Introduction
Background of the study
Supermarket malls need to maintain their supremacy in enjoying huge and constant number of customers to survive in the competitive business environment.
It is therefore a requirement for any supermarket mall that wants to remain champion to put its strategies well fit for market diversity needs and satisfaction of the customers. A well-established strategic planning will maintain and attract many customers. Marketing is a great pillar of success in any business.
Marketing of such a supermarket will involve laying out plans on how goods and services are acquired, how they are priced, how they are distributed, and how the customers appreciate them.
For Westfield Stanford marketing mall to survive the competition for customers to emerge the top marketing enterprise, research, product development, and product testing and design have to be prioritised. Marketing malls must therefore show concern about the buyer or the consumer of their products.
For this reason, they remain in business. The management of such marketing mall seeks to understand the desires, needs, tastes and preferences of their customers. It is on such basis that marketing strategies becomes more crucial. Marketing is central to both the marketing malls and their customers.
In the process of marketing, customers are educated about the services and products and their most important features. On the other hand, marketing persuades customers to purchase the products and be satisfied by their qualities. In the past, marketing would end at the point of sale.
However, for any business to survive today, its marketing strategies have to focus on selling products to the existing customers rather than to the new ones.
Marketing malls have to convert one-time customers to lifelong buyers. This study will assess the marketing strategies of Westfield Stanford shopping centre to attract and maintain its customer.
Westfield Stanford City serves an estimate of 4.1 million with the best parking spaces of 5000. It is now the best-connected shopping centre in the City.
Statement of the problem
The study focuses on the marketing strategies used by the Westfield shopping Mall to draw and preserve clientele. Due to the failure to have a strong monitoring and evaluation systems by the management of Westfield shopping mall, most of its customers will be poorly served.
Therefore, they will shift to other supermarket malls because of their unsatisfied needs. Customers are likely to shift from one shopping point to another depending on the ability of such shopping points to satisfy their needs. Competition between shopping malls has intensified.
Therefore, some of the supermarkets will have to be edged out by having their customers shift to other shops.
This paper seeks to provide in-depth insight on such marketing trends in an attempt to offer a significant remedy and or recommendations to any gaps that might be hindering the capacity of Westfield shopping Mall to capture and or sustain its clientele base.
In the competitive business world of today, many customers keep on shifting their shopping points from one shopping mall to the other. This significant problem is affecting many business ventures in the world.
Shopping malls like Westfield Stanford shopping centre are therefore in the verge of losing their customers to their competitors. Having a large base of loyal customers to one’s business is a tasking process. However, this goal has not been achieved by many business investments.
The need for attracting new customers everyday is an objective of every business. Westfield Stanford shopping mall is one of such businesses. Every business yearns for an extra customer each day. This yearning is a problem that businesses have not been able to solve.
The ability to retain new customers is another major problem that businesses are facing. Today, businesses are able to get customers to buy their products for the first time, but have not been able to retain them.
In most instances, customers will normally buy a single product or several of them from a certain shopping centre like Westfield mall but they never come back for the second purchase and hence the wrong perspective in business.
Just like Westfield investment, many businesses are able to acquire customers through various marketing methods. However, they are not able to maintain them.
Research questions/ Hypothesis
This research will be guided by the answers that respondents will give for the following questions based on the assessment of marketing strategies of Westfield shopping malls in attracting and maintaining its customers.
These research questions will guide the analysis and recommendations of this research. Therefore, the research paper will endeavour to seek answers to the following two key questions:
- What are the methods employed by Westfield shopping centre to attract and maintain customers?
- What are the monitoring and evaluation systems used by the company to improve service delivery to their customers?
Objectives of the study
This research has several important objectives that are directed towards the realisation of its mandate. It will therefore prioritise various objectives that will enable it narrow down its focus in order to have a more concrete analysis of the issue under scrutiny. Therefore, the study seeks:
- To identify the methods used by Westfield shopping mall to attract and maintain customers. The finding of this objective will help in informing whether there is a need to modify the methods or discard them to adopt new ones, which will be effective in capturing clients to seek services from the mall under study.
- To find out the existing monitory and evaluation systems used by the company to improve service delivery to their customers.
Significance of the study
Customer’s loyalty will enable Westfield Stanford shopping centre to continue retaining and attracting more customers. The study will also enable various stakeholders in Westfield shopping centre to realise the importance of various marketing strategies that will enable it to retain their existing customers.
