Retailers test new store formats for over-crowded urban marketsRetailers test new store formats for overcrowded

urban markets
Qualitative Marketing Research Individual Assignment
Sumit Kumar Pramanik. Roll- 12PGP383. Sec- A.umit Kumar Pramanik. Roll- 12PGP383. Sec- A.

Retailers test new store formats for over crowded urban markets
Research Problem:
What are the still unmet needs and desires of customers when it comes to retail shopping in the urban markets?

Research objectives:
To propose new store formats that can be set up by retailers to increase penetration in the urban markets. To recommend ways in which the current retail store formats can be modified to make them more profitable by increasing penetration in the urban markets.

Appropriate Qualitative Techniques:

Focussed Group Discussions In-depth Interview Observation Projective Techniques

Qualitative Techniques Justification:

Techniques Focussed Group Discussions Justification This is an opinion based research. The nuances of opinions can be best captured when people are allowed to interact in a group This will also help us in understanding the factors affecting the respondents behaviours. Also, an FGD is useful if a large scaled qualitative research needs to be carried out, as is the case with this research. In this case, not capturing the differences of opinions is as important as capturing the opinions of individual respondents. An FGD will serve this purpose as well. We also need to know the behaviour of each respondent when they interact in a group because retail shopping can be related to group dynamism. To study such details, conducting FGDs is necessary. It may so happen that some individuals are not willing to disclose all their feelings and thoughts about their shopping activities in front of other people. In such cases, an in-depth interview is appropriate. This method will help us to delve deeper into the individuals thoughts and elicit the hidden desires, thus moving beyond the respondents present shopping behaviour.

In-depth Interview: This may be costly for your research both in time and money. Also it is store features that we are researchring so it would give ample scope for respondents to express their views without any

inhibition.

Observation: You may like to choose those stores which are considered as well designed in view of experts or consumers. This provides us with some benchmark to meet or probe the respondent better. Projective Techniques: What specifically would you do here?

This method can also be useful for correlating the data obtained about the respondents opinions through FGDs. In-depth interviews of all the stakeholders involved including retailers, salesmen, suppliers, etc. Will help us greatly in understanding various aspects associated with urban shopping. This is arguably the best research methodology for identifying new business opportunities. Since in this research, we are more concerned with the opportunities than the present condition, this is an appropriate method. This is also a good method for validating the data obtained through FGDs and in-depth interviews. Observation will also help us in studying the respondents in actual shopping settings. Hence, it will be more direct and transparent way of data collection. Our research is related to the psychology of an individual in terms of his inherent attitudes, biases and judgements about the present retail shop formats. These details of the psychological realm can be effectively studied using projective techniques. This technique will also allow us to take data from a larger sample size which would not be possible in the case of FGDs and in-depth interviews. This is a very interactive and interesting way of data collection and hence, there will be a relaxed and whole-hearted participation for this method. This will help us in gathering useful data.

Respondent Profiling:
Respondent profiling should be done in the following five stages: 1) Setting: Since this study is carried out for consumer needs and desires in the context of retail shopping in the urban market, the setting for this study should be urban market. This should be our focus area for further segmentation. 2) Demographics: For this aspect, two age groups should be taken under consideration. This has been done because the shopping needs for the age group 16-28 years would be hugely different from that for the age group of 29-40 years. 3) Monthly Shopping Expenditure: For this purpose, the respondents should be further segmented based on their monthly expenditure on retail shopping. This will also give us an indicator of the ticket value for each purchased item. 4) Shopping frequency: This should be considered because shopping willingness will have a good correlation with shopping needs of an individual. Here, two frequency groups, one <=10 times and one>10 times per month, has been taken for consideration.

5) Organized/Unorganized retail shopping: This segmentation has been done by keeping in mind the shopping preferences of different people. The needs and desires of people going to a kirana shop would be hugely different than those of people going to malls and supermarkets.
Urban shoppers

16-28 years

29-40 years

Expendit ure<= Rs5,000

Expendit ure>Rs5, 000

Expendit ure<= Rs5,000

Expendit ure>Rs5, 000

Shopping freq <=10 per month

Shopping freq >10 per month

Shopping freq <=10 per month

Shopping freq >10 per month

Shopping freq <=10 per month

Shopping freq >10 per month

Shopping freq <=10 per month

Shopping freq >10 per month

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

Unor ganiz ed retail shop pers

Orga nized retail shop pers

It is necessary that a maximum variation sampling is done where each of these segments are represented by some respondents. Only then can we get responses which can be used by businesses to design new store formats. If a company has already decided to target a specific segment, then it will be interested in the data obtained from the respondents of that segment only. Within these segments, random sampling should be done to avoid any biases that might creep in the research study. Extreme sampling would involve including respondents who either never go for retail shopping or go for it unusually often. This type of sampling will help us to compare and validate our results and predict whether our recommendations would have any desired effect.

