Abstract
The deregulation in terms of “ Globalization”
proposed by world leading economies,
is considered
a challenge Japan, as an economic giant,
has to cope with, regardless what might
be
the reason, throughout its entire fields
of industry in order to conform to
the international
standard( Global Standard ). As one
of the
forerunners of the tertiary industries,
the
retail industry could help provide
an up-to-date
prescription to tide over this unquenchable
trend before us.
Key words: price, cost , loyalty
Overview
In retail industry, the conventional advantage
of the fast flow of
merchandise has now been ill-affected
by the much-touted “Fair,
Free, Global” slogan which has been , in
essence, advocated by the world
leading economies in terms of“ Globalization”
movement.1)
That conventional advantage has recently lost genuine power in
every field of our industries due mainly to unexpected repercussions from
unforeseeable side-effects.
Manufacturers as well as the distributors and retailers have found
themselves helpless to apply positive applications of equation theory.
This means that the deregulation which as has been welcomed by the majority
of consumers as an unmatched opportunity to seek lower-priced, quality
merchandise without hindrance has utterly proved to bring about negative
results. Through apparent “ deregulation”, the mythology of swollen quantities
of merchandise has caused a spread of huge general merchandise stores (
large- scale retail outlets) to such an extent that there are often more
than 10 stores within a 20-minute-access trading boundary. This trend reveals
the fact that the trading area consequently has been diminished with the
abruptly mushrooming numbers of similar retail operations throughout all
prospective trading areas where opportunity seems to exist.
Restrictive laws or ordinances have actually
prevented well-calculated, well-prepared
retail operations from penetrating into chaotic
competition in which theoretically no stores
can survive , since only price is of vital
importance , decisive, and final, making
them unable to maintain the break-even-point
on a regular basis.
The reason general merchandise stores and similar discount stores
have continued enjoying rewarding profits lies in their isolation from
outside world, in other words “ trade isolation ” , limiting free
pricing within the framework basis of either tariff barrier or non-tariff
barrier. Now ,however, the time of enjoying such vested rights is over
in the face of colossal outside pressure.
In this paper, the author tries to
describe
a blueprint of a possible
way out for possible better development based
upon the world-wide standard.
Recognizing Reality
The successive expansion of sales area
proved valid and effective
before deregulation. However, this method
does not function well enough
as a guiding strategy. The reason is quite
simple, for effective, past
equation theory neither works, nor is applicable
now that basic competitive
tactics have greatly changed. Sticking to
the old-fashioned strategy, found
anywhere, more often than not, means either
stoppage of retail operations
or leads to total collapse of the stores
by the force of “price
destruction”, which continues without appropriate
notice of the gradual
change of consumers’ buying habits. The
merit of the scale works in the
pattern only before the deregulation stage
, when rapid expansion of
floor space or opening up of number of stores
was possible only if
permitted as applicable. The problem is that
the existence of categorically
different stores has its own distinctive
meaning, in that items that one
store carries have an apparently supplemental
function, and do not interfere
with the sales of another , however, similar
stores in the same category
do interfere with one another, thereby, diminishing
the trading market
and losing the chance to make profit out
of the same market. To overcome
this, a mixture of operationally different
types of stores or a combination
of different lines of business is necessarily
required to vitalize the
purchasing power within the boundary of a
market. Such tactics might be
found in the United States ,and could serve
as a good example if need be.
The situation, however, has greatly changed
due mainly to deregulation
and the appreciation of the Japanese Yen
as economic trends have shown,
revealing the easier way of dealing such
stateless commodities as gold
silver, copper, and grain as international
goods or commodities repeatedly
reported in the vernacular newspapers of
our country.米村徹
Worldwide market price.
The author clarifies the status of daily commodities common to all
as bona fide international merchandise, for stateless merchandise consists
of consumer goods and these must be global, universal and international
by all means.
In essence, the price of the stateless goods or international merchandise
is to be decided in the world market. Accordingly , single market price
should be applied to any consumer goods at the international level ,thus
making it possible to market any item or service at a single price wherever
it might be carried.
The distribution revolution could eventually be interpreted as making
the price of stateless merchandise conform to the international market
price which is common to all. That means that should fair competition exist,
a single applicable price would be adopted and those who managed
to quote the comparatively lowest price might finally be accepted by consumers
in general as winners.2)
To participate in the competition in the international market place
might not require a participant to be gigantic enough to hold sway throughout
the world. Nor might be necessary to protect an enormous amount of
capital to be a predominant retailer capable of going up against anyone
else in the world. Rather what may make the difference is whether or not
the pricing of the participant conforms to the international market price.
