A situational factor is something that influences a consumer but is not a result of marketers or retailers. Marketers have to look at several different situational factors and try to market their product so that the most amounts of people will buy it, regardless of situational factors. This can be difficult because there are many situational factors that can affect a consumer’s buying behaviors. Situational factors can include a consumer’s education, family, social group, income, mood, or even the amount of time that a consumer has to shop. I will be talking about the situational factor of time and how it can affect a consumer’s decision. Time is a vague term but I will define it as the amount of time a consumer has to make the intended shopping …show more content…
purchases that they came to a store for. Researchers have already explored this factor, specifically Whan Park from the Journal of Consumer Behavior. Time plays a role in shopping, whether it be the time intervals that a consumer shops (once a week, twice a week, every day, etc.) or the amount of time that a consumer has to shop once they are actually inside a store. Time can play a role in purchasing intentions and the ultimate purchasing outcome. With less time, consumers can fail to make intended purchases, have more unplanned buying, and can switch brand or products. While exploring this, Kollat and Willett found that approximately one-half of grocery store purchases are unplanned (1). This can be the result of a few things. With less time, consumer’s levels of stress rise and their retrieval of memory is not as strong as normal (2). They may have a hard time remembering what they need to buy or where certain products are in the store. Time plays an even larger factor in a consumer’s behavior when the consumer is unfamiliar with the store that they are shopping in (2). Researchers found that when a consumer is pressured by time, they begin to trade off between the speed and accuracy of their purchases (2). If a consumer has less time they are more likely to switch brands or products so that they can leave the story earlier (2). People may also leave the store without making the purchases they planned on. They also found that when under time pressure, consumers will look for the basic requirements of what they are expecting from a product rather than what product offers the most. They choose the most desirable product at the time, even if it is not what they initially desired before they were under time pressure (3). If time pressure is researchers found that people postpone their shopping list or forget the products that they don’t buy on a daily basis, like vitamins or cleaning supplies (2). When I am shopping, regardless of what I am shopping for, time plays a huge role in my purchasing behavior. I act the same way that researchers have found other consumers act, especially while grocery shopping. When I have plenty of time set aside to shop, I often leave the store with my shopping list complete. However, when I have more time I find that I usually buy more than what I intended to. This is because I find myself wandering around and picking things off of shelves that look like they good made a good meal or snack. I also often wonder the isles to see if there is anything that my house could benefit from if I bought the product I see. When I don’t have a lot of shopping time, I never do this. I go in the store and try to leave as quickly as possible, even if this means sacrificing things on my shopping list. I will often prioritize my shopping list based on what food I have at home and what meals I will need to plan for before I can make it to the grocery store again. I don’t have a set grocery store because I often go to the store that is most convenient to me at the time. This means that a lot of the time I am in an unfamiliar store and don’t know where to find my products. As a result, I am usually not very picky about what brands I get. Normally I try to get the same brands because I have experience with them and know they are reliable and taste good, but if I am short on time I will grab the brand that I find first so I don’t waste time looking for a product. If I don’t know the store layout, I typically find myself with less time to shop because I spend a lot of time figuring out where everything is. My behavior is well predicted by researchers, and I found it interesting that researchers found that people with low store knowledge engage in backtracking at an average of 6 times compared to people who are familiar with the store who only backtrack 3 times (1). I also act the same way when I am buying at other stores, like a technology store. I was once on my way to school and was preparing for a six-hour drive. I wanted to get to my house before dark but I realized that my audio cable for my car had broken. I went to Best Buy to buy a new audio system and when I asked an employee where to look, he said I could find what I was looking for in two different sections. Due to my time pressure, I only looked at one of the suggested locations and made my decisions based on the products in that specific location. I disregarded my normal brands of audio products and went with the cheapest option they had. If I had more time, I would have looked at both locations, compare prices and user reviews by looking online and asking employees for help, and I would be more likely to buy from a brand I am familiar with, like Apple. Due to my time pressure, my shopping behaviors changed drastically. However, not all consumers are the same, even if the same situational factor is affecting them. Take my mother, Jennifer, for example. Jennifer is a mother of 6 and has been grocery shopping several times a week for years. She is an experienced shopper and always goes to the same store because she knows that store has the lowest prices. She is also very brand loyal because she knows what she likes and she knows what her kids like as well. When Jennifer has plenty of time to shop, she completes her shopping list without a problem and gets the normal brands she buys. However, when she has the extra time she likes to look at coupons, savings, and sales that the store is offering. Based on what is on sale or cheaper, she often ends up trying new things and buying items that were not originally on her shopping list. When Jennifer does not have a lot of time to shop she doesn’t look at sales and goes straight to the products she likes and knows are cheap