Questions/ Steps to facilitate data collection:

Questions/Steps for different techniques of qualitative research to be used in this case are: Techniques Focussed Group Discussions o o o o o In-depth Interview When your questions are same in both what is the necessity for duplication? As suggested earlier you may chose FGDs. o o o o o Observation you need not inform the respondents as it would influence their behaviour. Questions/ Steps What do you think are your main motivations for retail shopping? What is your favourite retail shop? What are its top three features that you like? What are your needs for which you have to go to different places to shop? Are there any needs which are never/ rarely catered to by any retail shop? If yes, what are they? What do you think should be the main concerns in the following categories to look after when a retailer wants to set up a shop: (take up one category at a time and open it for discussion) Store layout Availability Store Ambiance Payment options Related services Other facilities such as return policies, parking lot Where do you think are the specific areas in which the present retail shops can improve themselves? You may also want to know sales representatives and their attitudes which enhances the experience of stores. What do you think are your main motivations for retail shopping? What are the most important three features that you like in retail shop? What do you think should be the main concerns in the following categories to look after when a retailer wants to set up a shop: (take up one category at a time and open it for discussion) Store layout Availability Store Ambiance Payment options Related services What are your present needs which are not catered to by any present retailer? If you were given a chance to open a retail shop with a substantial amount of resources, what are the top three innovative things you would like to put in place? Full transparency should be maintained while observing the respondents. The respondents should be informed that they are being observed. The observation data should be thoroughly validated using data obtained from other techniques so that any fake/ incongruent shopping behaviour can be eliminated. While observing, the effect of shopping as an individual as well as in a group should be taken into account.

Projective Techniques

The respondents will be shown cartoons containing two characters where one character will asking questions like: o It seems you love this store very much. Whenever we come here, you seem to be very happy. Why is it so? o You know this store can be much better than what it is now. You know how? o You see, a person may have needs or desires or whims which no store fulfils presently. Do you have anything of that sort? Then the respondent will be asked to fill in the reply of the second character.

Plan for carrying out analysis of data:

The data obtained from different techniques of research study can be analyzed as follows: Techniques Focussed Group Discussions Analysis steps Firstly, the FGD should be video recorded and then taken up for analysis. Different categories should be made and coded to capture respondent segment, level of consensus, proxemic, chronemic, kinesic, and paralinguistic information. Eg: AA- Absolute Agreement, AB- Partial Agreement, AC- Non Agreement, PA- Laughter, PB- Sighing, PC- Frowning, LA- Leans forward, LB- Leans backward Then for each question asked during the FGD, the responses of each member should be captured in the coded format. This can be represented as a matrix. This matrix can then be used to study the points where the unmet shopping desires and needs are being highlighted a significant number of times. Also, the factors most important for retail shopping should be studied to gain a deeper insight of the respondents data. An in-depth interview can be similarly categorized and analyzed as discussed above. However, if the same respondent is being used for FGDs and interviews, the respondents variation in answering in the two techniques should be highlighted. We should try to find relevant themes or patterns in the responses of the participants and capture them. These patterns in answering questions related to unmet needs or desires are especially important. While capturing patterns, the similarities and variations among different respondent segments should be highlighted. During observation, common patterns should be studied more carefully and any sign of dissatisfaction should be properly captured. The video of observation should be studied several times to dig out the reasons behind any respondents notable behaviour. These data can be similarly categorized and coded as discussed in

In-depth Interview

Observation Projective

Techniques

the case of FGDs. These data can then be collated and studied for common patterns among the responses. The psychological aspects of sentence construction by the respondents should also be taken under consideration.

Expectations from the study:

From the study, we would gain an in-depth understanding about the major aspects of a retail store that are valued by the customer. This may be an important insight because what the retailers think about the important factors may be different from what customers value. Thus, we would come to know about the needs and desires of customers which are not being met by an existing retail shop. From this gap analysis, we can exploit the business opportunity existing therein. We will then be in a position to suggest a store format that will be best suited to the latent need of customers. Also, we will be able to make a call on whether retailers should modify some aspects of the existing store format, or go for a new format altogether. This study will thus facilitate the retailers to channelize their resources and strategies accordingly. This study will also help a retailer in resolving the dilemma of whether to adopt the strategy of a mass retailer, or to cater to a niche segment. If a retailer finds that going for a niche segment will provide him enough customers to exceed his expected ROI, he may go for a niche market. On the other hand, if he finds that competing on cost can provide him more number of customers leading to a better ROI, he will be inclined towards adopting a mass retail format. ************************************************************************