The point is only if the participant (or store) carries those stateless
commodities that hit the heart of the consumers in general worldwide, which
means the store boasts competitive, rewarding, unmatched prices for quality
and quantity whichever. The store, thus successful, could be regarded as
an international retailer and enjoy a certain share of the world market
with potential for further growth. One thing that must be borne in mind,
however, is that the distinction between mass sales with thinner profit
by manufacturers and that of wholesalers and retailers must not be mixed
up, for selling at a cheaper price eventually requires quantity volume
sales to cover up the shortage.
Contrary to volume sales by retailers,
manufacturers’ mass sales
show a totally different aspect. To protect
thinner profit, manufacturers
try to curtail manufacturing costs
to the minimum. By doing so, manufacturers
can afford to earn the same profit through
volume mass discount sales since
their merchandise sells well enough
to make up for the decreased
non-discount profit. In the usual case, they
have sold well and earned
well to such a degree that they have decreased
the percentage of margin.
Accordingly, mass selling or volume selling
by reducing considerable profit
does not necessarily mean less earnings in
the case of manufacturers. The
situation for retailers ,on the other hand,
differs greatly . For example
, should retailers try to sell 15% less out
of 30% commission, they have
to sell 3 times more volume to make up for
the decreased earnings. Furthermore,
even if they could hit the corresponding
volume, they are not in a position
to reduce their buying cost as they might
hope, nor by their own will.
This means that to sell at cheaper price
at the expense of would-be-profit,
improving the sales volumes as the only way
left for them. Too. promotional
expenses must be spent to attain the goal
of 3 times more sales. On top
of that, through this effort, they cannot
expect remarkable volume sales,
nor can reduce the cost as expected.
Price Destruction
Logically speaking, this does not mean
“ Price destruction” has
spread all of a sudden. Rather, abrupt
spread has , against
the will of retailers, been
brought about by the destruction of price, not vice versa to be exact.
As things go, if a certain store sells the same merchandise at a cheaper
price, then the other cannot help but do the same in order to survive or
to protect their revenue. This simple method does not imply real competition.
On the contrary, it is full of self-contradiction. 3)
Another example would something to do with this, at a neighboring
liquor shop, if the shop made quantity sales of bottles of liquor at lower
prices than other shops in the neighborhood, consumers would certainly
go to this shop for quantity buying ,frequently until they find new
stores have done the same nearer to their homes. They would never
go to an older store merely for convenience. Thus , this type of price
cutting war may start anywhere, at anytime. At this stage, it could safely
be said that the lower price they have advocated around the neighborhood
would not be called the lower or cheaper price, rather it would be interpreted
as the market price at this juncture.
Consequently the stores mentioned above cannot afford to sell at
all times at the expense of margin they earn .“Price destruction” shown
above disappears all of a sudden at this stage. This is a simple, common
phenomena envisaged in any retail business even at present, and has nothing
to do with strategy or tactics.
To overcome this vicious circle,
another
type of operation must necessarily
come about for absolute survival.
The Discount Store
The new concept of operation lies in a
different category which must
be taken into account at all times, and this
might be called “ discount
stores.” In terms of profit protection,
they never lose their profit.
Even if they sell at lower prices. they never
lose their modest margin
out of total suggested profits. 4)
The concept of the discount store has proven totally effective, since
they sell merchandise at the discount basis beforehand with less profit,
earning less but never facing loss. They have created a new mechanism,
never to be the old-type-price-cutting shop experienced in the past .
On the basic ground of the discount store, there has existed unaltered
logic throughout the years: a quest for revolutionary distribution strategy
, maintenance of chain operation by means of expansion of outlets, and
seeking corresponding expansion of business scale. This implies the trinity
of the concept .
By definition, the necessary daily commodity is determined neither
by frequent -buying habits, nor by quick consumption. Rather it has its
own traits wherein should the price of the commodity rise by double digits,
or even become twice as high as other
items, consumers cannot help but purchase them out of necessity , being
unable to reduce consumption proportion to combat the higher price. This,
then, is daily necessity, the consumption volume of which is, to a certain
degree, limited unless the number of consumers fluctuate.
The time has come when number of customers has been decreasing year
after year without fail, which means we are faced with either zero-sum
or minus -sum market dimensions, since a dwindling market is foreseeable
in the immediate future.
