Project topics and materials
Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade or two, the South African retail environment has been characterised by the establishment and the renovation of shopping centres all over the country. Not only does this show enormous growth for the retail industry as a whole, but also the aptitude of retailers in serving the evolving needs of shoppers in the 21st century.
Since the new dispensation in the political environment in South Africa in 1994, the profile of the typical South African shopper or consumer has changed from the traditional white affluent consumer to a diverse mix of heterogeneous cultures and nationalities. In a study conducted by the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing, they coined the term “black diamonds” to refer to the black middle class, which includes working professionals; people who own cars and/or homes, that can afford a university education, in addition to those that have the potential to enter these categories (Dardagan, 2005). At that time, the findings indicated that the black diamonds represented 12% of South Africa’s black adults, and 28% of South Africa’s buying power.
Studies conducted by Market Tree Consultancy (2008) confirm the growth of this lucrative market. During 2008 black diamonds numbered over two million people, and had a combined annual spending power of R130-billion (Market Tree Consultancy, 2008).
Considering these figures it may be concluded that the target market characteristics of shopping centre patrons have changed significantly in recent years. The expansion andestablishment of shopping centres across South Africa has also resulted in the patronage of some black consumers who do not necessarily fall into the black-diamond category.
Numerous shopping centre studies have been conducted by international researchers during the past 40-50 years. According to Wong, Lu and Yuan (2001:76) the first study on predicting shopping centre patronage was done in 1958 by Martineau. This was followed by studies in the sixties by Huff, as well as Arons, in the seventies by Lindquist, and in the eighties by Nevin and Houston (Wong et al., 2001). More recent studies include the work of Wong et al. (2001), Sit, Merrilees and Birch, (2003) and El-Adly (2007). However, very little research on shopping centre attractiveness has been done in South Africa and the studies done focussed mainly on the Gauteng province. The first local study was conducted by North and Kotze (2004) to investigate shoppers’ perceptions of the attractiveness of three shopping centres in Pretoria while Creydt and Roodt (2005) investigated teenagers’ perceptions of the attractiveness of the Menlyn Shopping centre in Pretoria. No research has been done in other provinces in South Africa and especially investigating black consumers’ perceptions.
CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1 BACKGROUND .
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.4 IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF THE PROPOSED STUDY
1.5 DELIMITATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS
1.6 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
1.6.1 Abbreviations and acronyms
1.7 THE LITERATURE REVIEW
1.8 THE RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS .
1.9 CHAPTER OUTLINE
CHAPTER 2 PLANNED SHOPPING CENTRE DEVELOPMENT
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHOPPING
CENTRE CONCEPT
2.3 SHOPPING CENTRE LOCATION, PLANNING AND DESIGN
2.4 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3 RETAIL MARKETING STRATEGY.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF A RETAIL STRATEGY
3.3 MARKETING AND PROMOTION STRATEGIES FOR A SHOPPING CENTRE .
3.4 CONCLUSIO
CHAPTER 4 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN A RETAIL CONTEXT
4.1 INTRODUCTION .
4.2 DEFINING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
4.3 AN OVERVIEW OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AS A FIELD OF STUDY
4.4 MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
4.5 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES .
4.6 INTERNAL INFLUENCES .
4.7 SELF-CONCEPT AND LIFESTYLE .
4.8 SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES .
4.9 THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
4.10 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5 SHOPPING CENTRE PATRONAGE AND BEHAVIOUR
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 SHOPPING PATRONAGE AND MOTIVES
5.3 DETERMINANTS OF SHOPPING CENTRE ATTRACTIVENESS
5.4 SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR
5.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER 7 RESEARCH RESULTS
CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES
