is offered on an occasional or seasonal basis for a short
period of time. Conversely, specialty entertainment is generally
incorporated into a shopping center’s property for longer duration
(Haynes & Talpade, 1996).

 Food
Food is pivotal to shoppers because they: first, create an
entertaining ambience within a shopping centre conducive to a
pleasant or exciting shopping experience. And second, provide a
needed break from hours of shopping and or as a conclusion to an
extended shopping excursion (Haynes & Talpade, 1996).

 Security
Besides attracting consumers, shopping centers also appeal to
the criminals. The consumer behavior literature by Schiffman &
Kanuk has revealed that many consumers are risk averse and thus they
may be reluctant to visit a shopping center that is perceived to be
dangerous (as cited in Sit et al. 2003). Despite its significance, Sit et
al. (2003) elucidate that limited studies have examined the
contribution of security to shopping center image. There are three
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security variables; they are quality of the center, safe place to be, and
the personal security.

 Customer Perception

Perception is defined as the process by which an individual

selects, organizes, and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and
coherent picture of the world (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004, p.158).
Meanwhile customer perception according to Cutlipp (1999, p.120) is
the interpreted of scene of actions, included people, places, actions,
and entire range of phenomena, which is give perceptions of that
scene to the customer and respond based on the perception.

Two individuals may be exposed to the same stimuli under the

same apparent conditions, but how each person recognizes, selects,
organizes, and interprets this stimuli is highly individual process based
on each person’s own need, values, and expectation. (Schiffman and
Kanuk, 2004, p.158)

 Market Segmentation and Targeting

Market segmentation can be defined as the process of dividing a

market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or
characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a
distinct marketing mix (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004, p.50). Based on
Kotler, there are two kind bases for market segmentation. They are
descriptive base and causal base (as cited in Lee Hew & Fairhurst,
2000). The descriptive segmentation base uses demographic, socio-
economic, geographic, personality, lifestyle, product usage and brand
loyalty as the characteristic of customer in the market. Demographic
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and socioeconomic bases, which include age, gender, education,

marital status, and life cycle stage, have been utilized most frequently.
There has been empirical support for the validity of using the
descriptive segmentation bases (Plummer, 1974).

The causal segmentation bases include self concept, attitude or

preference or perceptions, benefits and usage situation. These bases
typically are preferred over descriptive ones, by academicians and
practitioners, because of their link to the actual behavior of the
consumer. There has been empirical support for the validity of using
the causal segmentation bases (Finn and Louviere, 1996).

The shopping malls management face lot of challenges

nowadays. Those main challenges replace the mass marketing strategy
into the segmented marketing strategy for shopping mall management.
Moreover this research did causal market segmentation based on
shopping mall image. The next phase is the market targeting process
that was conducted by measuring each market segment based on their
perception toward the performances of shopping mall attributes and
based on their shopping behavior in order to identify and to select the
potential market segment to be served and treated specially.

After finding the potential market segments together with their

perception information and their shopping behavior; then the
development of marketing strategy can be established.

3.7 Market Segment Analysis

Demographic Profile for Each Market Segment

The market segment is dominated by female teenager with

average age on 13-19 years old. Their marital statuses are single with
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education background at senior high school and some of them at

bachelor level. They are student with monthly income below Rp 1
million (± US$ 100) and only small number of them has income
between Rp 1 – 3 million (± US$ 100 – 300) per month.Another
segment is dominated by young female with average age on 20-25
years old. Their marital statuses are single with education background
at senior high school and small number of them at bachelor level.
Most of them work as an employee with monthly income below Rp 1
million (± US$ 100) but also many of them have income between Rp
1 – 3 million (± US$ 100 – 300) per month. Finally for segment 3, the
description of its demographic profile is as follow: This segment is
dominated by male with average age on 20-25 years old. Their marital
statuses are single and some of them are married with more than one
child. Most of them have education background at senior high school
but also many of them have bachelor level. They work as an employee
with monthly income below Rp 1 million (± US$ 100) but also some
of them have income between Rp 1 – 3 million (± US$ 100 – 300) per
month.

Opinion Description for Each Market Segment

“Demander” segment as the convenience place where they can

do the shopping activities on many stores that offer many type of
products with good services and also can enjoy the atmosphere within
the mall. In retail perspective, this segment perceived that the quality
performances can be seen on merchandising, service, and atmosphere
dimension or attribute.
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“Rationale” segment as the strategic mall because of its

location in the center of Surabaya which ease the customer to access
the mall from many directions all around the city; also because of its
history as the first mall in Surabaya and because of many occasional
entertainments such as celebrities visit, exhibition, etc. In retail
perspective, this segment perceived that the quality performances can
be seen on accessibility and entertainment dimension or attribute.

“Satisfier” segment have the combination of opinion from

segment 1 and segment 2. Therefore in retail perspective, this segment
perceived that the quality performances can be seen on merchandising,
service, atmosphere, accessibility, and entertainment dimension or
attribute.

3.7.1 Marketing Strategy Recommendation:

There are three market segment revealed, namely “Demander”,

“Rationale”, and “Satisfier”. Market segment “Demander” refers to
customers who demand the entire shopping mall attributes to perform
well in reaching their expectation and satisfaction. Meanwhile market
segment “Rationale” refers to customers who are rationale that can
balance between which attributes performances are perceived
important and which are not. Finally, market segment “Satisfier”
refers to customers who have less demand on the performances of
shopping mall attributes.

Moreover, based on the observation and analysis the profile of

each market segment especially on the perception of each market
segment toward the performance of shopping mall attributes, then two
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potential market segments are identified; they are “Rationale” and

“Satisfier”.

The recommendations for marketing strategies in serving the

target markets are explained as follow: For merchandising attribute;
the brand options variable is perceived important which means the
mall management should manage the stores or tenants within mall to
offer many brand options. Meanwhile for accessibility attribute; the
road access to the mall is perceived important which means the mall
management should coordinate with the local government in
providing good road access condition into the mall.

For service attribute; the personal service and amenities service

should be managed and be maintained well. Courtesy, prompt service
and knowledge of the staff at information desk are the important
variables to be noticed on personal service. Therefore mall
management should schedule the training program for staffs at
information desk in order to prepare them to be courtesy to customer,
having appropriate mall knowledge, and help the customer promptly.
While the restrooms which are clean, easy to be found, and
strategically located are the important variables to be noticed on
amenities service. Therefore mall management should monitor the
cleaning service department and the traffic into the restrooms location.

At the mean time, for atmosphere attributes; comfort situation

within mall is perceived as the important variable Therefore mall
management should manage the customer traffic to flow smoothly
within each part of location within mall. For entertainment attribute;
both permanent and occasional entertainment are perceived important.
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Therefore mall management should manage the contract with stores

that supporting the permanent entertainment such as cinema, game
zone, toys stores, etc. In addition, mall management can arrange many
occasional entertainments such as live music, performances by
celebrity, conducting exhibition, etc to provide occasional
entertainment at the mall.

Finally for food attribute and service attribute; the entire

variables are perceived important. Therefore food court center, types
of food offered, food price, and the quality of food should be managed
well by monitoring the performances of food department at the mall.
Meanwhile the safety of the mall facilities such as escalator and lift,
safety in all mall areas such as restroom, parking space, and inside
mall, safety of vehicle, and the security guard on duty should be
developed or at least maintained at the good level by mall
management through the monitoring of security department at the mall
in partnership with local police department and also through the
coordination with its customer via security campaign within mall.

As companies in the retail sector gear up for harnessing global

opportunities, it is important for them to have a solution partner with
strong global capabilities. Companies has to tackle their global
challenges and need to deploy Open Communications solutions
globally, providing the same level of business benefit .These global
business benefits can be achieved through improvement of processes
or the deployment of collaborative tools and environments among the
different teams in the companies.
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3.8 Global Issues for Retail Malls in Framing their

Strategy:

Retail, of about 15 million employees in America alone is one

of the largest industries in the world by number of businesses and
number of employees. Retail sales in the U.S. totaled an estimated
$4.920 trillion during 2013, according to Plunkett Research.

3.6.1 Factors that will Impact the Retail Sector during

2013 in the U.S. and Europe:

 Surveys show that consumers are focused on increasing their

savings and paying down debts.

 Persistently high unemployment levels and a difficult environment

for job seekers are reducing retail spending.

 Price-sensitive consumers will continue to be more

conservative. When they do spend, they want to feel like they are
buying merchandise that is fairly priced, if not a significant
bargain.

Meanwhile, competition among retailers has never been

tougher. A retailer without a significant competitive advantage doesn’t
stand a chance. Superstores are battling each other on every major
corner, while Internet marketers are stealing customers from
stores. Some consumers are using stores as showrooms where they can
touch and feel the merchandise, and then making their purchases at
lower cost online at sites like Amazon.com. Online selling at deep
discounts is even making inroads into major consumer purchases such
as jewelry.
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The retail industry is experiencing a momentous shift in

consumer behavior, fueled by the ubiquity of smartphones. In the U.S.
alone, 31% of online shopping traffic happens on mobile devices.

Growth in online shopping has been driven by two

factors. First, the number of fast Internet connections in U.S. homes
and businesses leapt to about 100 million by 2013, plus tens of
millions of wireless connections, which makes buying online faster
and more interactive. Next, there’s the savvy marketing of online
giants like Amazon.com (with more than $48 billion in 2011 revenues,
by far one of the fastest growing companies in the world), as well as
the e-commerce efforts of traditional retailers such as Home Depot
and Wal-Mart. These fast Internet connections are extremely
important, even at the office, since a large number of workers take
time out to shop online from their desktops. Globally, the number of
Internet users has passed 2.4 billion.

Analysts at e-Marketer reported growth in American e-

commerce sales from $188 billion in 2010 to $194.3 billion in
2011. This figure does not include online travel sales or sales of tickets
to events. For 2012, the firm forecasted U.S. e-commerce retail to
reach $224.2 billion, and for 2015 sales are expected to hit $270
billion. Travel was forecast to grow 11% to reach $119.2 billion in
2012.After a dismal 2008-09 recession, retailing has bounced
back. However, retailers are much more conservative. Stores of all
types have been seeking creative ways to cut operating
expenses. Methods range from reducing the size of stores to lowering
the employee count to reducing inventory exposure. Meanwhile, sales
of luxury items have made a strong comeback at many stores in
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America, while luxury sales have been surging in recent years in

developing markets such as China, where high-end stores including
Tiffany & Co., Hermes and Gucci do very well.

Typical U.S. and European consumers are focused on buying

less, and when they do make purchases, they are seeking the best
possible prices. This means that revenues have been strong at so-
called “dollar stores” in America, and at other outlets that are known
for exceptionally low prices. Elsewhere, many retailers, including
department stores, are forced to offer special prices on a frequent
basis.

Sales of private-label items are generally growing at a faster

rate than those of name brands. At Kroger, for example, house-brands
make up 40% of products sold, up from 34% in 2010. Kroger stores
stock, on average, about 11,000 private label items. Overall, private-
label sales (in supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandisers)
grew 3.92% over the previous year, to reach $92.7 billion in the U.S.
in 2011, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association.

Coupons have made a big comeback. Big factors in this growth

include the financially challenged consumer and the use of advances
in technology. Coupon distribution via cellphones has made a big
impact. Also, the fact that consumers now use the Internet to search
for and print out coupons caused significant growth. Another huge
boost to coupon redemption is web sites that push special offers to
members, such as Groupon. The success of this business strategy has
led to a massive wave of coupon site startups around the world. It
remains to be seen whether they can continue to lure retailers and
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restaurants to offer immense discounts and then split those discounted

receipts with the coupon firms.

The most exciting stories in retail industry growth are in

emerging nations, such as China, India and Brazil. In China, many of
the world’s leading retail chains are rushing to open stores and new
malls have been developed at a rapid clip, even in remote cities. This
retail trend in China includes middle-of-the-road chains such as Nike
and Starbucks, automotive centers including car dealers and tire and
accessory stores such as Goodyear, as well as the world’s top luxury
retailers, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Fendi. The government
in India is taking steps to open up the Indian market to foreign retail
chains also.

In the U.S. and Europe, many businesses outside of the luxury

field have repositioned themselves as providers of high-value,
reasonably priced merchandise. Household product makers are
emphasizing lower-priced soaps and detergents, or high-value larger
packages. Even companies that were already known for reasonably
priced goods have changed strategy to some degree. Ann Taylor, a
national U.S. chain of moderately priced women’s fashion stores,
hired a new designer during the recession and added a selection of
trendier, fashion-forward clothes at reasonable prices. Thus, it has
been able to retain existing customers while attracting new shoppers
who want chic clothing that fits within their restrained budgets. This is
a good example of adapting to the new retail era, since many fashion-
conscious women have become more conservative about the amount
they are willing to spend on clothing. “Shop your own closet first,” is
the new mantra of some American women who realize they can get
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more use from the fashions that they already own. Personal spending
has shifted more toward goods and services offering quality,
durability, affordability and lasting value, with less focus on the
purchase of trendy items for fashion’s sake. Going forward, consumers
will spend their money more wisely while using debt more
carefully. Successful manufacturers, home builders, services providers
and retailers will respond quickly to this trend. When consumers
spend, they want to do so with confidence that they are using their
money in a smart way.

3.9 Innovative ideas for retail secor malls in present era

The retail industry is experiencing a momentous shift in

consumer behavior, fueled by the ubiquity of smartphones. While they
are out shopping, consumers increasingly are using their smartphones
to take and share product photos, search for nearest store locations,
research products and prices online, and ultimately, make a purchase.
Retailers have caught onto this and are making it easier for consumers
to navigate, browse and cart products on mobile-friendly web sites. It
is anticipated that the number of merchants accepting mobile
payments will explode and consumers will start the move toward
using “mobile money.” The practice of “showrooming,” in which
consumers use their mobile devices in stores to research a product and
compare prices from another retailer or online merchant. A full 20% of
online adults are practicing showrooming, and 33% of them say they
ultimately used the information to buy an item from another store.
With mobile payment on the horizon, this could spell trouble for many
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brick-and-mortar retailers who will increasingly find their sales

cannibalized by these showroomers.

While price-matching is an obvious way for retailers to avoid

losing sales to showroomers, retailers also need to seriously consider
and develop strategies to attract and engage consumers on
smartphones. Additionally, merchants must leverage tactics to build
brand loyalty and value. Near-field communication and location-based
mobile advertising are on the rise, but until the technology and
consumer acceptance are there, retail marketers ought to look for ways
to optimize the tools that are already in their kits — mobile-optimized
email and mobile messaging — to send highly personalized and
targeted messaging.

Retail malls will tell you that nothing is a better indicator of

likely future purchases than what a consumer has already purchased.
And this order data is more accessible than ever before. By integrating
this transactional information with marketing platforms, retailers can
segment shoppers based on product categories of purchased items and
send personalized coupons, as well as relevant offers. Retailers also
can use this information to send service-oriented messaging that
speaks to previous purchases, such as reorder reminders, installation
tips or customer service contact information. And many of these
programs can be automated or triggered based on a consumer’s
behavior or action, giving the marketer more time to focus on other
innovative ways to build customer loyalty and combat
showrooming. Making past-purchase data part of a retail marketing
strategy in 2013 is an imperative. The high-quality communications
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and service will be remembered the next time the consumer goes
“showrooming.”

We’re now in an era of mobile commerce. Whether at home, on

the go, or in a store, shoppers increasingly are accessing the Internet
through smartphones and tablets for product research or to complete
transactions. In addition, we’re now in an era of Big Data as a
competitive advantage. Retailers now routinely gather both structured
and unstructured (for instance, WiFi-captured store traffic flows) data,
and are able to rapidly obtain new and deeper insights into
consumption trends and shopper behavior.

Mobility and Big Data also offer retailers significant

opportunities on the operational side of the business. With secure,
enterprise-class WiFi in the store, managers no longer need to be tied
to their desks, and associates can access task and time tools, as well as
critical shopper-support information — including the same net-based
data upon which shoppers rely. In the same way, the tools of Big Data
analysis also can find long hidden inefficiencies in internal business
processes, and help retailers save monies in labor and time in the
supply chain.

What does this mean for retailers today?

 Robust, secure WiFi in the store is becoming a requirement:

For the shoppers who are seeking Internet-based information on
prices, ratings and reviews, they expect WiFi in the store. Shoppers
in dressing rooms or in far sections of the store who would prefer
to check out right there and then expect connection to the Internet.
And of course, young age associates who always want to be
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connected also want fingertip-access to the knowledge that will

bring more sales. The next-generation store WiFi also is a tool for
personalized experience and behavioral analysis.

 Big Data opens the retail door to the “Internet of Everything”:

What was envisioned in the early days of retail RFID now is
becoming a fast reality: a responsive, real-time networked web of
data flowing from things, people, and processes, reporting on
decision-critical events in the business and driving efficiency and
innovation. And it opens the door to new types of retailing. As
consumers rely less on retail personnel and more on technology-
enabled, self-service retail vending machines, micro-markets and
virtual stores will create a completely new retail business model
with what we call “Digital Malls.” These interactive, low-labor
Digital Malls will grow in numbers in densely populated venues
such as airports, universities, stadiums, resorts and larger
workplaces. Consumers will be able to research and purchase
merchandise while waiting for a train or flight, without waiting in
line for a service representative.

Merchants will continue to strive to engage customers across

the “splinternet,” a term referenced by many, including industry
analyst firm Forrester, Inc. — and the devices that comprise it —
looking to land the right strategy and mix of tactics.
The key to customer centricity is understanding that customers want to
control how they interact with a retail brand, ultimately shaping a
personalized customer experience. Today’s consumers want more
from your brand than merchandise — they want to be inspired. For
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improved loyalty and profitability, retailers must engage customers to

get them emotionally invested for the long-term.

Empowering and inspiring customers starts with providing

access to a variety of information, such as product data, reviews,
inventory levels, pricing, transaction history, loyalty point totals and
special offers.

During 2012, we saw many retailers building out capabilities to

allow transactions at anytime from anywhere (e.g. via traditional POS,
mobile POS, self check-out, kiosks, e-commerce, phone orders,
mobile commerce), to support the customer-centric retail imperative.
Now that the dust has settled, many are finding themselves saddled
with the challenges associated with managing, modifying and
migrating multiple systems — chief of which is the integration of
customer data from separate, siloed systems. Next year, expect to see a
concentrated focus on supporting a seamless transaction experience
across all channels. To that end, many retailers may find themselves
taking a step back, mapping those paths to identify the information
and transaction capabilities that are required at each step to ensure
they are meeting heightened customer expectations and have the
ability to capture and leverage customer information across all
channels.

Retailers now engage customers in executing the buying

process in the customer’s preferred channel, and on the customer’s
terms. If successful, a retailer is rewarded with the customer’s loyalty,
and can leverage the insight gleaned from the customer’s
interaction(s) to further personalize the shopping experience. In doing
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so, the retailer is equipped to deliver relevant, tailored experiences that

meet that specific customer’s needs. Retailers that can do this will be
positioned for success in 2013 and beyond.

In 2013, we will see continued interest and investment

in two types of technology:

1. Clienteling solutions to empower store associates: When

customers walk into a retail store, their shopping experience
determines whether they will make a purchase in-store or use the store
as a showroom. Store associates today need smart applications to give
them customer-specific data — such as order history and buying
preferences — and empower them to make decisions for customers
that also are profitable for the retailer.

In the back-end office, retailers must build profitability rules

and automate the administration of those rules to every unique
transaction. For instance: What options or incentives are available to a
premier customer? For a new customer? For a high-dollar transaction?
For a high-margin transaction? On the store floor, associates must
have the ability to look up inventory and customer information via
mobile devices that ultimately help customers make their in-store,
online and/or mixed-channel purchases.

In other words, rich clienteling solutions help retailers move

past “one size fits all” programs that are myopic and erode profit
margins, including “low price” and “price matching” strategies, and
enable store associates to engage with customers personally to drive
sales, satisfaction and return trips.
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2. 3D visualization to increase retailer-manufacturer

collaboration: Over the past few years, heightened consumer
expectations have raised the bar dramatically for retailers and
manufacturers alike. Close collaboration and synchronization across
the extended retail and manufacturing value chain has now become a
vital necessity. With a growing need to configure assortments down to
the local store level, retailers and their suppliers are turning to
visualization technology to create win-win business strategy.

For retailers, 3D technology is a dynamic and cost-effective

way to test new store designs, understand shopper behavior and
introduce new products or promotions. For manufacturing companies,
3D technology can be used to perform shopper research without
actually sending product prototypes to the retail store. In fact, leading
manufacturers have invested in 3D visualization to simulate different
shelf configurations for their products in order to deploy the most
effective combinations possible. If showrooming is here to stay, these
manufacturers want to make sure that their products are displayed to
create the best showing and their supply chains are designed to deliver
the best availability.

We’ve already seen how retailers have gotten more tech savvy
to engage customers and offer more flexibility in how they shop, with
holiday shopping apps across the phone, tablet and PC, in-store modes
for mobile apps, and in-store pick up options for online shoppers. As
the lines between traditional and digital channels continue to blur, we
predict several technology trends in 2013.
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Engaging Your Customers

1. Integrated multichannel retail capabilities, strategies and

management solutions are poised to have significant impact on the
industry, as more retailers move to make omnichannel a reality. With
consumers having increased options for how and when they shop,
retailers need to deliver a seamless customer experience across all
their channels. Optimizing and integrating their shopping channels as
part of a single strategy for driving compelling customer experiences
has become a must.

As retailers look to better connect with their customers through

more relevant campaigns, integrated marketing and digital campaign
management solutions are of increasing importance to dynamically
manage content across digital channels and measure and optimize ROI
on their digital marketing investments. Integrated marketing
management solutions combine marketing resource management and
multichannel campaign management into a combined executional,
operational and analytical process that optimizes marketing impact
and returns.

Knowing and Serving Your Customers Better

2. Predictive analytics and big data will be another technology

focus area in 2013. In order to remain competitive with a growing
variety of shopping alternatives, retailers must seek new ways to
deliver the most value, revenue and loyalty. To do so, they must
harness the increasing volume and availability of data using
technology to process large amounts of data into meaningful reports
and insights as quickly as possible.
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Engaging our employees

To help improve operational efficiencies and productivity, we

are also seeing increased interest from our retail customers in cloud
computing solutions like Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint Online.
With the continued tight economy, the cloud provides cost-effective
solutions for retailers to run their business more effectively by
optimizing and streamlining operations. It also helps deliver modern
productivity tools to deskless store employees. A cloud-based Store
Employee Portal, for example, can easily provide personalized access
to the information each employee needs to complete their critical
sales, inventory and customer service tasks from any device or
location. Faced with increasing online competition, retailers must
deliver differentiated and superior in-store experiences that leverage
their people. To do that, they must engage their employees by
providing the modern sales, social, and collaborative tools they need
to best serve customers and the business.

2013 is poised to be an exciting time for retail. Today’s

technologies can help retailers address the dynamic and multichannel
retail environment. By embracing technological change, savvy retail
malls can meet the changing demands and expectations of consumers,
ensure smart and successful business operations and be in a position of
strength to adapt and grow as needs change.

More than ever before, customers were more empowered

through social channels, feedback mechanisms, 24 x 7 access to
information, price comparison data and “deals.” In fact, consumers
have become more comfortable sharing information digitally and
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online than most will in person. While retailers all had an eye on the
customer in 2012, how we take action based on this vast amount of
customer information across channels will be the focus for 2013.

Aside from historical transaction data already in-house, retailers

now have access to an amazing amount of social data. This unaided
information allows retailers to get a glimpse into what customers want
in terms of offerings, marketing promotions and services, which
products work and which don’t, what offerings customers want in the
future and even when and how they plan to spend their money.

The opportunity for retail mall is in finding the right tools and
technologies to pare down and analyze data, get more granular and
then define proactive campaigns to maximize customer interactions
across all channels — a true multichannel approach based on real data.
This strategy, which combines the power of predictive analytics with
the ability to personalize the shopping experience for individuals, is
key to getting closer to customers, driving purchases and increasing
revenues.

Already today we can gather and analyze social data. We can

target promotions to select customers based on purchase data. We can
personalize online marketing messages based on search history. The
retailers that are able to integrate all aspects of that data into
actionable and relevant campaigns that anticipate and deliver on
customer shopping needs will be the big winners in 2013.

3.10 Visual merchandising

The detailed research study acquired a consumer response

centred approach to visual merchandising stimuli, in an endeavour to
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holistically deem this area of the retail apparel industry. Through the
study, consumer’s perception towards visual merchandising displays
and what effect these displays carry on consumer’s perception and
behaviour were exposed. The secondary question pertaining from the
introductory literature study was to conclude the effect of visual
merchandising displays on consumer perceptions. Explorative
research was performed and qualitative data were collected by means
of focus groups . End consumers perceptions of visual merchandising
were identified and concealed in creating an interest and were longing
to promote persuasion towards merchandise and aesthetically to
beautify the store. Consumers expressed that the impact that visual
merchandising displays had on their buying decisions depended on
their personal preferences.

VISUAL MERCHANDISING AND VISUAL MERCHANDISING

DISPLAYS

Visual merchandising display plays a pivotal role and is an

important subsection of visual merchandising and branches a part of
visual merchandising as a whole, it is important to understand all the
aspects of visual merchandising. “Visual merchandising is defined as
the activity that synchronizes effective merchandise assortment with
effective merchandise display.”(Bell & Ternus, 2006:20).The
Objective of visual merchandise is to display a complete store together
with its merchandise in such a manner that it reaches out and draws
the attention of all the potential consumer’s and treats them with an
appealing & gratifying shopping environment.
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Visual merchandising’s concept urbanized from the term

Merchandising. Merchandising is the modus operandi opted by all the
stores in order to sell their products to the consumers. It is the course
of action undertaken by all the stores to sell the correct merchandise in
correct quantity keeping in lieu to achieve the company’s financial
objectives (Levi & Weitz,2009:642).Visual Merchandise as defined by
Pegler (2010:3) “…showing merchandise and concepts at their very
best, with the end purpose of making a sale.”The display of
merchandise which makes them appealing, attractive, accessible,
engaging and enticing to all the shoppers in the retail store and hence
contributes in closing potential sales.

