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Author: K.H.M. (Constance) Olde Meule

Department: Department of Marketing Management, University of Groningen Qualification: Master Thesis BA Marketing Management

Completion date: July 2010

Author’s address: Utrechtsestraat 116-1 1017 VT Amsterdam Phone number: 06-42712375

E-mail: k.h.m.olde.meule@student.rug.nl Student number: s1677977

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MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

At this moment, the world, so also the Netherlands is still under the spell of the financial crisis. Many people fear their jobs because companies and banks are in bad circumstances. Carefree consumption has been replaced by the tightening of belts. Because, during a recession, consumers tighten their belts, while businesses, in contrast, engage in strategies to encourage demand and overcome consumer propensity to save. Nowadays, retailers, so also drugstores, are competing with each other by launching marketing campaigns with a strong focus on low prices and the best deals. But which deals are the most effective? Do consumers prefer a sales promotion in ‘discount’ or ‘a free product’?

As result of literature research, a conceptual model was set up, which illustrates the expected relationships between the financial crisis, sales promotions and store switching. This research investigates the influence of the level to what extent a consumer feels affected by the financial crisis and type of sales promotion on store switching behaviour between drugstores. In addition to this, it is also tested to what extent presence of a 50%off or buy-1-get-1-free promotion has influence on relationship between the financial crisis and store switching.

An online survey is conducted to discover consumer attitudes and behaviours against the financial crisis, store switching and the two different sales promotions. As result of the answers on these questions, analysis has been carried out to discover a relationship between these variables.

It can be concluded that the level of affection towards the financial crisis and the type of sales promotion does not have any influence on consumer store switching behaviour between drugstores. Also the expected moderating effect of a 50% off promotion or a buy-1-get-1-free promotion on the relationship between the financial crisis and store switching is not supported.

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Concluding, the results of this research present that retailers have to develop a technique to increase the awareness of the running promotions towards the customer by using advertising leaflets, especially towards females. By this means, companies can also attract floating customers to their stores, since consumers tend to change their preferences more during crisis than other times.

Retailers have to focus on consumers with a small household size (e.g. people who live alone or with partner), because this research proved this segment is sensitive towards store switching. By focussing on this segment drugstores can try to attract these primary (floating) consumers of their competitors.

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PREFACE

During my internship at Etos, part of Ahold, I got to see how sales promotions work in reality. It was very fascinating to see how Etos and its competitors as among others Kruidvat and Trekpleister are competing with each other with very sharp promotions. During my internship the financial crisis was in full progress and between the Dutch drugstores (especially between Etos and Kruidvat) a real ‘promotional war’ was going on to convince the consumer about their lowest prices for drug products. In this period, Etos launched a never-ending campaign: ‘van Etos voor Kruidvat prijzen’. In this campaign, Etos promised the consumer they can offer the prices as low as Kruidvat does, with the best

service. The purpose was to convince the primary Kruidvat shoppers about the fact they can get the same price (or less) for the same products at Etos, but will receive the best service.

Next, Kruidvat responds with the campaign ‘Etos bewijst: Kruidvat de enige echte voordeeldrogist’. In which they turned to account that Etos, their biggest competitor, admits Kruidvat offers the lowest price.

The trend that consumers are attracted to a drugstore because of attractive prices is already known within Etos. As result of my close participation relating to this campaign, I kept thinking about the fact, if consumers are also attracted to a store because of temporary sharp price promotions? And do consumers behave differently in times of crisis? So is it really the price-component which precedes a consumer to switch stores? I am convinced higher profits can be made, as result of understanding the consumer in times of financial crisis and their attitude toward different sales promotions.

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and my thesis. Moreover, I would like to thank my sister, brother and friends for their support, advice and confidence during the last stage of my study.

