英国的食品零售行业分析:留学生作业

英国食品零售业在2009年收入为￡1194亿，增长了3.1%,这代表了行业在2005 - 2009年的复合年增长率为4.2%(Datamonitor,2010)。(参见附录1)

英国食品零售行业还是为巨型综合超市,超市、折扣店,这些是最大的细分行业，拥有￡733亿的总收入,表明在2009年有超过60%的销售额。另一方面,在2009年，，便利店和加油站收入为￡252亿,占总收入的21%(Datamonitor,2010)。(参见附录2)

1.1介绍Wm莫里森超市(莫里森)——Introduction to Wm Morrison Supermarkets (Morrison)

莫里森”是英国超市第四大食品零售商(Mintel,2009)。2009年1月,莫里森在整个英国管理382家门店和382家汽油加油站。与其它大型连锁超市相比时，超市是食物导向型的，例如乐购等大型超市连锁店,J sainsbury和阿斯达。它提供了不同的18,000条产品线与许多低价商品和特价商品品,新鲜食品和酒类产品,占总产品自有品牌的标签(Mintel,2009)的32%。正如“数据监查”机构(2010)所说的:

“莫里森的一些自己的品牌产品包括“最好的”品牌(提供一个选择食物最好的原料制成方法);“精明饮食”(对于一系列的高热量、高脂肪、糖和盐膳食控制食品,专门设计来帮助保持控制饮食);“有机”(选择有机产品,如鸡蛋、奶酪、土豆、蘑菇、茶包和牛奶什锦早餐);“摆脱”(向有过敏或特殊饮食需求的客户提供一系列的替代品牌产品);“肤色”(一系列化妆品产品)等”(“数据监查”机构,2010)。

The UK food retail industry grew by 3.1% having revenue of ￡119.4 billion in 2009 that represented a compound annual growth rate of the industry for the period 2005-09 was 4.2 % (Datamonitor, 2010). (Refer to appendix 1)


The UK food retail industry continued to be intense with hypermarkets, supermarkets, and discounters, which are the largest segment in the industry with total revenues of ￡73.30billion, suggesting for over 60% of all sales in 2009.On the other hand, convenience stores and gas stations had revenues of ￡25.20 billion in 2009, that is 21% of total revenues (Datamonitor, 2010). (Refer to appendix 2)


1.1介绍Wm莫里森超市(莫里森)——— Introduction to Wm Morrison Supermarkets (Morrison)

Morrisons’ is the fourth-largest grocery retailer supermarket in the UK (Mintel, 2009). In January 2009, Morrison was mostly involved in the operation of over 382 stores and 287 petrol filling stations throughout the UK. The supermarket is more food oriented when compared to other big supermarkets chains like Tesco, J Sainsburys, and Asda. It offers different 18,000 product lines with many low-priced goods and special offers on groceries, fresh foods and alcoholic products in its store, representing 32% of their total products under its own-brand labels (Mintel, 2009). As Datamonitor (2010) puts in:


“Some of Morrison's own label products include "The Best" brand (offering a choice of meals made from the finest ingredients); "Eat Smart" (a range of calorie, fat, sugar and salt controlled meals, specifically designed to help maintain a controlled diet); "Organic" (selection of organic products such as eggs, cheese, potatoes, mushrooms, tea bags and muesli); "Free From" (offers a range of alternative branded productsto customers who have allergies or special dietary requirements); "Complexions" (a range of cosmetics products) and so on”(Datamonitor, 2010).


Morrisons’ manages its operations that include the following subsidiary companies: Bos Brothers Fruit and Vegetables BV, Farmers Boy, Wm Morrison Produce, Safeway, and many more (Datamonitor, 2010).


According to Britt (2009), Morrisons’ chief executive, Marc Bolland, said: “As a food specialist, we are clearly differentiated from our larger competitors, all of whom are seeking to expand their non-food credentials. We also emphasized our deep understanding of food: through being closer to source than other retailers, through our unique manufacturing and packing facilities, through the amount of food preparation undertaken in our stores and through the employment of more specialist butchers, fishmongers and bakers than our competitors”.