Through an in-depth analysis, the study will offer a systematic presentation of the unmet needs of the customers to the mall. With such an insight, the stakeholders of Westfield shopping centre will have the basis of holding on to their market share and or acquiring new customers.
This research will also be useful to other investors in the same sector in that they can learn how various marketing strategies influence their customers’ decision to seek their services and products. They will also learn the key strategies in acquiring and retaining customers in a competitive market.
However, if the shopping centre does not meet the customers’ needs and demands, loyalty will be lost and consequently repel clients from getting services and products from it. Such a move might cause grave repercussions to the mall.
Consequently, the study will offer necessary hints to improve service delivery to retain customers. This knowledge will be significant to Westfield Stanford shopping centre. In every successful business venture, offering the best service to customers is important.
The significance of this study will also come out clearly in the analysis and discussion of findings. From this analysis, Westfield Stanford shopping centre and other investors in the same field can have a basis of understanding their clients.
This study is customer centred since every business venture targets and adores a large customer base. Therefore, every business will have something to learn from it.
Investors who intend to start a business within the market environment of Westfield Stanford will also benefit from this research. Players in this business field will understand the needs of customers, their tastes, and preferences and the best way to appeal to them.
It is also important to note that such investors can also learn the weaknesses of their competitors from this study hence helping them stand a better position in the race for customers.
In addition, it is also a significant move for the investors to learn what is likely to make their businesses non-competitive. For this reasons, competitive business environment will be built in this area.
An entrepreneur who reads this report will also realise a significant opportunity to exploit especially if the Westfield Stanford shopping centre does not heed to the recommendation. An entrepreneur will also learn the loopholes in the market as posed by Westfield shopping centre, which is a renowned market player.
This will help in increasing competitive and quality business standards in the market. When this dream becomes a reality, competition for customers will be increased. At the same time, the quality of services offered will also improve as the vendors compete to attract and to retain customers.
Finally, the study will be significant to the customers of various shopping centres in Stanford including Westfield Stanford shopping centre because customers will learn about the efforts that their providers like Westfield shopping centre put in order to retain them.
Such efforts will assist both the customer and stakeholders of this shopping centre. The customers will also understand the importance of shopping at one point as a frequent customer. This case will also have a double benefit to both the customer and Westfield Stanford shopping centre.
Customer retention is a battle that many businesses are not able to withstand. Customers will therefore learn to be closer with the administrators and stakeholders of their shopping providers. These points indicate that the study is significant to various stakeholders in the business.
Scope of the study
The study is limited to methods majorly used to attract and maintain customer’s loyalty of Westfield Stanford shopping centre. The study will therefore delimit itself to the strategies that Westfield shopping mall employs in its efforts to acquire new customers and to retain the existing ones.
It is therefore the focus of the study to narrow down its scope towards the two facets: attracting customers and retaining customers. The two forces are the ones that are likely to determine whether Westfield shopping centre will be able to acquire more customers and maintain the older ones or not.
In the new world of globalisation, competition between various providers of similar goods and services has intensified. Therefore, providers who are not going to be focused on acquiring and maintaining customers are likely to lose their market share. Therefore, this research does not focus out of the shopping centre specified.
The study takes a case study format since it studies in details the strategies applied by a single business investment. Such a narrow focus gives clear details about the idea in study. Westfield Stanford shopping centre has various shareholders. These are the administrators, the employees, and the support staff.
The external environment in consideration will majorly comprise the customers. This study will therefore evaluate the interaction that exists between Westfield shopping centre and its customers because the study revolves around attraction of new customers and retention of old customers.
Although other stakeholders who would have been significant, the study will only research, analyse, and give recommendations around customers and the organisation.
The study touches on every stakeholder in Westfield Stanford shopping centre. It will include every stakeholder who has an influence on customer behaviour. Every employee that the customer is likely to meet during the process of shopping will therefore be part of this study.
The study will also detail significantly matters affecting the customer. The customer is the major point of discussion in this study.
Review of literature
This chapter deals with a brief definition of marketing as a function, its importance, and its role in acquiring new customers and maintaining old customers. It also deals with the current and recent past literature that is relevant to this study.
The utilised literature offers an insight on what other businesspersons have done about this subject in the past together with the outcome they have been able to garner after employing diverse marketing strategies for their businesses based on the existing marketing trends.