My special and grateful thanks go out to my parents, who gave me the possibility to study. In addition to this my dad deserves an individual thank for supporting me and giving me confidence throughout my study career and completing this thesis.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background problem

The financial crisis of 2007–2010 has been called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth, substantial financial commitments incurred by governments, and a significant decline in economic activity. At this moment, the world, so also the Netherlands is still under the spell of the financial crisis. Many people fear their jobs because companies and banks are in bad circumstances. The economic crisis has impact on consumers’ motives, values, attitudes and expectations (Shama, 1981), as well as changing their buying patterns as result of the economic hardship and stress (Ang, Leong & Kotler, 2000). Theory in this field showed that the greatest adjustments in a crisis were price related. Consumers were found to be less wasteful, buy less of everything, delay purchases of durable products and bargained for lower prices more often than they used to. More shopping in cheaper outlets such as discount and neighborhood stores was also observed (Ang, 2001).

What consumers eat, drink and buy, how they spend their leisure time, and what they dream of have all taken an entirely different track. Carefree consumption has been replaced by the tightening of belts. Because, during a recession, consumers tighten their belts, while businesses, in contrast, engage in strategies to encourage demand and overcome consumer propensity to save (Cundiff, 1975). This is also proved by a recently conducted research by AC Nielsen, which states that the amount of sold articles ‘in promotion’ enormously rose. In drugstores the promotional pressure, the part of the turnover out of promotions, rose from 19% towards 23%.

This contradiction in strategies employed by consumers (belt tightening) and businesses (demand stimulation) provides an interesting examination of how a recession affects consumer behaviour and especially store switching behaviour through sales promotions.

1.2. Problem identification

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acknowledged that store promotions generate additional store traffic that leads to the purchase of complementary products at full-margin. Previous research tends to demonstrate that the impact of sales promotions on store traffic is ambiguous whereas conventional wisdom suggests the contrary. Still, some limitations could partially explain this conclusion. How consumers behave during a crisis is an important yet scantly researched issue. Deleersnyder, Dekimpe, Steenkamp & Leeflang (2007) conducted an allied research into the field of marketing activities in economic downturn. The authors conduct a systematic investigation into the cyclical sensitivity of advertising expenditures in 37 countries, covering four key media: magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. They show in their research that advertising is considerably more sensitive to business-cycle fluctuations than the economy as a whole. Advertising seems to behave less cyclically in countries high in long-term orientation and power distance, but it is more cyclical in countries high in uncertainty avoidance. In addition to this, research by Fornell, Rust & Dekimpe (2009) also investigated the financial crisis and they did include consumer reactions toward it. The research was about the prediction of consumer spending in times of economic downturn. They showed that consumer satisfaction explains a good deal of future growth in consumer spending and consumers react differently to positive versus negative changes in their financial situation. In line with Messinis, Henry, and Olekalns (2002), they found that past consumption experience weakens as debt increases. When debt is reduced, the main effect remains.

Previous studies did not consider the influence of the financial crisis on store switching in their research, but only the influence on brand switching. (Kelley & Schewe, 1975; Ang, Leong & Kotler, 2000; Singh & Yip, 2000). Their results were that consumers earlier switch brands when pockets are tight and people become more price sensitive and switch to lower cost alternatives during times of economic crisis. However they did not mention anything about store switching behaviour as well as the fact that existing research does not explicitly consider promotional activities in times of economical downturn.

The research of Deleersnyder et al. (2007) focussed on advertising activity and advertising budgets in times of crisis with a focus on reactions of companies on the slacking economy. Nothing is mentioned about consumer reactions on these phenomena, as well as the effectiveness of promotions in times of downturn, which is very interesting.

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shortage is a research which includes all these variables. This creates an opportunity for a valuable contribution to the current academic literature.

1.2.1 Research objective

The objective of this study is to determine the influence of the financial crisis and sales promotions on store switching behaviour of consumers between drugstores. Additionally, the possible influence of different price promotions (50% off and buy-1-get-1-free) on the relationship between the financial crisis and store switching will be discovered as well. It would be interesting to determine the motives if - and why - consumers switch stores as result of the financial crisis. In addition to this, it will be discovered to what extent a particular promotion increase store switching behaviour of people who are affected by the financial crisis.

