Marketing of Outlet Stores

Outlet Retail Store

Retailing is the most dynamic aspect of a channel of distribution (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). New types of retailers are always entering the market, searching for a new position that will attract customers (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). Product managers recognize that brands offer more that product identification and a means to distinguish their products from competitors (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). Successful and established brands take on a brand personality and research shows that consumers often assign personality traits to product brands and will pay more money for higher quality clothes that will last long and stay in fashion (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011).

There are five criteria used for selecting a target segment (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). The market size, expected growth, competitive positions, cost of reaching the segment, and compatibility with the organization's objectives and resources (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). There are also five criteria to use in forming market segments, which are often confused with those used to select a particular segment (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). Behavioral segmentations are a useful way to segment markets because it can lead directly to specific marketing actions (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). Marketers have an advantage of offering a product line that is closely related and this satisfy the class of needs to the same customer group enhancing the business success (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011).

Outlet Center marketing operation offers excellent quality at a cheaper price than paying retail prices for name brand items with full services (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). The target market is the suburb everyday people looking for a bargain of high quality with low prices. With this unique competitive position of offering high-end name brand products all in one place is a very profitable position in the retail industry. This makes it easy for customers to shop all their favorite stores while receiving a discount. Each store is individual and offers popular brand names with high quality and low prices. The locations of the outlets are on major highways and are easily assessable. The stores were laid out in a convenient and very assessable design.

A key positioning of a product or brand effectively is discovering the perceptions of its potential customer (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). In determining its positioning in the minds of customers, companies take the following four steps to sell their items (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). First, the manager must identify the important attributes for a product or brand class, discover how target customers rate competing products or brands with respect to these attributes, discover where the company's product or brand is on these attributes in the minds of potential customer, and fourth is reposition the company's product or brand in the minds of potential customers (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). Product repositioning changes the place a product occupies in consumers' minds relative to competitive products (Kerin, Hartley, Rudelus, 2011). There are four factors that trigger the need for repositioning action and are reacting to competitors positioning, reaching a new market, catching a rising trend, and changing