This study brings up the importance of using the store environment as a tool for creating positive consumer experiences. It compares two consumer shopping motives, hedonic (related to sensations and fun) and utilitarian (related to fulfilling a task). The atmospheric variables that the environment consists of are discussed and found to be affecting these two consumer groups in different ways. The study takes a quantitative approach for investigating how these two consumer types are affected by the store environment. Hedonic and utilitarian consumers are then compared to see if there are any differences in how these consumers experience the store environment. The findings show that there are no differences in what atmospherics that are liked more by a hedonic compared to a utilitarian shopper. However, atmospherics are found to be more memorable for hedonic consumers. Hedonic consumers are also found to like being in the store more when signs are clear, and when it is easy to find departments, fitting rooms and cash registers. The results also showed that to make hedonic customers revisit the store, retailers should focus on the style of the store, floor space allocation, product presentation, sound level, lighting and the interior material. To make utilitarian revisit the store, retailers should focus on atmospherics such as architecture, the cleanliness, floor space allocation, product presentation, flooring, color scheme of the store and the interior material.

This explanatory study investigated the possible causal relationship between congruent background music and consumer behavior. We studied empirically whether sales of tex-mex products was affected when congruent music was played in conjunction to the tex-mex section of a Swedish grocery store. A field experiment was conducted where stereotypical Mexican music was played in conjunction to the tex-mex section. Previous experiments have tested, and confirmed, the notion that music stereotypically related to a country can prime related knowledge and the selection of certain products if the products fit with that knowledge. Earlier research has also been able to support the notion that consumers tend to spend more money and time in store when congruent music is played. Mexican, Pop, and no music was played during three weekends and sales data on tex-mex products was gathered and analyzed. The results indicate that fewer consumers purchased tex-mex products when Mexican music was played, but those who did spent more money and/or purchased a slightly larger number of tex-mex products. However, the small differences between the music conditions were not statistically significant. The potential reasons for this is discussed in the analysis and lastly, implications for future research as well as managerial implications are discussed.

I denna branschstudie gällande livsmedelsbutiker, kommer vi att beröra hur butiker kan marknadsföra sig samt vilka faktorer som spelar störst roll vid kundernas val av butik. För att kunna klargöra detta, kommer vi att använda oss av teorier så som Porters fem konkurrenskrafter samt vissa skolformer utifrån boken Marketing Theory av Jagdish N. Sheth, David M. Gardner och Dennis E. Garret. Vi upptäckte under arbetets gång att det är en komplicerad marknad, vilket även kommer att diskuteras under kommande kapitel. Syftet med uppsatsen är att få en djupare inblick hur marknaden ser ut då de olika livsmedelsbutikerna marknadsför sig på olika sätt, samt även kunna konstatera vilka faktorer som är avgörande för kunderna vad gäller deras val av butik. De forskningsfrågor vi satte upp inför denna studie var: ”Hur marknadsför sig livsmedelsbutikerna till kunderna?” ”Vilka är de faktorer som styr konsumenternas val av butik?” För att kunna besvara våra forskningsfrågor, har vi genomfört två typer av studier. En kvalitativ undersökning där vi genomförde två intervjuer med en informant från en mindre Coop-butik samt en informant från en större Ica-butik. Den andra studien var en kvantitativ undersökning, där vi genomförde en enkätundersökning för att få reda på kundernas krav och dylikt. Utifrån resultatet av våra undersökningar ställdes dessa mot de teorier vi har tillämpat för att kunna få fram en teoretiskt stärkt bild av dagens livsmedelsmarknad. Teorierna har hjälpt oss att få en klar och tydlig uppfattning om hur livsmedelsmarknaden fungerar. Vi kan genom vår undersökning se, att det finns klara skillnader utifrån storleken på butik när det kommer till hur marknadsföringen utformas samt hur butiken är geografiskt placerad. Kundernas val av butik bestod till största delen av åsikter som berörde butikens utbud samt geografiska positionering. Dock har vi sett från tidigare forskning, att det finns många fler faktorer som styr valet av butik. Mycket av detta sker undermedvetet hos kunderna. För att kunna få en mer tydligare bild av detta, har vi utvecklat tre olika kundtyper: Den uppmärksamma Den ouppmärksamma Den medkänslosamma / In this paper about grocery stores, we will try to find out how retailers market themselves and what the underlying factors are for the customers when they do their choice of store. To clarify this, we will use some theories such as Porter's five competitive forces and certain types of schools based on the book Marketing Theory by Jagdish N. Sheth, David M. Gardner and Dennis E. Garrett. During the work with this paper we discovered that this is a complicated market, which also will be discussed in later chapters. The purpose of this paper is to gain a deeper insight into how the market looks as the various grocery stores market themselves in different ways, but also be able to identify those factors that are crucial concerning customers choice of store. The research questions for our study were: “How do the grocery stores market themselves towards customers?” “What are the factors that make customers choose a store?” In order to answer our research questions, we have conducted two types of studies. The first one was a qualitative study, where we performed two interviews, one with an informant from a smaller Coop store and one with an informant from a larger Ica store. The second study was a quantitative survey, where we conducted a survey to find out customers requirements etc. Based on the results of our investigations, we set up the result against the theories that we have applied to obtain a theoretically confirmed image of today’s grocery store market. The theories have helped us to gain a clear idea of how the market works. We can see through our investigation that there are some distinct differences based on the size of the store when it comes to how the stores market themselves and where the stores are geographically positioned. Customer’s choice of store consisted largely of opinions involving the stores offering and geographic positioning. However, we have seen from previous research that it is much more than just these factors that made customers choice of stores. To get a clearer image about it, we have developed this to these three different types of customers: The attentive The inattentive The compassionate

