Managing Retail Consumption

Description: Managing Retail Consumption locates retailing in its social context and develops the position that retailing can be regarded as a site of consumption, identity, creation and pleasure. It develops a consumption perspective, which provides a balanced approach between management and the social sciences. The consumption perspective considers the way retail sites are created or manipulated with a view to understanding the interplay between the provider's requirements and the consumer's ability to manage, structure and edit their repertoire of responses. The text looks at how retailing works and examines the narrative nature of retailing: how it can tell a story, be playful, and form a major element in the consideration of management of retail operations. It also examines retail in its social context including examples and cases of numerous well known companies such as Tesco, Next and Galleries Lafayette. Review: '...this book is well presented and offers some vignette type cases to support learning...' (The Marketing Review, Winter 2002) Table of Contents: Preface Acknowledgment Introduction PART 1 INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT : THE ROLE AND HISTORY OF RETAIL CONSUMPTION Retailing History The Birth of Modern Consumption Consumption, Signs and Symbols PART 2 MANAGEMENT OF THE ARENA OF RETAIL CONSUMPTION A Dramaturgical View--Elements of the Drama: A Question of Perspective The Servuction Model and its Extensions The Physical Environment Merchandise Atmosphere and Image The Social Dimension The Temporal Dimension Customers' Psychological State PART 3 THE RETAIL ENTERPRISE IN CONTEXT The Strategic Context Service Characteristics and Context The Locational Context The Social and Ecological Context PART 4 THE RETAIL FUTURE Conclusions and Prognosis Index