due to previous shopping experiences. Researchers have found that consumers often do not process in-store information when they have time pressure while shopping. This information includes sales, new products, new ingredients, new packages designs, and more (2). Jennifer’s behaviors when she has no time pressure is predictable by researchers because she spends time looking for new products and savings, just like other consumers do. Another consumer that different from Jennifer and myself could by my friend, Andrew. Andrew just moved into a new apartment and is starting to grocery shop for himself and by himself instead of shopping with his experienced roommates and looking for meals for three people. Due to the fact that he is a new shopper, time pressure highly impacts his consumer behavior. Andrew likes to take the time to look at many deals and savings so that he can save as much money as possible. However, under time pressure Andrew does not do this because most of his time is spent exploring the grocery store and trying to find what he is looking for. He does a lot of backtracking and he has trouble finding things on his shopping list even when he isn’t under time pressure, so when he is Andrew doesn’t spend time looking for ways to save. This is a predictable behavior from researchers. Due to the increased time required to locate items, Andrew is often under time pressure while shopping. As a result, he does not buy the same brands and is very adventurous with the things he buys and he is used to trying new things. Impulse buying under time pressure is a very predictable behavior (1) and markets should keep that in mind when designing their products because Andrew usually buys whatever catches his attention first. Andrew does not like to be under time pressure so he tries to go shopping only once a week. This causes Andrew to have a more impulsive purchasing behavior because he sees products and starts to think of unrecognized needs. Andrew will buy things he didn’t intend to because he doesn’t want to make a trip to the store if he needs a single item. Changes in the consumer’s needs as a result of time are a common behavior predicted and observed by researchers (2), so Andrew could be easily marketed to with the right marketing strategy. There are several ways to accommodate the situational factor of time pressure and the company Walgreens does a great job of taking off time pressure from its customers.
First off, they promote their store-likeness. Their slogan is “At the corner of happy and healthy” and this is because every Walgreens is on a corner. This allows customers to save time because Walgreens are typically on busy roads, easily accessible and very visible. Once inside the store, Walgreens arranges their stores so that products are in the same place at every store. This means that no matter what Walgreens a consumer goes to, they will be able to find their products because they are all in the same place. If a consumer shops at Walgreens a few times they become comfortable with the store setting and the placement of products so they don’t spend as much time looking for products or backtracking. This allows for consumers to finish their shopping faster and might result in more impulsive buying from the consumers. Walgreens is a drugstore but it also offers a variety of products, including groceries. This allows the customers to have less time pressure on them because they can go to Walgreens instead of traveling to different stores for different items. Walgreens also puts all of their prices and coupons in very visible sight so that consumers can easily find the best savings. If a customer is unaware of a saving, employees will tell them at the checkout and have extra coupons on hand. This eliminates the time spent looking for savings and coupons for the consumer. They place several checkout aisles at their store and if an aisle ever gets too crowded, the employees will communicate and open up another aisle in a very timely fashion so that consumers can spend more time shopping and less time in line. Finally, Walgreens also offers a drive-through for their pharmacy so that consumers can get the products they need or want as fast as possible. All of these strategies combined allow for a lot
of time pressure to be taken off from the consumer and as researchers have seen, this can cause consumers to have more impulses buying. This means they will buy more products and Walgreens can make more money from the same amount of consumers.
With the Walgreen's proposed acquisition of Rite Aid, we posed 3 questions to our members. Here are the questions and the results:
Walgreens was founded in 1901 measuring 50 feet by 20 feet by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr.. Mr. Walgreen was born near Galesburg, Illinois and his family later relocated to Dixon, Illinois at town about 60 miles north of his birthplace. Mr. Walgreens’ father was a farmer who turned into a businessperson and saw a great potential of the Rock River Valley (Walgreen, n.d., p.1). At age 16, Charles Walgreen had his first experience working in a drug store. He didn’t always have pleasurable experiences but it was a job with pay. He had an accident at a shoe factory that cut off his left middle finger from the top joint. This injury also stops him from playing any sports at school. After a year and a half with the drug store, Mr. Walgreen left to pursue something bigger in the big city-Chicago.
Since 1901, Walgreens has had a strong passion for customer service. The founder, Charles Walgreens, goal was to create a drugstore that was like no other. He said that for as many drugstores as he had worked at, he had never worked for one that had a focus for good customer service and low prices. Walgreens has grown by leaps and bounds since 1901 and is now recognized as the leader in the market with over 7000 stores. Charles Walgreen had an eye for good managers. He said he was able to pick people that he knew were smarter than him so to promote them and make them the heads of his drugstores. As a store manager, not only is it your job to run a store which includes ordering, customer care, and inventory control, but also it is your job to manage the staff. As a part of managing staff, it is their responsibility to hire, train and develop, and terminate if need be. While there are many jobs to choose from when it comes to HR and employee staffing, I choose this one because it is by far to me the most intense.
