The constant changes within the marketing world make it essential to continuously adapt and change one’s retail marketing strategy. Marketing strategy has had to incorporate various new elements such as a company’s sensitivity towards its customer so as to be able to cope with new situations. It is here that we find the four vital concepts related to the buying process; the 4 “R”s of retail marketing.
The new and current purchasing backdrop leads us to understand the action of the “purchase” as a process made up of different stages, and not just a single action. From here springs the necessity or desire that leads us to a product or service for a prospective client, and it evolves as it passes through a multi-connected, multi-channeled world.
The client chooses where he or she buys things based on a large amount of different factors (ease, proximity, product quality, price, etc.), and decides having evaluated all the different options and chooses that which he or she feels best satisfies their expectations. It’s at this point that the 4 “R”s of retail marketing makes most sense as we now move into the post purchase process.
The 4 key aspects of retail marketing are the relationship with the client, relevance, reward and the reduction of costs.
Customer Relationships
To satisfy a customer and to establish a relationship with said customer is of the utmost importance as this means that they will buy from the company again. This process is a strategy that helps us to retain our clients based on their satisfaction and their implied value. To achieve this, it is important to follow the client throughout the purchasing process, record their necessities, offer solutions based on the things in which they are interested and maintain a dialogue so as to redesign and tailor-make their purchasing experience.
It is important to become friends with our clients, we must look after them and we have to maintain their satisfaction as a clear objective. In this sense, customer service strategies are of great interest, as are the different marketing methods that we might use in order to make them feel special and therefore loyal customers; our brand presence within their daily lives and the personalisation of our messages is very important.
Relevance
Emotions play a very important part when making decisions; they lead us to take action and to create bonds. During the purchasing process, the client has to feel like he or she is the protagonist of the promotional strategy of the product; he or she has see that it responds to his or her interests and that it has been created especially for him or her.
To ignore reality or to stop listening to the client is an error that we simply cannot commit. The client needs to feel important, to receive constant attention and help, and to know that they can acquire the very best product or service and that it has been specially adapted to him or her. Publicity is one of the tools which we can use to generate emotions, as is the way that we distribute the spaces at our physical outlets.
Reward
If you want your client to buy from you again, give them a reward. We love to receive gifts, and so in this way we can make the customer happy by awarding them a gift or discount. This way, we will always be one of the clients’ favourite places to purchase.
This is also a way to thank the client for having chosen us, and it will help to establish an important relationship between the client and the brand.
Cost Reduction
Making the most of all of the different phases during the purchasing process helps us to make sure that we stay in the consumer’s mindset.
We understand the idea of cost reduction as the simple act of giving off an air of calmness and confidence throughout and after the buying experience. In this sense we can also consider this to be a reduction of economic costs in the sense that, thanks to the brand, the customer doesn’t have to waste time or money. In this way, the customer will want to buy from us again.
As with everything, it is important to look out for and to cover every detail of any purchasing experience in order for it to be the best and to the extent that it becomes a pleasurable experience for the client. Get in contact with our team at Evvo Retail to create your very own marketing retail strategy.