Affluent Customers Research Articles

Marketing Strategy of Ocado: A Comprehensive Review of the UK's Leading Grocery Delivery Service

This review critically examines the marketing strategy of Ocado, a leading online grocery delivery service in the UK. Despite its technological innovations, such as AI-powered customer fulfillment centers and data-driven personalization, Ocado holds a modest 1.7% market share, compared to traditional competitors like Tesco and Sainsbury's. The paper explores key factors influencing Ocado's market performance, including its premium positioning, digital-first approach, and sustainability efforts. It also analyzes the company's reliance on affluent customers and the limitations posed by high operational costs. Through a thorough evaluation of Ocado's customer engagement, environmental initiatives, and competitive landscape, this review offers insights into how the company can expand its market presence by embracing emerging technologies like blockchain and AI while adopting hybrid marketing strategies to appeal to a broader customer base. Recommendations for future growth emphasize the need for competitive pricing, a wider product offering, and enhanced personalization strategies.

럭셔리 서비스와 구별화 작업: 특급호텔 종사자에 대한 질적 연구

Since Hochschild’s groundbreaking book, scholars have explored various aspects of service work. Yet, luxury services, which serve affluent customers who have more social and economic power than the service workers, have received less attention. These workers strive to make their customers feel special, performing works that affirm their elite status. This study proposes the term “distinction work” to describe these practices. By identifying a unique type of work in the luxury service sector, this study enriches the service work literature, which has traditionally examined different kinds of work (e.g. body work, care work, aesthetic work, etc.) in each service sector. This paper conducts a qualitative study to analyze the distinction work of hoteliers in luxury hotels. The researcher worked as a temporary worker for 5 weeks at a restaurant in a 5-star luxury hotel in downtown Seoul and also interviewed 32 hoteliers from 6 luxury hotels. The data was analyzed following the grounded theoretical method. The hotelier recognizes who each customer is, anticipates their needs, and fulfills them even before they ask. Moreover, the hotelier takes on the physical burden of the customer, which reinforces the customer’s privileged position and entitles them to make any demand to the employees. The discussion section highlights the theoretical importance of distinction work in the service work literature.

Supply sunspots and shadows: Business siting patterns and inequitable rooftop solar adoption in the United States

Entrepreneurs in certain industries tend to locate new businesses in relatively affluent areas. Preferences to site businesses in affluent areas can reduce low-income household access to certain products. Some argue that business siting patterns could explain inequitable consumption patterns, though such causal claims are often empirically weak. Here, we explore whether business siting patterns partly explain inequitable adoption of rooftop solar photovoltaics in California. We show that solar business formation drives an immediate and sustained increase in local solar adoption, including in low-income areas. However, solar business siting patterns have only weak impacts on solar adoption equity. The data show how solar businesses headquartered in low-income areas nonetheless install solar for relatively affluent customers. Customer-level adoption inequity partly offsets the potential equity gains of siting more businesses in low-income areas. We discuss how the emergent nature and unique business model of rooftop solar help explain these nuanced results.

The role of perceived value in shaping luxury service customers’ self-brand connection

Building on the literature on luxury consumption behavior, this study investigates customers’ perceived values on their patronage behavior toward luxury service brands. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling is used to test the research model with a sample of 177 American luxury hotel customers. The findings suggest that functional, individual, and social values from experiences influence customers’ perceived connection with a luxury service brand. The bond between customers and brands affects customers’ patronage behavior. Moreover, the role of the self-brand connection on the relationship between the perceived value and behavioral intention indicates that the impact of functional, individual, and social values on patronage behavior, and the self-brand connection is different depending on the perceived congruity with the luxury hotel brand. However, the affluent customers’ perception of financial value does not enhance the self-brand connection. The results suggest that it would be more effective for luxury hotel service providers to build strong and meaningful ties with customers. This study identifies the role of the self-brand connection in the relationships between multidimensional perceived value (i.e. financial, functional, individual, social) and loyal behavior in the luxury service context.