We are all consumers, and we buy diverse products every day. But, do you know what the main factor is that influences us to choose a product? If someone selects a cloth, maybe he pays attention to its quality! Customers’ decisions can be changed depending on what the main factors they are looking at. Various influences can cause consumers to select different products.
Walgreens ensures to have high quality products and solutions by making it convenient for clients to get in and out with what they actual need, enhancing its beauty products and stimulate the convergence of health care by putting everything together. In addition, by utilizing over-the counter health service and providing wellness products, the company helps its customer to find more seamless solutions. Employees are trained to make friends and build relationship internally with their customer. Beyond accelerating the products in the physical store, delivering well experiences to customers also need highly engaged employees offer superior customer care in every community. In addition to provide outstanding customer service in retail stores, the company started a piloting program where people are able to order their prescriptions through phone and takes advantage of convenient curbside pick up. In essence, this action partly shifts Walgreens from a retailer to a service based organization. As a result, through the functional strategy in the company, customers can undergo the differential shopping experiences compared to other drugstore in the industry, and the company can improve its positive reputation and customer
Walgreens is a substantial affluence in the United States, as it is one of the leading drugstore chains in the market. Recently, we have looked into bringing the company to Canada in hopes of attaining the same or greater level of success. Walgreens in Canada could be the perfect fit, as the 24 hour availability along with the “one stop shop” experience and convenient prices would be beneficial to the many people living there. The drugstore and pharmaceutical market, location, and culture are all taken into consideration in order to establish if the company would be successful in Canada.
Wal-Mart does its best to provide service of the best quality, with the utmost integrity, and at the lowest possible prices. Wal-Mart pharmacy caters to its clients to ensure that they are comfortable receiving and using their medications. Wal-Mart also offers different plans and programs for patients with different needs. Their pharmacies have a
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
The benefits or competitive advantage Wal-Mart derived over the years from its supply chain management practices is also covered. The reason Wal-Mart is ahead of their competition is because they invest in technology in the 1980s. This investment paid off in the long run. Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communication systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country. They have set up own satellite communication in 1983. Employees at the stores have the ‘Magic Wand’ at hand. These barcode scanners allow you to check the prices of items at that particular store by scanned the barcode on the product. This is especially helpful when there is clearance that isn 't always marked and sometimes clearance items are cheaper than they
Consumer Decision Making Process A key factor in successfully marketing new/existing products or implementing a product Extension is a thorough understanding of the motivation, learning, memory, and decision Processes that influence consumers purchasing behavior. Consumer purchasing behavior theories have found their way into managerial decision making to help companies more effectively develop and launch new products, segment the market, determine market entrance and in brand management. Therefore, a better understanding of how consumers decide what to purchase is critical to the success of a product. There are numerous theories and models describing the consumer purchasing decision process.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a renowned retail goods superstore that sits atop the Fortune list at number one. It would be very difficult to find an individual who is unaware of Walmart’s position as the largest brick-and-mortar retail chain in the world. The company has thrived over the past few years and is continuing to grow by effectively managing its store operations and distribution strategies. One of the major contributors to the business consistently meeting market expectations is directly attributable to their management approach. Walmart has revolutionized the way retail companies manage their supply chains in more ways than one. But, perhaps the most revolutionary was the practice of unprecedented coordination with suppliers (Chekwa,
Walgreens is executing digital strategies to improve their customers’ in-store experience. The pharmacy’s app lets customers navigate “in-store product searches, clip and save coupons, and fill prescriptions with a few taps.” The retail chain wants the out-of-store mobile capabilities to lure more customers to their physical locations.
The factors that have a great influence on marketing management, marketers’ business decision-making, and their relationship with customers include macro- and micro-environment, and the latter in turn includes the concept of so-called “4 P’s” (i.e., product, place, promotion, and price). Micro-environment is also referred to as “immediate environment” and stands for the factors that are literally “close” to a certain company: its suppliers, customers, intermediaries (e.g., advertising agencies), and competitors (“Marketing environment,” n.d.) Four P’s are also called “the marketing mix,” and their most widely used interpretation belongs to McCarthy (Blythe, 2008). The marketing mix indicates the four aspects of how to make your business profitable and yourself proficient as a marketing specialist. As Cannon (1992) pointed out, “The marketing mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” First, the business person needs to understand what the product of consumer’s desire is. It is obvious that “an undesired product” will not be sold. Producers, however, may invent something that consumers even did not expect to have but really wanted, at least, unconscious...
Environment and the people giving service at that have an effect on customer to make a decision on buying the product.