Retail Customer Experience: A Case Analysis Project

Introduction and Contextualisation

Recent years have seen a number of changes in the way consumers browse, shop, buy and engage with brands and their products and services. These changes have had an impact on the dynamics of retail marketing and have forced organisations to adapt their strategies. Managing customer experience through the retail channel has become of paramount importance. Given this context, you are required to:

(i)Conduct a literature review on the concept of retail customer experience with a view to understand and examine the recent academic publications in this area.

(ii)Following this, choose a retailer as a case in point and demonstrate how this chosen retailer manages in-store customer experience.

(iii)Finally, based on your understanding of the literature and your analysis of the retailer, make recommendations to the retailer’s management team.

 It is suggested that your report entails the following elements:

-Front Sheet

-An executive summary

-Title page

-An introduction to the report

-The context and background

-Literature review

-Case analysis

-Conclusions and recommendations

Component 1 Marking Criteria:

Introduction and contextualisation (10%)

Review of academic literature (30%)

Analysis of the retailer (35%)

Quality of recommendations (15%)

Originality and referencing (10%)

Notice is hereby given that all submissions for component 1 [Individual report] of this module must be submitted to Turnitin by 4pm on the 18th March 2020. If you fail to submit component 1 [Individual report], to Turnitin, in accordance with the guidance provided on the Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle), a mark of 0 will be awarded for the component.

It is expected that you will submit a word/pdf document to turnitin. Please note that there is a 10% +/- levee on word limit.  Failure to comply with the word limit will result in a 5% deduction of the overall component mark.

You are to evaluate and analyse the retail marketing strategy of Burberry based on the Harvard Publishing Case study: Burberrry’s New Challenges. You are required to draw up a report that outlines the challenges faced by the retailer and provide key recommendations. Your report must be detailed and comprehensive. It should explain to the reader what the context of the report is and should be able to answer the following questions:

1.What are the main challenges facing Burberry? As CEO, what actions would you take to deal with these challenges? Where would you focus your resources?

2.In the digital world, fashion shows are aired live to the public, fast fashion brands replicate the catwalk designs of luxury brands within weeks, and customers demand constant change. How do luxury brands like Burberry remain successful and differentiate themselves from fast brand in this new age?

3.What actions should luxury brands take to deal with the impact of digital technology on customers’ perceptions of their brands?

4.What actions should Burberry take with regard to the industry-wide challenges it faces? Should Burberry take a first-mover approach or a wait-and-see approach?

To complete this task, you are required to organise yourselves in groups of 3-4 members. You will be provided an opportunity to do this in Week 2 where you are free to choose members of your group. Students who do not attend in Week 2 lose out on this advantage and will be placed into a group by the tutor in order to balance the group numbers.

Working with members within a team context is one of the most sought after skills that employers look for when recruiting graduates. You must become adept in managing each other whilst simultaneously ensuring that the quality of the work produced by everyone is up to the mark.

-It is recommended that each group choses a project manager who will co-ordinate the group activities, takes key decisions and liaises with the tutor.

-A group contribution form MUST be completed at every group meeting. This must be submitted as part of your group report. A sample group log can be found in Appendix A.

-It will also be prudent to have someone take notes at group meetings and update the group log.

Research:

It is envisaged that you can complete this task primarily by using secondary data. However, you are encouraged to visit the store as a group and make observations. If you are conducting interviews with the store manager or staff then these will be deemed as ‘primary data’ and will need approval from the School Ethics Committee, details of which will be provided on the Moodle site for MK5011.

Notice is hereby given that the final group report must be submitted to Turnitin by 4pm on the 1st of April 2020. If you fail to submit component 2 [group report], to Turnitin, in accordance with the guidance provided on the Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle), a mark of 0 will be awarded for the component.