Future Directions for Retail Design Management

20 Pages 4956 Words

How consumers are affected by their environments, and the apparent influence these settings have on their ensuing consumption, has been the focus of debate in numerous academic studies. This work frequently cites the importance of a multiplicity of elements which act as a mnemonic device, and catalyst for behaviour. But seldom have these elements been interpreted and scrutinised. More often, the architectural features and atmosphere that surrounds the consumer is represented in an all-inclusive fashion, and termed the "inanimate environment". The marketing literature, in particular, appears to overlook many issues relating to the physical setting (Newman, et al., 1994b), and as Foxall (1992) postulates, lacks an understanding of specific consumer situations and the context in which these actions take place.


The prevailing paradigm adopted by models of consumer behaviour focuses on the cognitive dimension (Foxall, 1995; p. 5). Consumer choice is thus depicted as a problem-solving and decision-making sequence of events, which is determined largely by the consumer's mental actions; goal-directed, and the rational processing of information (Howard, 1983). Although the study of consumer individuality and perceptual constructs is highly important, and helps to build a broader foundation for the development of theory, the large majority of frameworks merely provide an interpretive function and seldom display predictive capability; models should have the capability to predict behaviour as well as explain it (Zaltman and Wallendorf, 1983; p. 623). Indeed, a greater understanding of the processes at work in, for example, a service setting could be elicited from noncognitive explanations. These may supply definitions of the sorts of physical cues (stimulants) that influence a consumer's perceptions during the consumption phase, adding (as Bitner (1990; 1992) theorises) significantly to the outcomes.


Thus far, consumer research has fail...