Why We Buy

Targeting is a method of examining the market segments and follow all or any of the following 3 types: undifferentiated, multisegment (differentiated) and concentration (niche) (Palmer, 2009). Selfridges’ products diversity means its target include both men and women aged >25 years belonging to the high-income group whose interest is fashion and luxury. Thus, Selfridges’ targeting can be said to be concentration (niche); however, due to its prime locations, Selfridges also attracts general public including families, singles and tourist. Therefore, in that aspect, its targeting strategy is differentiated.

In a day of, “I want it now and I’m willing to pay for it,” a shopping center has to offer a variety of stores, and also have several options. The shoe shopper will go to the place with 5 shoe stores before they go to the place with only 1. They may not realize that of the 5 available shoe stores; only 1 is in their price range, but satisfying a wider variety of consumers will help the mall broaden the shopper’s experience. But it is important to remember that shoppers are price sensitive, so not only do you need a variety of stores offering a variety of products, but you also need to be able to provide a variety of price points so you don’t limit your shopper demographics.

For this project, I chose Target’s department store because, one, I am an employee there and most importantly I felt that it showed different types of people in multiple ways through its products. For my first observation my goal was to examine how the store was arranged, the products that

Whenever I go to Stop & Shop, I tend to take interest in the thousands of products that surround me as I walk down an aisle. The wafting aroma of freshly baked pastries and the sight of cold soft drinks are just some of the things that trigger my appetite for food. Most often, I find myself buying more than what I originally planned on. That’s exactly what the layout of a supermarket tries to make consumers do. Marion Nestle argues in her article, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate”, how supermarkets employ clever tactics such as product layout in order to make consumers spend as much money as possible. She covers fundamental rules that stores employ in order to keep customers in aisles for the longest time, a series of cognitive studies that stores perform on customers, and examples of how supermarkets encourage customers to buy more product. Overall, Nestle’s insight into how supermarkets manipulate people into spending extra money has made me a more savvy consumer and I feel if more people were to read her article, then they can avoid some of the supermarket’s marketing tactics as well.

The employees are very committed to their employer due to earning high wages, benefits, and internal promotions. A happy employee in turn, makes a happy customer. Employees interact with the customers, as the company foster’s an environment of collaboration (DiSalvo, 2015). Employees are not just checking you out, or bagging your groceries; they are engaged in their work, and want the customer to be as excited about the products as them. Customers like to form relationships with the businesses they visit, for example banks, restaurants and retail stores. At Trader Joe’s, the employee turnover for full-time employees is less than 10%, therefore customers get to know the employees and build relationships which makes shopping enjoyable and you don’t feel like just another shopper (Ton, 2012). Trader Joe’s certainly has a competitive advantage in customer service and as long as they continue to invest in their employees, they will have a sustainable advantage over their competitors.

The first tactic that comes to mind is sale papers. Sale papers are everywhere: at the store when you first walk in, when you’re leaving the store and lastly even in your mailbox. Sale papers to supermarkets and their managers is the first way that they get consumers to think about and even enter the store. When looking at a sale papers there are many things to notice that are to grab your attention and get you into the store buying items. The first is which words are bigger than others, which colors are used, and lastly how big the picture of the item

* Store is in a busy and commercial area giving it much exposure to customers passing the area

To find such information, Macy’s must conduct a qualitative research to find segments based on personality, motives, lifestyles, and demographics. Macy’s can also study their consumers within different segments by observing the retail market targets. These nine subcategories distinguish consumer’s psychographics, personalities and shopping habits. The two groups that Macy’s consumers fall into are the middle class-contemporary and the traditionalists. The contemporaries are into fashion, and love to shop- most of the time purchase items impulsively. This fits the Macy’s consumers as the retail industry is constantly updating, progressing, and refreshing to stay within the style of the season and keep up with the latest trends. While other may prefer low key brands such as Macy’s own “Karen Scott” and “Alfred Dunner”. By being able to conduct research and fully understand these different segments, Macy’s has an upper hand on the marketing aspect of their business. While others may be looking to find out what works, it seams as if Macy’s has it down to a science. With the perfect amount of product for every target market.