Visual Merchandising utilizes display, colour, lighting, sounds,

digital technology and uses interactive elements which catches
consumers attention and ends up in persuading them to purchase
products. Visual merchandising further helps to convey the image of
the brand and reflects the personality of the target markets that the
retail store wants to attract. Visual merchandising possess diverse
functions in an apparel retail store entailing supporting sales,
supporting retail strategies, communicating with consumers and
assisting in communicating the apparel retailers ‘ brand image (Levi &
weitz,2009;531) All the elements inside a store except the
merchandise itself such as store design, lighting, product placements,
atmospherics, fixtures and permanent props in total constitutes Visual
Merchandising.The Solo objective of all the elements comprised in
Visual merchandising is to portray the store together with its
merchandise in such a manner that it draws the attention of a possible
consumer. Visual Merchandise has urbanized and evolved into being
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more than product presentation. It contains another aspect called

Visual Merchandising Display.

Visual merchandising display

The Focal Point of this research study will be on visual

merchandising displays that are currently the core of extreme levels of
passion and consideration in apparel retailing (Tullsman, Clark
&Rose, 2004: 66-68).Visual Features of the merchandise and store
that creates attention or pleasure (Matthew, 2008:48). These display
areas are known as feature areas. To all the intent and purposes the
displays are used to decorate and beautify a store by adding together
additional fixtures, props, posters, materials, colours, frills and objects
to a store. Displays in general can be divided into three different
categories: on-shelf displays, off-shelf displays and window displays
(Matthew, 2008: 48-52)

3.10.1 Uses of visual merchandising displays

Props comprise the main objects utilised in visual

merchandising displays and can be defined as the other items inside a
store except the merchandise that the store sells (Colborne,1996: 109).
Props include a variety of items, antiques, art objects, artificial grass
& Snow, ribbons, flowers, banners, boxes, baskets, decorative panels
& Screens, Floor coverings, Flexes & Vinyl printing, paper &
cardboard, pots, pedestals, textiles and many more which contribute to
an effective and enticing Display. Props are secondary to the
merchandise sold in store; it enhances merchandise display which is
sold at the store, not to detract from it (Colborne, 1996: 109).
Idyllically, props should never clutter a display. With reference to the
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Apparel retail stores frequently utilise visual merchandising displays

to exemplify a subject matter that on a regular basis is associated with
holidays like Diwali, Holi, Marriage Season, Rakshabandhan,
Christmas and seasonal sales.Further, as our nation is urbanizing day
by day special days such as Valentine’s Day and major sporting events
such (IPL, FIFA etc) also provide ample scope for Visual
merchandising displays potential scope in apparel retailing store.
Displays are also utilised for general decoration of the stores. Stores
are also designed based on themes which are determined by the style,
price and the quantity of merchandise available, as well as the
merchandise’s relevance to the specific topic (Colborne, 1996: 109).

As per the occasion /event chosen, apparel retailers’s displays

can change often. For example, nearly every apparel store uses some
form of celebratory display and decoration to demonstrate the
Deepawali theme consecutively every year. The props range from
Diyas, sparkles and posters/signage. Utilisation of visual display
enables a single store to metamorphose into Bazaar of different
climates, architectural styles, smells, colours, lights and music. The
mood, character and the number of display props that are essential to
amaze consumers are dependent on the store’s target market, the type
of merchandise they sell, as well as the size of the store (Colborne,
1996: 108). Further, it has been recommended that good and effective
visual merchandising display inside a store can sustain customer’s
interest and persuade consumers to lower their psychological
differences and hence to make a purchase (Kefroot, Davies & Ward,
2003: 144). Therefore retailers use store design to influence consumer
buying behaviour and in so doing also influence their perceptions.
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In Indian Retail culture question which often rises is whether

the visual merchandising displays of a store have the same effect on
all the consumers or not. However, Retailers want their stores to
attract consumers into their stores, assisting them to find the
merchandise they desire and to motivate them to make unplanned,
impulse purchases and ultimately provide them with an enjoyable
shopping experience (Levi & Weitz, 2009: 509).

The visual merchandising displays and the type of environmental

stimuli these displays create could have an effect on consumers
perceptions, which is the practice where a person observes, selects,
organises and reacts to environmental stimuli in a significant way (du
Plessis & Rousseau, 2003: 218). It is therefore important that visual
merchandising displays created in an apparel retail store influence a
consumer to approach that store and make a purchase, not avoid it.
Apparel retailers have to ascertain how their visual merchandising
displays are perceived by consumers with the intention to identify
what the consumers are actually seeing, how it is interpreted and
which features are most important to them.

3.11 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Sales and customer footfall in a store are very pivotal aspects in

terms of revenue generation. Consumer behaviour plays a decisive
role for apparel retailers; knowledge and understanding of consumer
behaviour may assist retailers to understand what is important to the
consumer, further it also helps in identifying important influences that
are present during consumer decision- making. Consumer behaviour is
defined as, “The Study of individuals, groups or organisations and the
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processes they use to select, secure, use and dispose of products,

services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that
these processes have on the consumer and society” ( Cant, van
Heerden &Ngambi,2010: 51).

Consumer behaviour is unpredictable, often retailers ask of their

potential consumers is why do some consumers buy certain
products/brands, and why do they buy those specific products at
certain stores at certain times. Environmental factors convert
consumer behaviour swiftly and effects retailing drastically
(Cant,2010:7). As perpetuated by the likes of Grewal, Puccinelli,
Goodstein, Price, Raghubir & Steward (2009: 24), Consumers
emotional state which repeatedly drives the consumers approach is
influenced by Visual Merchandise. Visual Merchandising displays
form an integral part of visual merchandising. Hence, apparel retailers
all around can create visual merchandising displays as per their own
perception which they believe will be of value to the consumers and
would encourage their buying approach and behaviour. According to
Turley and Ronald (2000: 193-211), approach behaviour is seen as
optimistic responses to a store, such as an aspiration to stay in the
particular store and explore it, and ultimately make a purchase. On the
other hand, avoidance behaviour comprises of staying away from a
store or not wanting to spend time exploring it. Levi and Weitz (2009:
526) argue that consumers see the visual merchandising of a store as a
very important element when deciding to approach a store to purchase
their products.
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3.11 Consumer perception

Consumer’s perceptions often get affected by daily happenings,

events and thereby influence consumer’s behaviour. Consumer’s
decision making is highly influenced by what they see and what they
perceive to be true. It is mandatory for the retailers to understand the
whole concept of perception in order for them to determine all
influential factors that affect consumers to buy. (Cant et al., 2010: 54)
Blythe (2008: 91) summarized perceptions as being “... a process of
converting sensory input into an understanding of how the world
works”.

Perception as a process entails four necessary steps:

 Exposure

 Attention

 Interpretation

 Memory

Levi and Weitz (2009: 532) further explain that consumer’s

perception of the store solely depends on the consumer’s shopping
goals.Some of the consumers prefer to walk around the shopping
arena before they make a purchase. Their perception is totally deemed
by the store layout, visual merchandising displays and the
environment the store can offer. Price of the products is also an
important tool while making a purchase, but the first appearance of the
store lays an everlasting image on consumer’s perception about the
store. Apparel industry runs on the Mantra of what looks good, sells
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good. Henceforth, it is concrete that consumer’s perceptions may have

an impact on the way they behave towards a store and its merchandise.

There is a lack of literature that examines the influence that

visual merchandising displays provoke in consumers and in particular,
how these displays influence consumer perceptions. Apparel retailers
ought to establish how their visual merchandising displays are
perceived by the consumers. It is essential to identify what consumers
are actually seeing, how they interpret the displays and which features
are most important to them. By doing this, it could benefit the apparel
retailer if they align the internal focus of their visual merchandising
together with their visual merchandising displays with the consumer’s
expectations. Visual merchandising displays are concerned with how
the product is visually communicated to a consumer and also whether
this message is interpreted in the correct way--ultimately affecting the
consumer’s behaviour in such a way that it will lead to a decision to
purchase.

This research study aims to identify the relative importance of

the influential variables from the consumer’s perspective. The current
marketplace has become increasingly competitive and therefore
consumer perceptions are crucial for gaining sustainable competitive
advantage in the apparel retail industry. Apparel retailers should be
willing to analyse the whole process of how consumers make
decisions and how perceptions are formed regarding their visual
merchandising displays, from the consumer’s perspective.
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3.12 ELEMENTS OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING DISPLAY

The foremost important objective of the elements of visual

merchandising is to put up and display a store with its merchandise in
such a manner that it draws the attention of every possible customer
(Bell & Turnus,2008: 20-22).The rudiments of visual merchandising
displays, among others, include store design, signage and graphics,
atmospherics, fixtures, and props.

Store design: Store design includes all the aspects of visual

merchandising. These aspects include visual displays, window
displays and interior design as well as fixtures, fittings and lighting
(Morgan, 2008: 30). The main purpose of store design is to execute
the retailer’s strategy; the design must be consistent with and support
the retailer’s strategy by meeting the needs of the target market and
building a sustainable competitive advantage (Levi & Weitz, 2009:
508). Store design is important for retailers due to the fact that it can
help support the brand image as well as strengthen a successful retail
strategy. Retailers rely on the design of a store to attract consumers
inside; some retailers choose a more delicate design while others like
to surprise and motivate. A retailer’s store design encompasses
different floor plans and store layouts (grid layout, racetrack layout,
free-form layout) and feature areas (displays). A floor plan is a flat
illustration of two dimensions, with the length and width of an area as
seen from overhead (Pegler, 2010: 284). The most popular floor plans
are discussed below.

Grid layout: The grid layout is the most popular layout used in
supermarkets and discount stores, especially stores that adopt self-
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service. One area of display is along the walls of the store, where the
other merchandise is displayed in an equivalent way (Pradhan, 2008:
351). A grid layout permits consumers to move without restraint
within the area and it uses space effectively.

The free-flow layout: In a free-flow layout, the merchandise is

arranged in an asymmetrical manner. It allows the consumers to move
freely throughout the store and this type of layout encourages
consumers to browse (Pradhan, 2008: 351).

The racetrack layout: The race-track layout is also known as the

loop layout. As the name suggests, the display is in the form of a
racetrack or a loop with a main aisle running through the store
(Pradhan, 2008: 351). This type of layout is most often found in
department stores.

3.13 Signage and graphics

Signage and graphics are used by retailers to help consumers

locate particular products and departments in a store. An effective
sign/graphic attracts the shopper’s attention and conveys the brand
identity, thereby shaping the consumer’s first impression of what they
will find inside the store (Bell & Ternus, 2006: 190). Graphics are
defined as “...referring to drawings, paintings, and lettering or the
reproductive arts of engraving, etching, lithography, etcetera” (Pegler,
2010: 255). In apparel retail stores, graphics usually refers to
oversized photos, blow-ups or light box art. Where words cannot be
read by everyone, photos and pictures are understood throughout
society. Graphics are usually photo blow-ups of people doing things or
people who are dressed for a specific occasion. Graphics show people
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living a particular kind of life and dressing in that life’s style. Graphics
can add personality and beauty to a store (Levi & Weitz, 2009: 516).
In retail stores, photo blow-ups usually appear as a framed or
unframed background panel, or in a light box lighted from behind
(Pegler, 2010: 255).

All retailers, and in particular apparel retailers, start

communicating with consumers even before they enter the store. From
the second that consumers read the store’s name or see the logos on
the store front, they receive a message. Signage can be referred to as
visual graphics created to present information to consumers. Signage
and graphics are used by apparel retailers to help consumers locate
particular products and departments. An effective sign attracts the
shoppers attention and conveys the brand identity, shaping the
consumers first impressions of what they will find inside the store
(Bell & Ternus, 2006: 190).

Large department stores often need to display directional

signage to direct consumers through the store and to indicate where
the different departments are (Levi & Weitz, 2009: 516). Apparel retail
stores could use signage in order to indicate the location of certain
merchandise, to indicate different categories, and to indicate prices.

Graphics are used to strengthen and emphasize a current

promotion or an advertising campaign. A specific photograph may
sometimes be the foundation for a complete promotion. A lifestyle
graphic is used as a selling device, such as shown in figure below. It
usually describes how different items of merchandise are placed
together and how a desired look could be created.
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Even though a picture is worth a thousand words, it is

sometimes better when a message is read as well as seen. Signs are
often a consumer’s first contact with a store. Effective signs identify
the store and these signs are used to inform consumers of special
events (Colborne, 1996: 234). Signs could also be used to describe the
theme of a window or an in-store display.

As per Levi and Weitz (2009: 516-517), signage can be used as

a form of visual communication, and it can be used in the following
ways:

Promotional signage: The goal of promotional signage is to attract

the consumer into the store. It describes the special offers on display. :
The apparel retailer could use different images to create moods that
encourage consumers to buy the products.

As mentioned earlier in this section, signage is used to inform

shoppers about merchandise characteristics. This could include price,
use, size, fabric content, lifestyle, construction or other benefits. Signs
can be made from plastic, metal, paper, straw, branches and other
materials, depending on where the sign will be placed. Alternatively,
stick-on lettering (decals) could also be used. Stick-on letters are
available in a variety of typefaces, colours and sizes. They can be
made from plastic, wood, metal, foam, acrylic and other materials
(Colborne, 1996: 237).

In order for apparel retailers to effectively use their signage and

graphics, they could use the following techniques (Pegler, 2010: 256):
Coordinate signs and graphics. The fashion retailer should choose
graphics and signage that acts as a link between the merchandise and
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the retailer’s target market. Inform consumers. Educational signs and

graphics make merchandise more attractive. For example, having the
price and the type of material the knits are made of help consumers to
differentiate between different merchandise. Use signs and graphics as
props. Signage and graphics are used as props to merge a theme of the
fashion retail store. Keep signs and graphics fresh. The signs and
graphics used should be relevant to the merchandise displayed in-
store. New signs imply new merchandise.

Limit the text on signs. Signs that have too much text will not
be read. Consumers should be able to seize the information on the sign
rapidly as they browse through the store. A sign should include
lettering that enhances the store design and sends a message about the
store’s image and merchandise. Elements such as colour, texture, size,
location, style and balance are some of the design principles to mull
over before choosing a sign (Colborne, 1996: 234).

3.14 Atmospherics

Atmospherics (also called attention-grabbing devices) refers to

the design of the in-store environment through communicating with
the consumers by means of senses such as lighting, colour, music and
scent (Pegler, 2010: 181). Bell and Ternus (2006: 36) explain that
atmospherics that appeal to the five senses of humans can be layered
into the store to improve the shopping environment and build the
brand image of the store. Layering means including several sensory
elements to accomplish a particular atmosphere for the store
environment--concurrent use of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
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Creating the perfect store environment has become a

progressively more important method of retail positioning. Stores have
individual environments and marketers have to understand that the
environment of a store is a significant part of the shopping experience.
A consumer’s decision to visit/revisit a store can be influenced by the
environment offered by the store and the retail environment can guide
consumer’s conclusions about merchandise, service quality and
satisfaction of the store. Recent experiential results suggest that
signals in the store environment add to consumers perceptions of that
specific store (Sharma & Stafford, 2000: 183).

Atmospherics include, but are not limited to, the following

(Levi & Weitz, 2009: 530-532):

Lighting: Lighting refers to the method used to provide artificial

illumination (Gilmour, 2010:166). Lighting is used to highlight
merchandise and to create a mood or a feeling. Lighting can also be
used to improve a store’s image.

Colour: The inventive use of colour can improve a retailer’s image

and help form a mood as well. Warm colours such as red, gold and
yellow can create emotional, lively, hot and active responses, where
cool colours such as white, blue and green have a more serene, tender
and soothing effect on consumers.

Music: Music, just as colour and lighting, has an effect on a retailer’s

image. Music is also used to influence a consumer’s behaviour. Music
can direct the pace of the store “traffic” and it can entice or direct
consumer’s attention.
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Scent: As smell has a huge impact on consumer’s emotions, many

purchasing decisions are based on scent. Natural scents create better
perceptions in the mind of the consumer than no scent at all. Scented
stores give consumers the perception that they are spending less time
in the store while browsing through merchandise or waiting for an
assistant. Scent, together with music, has an optimistic impact on
impulse buying behaviour and consumer contentment.

These devices are used to stimulate consumer’s perceptions and

responses to affect their purchase behaviour. For example, lighting in a
retail store involves more than just lighting up an area. If lighting is
used effectively it may catch the eye of the consumer and it has been
illustrated that lighting can positively influence consumer shopping
behaviour (Pegler, 2010: 181 and Levi & Weitz, 2009: 530).

A variety of studies have focused on atmospherics and their

effects on consumer behaviour (Jang & Namkung, 2009: 451).

3.15 Display fixtures

Display fixtures are pieces of equipment or furniture that is used

in a store for visual merchandising display purposes (Pegler, 2010:
125). The main functions of display fixtures are to effectively hold and
display merchandise or props (Pegler, 2010: 125). Display fixtures
changes as the displays do, depending on the theme or promotion of
the store.

Platforms and elevations are commonly used as display fixtures.

It is used to provide interest and to help separate merchandise in mass
displays. Platforms and elevations can be cubes, cylinders or saddles
of any shape and size (Pegler, 2010: 126). Elevations could also
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include tables and chairs and other pieces of furniture that are used to
raise mannequins or arrangements of merchandise.

Mannequins

A mannequin is a life-sized representation of the human body,

used mainly in the promotion of apparel items (Maier, 2010: 1).
Mannequins are silent salespeople. They stand determinedly for hours
and months, in the same position with the same attitude--always
pleasing. Mannequins that are well dressed make an impressive
fashion presentation. Visual merchandisers that dress their mannequins
with style and place them correctly will create a strong initiator for
sales (Colborne, 1996: 186). According to Pegler (2010: 91), a
mannequin may be a store’s most valuable asset.

Consumers gain more fashion knowledge from merchandise

displayed on mannequins than from fashion shows, magazines and
advertising. Due to the fact that mannequins are a strong sales tool,
visual merchandisers should dress mannequins in the latest fashion
merchandise available in store, together with complementary
accessories. Shoppers look to mannequins to gain knowledge of
combining separates and accessories (Colborne, 1996: 193). Pegler
(2010: 91) explains that there are different types of mannequins that
can be used in a retail store:

Realistic mannequins are mannequins that resemble the human

being best. They have heads, hair and they are “wearing” make-up. In
the past, realistic mannequins looked like gorgeous movie stars –
perfect body, hair and make-up. Today, realistic mannequins look
more like the everyday person. Fashion retailers such as Globus,
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makes use of realistic mannequins in their displays. Realistic

mannequins come in all shapes and positions, from infant to grown-
up, male and female. Positions can vary from sitting down with
crossed legs or flat on the ground, to leaning against a wall or standing
upright. Poses vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but mostly
anything is possible.

Semi-realistic mannequins are proportioned and sculpted

similar to realistic mannequins, however their make-up and hair is not
natural, but more decorative or stylized. Sometimes, the entire
mannequin could be all black or all red, depending on the store.

Semi-abstract mannequins are “doll-like” and decorative. They

are not as expensive as the realistic or semi-realistic mannequins, as
they might have a bump for a nose, a hint of pursed lips and painted
on hair, if any hair at all.

3.16 Props and permanent props

Props are very important objects that are used in visual

merchandising displays and can be defined as all the other items inside
a store except the floor fixtures and the merchandise that the store
sells (Bell & Ternus, 2006: 117). Floor fixtures are pieces of
equipment or furniture that are in a permanent position in a store. The
main functions of floor fixtures are to effectively hold and display the
merchandise sold in store (Pegler, 2010: 125).

Props could include any of the following depending on the type

of store design: antiques, art objects, artificial grass and snow, flowers,
ribbons, bows, banners, baskets, boxes, decorative screens and panels,
floor coverings, papers and cardboards, pots, pedestals, textiles, and
 137

more. Props are secondary to the merchandise sold in store; the main
purpose is to decorate a store, to create a mood and to create an image
for a store as well as to boost the amount of merchandise that is sold
(Colborne, 1996: 109). The props that are used in visual
merchandising displays change as the displays alter, depending on the
theme or current promotion of the store.

Pegler (2010: 193) explains that props originate from an

industry that do nothing else but produce props, devices and gimmicks
to improve visual merchandising display presentations. The
manufacturing companies vary from specialising in mannequins and
forms, fixtures, displayer units, backgrounds and much more. Some
manufacturers specialise in plants, while others specialise in raw
materials from all over the world and supply them to visual
merchandisers. For example, props such as crates and cartons can say
“import” or “new arrival”. A broom and a shovel could convey
“clearance”. Sources of props could include furniture stores, toy
stores, garden centres, travel agents, luggage shops, hardware stores,
galleries, antique shops, and more. Props can be bought, rented,
borrowed or improvised from whatever the visual merchandiser has
available.

The mood, character and amount of display props required for a

display depends on the target market of the store, the type of
merchandise sold, and the image the store would like to portray. When
visual merchandisers choose props for their displays, they have to
remember the relationship between the theme and the fashion. Props
that are chosen well could be the distinguishing factor between a great
visual merchandising display and an average one (Bell & Ternus,
 138

2006: 117). The different visual merchandising display elements used

in store will depend on the type of visual merchandising display.

3.17 TYPES OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING DISPLAYS

The main function of a display is to present and promote the

merchandise that is sold in store. Displays can generally be broken
down into four different categories: on-shelf displays, off-shelf
displays, point of purchase displays and window displays (Mathew,
2008: 48-52).

On-shelf displays

On-shelf displays are the “normal” displays that are found in a

store and that show different variations of products on offer in some
kind of rational order (Mathew, 2008: 48-52). They combine
functionality with aesthetic sensibility. On-shelf displays are a visual
merchandising necessity in displaying merchandise sold in store. The
ways in which products are presented depend on the type of fixtures
available; basically this could include:

 Vertical stacking: magazines or CDs

 Horizontal stacking: folded garments

 Hanging on hangers or hooks: front faced hangers or side hang

hangers

 On shelf displays: makes use of floor fixtures such as hang rails,

four-way stands and rounders.

On-shelf displays are not the focus area of this study as this type
of display’s primary concern is product presentation. Even though this
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form of display forms part of visual merchandising display, the focus

of this study lies in the other forms of displays that are discussed
subsequently that makes use of additional fixtures, props, mannequins
and signage that changes as the season, event or theme changes.

Off-shelf displays

Off-shelf displays are intended to have added impact by

showing the merchandise as it could be used, or possibly next to other
merchandise to suggest complementary purchases. They are not used
in the regular selling process and are therefore made to create a major
visual impact. They are often creatively arranged and are only
changed by the visual merchandising team. These types of displays
may include props. Props are secondary to the merchandise sold in
store; their main purpose is to improve the amount of merchandise that
is sold, not to upstage it in order for the consumer to capture the
merchandise (Colborne, 1996:109). It is very important that props
should never clutter a display.

Off-shelf displays are also used for promotional purposes.

Depending on the season, event or special day, a fashion retail store’s
displays can change on a weekly or monthly basis. The mood,
character and the number of display props that are essential to amaze
consumers are dependent on the store’s target market, the type of
merchandise they sell, as well as the size of the store (Colborne, 1996:
108).
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Point of purchase displays

Point of purchase displays used to be associated with

merchandise sold at the checkout counter. Today point of purchase
displays can be displays or fixtures used by stores to assist in selling
their products. The displays, fixtures and assorted signage can appear
outside the store, in windows, and inside the store on ledges, counters,
shelves, on the floor or hanging from the roof. These types of displays
can be made of cardboard, paper, wood, plastic and metal, or a
combination of these materials. Usually point of purchase displays are
designed to be part of a promotion or a theme that involves many
harmonized elements (the elements will be discussed in the next
section)--each one specifically positioned and doing its work in
another part of the store (Pegler, 2010: 312).

According to Pegler (2010: 312), some of the reasons retail

stores use points of purchase displays are:

The appearance of a sign or a display in the retail store could

persuade the consumer to make an impulse decision to purchase.

The sign or display draws attention and directs the consumer to

the product.

Point of purchase displays improves the product’s image and it

explains the product to the consumer, therefore informing the
consumer.

Harmonized promotions could stimulate the consumer to buy

the product and to buy other products that are being promoted together
with it.
 141

Point of purchase displays can motivate an instant action

response from the consumer.

The point of purchase displays can be permanent, semi-

permanent, temporary or promotional. For the purpose of this study,
the focus is on the temporary and promotional point of purchase
displays. Temporary and promotional displays could for example be
created for an important Festivals, Valentines Day, Mothers and
Fathers Day, Christmas, a new colour, a new season and much more. It
could also be used for the general decoration of a store. The display
could include an endless number of props which could include
banners, posters, mannequins and other facets. Once the event or
special day has passed, the point of purchase display’s “life” is over
(Pegler, 2010: 316).

A promotional display is a display that is used by a store to

promote. For example, if Mothers Day is coming up and the fashion
retailer has decided to promote the day, the theme being created will
have to be carried out throughout the store--in the windows as well as
the in-store decorations, trimmings and props. A sale could also be
used as the basis for a promotional display. It can either be a pre- or
post-holiday sale, an end-of-season sale or an anniversary sale. On the
other hand, institutional displays can also be used. This specific
display promotes a thought rather than an item or a product.

Window displays

A window display is a window outside a retail outlet that is used

by retailers to display merchandise for sale or otherwise designed to
attract consumers to their store (Bell & Ternus, 2006: 290). Window
 142

displays are used to communicate to the consumers--what the retailer

stands for as well as the image of the retailer; it makes consumers
aware of the type of merchandise being sold and therefore creates
interest with the consumer (Mathew, 2008: 45). Creative window
displays may have the power to stop anyone in their tracks. As mixes
of art, fashion, design and marketing, window displays have to rapidly
grab the consumer’s interest and they must be created in such a way
that they compel consumers into a store. By providing people with an
experience, these displays also have the important duty of helping to
define a brand's image. Window displays have started to become
remarkable art mechanisms, although it takes significant time to
conceptualize, plan and install these artistic displays (Mathew, 2008:
45).

Typically, fashion retailers have one of two window styles:

enclosed windows or open-back windows (Bell & Ternus, 2006: 277-
280). An enclosed window has a solid back wall, two side walls and a
glass front that faces the aisle of the mall or that faces the street. These
windows have hidden doors where the visual merchandisers can enter
to change them. An open-back window does not have a back wall,
therefore people who are walking in the aisles of the mall or on the
street will not only see the merchandise displayed in the window, but
they will also see the merchandise in the rest of the store. Open-back
windows should use props carefully or viewers will miss the message
the window is attempting to send due to visual clutter.

