Thesis (DTech (Marketing))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012. / Secondary data sourced from the Kronos Time Keeping system and Human Resources department indicate that absenteeism amongst Pick n Pay employees are constantly increasing and it seems that management has adopted a laissez-faire attitude in response to rectifying absenteeism. This study has endeavoured to establish if staff absenteeism is rife in supermarkets, which employment status has higher absenteeism figures and does it affect customer services. The objectives of this study were to answer and find solutions to the research question and the multiple questions arising from the research problem: do the supermarket employees understand the impact of absenteeism to the organisation? Is management aware of the causes of high employee absenteeism? Do management have solutions to reduce the absenteeism rate? Do management know which employee status has higher absenteeism figures? What procedures can be adopted to reduce absenteeism? The overall effect of any solution should focus on creating a more absent free and customer orientated organisation. The empirical investigation was carried out through quantitative as well as qualitative research methodology. Absenteeism statistics were collected from the five participating supermarkets in the Western Cape human resources departments and were made available to the researcher as secondary data. Four different data collection methodology were used to conduct the enquiries in the five participating supermarkets.

abstract: The study of lighting design has important implications for consumer behavior and is an important aspect of consideration for the retail industry. In today's global economy consumers can come from a number of cultural backgrounds. It is important to understand various cultures' perceptions of lighting design in order for retailers to better understand how to use lighting as a benefit to provide consumers with a desirable shopping experience. This thesis provides insight into the effects of ambient lighting on product perception among Americans and Middle Easterners. Both cultural groups' possess significant purchasing power in the worldwide market place. This research will allow marketers, designers and consumers a better understanding of how culture may play a role in consumer perceptions and behavior Results of this study are based on data gathered from 164 surveys from individuals of American and Middle Eastern heritage. Follow up interviews were also conducted to examine the nuances of product perception and potential differences across cultures. This study, using qualitative and quantitative methods, was executed using a Sequential Explanatory Strategy. Survey data were analyzed to uncover significant correlations and relationships using measures of descriptive analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and regression analysis. Interviews were analyzed using theme-based coding and reported in narrative form. The results suggest that lighting does in fact have an impact on product perception, however despite minor differences, this perception does not vary much between individuals from American and Middle Eastern cultures. It was found that lighting could affect price and quality perception with reference to store-image and store atmospherics. Additionally, lighting has a higher impact on subjective impressions of product (such as Freshness, Pleasantness, and Attractiveness), more than Price and Quality perceptions. This study suggests that particular lighting characteristics could be responsible for differences in product perception between these two cultures. This is important to note for lighting designers and marketers to create retail atmospheres that are preferable to both cultures. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.D. Design 2013

Historicamente, as indústrias conquistaram espaço no mercado a partir do aumento de seu volume de produção e da redução no preço dos produtos. Tal estratégia, no entanto, não se mostrou eficaz nas últimas décadas, visto que a mesma foi copiada por todos os fabricantes. Dessa forma, uma nova estratégia foi adotada pelas indústrias com o objetivo de diferenciar seus produtos da concorrência, especialmente no âmbito varejista. As indústrias passaram, então, a criar novas linhas de produtos, com o propósito de atingir esse objetivo. Todavia, mais uma vez as estratégias adotadas pelas indústrias não tiveram o impacto esperado. Em especial no setor de bens de consumo não duráveis, os espaços varejistas passaram a ficar super abastecidos, sendo que muitos dos produtos comercializados apresentavam baixo giro e baixa rentabilidade, além de muitas marcas possuírem pouco apelo junto ao consumidor final. Diante desse cenário, o varejo começou a ditar os produtos e marcas que seriam comercializados em seus estabelecimentos, elevando seu poder frente à indústria. Essa inversão de poder no mercado varejista obrigou os fabricantes a reverem a maneira como desenvolviam o relacionamento com seus clientes de canal, principalmente com o varejo. Antes preocupada em atender apenas as necessidades dos consumidores finais, a indústria buscou atender também as demandas de seus clientes de canal, criando, então, os departamentos de trade marketing. As atividades de trade marketing foram inicialmente aplicadas pelas indústrias de bens de consumo não duráveis em grandes redes varejistas. Esse fenômeno se reflete na academia, aonde a maioria dos estudos sobre trade marketing tem como objeto de pesquisa essas indústrias, com poucos estudos realizando uma abordagem a partir da visão do varejo. No entanto, os poucos estudos que abordam a visão do varejo sobre o trade marketing não são aplicados no segmento alimentar, no qual ocorreram as transformações varejistas mais intensamente. O pequeno varejo, apesar de possuir considerável importância na economia brasileira e na comercialização de muitas categorias de produto, é pouco explorado na literatura de trade marketing. Dessa forma, torna-se interessante compreender como funciona o trade marketing quando desenvolvido em pequenos varejistas do segmento alimentar e, se não for desenvolvido, quais as razões para esse fenômeno. Diante dessa oportunidade de pesquisa, esta dissertação foi conduzida com um referencial teórico abordando os grandes tópicos \"canais de distribuição\" e \"trade marketing\". A pesquisa, do tipo exploratória e qualitativa, utilizou-se do método de estudo de casos múltiplos. Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com três pequenos varejistas da cidade de Piracicaba, e tiradas fotos do interior dos estabelecimentos. Os resultados proporcionaram a conclusão que as atividades envolvendo comunicação e promoção são realizadas tanto em conjunto por indústria e pequeno varejo, quanto individualmente pelo varejista; que a definição de preços é realizada individualmente pelo varejista; que o relacionamento estabelecido entre indústria e pequeno varejo é eficaz, apesar dos varejistas não acreditarem na existência de cooperação entre ambos; que o compartilhamento de informações é pessoal, sem o auxílio de ferramentas eletrônicas e que a gestão por categorias é desenvolvida pelo pequeno varejo sem o auxílio da indústria. / Historically, industries have gained market space by increasing their production volume and reducing product prices. Such a strategy, however, has not proved effective in recent decades since it has been copied by all manufacturers. In this way, a new strategy was adopted by the industries with the objective of differentiating their products from the competition, especially in the retail area. The industries then started to create new product lines, in order to achieve this objective. However, again the strategies adopted by the industries did not have the expected result. Particularly in the non-durable consumer goods sector, retail spaces became overcrowded, with many of the products marketed presenting low rotation and low profitability, as well as the fact that many brands have little appeal to the shopper. Faced with this scenario, the retailer began to choose the products and brands that would be marketed in their establishments, which increased their power. This exchange of power in the retail market forced manufacturers to review how they developed the relationship with their channel partners, particularly retailers. Previously concerned with meeting only the needs of shoppers, the industry also began to meet the demands of its channel partners, creating the trade marketing departments. Trade marketing activities were initially applied by non-durable consumer goods industries in large retail chains. This phenomenon is reflected in the academy, where most of the studies on trade marketing have as object of research these industries, with few studies taking an approach from the perspective of the retail. However, the few studies that approach the retail vision about trade marketing are not applied in the food segment, where the retail transformations occurred more intensely. Small retailers, despite having considerable importance in the Brazilian economy and in the commercialization of many product categories, are little explored in the trade marketing literature. In this way, it becomes interesting to understand how trade marketing works when developed in small retailers in the food segment and, if not developed, what the reasons for this phenomenon. Faced with this research opportunity, this dissertation was conducted with a theoretical framework approachig the major topics \"distribution channels\" and \"trade marketing\". The research is exploratory and qualitative and used the multiple case study method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three small retailers in the city of Piracicaba, and photographs were taken of the inside the establishments. The results provided the conclusion that the activities involving communication and promotion are carried out jointly by industry and small retail and also individually by the retailer; that the pricing is carried out individually by the retailer; that the established relationship between industry and small retailers is effective, although retailers do not believe in the existence of cooperation between them; that the sharing of information is personal, without the help of EDI and that category management is developed by small retailers without the help of industry.

