Multi-Media Retailer: Critical Review - Case Study Example

Multi Media Retailer: Critical Review and Future Action Plan Tile] Multi Media Retailer: Critical Review and Future Action Plan Introduction Multimedia retailing has acquired significant position in building business equity through the integration of different retailing strategies. This approach is substantially utilized by John Lewis; which is a one of the leading retailers operating in United Kingdom since 1864 when it opened its very first retail shop in London’s Oxford Street. Now the retailer has developed 29 departmental stores and 8 home shops of smaller-format. Altogether it has 37 retail outlets in UK and online cross channel offering. The company has an annual turnover of $5.2 billion. Critics have given the credit of John Lewis persistent success to its distinctive business model and integrated multimedia retailing which has also enabled the organization to recognize its employees as the company partners. Currently John Lewis is successfully catering to the needs of its customers through its various retail outlets, inexorable pledge and focus on excellence. Ultimately the company has acquired a distinctive position in retail marketing through innovative ideas of reaching to their customers which ultimately leads to increased sales and augmented brand equity (Cisco, 2012). John Lewis welcomes all its customers and makes sure that everyone has an easy access to their products and services and all the customers are catered with equivalent level of services. Their multichannel retailing strategy includes shops, call centers, online shopping, mobile app and home delivery which indicates that their customers have an easy access to their goods and services, they can approach to different products in whatever way they want in addition to this John Lewis is offering multimedia and multi-platform purchasing experience which is quite evident from the fact that internet facility for customers is available in two-third of the retail stores (John Lewis, 2013). Challenges of Multimedia Retailing At present the multimedia retailing is facing significant challenges in the corporate world related to brand management on micro and macro level. If we analyze it from a micro perspective then marketers are required to manage all the individual channels and the communication options to enhance their brand equity effect in addition to increasing sales while they also have to maintain indirect brand equity effects which are particularly connected with a specific channel or a communication option. At the macro level marketers are required to formulate and execute communication options and multimedia channels in a way that they build synergy between sales and brand equity (Kevin Lane Keller, 2010). Brand as a whole comprises of four components with respect to multimedia retailing: Direct and interactive channels including mail, telephone, mobile, online shopping and company stores. Indirect channels including discount stores, departmental stores, superstore, catalogue showroom, specialty store, super market and convenience store. Personal communications include personal selling, word of mouth, direct marketing and interactive marketing. Mass communication includes advertising, sales promotions, public relations, events and experiences. At John Lewis; marketers are required to develop clear understanding of all the retail channels and their integration in association with consumer behavior. In addition to this their job is to identify the related multimedia retailing components and to subsequently apply them so as to increase sales and brand equity (Kevin Lane Keller, 2010). It is a fact that in the past few years the concept of multimedia retailing has occupied strength and it is growing with an enormous speed while bringing scope, diversification and sophistication to the overall retail environment. However; research indicates that the consumer behavior regarding multimedia retailing is rather inadequate. The initial challenges faced by a marketer operating in such a retail environment are to figure out the expected consumer behavior in multimedia retailing. This indicates that marketers have to first take on a consumer centric approach which is based on multimedia retailing and recognizes the significant dimensions of this environment (Utpal M. Dholakia et al., 2010). In order to build successful integrated multimedia retailing strategy marketers need to identify three basic components among their customers. These are (Utpal M. Dholakia et al., 2010): What they bring: Customers bring along with them their membership groups which have particular status and choices in addition to this they have their specific goals, values and memories associated to a company’s brand which actually compels them to buy the product in future or not. Perceptual bias and emotions also play a vital role in building up an integrated multimedia retailing strategy with a customer-center approach. What they come across: Customers want easy purchasing processes and ability to customize. The recent multimedia retailing has successfully catered to this need of customers of some renowned organizations such as John Lewis. Marketers need to develop such a synergy between all the applied retailing strategies that stimulate customers to make purchases for this purpose they give variety options and create social influences so as to increase their sales and brand equity through multimedia retailing. What they endeavor for: the concept of multimedia retailing revolves around the ease of purchasing processes extended to customers so that they can