Marketing is the process through which a service or a product is initiated, priced, promoted, and distributed to customers. It is the aim of every business venture to acquire new customers and to retain a base of loyal customers. In this light, businesses have developed marketing strategies that enable them to meet these ends.
To achieve a large customer base that is loyal to ones business venture, the business must outweigh all the other competing forces. This argument means that, for Westfield shopping centre to acquire more customers and or retain its current market share, it must be outstanding in its business strategies.
Businesses must dominate the market in a particular way in order to win over new customers. With good marketing strategies, a business venture can increase its customer base and maintain its competitive advantage.
A strategy should be aimed at conquering the war of competition between various business ventures. Every marketing strategy that is geared towards realisation of a large number of loyal customer bases must begin with research. For this reason, marketing is a long-term goal.
It is a continuous venture that a shopping mall must embark on to be competitive. In a marketing process, success in making a customer buy a product or service is the beginning of another long journey of maintaining that customer in the market base. In fact, marketing works with targets.
To achieve marketing targets, marketing managers must begin by evaluating the existing conditions in a business before developing any strategies. Marketing plans ought to be measurable and testable for their ability to bring success.
Every plan that a company can take in its efforts to achieve its marketing ends should therefore begin with a thorough assessment of both internal and external environment of the business. The internal environment of the business is crucial in developing marketing strategies that focus on customers.
The existing internal environment affects the ability of a company to analyse its performance ability, its constraints, and marketing mix. Without a clear picture of the internal environment of an organisation, a business can only form blurred marketing plans.
For a business venture such as Westfield shopping centre to maintain its huge customer base, it must develop good marketing strategies. The external environment is equally competitive. In assessing the external environment, the management of Westfield shopping centre will begin by focusing on customer analysis.
The business must begin by understanding the customers in its market share based on their characteristics, for example, their demographics, their financial status, and their tastes. The managers must also understand the characteristics of the target market.
This knowledge enables them to plan properly on their strategies before getting into the real venture. Understanding of customers or the would-be customers is the key factor in achieving marketing success.
Marketing plans should also encompass methods of dealing with the changing environment, for example technology, culture, law, and even politics. As Westfield shopping centre reaches forth to remain competitive in this very competitive business world, it must redefine its main mission.
Marketing must always be in line with the mission statement of an organisation. This strategy makes certain firms remain competitive while others collapse due to their declining customer base. It is only with a complete environmental evaluation that a business can proceed to create strategic plans.
For this reason, customers have their own tastes and preferences, needs, and objectives. Customers know what they want in the market. Hence, if a company’s products do not appeal to them, they may walk away from it. It is at this point that a business develops a marketing strategic plan.
A marketing strategy gives the business an option to choose from various alternatives. From a strategy, a business can also weigh its goals against those of its competitors in an attempt to formulate a marketing mix and or program the process of objectives realisation.
A marketing strategy is formulated after a clear understanding of the business environment. The business must understand who is working towards its objectives. It is also important for the business to understand who is working towards winning over its customers.
Business entities compete in the race to increase their customer base. In most instances, the target market for shopping outlets is similar due to the similarities of the goods offered. Such similarities in target markets have led to increased competition in the business world today.
This competition will enable it to focus on strategies to maintain and to acquire new customers. It is out of such ability to compete that businesses remain competitive in the market. In most instances, pure economies do not exist and that businesses find themselves in mixed economies.
Westfield shopping centre is located in such an economy. In this market environment, businesses compete heatedly in acquiring and retaining customers. For this reason, businesses are majorly driven by profits that the competition for customers has raised.
Every firm strives to produce at a lower cost using efficient modern technology. Customers will always want the best for themselves and their families. The quality and quantity of goods and services offered by various providers determine whether a customer remains loyal to a certain business or moves to a new one.
Once the customers realise that there are better services in offer in the next shopping centre, they move to it. In the same vein, customers move from one business venture to another one when they realise that the quality of services offered in that business venture is better.
Due to increased competition for the same customer base, organisations have learnt to research the needs of the customers. From the list of customer needs, they develop or acquire the goods that customers require. Such goods are meant to be sold at a cheaper price in a bid to edge out competition from other sellers.
