A Study On Marketing Strategy Of Department Stores Based On Customer Orientation

From now into the future retailers need a deeper understanding of customers in orderto target effectively and sell their offerings. As a traditional retail format, department storesconfront new challenges in today's competitive market. Because of their unique serviceadvantage which makes them close to the ultimate customer, the customer orientationbecome more important to them and has a positive impact on performance in the marketand profitability.A customer orientation is a central factor in being market orientation, which places thehighest priority on continuously finding ways to provides superior customer value. Despiteits importance, there has been relatively little research into how well retailers understandtheir customers in a commercial context, especially for department stores.Unlike previous research, this study adopts customer orientation comprehensive onretail strategy of department stores. It follows from such thinking that gaps might existbetween what a supplier believes a customer wants to buy and what is important to thecustomer in making that purchase. One measure therefore of customer orientation wouldbe the size of such gaps.Using this new measure, the author empirically examines the customer orientation ofdepartment stores, and tests the customer orientation-customer satisfaction relationship.From this perspective, the author elaborates on customer-oriented marketing strategy andpresent comprehensive framework (4P+S) creatively.Furthermore, the author discusses several important research issues as well asmanagerial implications and future research avenues.