1.2.在经济衰退时期的财务业绩—— Financial performance during the recession

During the recession, consumers are cutting down on the premium products and organic products to own-brand labels. In response to the inflation, Morrisons’ had launched quite a number of promotions during the year. They had 21.000 price cuts throughout the year, in order to help its customers spend less (Britt, 2009). Promotions cuts are represented in a variety of ways including multi-buy deals and percentage discounts as well as more inventive meal deals in response to customers need to reduce bills weekly (Mintel, 2009)


1.2.1 2008年至2009年——Year 2008-2009
According to Datamonitor (2010), Morrisons’ recorded revenues of ￡14,528 million at the end of 2009, an increase of 2.0% compared to year 2008. Its net income was ￡460 million in 2009, compared to a net income of $863 million in 2008. (Refer to Appendix 3)


As Mintel (2009) also noted in its report, Morrisons’ own brand labels such as Eat Smart, Best and Organics also enjoyed growth, up by 13%, 5% and 10% in the year 2009 respectively.


1.2.2 2010年——Year 2010
Morrisons’ had declared its half-yearly profit before tax of ￡410m, which has increased approximately 14% than the previous year which values to ￡359m. As market growth in the first half was 3.0%, Morrisons’ equivalent growth was 5.8%. In other words, level of market growth was the lowest for five years. The company had also expected a low level of market growth in the second half of 2010 (Morrisons’, 2010).


According to Britt (2009), Morrisons’ chief executive officer, Dalton Philips said that Morrisons’ is going to offer more own-label products to survive the low market growth in the second half of the year and also in the future.


As Morrisons’ has strong values and is highly focused on its high quality fresh food, the company is expected to be continuously successful in this low growth environment in the second half of the year. Moreover, the company’s positive financial strengths would allow them to invest during the recession in order to provide its consumers with better quality product and at the same time, spending less (Morrisons’, 2010).


The purpose of this essay is to apply three consumer behavior aspects to Morrisons’ and explain and analyze how the three aspects have helped the company to immune to the current economic recession. The three consumer behavior theories used in this essay includes: the buying process, motivation, and Reference Group, Family and Household. The essay would also recommend what Morrisons’ could have been done to tackle the economic downturn.


消费者行为和需求的重要性——Need and Importance of Consumer Behavior

As Olson & Peter (1994) puts in:

“Consumer behavior is the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior and environmental events by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives” (Olson & Peter, 1994, p.13). Companies need to understand their customers’ so they can use it as in input in developing marketing strategies to influence consumers to purchase their products based on the research they have conducted. Companies need to prelaunch the product to see if the products satisfy their customers’ needs. The success of their marketing strategies will solely depend on how buyers react to it (Dibb, et al., 2001). According to Jiang, T (2010) consumption plays an important role in one’s life, it is the duty of the marketers to find out what are the main influences on what, where, when and how their customers buy goods and services. By understanding these factors better, marketers are able to deliver satisfaction to their customers, generate profits, and at the same time maintain long term relationship with its customers.


2.1 在莫里森消费者购买程序——Consumer Buying Process at Morrisons’
Consumers purchase products or services to solve problems in their lives. They have to go through a number of different steps in order to make the final purchase decision. If the purchases are more important, consumers would put more effort into making decisions of buying the product (Jiang, T. 2010).


According to Solomon, et al. (2006) consumers recognize the perceived problem waiting to be solved, followed by the information search process and evaluation of alternatives, that is, by comparing the product to other products. Later, consumers would make a decision, followed by an action that is to purchase or not to purchase the product. Lastly, post purchase feeling that is, if they actually like the product, or wished they dint buy the product (p.258).


Consumer decisions can be classified into three categories (1) habitual (routine) decision making (2) limited decision-making and (3) extended decision-making. Consumers use


routine decision making when buying frequently purchased, low cost, low risk, and low involvement products that needs very little search and decision effort (Dibb, et al., 2001). Customers for Morrisons’ are in this category. As Goldsmith, et al. (1995) explains food shopping is often understood to be a low-involvement activity, as consumer buying decision for low involvement products does not pass through the normal buying-decision-making process, consumers do not search a lot of information or evaluate the product before buying. Therefore because of this, Morrisons’ converted low-involvement products to high involvement ones by designing their advertising and promotions to trigger strong emotions and also by adding an important feature to its low-involvement product.


It is possible that consumers at Morrisons’ used habitual decision-making in purchasing products as the product was of necessity or it may be based on customers’ lifestyle, preferences acquired in early ages, or recommendations from friends or others.


Morrisons’ main focus was very much on its value and low prices for the mass market consumer regardless of the recession. The company focused on freshness and the quality of its products, as its slogan ‘food specialist for everyone’ suggested. In recession, consumers cut back on premium products, and instead bought own-labels brand. People also bought fewer ready prepared meals, ate out less, and were increasingly cooked at home (Mintel, 2009).