The Importance of Health Insurance in the Various Insurance Sectors in India: A Review

The pressure of competitive and dynamic markets has contributed to the provision of these services. A booming financial market holds the interest of most of the Indian today. The banks are no longer the means of saving money and taking loans but they have turned into one stop any financial need by a common man. For banks seeking to improve their performance, developing offers to attract mass affluent customers may be the key to raising their profile and reducing their cost-to income ratios. Each banking institution must weigh the economics of such a move and determine whether there is demand for such service in its market. Insurance is a finance service for collecting the savings of public and providing them with risk coverage. It reimbursement in a situation of loss, The risk may be certain events like death, retirement, pension, education, marriage etc. or uncertain events like theft, accident, fire, ill-health, etc. Insurance is pooling of risks, when the concepts of insurance to arises, a pre-payment of some type is required. Today, there is insurance for many aspects of daily living: Business, Auto, Health, Life and Travel. The health insurance is one of the very important products for various types of insurance products. In this study we are analysis the various types of health insurance policy effects on the human life.

Unpacking Brand Imperialism in Bangladesh: Emerging Market Perspective

Abstract: Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to understand the meaning of counterfeit consumption from less affluent consumers’ perspectives. Methodology A qualitative research process was taken as a means to conduct this study, and the data is collected using an ethnographic and ethnographic approach. An iterative hermeneutic process is followed to analyze the data collected. Results: The study revealed that less affluent people use counterfeit products mainly to reflect abhorrent sentiments toward foreign brands. This abhorrence leads to building resistance and resilience, which is primarily the production of counterfeit products. Limitations: The significance of this research paper can be limited by the respondent sample size, which was not so large for concluding. Moreover, the data were only collected from the respondents of Dhaka City because of its time limitation, which results in making our study narrow. Contribution: This study will help scholars and academicians as well as market researchers to get depth understanding of why counterfeit consumption is acceptable to less affluent consumers. And, this empirical study will also have detailed the perceptions of less affluent customers regarding the consumption of foreign brands. As no prior papers have discussed the different aspects of counterfeit consumption by less affluent consumers, this paper will add new insight into the topic of academia. Keywords: 1. Brand Imperialism 2. Counterfeit 3. Colonialism 4. Oppression 5. Exploitation

A Qualitative Investigation of Shopping Behavior of Customers at Bottom of the Pyramid

In recent years, the “Bottom of the Pyramid” (BOP) market has become an attraction for researchers, business managers, and policymakers. Numerous researchers have contributed theoretically and empirically to the BOP literature, however, little focus is accorded to BOP customers’ buying behavior. It is interesting to study the shopping behavior of BOP customers characterized by low disposable income, poor standard of living, and geographical isolation. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the shopping behavior of BOP customers to identify the drivers and hindrances in the buying decisions. The study follows a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth personal interviews of 100 BOP customers visiting Vishal Mega Marts (VMMs) in a northern Indian city. The results indicate that BOP customers aspire for a better shopping experience like affluent customers, however, income constraint restricts them to buy superior brands. Indeed, BOP customers are persuaded by excessive discounts, gifts, coupons, peer influence, and seasonal offers by VMMs. The study provides implications for researchers, retailers, and policymakers.

Global high-value luxury brands manufactured domestically: customer beliefs and attitudes in low-income emerging economies

Faced with market saturation in developed countries, high-value luxury brand manufacturers are aggressively targeting populous emerging economies. Market development in these low incomes countries has been slow. Local production could reduce costs, improve price competitiveness and accelerate market development. However, customer proclivity to associate quality with a country's level of economic and technological advancement, symbolism associated with consuming imported brands and ethnocentric beliefs could constrain market development. Using car purchases by affluent customers in India as a surrogate indicator, this study analyses customer beliefs and attitudes towards high value luxury brand purchases manufactured domestically. The results reveal that customers are influenced by 'country-of-brand origin' rather than 'country-of-manufacture' or 'country-of-assembly' and do not have ethnocentric beliefs and attitudes. Consequently, high value developed country luxury brands can be manufactured and successfully marketed in low-income countries such as India.

