Answer 1
For a retail shop providing services to their customers it is very important to look after the needs and demands of the customers and satisfy them with their needs. To flourish their business they have to do a through research of the market place to understand the needs of the customers. The two main reasons why it is important to understand the customers and the marketplace is mentioned in the following points:
- Understanding the customers is the key to the growth of the business. Customers of the Backwood store has created a bond with the retail store and this helped them to flourish their business. According to Kotler & Armstrong(2015), it has become the very meeting point of the locality as everyone goes for shopping for their daily needs. With providing them with the fresh and the best products the business was able to create Liason with their customers which helped in bringing back loyal customers. It is noticed that the constant support of the customers helps to expand their business and provide them with a stable ground.
- Similarly the knowledge of the marketplace helps the business to monitor the effectiveness of their sales and helps them to understand their business practices and notice how much they are affecting the customers. Foxman & Dobscha(2015) mentioned that it provides scope for the business for any kind of development in the quality of the service. This enhances the customer experience which in return helps to bring more number of repetitive customers to the business and helps in earning more revenue.
The two main reasons why some small businesses may not be interested in planning either before or after commencing a business are discussed as follows:.
- The first reason is mainly because small business entrepreneurs face difficulties or are puzzled for following an effective pattern in making up a business plan. Researches have suggested that some small businesses does not write business plans or are least interested for writing up even after commencing of the business. Atwong (2015)supported this reasoning with the help of don’t-look-under-the-hood theory. The theory states that small business executives don’t want to test their ideas or fear from being scrutinized. This is because some business plan may interpret ineffective strategies or shows inability to perform which the executives want to avoid.
- Secondly, planning or writing a business plan in a detailed manner are perceived as a waste of time. Most of the executives and entrepreneurs feel they could engage their time into long hours of hard work for ensuring the business success (Papasolomou, 2017). Moreover they also believe such plans also have the chance of exposing duplicitous promises made to the workers and investors. Many investors however rely upon a strong business plan which therefore tend to be disadvantage for the businesses who does not focus on the business planning. Further after bringing the business into a stable position, the small time business entrepreneurs get interested in planning the business for expanding their business opportunities.
The Blackwood store has always believed to be in support with the locals for the business. The store has always been there selling the local fresh products as well as locally grown fruits and vegetables to their customers. This has not only helped to create a relationship with the local farms and markets but also reduced the cost of importing the products. This helped in reducing the transportation cost of bringing the items from far away places moreover due to the local farms and vendors all the products that reach the store are fresh. With the concept of creating a business that will only highlight and offer the food of the region has helped the Blackwood store create a name among its competitors.
With time the Blackwood store also decided to expand the variety of their products so that they can attract more number of customers this helped them to offer customers products starting from cheese, meat, ice cream, jams and preservatives. They ensure that all the products coming in the stores are as fresh as possible. Providing quality products to the customers has encouraged more number of customers and it is observed that the products are sold within two days. So the support of the customers has helped in expanding the business to products such as wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages to daily household amenities such as soap, scrubs and other health products. Recently they have also decided to start up with the dairy and paper items too.
Similarly they made a very good rapport with the customers which is another very important business tactics. For the local people the stores have become a meeting point of the local people and most of them are the repetitive guests who comes with their friends. Another major business tactics is connecting with the customers with the help of social media and they have been very active on the social networks (Song & Kim, 2016). They always keep updating the customers about their latest products and offers and is constantly engaging them. Thus it ensures more business and more profit for the business. They are also very much active in their promotions with the help of the regional radio and the newspapers as well. To encourage more and more repetitive customers they have also introduced the scheme of discounting 50 cents on the products they buy. Thus with innovations in the marketing tactics they have been successfully getting attention of the local customers as well as the people visiting the place.
Answer 2
According to Pantelic, Sakal, & Zehetner (2016), consumerism is the social practices that helps to empower the buyers as well as consumers. So for the Blackwood store it is very important for them to maintain the quality of products offered to the customers. So they need to follow consumerism as they have been making a name for themselves by providing the best products and offer them with the correct information about their products. Consumerism forces the organization to provide goods and products as per the needs of the customers and the Blackwood store has been doing that ever since. They have been developing their business as per the needs of the locals and providing them with their desired products.
Ellis & Waller (2017) opined that often stores like the Blackwood store while focusing on consumerism generally forget about the impacts on the environment but it is very crucial that for such an established brand they need to take care of the environment. So they have been focusing on the environment impacts as well. So one of the steps taken is educating the farmers about the use of pesticides on their farms. They educate them how they can preserve and protect the soil of their farmlands. They have done extensive research on the products and how they can develop better means to provide the fresh goods. They have been educating the customers as well about the naturally grown products and how they can be much more beneficial than the fancy products from the supermarkets. They have been an example of how to balance consumerism without actually having an adverse effect on the environment. They have been constantly providing fresh fruits and vegetables that is harvested not more than 24 hours but they also make sure that the local farms follow their protocols and use natural means to harvest.
References
Atwong, C. T. (2015). A social media practicum: An action-learning approach to social media marketing and analytics. Marketing Education Review, 25(1), 27-31.
Ellis, R. B., & Waller, D. S. (2017). Marketing education at the University of Melbourne. History of Education Review, 46(1), 95-106.
Foxman, E. R., & Dobscha, S. (2015). Teaching Principles of Marketing from a Multicultural Perspective: A Proposed Exchange Framework. In Proceedings of the 1996 Multicultural Marketing Conference (pp. 214-215). Springer, Cham.
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2015). Principles of Marketing-Global Edition. Pearson.
Maxham, J. G., & Wilson, E. J. (2015). Integration and Assessment of Multimedia Technology in the Principles of Marketing Classroom. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 54-54). Springer, Cham.
Pantelic, D., Sakal, M., & Zehetner, A. (2016). Marketing and sustainability from the perspective of future decision makers. South African Journal of Business Management, 47(1), 37-47.
Papasolomou, I. (2017). The Concept of “Consumerism” from a Consumer Activist Perspective. In Socio-Economic Perspectives on Consumer Engagement and Buying Behavior(pp. 1-21). IGI Global.
Song, S. Y., & Kim, Y. K. (2016). Theory of virtue ethics: do consumers’ good traits predict their socially responsible consumption?. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-17.
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