Discuss the benefits to a retailer of operating multiple formats Essay

Discuss the benefits to a retailer of operating multiple formats. Illustrate your answer with three examples from the UK retail - Essay Example Sainsbury’s, for example, has introduced a credit card that enables a customer to earn loyalty points whenever they shop at the supermarket. Tesco, on the other hand, is working on an application on Facebook, which will enable customers to gain double Club Card points by sharing or liking the facts about the products they buy from the supermarket. The Blackberry Company, on the other hand, uses TV and Billboards to launch new products. It also uses sales promotions to obtain advance payments in the short term sales (Chadwick, Doherty, Anastasakis, 2006). The Benefits of Using Multiple Formats to a Retailer The use of multiple formats has proved to be of immense importance to retailers because multiple formats normally offer unique opportunities for retailers to use services such as geo-location to market their products. This is applicable when using formats like social media. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, used by Tesco tend to be hyper social platforms (Varley, 2 005). Multiple formats also tend to benefit organizations in that; some of the formats used by retailers tend to influence the consumers. For example, in that case of Sainsbury’s, where a consumer uses their credit card to shop, and eventually earns points. The use of advertisements by companies such as Tesco is also a format that can be used by a retailer to attract more customers and obtain more profits. For instance, Tesco has normally used flyers and websites to increase awareness among customers in the UK (Varley, 2005). Theory of Social Media as a multiple format used by retailers Berman and Evans (2004) discuss ways in which social media assists as a multiple format when it comes to skills that help retail marketing. Ellis-Chadwick, Doherty and Anastasakis (2006) reveal that social media helps its users view themselves in other ways by using their fresh data and presenting it in a manner that is planned. Using social media leads to increased consumer engagement and may result in quick sales in case a company has offers for consumers at a given time. Using such social media, retailers are in a position to create brand awareness, therefore, attracting more customers. The use of social media results in increased product awareness among consumers. Provision of consumers with information, such as price of products and location of the stores, where such products can be found, increases sales for the retailers (Healey and Baker, 1997). Porter’s five forces theory Porter’s five forces theory is a format that helps retailers to understand their positions in the competitive market. The retailers can normally use competition to evaluate their weaknesses. It enhances retailers with the ability to evaluate whether the goods and services offered are profitable. Retailers may use this format to evaluate their buyer power, the capabilities of their competitors, their supplier power, the threats accompanied by substitution, and the threats they may face in case they make a new entry into the market (Porter, 2008). An examination of the Mintel report reveals that; if a company manages to analyze the other companies in the market, the company can be in a position to track its competitors, and this leads to the identity