Enquanto faz suas compras, o consumidor despende tempo e esforço para a realização de várias tarefas como o deslocamento até a loja, a busca por informação sobre o produto desejado, a localização do produto dentro da loja até sua efetiva posse, após a finalização da transação no caixa. É a conveniência o atributo que minimiza os gastos de tempo e esforço do consumidor durante todas as etapas do processo de compra. Sua importância é crescente, na medida em que os recursos não-monetários de tempo e energia se tornam escassos e, conseqüentemente, mais valorizados na sociedade contemporânea. Neste contexto, objetivouse neste trabalho, o estudo da conveniência como necessidade do consumidor moderno, com a finalidade de determinar se ela varia em distintos formatos de varejo. Sendo assim, esta necessidade é estudada no shopping center, um formato de varejo tradicional composto por lojas, e no varejo eletrônico, um formato sem lojas, de expansão recente. A comparação entre os formatos de varejo se deu pela determinação das dimensões do constructo necessidade de conveniência em cada um deles, bem como pela identificação dos tipos mais importantes de conveniência na composição do constructo em cada formato. A pesquisa teve caráter exploratório, quantitativo, sendo realizada por meio de um levantamento, aplicado em meio eletrônico. Os resultados mostraram que a necessidade de conveniência na amostra estudada varia entre formatos, indicando não se tratar de uma necessidade intrínseca do consumidor. A conveniência constitui, portanto, uma necessidade dinâmica, que se modifica de acordo com o contexto de compra. Foram identificadas, para o shopping center, quatro dimensões da necessidade de conveniência: acesso, busca, transação e posse. No varejo eletrônico, porém, esta necessidade se desdobra em apenas três tipos, com as conveniências de acesso e busca formando uma única dimensão. Além disso, na composição da necessidade de conveniência total dos consumidores, identificou-se relevância predominante de um tipo de conveniência distinto em cada formato de varejo. No shopping center, observou-se a predominância da conveniência de transação, enquanto no varejo eletrônico, o tipo mais relevante foi a conveniência de acesso e busca. Estes resultados indicam que os esforços para a criação de um composto de conveniência no varejo devem levar em conta as especificidades de cada formato. / Consumers spend time and effort to complete several tasks while shopping. These tasks include the trip to the store, the search for information on the desired product as well as locating the product they wish to purchase and completing the checkout process. Convenience is the attribute which minimizes the time and effort spent by the consumer in the buying processes stages. Its importance is growing as the non-monetary resources of time and energy become scarce and consequently more valued in contemporary society. This study has aimed to investigate convenience as a modern consumers need which has been analyzed in two different retail formats. The first one was the shopping center, a traditional format composed by stores and the second was electronic retailing, a non-store format of recent growth. The dimensionality of the need for convenience construct was assessed and the dimensions were compared across formats in terms of their composition and relevance for the overall construct. To accomplish the proposed goals, a quantitative research of exploratory nature has been undertaken by the administration of an online survey. It was found that the need for convenience varies according to the retail format for the sample studied. This result indicates that the need for convenience is not an enduring consumer need but a dynamic necessity that changes between different shopping contexts. Four dimensions have been identified for the shopping center, which are access, search, transaction and possession. However, for electronic retailing only three dimensions were obtained since the access and search conveniences have formed a single dimension. In addition, the relevance of each dimension in the overall construct composition was examined. It was found the predominance of one convenience type for each format, namely the transaction convenience for the shopping center and the access and search convenience for electronic retailing. These results indicate that the efforts toward the creation of a retailers convenience offer should take into consideration the particularities of each retail format.

M.Comm. / All over the world, retailers are finding themselves in an ever-increasing competitive market. Opportunities to differentiate oneself from other retailers are diminishing by the day. This situation also applies to the South African retailers. The fact that the local industry has been isolated from the international arena does not engender a lesser competitive situation. Isolation only implies a certain lag behind the rest of the world in terms of technology and the application thereof. The South African retailer finds himself between two main threats, i.e. from local rivals as well as the possibility of foreign investments. Within this environment, the retailer has to find means to distinguish itself from competitors. The question which springs to mind is - Which focus areas and/or competitive advantages are available for a South African retailer to differentiate himself in today's extremely competitive market? This dissertation aims to provide insight into this question. The aim of this dissertation is to identify those critical success factors which are paramount to the long-term survival of retailers in South Africa. The structure set out in Figure 1-1 will be applied and used as the starting point. These will then be evaluated against inputs received from major role players in this industry.