This diminishing trend reveals the absolute necessity to usurp the
sphere of others to sustain oneﾕs own territory which otherwise would
be usurped by those others unconsciously. Deeming such dreadful market
conditions inescapable, less expensive merchandise compared with other
outlets is , as a matter of course, of paramount need and retailers are
always ready to come up with whatever is required to meet the requirements
of consumers in general. In other words, the competition would never cease
until the price of a given store reaches the workable international market
price in pursuit of a final goal.5)
Taking this into account, the discount store makes every feasible
effort in every detail of its operation to realize the genuine cost down
possible with less expensive merchandise, thereby beating conventional
stores. This effort, however, is not enough to ensure that one is a winner
in the limited, dwarfing market, for the era of cost-down possibility
in the buying sector as well as other fields is almost over , and unpredictable
down-costing will eventually be of urgent need.
That low-cost-operation is viable
in recent
years, none can deny.
Low-cost Operation
The problem is whether or not management
has ever tried low-cost
operation in exchange for cost-down operation,
the meaning of which is,
in essence, totally different .The author
stresses the low-cost-operation
in addition to cost-down-operation, however,
both are of grave concern
for management in that they involve the element
of cost which decides the
price.
The methods usually adopted are found among significant examples
having been practiced in the United States. From them, a real model can
be drawn, that is in order to achieve low-cost operation, it is imperative
that present and future management be conducted in the same manner
as in the past, but at less cost. That is the essential point, and
less cost operation stands for replacement of paid- manpower in order to
reduce fixed expense. To give a concrete example, to go from 20 regular
employees plus 30 part-timers to 10 regular employees plus 50 part-timers
would reduce fixed expense to a certain degree but it impossible to go
to extreme, that is zero.
The final measure remaining is to reduce management itself to the
extent, figuratively speaking, of cost-low management, being a single manager
plus a staff of all part-timers. In such a case, most of the part-timers
would be either foreigners or elderly persons, and would include not only
those might be categorized in the unskilled bracket, but also those that
might be categorized in the illiterate bracket, being incapable of making
judgements , ignorant of the native tongue, very young, very old, and so
forth; to be exact, ill-paid part-time labor.
There is the limit, even if management provides such labor with complete
operation manuals. This trend implies that the management ignores unreasonable
and inappropriate methods of the low- paid part-timers should they be unable
to function in accordance with concrete operation manuals, for they would
bother other workers and customers as well, leading to loss of prospective
customers. Thus, if management is forced to adopt such final measures for
low-cost operation, they must drop the idea of maintaining a viable section,
better leaving it vacant in order to avoid ill- treating the customers.
In the event a certain store has adopted low-cost-operation, its
policy must vary in reaction to outside pressures, for if one store reduces
price, the other must do the same. This is simple theory and such
methods will never cease to continue until each collapses.
Low-cost structure is only applicable to the wholesaler, not the
retailer. Warehouse discount store gives a good lesson for survival since
last-ditch effort for less expense has been achieved, and has borne fruit
recently throughout the world.
The author touched upon further details
of this in the previous issue
of the Proceedings.6)
New Capital Productivity
From expansion to enrichment, from consumer
to customer, from shopping-prone
type of operation to life style theme
assortment, one of the changing
essentials of the aforementioned sequence
advocated by Mr.Yosuke Shimada,
Japan’s leading consultant, has shown the
necessity of the creation of
a new capital productivity structure. To
exemplify the idea, the innovation
of racing, from foot to auto-vehicle, would
help one to better understand
the effect of new capital productivity structure.
In considering the remarkable
differences among racing on foot, by bicycle,
and by automobile, the distinctive
difference can be noted not in the speed
or velocity, but rather in the
sort of devices into which condensed energy
has been poured to attain unpredictable
forward leaps and bounds. In the exact meaning
of Shimada’s figurative
expression, even a professional runner cannot
win in a race against an
ordinary novice driver if he or she uses
a device such as an auto-vehicle.
This simple fact shows the monumental leap
forward, in contrast to the
steady, conventional process of advancement.
This remarkable innovation discards the old capital productivity
structure. Moving away from the past, it creates a totally new structure
as has been revealed in the realm of distribution channels.