1.2.2 Research question

The research question, which will be the leading factor of this thesis, is formulated as follows:

“What is the influence of the financial crisis and different kind of sales promotions on consumer store switching behaviour between drugstores? And do these sales promotions, 50%off or buy-1-get-1-free, influence the relationship between the financial crisis and consumer store switching behaviour?”

This research question contains of three subjects which will be integrated into each other and will be tested by means of three hypotheses later in this research.

1.3. Relevance of the study

Consumers can change their shopping behaviour and may change their behaviour by switching between stores and retailers. The lack of data on this topic is reason for this research. The first aim of this paper is to confirm or not if people, who feel affected by the financial crisis, are sensitive towards a particular price promotion. Consequently this research will focus on the question which levels and patterns of store switching are available as result of different price promotions.

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competitor Etos and vice versa, so do these consumers switch stores as result of a sales promotion? Do consumers really switch from expensive products to cheaper products in times of crisis and do they buy private labels more often and are these consumers more focused on offers? It is also interesting to discover the reason why people buy a product in offer? Is it the discount (50% off) or the free product (buy-1-get-1-free)? Furthermore, do consumers buy at a store because of the promotion; in spite off they had the intention to shop at this store?

The outcomes of this research can be generalized and can be used in other retail industries as well. It is in this setting that this thesis gives answers to several questions. First, is the financial crisis influencing consumer store switching behaviour? Second, do promotions (discount vs. free product) have influence on store switching behaviour? Third, is there evidence of any systematic relationship between the store's price format and type of shopper it attracts? Which means are some types of consumers more apt to prefer promotions? This research sheds light on both issues and can help retailers to understand their consumers’ behaviour against promotions in times of crisis.

1.4. Research overview

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Figure 1. Conceptual model

This chapter shows an overview of conducted research in academic literature about (1) consumer behaviour during crisis (2) consumer store switching behaviour (3) sales promotions in general, with a specification to price promotions and extra product promotions and (4) consumer behaviour towards sales promotions will be investigated.

2.1. Consumer behaviour in times of crisis.

At the moment, the world is under the spell of the credit crisis and the following recession. Many people fear their jobs because companies and banks are in bad circumstances. How consumers behave during crisis is an important yet poorly researched issue (Zurawicki & Braidot, 2005).

A lot of research has been done in the field of consumer behaviour towards promotions, but less is known about consumer behaviour towards promotions in times of crisis. Pricing is an important strategy for retailers to maintain and getting more customers in particular recession time. In the retail environment companies employ a number of promotional strategies to attract and induce shoppers to buy their products. Communication with consumers is of special importance. Lost consumer interest due to reduced income, can be reacquired through promotion activities. By this means, companies can also attract floating customers to their stores, since consumers tend to change their preferences more frequently during crisis than other times (Köksal & Özgül, 2007).

Purchase decisions of consumers are mostly complex decisions. Teunter (2002) mentions four key decisions a consumer has to make for each product category. Specifically, the

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consumer first has to decide what to purchase in a certain category, then, where to purchase it, and consequently the brand and the quantity. These decisions will mostly be influenced by the characteristics of the consumer (e.g. demographic characteristics) and by the marketing environment (e.g. sales promotions). The interest in how sales promotions and consumer characteristics influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour is increasing. In addition to the expenditures on the sales promotions also increase and so does the variety of the promotional methods.