Downside of corporate performance management practices in low-income markets

Based on theoretical literature review, the paper demonstrates the misgiving of market economy corporate performance management practices when applied in poor markets. Western developed management practices are incongruent to serve poor customers in low-income markets. The findings of the literature review are that these management systems are exclusionary and conflict with sustainable development as they reject the poor as unprofitable and worthless to pursue as customers. In addition, they are based on antiquated assumptions and contradict ideologies and cultural contexts of the poor. In recent times, corporates are under pressure to enter low-income markets as developed markets get saturated. The poor are, however, significantly different from the affluent customers obtained in higher income segments. Corporates find themselves poorly equipped to succeed. Because poor markets are only latent, firms are expected to do more in order to create value than they would do when entering developed markets. The paper provides recommendations for the firms from developed markets to adjust their performance management practices in order to be successful in emerging markets.

The Pursuit of Social Recognition through Luxury Service Brands

ABSTRACTThis study introduces and empirically tests a luxury service brand model. A structural equation modeling technique (partial least squares) was employed to test this model using survey data from members and nonmembers of a prestigious country club in Asia. Empirical findings from this study supported the model demonstrating that both members and nonmembers of a prestigious country club use a luxury service brand to gain social recognition. This research is one of the first studies to empirically demonstrate that luxury services, like luxury goods, are consumed by affluent customers to gain social status and social approval.

Comparison of sodium content of meals served by independent takeaways using standard versus reduced holed salt shakers: cross-sectional study.

BackgroundTakeaway food has a relatively poor nutritional profile. Providing takeaway outlets with reduced-holed salt shakers is one method thought to reduce salt use in takeaways, but effects have not been formally tested. We aimed to determine if there was a difference in sodium content of standard fish and chip meals served by Fish & Chip Shops that use standard (17 holes) versus reduced-holed (5 holes) salt shakers, taking advantage of natural variations in salt shakers used.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study of all Fish & Chip Shops in two local government areas (n = 65), where servers added salt to meals as standard practice, and salt shaker used could be identified (n = 61). Standard fish and chip meals were purchased from each shop by incognito researchers and the purchase price and type of salt shaker used noted. Sodium content of full meals and their component parts (fish, chips, and fish batter) was determined using flame photometry. Differences in absolute and relative sodium content of meals and component parts between shops using reduced-holed versus standard salt-shakers were compared using linear regression before and after adjustment for purchase price and area.ResultsReduced-holed salt shakers were used in 29 of 61 (47.5 %) included shops. There was no difference in absolute sodium content of meals purchased from shops using standard versus reduced-holed shakers (mean = 1147 mg [equivalent to 2.9 g salt]; SD = 424 mg; p > 0.05). Relative sodium content was significantly lower in meals from shops using reduced-holed (mean = 142.5 mg/100 g [equivalent to 0.4 g salt/100 g]; SD = 39.0 mg/100 g) versus standard shakers (mean = 182.0 mg/100 g; [equivalent to 0.5 g salt/100 g]; SD = 68.3 mg/100 g; p = 0.008). This was driven by differences in the sodium content of chips and was extinguished by adjustment for purchase price and area. Price was inversely associated with relative sodium content (p < 0.05).ConclusionsUsing reduced-holed salt shakers in Fish & Chip Shops is associated with lower relative sodium content of fish and chip meals. This is driven by differences in sodium content of chips, making our results relevant to the wide range of takeaways serving chips. Shops serving higher priced meals, which may reflect a more affluent customer base, may be more likely to use reduced-holed shakers.

