Olivier Badot

Marketing theory and practice

Acknowledgements - Preface - List of Tables - List of Figures - Evolution of the Marketing Concept M.J.Baker - The Need for Theory in Marketing M.J.Baker - Sources and Status of Marketing Theory S.Brown - Consumer Behaviour L.McGregor - Organisational Buying Behaviour S.Rajagopa l - Market Segmentation D.Littler - Marketing Research J.Webb - Modelling Markets P.Leeflang - Diffusion Theory & Marketing M.J.Baker - New Product Development S.Hart - Pricing A.Diamantopoulos - Channel Management S.Ennis - Marketing Communications K.Crosier - Analytical Frameworks for Strategic Marketing Planning D.Brownlie - Business to Business Marketing K.Bernard - Retailing S.Carter - Customer Care B.Donaldson - Consumerism D.Tixier - International Marketing M.McDermott & Chan - Marketing and Eastern Europe P.Ghauri - Relationship Marketing Chan & M.McDermott - Marketing, Theory and Practice in a Post-modern Era Cova & Badot - Notes and References - Index

Marketing Theory and Practice in a Postmodern Era

The idea of the present as postmodern is now firmly on the agenda for debate. The postmodern has become a concept to be wrestled with, and such a battle-ground of conflicting opinions, that it can no longer be ignored by marketing theory and practice. But diverse and at times conflicting references to postmodernity and postmodernism are to be found in a growing number of disciplinary fields and across an increasingly broad range of discourses. Consequently, a number of difficulties are encountered in the analysis of modern and postmodern, notably the presence of a constellation of related terms, a lack of specificity associated with the concepts employed, particularly in relation to their historical referents or periodisation, as well as the existence of a number of conceptual distinctions between positive and negative manifestations of respectively modern and postmodern forms (Smart, 1990). However, the social and philosophical changes characterised by the label of ‘postmodern’ are considered as major traits of our times by a growing number of European and North-American marketing practitioners and researchers (Brown, 1993; Firat, 1991a, 1991b and 1992; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1992; Ogilvy, 1990; Venkatesh, 1989 and 1992; see also the special issue of the International Journal of Research in Marketing, vol. 10, 1993, on ‘Postmodernism, Marketing and the Consumer’).

The Contribution of Ethnology to Research in Consumer and Shopper Behavior: Toward Ethnomarketing

This theoretical paper analyzes the influence of ethnology on contemporary research in consumer and shopper behavior and in retailing. Within this framework, it defines the concept of ethnomarketing and sketches its epistemological status and operating rules. The final part points out the managerial contributions of ethnomarketing.

From the dichotomous paradigm of the shopping experience to the ubiquitous paradigm

As highlighted at a recent professional symposium on cross-channel commerce held by LSA (LSA, 2013), the trend in consumer habits is towards fragmentation, with consumers turning to increasingly varied channels and formats.1 New shopping habits (aiming at better cost control and resulting from more dispersed lifestyles) associated with the development of a ‘digital ecosystem’ (de Rosnay, 2013) prompts us to reconsider the traditional dichotomy – derived from that between commerce and e-commerce – that the business world and the academic community have observed between the ‘shopping experience’ and the ‘e-shopping experience’. The first reason for a discussion about the ‘dichotomous paradigm’ of the shopping experience stems from its segmented nature (having a shopping experience in a store vs. online). Indeed, the fragmentation of lifestyles,2 which causes consumers to commute and move about more and more and to consume on the go3 – the development of a ‘transit and takeaway society’ for Virilio (2009) – coupled with techno-commercial arrangements combining channels (cross-channel commerce) and/or formats (cross-format commerce4), tends to render a dichotomous and segmented perspective obsolete and replace it with an analysis in terms of flows, in terms of a ‘shopping peregrination’. For consumers, this entails optimizing trips (saving time, heightened efficiency) especially when one has a large number of activities to do (dropping off and picking up children, grocery shopping, leisure). For Gasnier (2007), shopping is now part of a complex chain that is meticulously organized and timed. The second reason to discuss the dichotomous paradigm concerns the notion of the attractiveness of a retail outlet or a commercial website. Indeed, as Pine and Gilmore (1999) have shown, shopping experience strategies appeared in the 1990s so that businesses could first build a reputation and attractiveness by providing their customers with highly hedonistic experiences (Filser, 1996), and then charge higher profit margins than they would be able to if they were just selling products or services. The same approach was then applied to websites. The aim of providing e-shopping experiences to online users, inspired by strategies used in brickand-mortar stores, was to increase differentiation and user traffic to websites (Belaud, 2011b ; Lemoine, 2008, 2012). In both cases, the strategy is to promote a shopping or an e-shopping experience by creating a (more or less) revisited destination. On the other hand, ‘in-transit’ shopping – such as bus and railway station retailing, which is fast expanding (Keller, 2009; Sabbah, 2011) as well as the possible use of mobile shopping apps for smartphones, called ‘Shazaming’ – the product offering Editorial: From the dichotomous paradigm of the shopping experience to the ubiquitous paradigm