According to Pegler (2010: 69-72), there are several “special

windows” that can be identified:
 143

A shadow box. A shadow box is a small, raised window used for the
close- up presentation of unique merchandise or accessories. It has a
smaller window surface and the shadow box is often shallower and it
is higher than the standard display window.

An elevated window. Elevated windows may have the floor raised up

to about 3 meters above street level. A regular mannequin would not
be able to stand up straight in this window; however it can sit, kneel or
lie down.

Deep windows. Deep windows require a great deal of merchandise to

fill the space, and much lighting to light the back area of the window.

Tall windows. In a very tall window, the lighting is very far from the
merchandise or mannequins that are used. The visual merchandiser
has to use lighting on the sides for emphasis and use the overhead
lights for atmospheric purposes.

Now that the types of visual merchandising displays have been

explained, it is important to understand the various visual
merchandising display settings.

3.18 DISPLAY SETTINGS

Display settings are different approaches a visual merchandiser

can make use of when presenting a display. These could include
anyone of the following: realistic setting, environmental setting, semi-
realistic setting, fantasy setting and an abstract setting (Pegler, 2010:
46). These settings are discussed in the following sections.
 144

Realistic setting

A realistic setting is the representation of a room or an area that

is reinterpreted in the display area. These settings are most effective in
a closed window display where the visual merchandiser can recreate a
miniature stage setting. When realism is used, it is very important that
the scale is perfect. The props should be the correct size for the display
area.

Environmental setting

An environmental setting is used when the retailer wants to

illustrate how and where the merchandise could be used.

Semi-realistic setting

When retail stores do not have enough space or a large enough

budget, the visual merchandiser may use a semi-realistic or “vignette”
setting. The visual merchandiser only shows what is necessary and
leaves the rest to the shopper’s imagination.

Fantasy setting

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that uses magic and other

supernatural phenomena as a primary element of a setting. A fantasy
setting is dependent on the visual merchandising budget, the amount
of time available and the type of store. A good imagination goes hand
in hand with a fantasy setting.

3.19 OBSERVATION

It has been suggested that good visual merchandising inside a

store can sustain consumer interest and persuade them to lower their
 145

psychological defences and make a purchase (Kerfoot et al., 2003:

144), therefore retailers use store design to influence consumer buying
behaviour. However, do the visual merchandising displays of a store
have the same effect? Retailers want the store design to attract
consumers into their stores, assisting them to find the merchandise
they desire and to motivate them to make unplanned, impulse
purchases and ultimately provide them with an enjoyable shopping
experience (Levi & Weitz, 2009: 509).

The visual merchandising displays and the environmental

stimuli of an apparel retail store could have an effect on a consumer’s
perceptions. It is therefore important that visual merchandising
displays created in an apparel retail store should influence a consumer
to approach that store and make a purchase, not avoid it. Apparel
retailers need to find out how their visual merchandising displays
affects consumers perception and what is required in order to draw
their attention towards their merchandise.
 146

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 Chapter IV

COMPARISON BETWEEN EXCLUSIVE AND

MULTI-BRAND OUTLETS

4.1 Introduction

There are a number of different types of retail outlets with their

distinctive attributes. Marketers and customers select particular type of
retail outlet considering various aspects. On the basis of three types of
distribution, i.e., intensive distribution, selective distribution and
exclusive distribution, we can broadly classify retail outlets into two
types—exclusive retail outlets (single brand) and multiband retail
outlets. As the market is growing and organized retailing is
flourishing, it is interesting to study various aspects related to these
two types of retail outlets from the consumer behavior point of view.
Many interesting question arise like: Why do customers perceive them
differently? How do they choose between the two? What are their
expectations and experiences from these two types of retail outlets?
This article mainly concentrates on these two major types of retail
outlets and attempts to compare and analyze them.

An exclusive retail outlet deals with only one brand usually in a

single product category. It may be owned by the company itself or be a
franchised outlet selling only a single brand. We may find different
products of the same brand. Many Indian as well as popular foreign
brands successfully run exclusive retail showrooms. Examples are
outlets of brands like Bata, Liberty, Reebok, Nike, Addidas,
Raymond’s, Van Heusen, Peter England, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly,
 151

Blackberry, Scullers, Mango, Oobe, Videocon, Cambridge, Arrow,

Ajanta, Titan, Citizen, etc.

4.2 Indian Retail Reforms

Until 2011, Indian central government denied foreign direct

investment (FDI) in multi-brand Indian retail, forbidding foreign
groups from any ownership in supermarkets, convenience stores or
any retail outlets, to sell multiple products from different brands
directly to Indian consumers. The government of Manmohan Singh,
prime minister, announced on 24 November 2011 the following: India
will allow foreign groups to own up to 51 per cent in "multi-brand
retailers", as supermarkets are known in India, in the most radical pro-
liberalisation reform passed by an Indian cabinet in years;

 Single brand retailers, such as Apple and Ikea, can own 100 percent
of their Indian stores, up from the previous cap of 51 percent;

 Both multi-brand and single brand stores in India will have to

source nearly a third of their goods from small and medium-sized
Indian suppliers;

 All multi-brand and single brand stores in India must confine their
operations to 53-odd cities with a population over one million, out
of some 7935 towns and cities in India. It is expected that these
stores will now have full access to over 200 million urban
consumers in India;

 Multi-brand retailers must have a minimum investment of US$100

million with at least half of the amount invested in back end
infrastructure, including cold chains, refrigeration, transportation,
 152

packing, sorting and processing to considerably reduce the

postharvest losses and bring remunerative prices to farmers;

 The opening of retail competition will be within India's federal

structure of government. In other words, the policy is an enabling
legal framework for India. The states of India have the prerogative
to accept it and implement it, or they can decide to not implement
it if they so choose. Actual implementation of policy will be within
the parameters of state laws and regulations.

The opening of retail industry to global competition is expected

to spur a retail rush to India. It has the potential to transform not only
the retailing landscape but also the nation's ailing infrastructure. A
Wall Street Journal article claims that fresh investments in Indian
organized retail will generate 10 million new jobs between 2012–
2014, and about five to six million of them in logistics alone; even
though the retail market is being opened to just 53 cities out of about
8000 towns and cities in India. It is expected to help tame stubbornly
high inflation but is likely to be vehemently opposed by millions of
small retailers, who see large foreign chains as a threat. The need to
control food price inflation—averaging double-digit rises over several
years—prompted the government to open the sector, analysts claim.
Hitherto India's food supplies have been controlled by tens of millions
of middlemen (less than 5% of Indian population).

Traders add huge mark-ups to farm prices, while offering little

by way of technical support to help farmers boost their productivity,
packaging technology, pushing up retail prices significantly. Analysts
said allowing in big foreign retailers would provide an impetus for
 153

them to set up modern supply chains, with refrigerated vans, cold

storage and more efficient logistics. "I think foreign chains can also
bring in humongous logistical benefits and capital," Chandrajit
Banerjee, director-general, Confederation of Indian Industry, told
Reuters. "The biggest beneficiary would be the small farmers who will
be able to improve their productivity by selling directly to large
organised players," Mr Banerjee said.

4.3 Single-Brand or Exclusive Brand Outlets

On January 11, 2012, India approved increased competition and

innovation in single-brand retail. The reform seeks to attract
investments in operations and marketing, improve the availability of
goods for the consumer, encourage increased sourcing of goods from
India, and enhance competitiveness of Indian enterprises through
access to global designs, technologies and management practices. In
this announcement, India requires single-brand retailer, with greater
than 51% foreign ownership, to source at least 30% of the value of
products from Indian small industries, village and cottage industries,
artisans and craftsmen.

Mikael Ohlsson, chief executive of IKEA, announced IKEA is

postponing its plan to open stores in India. He claimed that IKEA's
decision reflects India’s requirements that single-brand retailers such
as IKEA source 30 percent of their goods from local small and
medium-sized companies. This was an obstacle to IKEA's investment
in India, and that it will take IKEA some time to source goods and
develop reliable supply chains inside India. Ikea announced that it
plans to double what it sources from India already for its global
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product range, to over $1 billion a year, within three years. IKEA in

the near term, plans to focus expansion instead in China and Russia,
where such restrictions do not exist

On 19 Feb, 2013 Tamil Nadu became the first state in the

country to stoutly resist MNC ‘invasion’ into the domestic retail
sector. In Chennai, Tamil Nadu CMDA authorities placed a seal on the
massive warehouse spreading across 7 acres that had reportedly been
built for one of the world’s leading multinational retail giants, Wal-
mart. Despite the recent government stay on allowing FDI in multi-
brand retail this sector is still going strong with many local players
reaping the benefits. This segment of retail has the most complex of
challenges when it comes to dealing with inventory management as
they need a variety of suppliers and usually deal in a variety of goods
including apparel, footwear, toys, cosmetics, homeware etc.

Maintaining a huge inventory master and dealing with

replenishment and store planning (for multi-store chains) becomes a
huge headache typically resulting in dead stock.Also buying and
managing the procure-to-pay cycle is very complex without
automation.

“Eclusive retailers often get territory protection from the

vendors, in the multi-brand model we frequently have to face tough
competition from other retailers because they might just start another
multi-brand store in the same area and give better schemes and
discounts than us. As a result, in order to retain our customers, we
have to be on our toes and keep on holding events and promotions in
our stores,” notes P Mahalingam, Director of the Coimbatore-based
 155

Indsys Infotech. The retailer currently has two stores in the city. One is
a 400 sq ft exclusive Toshiba store, the other a 600 sq ft multi-brand
outlet which contributes half the overall revenues.

4.3.1 Single-Brand Advantages

The exclusive or mono-brand is a vendor-centric model retail

concept. Here, a retailer has intense commitments in terms of
investments, sales, targets and marketing. Some of the benefits that a
retailer can derive from exclusive retailing are territory protection,
better margins, manpower subsidy, demo subsidy, backend rebates,
brand marketing rights, lead generation support and marketing support
from the vendor.

The exclusivity status also places a retailer higher on the

vendor's priority list. The vendor provides lead generation support,
involves him in special marketing campaigns, and even helps chalk
out business roadmaps aligned to the vendor's own long-term vision.

According to Sinha, “One of the biggest benefits that an

exclusive franchisee retailer can get from a vendor is the payout
scheme. Vendors often buy back the stocks that the retailer wasn't able
to sell at the end of the day, but this is often not possible in multi-
brand stores.”

“The vendor tends to give you more importance than it gives to

a multi-brand partner. Exclusive retailers get more discounts and
incentives, in addition to branding and marketing support. For
example, if a multi-brand partner gets a 5 percent discount on the
vendor's products, an exclusive retailer may get around 10 percent.
Other than generating leads and giving MDFs, vendors may give an
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additional 1 percent incentive on the overall sales done by the retailer

during a month,” says Naresh Garg, MD of the Chandigarh-based
Accord Computech. Garg has two exclusive 1,000 sq ft HP World
outlets in Chandigarh and Ludhiana which together contribute Rs 8.5
crore to his revenues.

There's more. In an exclusive store, uniformity in terms of store

design, store interiors, store size, products, prices, promotions and
events are strictly maintained. This method prevents competition
among the vendor's exclusive retailers, and gives all the retailers a fair
chance to earn profits. Vendors also work more closely with exclusive
retailers to conduct events and promotional schemes, and provide,
along with the retailers, region- or city-specific advertisements.

Opines Devraj Parasvakumar Jain, Director of the Bangalore-

based DevrajInfotech, “Mono-brand outlets are the always the best
option for partners because they provide long-term benefits, and save
cost, time and energy. Being the partner of just one vendor, a retailer
has to work with only one supplier. By contrast, in multi-brand retail,
a retailer has to work with numerous suppliers and will therefore
spend more time and energy running after the suppliers than
concentrating on achieving the sales target.” With a turnover of Rs 10
crore, Jain has one exclusive HP World outlet in Bengaluru.

4.3.2 Single Brand Disadvantages

Exclusive retail stores certainly have their plus-points, but, like

their multi-brand counterparts, they have their share of negatives.
“Unlike multi-brand outlets, exclusive retailers get very little footfall
and lose out on every other customer,” says Kukreja.
 157

“Over 80 percent of consumers today prefer to go to a store

where they can see and test all the different brands and then make a
decision. If a retailer has a multi-brand outlet he can keep the
customer in the store by showing him different varieties of products.
But if a retailer has an exclusive outlet and the customer wants to see
and test the competitor's products he can't retain the customer. Two
other disadvantages are the risk of losses if the vendor's marketshare
falls, and the lack of freedom to make your own decisions.”

4.4 Multi - Brand Outlets

Invasion of multi-national multi-brand retailers such as Walmart

is now imminent since Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in that sector
is now legally encouraged by the UPA government. As it is, even
today, retail outlets with foreign brands have begun to dominate the
marketplace in several segments. It is clear that this will progressively
cut into the standalone retailer’s market. For an increasing number of
family-run small retail stores the choice would not be between
growing slow or growing fast but between growing slow and closing
down as their profits evaporate. It has happened everywhere in the
world and Indian retailers too can't save themselves from extinction,
unless they can counter it some way. In India, common people have to
be innovative to fight their government to survive.

Branded foreign retailers have tempted many such stores to ride

their franchisee “Brand Wagon.” The fear of survival and the greed for
a rapid growth is making them surrender their independence; their
identity. Franchisee route is not possible in case of multi-brand global
retailers. The only beneficiaries in this whole gamut of allowing FDI
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in multi-brand retail will be the foreign multi-nationals and their

Indian capitalist class partners. Many retailers are however, yet
holding on, with a belief that their neighbor hood goodwill will help
them to fend themselves from these branded chains. Some others are
simply ignoring the reality, or are too proud to bother. I however,
believe that there is way for the small retailers to hold their own, and
grow faster and more profitable without surrendering their identity
like those who opted for branded franchisee ventures. I feel, from my
own experience, that they have an alternative route.
There is no doubt that succeeding or surviving in today’s demanding
economy, a lot of retail businesses need to undergo major changes in
the way they do business. One finds that the store-fronts are changing
and customers are sensing refreshing friendliness. Still many stores
have no resources or courage to invest more. Stores are too small to
grow with outside capital and borrowing money isn’t easy anymore.
Besides, investing more money alone may not help them in facing
competition from the big chain stores. It must be realized that more
than money, most importantly, they lack advantage of bulk purchase as
well as brand equity of their newly emerging competitors.

The biggest advantage of such a cooperative lies in four

important areas. First, cost of setting up business will be very low,
since all such stores already have low-cost space, unlike the multi-
brand foreign retailers. Second, in case of shop-keeper’s cooperative,
every retail outlet is owner-managed and therefore, highly motivated.
Good management training will also help to develop professional
administration of the store and high quality customer
relationship. Third, these brand owners have huge traditional long-
 159

established and emotionally attached clientele from the

locality. Fourth, such locality retailers are never competitors, if the
membership is given to one store in each area. A retail stationery shop
in Dadar is not a competitor to one in Mahim, nor is one in East
Mulundof the one in West Mulund. Creating brand equity of their own
will start with a common name for the shops of all member retailers.
Retailers normally have an emotional attachment to the store’s name
—in many cases their family name. But one should realise that
branding your family shop under a common name has many benefits.

Understanding the objectives behind a name change is

important. Unlike a franchise, under the proposed cooperative
framework one can do so without risking the ownership of business
and one’s independence. Under a franchise framework, one loses one’s
identity along with the name. Under a cooperative format one shares
the ownership of the brand. In today’s highly competitive
environment, the strongest brands are those that transcend their
speciality service to form an emotional connection with the customer.
The key in name creation ensures that it creates a distinct identity that
becomes an icon and aids the communications campaign to support
the new name. One has to understand that a store’s new name is a
smart opportunity to communicate a new or refreshed point of view.

A retailer’s co-operative, if professionally managed, would

prevent multi-brand retailers to hurt Indian traders. It has several
advantages like lower risk, highly enhanced buying power and
professionally evolved strategy for running your business better. A
lower risk because the umbrella cooperative shall accept most of the
legal and operational risks involved in running a business, you assume
 160

less risk at the unit level, far superior buying power as a co-operative
of few hundred retailers, negotiating power on products, supplies, and
services increases, helping lower costs, better logistics and higher
quality assurance. Finally, you have a professionally structured
strategy for running your business better. The low overhead costs of
the member shops, motivated proprietary management of each outlet,
as against the hired management and strengths of unified purchasing,
will give the cooperative an edge over the top-heavy multi-brand
stores modelled over an international franchisee concept like
Walmart.It is an every day challenge for a retailer to satisfy the
diversified demands of discerning customers. The further challenges
are to reel in more customers, assure their loyalty, drive in more
footfalls and ensure the conversion rate. In order to gain more profits,
retailers try to lure the customers with in-store signage, advertisements
and customer-loyalty programs. No matter how unique these strategies
may be, they do not guarantee a success rate.

Thus, to ensure a minimum return on investment, the retailers

need to ascertain that the format, product assortment and the location
of their store assures profits. Exclusive brand outlet (EBO) does
ensure that the store is never out of stock, thanks to the predominant
one-brand presence. However, veterans argue that it is the multi-brand
outlets (MBOs), which drives more footfalls. In the MBOs, the
retailers offer wider range of merchandise but EBOs are in command
with better visual merchandising, more control over the brand,
customer experience etc. In the response to the open poll question on
India Retailing — Exclusive brand stores may allow for greater depth
and branding of merchandise, but multi-brand outlets and shop-in-
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shops are really the revenue drivers for a brand — 91.67 per cent of
the respondents support the statement while the remaining 8.33 per
cent of them negated it.

4.4.1 Multi-Brand Advantages

Until a few years ago, the IT retail industry in India was mostly
dominated by the mono-brand model. But with the entry of large
format retail (LFR) stores like Croma, Reliance Digital and E-Zone
many IT retailers began adopting the multi-brand retail model as a
way of competing with the LFRs and as a way of adding more value
to their business. ³Multi-brand means more footfalls because the
public gets a wider choice´ explains S Karthikeyan, Director, and
Bloom Electronics. When a customer visits a multi-brand store it
satisfies his hunger for choice on both the time and space parameters.
The customer gets to choose from a host of brands and products in
a single visit to a single outlet, thus allowing him to make a real-time
product comparison, save on time, and [perhaps even save on] the cost
of purchase.´ Karthikeyan has a 3,000 sq ft two-storied multi-brand
retail outlet in Coimbatore; retail contributes Rs 15 crore to his overall
revenues. Karthikeyan adds, ³In the case of multi-brand stores,
retailers can easily lower their losses because they can distribute their
costs among multiple brands. But in exclusive stores, if a vendor
suffers a fall in market share or suffers losses, the retailer is unable to
reduce his own losses and so he suffers along with the vendor.´

Retailers often prefer the multi-brand option because they have

more freedom to make decisions. ³With exclusivity, retailers often lose
out on the freedom to make decisions because they have to abide by
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the guidelines that the vendor has set for them. For instance, vendors
usually have a fixed set of promotions and events that a retailer
can conduct through the year. If this is the case, and if a retailer wants
to conduct a particular event beyond the decided set of events, he will
have to get the vendors permission to conduct the same,´ points out P
K Sinha, Director of the Patna-based IT Zone. Sinha has two stores²a
500 sq.ft exclusive HP store, and a 2,500 sq ft multi-brand store called
e-Mall. The multi-brand store contributed 60 percent to his revenues
while the HP store contributed the rest.

Until a few years ago, the IT retail industry in India was mostly
dominated by the mono-brand model. But with the entry of large
format retail (LFR) stores—like Croma, Reliance Digital and E-Zone
—many IT retailers began adopting the multi-brand retail model as a
way of competing with the LFRs and as a way of adding more value
to their business.

“Multi-brand means more footfalls because the public gets a

wider choice,” explains S Karthikeyan, Director, and Bloom
Electronics. “When a customer visits a multi-brand store it satisfies his
hunger for choice on both the time and space parameters. The
customer gets to choose from a host of brands and products in a single
visit to a single outlet, thus allowing him to make a real-time product
comparison, save on time, and [perhaps even save on] the cost of
purchase.” Karthikeyan has a 3,000 sq ft two-storied multi-brand retail
outlet in Coimbatore; retail contributes Rs 15 crore to his overall
revenues.
 163

Karthikeyan adds, “In the case of multi-brand stores, retailers

can easily lower their losses because they can distribute their costs
among multiple brands. But in exclusive stores, if a vendor suffers a
fall in marketshare or suffers losses, the retailer is unable to reduce his
own losses and so he suffers along with the vendor.”

Retailers often prefer the multi-brand option because they have

more freedom to make decisions. “With exclusivity, retailers often
lose out on the freedom to make decisions because they have to abide
by the guidelines that the vendor has set for them. For instance,
vendors usually have a fixed set of promotions and events that a
retailer can conduct through the year. If this is the case, and if a
retailer wants to conduct a particular event beyond the decided set of
events, he will have to get the vendor's permission to conduct the
same,” points out P K Sinha, Director of the Patna-based IT Zone.
Sinha has two stores—a 500 sq ft exclusive HP store, and a 2,500 sq ft
multi-brand store called Mall. The multi-brand store contributed 60
percent to his revenues while the HP store contributed the rest.

4.4.2 Multi-Brand Disadvantages

The multi-brand retail model comes with its own set of

disadvantages. ³Offering multiple choices often leave the buyer
confused. In a multi-brand setup it’s also difficult for a retailer to
recommend a brand to the customer because that would amount to
underselling the other brands, states Kukreja. Another disadvantage of
multi-brand retail is that not only do retailers face tough competition if
other retailers start their own stores in the neighborhood, but they also
receive fewer benefits from vendors. ³While exclusive retailers often
 164

get territory protection from the vendors, in the multi-brand model we

frequently have to face tough competition from other retailers because
they might just start another multi-brand store in the same area and
give better schemes and discounts than us. As a result, in order to
retain our customers, we have to be on our toes and keep on holding
events and promotions in our stores, notes P Mahalingam, Director of
the Coimbatore-based Indsys Infotech.

The retailer currently has two stores in the city. One is a 400 sq
ft exclusive Toshiba store, the other a 600 sq. ft multi-brand outlet
which contributes half the overall revenues. Earlier, there were times
when vendors would not allow an exclusive partner to start his own
multi-brand outlet. If are tail partner wanted to venture into multi-
brand retail he would have to start the store with a different name. But
with LFRs coming into the picture, vendors have become more lenient
and allow their partners to start their own chains of multi-brand retail
outlets. However, the matter doesn’t end there, as Kukreja points out:
Although vendors have become more lenient with retail partners now,
they are still vengeful. They tend to focus more on their exclusive
partner sand also tend to give better benefits, support and deals to
them than a multi-brand retail partner.´

The multi-brand retail model comes with its own set of

disadvantages. “Offering multiple choices often leaves the buyer
confused. In a multi-brand setup it's also difficult for a retailer to
recommend a brand to the customer because that would amount to
underselling the other brands,” states Kukreja.
 165

Another disadvantage of multi-brand retail is that not only do

retailers face tough competition if other retailers start their own stores
in the neighborhood, but they also receive fewer benefits from
vendors.

Earlier, there were times when vendors would not allow an

exclusive partner to start his own multi-brand outlet. If a retail partner
wanted to venture into multi-brand retail he would have to start the
store with a different name. But with LFRs coming into the picture,
vendors have become more lenient and allow their partners to start
their own chains of multi-brand retail outlets. However, the matter
doesn't end there, as Kukreja points out: “Although vendors have
become more lenient with retail partners now, they are still vengeful.
They tend to focus more on their exclusive partners and also tend to
give better benefits, support and deals to them than a multi-brand
retail partner.”

Before the 1980s people used to import electronic goods from

different parts of the world, mainly from Middle East countries. This
brought into their notice that there are customers for their product in
India, thus the foreign companies decided to invest in India (Bolen,
2004).

A strategy is defined as long term plan to achieve certain

objectives. Market objective may relate to become the market leader
by delighting customers. Marketing plan is designed to achieve
marketing objectives, which may relate to become the market leader
by delighting the customers. The strategic plan therefore is the
detailed planning involving marketing research, and then developing a
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marketing mix to delight customers. The more committed a company

is to its marketing activities, the more able it will be to pursue its
corporate objectives and develop and retain customers. Every business
in existence relies upon its customers for survival, and those who best
meet customer needs will always survive a period of change. The
marketing function is therefore an essential ingredient of corporate
strategy, and this marketing focus should be communicated through
marketing planning into all aspects of business activity.
In choosing a marketing strategy a frequent distinction i.e. made is
between undifferentiated marketing and differentiated marketing.
Marketing mix is one of the key marketing function followed by the
multinational companies.

When marketing their products firms need to create a successful

mix of: the right product, sold at the right price, in the right place,
using the most suitable promotion. To create the right marketing mix,
businesses have to meet the following conditions:

1. The product has to have the right features - for example, it must
look good and work well.

2. The price must be right. Consumer will need to buy in large

numbers to produce a healthy profit.

3. The goods must be in the right place at the right time. Making sure
that the goods arrive when and where they are wanted is an
important operation.

The target group needs to be made aware of the existence and

availability of the product through promotion. Successful promotion
helps a firm to spread costs over a larger output. Getting into detail
 167

about the about each individual P's and how it is implemented by

electronic giants.

Products or services

Must meet customer requirements whatever these might be. For

example, an important aspect is function - products should do what
they say they can do and what they are expected to do. For example,
Audi cars are popular because of their high performance. Appearance
is also important. For example, a company like Kellogg's is constantly
developing new breakfast cereals - the product element is the new
product itself, getting the price right involves examining customer
perceptions and rival products as well as costs of manufacture,
promotion involves engaging in a range of promotional activities e.g.
competitions, product tasting etc, and place involves using the best
possible channels of distribution such as leading supermarket chains.
The product is the central point on which marketing energy must
focus. Finding out how to make the product, setting up the production
line, providing the finance and manufacturing the product are not the
responsibility of the marketing function. However, it is concerned with
what the product means to the customer. Marketing therefore plays a
key role in determining such aspects as:

1. The appearance of the product - in line with the requirements of the

market

2. The function of the product - products must address the needs of

customers as identified through market research.

The product range and how it is used is a function of the

marketing mix. The range may be broadened or a brand may be
 168

extended for tactical reasons, such as matching competition or

catering for seasonal fluctuations. Alternatively, a product may be
repositioned to make it more acceptable for a new group of consumers
as part of a long-term plan. The most important of all is the product
the firm produce should be of more user friendly and should be easily
understood by the market about the product.