How personal advisors make a difference in serving “almost rich” bank customers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore mass affluent customer perceptions of the service quality delivered by personal advisors and banks, and the contributions of personal advisors and banks to customer satisfaction; and also to analyse the strength of the relationship between customer satisfaction with personal advisors and banks. Design/methodology/approach A survey composed of items designed to mirror service quality practices used in the mass affluent segment was administered to customers of a major Swedish bank. Statistical analyses of the responses were performed. Findings Four service quality dimensions are identified as salient to customer satisfaction: interpersonal behaviour, knowledge, service portfolio, and trust. The relative importance of these dimensions depends on whether customer satisfaction with the personal advisor or the bank is focused. Moreover, the analysis indicates a double “rubbing off” effect where customer satisfaction with the personal advisor influences customer satisfaction with the bank and vice versa. Originality/value The unexplored separation of service quality provided by the bank and the personal advisor is central to perceived service quality. The study focuses on customer satisfaction in the mass affluent segment, which is an unexplored context different from retail banking.

Effects of commitment on intentional loyalty at the person-to-person and person-to-firm levels

This study explores how customers’ affective commitment and calculative commitment to the personal adviser and bank, respectively, affect their intentional loyalty to the personal adviser and bank. Data were collected using a web survey of mass affluent customers of a major Swedish bank. Responses were measured and analysed using factor, correlation, and regression analyses. The results reveal that the person-to-person and person-to-firm loyalty categories are influenced by affective and calculative commitment to the personal advisor and by affective commitment to the bank, but not by calculative commitment to the bank. Moreover, there is a strong relationship between customer loyalty to the personal adviser and to the bank. It can be concluded that affective commitment has a stronger overall impact on customer loyalty than does calculative commitment, indicating the importance of creating affective ties with customers, and that personal advisers are central to bank – customer relationships. The importance of financial issues to mass affluent customers implies that both affective commitment and calculative commitment to the personal adviser are important in building customer loyalty to a bank or brand.

Do affluent customers care when luxury brands go mass?

Purpose– This paper aims to examine the joint effects of product type (hospitality services vs goods) and consumers’ need for status (low/Patricians vs high/Parvenus) on consumers’ attitude change toward their favorite luxury brands. As an ever increasing number of customers can now afford luxury products, it is important to understand how affluent consumers react to the less affluent mimicking behaviors.Design/methodology/approach– In all, 265 luxury consumers with annual household income of more than $100,000 and experiences of luxury consumption in the past three months were recruited. A 2 (product type) × 2 (need for status) factorial design was used to test the hypotheses.Findings– This study demonstrates that when faced with mimicking behaviors by less affluent consumers, Parvenus exhibit more negative attitude toward their favorite luxury goods brands than luxury hospitality brands. Conversely, Patricians exhibit similar levels of attitude change across the two types of luxury brands.Practical implications– The findings suggest that luxury hospitality companies may find it easier to expand to less affluent markets than their luxury goods counterparts, in particular when the majority of target consumers are Parvenus.Originality/value– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine consumers’ reactions to mimicking behaviors by the less affluent in the context of luxury hospitality services, and it adds to the knowledge on the joint effects of product type and status seeking on luxury consumption.

Personalised Travel Services: an Exploratory Study in Singapore Context

AbstractThe aims of the study were to explore the demand for personalised travel services within the affluent customer segment of the outbound travelers in Singapore. The study uncovers the desired service attributes of same consumer segment. The paper begins with a general and broad overview of the travel and tourism industry worldwide and in the Asia Pacific region specifically in Singapore. The international tourism and hospitality sector has grown rapidly over the last ten years and according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals in 2012 grew to 980 million. Similarly, there has been an increase in outbound travels in Singapore. This growth has been fuelled by the economic growth that Singapore has experienced over the years. The study surveys the current literature to provide data to show the growth of outbound travel from Singapore and the increasing number of affluent Singapore travelers. The study considers an email questionnaire survey to gauge the travel patterns and desires of the affluent traveler market in Singapore. The exploratory findings identify a market for personalized travel services in Singapore and consider an inventory of service attributes desired by the affluent customer segment in Singapore. More specifically, the findings indicate that almost 65% of respondents preferred personal travel services (PTS) with 70% who currently book tours through travel agents indicating their preference for PTS. What was particularly interesting was that over 60% of those who currently engage in self-booking found the idea of PTS appealing. The key draws of PTS are convenience, personalization of itinerary and tour package, experience of consultants and trust. Personalised travel services are targeted to the high income market and the potential demand for PTS among travelers who undertake two or more trips a year was about 72%. Travelers today are looking for more value-added services and interesting tour packages rather than the run of the mill mass tours that many travel agents still provide. Growing affluence and the desire for unique and unusual tours is creating a niche market for travel agencies to exploit. The current and common business model of providing mass tours where customers are herded on a standard itinerary does not sit well with the well-heeled and sophisticated traveler of today. Today’s affluent travelers want to be treated not as mere customers but rather as valuable clients, partnering with the tour agency to create unparalleled and enriching tour experiences.