Bakgrund: Med ökad konkurrens och då nya marknader som e-handeln växer sig starkare blir det allt viktigare för företag inom modebranschen att arbeta för att stärka varumärket och sina kundrelationer. Den fysiska butiken är en viktig del inom den externa marknadsföringen då företaget kan kommunicera varumärket genom interaktion med kunden. Butikspersonalen bör ses som en av företagets mest betydelsefulla resurser som marknadsförare då de har störst kundkontakt. Därför bör företag satsa på intern kommunikation för att marknadsföra varumärket till personalen. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera hur företag kan använda intern kommunikation för att utveckla och motivera sin butikspersonal till att agera som varumärkesambassadörer. Metod: Undersökningen består av en fallstudie av ett företag som använder sig av konceptbutiker för att marknadsföra sitt varumärke. Studien består av kvalitativ karaktär genom intervju med distriktschef, kvantitativ data i form av enkätundersökning med personalen, samt granskning av företagets årsredovisning. Mindre observationer utfördes även i de olika butikerna. Teorier: Brand Vision, Brand Values, Kommunikations- och attitydstyrning, Intern marknadsföring i form av utbildning och ledarskap, Företags-/Serviceskultur samt Varumärkesambassadörer. Vi har med dessa teorier skapat en modell som vi kommer att använda för att utvärdera företaget och dess förutsättningar till att skapa varumärkesambassadörer av sin butikspersonal. Slutsats: För att skapa en varumärkesambassadör krävs kontinuerlig intern kommunikation som överensstämmer med företagskulturen. Ledaren har en viktig roll i att kommunicera varumärkets gemensamma värderingar till butikspersonalen och måste då även själv leva efter dessa värderingar. Personalen måste kunna ta till sig och dela dessa värderingar samt förstå vilken betydelse deras roll har i företagets helhet.

During the past few decades service quality has become a major area of attention topractitioners, managers and researchers. It has strong impact on business performance,lower costs, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and profitability. This study aimedat analysis of retail service quality dimensions at clothing stores. The purpose of thisthesis was to find out how customers perceive the overall retail service quality in a sportstore. We chose Stadium in Helsinki, Finland as our case company.A survey of 300 shoppers in various Stadium sport stores in Helsinki has evaluatedretail service quality according to Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) which composesof 5 dimensions namely physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problemsolvingand policy.The analysis part includes descriptive and statistics analysis. The descriptive analysiswas mainly presenting the statistical results in order to summarize data for the generalconclusions. The statistical analysis presented the differences in perception. The gapanalysis model examined the evidence about how consumers perceive service quality inretail stores and try to identify which dimensions and more specifically sub-dimensionsof RSQS they are satisfied or not-satisfied with.The finding result is that consumers are not satisfied with any dimension of servicequality. Consumer’s perception of service quality is poor in all dimensions, whichmeans that their perceptions are lower than expected level and what makes theirexperience in retail stores less enjoyable. The retail stores need to make improvementsin all dimensions in order to close gaps that could lead to increasing customersatisfaction.

This study aims to describe how a company behind a well-established brand in the fashion industry has strategically chosen to communicate with their target market. Interviews with four individuals in different positions within the company have generated qualitative data, which is presented and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame of reference in this study. The results show that the company does not use conventional marketing, but relies rather on marketing based word-of-mouth generated by its customer base due to its unique store concepts. Previous research has shown that this type of marketing strategy is effective and beneficial to the brand equity, a conclusion that is demonstrated to also apply to the survey object of this study. Furthermore, it is also shown that this is largely due to the distinct and coordinated image that the company maintains through strict standardization.

