Marketing Communications

Chapter 4 : Retail Market Strategy

Definition of Retail Market Strategy

Target market and Retail format

Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Location
Merchandise
Price
Service
Communications

Achieving Strategic Positioning

Operations
Purchasing/Logistics
Market research
Financing
Technology

Nature of Strategic Planning

Retail Strategic Planning Process

Developing the mission
Establishing objectives
Situational analysis
Identifying strategic alternatives
Selecting the target markets
Obtaining resources needed to compete
Developing positioning strategy
Strategy implementation
Evaluating results and Controlling operations

Chapter Summary

The importance of formulating a retail strategy is understood by all small and big retailers. To build a competitive advantage that can be sustained, retailers need to pay special attention to aspects like price, location, merchandise, service and communications. Operations, purchasing/ logistics, market research, financing and technology, which determine the strategic positioning of the firm are also equally important.

In this chapter, we discussed how each of these factors affect the firm's image. To utilize the limited human, financial and physical resources optimally, retailers should have a well-planned strategy. Thus retailers should follow a systematic step-by-step planning process for formulating and implementing the strategy. All the efforts of retailers are directed at the customers. So they should take every care to ensure that the customer gets the right impression and image of the stores. Periodic reviews and evaluations will help the retailer to take corrective actions either by re-planning the strategy or by implementing it more effectively.

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