Furthermore, there are two types of opposing capital productivity
structures, between which anyone can note the clear difference: the newer
, called “technological productivity”, and the other, which is said to
be“ labor productivity.” To illustrate, let’s say that a cerain company
considers it essential to employ a brand new system and technique by the
introduction of category-management for vivid enrichment, enhancing technological
productivity. Another company sticks to traditional company expansion,
performing productivity management as in the past by cost-down methods.
The methods adopted by the two opposing companies could be recognized as
follows: in the latter’ s case, the well-touted structure, type of business
and type of operation deems the man or individual, as“ manpower.” the
life-style-assortment structure, on the other hand, might be interpreted
as “technical power.” The latterﾕs productivity or labor productivity
enjoyed earnings by legal restrictive measures ,being successful as the
method boasts the merit of obtaining greater quantity, as has been actually
exemplified. While the former method, or life-enriching technique, may
be logically valid, it might be impossible to imitate, for the method only
help meet a certain customerﾕs needs. The author has revealed rather
abstract examples.
For better understanding, please refer
to the aforementioned previous
issue of the Proceedings in which the author
discusses “ Format”
The author would better try another aspect
of the theme hereto, since to
meet the challenge of pressure from outside
world, both consumers in general
and retailers as well urgently need to have
accurate knowledge of the world
trends in order to catch the direction
of prevailing winds.
Value of a Single Item
In the formula V=Q/P, which is widely accepted
throughout the world,
V( value) is equal to the sum divided by
the price, which means , the higher
the quality one wants, the more one must
pay, should one choose to stick
to higher quality. That is universal formula,
none can deny; however, this
can be applicable only to the practical daily
commodities.
The problem is that most people never
realize
this fact, or never
inquire into why the formula holds good only
for daily commodities. The
author points out that manufacturers’
brand is still vivid
and alive in the heart of consumers in general,
and once prices are fixed
at a certain stage, similar private-brand
commodities, in order to cope,
come out with volume sales to protect considerable
profit defying the greater
sales contribution done only for the manufacturers,
with relatively less
profit as a matter of course. In this case,
daily goods are applicable
only to maximize V, for consumers can afford
to secure daily commodities
at cheaper prices, enhancing V with less
P, however, never question the
Q, whatsoever, may the commodities are, national
brand or private brand,
since unsold national brand items or leftover
commodities are on the selves
for clearance sales after a certain lapse
of time. Thus. consumers are
accustomed to the contents and qualities
of merchandises through experiences
that quality makes no difference in the case
of daily commodities, seeking
no-frill goods, which means that functionally
unnecessary portions or attachments
may be omitted to achieve better buys. Clearance
sales is very common in
all countries and the basic idea on this
is totally clear in that leftover
merchandises must be sold within limited
terms in order to maintain set
time limits, with the exception of perishables
such as produce, meat, and
so forth. The value of the merchandise is
determined by individual item;
in other words, worthiness of items varies
item by item. If V is decided
by the balance of Q and P, then, if only
Q and P are to be decided, V is
automatically determined.Consequently, there
is no need to think of V.
In this fashion, Q and P may be determined
by the merchandise itself. The
essence of this formula lies in the fact
that the value of merchandise
is determined by an item itself, which means
an item itself makes the value,
making an item complete the value. One noticeable
point Japanese must bear
in mind is that the difference between Japan
and the U.S is that while
Japanese consumers recognize a single value,
American consumers are able
to decide each diffferent value in accordance
with the variety of application,
being able to make any combination of V.
Survival of the Fittest
In the realm of retail industry, the battle
for survival has been
pitched since the slight deregulation has
started, opening up the narrow
door a little wider to foreign investors.
However, now that the door presently
has been opened far wider, the opportunity
of foreign investors is promising
if they intend to cultivate Japanﾕs
market.
At this juncture, real price competition would surely seem to be
ready to begin at any moment. The genuine meaning of this struggle for
survival is not
mere mathematical discount of the merchandise the retailers try to
challenge, however. It will not be astonishingly huge reduction rates
by 30% or 50%, that determine the fate of the company in general, but rather
a negligible rate difference of only 5% of the commonly acceptable
market price with which each retailer must overcome any competition whenever
necessary. to be a winner. As the real distribution revolution has not
penetrated into the depth of the industry, each dealer is feeling at ease,
expecting that the tide of recession of economy will sooner or later, return
to a favorable level. However ,actual situation is quite the contrary,
in the real sense of the word. For example, it might be easily imaginable
that if there is food enough for only 2 persons, but 5 must survive, there
are only two possible choices. Firstly, the food might be divided equally
among the 5, allowing them to survive for a limited period of time, but
eventually dooming them to starve to death. Secondly, the dominant 2 persons
in the group take the food by force, allowing only them to live and dooming
the other 3 to starve to death. this sheer and stark instance evidently
shows how the pitched-battle is fought among others for survival.
