Method
The research topic will help to analyse how the several chosen retail brand (that are departmental store chains) and their competitors are efficiently offering the several service attributes that act as an important factor for regulating the customer flow in the chosen brand.
This research has been undertaken in order to assess and compare the facility that are available in the chosen organization of “Target Corporation” and the three other rival organizations of Australia which are operating as departmental retail chain in Australia just like the chosen organization “Target corporation” Australia. Target Corporation Australia is a mid-price department store chain which has been owned by Wesfarmers. This company is one of the Australia’s largest department store chains that are operating with 302 stores across Australia. The other three rival corporations that are being used in this research are Kmart Australia, Myer, and Big W Retail which are also the other departmental stores and operating in almost similar fashion in Australia. The research is based on assessing the kind of service qualities and product qualities that are available in organization “Target Corporation” and rival organizations.
The main objective of holding this research is to identify the followings:
- The efficiency of the chosen brand and their competitors regarding their capability of delivering service with respect to the chosen service attributes.
- The scope of improvement by identifying the gap that has been present with respect to the service attributes.
- To assess the service gap and the area of improvement in terms of perpetual map with respect to the chosen brand.
The research is important as the finding of the research will deliver a proper support for the other departmental store chain that is operating in similar fashion.
The method of quantitative analysis has been used for holding the research .In this quantitative analysis the online survey has been done on 10 customers who are visiting the chosen organization using the method of simple random sampling. So the sample of customers who are coming to the store is having a size of ten and the details of the sample composition are available in the questionnaire section (Kapferer, 2012).. The research is based on analysis of the several chosen dimensions like staff service, automation, product branding & parking facility. The online survey has been done by sending soft copy of the questionnaire to the email of the randomly chosen organizations.
These six attributes or dimensions that are being used in the report are quality of staff service, quality of service automation, availability of branded products, availability of Generic products, and availability of economic pricing, availability of parking facility.
The competitor brands are being chosen on the basis of working pattern. That is the brands that are operating in similar fashion as departmental store chain has been included here.
A set of 8 questions has been distributed to 10 randomly chosen customers who are young adults and the response that has been collected from the filled up returned questionnaire has been converted and recorded in quantitative format(Means, 2017). . For the purpose of research analysis questions were being asked to the respondents regarding how they asses the chosen organization Target corporation and its competitors namely Kmart Australia, Myer, and Big W Retail with respect to six attributes that are considered as crucial in attracting the customers towards the store.
These six attributes or dimensions that are being used in the report are quality of staff service, quality of service automation, availability of branded products, availability of Generic products, and availability of economic pricing, availability of parking facility (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2012).
|
Age group |
Percentage |
Number in each category |
Total |
|
Less than 20 years |
10% |
1 |
10 |
|
20-30 years |
40% |
4 |
10 |
|
30-45 years |
30% |
3 |
10 |
|
Above 45 years |
20% |
2 |
10 |
Analysis
As per the survey responses 70% of the respondents are falling within the age group of 20-45 years
|
Age group |
Percentage |
Number in each category |
Total |
|
Male |
40% |
4 |
10 |
|
Female |
50% |
5 |
10 |
|
Others |
10% |
1 |
10 |
According to the survey responses 50% of the respondents are female and 40% of the respondents are male.
|
Staff service |
|||
|
Brands |
Percentage |
Number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
30% |
3 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
25% |
3 |
10 |
|
Myer |
20% |
2 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
20% |
2 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
5% |
1 |
10 |
According to the majority of the respondents (30%) the brand “Target Corporation” is best in giving “staffing service” and another 25% of the respondents think that the brand “Kmart” is best in offering staffing service(Aaker & McLoughlin, 2010).
|
Service automation |
|||
|
Brands |
Percentage |
Number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
10% |
1 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
5% |
1 |
10 |
|
Myer |
13% |
1 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
7% |
1 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
65% |
7 |
10 |
Only 13% of the respondents think that the brand “MYER” is capable to offer good “automated service” to some extent and another 10% thinks that the brand “Target Corporation” s to some extent competent with this respect(Aaker, 2012). Again majority or 65% of the respondents think that good “automated service” is not available with any of the chosen brands
|
Branded Products |
|||
|
Brands |
percentage |
number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
45% |
5 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
15% |
2 |
10 |
|
Myer |
20% |
2 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
18% |
1.8 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
2% |
0.2 |
10 |
According to the majority of the respondents (45%) the brand “Target Corporation” is best in offering “Branded products” and another 20% of the respondents think that the brand “MYER” is best in offering “Branded products”.
