Gloria Moss

Nightclubs and bars: what do customers really want?

Purpose – This paper aims to give a wider understanding of what customers really want from first and subsequent visits to mainstream city centre nightclubs and bars by examining customer attitudes to various aspects of the services arena and service offerings provided by such venues.Design/methodology/approach – Purposive sampling was used to establish two focus groups within the industrys main target market age group. This qualitative data were analysed from a grounded theory approach in order to identify the emerging themes that were then tested by quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire in phase 2 of the research. These data were then subjected to a frequency analysis in SPSS in order to identify those elements that were most preferred by the majority of respondents.Findings – Findings point to the relative importance of various elements of the servicescape in influencing customer decisions to enter a venue for the first time, and also to the relative importance of factors which prompt ...

Men and Women: Do They Value the Same Things in Mainstream Nightclubs and Bars?:

This paper explores whether young men and women, the main target market for mainstream nightclubs and bars, have similar or different preference priorities in respect of a first and subsequent visit to these venues. It suggests that an understanding of the gendered nature of place and the differing preferences of men and women can assist businesses in shaping their products and services around the needs of their customers. It suggests that this can be done through a study of preferences and expectations for price and non-price mechanisms of differentiation. In Phase 1 of the research, purposive sampling examined men and womens attitudes to the servicescape and offerings by mainstream nightclubs and bars. In Phase 2 of the research, the emerging themes were tested using quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire. The results highlight differences as well as similarities, in terms of the importance to men and women of various elements of the servicescape and service offering. In a saturated and competitive marketplace, these findings can assist mainstream venues within the late-night economy improve their competitive position. They can do this by isolating the elements that are gendered, thereby providing the venues with the opportunity to deliver service offerings that match these preferences and expectations.

The provision of delivery information online: a missed opportunity

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate Western and Central European consumers and web retailers with respect to the importance and accessibility of delivery information online prior to purchase.Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the importance and accessibility of delivery information online, a survey was conducted of 715 internet consumers from the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic to explore how important they rate online delivery information. In addition to this, retailing web sites from leading retailers in the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic were content analysed in order to establish the extent to which they provided online delivery information.Findings – The research identifies that consumers rate delivery pricing guides, delivery guarantees and delivery schedules as the most important delivery information they expect online prior to purchase. However, content analysis of retailer web sites reveals that many retailers do not adequately provide information about how they...

International marketing in an enlarged European Union: some insights into cultural heterogeneity in Central Europe

We inhabit a global village in which international marketers are encouraged to think and act with both global and local interests in mind. The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in January 2007 has created a 27 member state EU with a population of nearly half a billion. The purpose of this article is therefore to examine the nature of these differences in so far as they impact on the segmentation decisions made by international marketers. This article examines the literature on culture, identity, and self-concept and presents empirical results showing the diversity of these concepts within three countries that are now full EU members - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Polish nightclubs and bars: Management insights into what customers really want *

This research aims to analyse the needs of nightclub and bar customers from emerging and developing Polish market by examining customer preferences towards the servicescape and service offerings provided by such venues. Purposive sampling was used to establish two focus groups within the industry’s main target market age group. This data was then subjected to a frequency analysis in SPSS in order to identify those elements that were most preferred by the majority of respondents in Poland. Our findings point to the significant preferences of Polish club-goers, indicating importance of various elements of the servicescape (e.g. gender of clientele, security, seating, location of dance floor and service offering) in influencing customer decisions to enter a venue.

Obstacles to Greater Design Diversity: Gender and Webdesign Software

The last chapter explored some of the practical issues that stand in the way of achieving greater design diversity. This chapter will take this further by looking at the practical case of grocery websites, noticing how they fail to reflect the aesthetic diversity that would allow them to maximise their impact. In the second half, we will see how the majority of free webdesign software is similarly failing to deliver on diversity, and we suggest that at root is a male-dominated webdesign and Information Technology (IT) culture. We show here how this culture produces free webdesign software that is overwhelmingly masculine in its orientation.

Knowledge Management and the Positive Impact of a Collectivist Culture

How does cultural diversity affect the development of knowledge? This chapter explores an under-researched issue namely the relationship between individualism and collectivism and knowledge creation and does this through a study of the research process in universities in a collectivist (Slovenia) and individualistic country (Australia). The Higher Education (HE) sector provides a suitable context in which to study this question since it is home to a research community devoted to knowledge creation (KC) and knowledge management (KM), or intellectual capital management (ICM) as it is sometimes known. However, although this chapter focuses on the processes in the HE sector, the conclusions that are reached are relevant to other contexts such as commercial organisations where information and knowledge management are important.