Changes in International Marketing Strategies of Companies Operating in the Global Luxury Industry due to the Financial and Economic Crisis

Abstract The goal of our contribution is the international marketing strategy of luxury goods manufacturers worldwide due to the financial and economic crisis. The current crisis hit many countries of the world, European continent as well. It contributed to the more prominent role of BRIC countries in the global economy, particularly because of their growing economic power. These factors resulted to the increase in affluent customers for luxury industry in these countries. The sector quickly and successfully responded to this situation. Our paper aims to identify the essential elements of the successful international marketing strategy in the global luxury industry, with reference to the most important elements of the marketing mix.

Personalised Travel Services: an Exploratory Study in Singapore Context

The aims of the study were to explore the demand for personalised travel services within the affluent customer segment of the outbound travelers in Singapore. The study uncovers the desired service attributes of same consumer segment. The paper begins with a general and broad overview of the travel and tourism industry worldwide and in the Asia Pacific region specifically in Singapore. The international tourism and hospitality sector has grown rapidly over the last ten years and according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals in 2012 grew to 980 million. Similarly, there has been an increase in outbound travels in Singapore. This growth has been fuelled by the economic growth that Singapore has experienced over the years. The study surveys the current literature to provide data to show the growth of outbound travel from Singapore and the increasing number of affluent Singapore travelers. The study considers an email questionnaire survey to gauge the travel patterns and desires of the affluent traveler market in Singapore. The exploratory findings identify a market for personalized travel services in Singapore and consider an inventory of service attributes desired by the affluent customer segment in Singapore. More specifically, the findings indicate that almost 65% of respondents preferred personal travel services (PTS) with 70% who currently book tours through travel agents indicating their preference for PTS. What was particularly interesting was that over 60% of those who currently engage in self-booking found the idea of PTS appealing. The key draws of PTS are convenience, personalization of itinerary and tour package, experience of consultants and trust.?Personalised travel services are targeted to the high income market and the potential demand for PTS among travelers who undertake two or more trips a year was about 72%. Travelers today are looking for more value-added services and interesting tour packages rather than the run of the mill mass tours that many travel agents still provide. Growing affluence and the desire for unique and unusual tours is creating a niche market for travel agencies to exploit. The current and common business model of providing mass tours where customers are herded on a standard itinerary does not sit well with the well-heeled and sophisticated traveler of today. Today?s affluent travelers want to be treated not as mere customers but rather as valuable clients, partnering with the tour agency to create unparalleled and enriching tour experiences.

False Hopes Meet False Claims: Consumer Perils in For-Profit Education and Recommendations for Legal Remedies