However, in response to the economic downturn in 2008-09, the company has launched 21,000 price cuts through the year to help customers spend less. They are represented in a variety of ways including multi-buy deals and percentage discounts (Mintel, 2009). The company had expanded more of its own-brand labels product lines as increasing number of people are turning towards the own-brand’s labels in order to satisfy its customers’ needs and wants.


According to Jiang, T. (2010) customers’ mood, shopping motivation or physiological condition at the time of purchase can have a major impact on the products bought and how they are evaluated. Moreover, the store atmosphere that includes dominant sensory effect on customers created by both the stores physical (visual, sound, feel, taste, smell) appearance and human interactions (staff and other consumers) within it can leads to purchase probability. Besides the store ambient, the product category management that is grouping products that are selected and placed in a way to satisfy consumption patterns (Gilbert, 2003, p.144). For example, at Morrisons’, it is very convenient to shop, as the company has its own of managing its product categories, thus consumers could shop conveniently and make decisions regarding the products easily.


Therefore, because it is convenient and easy to make purchase decisions at Morrison’s, consumers shopped more at the supermarket during the recession as they didn’t have to think much regarding the purchase decision and were able to spend less while still saving more money for later purchase.


2.2 购买动机—— Motivation
Need is a lack of something important. It can never be fulfilled and or satisfied. They are changing all the time, and a new need replaces the old one as soon as it’s satisfied. Want, on the other hand, is the consumption behavior that satisfies the unfulfilled needs. Motivation is the driving force within the individual that pushes them to action; this driving force existed as a result of an unfulfilled need. To understand motivation is to understand why consumers do what they do (Jiang, T. 2010).


A Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theories was used to analyze the consumers’ needs of Morrisons’. There are five steps in Maslow hierarchy of needs, however, only the first three levels of the model were used to analyze consumer needs at Morrisons’ as the other two levels do not apply. The first three levels include:


Physiological needs: These are the necessity needs such as food and drink that Morrisons’ has to satisfy these consumer needs.


Safety needs: These are the safety needs relating to security and protection that Morrisons has to satisfy these needs by providing nutritional food, organic fresh food, and health- related products. Morrisons’ emphasizes that it doesn’t need to compromise on quality in order to provide low prices, therefore, are able to deliver a quality products to its consumers.


Belongingness needs: In this level, consumers needed to be accepted by others, to fit in the group, and needed to be loved. Morrisons’ understood this need and is always providing an enjoyable shopping experience at Morrisons’ in order to satisfy this level of needs.


Maslow’s hierarchy suggested that one must first satisfy basic needs before moving up to the top level (Solomon, et al., 2006). Consumers at Morrisons’ value different product attributes depending on what is currently available to them. From the above theories, it is confirmed that consumers need those need in their daily lives therefore, to survive customers’ needs to purchase those basic and safety despite the recession. However, the amount of products purchased during recession would depend on consumers’ willingness to spend.


As Morrison’s was aware of the economic recession that affects most of its consumers, the company has offered huge amount of promotions to cut prices in order to help its customer spend less on its products and save more for future. Morrisons’ for example, offered ￡4 meal deals, which proved very popular, and it uses most of its promotions as "half price" rather than "buy one, get one free" in response to customers' need to spend less (Britt, 2009). Morrisons’ motivated its consumers to buy more than they need, so its consumers could spend less and save more money at the end of the day. In this way, Morrisons’ and its consumers shared mutual benefits as consumers would get quality products in low prices and the company, on the other hand, would generate profits.


Moreover, by offering more discounts and valuable meal deals on its quality product, consumers were satisfied with Morrisons’ and trusted the company, resulting in loyalty, where they could go back to Morrisons’ and make frequent purchase. In addition, the company was able to attract more young shoppers, such as students, and at the same time retaining its existing consumer groups.


2.3 相关团体和家庭——Reference group, Family and Household
“Reference group is an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluation, aspirations, or behavior” (Solomon, et al., 2006 p.350). Social group is when more than one person interacts with each other in a given context (Sprott, 1958, p.9). In the case of Morrisons’, reference group can be friends, family, colleagues, co-inhabitants, or household, where they would get to interact with each other and could recommend one another on products to purchase. For example, students living in a flat together could inform one another or make the other individual aware of the food discounts at Morrisons, as they would like to cut cost by paying less for food during recession. Therefore, the information provided by their flat mate could e compared with the individual’s thinking, thus enhancing in making decisions regarding the purchase of the product.


Morrisons’ did a lot of advertising on its website and on television nationally in order to increase consumer awareness of Morrisons’ and what the company stands for. According to Mintel (2009) the company also had endorsed celebrities such as Lulu, and Helen Baxendale, to speak about the experiences with the good quality Morrisons’ have offered.