With this kind of competition, certain goods go unproduced. What is produced is what the customers demand. In most instances, this competition results in the production of low quality goods and services. An enterprise that endeavours to regain, acquire, and maintain customers should therefore major on quality product.
Finally, in every marketing venture, there must be a method to monitor and assess the progress or failure of the plan. This finding here will also mean that some finances are set out for such emergencies. Monitoring program should go hand in hand with the main marketing plan. Every program has its flaws.
It is the work of the marketing strategy designers to develop a check mechanism. Marketing strategies should be checked from the point of initiation to the point of evaluation.
The same efforts that a business manager puts into implementation of a marketing strategy should be applied in implementing an evaluation. Evaluating every small step ensures that the plan succeeds in every preceding step to ensure that every flaw is corrected at the right point.
Methodology
This chapter deals with research methodology that will be employed in conducting the study. It therefore covers research design, data sources, and data analysis tools.
Research design
This study will adopt a descriptive survey design to investigate marketing strategies applied by Westfield shopping mall to attract and maintain customers. The research covers only Westfield shopping centre.
The research design involves collecting data from a given population to determine the status of the population concerning one or more variables. This type of research design attempts to describe things such as behaviour, attitude, value, and characteristics implying that the design is best suited for this study.
The rationale behind the choice of the design is that it studies individuals or objects as whole units and not in parts.
The design also investigates a particular phenomenon in depth with a view of understanding it more broadly. It is therefore clear that the research problem posed by this paper can only be achieved using descriptive survey design.
Data sources
The study data will be collected from the stakeholders of Westfield shopping centre. This information is the primary source of data for this research.
Research setting and sample
The research setting for this study is the Westfield shopping mall administrators and employees since the research is centred on it. The researcher considers this group appropriate for the study due to its previous performance and its current market share.
The research will use questionnaires with both open ended and closed ended questions. The sample will be restricted to 100 employees out of the total employee base that the shopping centre has.
From the 100 employees, 50 of them will be administrators, 25 will be ordinary employees, while the remaining 25 will be support staff. Stratified random sampling will be used to select 25 administrators and 25 ordinary employees.
Data analysis tools
When all the data will be collected, the researcher will code all the data for analysis. This data will be analysed using both descriptive and statistical analysis procedures. The statistical analysis procedures to be employed include percentages and mean.
The results will be reported in summary form using frequencies tables and bar graphs.
Analysis and Discussion
Data Presentation
Table 1.0 Percentages of methods used to attract and retain customers by Westfield shopping centre
Bar graph 1.1 illustrating percentages of methods used by Westfield shopping centre in attracting and retaining customers
Table 2.0 Percentages of methods of customer satisfaction evaluation applied by Westfield shopping centre
Bar graph 2.1 methods of evaluation used by Westfied shopping center in attracting and retaining customers
Data analysis and discussion
From table 1.0 and bar graph 1.1, the research found that, although Westfield shopping centre had used various methods of attracting and retaining customers, some of them performed better relative to others. This research indicated that direct selling, sales promotion, and advertising were the most exploited methods.
The data indicated that direct sales had an average of 83 while advertising had an average of 72 with sales promotion having an average of 66. The data informs that the shopping centre majors on direct sales.
The reader can therefore interpret that, since direst sales only succeed when advertising has reached mass audience, the shopping centre now focuses on individual customers. Direct selling is expensive since it focuses on individual attention. The administrators indicated that the method is highly used with an 80%.
The employees also indicated that the method was appropriately exploited (88%). In addition, the support staff also indicated a high percentage of 84%. The shopping centre has also highly utilised advertising as a method to attracting and retaining customers.
The administrators’ indicated 76%, employees 88%, and support staff 64%. On average, 72% was made up of efforts to attract and retain customers through advertising. The interpretation is that, since advertising is used to make consumers aware of special features, low prices, or product benefits, the business has succeeded in it.
The high rate of direct sales is also an affirmation to the success of advertising. Advertising makes the consumer identify herself or himself with Westfield shopping centre through the creation of brand image.
The most poorly exploited method of attracting and retaining customers is tailoring the products to meet the customers’ need. This strategy had an average of 40. The administrators indicated 40%, the employees 40%, and the support staff 40%.
This finding indicated that either the shopping mall has completely ignored this method or the method does not work for it. Tailoring the products to meet customers’ tastes and preferences is an important factor in attracting and retaining customers. Modern customers want to buy items that are customised for them.
