The marketing firm: Retailer and consumer contingencies

Abstract

Efficiency has emerged as an important consumer value and thus has increased the importance of the in‐store search as one facet of consumer transaction costs. This paper contributes to the development of a marketing theory of the firm by analyzing the consumers' in‐store efficiency ratios and the retailers' natural sources of resistance to offer efficiency to all of their customers. We propose new behavioral metrics for consumer transaction costs. Our data from the behavioral tracking of 497 complete shopping trips reveal more transaction costs for quick shopping trips than for regular shopping trips, which demonstrates friction between retail and consumer transaction costs for quick trips.

Environmental cues for healthy food marketing: The importance of in-store research into three conversions

“…The relatively stable baseline demonstrates that considerable sales effects, stemming from placing the target product in the perimeter, had a low impact on baseline sales of fish balls. This indicates that the display, due to its location in the most trafficked area of the store ( 30 , 31 ), made more consumers consider the target product ( 46 , 47 ).…”

“…Grocery stores play a significant role in food purchasing ( 30 ). They offer a promising venue for various efforts to improve consumers' health through better nutrition ( 40 ).…”

“…Those include store area coverage, shopping duration, travel distance, walking speed, shopper efficiency, and carrying equipment use. This is the foundation for an empirically grounded shopper behavior theory ( 31 , 50 ), providing metrics and benchmarks that are useful for retailers to boost their performance ( 30 , 31 , 38 ).…”

“…The primary aim of the current paper is, therefore, to introduce and assess how and to what extent it is possible to use in-store research (30)(31)(32)(33) to study the effects of valueadding impression management techniques on consumers' brand choices in their actual environments. We showcase impression management and environmental cues on the main customer route, the so-called "racetrack" or perimeter-the wide pathway circling the store floor, for healthy food promotion.…”

The Marketing Firm and the Consumer Organization: A Comparative Analysis With Special Reference to Charitable Organizations

“…The markets in which individuals operate as employees are not so smooth running as those between a consumer and her baker. An employee or manager can always leave their current position as per contract but an equivalent job is not necessarily to be had elsewhere without incurring considerable transaction costs ( Larsen et al, 2020 ). But the principal-agent relationship is not an absolutely authoritarian one either.…”