conveniently make selection from a large variety of goods and services. Multimedia retailing also gives the advantage to customers of making return purchases, post-purchase search, etc. It is significant for retailers to analyze all the challenges of multimedia retailing before stepping in to this distinctive marketing strategy as it eliminates various traditional boundaries and old concepts of marketing related to training, education, retailing, banking, information and employee performance. However; these new multimedia strategies can be integrated with all of these areas through different applications. The biggest challenges faced by John Lewis in this regard was to conveniently communicate information regarding different multimedia strategies as they required to first train their employees, spread awareness among the members of their target market and then finally persuade the customers to make selections through multimedia retailing (Jennifer Rowley, 1995). In addition to this they required to develop effective communication skills, suitable return on investment, increased sales, improved customer service and loyalty, comparison of overall multimedia shopping experiences, financial transactions, security of products, maintenance of customer data base, the particular nature of shopping experience and issues related to law and market place (Jennifer Rowley, 1996). Multimedia Retailing at John Lewis John Lewis has faced many challenges so as to build synergy between retail outlets and online shopping experience. The retailer has a deep understanding of the customer choices that are regularly making purchases through in-store visits or online purchases. Therefore at John Lewis their major concern is to attract these customers through different multimedia retailing strategies. John Lewis’ strategy is to lead the market of United Kingdom in multimedia retailing with the concept of sustainable sales growth through a combination of in-shop and online purchasing experiences while projecting a huge variety of goods and services towards the customers so that they are able to get the most out of the services. Following are few of their most significant and successful multimedia retailing strategies: Virtual Fashion Mirror: It was aimed at serving the customers who are highly concerned about upcoming trends and fashion styles in the market. Initially the team working on this project believes that the fashion mirror would further enhance the innovative passion of John Lewis while on the other hand it will also be recognized as a competitive advantage for the company since it would be a completely novel experience for the customers in the history of in-store retailing. This was actually a full sized mirror that superimposes the customer’s image with different pictures of outfits which were selected through gesture-based interface. It gave a significant advantage to the buyers who could easily make combinations of different outfits through mixing and matching of different clothes uploaded into the memory of mirror. The mirror also has extra value for the recommendations and suggestions of different fashion experts regarding the selection of garments and different combinations. This is all done through the pictures taken by the virtual mirror which are then sent to them through emails or social media websites (Cisco, 2012). The virtual mirror was designed with the sole objective of giving an ease to the customers regarding mix and match of different garment so that by the end they are delighted with their overall shopping experience at John Lewis. The mirror actually gave a perfect idea of how the customers would look wearing a particular dress consequently they could purchase the garment or try the new combination generated by the virtual mirror. The customers were delighted with the overall experience of virtual mirror and found it very innovative, convenient and inspirational. It was later named as the Cisco Styleme. The Pilot: It was basically an extension of Styleme which was set up to stimulate the in-store shopping experience of women through providing them a wide range of products from 10 brands, three of which were John Lewis’ own labels. This particular multimedia retailing campaign was conducted during May and June 2012. Around 20% of the garments were earlier available online including one of the outer fashion brands. The pilot was actually administered through a work of five streams (Cisco, 2012): Variety selection and image administration In-store layout, drawing and signage End to end purchaser and partner knowledge design Employee communication, support and experience Running the pilot procedure The success of pilot was evaluated on the basis of: Creating footfall and dwell in the fashion area Purchaser response, engagement and feedback Overall usage i.e. the actual number of customers, garments observation and how many times a particular garment was tried by a customer Generate awareness and additional sales for John Lewis’ website. John Lewis employees and management feedback over the use of Pilot Online purchasing: The concept of virtual mirror substantially supported online purchasing and the overall idea of multimedia retailing. The employees of John Lewis lock up each customers email addresses and permissions related to marketing through the use of tablet and then they used to assist the customers throughout the different level of experiencing virtual mirror i.e. calibration, selection, outfit mixing and matching, virtual try-on and checking out. This enabled the management to identify the particular choices of their customers and their overall