The Westfield shopping centre may not be able to customise most of its products since it is not a manufacturing firm. The shopping centre buys most of its products from various manufacturers according to its demand. This argument explains why the average is the lowest at 40.
From table 2.0 and bar graph 2.1, the reader can deduce that Westfield shopping centre applies various methods of evaluation in attracting and retaining customers. The research indicated that the most exploited method was observing customer behaviour with an average of 84.
This finding comprised 84% administrators, 88% employees, and 80% support staff. This finding indicates that Westfield shopping centre had faith in exploiting the method expansively.
This method involves observing how the customer behaves when he or she finds a certain product on the shelves and whether she or he comes back for the same product.
When customers look excited on seeing the product on the shelves and later on come for the same product, it means that the product attracts the customers. Therefore, it can be used to retain them in the mall. Following the customers by phone calls scored the least with 4%.
The research indicated that the shopping centre does not follow up its customers through phone calls. This strategy cuts off the feeling of belonging to the mall on the side of the customer. Every customer would like to feel considered and important to his or her shopping provider.
Questionnaires are also poorly exploited with an 8% prominence. This finding indicates that most of the customers who shop at this shopping centre do not have time to fill in the questionnaires. The method is inappropriate in a shopping mall like Westfield.
Finally, the use of oral questions is another evaluation method that Westfield shopping centre has exploited. This evaluation method scores an average of 76. Out of them, 70% of administrators, 80 of employees, and 86% support staff affirmed that they had seen the shopping mall use this evaluation method.
This finding can be interpreted to mean that Westfield shopping mall has tailored its evaluation method to oral questions and observations. Oral questioning may not be very effective since the customer does not think so much when answering the question. Hence, the oral answers may lack the truth.
A customer may just respond to the interviewees only to dismiss them. This study also realised significant low scores in written questionnaires as a method of customer evaluation.
This can be interpreted to mean either that most of the customers of Westfield shopping centre are either illiterate or are not committed to the point of spending few minutes in filling the questionnaire. When customers are committed, they can take enough time to learn about their shopping points.
They will have time to fill in the questionnaire since administrators are likely to use the document to effect necessary changes in that the business shows that there was a lot of laxity and lack of commitment to the goals of the shopping centre by the customers.
Every loyal customer would admire to see positive changes in their places of work. In the same way, they should fill the questionnaire. However, since writing takes a considerable amount of time, only the very committed customers can secure some minutes for the business.
This study therefore informs the reader that there is a poor relationship between Westfield shopping centre and its clientele.
Today, the world has become a global village meaning that businesses can never escape the reality of technology and telephones. Since the use of cell phones across the world has gained popularity, then the need to communicate to your customers becomes a factor. Customers must know that this is their shopping centre.
A customer who keeps on receiving updates about the new arrivals feels closer to his or her shopping centre. However, from the low scores that this research found on the use of phone calls to reach out to customers, one can deduce that there is a poor connection between the shopping centre and customers. Information is power.
One can therefore argue that the reason for customers shifting to other shopping centres can be attributed to the fact that Westfield Stanford shopping centre lacks information. Customers will not purchase goods and services that they are not aware of.
In most instances, customers will begin by looking for all the relevant information concerning a certain good or service before making a decision to go for it. Therefore, establishing a close connection between the customer and shopping centre is imperative.
Although Westfield Stanford shopping centre has fully exploited observation as a method of evaluation (84%), this figure may not paint a true picture of their customers. In observation, the correctness of the results depends on the sobriety of the observer and his or her ability to interpret information wisely.
Since this data was collected from a variety of stakeholders including the administrators, the employee, and the support staff, its correctness may differ.
In most cases, people interpret information using a certain frame of reference that is well established in their minds, which makes them use biases like stereotypes in their interpretation. When such biases come in, the results of the interpretation become vague.
It is also possible that one cannot interpret the intentions in someone’s mind from observation alone. For example, one cannot know why a certain customer is buying a product.
The customers may have been sent by other persons to buy a particular product for them in the shopping centre meaning that interpreting this to mean a new customer gives the wrong information.
This case is likely to happen when a shopping centre like Westfield Stanford shopping mall relies on observation as its major source of customer information. The best observation method would be the one that involves interactions and conversation. These are however neglected by most shopping centres.