The price

Of all the aspects of the marketing mix, price is the one, which
creates sales revenue - all the others are costs. The price of an item is
clearly an important determinant of the value of sales made. In theory,
price is really determined by the discovery of what customers perceive
is the value of the item on sale. Researching consumers' opinions
about pricing is important as it indicates how they value what they are
looking for as well as what they want to pay. An organization’s pricing
policy will vary according to time and circumstances. Crudely
speaking, the value of water in the Lake District will be considerably
different from the value of water in the desert. A proper pricing should
be made by the company to compete the local competitors as well as
to attain the major market share for that product.

Pricing strategies

Pricing strategy is an important part of the marketing mix. The

price of a product should reflect its image and the need to give a
consumer what they want. For example, upmarket products are
associated with premium prices. There are a number of popular
pricing techniques to choose from:
 169

1. Cost-plus Pricing. A common way to make pricing decisions

is to calculate how much it costs to do a particular job or activity, and
then add on a given percentage as a return for the job or activity. This
is sometimes known as mark-up.

For example, a business may decide that it will cost £100 to do

a small repair job on a car, including parts, labour, use of premises,
equipment, etc. The business works on the basis of making a return of
20% on all the work that it does. It therefore charges the customer
£120.

2. Hour-based Pricing. Many small businesses are able to

work out what their typical costs are for every hour of work they do,
e.g. for gardening, sign writing, photography, etc. The business owner
is then able to charge a standard rate per hour.

3. Penetration Pricing. When a firm brings out a new product

into a new or existing market, it may feel that it needs to make a lot of
sales very quickly in order to establish itself and to make it possible to
produce larger quantities. It may therefore start off by offering the
product at quite a low price. When market penetration has been
achieved, prices can be raised.

4. Skimming. When you bring out a new product, you may be

able to start off by charging quite a high price. Some customers may
want to be the first to buy your product because of the prestige of
being seen with it, or because they want to be associated with your
product before anyone else.

An exclusive dress could be sold initially at an exclusive price

to wealthier customers. The next season, the price could be lowered
 170

making it accessible to a less wealthy group of customers. Later on,

the dress could be mass produced and made available at low prices to
the mass market.

The Place

Although figures vary widely from product to product, roughly

a fifth of the cost of a product goes on getting it to the customer.
'Place' is concerned with various methods of transporting and storing
goods, and then making them available for the customer. Getting the
right product to the right place at the right time involves the
distribution system. The choice of distribution method will depend on
a variety of circumstances.

It will be more convenient for some manufacturers to sell to

wholesalers who then sell to retailers, while others will prefer to sell
directly to retailers or customers. Big firms distribute their product
through a distributor to the local shops and the company supply the
product directly to big dealers in that region. The company also have a
exclusive showroom in that region. This increase competition between
the retailers. The product nature varies from place to place , for
example if LG company is selling more Air conditioners in south India
unlike North India due to the hummid climate ,as in north they prefer
to sell more of heaters. Studying the local market is an important
factor for a company’s development in that region. Learning more
about consumer perceptions can improve their marketing strategies.
The company always change their marketing strategies by bringing
innovations in their existing products or launching a new model into
the market. The company has also focus on after sales services in
 171

order to maintain their customers. The company always sees to it that

the customers use the products of their company alone, the company
provide warranty and guarantee for their products which is a part of
their customer care (William J. Stanton, 2000.)

The Promotion

Promotion is the business of communicating with customers. It

will provide information that will assist them in making a decision to
purchase a product or service. The razzmatazz, pace and creativity of
some promotional activities are almost alien to normal business
activities.

The cost associated with promotion or advertising goods and

services often represents a sizeable proportion of the overall cost of
producing an item. However, successful promotion increases sales so
that advertising and other costs are spread over a larger output.
Though increased promotional activity is often a sign of a response to
a problem such as competitive activity, it enables an organisation to
develop and build up a succession of messages and can be extremely
cost-effective. It takes many forms: TV, radio, internet, newspapers,
yellow pages, and so on. You have to take notice about three important
notions: frequency is the number of time a person is exposed to your
message. It is said that a person must be exposed seven times to the
message before to be aware of it. Reach*frequency gives the gross
rating point. You have to evaluate it before any advertisement
campaign. Message: Sometimes, it is called a creative. Anyway, the
message must: get attraction, capture interest, create desire and finally
require action that is to say close the sale. Product launching-
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Introducing new products or renewed old models for every year

keeping in mind as they launch the latest technologies to the market.
Advertising- the Company divides Kerala into different regions like
north region, south region, west region and east region. As they give a
theme for their advertisement on different regions according to the
interest of their customers. Some of the themes are they use festive
offers, sports entertainment or movie backups to enhance their advert.
Thus they make their brand localized for the customers of different
region. They do sponsorships for entertainment programs in channels,
live events, charity works, and local functions. Schemes: The
Company introduces schemes for the retailers as well as the
wholesalers i.e. targets in order to concentrate on turn over. As they
give targets like 1000 lcds or ctv,s or cameras, similar targets are given
to the dealers to promote the brand. They give credits to these dealers
for target achievement such as quantity discounts, world tour or a gift
as a part of encouragement.

POP's- Marketing materials or advertising placed next to the

merchandise it is promoting. These items are generally located at the
checkout area or other location where the purchase decision is made.
These POP's have the theme of advertising. Experience with the
Brand. Brand Identity-keeping the identity of the brand as the
company never does anything against the good will of the brand. After
sales service- Having authorized service centers nationwide, so that
the customer service can be done easily and the problems can be
rectified at their door step. Sony was the company to introduce
warranty and guarantee into the market. Positioning of the brand in the
market- Brand imaging is an important part as the company does
 173

sponsorships and road shows to promote their brand. Price to

quality\value. Sony keeps in track that as they were able to serve the
consumers at its best with a reasonable price. Range of choice
offered.- A different range of variety information technologies were
introduced into the market to enhance their brand, like from lcds to
walk mans.

Promotions\Offers

The company put upon kombi offers or a price reduction for

limited periods in order to attract new customers to their brand and
also gifts or free services are offered during festive offers. Packaging
of the product- kombi offers like two or more of the same rand is
given in a special price. Accessories- The sony company concentrate
on accessories such as CDs, headset, batteries, cable wires, lenses, ac
adapters, cases, microphones, printer cartridges, pen drives, CD
Drives….etc. Other products of the same company. Influence of Brand
Ambassador- the company updates its video clips every time when a
new product is launched. As the company has Hrithik Roshan as its
brand ambassador for sony Ericson mobile phones. We can notice that
in their each advert they mainly focus on the quality of their product
and what special features they got from other competitors and how
special is their product is from rest (Rajeev Batra, John G. Myers &
David A. Aaker, 2000).

Public Relations:

Public relations are more subtle and rely mainly on your own
personality. For example, you can deliver public speeches on subjects
such as economics, geo-economics, futurology to several
 174

organizations (civic groups, political groups, fraternal organizations,

professional associations).These speeches will enable you to develop
new relationships and their cost is nil. Sales promotion: It includes fair
trades, coupons, and discounts are linked to the sales strategy.

Marketing Success:

The companies are successful in their business implementing

different unique marketing strategies. The aggressive startups have
skyrocketedin their respective industries.

For example:

1. Dell computers gateway together hold 53% of the direct response

market, primarily through the internet.

2. Priceline.com, an electronic bargaining system, allows buyers to

name their price for air fares, hotel rooms, and cars-even
mortgages.

3. Amazon.com started out selling books at 10% discount. Now it sell

at up to 50% off the cover price, challenging the traditional leaders,
Such as Barnes &Noble. With competitors attempting to copy its
every move, the company is diversifying fast with other on-line
ventures, such as Drugstore.com, Live bid. Com and
Homegrocer.com.

4. Charles Schewab & Co. Pioneered electronic trading and

outperformed the traditional leaders in grabbing market share with
its on line brokerage services.

As when I went in detail with one of the marketing success the

Moore Corporation (over 100 year old company) .The company had
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begun a precipitous fall in income and a sharp 16% decline in sales,

which finally bottomed out in sales, Which final bottomed out in 1993
and market share also dropped a 13% from 30. The Moore corporation
decline due to restructuring and the stream lining approaches to
maintain and also had to improve the technological side as during this
time the customers were about to step back from the company. %. The
corporation introduced the Marketing strategy with the positioning,
planning, product and promotion.

Positioning was a serious task performed by the company, an

old line forms printer to a 21st century organisation able to design the
flow of office information, both digitally and on paper. The new
position moved Moore into database management, selling such items
as computer software that turns out electronic forms. It made a manual
growth of 25%.

The company did a product mix between paper forms and

electronic media, and they introduced a joint venture. As they were
successful in acquiring Jet forms Corp., a leading supplier of
electronic forms software and developed a alliance with Electronic
data systems Corp., helping Moore provide solutions to the
accelerating flow of information. Re launch products that produce
direct mail and labels achieved new lives. Computerization and the
increasing use of bar coding to track products. Thus the sales jumped
30%, due to such innovations.

Advertising

Traditional marketing plans include above-line and below-line

campaigns. Above-line promotions use radio, newspapers and the
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Internet to communicate deals and offers and create awareness.

Below-line promotions are indirect ways of communicating with
customers, and include direct mail, product placement, community
events and public relations. The goal with both avenues is to create
awareness, increase sales, offer new products or services. or announce
a new store to remain competitive.

"Before implementing any promotion, develop a well-

organized marketing plan," says Elisa Liehr, President of Liehr
Marketing. Your Website should highlight your advantage over your
competition, your paint matching system, free loaner car, or free
pickup and delivery. Include before and after photos of repairs and
offer a free estimate. "A detailed Website that showcases the benefits
of your shop is essential to Internet marketing," explains Liehr. "Also,
think about promoting your shop in online search engines and
business pages so customers can find you easily." Attracting new
business is a must, and promotions are an important way to stay
relevant to your customers. Be creative and thoughtful and try to make
a lasting and positive impression. For example, Advertise that you use
Genuine Toyota Parts, have trained technicians and practice Toyota-
recommended procedures to keep your customers talking about the
quality and service your shop provides. Advertising and promotions is
bringing a service to the attention of potential and current customers.
Advertising and promotions are best carried out by implementing an
advertising and promotions plan. The goals of the plan should depend
very much on the overall goals and strategies of the organization, and
the results of the marketing analysis, including the positioning
statement.
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The plan usually includes what target markets you want to

reach, what features and benefits you want to convey to them, how
you will convey it to them (this is often called your advertising
campaign), who is responsible to carry the various activities in the
plan and how much money is budgeted for this effort. Successful
advertising depends very much on knowing the preferred methods and
styles of communications of the target markets that you want to reach
with your ads. A media plan and calendar can be very useful, which
specifies what advertising methods are used and when.

For each service, carefully consider: What target markets are

you trying to reach with your ads? What would you like them to think
and perceive about your products (this should be in terms of benefits
to them, not you)? How can you get them to think and perceive that?
What communications media do they see or prefer the most? Consider
TV, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of
mouth, press releases, direct mail, special events, brochures,
neighborhood newsletters, etc.

4.5 Single Brand Outlets vs Multi-Brand Outlets

Two basketball players X and Y wanted to buy Nike shoes, X

went to a Nike showroom and Y went to a Shoppers Stop. X enjoyed
the Nike store’s atmosphere where he was exposed to the exhaustive
range and hence bought exactly what he was looking for. Y on the
other hand, got spoilt with offerings from various brands but limited
variety in each. He got to weigh his options and bought an Adidas
which offered more value for money. Although both identified with
Nike’s brand personality, the fact that Y went to a multi brand store
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and was subsequently exposed to more options of different brands

helped him choose Adidas. X enjoyed the extensive collection of Nike
shoes which satisfied him and retained brand loyalty towards Nike. A
branded outlet carries exclusively the range of one brand and has the
advantage of creating a store ambiance to convey its brand image. It
gives the brand an option to choose the location, size and
configuration of the store. Unique promotional sales offers may be
implemented at any time. This provides the brand with greater control
over its sales activities.

Multi-brand outlets put a company and its products right in the

middle of the arena with its competitors. This enables new offerings to
be showcased in a way in which consumers can compare and decide.
The sheer volume of customers who are going to Multi-brand outlets
(Shopper’s Stop achieved one million footfalls in 90 days) makes it
essential that it cannot be ignored. Traditionally, Branded outlets were
employed by companies but now there are ever increasing ways of
reaching one’s customers with Multi-brand outlets being the most
prominent alternative. Stores like Lifestyle, Maria Luisa, Aeffe Spa,
Croma etc. are gaining popularity with consumers. Companies like the
Future Group have gone a step further and established Multi-brand
outlets differentiated on the basis of concept e.g.: Food Bazaar,
Fashion Bazaar etc.

Branded outlets and Multi brand stores are just not about the
preference of the company. There is a lot more to it like availability of
financial resources, the customers, the brand itself and of course the
overall marketing strategy adopted by the company among others. The
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authors have identified a few parameters and compared the two

formats on these parameters.

Financial Resources:

Multi brand store format is always a relatively cheaper and a

less risky option than the branded outlet. This is because the owner of
the store is able to leverage his costs among many brands, thus
reducing the overall risk on his investments. The break-even is
achieved faster in multi brand stores due to more public coming to
store.

Brand:

The single branded outlets contribute dedicatedly to the

perceived value; the exclusivity factor helps a premium brand
command a separate image in the minds of the consumer. The brand
image can be reinforced easily in a branded outlet with the outlet
complimenting the brand personality, communicating brand identity to
the customer. On the other hand, in a multi-brand store there are a lot
of brands, the exclusivity of the brand is lost in such a scenario.
However, this is an ideal condition for me-too products and value-for-
money brands as consumer can compare the products before making a
final decision. Multi brand store can come up with its own private
labels, thus cannibalizing the brands.

Consumer:

A consumer usually has a few brands in his/her consideration

set when he goes to shopping. A multi-brand store gives the customer
an opportunity to compare the brands in the consideration set on the
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parameters important for him/her. This helps in making better choices,

as a customer may perceive all the brands in his consideration set to be
at par in terms of the quality and performance, thus the decision
making criteria is value. On the other hand, a single brand store may
not help a consumer compare different brands. But at the same time,
consumer will not defect to other brands. Brands which follow
imagery approach to differentiate their product from others may
benefit from single brand store. Also, single brand store helps a
company to cross sell and up sell.

On the other hand, in a multi brand store, personal attention

does not contribute to the brand, in fact it adds to the equity of the
store. Also, it is very difficult to give the same experience due to large
number of customers in the store at a given time.

Communication and Promotion:

Communicating to customer and brand promotion in a single

brand store is relatively cheap option for the brand. However, it is
more effective in multi store brand. With multiple brands, timely
communication and promotion helps a brand to differentiate itself,
thus gaining more number of trails. However in a single brand store
the return may be less than other format. Levi’s jeans came up with a
cheap range of product line under a new brand for Wal-Mart, after it
realized that it is losing on a big market. Therefore, the premium
products are still catered to in single brand store, whereas cheap
product is sold in the multi brand outlets. This approach helps a
company to maintain its exclusive position while successfully
stretching down the product line .In India, Tier II and Tier III cities
 181

may not still afford single brand stores catering high cost, high value
products, in these cases multi branded stores will be success.
However, in Tier I and Tier II cities, both formats are effective
catering to two different segments of consumers.

Single branded stores are an excellent medium to romance the

target customers. The flip side to this that the brands are not in a
position to cover the entire target audience.

BRANDED outlets are target to customers who want to come

close and personal with a single brand. To promote the brand idea a
single branded outlet can be a better option because with this, the idea
can be communicated effectively. The ambience is designed carefully
to flourish the brand image and give a holistic experience to the
customer. The furniture, music, lighting, beverages and colours are
chosen which helps to create the brand image. Since there is a
considerable control over the ambience of the single branded outlet,
the target group can be attracted effectively by providing an
experience which is in line with the brand idea. For example, the
Reebok showroom provides an ambience for sports lovers.

The objective of the single branded outlets is spotting the next

trend, test-market combinations that a retailer might otherwise hide at
the bottom of the rack, pick-up consumer feedback, and even making
customers co-creators. These outlets are the ultimate in being
customer-centric. Beyond being points of interaction, they enable the
companies to pick ideas, track trends, test products and even reverse-
engineer products based on feedback.
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Luxury products generally have single branded outlets to

position it as an aspirational product. But the recent trends has shown
that the non luxury product brands are also coming with their own
branded outlets like Levis, Sony, Nokia, Reebok etc.

MULTI BRAND outlets are targeted at customers who want

more options to fulfil their needs and desires. The idea of bringing
world’s top big brands under one roof can be accomplished using this
strategy. Consumers walk into multi brand outlets with two-three
brands already in their consideration set, and often walk out with the
ones that deliver the best value-for-money.

This arrangement can help different chains to actually gauge

buying patterns of consumers like any other retail channel, as the
evaluation happens across brands, rather than studying buying patterns
within a single brand. The increasing importance of the multi brand
experience, which mirrors consumers' inclination for mix 'n' match
attitude. The "total look" is completely out of fashion, and this new
way encourages a multi brand environment.

The multi branded stores can also be cost effective. In short, it

is better to have all the brands together in just one real estate
investment rather than spending the money to open five separate
stores in a city. The volume is more significant and works well in mid-
sized cities where a mono brand store would be too invasive. Basically
it makes much more sense to offer several brands together.

People who truly love fashion are curious and they want to
discover and to have choice. Ten years ago, even mono brand stores
were destinations for these people, but that was before we had so
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many of the stores, looking the same, all over. But now everyone is
getting tired of it. These stores allow these people to break even much
more quickly so that they can go into many more cities.

The multi-brand store concept will provide manufacturers,

especially new entrants and those with limited market share, small in
size and having capacity constraints, a more efficient route-to-market
through faster nationwide retail presence, scale efficiencies and
servicing support.

The very variety that these stores offer, and the fact that they
carry multiple brands that sometimes overlap across chains, has made
some customers complain that essentially these stores are all the same.
Basically it's hard to find a store today where you can go in and buy
multiple brands focused on certain lifestyles. The "store within a
store" concept where brands control their display space still works
well for certain brands.

Though there are advantages and disadvantages in both the

strategies. The firm works on the strategy depending on the external
environmental factors like political, social, cultural, economic and
legal. Also there are different legal issues in countries like India for
single and multi-branded retail outlets. All these factors in accordance
with the brand positioning, target group and communication strategy
determines the strategy chosen by the firm. Recently firms like Levis,
LG have chosen the mix of both the strategies to increase their sales.

It is an everyday challenge for a retailer to satisfy the diversified

demands of discerning customers. The further challenges are to reel in
more customers, assure their loyalty, drive in more footfalls and the
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ensure the conversion rate. In order to gain more profits, retailers try
to lure the customers with in-store sign ages, advertisements and
customer-loyalty programs. No matter how unique these strategies
may be, they do not guarantee a success rate.

Thus, to ensure a minimum return on investment, the retailers

need to ascertain that the format, product assortment and the location
of their store assures profits. Exclusive brand outlet (EBO) does
ensure that the store is never out of stock, thanks to the predominant
one-brand presence. However, veterans argue that it is the multi-brand
outlets (MBOs), which drives more footfalls. In the MBOs, the
retailers offer wider range of merchandise but EBOs are in command
with better visual merchandising, more control over the brand,
customer experience etc.

In the response to the open poll question on India Retailing —

Exclusive brand stores may allow for greater depth and branding of
merchandise, but multi-brand outlets and shop-in-shops are really the
revenue drivers for a brand — 91.67 per cent of the respondents
support the statement while the remaining 8.33 per cent of them
negated it.

Devangshu Dutta, chief executive, Third Eyesight observes,

“MBOs and shops-in-shop (SIS) can certainly help a brand build its
footprint more rapidly and with lower capital than it could with only
exclusive brand outlets. However, EBOs provide more control to the
brand on the overall customer experience, merchandise assortment,
pricing and margins."
 185

Gopal krishnan Sankar, chief executive, Reliance Footprint

says, “MBOs and shop-in-shops give the size and scalability
opportunities. Customers also look for variety of products, choice of
price points all in one place. This is best captured by MBOs,
particularly the ones who are positioned as destination stores.”

Sunil Sanklecha, managing partner, Nuts 'n' Spices maintains,

“From any business perspective, the model that leads us to bottom line
is the right strategy which depends on different aspects, such as, is the
individual brand strong enough to survive with exclusive store format?
How do we want to position our brand? Are we looking at the long-
term or short-term strategy and strength of the finance on the
marketing part .”

He strongly believes that EBOs have better future than MBOs

or SIS format. He says, “Everyone wants the larger pie. We see that
the big stores want bigger margins and they start building their own
brand. The manufacturers want their presence everywhere in the store
but without sharing a larger pie.”

“A well-put together and well-located MBO is usually a

destination for most of the categories that sit within it. Also by virtue
of the range and brands that it encompasses, the customer engagement
is strong. This ensures good footfalls and hence individual brands in
MBO’s stand a far better chance of maximizing revenues vis-a-vis
exclusive stores,” says Viney Singh, MD, Max Hypermarket India Pvt.
Ltd.

T S Ashwin, managing director of Odyssey India Ltd, which has

recently opened an SIS at Easy day Market comments, "This depends
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on what kind of brand it is. If the brand is niche and has a clear TG,
then it needs more exclusive stores to showcase the width and depth of
the range. Also it may really not have the market size for selling
through multi-brand outlets. If the brand is not niche, then the
exclusive stores help in building the brand and the multi-brand stores
and shop-in-shops will help in increasing the visibility and reach of
the brand as sales channels for the fast moving SKU’s in the brand."

Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail Limited says,

“Exclusive brand stores have a place in the marketing strategy for a
brand as they enhance visibility within the catchment, a consistent
story to the consumer and a depth and breadth of merchandise.
However, positioning a brand in multi-brand outlets enables the brand
to enhance reach across a cross-section of customer’s thereby driving
revenue.”

In the further analyses on the store formats in India, Dutta says,

“In a market like India, brands need to follow a blended approach
since in many locations MBOs or department stores suitable to the
brand may not be available and the only option may be to open EBOs
directly or through franchisees.”

“There is no ideal balance between EBOs, MBOs and shops-in-

shop. The mix would differ from brand to brand and also change over
the lifecycle of any single brand,” concludes Dutta.
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References:-

 Finn, A and Louviere, J. (1996). Shopping Center Patronage

Models: Fashioning a Consideration Set Segmentation Solution.
Journal of Business Research, 21(3), 259 – 275, from
ABI/INFORM Global database

 Plummer, J.T. (1974). The Concept and Application of Lifestyle

Segmentation. Journal of Marketing, 38, 33-37. January 1974, from
ABI/INFORM Global database

 Amatual Baseer (2007), “Emerging Trends in India”, Indian

Journal of Marketing, Vol. XXXVII,No.11.

 Jagannathan, V.2001, ‘Vivek’s – a store more reputed than the

brands it sells’, Business Line, February 5.

 Mariton, John. Smart Things to Know about Brands and Branding.

Mumbai, Indian Books Distributors Limited, 2000.

 Anselmsson, J. (2006), Sources of customer satisfaction with

shopping malls: A comparative study of different customer
segments, The International Review of Retail,Distribution and
Consumer Research, 16(1), 115-138

 Armstrong J S and Overton T S (1977), Estimating non-response

bias in mail surveys, Journal of Marketing Research, 14 (3), 396-
402

 Wilmshurst, J & Adrian Mackay 2002. The Fundamentals and

Practice of Marketing. 4th edition. Oxford: Butterworth
Heinemann.
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 Chapter V

PERCEPTION OF CONSUMERS TOWARDS

SHOPPING MALL

5.1 Introduction

Retailing is the final step in the distribution of merchandise - the

last link in the Supply Chain - connecting the bulk producers of
commodities to the final consumers. Retailing covers diverse products
such as foot apparels, consumer goods, financial services and leisure.
A retailer, typically, is someone who does not affect any significant
change in the product execs breaking the bulk. He/ She are also the
final stock point who makes products or services available to the
consumer whenever require. Hence, the value proposition a retailer
offers to a consumer is easy availabilities of the desired product in the
desired sizes at the desired times. In the developed countries, the retail
industry has developed into a full-fledged industry where more than
three fourths of the total retail trade is done by the organized sector.
Huge retail chains like Pantaloon, RPG, Wal-Mart, K-Mart,
McDonalds, etc. have now replaced the individual small stores.

Large retail formats; with high quality ambiance and courteous

and well-trained sales staff are regular features of these retailers.
Broadly the organized retail sector can be divided into two segments,
In-Store Retailers, who operate fixed point-of-sale locations, located
and designed to attract a high volume of walk-in customers, and the
non-store retailers, who reach out to the customers at their homes or
 189

offices. Every organized retailer in India is faced with myriad

questions: differentiating with the other competitive formats;
sustaining the differentiation with upcoming me-too formats; retention
of footfall day after day; coping with local-neighborhood shops; and
maintaining post tax profitability with all the additional expenses of
providing “shopping experience” to consumers. A possible solution to
all these are offered by store brands. A store brand (also called own
label, dealer owned brand or private label) is defined as a product line,
which is owned, controlled, merchandised and sold by a specific
retailer in its own stores. The growing strength of retailers poses many
challenges to manufactures of consumer goods. Conventionally
viewed, store brands are thought to be weapons for fighting national
brands, shifting power equilibrium in favor of retailers. Store brand
offerings have steadily stolen share from popular brand-name
products. Store brands represent one of the greatest challenges to
manufacturers.

5.2 Perception and Attitude of Consumers towards

Shopping Mall

The “objective” reality of the retail environment, i.e. the retail

store and its attributes, influences the shopping behaviour of
consumers through certain internal, psychological variables. The first
of those variables to be discussed here is the “filter” through which
consumers see objective reality, that is the perception of those
attributes of which the retail store consists from the perspective of the
consumers. Perception is the process by which an individual is
exposed to, attends to, selects, organises, and interprets stimuli.
 190

Interpretation is the stage of this process in which people draw upon

their experience, memory, and expectations in order to attach meaning
to a stimulus (Mowen and Minor 2001; Schiffman and Kanuk 2004).
In the field of retailing research literature, consumers’ perception of a
retailer can be seen as being closely related to the construct “store
image”. To explain this statement we discuss this construct shortly.
Early definitions of store image had a broad understanding of the
construct. Definitions included the total knowledge and all beliefs that
a consumer holds. For instance, Martineau (1958, 47), in an early and
typical definition, characterises it as “the way in which a store is
defined in the shopper’s mind, partly by its functional qualities and
partly by an aura of psychological attributes.” In his meta-study of
store image investigations, Lindquist (1974/75) summarises that all
authors see store image as complex and as built on a combination of
components perceived by the consumer, which merge into an overall
or total impression (see also Keaveney and Hunt 1992; Oxenfeldt
1974/75; Zimmer and Golden 1988). However, even the studies that
emphasise the configurationally or composite character of store image
operationalise it on an attribute-by-attribute-basis, following the
assumption that consumers perceive stores on a number of different
dimensions that– summed up–make up the store image (Keaveney and
Hunt 1992).