People with a higher economic level are usually less price conscious (Ailawadi, Gedenk & Neslin, 2001), they are less sensitive to price changes (Kim, Srinivasan & Wilcox, 1999), they make little effort to find a product’s best price and they use promotions less (Putrevu & Lord, 2001). Nevertheless, consumers with a lower economic level tend to be more price-sensitive, they thoroughly search for price information (Kim et al., 1999) and they are willing to make an additional effort to benefit from a promotion (Chen, Monroe & Lou, 1998). Most research has concluded that price-conscious consumers with financial constraints respond well to promotional actions in general.

2.2. Store switching behaviour of consumers

To be successful retailers have to attract and retain consumer spending profitably. Consumers nearly always have the opportunity to change their shopping behaviour. They assess and reassess the shopping opportunities available to them. As a result they may change their behaviour by switching between stores or retailers. Consumer store-switching behaviour, defined as: ‘the change of the main shop for a main shopping trip’ (Findlay & Sparks, 2007) is thus of fundamental importance to retailers. This research investigates what consumers’ drives to switch stores, so: “the one-time switch”. First, it is important to generate change in behaviour and then to retain the ‘switched’ customer is a critical long-term success factor for retailers. Similarly, the ability to reduce switching to rival retailers by valuable consumers will lead to a competitive advantage. For regulatory and policy decision-making bodies examining market structures and new stores, a knowledge of consumer store-switching behaviours and/or propensities, would also seem to be necessary.

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Rinne (1986), Kumar & Leone (1988), Walters & MacKenzie (1988), and Grover & Srinivasan (1992).

Retail promotion enables retailer and manufacturer to meet objectives when brand substitution occurs within the store and customers from other stores switch, or cross-shop, to take advantage of the promotion. The retailer and the manufacturer of a promoted brand also could benefit when that brand yields a higher margin for the retailer (possibly because of a trade deal) and consumers switch to this brand, producing greater sales for the manufacturer.

For several specific product categories, past studies (Moriarty, 1985) have examined the impact of retailer promotions on current and future sales of frequently purchased grocery items, as well as category substitution. This work suggests retailers' promotional activity significantly increased current period sales of the promoted brand. However, two deleterious effects on long-run retailer profit are possible. First, sales displacement caused by stockpiling often reduces nonpromotional retail sales of the promoted product in subsequent periods (Frank & Massy, 1971). Second, demand for competing brands may be reduced in future periods. As already mentioned before, one possible positive effect of promotion that has not been investigated is its ability to create store substitution. Store substitution can result from retail store promotion for two reasons. First, promotion of a product purchased frequently and priced high may lead to cross-shopping due to ‘cherry picking’ by consumers. Second, the promotional blend of items a store offers consumers relative to that of other stores could lead to store substitution.

2.3. Sales promotions

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reports an average promotional elasticity of -2.45 compared to the overall average price elasticity level of -1.76 found by Tellis (1988).

The budgets spent on sales promotions and the number of articles published on this issue, have reached unprecedented heights. Most of the sales promotion actions take the form of a straight price cut or of an indirect price reduction (in the form of a coupon or extra quantity). The price offer is usually accompanied by other (supporting) marketing actions such as advertising. Price promotions mostly have a temporary character. Reduced prices or deals are offered to the consumer over a short period of time. Such temporary price cuts have become ‘common practice’.

2.3.1. Types of sales promotions

In an increasingly competitive retailing environment retailers employ a number of creative promotional strategies to attract and induce shoppers to come to their store and buy their products. Nowadays, the advertisements, store-leaflets and internet actions indicate the widespread use of such tactics as reducing the price that a buyer has to pay through offering coupons or direct price promotions (e.g. 20% off, save €), offering more of the product at the same price (e.g. buy-1-get-1-free, 25% more free) as well as various combinations of both price and extra product promotions (e.g. buy 2-get 20% off) (Sinha & Smith, 2000). The above shows there are several different types of sales promotions, even though they may be equivalent on a unit cost and/or a total cost basis. Specifically, this research examines two types op promotional offers: (1) price promotions (50% off) and (2) volume or extra product promotion (buy-1-get-1- free). This choice has been made, because both offers are the same in terms of unit costs; the buy-1-get-1-free deal is even mathematically equivalent in both total and unit costs.