However, there are groups of people in UK, for example, international students, who do not have TV, therefore might not know about Morrisons’. Since they do not have TV, they would rely on their friends in their household, classmates, or colleagues on the information about consumer products. This confirmed that they were actually engaging in word-of-mouth communication. As Solomon, et al., 2006, p.368) explains information obtained from those individual knows or talk directly tends to be more reliable and trustworthy. Moreover, Morrisons’ did generate profits during recession through the word-of-mouth, and advertising as people became aware of their discounts through their websites offer, television and recommendations.


According to Solomon, et al., (2006) family decision-making has two types: consensual purchase decision (the group agrees on the desired purchase, differing only in terms of how will be achieved) and accommodative purchase (group members have different preferences and cannot agree on a purchase that will satisfy all members) (p.410). Moreover, gender role also affects consumption depending on who is making the decision. For example, when shopping at Morrisons’, if the wife has the most power in purchasing groceries, she would dominate the decision-making and vice versa. Also, if the wife was to be the one making purchases, she might spent some time selecting right products for her family. However, wife’s age, social class, lifestyle culture could also influence the product decision-making. Sometimes, spouses can jointly decide when making a purchase. Besides the gender role, children can also affect consumption, for example, parents buying products as influenced by their children, in other words, “parental yielding” (Solomon, et al., 2006, p.414). For instance, Morrisons’ have range of products such as cereals and chocolates, that they know children would persuade their mother to buy for them.


Consumer socialization is when young people who acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning in the market place (Solomon, et al., 2006, p.415). This theory can be use to analyze young shoppers at Morrisons’. For example, consumers who shop at Morrisons’ today could be of those who used to accompany their parents to shop when they were young; therefore, the reason that they are still making frequent purchase at Morrisons’ is basically because they were exposed to that particular situation when they were a kid. From this analysis, it could be confirmed that despite the recession, groups of people living in household, or with family would still have to go to Morrisons’ in order to buy products that constitutes to their needs and wants. Morrisons’ understood its consumers well, and the company knows who actually shops at its supermarket, therefore, providing range of low price quality food to its customers to satisfy their needs and wants, while still generating profit.


建议和结论——Recommendation and Conclusion

3.1建议——Recommendation
Currently, Morrisons’ website provides information on the company’s offer and latest promotions, health tips, and food recipes to its customers. The company also provides a Christmas saving scheme and a petrol mile loyalty card to satisfy their customers’ needs and wants hence, adds value to its products (Morrisons’, 2010).


However, as online grocery retailing is growing, company such as Tesco, Asda, and Sainburys were more profitable than Morrisons’ during recession as they have incorporated online shopping as part of their strategies. Therefore, in order to generate more profits, Morrisons’ could have incorporated online shopping as part of their strategy since it is the only supermarket among the “big four” supermarkets that does not have a transactional website (Mintel, 2009). Moreover, the company could have used data mining, to record every purchase of customers’, so they could learn more about consumers in terms of the frequent products purchased. Tesco, for example, has offered loyalty to its customers when they shop. By issuing loyalty cards, they were more profitable than Morrisons’ in times of recession. In addition to data mining and online shopping, Morrisons’ could have offered a loyalty card to its customers when they shop frequently.


3.2 总结—— Conclusion
The UK food retail industry is one of the most competitive market in the world, having supermarkets, hypermarkets, and discounters, competing for profits that accounted up to 60% of the total sales in 2009 (Datamonitor, 2010)

Today, companies can’t solely rely on customer satisfaction in generating higher profits and revenues. Creation of value for its customers, on the other hand, has increasingly becoming very important. Companies and marketers needs to understand consumers from consumers’ perspective to identify their needs and therefore, create solutions that deliver satisfaction and creates values for its customers, and at the same time, generating profits to the companies.


During the recession, many small and medium-sized businesses lost positions in the market place and was forced out of the business. This was mainly because consumers have cut back on premium products and was opting for low prices quality products. Morrisons’, on the other hand, was generating profits during the recession, as the company understood its customers well in terms of buying process, motivational factors, and their reference group. Morrisons’, for example, was aware that its customers wanted to spend less during recession, so it offered range of quality products in low price with different promotional tactics to attract more consumers during the recession. However, the company wasn’t the most profitable supermarkets during the recession. As stated above, Morrisons’ could have done better by incorporated online shopping and loyalty card as their marketing strategies. Through loyalty cards, the company could learn and understand more about its consumers, in terms of items its consumers tend to purchase.


参考文献——References

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