In this way, the chosen statements in the scales are

predominantly measuring the cognitive, rational and isolated
evaluation of certain attributes (Morschett 2001). This perception also
tends to be short term, i.e. changing the attribute (e.g., changing the
store layout) quickly leads to a change in perception. Doyle and
 191

Fenwick (1974/75) state that what is called store image is very often
the shoppers’ perception of store attributes such as variety of goods
sold, relative prices and store layout. They continue to explain (p. 40)
that, “it is reasonable to view the customer as rationally evaluating the
store on a multi-attribute utility function”. This view is also confirmed
by the fact that many researchers refer to the work of Fisk (1961/62).
He combined 30 items into six store image dimensions. But while he
emphasised that those are only the “cognitive dimensions” of store
image, most succeeding studies use his dimensions without referring
to this restriction. Zimmer and Golden (1988, 265) define: “The image
of a store consists of the way it is perceived by consumers.” Therefore,
we would conclude that past image research has basically been
research of perception (including interpretation and assessment) of
store attributes in a modern understanding of this construct (Hanna
and Wozniak 2001; Schiffman and Kanuk 2004) and has often
neglected the long-enduring factors, which are more holistic and
emotional.

5.3 METHODOLOGY

THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS

As per the definition Marketing research refers to the process of

“...planning, collection and analysis of data relevant to the marketing
decision making and the communication of the results of this analysis
to management” (McDaniel & Gates, 2001: 6). Methods and
techniques use by the researcher differs according to their different
research aims.
 192

In research study gathered data can either be primary or

secondary data, and can either be quantitative or qualitative in nature.
Secondary data are the data that are already exists and can be used in
solving a research problem, while primary data is the data which is
collected by the researcher first time, according to the research study
(Tustin et al., 2005: 89).

The marketing research process provides a systematic and

intended approach to the research study, and verifies that all aspects of
the research are regular with one another (Tustin et al., 2005: 75).
Further, the research process entails following steps:

STEP 1: Identify and formulate the research problem

STEP 2: Determine the research objectives

STEP 3: Research design

STEP 4: Conduct secondary research

STEP 5: Select primary research method

STEP 6: Determine the scope of the research

STEP 7: Selecting a sampling method

STEP 8: Gather the data

STEP 9: Data analysis and interpretation of results

STEP 10: Reporting the results

5.4: The marketing research process

Source: Adapted from Tustin, D. H., Ligthelm, A., Martins, J. H. & Van Wyk, H.
De J. 2005. Marketing research in practice. South Africa: ABC Press. p. 76;
Wellman, J. C. & Kruger, S. J. 2001. Research methodology. 2nd ed. South Africa:
Oxford. p. 1 and Mc Daniel, C. & Gates, R. 2001. 3rd ed. Marketing research
essentials. USA: South-Western. p. 22.
 193

In the following sections, each step as indicated in figure 5.4 is

discussed in detail and relates to the imminent study.

STEP 1: Identifying and formulating the research

problem

The first step is to identify and formulate a research problem. A

marketing research problem refers to circumstances that present
difficulties for marketing decision-makers (Cant et al., 2010: 124). A
marketing opportunity refers to any favorable or unexploited situation
in the marketing environments that can be utilized proactively by
decision makers to the advantage of the organization (Cant et al.,
2010: 124).

The research study commences with identifying a specific

marketing complexity or opportunity. If a marketing research problem
and objective are accurate and well devised then, the probability of
designing a research study that presents the required information
resourcefully is increased to a great extent (McDaniel & Gates (2001:
26).

In this study, consumers’ perceptions regarding visual

merchandising displays are being analyzed.. The purpose of this study
is to investigate consumers’ perceptions towards visual merchandising
displays in the Uttar Pradesh & Haryana’s apparel retail industry, and
providing with the necessary knowledge regarding the visual
merchandising displays used in store.

STEP 2: Determine the research objectives

To resolve a research problem, research objectives are

 194

formulated. Research objectives are the statements that the research

project will try to achieve (Mc Daniel & Gates, 2001: 27). The
research objectives should be in accordance with the definition of the
research problem (Mc Daniel & Gates, 2001: 27). For the purpose of
this study, both primary and secondary objectives were formed. The
secondary objectives were made from the primary objective.

How can insight into the effect of visual merchandising displays

on consumer perceptions inform knowledge in apparel retail? The
primary research objective derived from the research problem is as
follows:

Determine the effect of communication strategy on consumers

perception?

The secondary objectives derived from the research problem are

the following:

1. To determine the effect of visual merchandising displays on

consumer behavior.

2. To determine impact of store layout on the amount of impulse

purchase made by the consumer.

3. To determine how communication strategy varies according to the

consumers profile.

STEP 3: Research design

Research design enables to draw schematic analysis in order to

answer the research objectives. In quintessence, the researcher
develops a structure or outline to answer an unambiguous research
problem (Mc Daniel & Gates, 2001: 26).
 195

The methodology used for this study provides in-depth

explanation, the design, the sampling methods, and the data gathering
techniques as well as the data analysis.

Exploratory research which is mostly apt in studies where the

researcher is unaware of the issues he/she will face during the study. It
enables the researchers in developing clear concepts (Cooper &
Schindler, 2008: 145).

Descriptive research is used by and large to revert on questions

such as who, when, where and how. It is also used to describe objects,
people, groups, organizations/environments.(Zikmund & Babin, 2010:
51).

The research methods used in descriptive research are

structured and quantitative in nature. Typical approaches to a
descriptive research design include in-house personal interviews,
surveys, telephone interviewing, e-mail surveys and web-based
surveys (Tustin et al., 2005: 86).

Causal research pertains to studies where the researcher

examines whether one variable causes or changes the value of another
variable. In most of the cases, experiments are used to measure
causality (Tustin et al., 2005: 87).

Henceforth, the purpose of this study to analyze the effect of

communication strategy on consumer behavior for apparels in
shopping malls was perceived and studied by the means of exploratory
research. As soon as the type of research design was resolute, the
researcher conducted the secondary research.
 196

STEP 4: Conduct secondary research

In order to conduct secondary research, secondary data can be

utilized as historical findings earlier collected for some other research
opportunity/problem (Zikmund & Babin, 2010: 163).Further, If the
analysis of secondary data and the analysis of existing literature yields
no solution to the marketing problem, the marketing research process,
proceeds to the selection of a primary research method.

For the purposes of this study, secondary data were analyzed to

develop an understanding of the Uttar Pradesh’s & Haryana retail
environment, visual merchandising displays, as well as consumer
behavior. Furthermore, secondary data were analyzed to investigate
consumer perceptions toward visual merchandising displays used in
apparel retail outlets at various shopping malls. For the purposes of
this study, secondary data and existing literature further defined the
marketing problem rather than providing a solution.

As facts recorded by secondary data were inadequate to answer

the research problem, it was mandatory to gather primary data.

Hence, the next step in the marketing research process is

selecting a primary research method.

STEP 5: Select primary research method

Primary research method entails the data which is collected for

the first time, and is collected in particular to address specific research
objective. (Tustin et al., 2005: 89).

Debating about which method proves the research design

effective and tackles with all the research objectives remains
 197

unanswered. Each research problems are varied which are faced by all
the researchers.

Data gathered for a research design can either be qualitative and

quantitative. Each research design has its own advantages and
disadvantages.

In support for the research design chosen i.e. Qualitative

research; for this particular research below are the mentioned
arguments (Comparison with quantitative research)

Quantitative marketing research

Quantitative research is only utilized where mathematical

speculations and analysis is required for descriptive and casual
research (McDaniel & Gates, 2001: 109). Quantitative marketing
research relates to objectives through practical assessments that
addresses research objectives through practical assessments that
engage in statistical evaluation and analysis approaches (Zikmund &
Babin, 2010: 133-144). Qualitative research requires minimal
interpretation and is more suitable to be independent (Zikmund &
Babin, 2010: 134-135).

Qualitative marketing research

Qualitative research data is not subjected to mathematical

speculations/quantifications and is frequently utilized in exploratory
research (Mc Daniel & Gates, 2001: 109).

Qualitative technique is utilized to analyze and interpret

consumer attitudes, feelings and motivations/drives. Henceforth, it is
an interpretative technique that describes, decodes, and translates
 198

information (Cooper & Schindler, 2008: 214).

It does not rely on self-response questionnaires as in qualitative

research. What makes qualitative research such a strong method lies in
its ability to provide comprehensive textual explanations of how
individuals experience a given research subject. It helps in obtaining
the ‘human-side’ data about their perceptions.

For this research study, qualitative research method was proven

to be more suitable because detailing about consumers perceptions
about effective communication strategy of retail outlets which
inculcates visual merchandising displays and further, the influence
they carry on consumer behavior was needed.

The disadvantage of qualitative research I the fact that it

represents only a small fraction of interviewed participants who
cannot be the representatives of the whole population (Zikmund &
Babin, 2010: 131-133).

STEP 6: Determine the scope of the research

Determining the scope of the research study is the sixth stage of

the marketing research process. Depending on the problem or
opportunity under investigation, research is conducted using either a
census or a sample of the research population. The research population
is defined as the total group of people or establishments whose
opinions, behaviour, preferences or attitudes will yield information for
the answering of the specific research question (Tustin et al., 2005:
97).

When conducting a census, data are obtained from every

 199

member of the research population (Tustin et al., 2005: 337). A

sample, on the other hand, refers to a representative subset of the
population of interest (Wiid & Diggines 2009: 193). Because census
research is costly, researchers will most often draw a sample from the
population in which they are interested (Zikmund & Babin, 2010:
412). - 152 -

Researchers have two options when selecting respondents to

form part of the sample, namely probability sampling and non-
probability sampling. In the former, all the subsets of the population
have a known non-zero chance of being selected to be part of the
sample, whereas in the latter, certain subsets of the population have
little or no chance of being selected for the sample (Tustin et al., 2005:
344). Probability sampling as well as non-probability sampling is
discussed in detail below, together with a discussion on why non-
probability sampling was used for this research study.

Probability sampling

As discussed above, probability sampling supplies every

element in the population with a known, non-zero probability of being
selected for the sample (Tustin et al., 2005: 344). The sampling
methods that can be utilized in probability sampling include the
following: simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified
sampling, proportional sampling, cluster sampling and multistage area
sampling.

Simple random sampling is a sampling process through which

each element in the population has a similar chance of being included
in the sample is guaranteed.
 200

Non-probability sampling : Non-probability sampling relies on the

discretion of the researcher (Tustin et al., 2005: 344). Non-probability
sampling is a sampling method where the samples are grouped in a
process that does not provide all the individuals in the population an
equal chance of being selected (Tustin et al., 2005: 344). Subjects in a
non-probability sample are usually selected on the basis of their
accessibility or by the purposive personal judgment of the researcher.

The major disadvantages of non-probability sampling are the

possible sources of bias. The advantages of non-probability sampling
include that:

 It is cost effective

 It is useful when the population is widely scattered

 It is often used in exploratory studies

The sampling methods that can be utilised in non-probability

sampling include the following: convenience sampling, judgemental
sampling, purposive sampling, quota sampling and snowball
sampling. These are all discussed briefly below (Tustin et al., 2005:
97):

 Convenience sampling is a method where the members of the

sample are chosen based on them being readily available.

 Judgemental sampling is a method where the members are chosen

on the basis of the researcher’s judgement on what constitutes a
representative sample of the population.

 Purposive sampling is a sampling method where the members are

chosen with a specific purpose in mind. They are therefore
 201

intentionally chosen to be non-representative.

 Quota sampling is a sampling method where the members are

chosen on the basis of satisfying some form of pre-specified
criteria that applies to the population.

 Snowball sampling is a sampling method where the members are

originally chosen judgementally and are then asked to identify
others with the desired characteristics to be part of the sample.

For this particular research study, non-probability: purposive

sampling was applied. The respondents were chosen on the basis of
their accessibility and by the purposive personal judgment of the
researcher. Therefore non-probability sampling was utilized because
not every element in the population had a known probability of being
selected for the sample (due to purposive sampling). The fact that the
sample population for this given study was widely spread and because
non-probability sampling is cost effective, it contributed to the
decision to make use of non-probability sampling.

The leading disadvantages of non-probability sampling are the

possible sources of bias. However, this does not mean that non-
probability sampling methods cannot provide good results; the
problem is that the researcher is unable to provide any suggestion of
the reliability of the results that are attained from the research (Wiid &
Diggines, 2009: 199). However, given the exploratory nature of the
study it was not the goal for the findings to be representative to the
whole population, but rather to be able to transfer the findings to
another study. Consequently the sample was nevertheless deemed
adequate.
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STEP 7: Selecting a sampling method

Selecting a sampling method is the seventh step of the

marketing research process). Even though sampling is part of the
scope of the research, it can still be seen as a separate step in the
marketing research process.

A sample can be seen as a subset (or some part) of a population

(Tustin et al., 2005: 96). A population is any complete group of
entities that share some a common set of characteristics (Zikmund &
Babin, 2010: 412). In order to select a sample, a researcher has to
complete the following five stages: define the population, specify the
sample frame, select the sampling method, determine the sample size
and draw the sample (Zikmund & Babin, 2010: 415).

Define the population

The population is the group from which the researcher will

draw his/her sample. The population should include all the people
whose opinions, behaviour, preferences and attitudes will be of value
to answer the research question.

When using qualitative research, it is not necessary to collect

data from everyone in the area of interest in order to retrieve
convincing findings. In qualitative research, only a sample of a
population is selected for any given study (Cooper & Schindler, 2008:
215). For this research study, the population was defined as any person
who buys clothing or clothing related items at retail stores in Lucknow
& Gurgaon. Having defined the target population, the researcher now
specifies the sample frame. - 159 -
 203

Specify the sample frame

A sample frame is necessary if a probability sample is drawn.

As explained previously, with probability sampling, every element in
the population has a known, non-zero probability of being selected for
the sample (Tustin et al., 2005: 344). In non-probability sampling, the
sample relies on the discretion of the researcher (Tustin et al., 2005:
344).

Because this research study used non-probability sampling, it

was not necessary to draw a sample frame. Refer back to step 6 of the
marketing research process for a detailed explanation. After the
sample frame has been specified, the next stage is to select a sampling
method.

Select the sampling method

In the third stage of selecting a sample, the researcher specifies

whether he/she will use probability or non-probability sampling, as
well as how the sample units will be selected (Tustin et al., 2005: 97).
As discussed in step 6 of the marketing research process, non-
probability sampling was best suited for this research study.

The sampling method chosen for this particular research study

was non-probability: purposive sampling. In purposive sampling, the
researcher samples with a purpose in mind. This is usually the case
where the study requires one or more specific predefined groups.
Purposive sampling can be very useful for situations where one has to
reach a targeted sample quickly and where sampling for
proportionality or representativeness is not the main concern.
 204

With a purposive sample, the researcher is likely to retrieve the

opinions of the target population. However, a disadvantage is the fact
that the researcher might overweight subgroups in the population that
are more willingly available (Cooper & Schindler, 2008: 455).

However, due to the fact that the research study had a

qualitative paradigm (it was not the goal to be representative) and was
exploratory in nature (not proposed to present definite evidence and
where further research is required); the sampling method was
nonetheless considered sufficient.

The inclusion criteria for the purposive sampling for this

research study were as follows:

 People who buy clothing at apparel retail outlets at shopping malls

 People that are residing in Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow,Gurgaon )

 People that are willing and have the time to participate in the study

Further, after choosing the sampling method the researched

determines the sample size in order to collect the data.

Stage 4: Determine the sample size

In this stage the researcher specifies the number of sample

elements to be included in the final sample.

Eight members were chosen in order to prevent sample sizes

being too big or too small. If the focus group was too small, one or
two members could intimidate the other members, and if the groups
were too big, it could have influenced the participation of the
members of the group. The prearranged size of the groups ensured that
every participant was proficient to voice his/her opinions. Two Focus
 205

groups were constituted having 8 members each.

However, after analyzing both the group opinions it was

observed that the participant’s responses had common themes.

Stage 5: Draw the sample

For the rationale of this study, each participant was sent an

email inviting them for the Focus group sessions. The email
incorporated the session time and the list of questions the group was to
discuss. Once 16 participants (eight participants per focus group)
agreed on the date and time, and then the sample was finalized.

Even though diversity and representativeness of the population

is not a requirement of purposive sampling, diversity was created in
terms of age (ages ranged from the age of 17 to the age of 45) and
gender to encourage conversation in the focus groups. This permitted
for a more envoy sample of the population and diverse views
regarding the subject at hand.

STEP 6: Gather the data

The process of collecting data is usually referred to as field

work. When using qualitative research, there are four common
techniques used to collect data, namely: focus groups, depth
interviews, conversations and free association and sentence
completion methods. These techniques are all discussed below,
together with a discussion that explains why focus groups were
utilized for this particular research study.
 206

Focus groups

Focus group can be defined as free- flowing interviews that

comprise s small groups of participants, by and large between six and
ten people. The participants who take part in focus groups discussions
gather at a specific time at pre-determined location and discuss the
pertaining/relevant subject. Focus group is generally led by a
moderator or a group of moderatos who follow a flexible layout.
Moderators along with many tasks during focus group discussions also
initiate/promote conversations amongst participants.

Depth interviews

Depth Interview can be defined as one-on-one interviews

between the researcher and a respondent. During this interview
session the researcher asks questions and follows up with the
respondent’s answers in order to retrieve more information about the
pertaining subject of discussion. The moderator during the session
should ensure and should be highly skilled in order to encourage the
respondents to talk freely.

Focus groups

This research study made use of self-reporting as a data source

by means of focus groups. A focus group is an unstructured, free
flowing interview with a small group of people, usually between six
and ten participants. This use of data collection aligns well with an
exploratory approach as focus groups enable the researcher to
illuminate unclear situations. This specific research topic needed to be
discussed in detail and different types of views and perceptions needed
 207

to be explored. This would not have been possible with the use of a
structured questionnaire. A group of participants were asked about
their perceptions, opinions, and views towards visual merchandising
displays, and whether these displays had an influence on their buying
behaviour.

The focus groups were based on the use of visual stimulus

material. Photographs were taken of an apparel retail store in
Lucknow and Gurgaon; further they were presented to the participants
in the focus groups. The participants were then asked questions
derived from the research objectives. The following questions were
used to arrange the focus group –

1. What perception you have about visual merchandising displays?

2. When you enter into a apparel store, what do you observe about the
visual merchandising displays

3. Does Store layout have an effect on your buying decision?

It has helped the participants to share their views, freely

regarding visual merchandising. It was a speedy way for collecting in
depth data .Additional insight was created as it allowed participants to
use each other ideas, views .it helped the researcher in having different
perceptive about the topic.

It allowed flexibility for a more detailed explanation about the

topics that needed exploration. Several topics could be talked about
and many insights were achieved, especially with regard to the
differences in consumer behaviour in different situations.

The disadvantages of using focus groups are summarized as

mentioned. Further the counter active measures have also been
 208

summarized which oppose the disadvantages for the purpose of the

Study.

Disadvantages of focus Group

1. Focused groups output can be manipulated or are likely to become

partial/ biased due to the influence of one or two people.

Corrective Measure: A proper skilled moderator who observed all

the respondents can ensure that the participants were comfortable
enough in putting up their views.

2. Focus groups should ensure purpose and efficient moderators.

Corrective Measure: Independent Moderator who cannot be

influenced by other people views can manage and resolve.

3. It may not be easy to retrieve a representative sample of the

population.

Corrective Measure: Given the exploratory nature of the study, the

sample was nevertheless deemed adequate

STEP 9: Data analysis and interpretation of results

Once all the data had been collected, the data analysis process
started. The objective of data analysis is to understand the data and to
draw conclusions from the data collected (Tustin et al., 2005: 102).

Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Thematic

analysis involves penetrating through data to identify any repeated
patterns (Tesch, 1990: 113) the process that was followed in order to
analyse the data gathered from the focus group interviews
 209

Thematic Analysis

 Action

Formulate a sense of the storyline by reading through the

transcriptions.

 Description

Formulate the necessary background information. The

researcher wrote down ideas as they came to mind.

 Action

The researcher selected one interesting and short document and

asked herself what the interview was all about.

 Description

Focusing on the underlying meaning of the text the researcher

wrote down the thoughts in the margin. Repetition of this process was
followed thorough out all the gathered data. . As there was transition
from one topic to another, the researcher distinguished content from
topic. Identified topics were then written in the margin of the
document.

 Action

The researcher paid attention to the underlying meaning rather

than the content. As topics emerged, they were written down in the
margin, clustering similar topics together

 Description

A connection was made between similar topics by using

highlighters. Topics with the same colour were clustered together. All
 210

topics were arranged into columns on one sheet of paper, one column
per each data document. The best fitting name that captured the
substance was chosen for the clustered topics. These topics were then
further arranged into major topic, unique topics and leftovers.

 Action

Abbreviated topics were written as codes. The clustered major

topics as well as the unique topics were abbreviated as codes.

 Description

These codes were written next to the appropriate segment of the

text. This process indicated how well the topic descriptions
corresponded with what was found in the data. It also led to the
discovery of new topics that were not previously identified.

 Action

At this stage the researcher was ready for refinement of the

organized data.

 Description

The most descriptive wording for the topics was found and the
topics were turned into categories and sub-categories.

 Action

A final decision was then made on the abbreviated category

name.

 Description

Each code was alphabetized. Subsequently a coding session was

completed.
 211

 Action

The data material belonging to each category was assembled in

one place and a preliminary analysis was performed.

 Description

Confusions and contradictions, as well as the missing

information with regard to the research topic were then identified.
This led to some of the data being discarded, as it was not relevant.

Source: Adapted from Cresswell, J.W. 1994. Research Design: Qualitative and
quantitative approaches. London: Sage publication. p. 154-155; Merriam,
S. B. 2002. Introduction to qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass. p. 3-17 and Tesch, R. 1990. Qualitative research analysis tapes and
software tools. New York: Wordsworth. p. 113.

STEP 10: Reporting the results

The final step in the marketing research process is the

preparation of the research results and conveying the research findings
and recommendations to the client or decision-maker.

5.5 THE RESEARCH QUESTION

The sole purpose of the research study was to determine the

effect of communication strategy on consumer’s behavior for apparels
in shopping malls with the focus on consumer’s perceptions towards
visual merchandising displays in Indian apparel retail industry.

The primary research question in the course of the preliminary

literature was consequently as follows: To Determine the Impact of
Communication Strategy on Consumer Behaviour for apparels in
Shopping Malls? (A Study of Lucknow and GurgaonCity)

The primary and secondary research objectives are reviewed in

 212

the following section.

THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Primary objective

To determine the effect of communication strategy on consumers

perception?

Secondary objective

The secondary objectives derived from the research problem are the
following:

1. To determine the effect of visual merchandising displays on

consumer behavior.

2. To determine impact of store layout on the amount of impulse

purchase made by the consumer.

3. To determine how communication strategy varies according to the

consumers profile.

Consumer centered approach towards visual merchandising

display was acquired; further this enabled to consider this area of retail
sector in a valuable manner.

5.5.1PRE-TESTING

In order to know the effectiveness of a questionnaire, it was

important to pre-test it. Pretesting helps the researcher in determining
the strengths and weaknesses of the questions concerning question
format, wording and ordert. Pre-testing ends when the researcher is
satisfied that the target audience understands the questions correctly
 213

(Tustin et al., 2005: 413).

For this research study, pre-testing was done by using the naive
sketches. Five participants were asked to complete the naive sketch
where after the researcher analysed the answers. During the pre-testing
of the naïve sketches it was apparent that the participants
misinterpreted the concept of “visual merchandising display”. Many
participants were of the opinion that mannequins and actual clothing
on the mannequins was the visual merchandising displays. This might
have created an impression that visual merchandising displays are not
noticeable or important to a store as participants rarely noticed or
referred to them. It was therefore decided to explain the concept of
visual merchandising displays to the participants more effectively by
means of photos and verbal discussions.

5.5.2 THE DYNAMICS OF THE FOCUS GROUP

It was clear from the naïve sketches that many of the

participants did not fully understand what visual merchandising
displays were and therefore misunderstood the context of the
questions. Many participants thought that mannequins and actual
clothing on the mannequins was the visual merchandising displays.
This might have created an impression that visual merchandising
displays are not noticeable or important to a store as participants rarely
noticed or referred to them. They gave more importance to the
mannequins and how they portrayed the store’s brand, merchandise
and the quality of that merchandise.

There were some disagreements between participants about the

main concepts. The focus groups were only continued when all the
 214

participants agreed that they had a clear understanding of the concepts.

Interaction between the participants was free flowing in both the focus
groups.

5.6 FINDINGS

The central theme

Participants perceptions of the impact of visual merchandising

displays on their buying behaviour varied as evidenced by their
attention or lack of interest to visual merchandising displays when
they first walked into a store. A prominent visual stimulant and
important aspect of visual merchandising that was identified by
participants was colour.

Other important aspects of visual merchandising that were

identified were positioning of displays and the use of space, lighting,
and the neatness of displays. Emotional responses to the visual
merchandising displays ranged from feeling overwhelmed, as well as
experiencing extreme irritation or feelings of calmness and relaxation.

Perceptions of visual merchandising displays that were

identified were subliminal in creating an interest and desire to further
peruse the merchandise and aesthetically to beautify the store as well
as to add to the character of the store. Participants expressed that the
impact that visual merchandising displays had on their buying
decision depended on personal preferences.

A discussion on the four main themes and their underlying

categories follows.
 215

5.6 Themes and categories

Theme 1: During qualitative analysis participants perceived that

visual merchandising is an essential tool which creates a “purchasing”
context that adda to the retail experience.