It is wrong to define American consumers are voluminous consumers,
replacing items in volume every time they come to the stores, and
consequently the merchandise life cycle is short-lived in comparison with
their Japanese counterparts.
Quite the contrary, Japanese are prone to buy frequently, spending
much, and replacing old items with new items to keep pace with trends.
Furthermore they must continue to be fast buyers in order to content themselves.
The old marketing method is still effective, for the genuine pitched
battle has not yet been fought, and manufacturers as well as wholesalers
and retailers find themselves even safer to run their businesses in the
way as they have done in the past. They have no sense of the stateless
price of merchandise without searching for clues to beat others. They look
only to neighboring opponents, never foreseeing the future investors from
outside Japan, and expecting only a “chain of new product” which might,
otherwise, terminate the present coveted newly rising demand. Happily enough
this trend works well for the time being. However, it is the idea that
a single-item value is worthy of behemoth demand as has been shown by American
consumers who have a sense of variety of value assessment, to which both
manufacturers and retailers have to find the clue. Still, the corporations
destined to survive could be found in any sector should a certain means
be deployed through certain strategic and tactics .
The life-style-prone Products
To materialize the trend-setting measures, the author looks to the
intrinsic behavior of consumers that springs from the depths of their hearts.
A clear phenomenon is apparent in the daily activities of consumers that
exceeds the regular boundary of consumption. They pay a considerable sum
of money at fixed, or suggested price that providers propose, never expecting
lower prices when they buy daily necessary goods or commodities. They purchase
well-known brand products, or luxurious cars, and enjoy movies at fixed
prices without expecting reduction unless proposed by either retailers
or providers.
This instance of consumer behavior is self-explanatory. The consumers
need the “ totally exciting, easy to be self-satisfied ” personal elements
none can deny, others than persons in the opposite frame of mind. To attain
to this favorable framework of consumers’ aspiring demands, proposals
to give them diversified value in proportion to their changing life style
for smoother marketing, in other words, life-style-prone-marketing should
be worked out to comply with this clear, evident needs, creating
emotional or moving elements in their stagnant daily lives, for this “measure-storming”
or brain-storming method, whichever it might be, is of urgent need. These
proposals should be given emphasized priority for the fulfillment of the
consumer’s coveted frame of mind, exceeding the equation theory of V=Q/P
which worked well in the past, but no longer, although that depends on
circumstances. The easiest approach to this is to look to old products
which have been used as daily commodities or necessity goods,
for there is more room to find again new functions or new uses
through which those old products can contribute to life immeasurably. For
this immediate purpose, the author gives a good example found in the United
States , the predecessor. To simply explain, the word ”coordination”
might best express the functionality of old lamp, curtains, carpets, or
whatever that in combination would take on a new, vivid life. For instance,
in quest of an in-depth life style, consumers come to recognize the significance
of the way of life. Thus, the same old desk lamp they used in the past
for brightening of a room takes on another meaning now in that dim light
it provides generates a relaxing and contemplative mood. In contrast to
modern desk lamps that provide functionally effective, but rather glaring
light, like florescent lamp, the old desk lamps, has both a mood-generating
effect and a natural decorative effect that the better contributes to the
atmosphere of the room in which consumer lives. In the United States, desk
lamps are used as a sort of decorative fashion in the home , depicting
how enjoyable life is in their way of life. While they use florescent lighting
in their garage, or at where the washing
machine or drier is located, in the bedroom, dinning room, or living
room they intentionally adopt the conventional desk lamp so that they can
enjoy the
atmospheric shadow that has its function in each room: in the bedroom,
reciprocating the whispered conversation of the couple; in the dinning
room, contributing to the enjoyment of dinner; and in the living room,
contributing to the relaxed chatting of family members. On the other hand,
in our country, a “bedroom” is just a place where the bedding is place
for sleeping, and is not a bedroom in the true sense of the word. Similarly,
a dining room is defined as merely a place to dine, and nothing more.