2.3.1.1. Price promotions

Price promotion is an important managerial tool as a means of attracting customers to increase store traffic, given the fact that most customers purchase other products at regular price (Mulhern & Padgett, 1995). The key elements that characterize price promotions are the depth, duration and frequency of the price cut.

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For example, Kumar & Pereira (1995) found that the frequency and timing of price promotions affect the short-term response of the firm’s sales.

The purpose of price promotion is to encourage trial of new products, to convince existing users to purchase more or at a different time or to convince new users to try an established product (Floor & Van Raaij, 2002).Price promotions are more than just money off – they are a source of information that consumers use to make judgments about products and their prices. A conceptualization by Raghubir, Inman & Grande (2004) suggests that there are three routes through which price promotions may affect sales. These are the economic route, the informational route, and the affective route. The economic benefits of a price promotion include not only the actual amount saved, but also other benefits such as reducing search costs, being able to upgrade to a better brand, etc. Economic costs on the other hand include the risks associated with delaying purchase while awaiting a future promotion, and the risks of over-stocking among others. The affective benefits of a price promotion are based on the hedonic benefits of exploration, value expression and entertainment explicated by Chandon et al. (2000), as well as feelings of being a smart shopper (Schindler, 1992). The affective costs include regret (of missing a promotion), embarrassment, and irritation (due to the need to comply with restriction to avail of a promotion).

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2.3.1.2. Extra product promotion An extra product promotion, which can also be a bonus pack, is a special factory pack that offers the consumer an extra

product at no additional cost (Urseth, 1994). Figure 3 Extra product promotion

Nowadays, drugstores also offer these promotions on the entire assortment of a brand. Since today’s shoppers are more value-conscious than ever, extra product promotions are rapidly becoming the accepted way for a company to boost sales (Ong, Ho & Trip, 1997). Packs with ‘buy-1-get-1-free’ may be offered to the shopper at a regular price thus adding value to the product. Such packs do not increase brand awareness before trial purchase because the customer will only come across the product once in store (unlike samples or coupons). However, the promotion is noticeable, this facilitating brand recognition and brand recall for future purchases. Since an additional amount is given for free, consumers may be persuaded to buy the product if they feel it represents a fair deal that provides value for money. This means the consumer must compare and evaluate the additional quantity received with respect to any costs that may be incurred. For instance, the additional quantity may be inconvenient to the consumer due to lack of storage space thus resulting in a weak ability to convince the consumer to make a purchase.

2.4. Consumer behaviour towards promotions

Some studies already investigated consumer behavior towards promotions and pointed out how retailers benefit from sales promotions. Sales promotions support consumers to purchase nonpromoted merchandise (Mulhern & Padgett, 1995) and sales promotions accelerate the number of shopping trips to the store (Walters and Rinne, 1986). Additionally, Blattberg, Eppen & Lieberman (1981) argued that sales promotions support consumers to stockpile, which will lead to a reduction of the inventory costs of the retailer. In addition to this, Ernst & Young (2000) reported that 88% of impulse purchases were because shoppers found products that were ‘offered at good price (or) on sale’. According to these surveys the common wisdom is clear: impulse buys are price-related.

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2.4.1. Consumer behaviour towards price promotions

Research on price promotions typically falls into one of two streams. The first involves the consideration of consumer-background variables as possible moderators of the effect of price promotions on consumer behaviour. Research in this stream often correlates consumer background variables with choice of promoted items. For example, DelVecchio (2005) reported that deal-prone consumers were sensitive to the value of a promotion relative to other available promotions in a condition of high absolute-dollar savings. Shirai & Bettman (2005) demonstrated that both the expected length of time to the next deal and the perceived price difference deviating from a consumer’s internal reference price influenced price evaluations.