This particular theme relates with the primary objective of this

research study: To determine the effect of communication strategies on
consumer behavior for apparels in retails Malls. The participants
expressed that the visual merchandising portrays the most effective
communication strategy which enhances the buying experience in
unconditional ways through the beautification of the store and by
creating a calm and relaxed environment. The participants also stated
that the displays contributed to the image of a store through the quality
of the product sold in store and the character of the store.

The participants also stated that visual merchandising displays

are viewed as a promotional tool, for example: to convey branding, the
product, product information and product quality. The participants said
that in order for the displays to attract attention, the displays should be
well designed. If not, the displays only create irritation and it could be
overbearing.

Four categories emerged from the first theme and are explained
below. Quotes were taken from the focus groups to illustrate the
participants views on the various categories of this theme/objective.

1.1 Visual Merchandising enhances the end consumers buying

experience in an unconditional manner:

1.1.1 It beautifies the store (including a colourful environment and

decorative in nature)
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The focus groups explained that although they participants did not
always consciously notice the visual merchandising displays, the
displays definitely aided

In contributing to a pleasant experience as the store was more

beautiful with decorated displays.

1. It creates a relaxed and customer pro environment.

The participants felt that a store with pleasing displays that were
calming and well-designed enhanced the peaceful, relaxed atmosphere
of a store. Even if the store did not offer the required product,
participants still viewed the store as a haven of tranquillity that they
could enjoy.

Visual merchandising displays contribute to the image of the

store through:

The quality of the product sold

The quality of the product is inferred by the quality of the

display as well as the quality of the materials used in the display.

The character of the shop

The character of the shop is enhanced by visual merchandising

displays. Visual Merchandising displays provide a perfect setting and
give the shop its true picture.

Visual Merchandising display is perceived as a promotional tool

for the consumers.

Many participants were of the opinion that the visual

merchandising displays were part of the store’s product promotion
 217

strategy. Posters, mannequins, and clothes that are displayed in light

boxes seem to affect the consumer, as the focus group explained that
the participants thought that the reason these products were being
promoted by these various displays was for the consumer to be enticed
to buy them.

Visual merchandising displays should be well designed to

attract positive attention (if not, it creates “irritation” and could be
“overbearing”).

The focus groups explained that in order to have a positive

experience in a store, the visual merchandising displays should be well
designed but should limit the amount of décor that is used in the
display. Furthermore, the focus groups explained that when
merchandise is moved or scattered regularly because the visual
displays change, it causes irritation and negative feelings towards the
store’s ability to satisfy the consumers’ needs. Spatial orientation and
perfectly designed visual merchandising displays are definitely themes
that affect the consumers’ perception of the store.

5.7 SUMMARY

The participants expressed that the visual merchandising

displays enhanced their buying experience in subliminal ways through
the beautifying of the store and by creating a relaxed environment to
shop in. They also stated that the displays contributed to the image of
a store through the quality of the product sold in store and the
character of the store. Participants explained that visual merchandising
displays are mostly noticed in a subliminal way, and that it is
influenced by personal preferences, contextual aspects such as themes,
 218

type of store and brand or branding, gender to some degree, and

sensory and cognitive aspects.

Participants communicated that sensory and physical attributes

are important to them. Attributes such as brightness, the size and
height of displays, the suitability of the displays and the fact that the
displays should be realistic and logical were emphasized. They also
mentioned that the displays should complement the space of the store.
Another aspect that the participants stressed was that visual
merchandising displays should give information about the
merchandise on display.

The participants explained that their buying behaviour is

influenced to a limited extent. They continued to say that the visual
merchandising displays guide them in the direction of the products
they are seeking and that it guides their product choice. The
participants agreed that their buying behaviour is influenced on a
subliminal level based on the quality of the visual merchandising
displays and their personal preferences, including gender.

5.8 CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY ON VISUAL

MERCHANDISING:

In order to determine what effect visual merchandising displays

has on consumer perceptions), the participant’s perceptions of visual
merchandising displays were subliminal (intense enough to influence
the mental processes or behaviour of the consumer) in creating an
interest and desire to further peruse the merchandise and aesthetically
to beautify the store.
 219

The perceptions of the participants indicated that the visual

merchandising displays contributed to the image of the store and also
added to the character of the store. Spatial orientation and perfectly
designed visual merchandising displays are definitely themes that
affect the consumers’ perception of an apparel retail store.

Furthermore, consumers perceived visual merchandising

displays as a tool to establish a „purchasing’ environment and as a
vehicle to portray the brand of the store.

In order, to determine to what extent consumers’ notice the

visual merchandising displays presented in stores, concluded that what
is noticed by the consumers in terms of the visual merchandising
displays are mostly below the threshold of consciousness, and it is
influenced by personal preferences, contextual aspects such as themes,
type of store and brand or branding, gender to some extent, quality of
the visual merchandising display and sensory and cognitive aspects.

The research study suggests that women are more attentive to

the complete retail experience which includes visual merchandising
displays. In comparison, men search for signs in a store about where
to find what they are looking for.

The focus groups also explained that they notice ill-fitting

themes in apparel retail stores, in terms of whether the items displayed
are actually available in store, or whether it sends the correct message
with the complement of the display.

In order, to determine what aspects of visual merchandising

displays are important to consumers, identified that a prominent visual
stimulant and important aspect of visual merchandising displays was
 220

colour, which creates visual attraction and stimulation.

Other important aspects of visual merchandising that were

identified were the positioning of displays and the use of space,
lighting as well as the neatness of displays. Another important aspect
that was noted was that visual merchandising displays should provide
information about the products sold in store.

It was also apparent that the visual merchandising displays

should cater for individual needs. In addition, participants explained
that by placing too many diverse kinds of products in the same visual
merchandising display area, a confusing display could be the result.

In order to determine the effect of visual merchandising

displays on consumer behaviour, the participants’ perceptions of the
impact of visual merchandising displays on their buying behaviour
varied as evidenced by their attention or lack of interest to visual
merchandising displays when they first walk into a store. Consumers’
behaviour is influenced by a limited extent as visual merchandising
displays guides consumers in the direction of the products as well as
in product choice. Consumers’ behaviour will also be influenced by
their personal preferences and the quality of the displays.

It was noted in the focus groups that the consumers’ attention is

drawn to certain aspects (such as colour and breathing space in the
store) of visual merchandising displays that creates a space where
their shopping experience can be positive. The participants tended to
be attracted to visual merchandising displays that are well designed
and logical. This illustrates that visual merchandising displays
influence buying behaviour.
 221

The theory, as explained earlier argues that the consumers’

perceptions of a store’s environment depends on the consumers’
shopping goals. The focus groups seemed to submit to the view that
the after-purchase satisfaction is what often draws consumers back to
a particular retail store, regardless of the visual merchandising
displays. Apparel retailers should realise that if a store fulfilled a
consumer’s shopping goals before, consumers are also more likely to
return. Similarly, no amount of great quality visual merchandising
displays will draw consumers in if they have already decided that a
particular store will not aid in fulfilling their shopping goals.

Furthermore, emotional responses to the visual merchandising

displays ranged from feeling overwhelmed, to experiencing extreme
irritation or feelings of calmness and relaxation. Participants expressed
that the effect that visual merchandising displays had on their buying
decisions varied and depended mostly on their personal preferences.
The participants also indicated that the visual merchandising displays
influenced their buyer behaviour on a subliminal level, meaning that
they could not produce a conscious awareness of the displays, but that
these displays do evoke some form of response below the threshold of
conscious perception.

5.9 RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings drawn and the conclusions derived from

the findings above, various recommendations can be offered to apparel
retailers located in Lucknow & Gurgaon. These recommendations are:

The participants mentioned that less is more; simplicity and

clarity are better than ambiguity. Therefore apparel retailers should
 222

avoid surface clutter and should not overcrowd the space that is
utilised for a display. Larger items have more impact than smaller
items, however if small items are used they will require special
treatment or they disappear in the overall display, or the display
becomes cluttered.

Objects (props) have more impact when they are displayed

together. As a result, if objects are massed together they will create the
impression of a collection and will not be viewed as cluttered if they
were spread out individually.

Scale is also very important. If apparel retailers want to

showcase a small item, they should keep it in a smaller context.
Apparel retailers could set it on a small shelf, a box or a decorative
tray to create a focal point.

The focus groups explained that in order to have a positive

experience in an apparel retail store, the visual merchandising displays
should be well designed but should limit the amount of décor and or
props that are used in the display.

Visual merchandising displays should focus on one product or a

small family of products to avoid confusion. Products that are in high
demand should be given priority in visual merchandising displays.
Popular products will draw consumer attention and help to sell other
items in and near the display. However, for the display to be effective,
the high-revenue products should be the display’s main focal point.

Participants agreed that they all notice a particular theme that is

conveyed through a visual merchandising display. For this reason
apparel retailers should be attentive to social and environmental
 223

phenomena such as sporting events or seasonal changes and create

visual merchandising displays according to these event or season
changes.

The visual merchandising displays used in apparel retail stores

should communicate the correct messages to consumers, for example
the personality of the brand, the season, the current trends, etc.

Apparel retailers should keep the distinct differences between

male and female consumers in mind when designing their visual
merchandising displays, especially in men’s retailer stores or in retail
stores that have menswear departments.

Colour displays that are realistic for the consumer and not
simply part of a trendy display draws more attention than just using
colour for the sake of colour.

Physical attributes such as brightness; the size and height of

displays, the suitability of the displays and the fact that the displays
should be realistic and logical are important. The displays should
complement the space of the store and the visual merchandising
displays should provide information about the merchandise on display.

A far-fetched, richly imaginary display, while beautiful for some

consumers, would not attract others if it was out of context with the
product offering. Visual merchandising displays should always strive
to educate the consumer about the products and merchandise on offer.

Visual merchandising displays should provide context and cater

for individual needs, by staying true to the brand image and by
changing the displays regularly--once every 3 months, or together
with changing of the seasons. The visual merchandising displays need
 224

to be altered regularly in order to keep the atmosphere of the store

fresh, vibrant and competitive. This denotes that new stock has
arrived, or that new merchandise or products are on offer, creating
more opportunities for the consumer to make a purchase decision.

It is suggested that apparel retailers should keep the visual

merchandising displays secondary to the actual products that are sold
in store. Busy and extensive displays are not well received by the
consumers; therefore enough space to move around freely in the store
is vital. The visual merchandising displays are better received if they
are logical and realistic to the consumer.

The visual merchandising displays can be used to communicate

a store’s brand identity. A strong brand identity creates loyalty and
ensures that people feel comfortable with the quality and product
offering that can be expected.

The participants explained that visual merchandising displays

guide the consumers’ choices regarding products. Should a consumer
be searching for a pair of boots, and a specific pair is highlighted in a
display, the consumer may be more inclined to select that pair of boots
than another pair that were not part of the display. Therefore apparel
retailers should make use of their latest products in their displays.

Apparel retailers should keep their visual merchandising

displays neat and tidy at all times, and ensure that the displays does
not impact on the breathing space of the store. Therefore there should
be a systematic structure and purpose for the display.

Apparel retailers should use aspects such as brightness, size and

height in their displays as consumers prefer physical displays to
 225

images and pictures. The displays should be kept realistic and logical
and the props and fixtures used should complement the space of the
store.

Apparel retailers should use visual merchandising displays to

enhance a shopper’s experience by beautifying the store, to create a
relaxed environment and to create interest and desire to enter the store.
Visual merchandising could also be used as a tool to display the
store’s brand and to communicate information of the products as well
as the quality of the products.

Well designed visual merchandising displays will create the

correct atmosphere and context for consumers to buy while bad visual
merchandising displays will work against the decision to purchase the
product in question. Consequently an attractive display will have an
impact on a consumer’s buying decision.

Visual merchandising displays should be used to guide

consumers in the direction of the products and to guide product
choice.

5.10 THE STUDY’S CONTRIBUTION TO LUCKNOW &

GURGAON RETAIL INDUSTRY

In order for apparel retail stores to survive and to be successful,

it is important for them to understand how consumers behave in a
buying situation and to understand what their perceptions are
regarding the visual merchandising displays.

The results of the study could benefit Mall apparel retailers in

Lucknow & Gurgaon because a detailed exploration in terms of
 226

consumer perceptions towards visual merchandising displays and a

discussion regarding the effect these displays have on consumer
behaviour was completed. The apparel retailers in Lucknow &
Gurgaoon can therefore apply these findings to their retail
environments and create visual merchandising displays that will be of
value to consumers, and that will encourage approach behaviour and
ultimately lead to a consumer purchasing a product.

By applying the findings of the research, apparel retailers can

now decrease the consumer’s avoidance behaviour towards their store
and the merchandise the store sells, thereby positively influencing the
consumer’s decision making to ultimately make a purchase.

The limitations of this research study are discussed next.

5.11 LIMITATIONS

The opinions of many individuals outside the chosen

participants were not represented. Future research could therefore aim
to identify a more diverse and representative sample of Residents of
Lucknow & Gurgaon.

Similarly, the sample was primarily taken from those living in

Lucknow & Gurgaon, and thus it was not geographically
representative. Due to the qualitative nature of this study, it was not
the goal to be representative; the goal was for other researchers to be
able to transfer the findings. Given the exploratory nature of the study,
the sample was nevertheless deemed adequate.

5.12 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Based on the findings and the conclusions discussed above,

 227

various suggestions for future researchers can be offered. These

suggestions are:

From this research study it was clear that the respondents

expressed behavioural responses to visual merchandising displays. An
area that would benefit from more detailed exploration is the influence
of visual merchandising displays on brand recognition and
differentiation.

Whilst it is clear that the respondents expressed both affective

and behavioural responses towards visual merchandising displays, an
interesting study would be to ascertain whether visual merchandising
displays have the ability to act as an identifying factor, i.e.: whether
consumers are able to identify a store by only looking at the visual
merchandising displays.

Although some consumers have a stronger preference to

visit/shop at certain apparel retail stores, more research is required to
determine whether this preference renders into repeat visits and
possibly higher patronage of the stores. One has to keep in mind that
improving a store’s image to increase the number of consumers
shopping in that store adds to the costs of operation and should be
carefully evaluated against the profit objectives of the store. As a
result, being or becoming the most favoured store does not
automatically increase the profitability for the store.

The exterior of a retail store is also an important variable when

considering the store environment and atmosphere. The outside
appearance of a store is the first thing a consumer sees and it must
therefore also be acceptable. Research on the exterior of the building,
 228

its shape, characteristics, colours, architectural style and signage could

provide a retail store with a competitive advantage over its rivals if the
store can successfully attract consumers according to their
perceptions.

A stimulating study could test consumers’ perceptions of two

stores from the same chain that is located in different regional areas.
The outcome could lead to thought-provoking insights regarding the
effect of exterior variables on shopping behaviour.

Store layout options could be observed to study the effects on

the amount of time consumers spend in the store.

Another inspiring study would be how the retail environment

can be used as a segmentation tool. Previous research has shown that
consumers of different ages respond in a different way to music in
retail stores, where other segmentation variables also need to be
studied to analyse whether it has a similar effect. For example, is there
a gender difference in the perception of and response to certain
atmospheric cues, such as colours, scents or music? We all know from
walking through almost any shopping centre that retailers design their
environments for their specific target markets; however the research
could be elaborated to find ways to manipulate or develop the
atmosphere to better appeal to the different target markets

5.13 Research Methodology For Other Objectives and

Hypothesis

Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the

research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how
 229

research is done scientifically. To do my study I have adopted

exploratory research design. The Primary Data is collected through
questionnaire.

1. Research Design Exploratory

2. Data Source Primary & Secondary data

3. Research Instrument Questionnaire

4. Sample Plan Shopping Malls of Luck now & Gurgaon

5. Sample Size 300 customers

6. Sampling Procedure Non Probability Sampling

7. Sampling Methodology Personal Survey

 230

Table – 5.1

Visitors of Shopping Mall According to their Age-Group

Age Total Percentage
16-20 60 20%
20-30 90 30%
30-40 60 20%
40-50 48 16%
50 & above 42 14%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.1, Represent that the shopping malls is mostly visited by age
group of 20 - 30 followed by 30 - 40 age groups. The reason behind this
was, as most of the visitors of shopping malls are being college students and
families. Above same thing has been presented through the pie chart also.

Figure – 5.1
Visitors of Shopping Mall According to their Age-Group

Source: Table 5.1

 231

Table – 5.2

Category Wise Distribution of Visitors

Field Total Percentage

Student 70 23%
Businessman 30 10%
Professional 45 15%
Govt. employee 35 13%
Housewife 70 23%
Others 50 16%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.2, Represents that the 23% of the students and 23% of the
housewife are the most common visitors of the shopping malls, which is
followed by the professional and government employee as 15% and 13%.
Only 10 % of the visitors are businessman. Following thing has been also
presented through a pie chart which is as bellow.

Figure –5.2

Category Wise Distribution of Visitors

Source: Table 5.2

 232

Table – 5.3
Income Wise Distribution of Visitors

Income Total Percentage

Up to Rs. 10,000 21 7%
10,000 to 20,000 30 10%
20,000 to 30,000 45 15%
30,000 to 40,000 90 30%
above 40,000 114 38%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.3, shows that the income group of above 40,000 is the most
common sightseer of the shopping malls with a percentage of 38. Income
group of 30,000- 40,000 are having a share of 30%. Income group up to
to10, 000 is having a lowest percentage of 7. The same is been represented
through a pie chart which is as bellow.

Figure – 5.3

Income Wise Distribution of Visitors

 233

Source: Table 5.3

Table – 5.4
Purpose of Visiting Shopping Mall

Purpose Total Percentage

Shopping 138 46%
Entertainment 114 38%
Window Shopping 48 16%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.4, represent that the most of the respondents go for shopping
purpose in shopping malls, 38% of the respondents go for entertainment
purpose, and window shopping is also one big factor of attraction towards
shopping malls. This thing is been shown through a pie chart also which is
as below.
 234

Figure – 5.4
Purpose of Visiting Shopping Mall

Source: Table 5.4

Table – 5.5
Frequent Visits of Consumers
Frequent Visit Total Percentage
Daily 30 10%
Weekly 90 30%
Fortnightly 120 40%
Monthly 60 20%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.5, the above table shows that mostly respondents use to go
fortnight to shopping malls. 30% of respondents used to go weekly for
various purposes to shopping malls. Only 10% of people go daily at
 235

shopping mall. The same thing has been presented through a pie chart
which is as below.
Figure – 5.5

Frequent Visit of Consumers

Source: Table 5.5

Table – 5.6

Taste and Preference of Consumers

Branded Trend & All under
Affordability Total
item Fashion one room
1st Prefer 24 48 48 180 300
2nd 60 120 72 48 300
3rd 84 72 96 48 300
4th 132 60 84 24 300
Total 300 300 300 300 1200
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.6, according to this table the respondents all less than one
room concept was the main motivator factor behind the success of shopping
 236

malls. Second preference of choice was availability of branded items. The

above table is been represented through a column chart which is as below.

Figure – 5.6

Taste and Preference of Consumers

Source: Table 5.6

Table – 5.7
Preference of Purchasing
Location Total Percentage
Kirana Store 48 16%
Local Market 72 24%
Shopping Malls 90 30%
Show Rooms 90 30%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.6, shows that mostly customers prefer SHOW ROOMS and
SHOPPING MALLS for purchasing. Local market is also used for
 237

shopping that includes MOM & DAD shop. The same thing is been shown
through a below pie chart.
Figure – 5.7
Preference of Purchasing

Source: Table 5.7

Table – 5.8

Perception about Location

Perception about
Location Total Percentage
Yes 195 65%
No 75 25%
can’t say 30 10%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.8, show that 65% of the respondents are having a positive
response towards the location of the shopping malls. Only 25% respondent
 238

said that location of shopping mall not affect the perception about shopping
malls and 10% said they have no idea. Below pie chart present the same
information of the above table.

Figure – 5.8

Perception about Location

Source: Table 5.8

Table – 5.9
Satisfaction Level from Different Facilities Provided by
Shopping Malls
Excellent Good Average Poor Total
Parking facility 180 66 30 24 300
Quality of Service 66 150 48 36 300
Quality of Product 96 90 60 54 300
Value for Money 48 120 66 66 300
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.9, according to this table mostly respondents were highly

unsatisfied with the parking facilities. Respondent agreed that the quality of
 239

service is up to the mark at shopping malls. Accordingly most of the

respondent said that quality of the product was good. And respondents were
satisfied with the money paid at shopping malls. This can be seen in the
below chart also.
Figure – 5.9
Satisfaction Level from Different Facilities Provided by
Shopping Malls

Source: Table 5.9

Table – 5.10

Layout Perception of Consumers

Total Percentage
Yes 195 65%
No 90 30%
Can’t say 15 5%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire
 240

Table 5.10, in this table we find that 65 % of the respondents were

satisfied with the layout of shopping malls and 30% told that they do not
like very much. 5% have not responded. We can understand it through a
below pie chart also.

Figure – 5.10

Layout Perception of Consumers

Source: Table 5.10

Table – 5.11

Preference of Facilities

Total Percentage
Credit facility 69 23%
Transportation facility 51 17%
Delivery facility 180 60%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire
 241

Table 5.11, both the above table and below pie chart present that out
of our total respondents 23% like credit facility of shopping malls while 17
% like the transportation facility and 60% like the delivery facility. So it is
clear that the customer wants delivery services most.

Figure – 5.11

Preference of Facilities

Source: Table 5.11

Table – 5.12

Better Services Provided by Shopping Malls

Total Percentage
Always 180 60%
Sometimes 90 30%
Never 30 10%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire
 242

Table 5.12, the table and below chart shows that, the 60% of
respondents said that shopping malls always provide better services & it
exceeds their expectations. 30% said that sometimes they are not satisfied
with the services of shopping malls. 10% have said that they are never
satisfied with the services of shopping malls.

Figure – 5.12

Better Services Provided by Shopping Malls

Source: Table 5.12

Table – 5.13

Ethical Practices Followed by Malls

Total Percentage
Yes 210 70%
No 75 25%
Can’t say 15 5%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire
 243

Table 5.13, this table shows that 70% of the respondents said
shopping malls follow the ethical marketing practices. 25% said that the
malls do not follow and 5% were having no knowledge about this. The pie
chart below presents the same thing.

Figure – 5.13

Ethical Practices Followed by Malls

Source: Table 5.13

Table – 5.14

Satisfaction Level from Price as well as Quality of the

Products

Yes No Total
Quality 255 45 300
Price 210 90 300
Source: compiled from questionnaire
 244

Table 5.14, customer said that when they think about shopping mall
they think about quality. Out of 300 customer 255 customer have told this
while 210 customer think about price out of 300.45 customers do not think
of quality and 90 customers do not consider price of shopping mall. This is
been presented through a pie chart which is as below.

Figure – 5.14

Satisfaction Level from Price as well as Quality of the

Products

Source: Table 5.14

Table – 5.15

Awareness of Brands since the Opening of the

Shopping Malls
Total Percentage
Yes 240 80%
No 45 15%
Can't Say 15 5%
 245

Total 300 100%

Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.15, according to this table 80% of our respondents is aware

about the brand of the shopping malls while 15% are not aware about brand
while 5% were neutral. This table has been presented through a below pie
chart also.
Figure – 5.15

Awareness of Brands since the Opening of the

Shopping Malls

Source: Table 5.15

Table – 5.16

Big Brands Offer More Value for Money

Total Percentage
Yes 195 65%
No 99 33%
 246

Can't Say 6 2%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.16, according to this table 65% of our respondents has said
that big brand offers the more value for money. 33% percent do not agree
and 2% can’t say anything. We can analyze it through a below pie chart
also.

Figure – 5.16

Big Brands Offer More Value for Money

Source: Table 5.16

Table – 5.17

Purchases of Branded Items in A Year

Total Percentage
Yes 252 84%
 247

No 42 14%
Can't Say 6 2%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.17, according to this table 84% of our respondents purchase

branded items in a year from shopping malls while 14% of them do not
purchase branded items from shopping malls. This is also been presented
through a bellow pie chart.

Figure – 5.17

Purchases of Branded Items in A Year

Source: Table 5.17

 248

Table – 5.18
Expenditure on Purchasing from Shopping Malls on One
Visit

Total Percentage
Less than 1,000 84 28%
1,000 to 5,000 96 32%
5,000 to 10,000 66 22%
10,000 to 50,000 36 12%
50,000 & above 18 6%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.18, according to this table 32% of our respondents spends

1000 to 5000 at a onetime visit to shopping malls, while 28% spend less
than 1000 at a onetime visit. 10,000 to 50,000 are spending by 12% and
only 6% respondent spend more than 50,000 at one time visit to a shopping
mall. We can analyze it through a bellow pie chart also.
 249

Figure – 5.18
Expenditure on Purchasing from Shopping Malls on One
Visit

Source: Table 5.18

Table –5.19

Visit to the Food Court

Total Percentage
Yes 189 63%
No 111 37%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.19, through this table we analyse that only 63% of our
respondents visit to the food court of shopping malls while 37% do not visit
to a shopping malls food court. This is shown through a below pie chart.
 250

Figure – 5.19

Visit to the Food Court

Source: Table 5.19

Table – 5.20
Preferences of Beverages
Total Percentage
Chinese 21 7%
Non Veg 6 2%
Cold Drinks 18 6%
Coffee 75 25%
Ice-Cream 60 20%
Fast Food 45 15%
Continental 51 17%
South Indian 24 8%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire
Table 5.20, according to this table the number of respondents who
visit to a shopping malls 25% take coffee from a food court. Whereas ice
cream and continental is on 2nd and 3rd preference of respondent with 20%
and 17% and only 2% like to have a non - veg in food court of shopping
malls. Below pie chart represents the same.
 251

Figure – 5.20
Preferences of Beverages

Source: Table 5.20

Table –5. 21

Expensive Foods in Malls

Total Percentage
Yes 198 66%
No 72 24%
Can't Say 30 10%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 6.21, from this we analyse that 66% of our respondents

believe that foods of shopping malls are costly while 24% do not agree with
this. For better understanding we can refer below chart also.
 252

Figure – 5.21

Expensive Foods in Malls

Source: Table 5.21

Table – 5.22

Eating Out More often Now than A Year Back

Total Percentage
Yes 135 45%
No 75 25%
Can't Say 90 30%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.22 , 45% of the respondents are accepting that they eat out
more in shopping malls now a days from the last year where as 25% just
oppose that they are not eating out in shopping malls in comparison to last
 253

year. The same thing is been presented through a pie chart which is as
below.
Figure – 5.22

Eating Out More often Now than A Year Back

Source: Table 5.22

Table – 5.23

Safe-Guarding taken by Malls for Publics

Total Percentage
Yes 99 33%
No 165 55%
Can't Say 36 12%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 23, from this table we find that 33% of our respondents
believe that there is safety in the shopping malls while 55% do not
 254

believe that shopping malls are safe for the public. Bellow pie chart
represents the same thing.