The value of a room is determined not by the vastness of space but
rather by the content of the life and enjoyment it affords the family that
uses it 7)
Daily Entertainment
The author recognizes the shortage of daily entertainment or, in
other words, the lack of selective variety in terms of living entertainment
here in comparison with that available in the giant economy, the United
States. In the true sense, Japan as the second largest economy is far behind
in this field. While the American family folks enjoy themselves together
at vivid , lively entertainment facilities such as Disney Land, Universal
Studio, Sea World and so forth, Japanese regrettably enough, are
obliged to be engrossed in more practical, nearer to life divisions such
as, pin-ball games, karaoke (singing to a recorded accompaniment), or game
centers.
This shows evidently that Japanese have no other choice but to screen
their limited selection of daily entertainment. It does not , however ,
mean our country is in short of such facilities as Americans have, nor
does it mean that we lack in the ability to build them, of course. We do,
as matter of fact, have them right now. The problem is that we have no
habits just to enjoy, as American do, just the author mentioned in speaking
of the life-style-prone product combinations in their every day life.
To be more exact, the American entertainment facilities mentioned
are not included in their daily activities. Rather, the facilities they
visit are unordinary sectors, which means the visits by the family usually
exceeds their every day entertainment, since they can afford to enjoy the
mixture of the life-style-prone items which embrace their every day life.
In other words, American consumers have an alternative way to enjoy and
entertain themselves by voluntary selection of life-style-prone items of
their own, hopping around the stores to satisfy their desires, the young,
the old whoever...
Now , the author has come to touch upon the need of a basic idea
of how to make consumers in general here, in Japan , viable; dwelling upon
the good examples of consumers in the United States in favor of a prospective
concept of futuristic store for which a promising future is, to some extent,
guaranteed.
Gearing to the Assortment
To be a good store, and survive, the idea of assortment is extremely
essential, for only assortment might be feasible to realize the life-style-prone
merchandising, which rightly can be said to be the store which would guarantee
the consumption of the future. To further make the store more promising,
store management needs to make a distinctive difference between the type
of business or type of operation with which the market been pre-occupied
, and the category-killer which can provide the value of life-style proposed
by the store . The reason one-stop shopping has always been acceptable
to consumers is because it minimizes the time necessary for them to buy
their mundane daily necessities. The principle of the category-killer,
on the contrary, depends mainly on the theme of life-style or that of the
specialized assortment of items, ultimately put them together.
Here we come to the word “consolidation ,” which means “ bringing
together components” to realize a theme irrelevant to past classification
such as item, line, and department, to realize a specific life-style
theme. In this fashion, Home Depot in the State, does not imply the enlarged
operation that still remains a Home Center, but rather means it has categorically
killed the principle of merchandising intrinsic in a Home Center facility.
The Home Center operation of the past existed as the means to save
some amount of money through DIY( do-it-yourself)home repair.
Quite the contrary, Home Depot, changing
the means to the objectives,
has revealed a totally different concept
of DIY :the creation of everyday
pleasure. For this purpose, the Home Depot
DIY store provides the opportunity
for each consumer to put together necessary
parts to create a better looking
home at relatively low price, offering them
a satisfying sense of attainment
for labor efforts such as carpentry , but
not necessarily meeting their
expectations as to the amount of energy they
may have to pour into the
job. Now , the author tries to show the good
lesson to be drawn from the
details mentioned before. 8)
Transforming the Market
To make consumers loyal to a store, that
store must first overcome
a few obstacles, the hardest of which is
to create the consumers’ joy
of producing life-style of their own free
will.
In this context, four joys can be expected as the pre-conditional
element, escaping from the framework of the equation theory ,V=Q/P, and
being imperatively essential to foster the consumers’ self-made life-style
technique.
The first of the four joys, is the joy of shopping at the store,
enjoying the selection of items available
to achieve a better combination. Second, the joy of the arranging process,
selecting such items as desk lamp, carpet, and so forth. The third is the
joy of satisfaction resulting from the combination of those items selected,
obtaining appropriate items to attain the desired overall room atmosphere.
In addition to furnishings and decoration, this might also include clothing
as well, as it might help them acquire the subsequent overall effect. Fourth
is the joy of gradually acquiring DIY skill in the process of fulfilling
the desirable result.9)
In this connection, the reason quality brand items have not been
selling well might be interpreted as a consequence of a sort of illusion
the consumers have: they may feel that plain or simply designed materials
give them free chance to fill out vacant spaces by adding another value
of their own. Thus, no brand item might be matched to the same value as
a professional designer, or even an unskilled self-coordination effort,
seeking to harmonize each part with nature.