For example, this study realised that interactive methods like phone calls and questionnaires that require some degree of commitment on the side of the customer scored lowly.
One can therefore deduce that, in many instances, businesses apply evaluation methods that seem to cut on cost though they end up getting the wrong information meaning that the data that they use in making decisions concerning customers is in many instances wrong.
When one makes investment decisions using wrong data, chances are that they will not yield the results they wanted. In this case, people may not understand the customers. Hence, they will not know their tastes, preferences, and or what they really need in the market.
With such blurred information, they will end up making wrong investment decisions. They will also end up offering goods and services that no customers want.
It is also worth to interpret this research finding to mean that, since in supermarkets, customers just pick the products they want, pay for them, and leave, this strategy can work against fluffy market information. Such is a delicate situation that can lead to total failure of business in a shopping mall.
Summary
With the changing world of globalisation, competition for customers has intensified. This change calls for every business venture to work extra hard in reinventing its methods of customer attraction and retention.
Since the number of potential customers remains constant, and is competed for by many businesses, businesses must hold firm on to the customers they already have.
This argument is what this paper sought to establish. From the analysis of the data collected, the research realised that Westfield shopping centre applies various methods of attracting and retaining customers. Among the most prominent methods used were direct selling, advertising, sales promotion, and product tailoring.
The research indicated that this shopping centre has expansively made use of advertising and direct selling. These two methods of attracting and retaining customers had the highest scores in average.
Since advertising is a very powerful tool of attracting and retaining customers, the shopping mall may continue enjoying a huge customer base. It was also interpreted that the high rate of direct sales emanated from the fact that advertising was doing well because direct sales depend on the success of advertising.
Advertising makes the way for direct sales since it informs the customer about the low prices of products, availability of new products, and change in quality of products. This strategy makes those doing direct sales have an easy time.
However, it was also noted that the shopping mall had poorly exploited the use of product tailoring as a method of attracting new customers because this method scored the lowest percentage on average.
It was therefore interpreted that this was pegged on the fact that Westfield shopping centre was not a manufacturing company.
Therefore, the shopping centre could not manufacture goods tailored towards the needs of the customers. The research also informed that, since every shopping mall buys goods from diverse suppliers, the suppliers do the branding.
On evaluation methods, the research found that the shopping centre had applied various methods. The most visible methods were oral questioning, written questionnaires, phone calls, and customer observation.
The research realised that the most preferred method of evaluation was customer observation and oral questioning. These two methods scored high on average. This finding was interpreted to mean that Westfield shopping mall concentrated its evaluation method on customer observation and oral questioning.
Direct observation meant that the shopping mall had its employees and administrators direct watch the behaviour of the customers. When the customers would look excited after finding a certain product on the shelves, it would mean that that they are likely to come back to shop with the mall again.
Certain goods would therefore be used to retain customers. However, although oral questioning scored high, it had a low reliability that was attributed to the fact that, when questions are asked orally, a customer may just give an answer to let her or him continue with the shopping business.
On the same note, the research realised that other evaluation methods such as the use of written questionnaires and phone calls were poorly used.
This finding was interpreted to mean that, since the shopping mall was not a place of relaxation or concentration, nobody would have wanted to sit down and start writing his or her answers. Questionnaires therefore failed the test. They were seen as unnecessary in such places.
The use of phone calls also scored lowly. Research found that the administrators and employees did not have a forum to collect the phone numbers from their customers. Efforts to collect such numbers would also be seen as intrusion into personal life.
However, customers who would learn that their friends had received congratulation messages for shopping with certain malls would feel that they would also want to be recognised. There was a certain pride of being identified with a certain mall.
One can therefore summarise the whole paper by inferring from the research findings on marketing methods applied and the observation methods adopted by Westfield Stanford shopping mall. The fact that the shopping mall had a huge customer base does not imply that it had the largest customer base in the region.
It is also worth noting that, in the current business world, competition is headed towards online marketing, which one area that Westfield shopping mall has not fully exploited.
It can therefore be summarised that, if Westfield shopping mall does not move fast to catch up with the online marketing competition, it is likely to lose its customers. In addition, the study realised that there was a poor connection between customers and Westfield Stanford supermarket.
This disconnection is also not likely to benefit the investment. Today, customers prefer to shop in places where there are good public relations persons. Customers want to find people who can explain to them about various products and how to make use of them.