|
Generic products |
|||
|
Brands |
percentage |
number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
10% |
1 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
15% |
2 |
10 |
|
Myer |
13% |
1 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
12% |
1 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
50% |
5 |
10 |
Only 15% of the respondents think that the brand “KMART” is capable to offer good “Generic products ” to some extent and another 13% think that the brand “MYER” s to some extent competent with this respect. Again majority or 50% of the respondents think that large variety of “Generic” is not available with any of the chosen brands(Holloway, 2017).
|
Economic pricing |
|||
|
Brands |
percentage |
number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
34% |
3 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
25% |
3 |
10 |
|
Myer |
20% |
2 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
20% |
2 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
1% |
0 |
10 |
34% of the respondents are thinking that the brand “Target Corporation” is best in offering “Economic pricing”, and another 25% think that the brand “MYER” is best in offering “Economic pricing”( Aaker, 2009).
|
Parking facility |
|||
|
Brands |
percentage |
number in each category |
Total |
|
Target Corporation |
25% |
3 |
10 |
|
Kmart |
30% |
3 |
10 |
|
Myer |
35% |
4 |
10 |
|
Big W Retail |
9% |
1 |
10 |
|
None of the above |
1% |
0 |
10 |
35% of the respondents are thinking that the brand “MYER” is best in offering “Parking facility”, and another 30% think that the brand “KMART” is best in offering “Parking Facility”.
The perpetual mapping has be done with respect to the availability of the attributes of “Service Automation” and “Staff service” as these two attributes are the most important attributes for pulling crowd to the store. From the mapping it is clear that majority of the respondents describe that there is lack of proper automation service in the selected brands which helps the customers to make systematic shopping with effective time savings. Not only that, the “service automation” helps a store to reduce the day to day operational cost (Savage et al.,2014).
The second perpetual mapping has been done with respect to the availability of the attributes of “branded products” and “Generic products” as these two attributes are also very important attributes for pulling crowd to the store. The mapping reveals that around 50% of the respondents are of opinion that in most of the store the generic c non branded variety of products is not available (Keller, Parameswaran & Jacob, 2011).
The majority of the respondents are female and falling within the age group of 20-45years .Thus the retailers should target the middle aged female shoppers where most of which have the capability to earn as target segment for selling their products. Most of the chosen brands re good in offering staffing service or branded products .The brand “target corporation ” is better from rest of the rivals in offering “economic pricing” to the customers, but the brand has to work for improving the “parking facility ” offered to the customers(De & Hofstede, 2010).
The perpetual mapping reveals a striking fact that the chosen brand “target corporation” as well as the rivals has to work for offering good “Service Automation” and “generic products”. Therefore the research reveals that the chosen brand “target corporation” should work in the field of “Service Automation” and “generic products” as it is the indentified attribute gap that must be improved for attaining the required competitive edge (Fionda, & Moore, 2009).
The data information gathered is important and interesting as the analysis of data identifies the fact the areas of service improvement.
The analysis has been done only on the basis of six attributes due shortage of time and budget where there are also some other noticeable service attributes that works for pulling the customers to the stores(Kotler, 2012).
The analysis is based on only the response of ten respondents within the time constraint as it is difficult to gather voluntary responses from the customers.
References:
Aaker, D. A. (2009). Managing brand equity. simon and schuster.
Aaker, D. A. (2012). Building strong brands. Simon and Schuster.
Aaker, D. A., & Joachimsthaler, E. (2012). Brand leadership. Simon and Schuster.
Aaker, D. A., & McLoughlin, D. (2010). Strategic market management: global perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.
De Mooij, M., & Hofstede, G. (2010). The Hofstede model: Applications to global branding and advertising strategy and research. International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), 85-110.
Fionda, A. M., & Moore, C. M. (2009). The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand. Journal of Brand Management, 16(5-6), 347-363.
Fionda, A. M., & Moore, C. M. (2009). The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand. Journal of Brand Management, 16(5-6), 347-363
Holloway, S. (2017). Straight and Level: Practical Airline Economics: Practical Airline Economics. Routledge.
Kapferer, J. N. (2012). The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers.
Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G., & Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.
Kotler, P. (2012). Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster.
Means, G. (2017). The modern corporation and private property. Routledge.
Savage, M., Barlow, J., Dickens, P., & Fielding, T. (2014). Property Bureaucracy & Culture: Middle Class Formation in Contemporary Britain. Routledge.
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