fashion and styling sense. After which they used to send links of different products according to the choices of customers and the items which could be of some interest to them. Ultimately customers could easily select items from the given links and then they can also try it through virtual mirror after which the final purchases were made (Cisco, 2012). The different multimedia retailing strategies applied at John Lewis enable the employees and management to collect sufficient data about their regular customers, feedback was generated automatically through different systems and on tracking sheets. These were reviewed on weekly basis so that the management could identify the lacking areas in their service and could also establish entirely new retailing strategies in future. The ultimately led the organization to have a continuous improvement in experience and results. Future Action Plan The internet revolutionaries the whole concept of multimedia retailing which has encouraged the retailers to adopt different retailing strategies as per the changing technology and market needs (Jill H. Ellsworth et al., 1995). Subsequently new marketing tools and techniques are being utilized by different organization, however; retailers such as John Lewis require adopting a continuously changing multimedia strategy so that the company can maintain its leading position in retail market. John Lewis is successfully running a multimedia strategy therefore at present they only require innovations and improvements in this strategy. Currently they are using the online purchasing and the concept of virtual mirror as an integrated retailing approach, due to the technological changes and persistent customers’ demand they need to upgrade their system to the next level where the virtual mirror is not only used for garments, shoes and accessories but also for different home appliances and home furnishings with respect to customer specifications. This strategy can be build upon the idea of virtual mirror i.e. customers can upload the pictures of different areas of their homes where they require to place some furnishing or an appliance. Then they can easily select from a wide range of products and place it where they want it actually in their home. This will facilitate the customers in matching the size, color and other particulars of the products with their home architecture. In addition to this they can also try a large variety of products by placing them subsequently at different places in the picture. This will actually prove beneficial for those customers who are shifting their homes or wants to renovate it completely in a way that John Lewis provides a sufficient range of products including everything from home appliances to home furnishings. While on the other hand employees can maintain their same strategy of capturing the subsequent patterns of browsing, selection and checking out details of their customers through which they can email new products’ details as per the interest of the customers. Conclusion Consumers’ buying process is strongly influenced by complex and varying psychological aspects which act as the fundamentals of multimedia retail environment. For example; customers make purchases for satisfying few primary and secondary motives such as a hungry person would search for something to eat and in other complex situations self-esteem, emotions and past experiences are the key motives of an individual. At John Lewis they have all the equipments and facilities to cater the needs of their diverse group of customers. There is no single way of excelling in multimedia retailing for John Lewis because the category of content, requirements of value chain and the involvement of other retailers influence the overall performance of the organization therefore they need to continuously change their integrated retailing strategies so as to meet the market demands. In addition to this the company also requires to overcome different challenges of retailing environment (Robert G. Picard, 2002). Appendix John Lewis is one of the leading retailing operating in United Kingdom. It was established in 1864 and presently it has 37 retail stores with high brand equity and sales. Multimedia retailers are those which successfully utilize the integrated retailing strategies in order to increase sales and brand equity. They are able to easily target their customers through the use of online purchases and latest technology. References CISCO (2012) Leading U.K. Retailer, John Lewis, Pilots Unique Cisco Styleme™ Fashion Mirror To Help Capture More Cross-Channel Shoppers. Cisco Systems, Inc. JILL H. ELLSWORTH, MATTHEW V. ELLSWORTH (1995). Marketing on the Internet: Multimedia strategies for the World Wide Web, J. Wiley. JENNIFER ROWLEY, (1995) "Multimedia kiosks in retailing", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume. 23 Issue: 5, pp.32 – 40 JENNIFER ROWLEY, (1996) "Retailing and shopping on the Internet", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume. 24 Issue: 3, pp.26 – 37 JOHN LEWIS (2013) About us: Our strategy. John Lewis plc. KEVIN LANER KELLER (2010) Brand Equity Management in a Multichannel, Multimedia Retail Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, Volume 24, Issue 2, Page 58-70. ROBERT G. PICARD (2002). Multimedia Strategies in the Age of Globalization. Jönköping University, Sweden. UTPAL M. DHOLAKIA, BARBARA E. KAHN, RANDY REEVES, ARIC RINDFLEISCH, DAVID STEWARD, EARL TAYLOR (2010) Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel, Multimedia Retailing Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, volume 24, issue 2, page 86-95. Read More