Assignment title: Information
Dear all,
The retail industry has recently been dynamic and innovative nowadays. Consumers do not only
look at the beauty of the store but are influenced by factors beyond that characteristic. The
surveys I have performed through my extensive search through informative journals and articles
has convincingly re-aligned my research topic accordingly.
"The Impact of the Marketing Mix and Sustainability on shaping consumer references Towards
Non- Food Stores" threw more light into the information and the targeted literature I needed to
present in my project. In Summary, the paper focuses on customers as major key players in the
industry with ideas, and operations based on their perspective. It further goes ahead to
expound the buying attitudes of customers and further dissects the sustainability of the stores
into two significant parts thus the quantitative and the qualitative. The quantitative category
represents the ambience of the store, competitive prices, fantastic customer service a robust
supply chain while the qualitative refers to factors regarding the environment which includes
corporate social responsibility (CSP), environmental protection, promoting fair trade products,
waste management and recycling. The paper further investigates the changing trends of the
consumer and bridges the gap with regards to the consumer's philosophy.
Another article is "Behavioral responses to customer satisfaction; an empirical study" which
systematically outlines the significance of customers and empirically researches into their
meaning of satisfaction. The paper further display a significant way to measure instruments of
service quality in order to identify its impact in ensuring customer satisfaction in the minds of
customers. It further goes ahead to summarize and compare the relationship between customer
satisfaction and the successful financial performance of the retail firms.
Another article that has assisted in redefining my research topic is "Green Marketing Factor of
Competitiveness in retailing "a peculiar paper whose literature does not follow the usual
characteristics of retail customers. The research reveals that sustainability of the industry does
not only mean availability of goods, competitive prices or the accurate market mix. The
perception of customers with regards to sustainability in this research paper is the positive
impact the retail business has on the environment. The retail business has developed a
paradigm shift from the normal research results and have resorted to qualitative findings which
includes recycling of products, looking at the health of consumers in food and non- food,
optimizing packaging procedures in order to gain competitive advantage.
Having glanced through this significant research papers has enables me restructure my research
topic as such to reveal logic and meaningful literature with regards to the retail industry. Having
been in this professional field for barely a decade I feel my topic "The relationship between BSC
and Marketing Mix in Sustaining the Retail Industry in Ghana" which is will use the Balanced
Score Card and the Marketing mix to determine the level of sustainability it emits from the
customers perspective. The literature will provide detailed assessment of the retail companies
and the environment and measures that would like to be employed to be satisfied.
However it is important to note that having successfully drafted this lengthy topic I would like to
address some hazards on the way. First will my topic be able to yield the required amount of
information needed? Are the component of the topic related in a way that makes sense? Is it
relevant to focus on the whole industry or a focus on a specific part? On the other hand most
research websites have limited research documents regarding this topic? My topic is open to
assistance.
Reference
Athanassopoulos A,Gounaris, S. (2001) " Behavioural responses to customer satisfaction:
an empirical study available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
Dabija, D.C., Pop, C.M. (2013), "Green marketing – Factor of Competitiveness in
Retailing", Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, Vol. 12, No 2, pp.393-400.
Dabija D.C., Dinu V., Abrudan I.N., Postelnicu C. (2014), "The Impact of the Marketing Mix and Sustainability on
Shaping Consumer Preferences towards Non-Food Stores",Transformations in Business & Economics, Vol. 13, No
3 (33), pp.36-53.