Michael’s overall layout and design encourage customers to purchase their products. As you walk into the store, the customer is given some space in order to slow down their walking pace. The cash registers are located to the left, while cheap impulse products are located to the right of the entrance. After customers passed those items, they tended to slow down about a quarter of the way into the store. It was apparent that Michael’s was aware of this trend, because they placed their big ticket merchandise products in the middle of the store. These items were visible to customers as they entered the store, and customers often stopped to examine them. After the big ticket merchandise, customers walked in different directions. Customers

For generations, Americans has been brainwashed by the media to believe that what is displayed on television is the ideal perception of what real beauty have manipulated American citizens of what style looks like. Furthermore, with their many brainwashing strategies, that means more and more consumers spending beyond their budget. Our perspectives have been heavily influenced by what they believe is nice, but can we afford it all? With unrealistic combination of goods in store, plazas, and mall, consuming has become a bad behavior of some. In support of my argument of the “Overspending”, author Gladwell’s article “The Science of Shopping” also argues that stores adjust to fit the needs and wants of the shopper are evidently presented. With that being said, we have no idea when we are being manipulated into unrealistic shopping behavior that is influenced by the way the advertisement is presented in visual sight. Author Gladwell gets a “retail anthropologist” and “urban geographer” named Paco Underhill to give breakdown points of how he helps brand name stores influence consumers into persuasion of buying more. However, most of us fall short of that discipline, while being persuaded to overspend during our store visits.

Interaction with customers about products are also of high value. As one employee stated, “Our customers don’t just come here to buy a loaf of bread. They can do that anywhere. They come to try new things. They come to see a friendly face. They come because they know our names and we know theirs. But most of all, they come because we can tell them why not all Alaskan salmon has to come from Alaska or the difference between a Shiraz and a Syrah. The flow of ideas and information at the store level is always invigorating”. (p. W-100) When you create a culture of enthusiasm along with social interaction and higher pay, almost always the result is an increase job performance and higher satisfaction amongst employees.

As mentioned above foot traffic is a very important metric for any retail business, as well as the peak times, demographics, and direction for that traffic. I feel that one important observation that you have left out of your research, but seem to allude to, is conversion rate. Having information about how many people pass the store will not truly assist the regional manager in determining how to increase sales, to do this you must also record whether each person that passes by enters the store. Along the same lines, it may also be important to record those who do not enter but may stop to either view displays in the window or question whether they want to enter. Both of these two things would clearly show whether the marketing efforts of the company are successfully drawing people’s attention to the front the store. If people are not noticing the store and its displays then they will never enter the

Today’s customers are more aware and empowered, and have more bargaining power due to the exponential increase in competition – direct, indirect or substitute. In retailing, they want hassle-free shopping, have less time at their disposal to locate the shop and the merchandise and are reluctant to keep waiting. The modern format retail stores are doing their best to anticipate the customer’s demands and are going all out to redesign their store interiors, offer more choices in varieties and assortments, and are giving as many services as feasible.

The purpose of this paper was to observe the consumers of a retail store of my choice; I chose to observe Victoria’s Secret and Targets consumers, because I myself am consumers of those stores quite often, then to analyze the behavior of the consumers of Victoria’s Secret and Target. Victoria’s Secret and Target consumers differ because of the difference in type of retail they offer and sell. Victoria’s Secret consumers know what they are going to be shopping for women and certain needs or wants they are looking to satisfy. Target consumers shop for any age and any gender,

In a world perceived under constant surveillance much like the dystopian setting of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ novel, it is expected to view the practices that Malcolm Gladwell introduced in his article, The Science of Shopping, as frightening. However, the main intentions of these remarkable tactics are greatly misunderstood and Gladwell does an excellent job of clearing up many misconceptions around this topic. For instance, he introduces Paco Underhill, a self-proclaimed urban geographer who is a professional in the field of retail planning and posses a lengthy list of credentials. He also identifies and illustrates the concepts of decompression zone, invariant right, petting, “butt-brush” theory in his article and breaks down their purposes because there is a precise science in how the average consumer shops and specialists have decoded these behaviors. Unfortunately, a large portion of the population is petrified of Underhill’s capabilities and these psychological techniques that markets use to lure potential consumers. Although this is a typical reaction considering the state of society as of today, Gladwell correctly clarifies these misinterpretations all throughout his article. Furthermore, all of these maneuvers that he mentioned serve as hooks to attract customers are essential to the retailing industry and Paco Underhill tests them out by inspecting shoppers via surveillance cameras. His research is based on the psychological patterns of the average customer and his