During recent years (2010), magnitude and quality of household living space of Taiwanese families have both significantly increased. As living aesthetics is pursued as well, furniture and the furnishings have played important roles in their daily lives at the same time. In addition, international titanic chain stores of furniture entered into Taiwan market rapidly, advocating multi-faceted values of living and purveying fashions of furniture. Consequently, many new concepts about furniture and house furnishing have been conceived in the minds of consumers in the Formosa island. The current study has two empirical research: (1) for the market as a whole, observing the relationships among on stores evaluation, attitude towards furniture involvement, purchase risk, and readiness to buy; (2) regarding individual consumers, exploring the alteration of consideration and brand type choices in terms of different situations which are designed by store type, demand situation, and furniture categories, two alternatives for each dimension. In methodology, the first research was conducted by questionnaire survey, with 112 valid samples. For the second, a factorial design of experiment was undertaken with 224 participation, students and rank-and-file populace distributed evenly. The major findings include: (a) the effect of furniture involvement on local store evaluation is moderated by purchase risk; (b) purchase readiness influences the relationship between furniture involvement and store evaluation; (c) furniture stores affect consumers¡¦ brand-category choice; (d) for experienced populace, local traditional store is preferred in purchase for first time; (e) brand and fashion is emphasized more in living room furniture than bed room; (f) when in first purchase for bedroom furniture, the particpants preferred the designer brand, while in replacement purchase, the preference is rendered for living room furniture.

This research is focus on how store image affects perceived risks and purchase intention in different private label brand (PLB) products. Because of 7-Eleven¡¦s positive store image and diverse product categories, this research takes 7-Eleven as the example to explore the difference among its PLB products. The conclusions as follow¡G 1. Positive store image is a necessary condition to develop PLBs. 2. Product category is a success factor to PLBs. 3. Consumers perceive different perceived risks when facing different products. According to the conclusion, suggestions are as bellow¡G 1. Keep maintaining and improving store image. 2. Focus on the products which are highly-related to the store image. 3. Managing perceived risk as a marketing strategy in diverse PLB product categories.

Now Convenience Store Sector is most popular franchise chain in Taiwan industry. Especially in such high rate of franchise, it¡¦s more difficult to manage and control. But franchisee make a formal contract with franchiser, is it suitable to operate franchisee by only clear formal lease? In management control system(MCS) field, it has not any research to discuss about how to link different type of MCS which exclusive and simultaneous exist. Therefore, this research belongs to an exploratory study which choose President Chain Store Corp. as interviews in order to find chain convenience store¡¦s MCS. This study visit an important role: Operational Field Consultant(OFC) between franchise and franchisee. The interview target is 4 OFC in Kaohsiung Region of President Chain Store Corp. The research find are: the chain convenience store¡¦s MCS which is outcome control and behavior control exclusive and simultaneous. The outcome control comes from franchiser, and the behavior control comes from OFC. This research understands OFC position and role who plan a conflict solver and a moderator. This study also find the interface effect does not come from budget distribution. It should be the OFC role who negotiate between franchiser and franchisee and make them a profit successfully. The conclusion is as follows: 1. President Chain Store Corp have two different types of MCS. The outcome control comes from franchiser, and the behavior control comes from OFC. 2. The interface effect of MCS is actually exist. 3. The interface effect of CVS may link by OFC, especially OFC play an plan a conflict solver and a moderator.

After China enters WTO, its antique retailing and wholesaling sector is faced with tough competition as the global retailers rush to enter the field. Shanghai is one of the highest density cities of convenience stores. In addition, foreign companies has limited by laws in China, how to compete with the other state-owned enterprises which owned many advanced advantages will become a big issue. Base on the China market situation, the research is focus on key success factors of oversea chain convenience stores. What the methodology is used is ¡¨Case Study¡¨. There are three data sources-deep interview, including the convenient store company to be the object discussed here and the supporting business unit in Convenience Store Division, Ting Hsin International Group. With its own marketing, alliance program, store products, backup office support systems, goods delivery and creativity as well. Compile the organized information and analysis then get conclusion. The concrete research results s are as follows¡GThe Key Success Factor of oversea chain convenience stores can be divided into four dimensions which are expanding stores and surroundings planning ability, products innovation and diversity, marketing planning. The last but not least is quality of store operation and service. To build up an integrated supply chain system is also do help when entering into new market. Though the scale of convenience stores is the foundation of profit, it can¡¦t guarantee the sustainable profit. Base on the store unit profitable, enterprise should find the virtual growth pattern of turnover to make the sustainable profitability.