Leisure or work? Shopping behavior in neighborhood stores in a pandemic context

Purpose: This study aims to understand customer's assessments of neighborhood stores during the COVID-19 pandemic through the influence of in-store environmental factors on patronage intention. Design/methodology/approach: Online survey with 528 participants about the last shopping trip in neighborhood retail. The authors performed data analysis using structural equation modeling techniques. Findings: High-perceived spatial crowding negatively influences shopping experience value perceptions, while human crowding influences patronage intentions through increased perceived hedonic value. Research limitations/implications: Results suggest that purchase experience at well-known neighborhood stores during a sanitary crisis is becoming less convenience-oriented and a substitute for leisure activities due to social distancing. Practical implications: The findings elucidate the social function of neighborhood convenience retailing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results emphasize that a pleasant shopping experience arising from a good relationship with shopkeepers and other customers is more influential on patronage intention than a good product assortment and store layout. Social implications: This paper contributes to the survival of small neighborhood businesses during the financial crisis installed due to Covid-19 by helping businesses become more attractive to their consumers and competitive in the new context. Originality/value: The combined context of the health crisis due to COVID-19 and neighborhood retail of an emerging country raises the need for tests to better understand established marketing theories. Based on this rationale, this work intends to replicate and extend selected previous findings to the new environment dictated by the pandemic. © 2023, Marcelo Moll Brandão, Arthur França Sarcinelli, Ananda Bisi Barcelos and Luiza Postay Cordeiro.

EFFECTS OF BRAND ATTITUDE, PERCEIVED VALUE, AND SOCIAL WoM ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS IN LUXURY PRODUCT MARKETING

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant change in customer behavior, including in the luxury product business. One crucial part of customer behavior is purchase intention. Understanding purchase intention is an essential basis for developing various marketing innovations. This study aimed to establish a model of the interaction of factors that influence purchase intention in luxury products today, especially in Indonesia. The study used a cross-sectional study approach. This study's respondents were social media users who would buy luxury products. The research sample size was 381 users. The Lime Survey was applied to collect data and was accessed online. The questionnaire statement items used a Likert scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), including Perceived Value (9 items), Social WoM (3 items), Brand Attitude (3 items), and Purchase Intention (3 items). The model validation was analyzed using bootstrapping to process the Structural Equation Model (SEM) under Smart-PIS software. The analysis results show that the three variables simultaneously (R-square = 0.419) moderately can be used to explain Purchase Intention. However, the factors that affect Purchase Intention are only Perceived Value (p-value = 0.000) and Brand Attitude (p-value = 0.000), but not Social WoM (p-value = 0.203). This study concludes that marketing innovation is critical to focus on the prestige of luxury product users through perceived value and brand attitude. Information from other users is not reliable enough to build purchase intention because luxury product users tend not to trust products from other users. Still, they believe more in the perceived prestige.

Effective marketing strategies for global FMCG brands during COVID-19 pandemic crisis

Purpose This study proposes marketing strategies for global fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) brands to survive and thrive in the turbulent economic environment created by COVID-19. The authors investigate the indirect effects of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and consumer confidence (CC) on customer equity drivers (CEDs)' effectiveness in influencing repurchase intention (RI) for global FMCG brands. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the mall-intercept technique. Respondents were randomly approached at popular retail and shopping destinations in Athens, Greece, and 228 customer participants completed the survey. Findings CET and CC weaken the positive relationship between certain CEDs and RI of FMCG brands. Particularly, the effects of relationship equity (RE) and value equity (VE) on strengthening repeated purchases are higher for low-confidence or low-ethnocentric consumers. Thus, marketing strategies for enhancing value and creating stronger consumer-brand relationships are more effective in boosting repeated purchases during economic turbulence. Practical implications Practitioners and academicians can use the insights obtained from this study to determine how to allocate resources and adopt the most effective marketing strategies in local environments based on consumer preference for domestic or global products and consumer morale and expectations for future financial status. Originality/value This research unveils the mechanism behind the moderating effects of CET and CC on the effectiveness of CEDs in global FMCG settings using social identity and system justification theory. Turbulence in international and local markets due to the pandemic has revealed that marketing function needs to redesign strategies and coordinate practices to boost repeat purchases.