The Marketing Practices of Independent Fashion Retailers: Evidence from South Africa
研究调查了南非独立时尚零售商的营销实践，发现多数店主缺乏营销培训，营销被视为次要问题，但实际应用营销组合要素时存在不足。
The independent retailer plays an integral part in the distribution chain of goods and services, and as such, is subject to the changes and problems of the economy as a whole and of retailing in particular. The typical characteristics of small businesses that constrain operations and threaten their survival include: the inability to achieve long-term profitability, resulting from management incompetence; a lack of financial resources due to a limited equity base (undercapitalization); limited impact on the market place; and limited resources, such as marketing knowledge and time (Carson 1988). Literature and empirical studies have cited a number of important causes of small business failure, generally in the areas of product-market, training, and operational management (Bruno and Leidecker 1988; Kirby 1990; Hall 1992). Marketing was not acknowledged as posing major problems, representing only about 5 percent of the identified causes of failure. It is open to debate whether this is testimony to the owners' marketing skills or to their misappraisal of marketing's importance. This study investigates the marketing practices of a number of independent fashion retailers, looking specifically at how these retailers apply aspects of the basic principles of the marketing mix. Clothing, second to food products, is one of the most popular types of small, independent retailing. Fashion, however, is a personalized product, satisfying more than just one consumer need and thus posing a complex challenge to the small marketer. Methodology and Basis of the Empirical Study The empirical study took the form of a structured questionnaire and a personal interview with the owners/managers of small, independent fashion outlets located in the retail growth area of a major South African city. For the purposes of the study a small, independent retailer is defined as having: (1) annual sales of less than R1 million (R = Rand, 1R = $0.2778 US as of May 1995); (2) a retail floor area of less than 200 square meters; (3) no branches; (4) fewer than 10 full-time employees. Fifty-four firms were identified and interviewed. Some refused to cooperate, stating they were not interested, too busy, or unwilling to divulge information they felt was confidential; thus there were only 30 useable questionnaires. Information was sought on characteristics of the owners/managers, and the firms, their views on marketing and marketing strategy, their use of the basic elements of the marketing mix, and the major problems experienced by these retailers. Although the sample is too small to facilitate any meaningful statistics and only percentage distributions are shown, it is expected that the results are indicative of the marketing practices of small, independent fashion retailers elsewhere. [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] A Profile of Respondents and Their Firms In the profile of the respondents and their firms, Table 1 indicates that more than half of the respondents had been in business for five years or less, while 37 percent had less than five years' experience in marketing. An alarming 81 percent had no training in marketing, while 67 percent were not trained in management, illustrating the need for training among small, independent retailers. This is in keeping with Hankinson (1991), who found that as a training topic for small firms, marketing received a priority rating of only 7 percent. Marketing and Marketing Strategy Most writers on the subject of marketing strategy start with a broad encompassing definition of the term. Kotler and Armstrong (1993) see marketing strategy as the marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives. According to Pickle and Abrahamson (1990), it is the course of action the firm will follow to achieve its established objectives. The large firms participating in a survey undertaken by Greenley (1988) gave similar broad statements, describing their marketing strategy as a long-term activity, noting that it provided for the overall achievement of objectives or that it is a broad plan of action. …