When founder John Sperling took Apollo Group, the parent of subsidiary University of Phoenix public in a 1994 IPO, stock value rose 1122% in seventy-four weeks as a new entity emerged in American higher education: the for-profit, proprietary institution. With the founding of The University of Phoenix in 1976, higher education entities in America emerged with the raison d’etre to profit – to promote through the advancement of their students the betterment of the economy and shareholders rather than the betterment of society at large. This Comment will, in Part I, discuss the allegations against the for-profit sector and assess the Title IV pipeline that perpetuates bounty for the schools and their shareholders. It will also review briefly for-profits’ fall from grace via Senate hearings and media scrutiny in 2010 and 2011 and address the failure of federal regulation to stop abuses in the sector. Part II provides context via an overview of the rise and stumble of the University of Phoenix. Further, this section explains how the pairing of powerful and sophisticated for-profit corporations as education providers with the least affluent and least sophisticated customers – their averred target demographic – creates a situation ripe for the commission of unethical and/or fraudulent acts. Part III will examine various attempts by allegedly harmed or defrauded students to recover in the courts and will assess how suits for fraud have been difficult to prosecute under recent Supreme Court rulings in Wal-Mart v. Dukes and ATT can taxpayers afford and/or do we have the political will to maintain an ethos of providing quality educational opportunity to all citizens?; and even more broadly, how much legal and financial power should corporations have? Restricting these questions to the regulation and funding of for-profit education, one distills an overarching question, the answer to which ought guide future statutory and agency regulation: should government subsidize educational institutions, the primary legal obligation of which is to serve shareholders rather than to provide quality education to students?

Challenges in serving the mass affluent segment: bank customer perceptions of service quality

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the possible usefulness of a combined multi‐attribute and Kano model in analysing how service quality is perceived by mass affluent bank customers. More precisely, to identify quality dimensions, attributes, and items in terms of taken‐for‐granteds, proportionals, delighters, and neutrals.Design/methodology/approachUsing a survey, the authors measured how mass affluent customers in one region in a major Swedish bank perceived service quality. Responses were analysed with reference to both multi‐attribute service quality and Kano models.FindingsThe combined model seems to provide some guidance regarding how service quality is perceived by bank customers in the mass affluent segment. The significant number of neutral items reveals potentially wasted resources. The finding of only one delighter item reveals that mass affluent customers are difficult to please. However, substantial heterogeneity exists in customer perceptions of the service quality items investigated.Research limitations/implicationsThis exploratory study examines only one bank in one region in one country, implying a need for additional research applying this combined model and other methods to investigate private banking in the mass affluent segment.Practical implicationsThe significant number of neutrals implies that banks might be more efficient if they avoided spending resources on such items. The conspicuous spread in conceptions of service quality items suggests that bank managers and personal bankers may benefit from co‐creating services with mass affluent customers.Social implicationsBanks are intermediates on financial markets. Improved and customized service quality could make mass affluent customers inclined to invest their resources in ways that promote economic growth.Originality/valueIn addition to traditional measurement models, the Kano model may contribute to service quality assessment in private banking.

Two-tier charging in Maputo Central Hospital: Costs, revenues and effects on equity of access to hospital services

BackgroundSpecial services within public hospitals are becoming increasingly common in low and middle income countries with the stated objective of providing higher comfort services to affluent customers and generating resources for under funded hospitals. In the present study expenditures, outputs and costs are analysed for the Maputo Central Hospital and its Special Clinic with the objective of identifying net resource flows between a system operating two-tier charging, and, ultimately, understanding whether public hospitals can somehow benefit from running Special Clinic operations.MethodsA combination of step-down and bottom-up costing strategies were used to calculate recurrent as well as capital expenses, apportion them to identified cost centres and link costs to selected output measures.ResultsThe results show that cost differences between main hospital and clinic are marked and significant, with the Special Clinic's cost per patient and cost per outpatient visit respectively over four times and over thirteen times their equivalent in the main hospital.DiscussionWhile the main hospital cost structure appeared in line with those from similar studies, salary expenditures were found to drive costs in the Special Clinic (73% of total), where capital and drug costs were surprisingly low (2 and 4% respectively). We attributed low capital and drug costs to underestimation by our study owing to difficulties in attributing the use of shared resources and to the Special Clinic's outsourcing policy. The large staff expenditure would be explained by higher physician time commitment, economic rents and subsidies to hospital staff. On the whole it was observed that: (a) the flow of capital and human resources was not fully captured by the financial systems in place and stayed largely unaccounted for; (b) because of the little consideration given to capital costs, the main hospital is more likely to be subsidising its Special Clinic operations, rather than the other way around.ConclusionWe conclude that the observed lack of transparency may create scope for an inequitable cross subsidy of private customers by public resources.