The fact the no quality brand items have sold well has proved the
existence and importance of individual characteristics, or personality
as revealed in that additional value the consumers have displayed: their
own sense of philosophy and beauty.
To succeed in life-style marketing, it would be of absolute necessity
to maintain the consumers as excellent buyers as if they were not rank
amateurs, but rather nearer to the level of semi-professionals. Here lies
the essence of the fourth joy, fostering DIY skills in their lives.
They will be inclined not to throw away used items but replace them, feeling
the urge to buy additional items to achieve even more desirable ends.
By additional buying of life-style merchandise, they can afford to
add another value on top of the items they bought previously, enhancing
the value of items bought recently on to that of items they bought previously.
This leads to the habit of deepening the life-style-setting technique through
additional buying and collecting of required items, driving them
to fulfill their immediate goal and having a sort of multiplying effect
in the end. The life-style, then, ,assortment produces the loyalty of the
store or that of customer.
In this regard, it might be necessary to tell the difference between
consumers and customers. Distinctive difference can be seen between them,
for the scale of the quantity is quite different when the consumers in
general are to be taken into account; whereas, it might be easier to tell
the customers since the scale is , to a certain degree, limited.
The term ” public” was once used to refer to general consumers,
and the greater portion of consumption was deemed as general public.
which in terms of By additional buying of life-style merchandise, they
can afford to add another value on top of the items they bought previously,
enhancing the value of items bought recently on to that of items they bought
previously. This leads to the habit of deepening the life-style-setting
technique through additional buying and collecting of required items,
driving them to fulfill their immediate goal and having a sort of multiplying
effect in the end. The life-style, then, assortment produces the loyalty
of the store or that of customer.
In this regard, it might be necessary to tell the difference
between consumers and customers. Distinctive difference can be seen between
them, for the scale of the quantity is quite different when the consumers
in general are to be taken into account; whereas, it might be easier to
tell the customers since the scale is , to a certain degree, limited.
The term “public” was once used to refer to general consumers,
and the greater portion of consumption was deemed as general public.
which in terms of commerce or economy meant the consumer in general. The
author will deal with discrimination of“general public”and“partial public”,which,
more often than not, comes to the fore whenever discussion is made on the
consumers in general and customers in general.while the meanings
overlap, “general public”is nearer to consumers, while“partial public”might
better refer to customers, for the meaning is based on the unmbers of people.
Thus. it might be concluded that larger numbers might safely be said to
be general consumers, whereas, the smaller nmbers of the public might be
considered customers, the meaning of which is to be further discussed here.
Consumers Turns to Customers
It might , however, logically meaningless if this discrimination
is based only on the numbers of people, since general public is the accumulation
of the partial public and partial public does not imply the genuine meaning
of customers as a whole.
The author is eager here to define consumers and customers for marketing
in the immediate future, since , in the process of marketing it is necessary
to precisely define the public from the marketing point of view.
It might be said that the main reason the public is divided into
two categories is that the general public, when considered as marketing
concept varies in accordance with subtle difference such as consumption
by males and females , young and old, rich and poor, and so forth. Whichever
concept is applied, there are subtle differences within the same scope
of general public, which serve as the target that each store struggles
to hit.To be concrete, it might rightly be said that the generation gap,
for example, divides the public into partial publics to the extent to which
each generation belongs, when something new or different appears, although
the accumulated entity turns to the general public.
Since customers are always created
by means
of strategy or tactics, enhancing the
scope
of marketing items, with consequent
unlimited
creation of market would be possible
if a
partial public, for whatever reason,
becomes
loyal to a particular store and frequents
that store voluntarily. At this stage,
it
may be essentially conceivable that
opportunity
is unlimited in regard to customers,
since
it represents and brackets every level
of
variety to which a partial public cast
its
focus in quest of the particular life
style
each prefers while continuing to be
embraced
by the abstract general public,
rather
than persistently keeping to its own
existence
and detaching from the mass. Rather
than
having a restricted existence,
the
partial public forms a layer of variation,
under the name of “ own status.”
In this
sense, when the concept of marketing
is introduced
to the customers it must have unlimited
boundaries
wherein countless tastes, countless
ways
of life must be taken in account, and
be
immeasurably deep and wide in its interpretation.
Quest for Loyalty
That the quest for loyalty is paramount,
for whatever reason, is
exemplified a book written by Frederik F.