This paper aims at developing a model on which to base good quality franchise relationships. The franchise sector has the potential to generate wealth for the franchisee and the franchisor, create employment and be a tool of empowerment. It is also associated with relatively less risk than other forms of self-employment. However, there have been a disturbing number of failures in the sector and reported cases of abuses of franchisees by franchisors. Some franchisors have sought liquidation of franchise units in courts of law. An investigation was commissioned into the sector with the objective of uncovering problems in the quality of the relationships in the sector. The obligations of both the franchisees and franchisors were stipulated. Aspects of quality were then considered to lay a foundation upon which improvements in the relationships could be based. This was followed by a survey to find the performance gap between the quality of service that was expected from the franchisor and what the franchisees were actually receiving. Five dimensions of service quality – tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy were empirically investigated. The findings of this research revealed that the quality of service of franchisors fell short in all dimensions. It is arguable that other aspects of quality are being neglected by the franchisors. It is against this backdrop that a model is proposed to improve the quality of service in the franchise relationships. The model incorporates contemporary ideas on quality. Principles of total quality management, quality function deployment, customer satisfaction and self-assessment are applied to the franchise relationship. The use of the model will contribute towards better relationships in the franchise sector.

This treatise investigates the restaurant industry, entrepreneurship, franchising and restaurant franchising in order to develop a model that will enable a full service restaurant concept to be converted into a successful franchise system. Restaurants play a significant role in our lifestyle, and dining out is a favoured social activity. The industry plays an important role in the transfer of skills as many people start working in the restaurant industry before moving onto more formal careers. The restaurant industry offers many opportunities for entrepreneurial activity as a result of the relatively low barriers to entry. Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity regardless of the resources at hand and it requires a willingness to take calculated risks in order to build something of value from virtually nothing. The success of emerging economies such as China and India has proven that the only growth sectors in these economies are small and medium enterprises, which are driven by entrepreneurs. Franchising is considered to be a viable growth strategy for small business as it provides a means of raising capital and a method of expanding the business in a relatively low risk manner. There are many well established restaurant franchise brands that originated in South Africa, starting out as successful single outlets and then by means of the business format franchise model, developed into multi unit franchise systems. There are certain basic generic steps that must be followed when developing a franchise system. This was verified by the empirical study of this treatise which was conducted as a single unit case study on the Dulce Franchise Group. Finally, as a result of the analysis of the literature study and the findings of the case study, a restaurant franchise conversion model was developed.

This thesis is focused on new trends in business of chosen czech retail chains. Except of introduction and close, it has four main parts - retail, usage of quantitative methods in retail, trends and future of retail chains. The main emphasis is placed on estimation of strategies of these retailers. The results of the estimation are extract from financial analyze, DEA - Data Envelopment Analysis and outcomes from market researches. For the elaboration there were used lots of information sources mainly from internet.

The main objective of the thesis is to deal with business strategy of a small company operating on retail trade market. First of all, retail trade as such is defined and its classification according to Czech Statistical Office is presented. In addition to this, important economic indicators of big vs. small retail enterprises in Czech Republic are confronted. The thesis also describes retail companies' business structure and lists examples of the biggest retail vendors and alliances on the Czech market. The other part of the thesis is concerned particularly with such companies and alliances, focusing on their business strategy. Finally, in the main part of the thesis, the strategy of big companies and alliances is faced with a strategy of a small retail outlet, which forms part of the international retail chain called SPAR. Basic facts about this retail outlet and description of its business strategy are completed by a research regarding the customers' satisfaction with the outlet.

The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of FMCG (fast-moving-consumer-goods) shopping behavior and the retail chain positioning. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the correspondence of the shopping behavior and the retail chain positioning for given retail chains. The analysis of shopping behavior is based on the questionnaire based on the representative sample of 4000 respondents. The shopping behavior is described with regard to seven segments defined by the Incoma GfK research agency. Two methods of shopping behavior are described in the thesis. The first one is the method based on the personally defined sorting rules created according to several questions selected from the questionnaire, and the second one that is based on the factor and cluster analysis. The self-created evaluating scale has been used to evaluate an influence of selected questions to segments viewed. In a similar way, the retail chains positionings have been determined based on the available data (opening hours , price level, provided services etc.). The correspondence of individual retail chain positioning and shopping behavior is evaluated in the conclusion.