The second stream of research focuses on how different means of price promotions affect consumer behaviour. A ‘decision frame’ refers to a decision maker’s perception of the behaviours, outcomes and contingencies associated with a particular choice. Chen, Monroe & Lou (1998) found that, for high prices items, consumers saw a price reduction framed in price terms as more significant than one expressed in percentage terms, and the opposite was true for low-priced products. Their rationale was that for a given percentage discount, the absolute value of the price reduction is higher for lower-priced products. Research on the promotional framing of prices, known as ‘deal semantics’ (Grewal, Marmonstein & Sharma, 1996; Lichtenstein, Burton & Karson, 1991), can be classified under the second stream as well. In studying how consumers perceive the value of transactions when they are presented with deals that are equivalent on a unit cost basis but worded differently, Sinha & Smith (2000) went beyond previous accounts by focusing on category-specific variables rather than the main effects of semantic cues on evaluations of equal deals. The stock-up characteristic of the category – whether or not it can be accumulated or stored – influenced how consumers in their study perceived the transaction value of price versus extra product promotions.

2.4.2. Consumer behaviour towards extra product promotions

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fact, buy-1-get-1-free stands out as their best preferred toolof all. However, it is important to stress that, while majority of the respondents appearto be strongly sensitive to buy-one-get-one free as a promotional tool, deviant cases indicate that low-income consumers in relatively small households are cautious of thisoffer.

2.5. Hypotheses

As a result of this theoretical literature review, the following hypothesis can be formulated.

Hypothesis 1: The level to what extent a consumer feels affected by the financial crisis has a positive effect on consumer store switching. The higher the level of affection towards the financial crisis, the higher consumers’ store switching behaviour.

Hypothesis 2: The type of promotion affects the relationship between to what extent a consumer feels affected by financial crisis and store switching.

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3. METHOD AND RESEARCH DESIGN

This chapter outlines the way how this research is conducted. The different research designs used in this research and the research methods used to analyse the obtained data will be explained. According to Malhotra (2004), a research design is an overview of the marketing research project processed in a framework of blueprint. It shows the way the research is conducted and the procedures necessary to obtain the information needed in order to answer the marketing research question.

3.1. Research design and research methods

This research consists of exploratory research, by using secondary data out of available academic literature in combination with descriptive- and causal research. The descriptive part of the research describes characteristics of the population collected by use of a survey investigation. The causal research shows the relationship between the level to what extent people feel affected by the crisis (event) and consumer store switching behaviour (cause). This research consists of both quantitative and qualitative research as well as the use of primary and secondary data. The questions in the survey are created and based on academic literature as result of the secondary data analysis.

3.2. Data collection

The data used in this research is gathered in two different ways. The first part consists of data from articles out of marketing journals which discovers consumer characteristics in times of crisis as well as background information on sales promotions and store switching behaviour. The second part consists of the answers of respondents out of the online survey which is spread by using the website www.thesistools.com. This data is taken from 140 respondents. The sample comprises men and woman in different age categories who are either employed, unemployed, student or retired. Consumer respondents were asked to fill in the questionnaire. There were four parts to the questionnaire. The parts concerned of:

- constructs including consumer buying behaviour; - attitude against the financial crisis;

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All the items are measured on a six point scale (strongly disagree(1)/strongly agree(6)).

The construct store switching is measured by 6 items of Ailawadi, Neslin & Gedenk (2001) covering consumer attitudes toward store switching. After conducting a Cronbach’s α reliability analysis the average covariance among the items in the scale of the variable ‘store switching’ showed a α=.660. The answers on the questions are converted from an ordinal measurement scale into a nominal scale to make a clear distinction between switchers and non switchers. So, the average answers of the respondents are divided into two groups. The respondents with a mean score of <3 are the non switchers (=0) and >3 are the switchers (=1), which can be indicated as nominal.