Reichleld. The content of Reicheld’s
book, giving precise details dealing with
the problem of business leaders
who face a slowdown of business performance,
help readers, to understand,
integrate, and manage the various dimensions
of loyalty in their own companies,
offer creative ideas on how to provide
powerful perspectives, and
along the way, dwells upon way to create
enormous financial success by
targeting the right customers and delivering
extraordinary levels of service
by investing in both their employees and
merchandises.10)
The battle among leading enterprises is being fought day and night
in every corner of the world. Management in general has to have keener
concern to on- going operations, and success or failure may depend on the
adoption of effective methods generated by both learned scholars and general
business circles. Since the cycle of past-effective ways has proved to
be inappropriate in its application, although it lingers and persists in
practice, methods and means that defy the past must be considered.
The author has mainly dwelt on the retailing
aspects for persuasion,
although, these instances are extremely flexible,
to try to provide a variety
of different applications to suit individual
managers’ needs and circumstances
to help them overcome the difficulties they
face after deregulation, and
to reveal the sort of requisites for sustaining
both everlasting success
and prosperity. 11)
Conclusion
The author has tried to propose strategic
and tactical way of retail
operation after deregulation, coupled with
globalization; has suggested
tools for taking charge, shaping strategy,
competing in the global market,
and managing technology for store operation;
has tried to anticipate and
offer practical insights for innovation streams
and evolutionary and revolutionary
change in the operation of life-prone single
items geared to the times;
and, finally, has tried to find an unlimited
future for the creation of
new customers with hands-on information
At the heart of every successful store
there must be a vision of
winning, and an unquenchable desire to
keep on winning, creating
an attitude identifying its purpose so that
it can achieve its goal. A
store must distinguish itself from its competitors
as the standard of the
world market and prices thereof vary from
time to time in accordance with
natural phenomena and political change.12)
The distribution revolution
will continue relentlessly to a level at
which manufacturers as a whole
give in the races among themselves, strictly
sensing the ambience of the
times.
References
1) Klaus Schwab and Claude Smadja:
“ Harvard Business Review
” Power and Policy: The New Economic World
Order,(pp)40-44, Harvard Business
Review Volume 72, Number 6. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation,
November-December 1994
2) 島田 陽介：これから流通に、何が起きるか,(pp)32-46,ダイアモンド社,1997
3) 服部 吉伸：流通業 破壊の構図,(pp)80-83,日本実業出版社,1996
4) 森 龍雄：ウオルマートの成長戦略,(pp) 152-178,商業界,1997
5) 内田 武之：日米・小売新勢力のコンセプト＆デザイン,(pp)15-27,産能大学出版部,1995
6) 米村 徹：”The Newly Developed U.S. Retailer Defies beaten
Track”.(pp)40-41, 東海大学短期大学紀要第３２号,1998
7) 島田 陽介：ライフスタイル戦略の新潮流,(pp)20-21,ダイアモンド社,1995
8) N.H. Comish: “Marketing manufactured Goods”,(pp)11-15,Stratford
Co.,Revised Edition ,1991
9) William Lazer and Priscilla LaBarbera:
“ Business and Self-Regulation in Public Policy Issue in Marketing”,
(pp)105-125,O.C.Ferrel an Raymond LaGarce(eds,) D.C. Health and Co., Revised,
1996
10) Frederick F.Reichheld :“Quest for loyalty Creating Value
through Partnership”,(pp)295-296, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation,1996
11) David Mercer: “ The Essence of Marketing ”Third edition
(pp)10-15, Blackwell Business 1997
12) Robert P. Bauman,Peter Jackson,
and Joanne T. Lawrence: “The
Five Requisites for Sutaining Successful
Change”(pp)25-26,Harvard Business
School Publishing Corporation 1998
和文要旨
規制緩和や「国際基準」は、あらゆる産業分野においては、一種の世界が突きつけた挑戦状であり「規制緩和」という名の神話は今あらゆる分野で崩壊の危機に晒されている。現在進行中の流通革命にも甚大な影響を及ぼしている。第三次産業の最前線として、現在、小売業が全般に取り組んでいる実例を流通先進国の例に倣い、その一助としての処方箋を論述した。価格破壊が問題なのではなく、何が「市価」であるかを知った業者のみが生き残る。ここで言う「市価」とは「国際市場価格」のことであり世界市場を視野に入れた広範な思考が急務である。国際市場経済の仕組や世界各国の「生活様式」を素早く察知した者のみが適者生存の厳しい現実に耐えうる。
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