Figure – 5.23

Safe-Guarding taken by Malls for Publics

Source: Table 5.23

Table – 5.24
Drawback in Shopping Malls
Drawbacks Total Percentage
Expensive 96 32%
Parking Facility 21 7%
Weekend Rush 60 20%
Others 123 41%
Total 300 100%
Source: compiled from questionnaire

Table 5.24, shows that the weekends rush was the one of the major
problem for the normal customer. 32% of the respondents were not happy
 255

due to expensive things of mall. 7% were not satisfied with the parking
facility at shopping mall. Below pie chart also shows the same.

Figure – 5.24

Drawback in shopping malls

Source: Table 5.24

5.14 Summing-Up

The given data represents that the shopping malls is mostly

visited by age group of 20 - 30 followed by 30 - 40 age groups. The
reason behind this was, as most of the visitors of shopping malls are
being college students and families. Out of which 23% of the students
and 23% of the housewife are the most common visitors of the
shopping malls, which is followed by the professional and government
employee as 15% and 13% respectively. It also reveals that the income
group of above 40,000 is the most common sightseer of the shopping
malls with a percentage of 38. Income group of 30,000- 40,000 are
 256

having a share of 30%. Income group up to to10, 000 is having a

lowest percentage of 7. The most of the respondents go for shopping
purpose in shopping malls, 38% of the respondents go for
entertainment purpose, and window shopping is also one big factor of
attraction towards shopping malls. Mostly respondents use to go
fortnight to shopping malls. 30% of respondents used to go weekly for
various purposes to shopping malls. Only 10% of people go daily at
shopping mall. The respondents all less than one room concept was
the main motivator factor behind the success of shopping malls.
Second preference of choice was availability of branded items. Mostly
customers prefer show rooms and shopping malls for purchasing. 65%
of the respondents are having a positive response towards the location
of the shopping malls. Only 25% respondent said that location of
shopping mall not affect the perception about shopping malls and 10%
said they have no idea. Mostly respondents were highly unsatisfied
with the parking facilities. Respondent agreed that the quality of
service is up to the mark at shopping malls. Accordingly most of the
respondent said that quality of the product was good. And respondents
were satisfied with the money paid at shopping malls. I found that 65
% of the respondents were satisfied with the layout of shopping malls
and 30% told that they do not like very much. 5% have not responded.
60% of respondents said that shopping malls always provide better
services & it exceeds their expectations. 30% said that sometimes they
are not satisfied with the services of shopping malls. 10% have said
that they are never satisfied with the services of shopping malls. 70%
of the respondents said shopping malls follow the ethical marketing
practices. 25% said that the malls do not follow and 5% were having
 257

no knowledge about this. Customer said that when they think about
shopping mall they think about quality. Out of 300 customer 255
customer have told this while 210 customer think about price out of
300.45 customers do not think of quality and 90 customers do not
consider price of shopping mall. According to the table 80% of our
respondents is aware about the brand of the shopping malls while 15%
are not aware about brand while 5% were neutral. 65% of our
respondents has said that big brand offers the more value for money.
33% percent do not agree and 2% can’t say anything. 84% of our
respondents purchase branded items in a year from shopping malls
while 14% of them do not purchase branded items from shopping
malls. 32% of our respondents spends 1000 to 5000 at a onetime visit
to shopping malls, while 28% spend less than 1000 at a onetime visit.
10,000 to 50,000 are spending by 12% and only 6% respondent spend
more than 50,000 at one time visit to a shopping mall. We analyze that
only 63% of our respondents visit to the food court of shopping malls
while 37% do not visit to a shopping malls food court. The number of
respondents who visit to a shopping malls 25% take coffee from a
food court. Whereas ice cream and continental is on 2nd and 3rd
preference of respondent with 20% and 17% and only 2% like to have
a non - veg in food court of shopping malls. We analyze that 66% of
our respondents believe that foods of shopping malls are costly while
24% do not agree with this. 45% of the respondents are accepting that
they eat out more in shopping malls now a days from the last year
where as 25% just oppose that they are not eating out in shopping
malls in comparison to last year. We find that 33% of our respondents
believe that there is safety in the shopping malls while 55% do not
 258

believe that shopping malls are safe for the public. The weekends rush
was the one of the major problem for the normal customer.
 259

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 El-Adly, M. I. (2007), Shopping malls attractiveness: a

segmentation approach,

 International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 35

(11), 936-950

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 Chapter VI

PROBLEM AND CHALLENGES OF SHOPPING

MALLS IN INDIA

6.1 Introduction

Mall is the largest form of organized retailing today. Located

mainly in metro cities, in proximity to urban outskirts. Ranges from
60,000 sq ft to 7, 00,000 sq ft and above. They lend an ideal shopping
experience with an amalgamation of product, service and
entertainment, all under a common roof. Examples include Shoppers
Stop, Piramyd, and Pantaloon. Development of organized retailing in
India, in the form of shopping malls is one of the main reasons for the
growth of shopping malls in India. With the changing shopping needs
and aspirations, consumers are finding it easier to shop at malls where
a wide choice of merchandise is available under one roof. Shopping
malls have mushroomed all over the major metros of India, spreading
its tentacles far and wide. Gurgaon, Noida, and a few other satellite
townships in the NCR (national capital region) of India’s capital city
Delhi, have been standing witnesses and silent partners to this mall
mania. Called as the ‘Shopping-mall capital of India’, Gurgaon has
been a focal point of the this rising tide, with monolithic glass
structures, colossal trade towers and a lot of glitzy skyscrapers
manning the entire length and breadth of this erstwhile urban village.
Many others have followed suit, as they jump into this bandwagon of
a modern India, cashing in on the rising spending potential of the
‘great Indian middle class’. But, beneath the swanky and ritzy surface,
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away from all the hype, the underbelly of this modern mega polis tells
a totally different story. Not everything is bright and sunny as it seems.
Recent studies have shown that many retail players have jumped into
the fray and joined the rat race without much ado, completely
overriding and overlooking the necessary checks and balances, before
they get into a business venture. Retail companies in India have
missed the woods for the trees, as the trend in the market shows that
there has been a complete mismatch of consumers and brands. It’s true
that the foot-falls in most of the major malls have been great and
phenomenal, matching those in any developed retail markets; but, not
all footfalls generate business. Other than the few multiplexes and the
fast food chains, most of the retail endeavors have run into big
troubles. Not everyone who enters the mall is a prospective consumer,
as majority of them come just to hang out, and indulge in window
shopping in an air-conditioned environment for free. With high real
estate cost, many of these retailers have failed to break even, and
business has been abysmally low, even non-existent at times. It is high
time for companies involved in retail in India organized to seriously
think over the location, demography, culture and taste of the target
consumers, before they join the free-for-all brigade. ‘Mall Culture’ is
in, but with the fierce competition in the market, not many will make
it without proper planning and strategy.

In India, it can evidently noticed that there are Mandis/Bazaars

(place where vegetables and groceries are sold) in county side, some
daily and some weekly, but most people recognize them as weekly
mandis only where in all house hold and vegetables are sold and later
small stores came up at corners of the streets or residential locality
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which were called as Kirana stores now referred as Mom and Pop
Stores, In the early 1980s manufacturer's retail chains like Binny, S
Kumars, Vimal, Bombay Dying, HMT, Allwyn, etc started making
their appearance in bigger cities. Later in 1990s Branded retail outlets
like Food world, Nilgris and local retail outlets like Trinetra super
market, Apna Bazaar, came into existence. Now big players like
Reliance, Bharti, Tatas, ITC and other reputed companies are entering
into organized retail businesses. And the big multinational retailers are
waiting to enter India in the form of direct entrance eg: - Nike,
Reebok, Metro etc or Joint Ventures eg: - Bharti with Wal Mart and
Tatas with Tesco.

India is making a landmark revolution in the retail space in the

world and Asia in particular. India's strong economic growth and
rising disposable incomes of middle class and lower middle class
made big business houses venture in to this business, many businesses
are coming from US and Europe. The Government's decision to allow
foreign Direct Investment and businesses in to this sector has attracted
foreign companies to establish their businesses in India. Now foreign
retailers will be able to own their own stores in India for the first time
as part of a major government liberalization of business. Till 2006
foreign companies were allowed to operate franchises by the
government to protect the indigenous companies. Now new
regulations may allow foreign companies to hold up to 100%. But the
Indian government is going ahead with new reforms which may create
millions of job in the near future while safeguarding the interest of
domestic firms.

The increase in the land value and number of real estate

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companies investing in this field has also helped power the boom as
financing is made easier, one can see that software companies like
satyam has marked their presence in reality and infrastructure and the
reality company, k Raheja group has stretched their wings to retail.
The noted swift growth in reality industry is of significance and this is
changing the evolution and the spectrum of whole marketing of
FMCG, farm and dairy products.

Retailing is still in its infancy in India. In the name of retailing,

the unorganized retailing has dominated the Indian landscape so far.
According to an estimate the unorganized retail sector has 97%
presence whereas the organized accounts for merely 3%. Industry has
already predicted a trillion dollar market in retail sector in India by
2010. However, the retail industry in India is undergoing a major
shake-up as the country is witnessing a retail revolution. The old
traditional formats are slowly changing into more complex and bigger
formats. Malls and mega malls are coming up in almost all the places
be it – metros or the smaller cities, across the length and breadth of the
country. Both MNCs and Indian firms want to get their share of this
burgeoning pie. Notable in Indian firms are Pantaloons Retail & Big
Bazaar, Trent's Westside, Shopper's stop, Reliance and Subhiskha,
Wills Lifestyle stores, Café Coffee Day, which are present in India in
different retail formats. Wal-Mart stores have just started operations in
India. Some leading retail coffee chains of the world like Starbucks,
Barnies are planning to expand in a major way in India.

6.2 Factors Driving the Growth of Shopping Mall

Indian economy is growing at the rate of 8%, indicating a

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prosperous future. The consistent economic growth resulted in a

decent rise in income level of the middle class. The thickening of the
pocket of the consumer resulted in a revolution of the retail industry.
Many International brands have entered the market. With the growth
in organized retailing, unorganized retailers have brought drastic
changes in their business models, many factor are responsible for the
growth of retail sector. These are:

1. INCREASING DISPOSABLE INCOME:

Rising disposable incomes in middle class and lower middle

class with increase in employment opportunities for young adults in IT
& IT enabled sectors are the major cause of retail growth in India.

2. INCREASING NO. OF DUAL INCOME NUCLEAR

FAMILIES

In India, hefty pay packets, nuclear family along with increasing

working women population and dual income in family are the factors
contributing to prosperous retail sector.

3. CHANGING LIFESTYLE AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Due to increasing working population, comfortable life, travel

and leisure are given importance. These key factors are growth drivers
of retail sector in India which now boast of retailing almost all the
preferences of life – apparel and accessories, Appliances, Electronics,
cosmetics & Toilets cries etc.

4. EXPERIMENTATION WITH FORMATS

Due to competition in the market, retailing is still evolving and

the sector is witnessing a series of experiments with new formats
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being tested out.

5. STORE DESIGN

Shopping malls and super markets are growing at a very faster

rate. Improvements in infrastructure and enhanced availability of retail
space, store design are the factors increasing the share of organized
retail ad thereby contributing to growth of Indian retail sector.

6.3 Challenges of Shopping Malls

The challenges which many malls are facing today is to keep up

with the competition and to attract retailers of a higher quality, A host
of additional challenges may exist for developers and their business
and retail tenants in malls; these include:

1. Rising real estate values

National and international players are focusing India as the
major point of construction, giving rise to skyrocketing prices of real
estate. Real estate is a game of demand and supply. Supply is perfectly
inelastic which paves the way to sky touching real estate prices. Due
to this disequilibrium of demand and supply of quality space, real
estate prices in NCR are ranked as highest in the world. And this
escalating rent or lease of the property is such an aspect, which is
eating up profit margin of the retailers.

2. Lack of feasibility/Market research prior to the development of

a Mall

Some malls developers make a blunder by constructing the

malls without carrying out rigorous due diligence exercise on their
feasibility. If the mall developer flunks in conducting any of the
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feasibility analysis i.e. market study, technical study, financial study,

economic study and ecological study it may lead to blunders. Before
jumping on mall bandwagon, developers need to undertake market
feasibility.

3. Long gestation period

Malls are the latest format in Indian organised retail. So, the
gestation period of these ventures is quite long. A mall sprawl over
one lakh sq ft requires capital budget of Rs.20-30crores, with a
payback period of 60-75 months.

4. Lack of adequate infrastructure

Indian malls are facing the problem of woeful inefficient supply

chain. Supply chain for most of the goods is in the grip of vicious
circle of inefficiency due to the factors like obsolete warehousing,
outdated transport technology and poorly coordinated logistics. Poor
roads, the lack of cold chain infrastructure etc. hampers the
development of food and fresh grocery retail in India. Pilferage was
another challenge mall managers struggled with, which eat up their
profit margins.

5. Retail/Mall resource shortage

Human resource is the most important asset of an organization

and no one can understand this better than the mall developers of
India. They are facing a crunch in hiring personnel. In India the mall
managers are substituted either by real estate or hospitality personnel,
which is totally a misfit case. The deficiency is not limited to mall
managers only; human resources specialized in the facility
management, advertising programs, and event management is not upto
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the mark.

6. Poorly designed mall

A mall is a blend of high rent paying speciality stores and low

rent paying anchors tenants. But, design of Indian malls is an irony to
that. Mall developers are practising ―first come, serve first‖ i.e.
selling the mall space to the forthcoming retailer. For realizing land
value quickly mall developers can turnaround a well designed mall
into a number of shops with unattractive offering and ambience.
Developers are blindly building malls, without considering the basic
fundamentals of mall management i.e. back office logistics and
material movement planning.

7. Positioning a mall

Positioning of malls refers to define the services on the basis of

various factors like demographics, psychographics, income levels and
market research. Positioning also refers to the location of the mall and
Indian developers are lacking in this perspective. Tenant mix
(players/shops operating within a mall on rental basis) is a variable
factor but location is a fixed factor and can‘t be changed. This poor
positioning results in poor platform of differentiating the malls from
the competitors. Proper positioning is the key to distinguish from mall
clutter. Usual and identical malls give a monotonous feeling. Hence,
malls are required to develop its own USP rather than ―just one
amongst many.

8. Zoning – Formulating the right tenant mix and its placement

Proper zoning is one of the ways to elicit the target traffic.

Tenant mix should be designed in a way that it renders value
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proposition to all shoppers, retailers, and mall developers. Right tenant

mix calls for anchor clients like large format retailers, departmental
stores, exclusive outlets, fast food outlets etc. to take up space and
attract other retailers. A mall is dependent on the success of its tenant‘s
performance and if on the same floor lifestyle products were located
next to a food retailer, than the customers will lose its interest which
results in lesser footfalls.

9. No-Change Areas:

Tenants should identify those areas outside of the premises that

are critical to their use (such as elevators, lobby areas, and access-
ways between the loading dock, freight elevator and the premises),
and make certain that those areas cannot be changed without the
tenant’s approval. From the developer’s perspective, careful attention
should be given to the tenant’s proposed no change area in order to
make certain that the requested area is not too large so as to restrict the
developer’s need for flexibility to accommodate demands by future
tenants, market changes and laws.

10.Loading/ Unloading:

In malls, the loading/unloading dock is often shared by the

building occupants. Ideally, the building will have a dock master who
will coordinate the use of this dock, the cost of which will be included
in building services or common area maintenance charges. If there is
no dock master, then the developer and tenant need to address this
issue in their lease negotiation because the tenant will want to make
certain that its trucks can unload merchandise in a timely and efficient
manner and the developer will want to avoid delivery trucks blocking
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roads and access to the building. Often an anchor tenant will negotiate
to obtain priority rights to the loading dock during certain hours and
an alternate means of loading/unloading if the main loading dock is
unavailable.

11.Parking:

The parking areas are either operated by the developer or by a

parking operator on a pay-for-use basis. As part of lease negotiations,
the tenant should insist that its customers be able to park for free for a
certain period of time, or, if not free, then at a reduced rate for the first
hour or two. From the developer’s perspective, the developer must
make certain that there is enough parking available for the entire
project, and that available parking is not unduly limited by granting
exclusive rights to parking spaces. In some projects, the developer can
utilize some of the retail parking to accommodate overflow parking
from the residential uses in the evening time after the stores are
closed. This can be an additional source of income.

12.Certificate of Occupancy:

If the tenant is performing work in the premises prior to

occupancy, then the lease will often obligate the tenant to obtain the
certificate of occupancy upon completion of such work. However,
some jurisdictions will use this request as leverage to compel the
building owner to cure any building violations, even if unrelated to the
subject premises. Tenants should therefore insist that their lease
obligates their landlords to be responsible for curing any building
violations that would prevent the tenant from receiving a certificate of
occupancy following completion of their work.
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13.Satellite Dishes:

If a tenant needs a satellite dish to communicate with a home

office or other stores, the landlord will need to grant easements in the
lease in order to permit the tenant to use building chases and the
rooftop for the satellite dish. The developer must make certain that any
work done on the roof be performed with roofing contractors
approved by the developer and in a manner that does not void the roof
warranty. In addition, the developer should insist that the tenant be
responsible for any damage to the roof or building as a result of such
installation.

14.Scaffolding:

Careful negotiation between developers and tenants should take

place if scaffolding might be erected on the building at a future point
in time (perhaps for renovation purposes, or to hold
billboard/advertising materials — provided, of course, all scaffolding
complies with legal and regulatory constraints). Though the developer
usually retains the absolute right to erect scaffolding, the tenant should
ensure its lease mandates scaffolding will not block access to its store
or its signage.

15.Poor Mall Traffic:

Although shopping malls started making their presence felt,

consumers still go to the traditional stand-alone stores, when they are
purchasing specialized products like electronics, home needs, and
jewelry. What are the ways in which shopping malls in India can
attract more number of customers? Poor mall management and poor
tenant mix have resulted in poor mall traffic and low conversion rate.
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This has led to the closure of individual shops, at several malls. What
can the mall management do, to attract serious buyers? What are the
secrets of successful shopping malls and how to apply them to your
centre? How to develop/ redevelop and operate shopping centre
efficiently? What are the innovative ways to increase center’s sales
and profits? What are the latest techniques for maintenance and
security tactics? These are all the challenges faced by a shopping mall
in India, today points to ponder, and solutions to be
FOUND……………….

6.4 Challenges faced by Retail Brands at Indian Malls

Mostly once the stores are leased out, the developers are not
worried about the promotion any more. Though a few malls organize
some in-house promotional activities but that alone doesn’t guarantee
a good footfall. Majority of the developers don’t pay attention about
the branding, marketing, promotions, budgeting, financing as part of
running a mall. This affects the overall footfalls in the mall, and thus
the business of the retailers. The retailers are given a lot of importance
to sign in the mall but later on not considered as an integral part of
mall. With over 100 malls operating in India and more than 300 being
developed, the opportunities offered in the retail landscape are
immense. Mall space is expected to touch 60 million square feet by
end-2010. With such a huge supply of space, mall owners and
developers in India need to focus on vision, scalability and processes
and create a distinct proposition for themselves in the market. The
emergence of specialty malls is a step in this direction. Retailers today
face many challenges, including increasing competitive pressures, thin
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margins, high occupancy costs and unpredictable supply base that

come in the way of their attaining operational efficiency and
profitability. In the mall they not only deal with additional super area
loading but also the additional CAM expenses. As organized retail
grows, the market will only become more competitive and developers
will have to work hard to differentiate. Faulty mall management along
with inappropriate tenant mix would lead to poor mall traffic and
closure of individual stores in malls. Professional third party mall
management service providers are hence likely to come to the fore.
They not only understand these business challenges, but also have the
ability to help retailers effectively deal with them.

Generally there are two types of consumers who visit malls –

focused buyers and impulse buyers. The time spent by focused buyers
inside the mall is relatively lower as compared with impulse buyers
who spend a lot of time window shopping. Malls which have
entertainment zones and/ or promotional activities have larger foot
falls and more percentage of impulse buyers. Mall management
becomes critical to attract impulse buyers. For example, Ansal Plaza
in Delhi has ensured its success through good promotional events and
mall management practices since its inception in 1999. Its
amphitheater which is dedicated to promotional activities has ensured
footfalls despite newer malls coming up in the NCR region. Contrary
to popular misconception that mall management is synonymous with
facility management, mall management actually takes care of the
issues such as:

 Positioning,
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 Zoning (tenant mix and placement within mall),

 Promotions and Marketing,

 Facility Management (infrastructure, footfalls, and ambiance),

 Finance Management.

Various business models are adopted by retailers/ developers

while utilizing the services of a There are very few mall management
companies in India at present. Large real estate developers and retail
chains either have their own mall management divisions or have
contracts with international consultants. In developed markets mall
management is an established independent service line. Till recently
contract model was the norm in India. But the revenue sharing model
is increasingly becoming popular with retailers in India due to the
present economic situation. India is yet to embrace the concept of
third party mall management in retailing. Some of the issues could
be:-

 Planning the mall around anchor tenants,

 Lack of market research by developers,

 Tendency to lease out on a FCFS basis,

 Perceive outsourcing as additional cost,

 Lack of accountability for in-house promotional activities.

 Improper planning for space (lack of parking space, single entry/

exit points)

With the slowdown of the realty sector, developers might give

the mall management practice a thought in order to ensure that the
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slowdown does not affect its footfalls. Mall market in India has
become extremely competitive especially due to the sudden boom in
the real estate sector. Malls have come up in the Tier II cities and rural
areas as well albeit in a smaller and different format. With increasing
competition from high street retailers, developers are finding it
difficult to achieve 100% occupancy rates. A specialist’s retail
property management skills enable property owners to receive the
benefit of master planning and development expertise which is critical
to ensure that malls are strategically positioned for long-term growth
and success.

How a retail shopping mall can be transformed into a brand? So

that people recognize it with its name, and same is repeated later in
other cities at other locations. But for that principle A to Z is being
retailer friendly.

6.5 Challenges faced by HR in Shopping Malls

"Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we

will have a new and better factory." Andrew Carnegie, the American
steel billionaire.

With growing consumerism, unprecedented awareness, and a

youth-hefty customer base, India is perceived as 'Most Promising
Land' for the Global and domestic retailers. According to AT
Kearney's 2007 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), for the
third consecutive year, India remains the top retail investment
destination among the 30 emerging markets across the world. As per
the report of McKinsey Global Institute (2007), India is becoming the
world's 12th Trillion dollar economy, and further it predicts that India
 276

is well on its way to become the world's fifth-largest consumer market

by 2025. Currently, India is ranked as the 12th largest consumer
market in the world. The Indian retail market is professed as potential
goldmine and is attracting a large number of giant international and
domestic players in anticipation of explosive growth. The organised
retail sector is likely to increase its share from the current 4% to over
20% by 2010, as the overall retail sector grows from $328 billion to
$430 billion, as per report by FICCI (2007) on the retail sector. The
boom in the retail sector in India and its corresponding spike in
demand for talent has under scored the need for effective HR systems.
The function of human resources has special significance in retail as
the employees operate in a unique environment. In any retail
organisation, the people who deal with the customers at a one to one
level are considered to be the face of the organisation. According to a
recent study conducted by Wharton (2007) at a Canadian consulting
firm on retail customer dissatisfaction, it was found that disinterested,
ill-prepared and unwelcoming salespeople lead to more lost business
and word-of-mouth than any other management challenge in B.D.
Singh and Sita Mishra are Sr. Professor and Asst. Professor
respectively in the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad,
201001 retailing. Thus, there is utmost need for effective HR systems
to encourage and develop employees, manage performance, reward
recognition which helps to increase the opportunity for employee
advancement and to retain engaged employees. In shopping Malls, it
is important to specify tasks to be performed for effective retailing to
occur. Some of these tasks are as follows:

 Buying merchandise for retailer

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 Shipping merchandise to the retailers

 Receiving merchandise and checking incoming shipments

 Marking merchandise, inventory storage and control

 Preparing merchandise and window display

 Facilities maintenance, facilitating shopping

 Setting Price

 Customer contact, customer research and exchanging information

 Customer follow-up and complaint handling

 Sales forecasting and budgeting

 Credit operations, billing customers

 Handling receipts and financial records

 Gift wrapping, delivery to customers

 Repairs and alteration of merchandise, returning unsold or

damaged goods

 Personnel management, coordination.

These areas are organized by line and staff employees. These

employees are divided in to managerial, supervisory and working
hands. In the above backdrop, the HR Challenges are as follows:

1. Lack of talent

Organized retailing is highly manpower intensive. Retailing is

the second largest employer in India, presently it employs about 22
million people. The present scenario depicts that there will further be a
very high demand for manpower to match the scope of roll out plans
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of various players in the near future. It is estimated that 8 million

people will be required in organized retail by 2011 (Pant 2007). This
gives a clear indication of the extent of human resources required to
support the growth of retailing in India. Especially, at the lower levels,
there is requirement for large number of support staff as customer care
associates. Moreover, due to organized retailing correlation with other
industrial and service sectors, it is generating a great deal of indirect
employment viz. security, electrical and mechanical maintenance,
property management services, parking, sorting, packaging, etc. The
sector is facing talent crunch because neither the talent required on
such a large scale in the sector are available nor there is training
infrastructure facility for them.

2. Unavailability of Experienced Manpower

Organized retailing is an emerging sector in India; there are not

many executives with long and relevant experience. KPMG report
(2006) reveals that there is a skill-set gap in those manning the floors.
Although, India has a huge posse of qualified human resources, who
have the required education and are highly motivated to undertake the
challenging tasks still there is more pronounced need for middle and
senior level management. Managers from industries such as FMCG,
Telecom, BPO, and Hospitality are able to quickly learn and adapt to
the demands of retailing. Consequently, the scramble for talent hunt
amongst organised retail players will be as fierce as their battle for
customers. Therefore, developing strategies for creating, attracting,
nurturing, retaining are required in the initial stages themselves.