Therefore, this shopping mall has not yet realised the current trends of doing business. The research also found that there were reduced numbers of phone calls made by Westfield Shopping mall to its customers.
This was interpreted to mean that, at Westfield Stanford shopping centre, business ends at the point of sale and hence behind the current business trends. Businesses have established customers’ data banks including their cell phone numbers to boost connection.
Customers around the world have been so much pampered. Therefore, many businesses across the world have to change their way of doing business. Westfield Stanford shopping centre will also have to initiate constants and close links with its customers.
The poor scores depicted on how the shopping centre makes use phone calls have a lot to infer from. Businesses should not end when advertising and direct sale manages to get the customer to buy the product on offer. In fact, this should be the beginning of business with such customers.
Businesses have to invest on the customers and or how to retain them for as long as they remain in business. Westfield Stanford shopping centre did not seem to realise this point, it majored in observing the customers do their shopping and allowing them to leave.
Anyone in business in the modern world aims at attracting a huge customer base. Westfield Stanford shopping centre has invested a lot of money in advertising across various platforms. Such an investment in advertising should also be followed by proper strategies of customer retention.
It is easy to get customers commit themselves to buying one product. However, it is difficult to make the same customer always come to one business to buy the same product again. Human beings prefer what is new.
They would want to shop in the most recent shopping malls or in the newest shops in town. It is also worth noting that the same items that Westfield Stanford shopping mall offers are also offered by many other shopping malls around it.
Conclusion
The research concluded that business should embark on redefining their customer attraction and retention strategies. This inference was informed by the fact that the business world has become very competitive. Every business venture is competing to have the largest customer base.
Businesses like Westfield shopping centre should intensify and exploit all possible methods of attracting and retaining customers. After developing these methods, proper evaluation mechanisms must be put in place to ensure that the marketing programs are successful.
Every possible evaluation method should be exploited for the good of the organisation. This research also concludes that the period when business process ended at the point of sale is long gone. Westfield Stanford shopping mall is still struggling to get out of this dragnet.
The study realised very low scores in the use of phone calls as a method of evaluation. This informed the research that there was a poor relationship between customers and the shopping mall. Westfield shopping centre has not put in place enough mechanisms to retain the customers it works hard to obtain.
It is also a conclusion of this research that Westfield shopping centre has made good use of advertising because advertising as a method of customer attraction scores high percentage ratings. The research also found great performance in direct sales.
This implied that the investment that Westfield Stanford shopping mall had done was bearing good fruits. Directs sales depends on the degree of success in advertising.
However, this research also concludes that, Westfield Stanford shopping mall does not have proper customer retention strategies because there was no single retention strategy that seemed well established to form a cordial relationship between the customer and the shopping mall.
Finally, Westfield shopping centre is just a case study, the research findings from this research can also be used as an indicator of the situation on the ground especially on matters of customer attraction and retention.
Recommendations
This study informed that Westfield shopping centre scored lowly in product tailoring as a method of attracting new customers. This trend means that this avenue is not exploited the as it should be in today’s competitive business world.
From such findings this research, therefore, finds it necessary to recommend that Westfield Stanford shopping centre come up with a method of tailoring its products to meet its customer’s tastes and preferences. This can be done by making proper and close relationships with its suppliers.
The supermarket should clearly carry out a needs analysis on its customers. This analysis will inform it about what customers are looking for in the market. The analysis will also be able to know the weaknesses that customers have found in the course of their shopping in this mall.
It is from such information base that, Westfield Stanford supermarket will be able to make informed decisions concerning product tailoring. Customers want products that have been completely customised to meet their individual needs. Every customer wants his or her concerns met to the utmost need.
Westfield shopping centre must therefore move to establish this strategy. This research further recommends that Westfield shopping centre intensify its advertising to include modern technological methods. This move will make it measure up to the global standards of carrying out business in today’s world.
Today, advertising has moved to the internet, to the cell phones and other digital facets. Since Westfield shopping centre wants to gain the largest customer base in the region then it must move with time to make its products relevant in the market.
Finally, this research recommends that Westfield shopping centre redefine its evaluation methods to include modern evaluation methods such as phone calls in order to pull its loyal customers closer.
Customers of the modern world want to feel the warmth of a close provider. Westfield shopping centre and others must therefore move to ensure the success of its customer retention strategies.