Opportunities and risks of combining shopping experience and artistic elements in the same store: a contribution to the magical functions of the point of sale

ABSTRACT This article draws on the construct of store atmospherics to address one of the latest developments in that field, i.e. the strategy of incorporating artistic elements into the store. On the one side, incorporating artistic elements in store atmospherics constitutes an innovative way for retailers to differentiate their shopping experience. Such a hybrid retail strategy seeks to offer maximised hedonic gratification to store visitors, while adding symbolic value to the commercial offering. Store traffic and sales are thus stimulated. Incorporating artistic elements is also a magic way to conceal the store’s transactional purpose; through this association with the art world, the store is viewed as less mercantile. However, there is a risk that consumers will view the store as a ‘museum’ and visit without purchasing. Therefore we conduce a conceptual investigation of that experiential strategy in order to assess its effects on retailer’s commercial and marketing performance.

The Phygital Shopping Experience: An Attempt at Conceptualization and Empirical Investigation

The introduction of smartphones and the mobile web are changing the paradigm of marketing and retailing research, shifting from dichotomist to ubiquitous shopping experiences. The multichannel logic is giving way to an omnichannel one (Rigby, Harvard Business Review, 84:64–75, 2011), moving towards a closer intertwining of channels. Retailers, as they are dealing with a more liquid consumer, are witnessing a new form of omnichannel: connected or phygital stores. The phygital shopping experience consists in hybridizing the physical (the point of sale, its products, etc.) and digital components (touch screens, connected mirrors, NFC cards, etc.) at the same time and in the same place. The present inductive research presents an attempt at conceptualizing the latter, by confronting two research cases: a connected store and a screen-free store where phygital content is essentially produced by the clients. A hybridization continuum is proposed, with the related definitions. Space- and time-based, social, hedonic, sensorial and participative dimensions appear to be the most relevant. Finally, a table linking phygital objectives and the role of the retailer is presented.

The representation of shopping in children’s books

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the representations, figures and processes of shopping/commerce in books published in France that are aimed at three to seven-year-olds. Design/methodology/approach A semiotic analysis of nearly 50 books published over the past 60 years. Findings These books reveal a broad diversity in the images of shops given to children (ranging from the traditional shop, a source of pleasure and creator of social ties, to the hypermarket/megastore, a symbol of stress and overconsumption) and the wealth of information that is given to children to help them assimilate the process of a shopping transaction. Originality/value The originality and richness of this research lies in its methodological approach. Indeed, it is perfectly aligned with a recent academic trend that calls on researchers to mobilise and compare new data collection tools to apprehend current and future consumer behaviour. Consequently this research is based on an immersion in children’s books that depict the world of commerce in one way or another.