Seeing beyond the price. An empirical study evaluating experiential marketing factors in UK value-based fashion retailers

Purpose – Understanding why within the declining UK high street two value-based fashion retailers (Retailer 1 and Retailer 2) have been successful at sales and store growth since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Online retail sales significantly impacted traditional retailers and even some price orientated business models used by retailers, went into administration which suggests that price is not the only factor which motivates consumers to shop at these retailer’s stores. The coronavirus impacts have accelerated the decline of the UK high street with some big retailers going into administration during 2020. This thesis aims to build upon the literature within Experiential Marketing with particular focus upon Perceived Customer Value literature linked to the most closely associated area of Retail Customer Experience. To apply a visual research method developed in the 1990s to establish what other perceived experiential values consumers have beyond low-prices and develop a framework for retailers from the factors which are most important to shoppers.
Literature Review – The Literature Review focuses on four topic areas identified as being linked to the main research question: Consumer Behaviour, Experiential Marketing, Perceived Customer Value and Retail Customer Experience. The extent of the literature indicated that previous studies within this arena have mainly underpinned their approaches from some of the pioneering authors and have generally applied a quantitative methodology with the purpose of identifying correlations between the hypotheses being tested. The researcher proposes that there are three unique gaps in current knowledge from these subject areas; 1) Further insights into why customers are choosing to shop at value-based fashion retailers in the UK, beyond low-prices. 2) Qualitative research responses, utilising metaphor elicitation techniques, with the purpose of identifying perceived experiential values. 3) Conveying perceived values and metaphorical value descriptions into an experiential
marketing framework.
Design/Methodology/Approach – The focus for the study was inductive with 24 qualitative depth interviews utilising the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) approach to explore the shopping experiences that participants were having at the two case study retailers and what they valued about these experiences. A week to two weeks prior to the interview, each participant was asked to collect 6 to 10 images which represented the aspects they valued about their shopping experiences at the retailer. During the interview participants explained what each of the images collected represented to them and the images were collated into a montage. All interviews were transcribed and reviewed through thematic analysis and through NVivo.
Findings – The results of the research highlighted that whilst price is still the lead motivator for shoppers visiting these retailers, other areas of the shopping experience are very powerful motivators, in-particular the process and achievement of the core value of discovery through finding an item which they had not planned to purchase and was felt to be something particularly special. Participants may typically spend more than an hour to two hours within these stores and were willing at times to put in the significant effort required in order to have the discovery experience. From a negative perspective, overcrowding, lack of space, too much merchandise and untidy displays left by other customers were significant demotivators. Metaphors used by participants to describe the shopping experience highlight the areas for change/improvement in the store environment plus how value-based fashion retailers could consider enhancing their marketing communications using metaphors.
Originality/Value – The thesis established through the images selected by the participants that shoppers develop and make sense of their shopping experiences mainly through the connections they have with store, the amount of control they feel they have and aspects of the shopping journey. The
applied ZMET based methodology is the first time it has been used for UK value-based fashion retailers focused upon understanding perceived experiential values. The core value of discovery has been used to adapt the original Typology of Customer Value developed by Holbrook (1996). The study also develops and presents a Perceived Retail Experiential Value (PREV) Framework which highlights to retailers what the significant areas of focus are within the Pre-Store Arrival, In-Store Experience and Post-Store Experience stages of the shopping experience.
Limitations/Further Research – The study is limited by the two selected case study companies and therefore some of the perceived values and types of experience may not be applicable to other similar large fashion retailers or smaller stores. A similar ZMET based study using other traditional retailers may highlight why they have seen declining sales or potentially a broader study into the overall high street may indicate what the future of town and city centres could look like.