3. Lack of Formal Retailing Education

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KPMG report (2006) points out that there are also competency
gaps in various key areas like supply chain management, vendor
development and customer relations management. There is
requirement for qualified and trained manpower to look after day-to-
day operations and cater to the wide spectrum of customer
expectations. Therefore, it necessitates appropriate training to provide
them exposure and also to equip them with progressive working
methods. As there is lack of formal vocational institutes, where
students can be trained for entry-level positions, most retailers in India
depend on in-house training or fulfilling their training needs with
small institutes. Keeping in mind the growth in the retail industry,
some business schools are coming forward to pioneer courses in retail
management. The Indian Retail School has a number of such short-
term courses on retail management. Pantaloon has made a tie-up with
several management schools to offer programs in retail management.
RPG Enterprises has also set up a training institute for front line staff
and store managers. Tesco runs a retail certification course with IIM-
Bangalore. Reliance retail has also decided to set up its own training
centers across the country. At present, it has two such centers in
Mumbai and Kolkata. Training of the staff is the best investment in
business and so in the retail business. The lack of formal retailing
education further exacerbates the problem of recruiting. There is
urgent need for management education for fraternity to fill in this
vacuum. Top management institute are not showing interest because of
low salary packages being offered to their students. Despite all these
difficulties, the problem is required to be addressed. Proactive training
strategies would become a competitive differentiator for retailers
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given the resource and competency shortages in India.

4. Threat of Poaching

While most of these challenges are gradually being addressed by

the growing organized retail segment, the shortage of experienced
human capital across all levels leads to poaching problem. The gap
between supply and demand is resulting in high levels of attrition, and
increased costs of doing business for the industry. The growth in retail
salary in India has been one of the highest among all sectors in the
past two years. The average yearly increment is 18-22 per cent against
the all-sector average of 13-14 per cent (Saha 2007). According to VP
(HR) RPG, "The biggest poachers are the BPOs. Every second
youngster leaving us joins a BPO". At the same time, upcoming retail
chains are poaching from multinationals and the established retail
players like Shopper's Stop, Kishore Biyani's Big Bazaar and RPG
Group's Spencer's for back end operations. But for front-end
operations like HR and merchandise management, the target is
FMCG. According to HR consultants, the biggest setback for FMCG
companies has been at the middle management level. Retention of
employed staff, particularly the frontline staff who constitutes 85% of
a retailer's workforce is becoming a rising concern. While Pantaloon
has attrition rate of 8.6% per annum, RPG Retail accepts that their
frontline attrition rate has drastically increased to 16% from 5% last
year. Subhiksha too is faced with an attrition of as much as 5-6% per
month. There is growth in retail sector, with many well-established
business houses like Reliance, Birla and Bharti Enterprises have
drawn up ambitious plans to foray into retail and other established
players like Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers' Stop, Subhiksha and
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Spencer's are also investing heavily in this sector. Apart from this,
many global players are foraying into retailing through one or the
other way. All this can lead to higher attrition or poaching problem.
Battling acute attrition, retailers are throwing in plenty of incentives to
retain frontline staff, reports CNBC-TV 18.

1. Stressful Environment

According to a survey carried out by Associated Chambers of

Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), retail sector is
among the top ten segments in which the menace of stress and mental
fatigue had intensified during the recent times (Tribune News Service
2007). The working pattern of retail industry requires employees to
put in long hours (8-12 hrs.) of work which generally cause fatigue
and lower motivation among employees. There is lot of work pressure
in particular from work overload, time pressures and deadlines, and
staff shortages and turnover rates. This may lead to poor performance,
absenteeism, mistakes in jobs etc. Besides this, in part-time and casual
jobs in retail sector, there is job insecurity, short-and split-shifts,
unpredictability of hours, low wages and benefits, poor working
facilities, and the need to juggle multiple jobs to earn a living wage
contribute to stress and workplace problems.

2. High Turnover

According to KPMG report (2006), globally, retailing is a high

staff turnover industry, with even the larger retailers facing attrition
rates of between 40 and 60 per cent a year. As organized retailing is at
a nascent stage in India, attrition is not yet an issue at least at the
middle and senior management level. However, with rapid growth in
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retailing, the demand for managers with good retailing experience is

set to increase, hence attrition levels are expected to worsen. For front-
end staff attrition rate is believed to be 25 to 50 per cent which may be
due to large number of inexperienced and part-time staffs. With more
and more players roll out their retail initiatives, industry experts
expect that attrition will rise at the managerial level too. At lower
levels some perennial issues for high employee turnover within the
sector are: seasonal employment during peak trading period and the
perceived lack of career opportunities. This is especially true amongst
students many of whom are employed by retail organizations as
undergraduates but would look for alternative employment as
graduates.

3. Complex Human Resource Environment

The development of the retail sector is dependent on the

availability of skilled and knowledgeable manpower broadly at two
levels- managerial and associates. Although growing consumerism
and availability of manpower are powering the growth of organized
retail business in India but skilled human resources are woefully short
in supply. Traditionally, the task content of frontline jobs has been low
and segmented, requiring little skill or training. It leads to cycle of low
wages, low morale, and high turnover and high customer
dissatisfaction and, therefore, loss of sales. But at present the need of
the hour is to hire employees with the right skill set who can take care
of operational functions and also there is necessity to engage
employees with the right attitude as they need to work long hours and
also on holidays and festive occasions. The retail human resource
environment in India is very complicated with lack of experienced and
 283

trained people, lack of sources of employment and little focus on

human resource planning, compensation measurement and working
conditions. In addition to this, the perception of working within retail
is poor with entrenched beliefs that all roles involve long and unsocial
hours, which limits the ability of employees to manage the balance
between work and life. It may be business requirement to open the
retail stores on holidays and festivals, but from employees' perspective
that deprives them of community activities.

6.6 Recruitment Challenge & Employing Strategies in

shopping Mall

Indian retail sector is facing some specific recruitment

challenges, even companies known to be leaders in retail industry are
experiencing recruitment challenges, especially for entry-level store
employees and for store managers. Some of the recruitment challenges
are:

 Finding the right talent that is willing to commit over the long-
term.

 Retail jobs in the frontline are near minimum wage jobs, although
players in specialty format tend to pay a little more. But pay cannot
be used to hire people.

 Retail jobs are also not career builders in the short run. Thus,
making career paths clear to new talent also poses as one of the
biggest challenges.

 Competition and diversity are challenging too; everyone is looking

for the same highly-qualified employees.
 284

To overcome these challenges retailers can employ following

strategies to recruit workers:

 Build the brand name of the company in the overall employment

market by communicating its attributes in a way that distinguishes
the company from the competitors. The focus of the company can
be on attributes such as inclusiveness, competitiveness, fast-paced,
goal-oriented, values-based, having high integrity, graceful under
pressure, fun, entrepreneurial and so on.

 Highlighting the job opportunities through company's own website

as well as major job listing websites, such as monster.com and
naukri.com targeting intranet postings current employees so they
can see where new opportunities are available.

 Classified ads, signs at shopping malls, radio ads, brochures,

message on sales receipts can also be used for recruitment.

 Employee referrals can also be promoted with bonuses for referring

new hires that stay with the company for at least a prescribed
period of time.

 The culture of a company, its values, and the way in which

attributes are expressed and demonstrated appears to be a
significant factor in employees choosing the retail company for
which to work. It is also important to company managers who
select employees for their temperaments as well as their skills.

 To overcome the short run career image, exposure to career paths

to employees is required. Different companies have different career
path models which are aligned with the company's culture,
 285

approach to employee communications, size and available

opportunities, and management approach. Along with this, showing
wages associated with career paths, showing career paths and
opportunities, internal promotions, internal job fairs can also be
useful.

6.6.1 Compensation Strategies

The biggest challenge of ensuring employees contribution to

business results is in figuring out what kind of reward and recognition
programmer to implement. Total compensation comprises direct
monetary payments (salaries, commission and bonuses) and indirect
payments (paid vacations, health and life insurance and retirement
plans). It should be fair to both the retailers and its employees. To
better motivate employees, some firms also have profit-sharing.

In India, the compensation strategy for front-liners is

conservative, while retailers develop a very competitive plan for store
managers. But if retailers want to provide stability to their employees
and also want them to act as the custodian of their business who can
contribute to business, they should plan for devising an effective
compensation strategy. In order to get maximum contribution from
employees the retailers can design a compensation programmer which
is low on guaranteed pay but aggressive on store profitability linked
bonuses or incentives. Even those in support functions such as
merchandising, distribution, accounts and so on need to be rewarded
based on the performance of the stores that they are servicing.
 286

6.6.2 Engaging & Retaining the Talented

It is challenging enough to find the right people, but more

challenging is to retain and engage competent employees. High
attrition rate in retail is acknowledged as an accepted but inefficient
practice which not only affects retailers in their ability to develop and
retain talent, but also to drive higher levels of profit. The companies
are forced to spend time on recruiting and screening new talent, rather
than in growing the business. The impact of turnover also affects the
experience levels of employees who are interacting with customers
and, therefore, may also impact the quality of service and the quantity
of sales. Hence, retailers must examine different strategies which they
can use to engage their employees, reduce turnover and boost morale.
These strategies are given below:

 Fairness/equitable treatment.

 Better hiring processes and improved efforts to meet employee

training needs.

 Providing good work environment with clear values and goals.

 Ensuring equitable pay and fair treatment.

 Helping employees maintain a balance between personal and

work life is a vital strategy that can help retailers develop a
happier, more productive and more loyal employee culture.
Retailers should focus on sufficient hours of work and
flexibility in the scheduling of those hours to meet employees'
personal needs as well as those of the company.

 To retain their people, the retailers should take every

 287

opportunity to tell employees about the career paths and

opportunities that exist to move ahead and earn more money.

 Leading retail companies of all sizes make investments in

training. Although some of the key retention strategies for
entry-level employees are competitive pricing (i.e. salary) but
giving them the right training can also be a tool for retention.
Most of the companies gear a basic training to employees. But
focusing on training for specific competencies required for the
positions within the company and requirements at each job
progression is also advisable for retention.

 Retail companies emphasizes on performance, although to

achieve this they provide the support needed to assure the
employees will be successful in their positions. Retailer can
supplement this by emphasizing on special assignments,
rotations, and training which can be used by retail companies to
keep their employees.

 In India, some leading retailers focus a lot on this issue.

Reliance Retail has a talent transformation programmer where
people are made to identify their skill sets.

 Employee retention through job enlargement in retail plays a

crucial role as the job markets perform better for skilled
personnel.

 Focusing on polychromic-orientation (an employee's preference

for switching between multiple tasks within the same time-
block) can be very useful. It has been demonstrated empirically
that a polychromic-orientation has both direct (employee fit)
 288

and indirect (through fairness perceptions) effects on retail

employee satisfaction. (Arndt et al 2006)

6.6.3 Career Advancement

Any Company's ability to recruit and retain a high-quality

employee diminishes as the perception grows that it offers limited
advancement potential. This limited advancement potential within
individual retail firms leaves many qualified employees with few
options other than to look elsewhere for employment, which, in turn,
contributes to the turnover costs paid by employers. Thus, providing
opportunities for career advancement can be an important attraction
point to draw top-notch talent, although this can be a way by which
retailer "brand" their company in the employment market. Due to
scarcity of experienced and talented people, one can find that there are
too many companies chasing too little talent. Thus, in this competitive
environment showing that a company offers the employee a bright
future provides a competitive advantage in recruitment. Career
advancement in companies can be done though:

 Developing career path

 Recognizing and communicating advancement opportunities
 Company's commitment to internal promotion
 Identification of critical positions
 Developing talent and succession planning

6.6.4 Healthy Management Practices

In conjunction with the above mentioned human resource

management (HRM) practices it is advisable for retailers to ensure
healthy management practices. The implementation of these practices
 289

is increasingly regarded as an important determinant of an

organization’s competitive advantage

 Providing safe and secure workplace

 Paying salaries on time

 Providing and processing leaves, loans and other requests on time

 Providing neat and clean wash rooms, changing rooms and rest
rooms

 Providing good uniform

 Ensuring the handling of grievances

 Equitable treatment at workplace

6.6.5 Ethnic Diversity Management

Many multi-nation companies (MNCs) are going to open their

retail outfits in India. Naturally, employees profile is going to be a
complex and diverse one. It requires developing a global cultural
management to take care of this future HR problem.
 290

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 Levy, Michel; and Weitz, Barton A. Retailing Management .New

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 The Economic Times Knowledge Series : Retail 2000-2001",New

Delhi: Times Multimedia,2001

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Sector- An Analysis, 2010

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21st Century: Current and Future Trends, US

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Challenges and Opportunities, 2010

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http://www.coolvenues.net/forum/viewforum.php? F=9

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 Cant, M. C., Brink, A. & Brijball, S. 2006. Consumer behaviour.

Cape Town: Juta.

 Cant, M. C., van Heerden, C. H. & Ngambi, H. C. 2010. Marketing

management: A South African Perspective. Cape Town: Juta.

 Colborne, R. 1996. Visual merchandising: The business of

 291

merchandising presentation. United States of America: Thomson

Learning Inc.

 Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. 2008. Business research method.

10th ed. Singapore: McGraw Hill.

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10th ed. China: South Western.

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essentials. United States of America: South Western

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 Chapter VII

CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS

7.1 Introduction

Today multi store shopping malls are a shopaholic’s paradise in

Lucknow and Gurgaon. These shopping malls accommodate every
taste, pocket and style. Also, the city of Lucknow and Gurgaon offers
ample shopping opportunities to tourists who come here to spend their
vacation. Shopping malls offer excellent parking facilities, create
value for money, credit / debit card facilities, and so on. As a result,
higher customer traffic is attracted towards shopping malls. All thanks
to shopping malls for bringing about an overall development in
lucknow and Gurgaon. In India, while organized retail has yet not
been accorded the status of an industry, it is witnessing a large number
of formats emerging in the market at a very fast pace. Indian organized
retail is moving with an exponential rate that no other sector has
witnessed. Ample opportunities are present as 94% of the Indian retail
is still unorganized. Moreover, Indian retailers can learn from the
mistakes committed by their global counterparts and fuel the
tremendous growth of Indian organised retail sector.

Showing appreciation for customer through things like thank

you notes, exclusive client-only briefings, and open house, etc. Clearly
these are not the only relevant areas for creating great customer
service. Hence this chapter is a platform to unfold few suggestions and
findings for the same.
 293

7.2 Finding of the Study

 The given data represents that the shopping malls is mostly visited
by age group of 20 - 30 followed by 30 - 40 age groups. The reason
behind this was, as most of the visitors of shopping malls are being
college students and families. Out of which 23% of the students
and 23% of the housewife are the most common visitors of the
shopping malls, which is followed by the professional and
government employee as 15% and 13% respectively.

 The table given in the previous chapter reveals that the income
group of above 40,000 is the most common sightseer of the
shopping malls with a percentage of 38. Income group of 30,000-
40,000 are having a share of 30%. Income group up to to10, 000 is
having a lowest percentage of 7.

 The most of the respondents go for shopping purpose in shopping

malls, 38% of the respondents go for entertainment purpose, and
window shopping is also one big factor of attraction towards
shopping malls.

 Mostly respondents use to go fortnight to shopping malls. 30% of

respondents used to go weekly for various purposes to shopping
malls. Only 10% of people go daily at shopping mall.

 The respondents all less than one room concept was the main
motivator factor behind the success of shopping malls. Second
preference of choice was availability of branded items.

 Mostly customers prefer show rooms and shopping malls for

purchasing.
 294

 65% of the respondents are having a positive response towards the

location of the shopping malls. Only 25% respondent said that
location of shopping mall not affect the perception about shopping
malls and 10% said they have no idea.

 Mostly respondents were highly unsatisfied with the parking

facilities. Respondent agreed that the quality of service is up to the
mark at shopping malls. Accordingly most of the respondent said
that quality of the product was good. And respondents were
satisfied with the money paid at shopping malls.

 I found that 65 % of the respondents were satisfied with the layout

of shopping malls and 30% told that they do not like very much.
5% have not responded.

 60% of respondents said that shopping malls always provide better

services & it exceeds their expectations. 30% said that sometimes
they are not satisfied with the services of shopping malls. 10%
have said that they are never satisfied with the services of shopping
malls.

 70% of the respondents said shopping malls follow the ethical

marketing practices. 25% said that the malls do not follow and 5%
were having no knowledge about this.

 Customer said that when they think about shopping mall they think
about quality. Out of 300 customer 255 customer have told this
while 210 customer think about price out of 300.45 customers do
not think of quality and 90 customers do not consider price of
shopping mall.

 According to the table 80% of our respondents is aware about the

 295

brand of the shopping malls while 15% are not aware about brand
while 5% were neutral.

 65% of our respondents has said that big brand offers the more
value for money. 33% percent do not agree and 2% can’t say
anything.

 84% of our respondents purchase branded items in a year from

shopping malls while 14% of them do not purchase branded items
from shopping malls.

 32% of our respondents spends 1000 to 5000 at a onetime visit to

shopping malls, while 28% spend less than 1000 at a onetime visit.
10,000 to 50,000 are spending by 12% and only 6% respondent
spend more than 50,000 at one time visit to a shopping mall.

 We analyze that only 63% of our respondents visit to the food court
of shopping malls while 37% do not visit to a shopping malls food
court.

 The number of respondents who visit to a shopping malls 25% take

coffee from a food court. Whereas ice cream and continental is on
2nd and 3rd preference of respondent with 20% and 17% and only
2% like to have a non - veg in food court of shopping malls.

 We analyze that 66% of our respondents believe that foods of

shopping malls are costly while 24% do not agree with this.

 45% of the respondents are accepting that they eat out more in
shopping malls now a days from the last year where as 25% just
oppose that they are not eating out in shopping malls in comparison
to last year.
 296

 We find that 33% of our respondents believe that there is safety in

the shopping malls while 55% do not believe that shopping malls
are safe for the public.

 The weekends rush was the one of the major problem for the
normal customer. 32% of the respondents were not happy due to
expensive things of mall. 7% were not satisfied with the parking
facility at shopping mall.

7.3 Result of Hypothesis

Ho (1) There is no significant impact of communication strategy for

retail sector malls depends on the profile of consumer.

On the basis of Chapter IV, the retailers expect customer-centric

retailing to continually gain steam throughout 2013. Over the last few
years, there has been an exponential increase in the potential paths a
customer can take in the buying process. This means there is
significant impact of communication strategy for retail sector malls
depends on the profile of consumer.

Ho (2) There is no significant difference between the exclusive brand

outlets and multi brand outlets.

On the basis of Chapter V “Comparison between Exclusive and

Multi Brand Outlets” the following points financial resources, brand,
consumer, communication and promotion shows that there is
significant difference between the exclusive brand outlets and multi-
brand outlets, we reject our null hypothesis.

Ho (3) There is no significant difference between the different taste

and preference of consumer behind visit to the shopping malls
 297

Table 7.1

Branded Trend & All under

Affordability Total
item Fashion one room
1st Prefer 24 48 48 180 300
2nd 60 120 72 48 300
Total 84 168 120 228 600

Level of significance = 0.05

Degree of freedom (4-1) (2-1) = 3

Arranging the observed and expected frequencies in the following

table to calculate X2 test statistic.

Observed Expected (O-E) (O-E)2 (O-E)2/E

(O) (E)
24 42 -18 324 7.714
48 84 -36 1296 15.429
48 60 -12 144 2.400
180 114 66 4356 38.211
60 42 18 324 7.714
120 84 36 1296 15.429
72 60 12 144 2.400
48 114 -66 4356 38.211
127.507
So the calculated value of X2 = 127.507. The critical (table) value
of X2 = 6.81 at α = 0.05 and d.f. = 3. Since the calculated value of X 2 =
127.507 is much higher than the critical value of X2, we reject the Null
Hypothesis this means, there is significant difference between the
different taste and preference of consumer behind visit to the shopping
malls.
 298

7.4 SUGGESTIONS

“Customer Service is a critical factor for keeping your clients

coming back and ensuring they’ll refer you to others”.

1. Growing your business will be a difficult task at best if you don’t

perform, meet and exceed your client’s expectations, and provide
service that creates customers for life.

2. Customer service is all about the customer’s perception. You have

to do more than just get the job done. You must deliver on all the
things (big and small) that affect the relationship with your client.
Consider opportunities for improvement in the following areas.

3. Setting/Reviewing Expectations: - Do you work with your client to

set clear, appropriate, realistic expectations that you can always
meet or exceed? Are you clear about the responsibilities (both
yours’ and the client’s), timelines, and expectations of results? Are
you then willing to go back and review these expectations with the
client?

4. Communication: - Do you have mechanisms in place to ensure

you’re communicating with clients at every stage of the
engagement, from the sales process through to completion of the
project? Being clear about where you’re at, what’s been completed,
what’s coming up next, who’s responsible, what results you can
expect, etc.? Has the client ever had to ask you for these things?

5. Organization: - Are you organized? Punctual? Reliable? When you

show up to work with your clients, have you done the work and are
you prepared to make them feel comfortable and taken care of?
Even though you’ve done it hundreds, maybe thousands of times
 299

before, do you take the time to organize and prepare to make it the
best client experience possible?

6. Committing to the Little Things: - Don’t ever dismiss the power of

all the little things. Together they can make all the difference and
really separate you from the competition. Returning calls and
emails in a timely manner. Providing useful information to folks on
a regular basis.

7. Convert your customers into publicity agents. Develop an incentive

for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your
products or services. An endorsement from them is more effective
than any amount of advertising-and it is much cheaper.

8. Surprise your customers with unexpected value. If you sell

products, include an "unadvertised bonus" with every order. If you
sell services, get into the habit of doing something extra for every
customer or client without charging for it.

9. Reward them each time they refer someone who becomes a

customer. Your reward can be as simple as a credit toward their
next order from you.

10.The people visiting the store should be encouraged to visit the store
again and again. So it is necessary to delight the shoppers with the
shopping experience. It has been observed in international
shopping malls that there are in-store promotions like lucky draws
for entrants surprise winners and so on at random. The purpose of
the research is to analyze the “customer attitude towards shopping
malls” which is found to be positive.

In the present scenario, making the biggest malls with top class
 300

retailers is not the key to success. A cool and refreshing environment

is required which makes the shoppers to forget all worries of the day.
Malls are here for putting smiles on the face of shoppers. It is non-
crucial whether a purchase is made or not, entry into the mall has
given the right to courtesy. It should be the USP of the malls as the
window shopper of today is the prospective customer of tomorrow.
Further, malls should commune a feeling of oneness-with retaining the
individuality of each store. Something fresh and novel always attracts
shopper‘s attention but raises the bar for future innovation. Thus,
malls should be designed in a manner that the new and innovative
aspects can be added later on to keep up the consumer‘s delight.
Successful malls are those that will adjust its mall culture with the
consumer sensitiveness and preferences. Managing consumer attitude
and innovation are the keys to stay afloat amid competition.
Indubitably, malls have enlarged social fabric, cultural mixture and
retail feasibility. And when the core focus is on higher conversion than
footfalls, then mixed use and open malls is the way towards
accomplishing the aforesaid goal. The opportunities offered by young
India exhibits a bright road for malls. These architectural wonders
have changed the overall meaning of shopping, leisure and
entertainment. Ensuring a relaxing ambience and facilities like seating
arrangements for elders to babies is not a child‘s play. But malls
managers are performing the tasks with ease. Malls- with a bouquet of
value propositions like value for time, value for quality, value for
experience, value for money is boosting India in becoming a
SHINING STAR of GLOBAL RETAIL.
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 Appendix

Questionnaire

Good ……………….. , we are conducting a survey to find out the impact of

communication strategy on consumer behavior for apparels in shopping
malls. I would like to ask you for some information.

Male Female

Q1. Shopping malls are visited by age group of

i. 16 – 20
ii. 20 – 30
iii. 30 – 40
iv. 40 – 50
v. 50 & above

Q 2 What is your profession?

i. Student
ii. Businessman
iii. Professional
iv. Government employee
v. Housewife
vi. Others

Q3. What is your approx monthly income?

i. Up to Rs. 10,000
ii. 10,000 – 20,000
iii. 20,000 – 30,000
iv. 30,000 – 40,000
v. Above 40,000
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Q4 Why do you come to the shopping mall?

i. Shopping
ii. Entertainment
iii. Window Shopping

Q5. How many times a month do you come to the shopping mall?
i. Daily
ii. Weekly
iii. Fortnightly
iv. Monthly

Q6 Taste and Preference of Consumer according to –

Affordability Branded Trend & All under

Fashion one room
1st pref
2nd
3rd
4th

Q 7 Which place do you prefer most for shopping?

i. Kirana Store
ii. Shopping Malls
iii. Local Market
iv. Showrooms

Q 8 Location of shopping mall affects the perception of consumer about Mall?

i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say
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Q 9 Satisfaction with the different facility of the Mall?

Excellent Good Average Poor
Parking facility
Quality of Services
Quality of Product
Value for money

Q 10 Layout of the shopping mall is satisfactory for all age - group?

i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q 11 Which facilities do you like most?

i. Delivery Services
ii. Credit facility
iii. Transportation facility

Q 12 Shopping malls always provide better services?

i. Always
ii. Sometime
iii. Never

Q 13 Is ethical marketing practices followed by Malls?

i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say
Q 14 Are you satisfied with the price of the product as well as quality of the
product?
Yes No
Quality
Price

Q15. Do you feel you are more aware of brands since the opening of the
shopping malls?
 313

i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q16. Do you feel that big brands offer more value for money?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q17. Have you bought any branded item from the shopping mall in the past
one year?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q18. What is the approximate cost of the item you purchased?

i. Less than 1000
ii. 1000 > 5000
iii. 5000 >10,000
iv. 10,000 > 50,000
v. More than 50,000
Q 19 Every time you visit the shopping mall, do you visit the food court?
i. Yes
ii. No

Q 20 What is the kind of food / beverage you like to consume?

i. Chinese
ii. Non Veg
iii. Cold Drinks
iv. Coffee
v. Ice – Cream
vi. Fast Food
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vii. Continental
viii. South Indian

Q 21 Do you feel food at the malls is more expensive?

i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q 22 Do you feel you are eating out more often now than a year back?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q 23 Are you satisfied with the safe-guarding taken by Malls for publics?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Can’t say

Q 24 What is the major Drawback in shopping malls?

i. Expensive
ii. Parking facility
iii. Weekend rush
iv. Others

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