1、2160 单词， 11000 英文字符， 4880 汉字 出处： Leonard Lodish. New Retail Strategies: Offering a Better Fit for Todays Careful Consumers J. Marketing Letters, 2011, 5(4):395-411. NEW RETAIL STEATEGIES: OFFERING A BETTER FIT FOR TODAYS CAREFUL CONSUMERS Leonard Lodish Retailers looking for growth in todays economy
2、 might pick up a lesson or two from Coca-Colas Freestyle vending machines. First tested in 2009 and now rolling out full force nationwide, the futuristic touch-screen machines offer customers 125 different beverage choices, from flavored Dasani waters and sports drinks to Diet Cherry Coke. Customers
3、 can even create their own combinations - Fanta Orange and vanilla cream soda, anyone? - or try flavors unavailable elsewhere, like Raspberry Coke. This month, the company launched apps for Facebook and smart phones that let customers mix and name their own drink. Plans are that one day the apps wil
4、l spit out a bar code for customers to scan at Freestyle machines and automatically dispense their own personalized blend. Coca-Cola is dispensing more than just flavored water, says Wharton marketing professor Jerry Wind. The company is also creating excitement, tapping into social networks, giving
5、 people a chance to customize their own product and empowering customers in ways that a traditional vending machine cant match. Those are important retail strategies in todays economy, where one out of five people in the United States is either unemployed or underemployed and consumers remain reluct
6、ant to spend. Since the recession began in 2008, retail in the U.S. has split into two extremes, Wind notes. On one hand, there is the luxury market, which caters to a small segment of wealthy people unaffected by economic ups and downs. Aside from a drop-off at the beginning of the recession, when
7、luxury spending seemed ungainly, this segment still spends. On the other hand are discount brands, which have grown their market share as consumers scrimp and trade down to cheaper products. Brands that fall between those two categories will continue to be squeezed, Wind says, and will need to creat
8、e excitement to make their product stand out. In many ways, its a retail story that never changes, says Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish: Retailers that really solve problems and delight consumers in ways that other retailers cant . do very well. The recession has forced many retailers to
9、get back to basics, according to Barbara Kahn, a Wharton marketing professor and director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at Wharton. In todays environment, where shoppers carefully consider each purchase, retailers cant afford to be sloppy about what they offer. I think this has been a good le
10、sson for retailers, she says. You really have to deliver genuine value. That doesnt always mean offering the cheapest product, Kahn points out. Apple remains the prime example of a company that can sell high-priced gadgets despite a recession. What it does mean is that the price has to be right. To
11、the value-conscious consumer, for example, a classic suit made of cheap fabric would be no more appealing than a trendy outfit made of the finest silk: Neither would last long - the first because of the material, the second because of style. A better fit for todays careful consumer: a classic suit m
12、ade well, or a fashionable outfit made affordably. Our shopping patterns have changed, Kahn says. That should change retailers behavior, too. Golf Balls Online 24/7 Whether shopping on Amazon or finding deals through social networks, consumers have also learned to save money online, and that promise
13、s to be a permanent behavioral shift, notes Wharton marketing professor David R. Bell. The Internet just offers so many ways to save - both through the advice, opinions and experiences of others, and through the direct deals from sellers. Once consumers have had great deals and great advice, it make
14、s no sense to shift back. But retailers are missing the point if they only use online media to promote in-store sales. Finding new ways to make sales online is also a huge area for growth. Indeed, the game is no longer limited to e-commerce, notes the August issue of Chain Store Age, a trade magazin
15、e for retailers: Now theres also F-Commerce, M-commerce, S-commerce and V-commerce - thats Facebook, mobile, social media and video. I think customers respond to social marketing if its a two-way dialogue, according to Erin Armendinger, managing director of the Baker Center. People want to be heard.
16、 People want to talk. This gives them an outlet. Companies that are very responsive to their online community - retailers like Nordstrom and Victorias Secret - get more out of the interaction than just online sales. Like Cokes vending machine, which sends data back to the Atlanta headquarters about
17、taste preferences and shopping activity, a thriving online community can also give retailers a huge amount of market data - a window into what customers want. Its a way to link everything, David Jaffe, president and CEO of Suffern, N.Y.-based Ascena Retail Group, says of the companys multi-channeled
18、 online strategy. Ascena is the parent company of dressbarn, maurices and the Justice brands. The company uses online formats to reach out to existing customers about store promotions, but also uses online forums to do surveys and promote events that build up the brand. Recent examples include mauri
19、ces Small Town Sound and Main Street Model contests, online campaigns that tapped the stores customers to find girl-fronted bands and models from small towns across the country. Its not so much about the product； its about the brand, Jaffe notes. If we get people engaged in the brand, its much easie
20、r to get them from thinking about the brand to thinking about the products. The online world also opens up sales opportunities that stores cant match, says Edward W. Stack, chairman and CEO of Dicks Sporting Goods, a specialty sporting goods retailer based in Pittsburgh. For example, the stores onli
21、ne site offers customers the entire line of FootJoy Golf Shoes, a selection impossible to stock in a bricks-and-mortar store. Customers can order customized athletic shoes or golf balls online. Dicks is marketing its online business aggressively and adding new products like mobile apps to capitalize
22、 on the opportunity. We want people to be able to shop with us 24 hours a day, Stack notes. We want people to be able to shop with us however and whenever they want to. Not every retailer is following suit. According to Chain Store Age, 87% of consumers say they expect retailers to be able to track
23、an order via any channel, but only 46% of retailers offer this ability. Nevertheless, online retail sales are up almost $21 billion from last year, according to Forrester Research, an independent research firm in Cambridge, Mass. Forrester also forecasts mobile commerce sales to have a compound annu
24、al growth rate of 39% every year until 2016, increasing to $31 billion by that time. The danger for retailers: Mobile users may also be using their phones to shop elsewhere. In a March survey of 8,000 consumers, online comparison shopping site PriceGrabber found that 29% of smart phone users have downloaded at least one shopping app. About a third of them use the apps to compare prices or find nearby products to purchase.