The measurement scale ‘affected by crisis’ is ordinal and the construct is measured by 4 items created by the Dutch CBS. This variable was covered by 5 questions, but after conducting a Cronbach’s α reliability analysis the average covariance among the items in the scale showed a α=.584. After deleting the last question, the Cronbach’s α increased to .661. This figure has to be minimal .7 to be consistent. But α .661 is almost consistent with the hypothesis that all of the scale items are measuring the same construct.

The level of affection by the financial crisis can be measured by dividing the answers into ‘low’ and ‘high’ affection. The higher the average scores on the questions, the higher the consumer feels affected by the financial crisis and vice versa. The consumers with an average score between 0 and 3 are low affected and with a score between 3 and 6 are high affected. In contrast to the store switching construct, the answers will be measured at an ordinal measurement scale, so the average outcomes will be used.

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Both variables were covered by 7 questions and after conducting a Cronbach’s α reliability analysis the average covariance among the items in the scale of the 50% off showed a α=.658 and the buy-1-get-1-free questions showed a α=.781.

3.2. Methods of data analysis

To test the hypotheses a logistic regression will be carried out to discover which variables exactly predict consumer store switching behaviour in times of financial crisis. Logistic regression is chosen because in this research the dependent is a dichotomy (nominal scale – switch/no switch) and the independents are of nominal (50% off/buy-1-get-1-free) and ordinal scale (level of affection by the financial crisis).

The following variables will be measured as predictors/independent variables: affection by the financial crisis and type of promotion. So the input for the analysis looks as follows:

- Outcome (dependent variable): store switching (are consumers going over to store switching (yes/no)).

- Predictor (independent variable): type of promotion (did consumers received a (1.) 50% off promotion or a (2.) buy-1-get-free promotion).

- Predictor (independent variable): affection by the financial crisis (to what extent are people affected by the financial crisis – mean of the answers).

In addition to this, to discover if possible other variables/consumer characteristics can predict the level of store switching, the respondents’ income, gender, occupation and household size will be tested as predictor well.

Using logistic regression, it might be find that all of these variables predict (or not) consumer store switching behaviour, but the technique will also allow to predict whether a person is likely to switch stores.

The logistic regression equation itself is: z = b0 + b1X1 + b2X2 + ... + bkXk

where z is the log odds of the dependent variable (store switching)= ln(odds(event)) where b0 is the constant and

where there are k independent (X) variables, some of which may be interaction terms. The "z" is the logit, also called the log odds.

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4. RESULTS

Survey data for the present study were collected from different participants. The final dataset consisted of 140 surveys. A number of 70 participants filled in the questionnaire with the 50% off promotion and the other 70 filled in the questionnaire with the buy-1-get-1-free promotion.

4.1. Characteristics of the respondents

This part of the thesis presents background characteristics of the 140 respondents of the research. The distribution of the respondents according to gender is 35.7% men and 64.7% women. Almost 88% of the respondents are 34 years or younger and are student or full time worker. 90% of the respondents accomplished a study at higher vocational education or academic level. In addition to this, 70% earns an average or above average salary. So, it can be concluded that the majority of the respondents is highly educated and on the whole earns an average or above average income. An entire overview of these characteristics can be found in appendix 2.

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Average answers on demographics 0 0,5 1 1,52 2,5 3 3,5 4 a g e g e n d e r o c c u p a ti o n e d u c a ti o n in c o m e # h o u se h o ld h o m e li v in g c h il d re n Question M e a n s co re 50%off buy-1-get-1-free

Figure 4. Average answer on demographics

Table 1. Output T-test demographics

4.2. Descriptive statistics

This part of the thesis will give an overview of the respondents’ shopping behaviour. Especially insight will be given in consumers’ (intended) shopping behaviour towards drugstores and overall attitude towards promotions.

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The money spend in drugstores per month varies a lot, but the majority spends an amount of €20 till€40 a month in drugstores (figure 6).

These two variables are combined and the figures can be found in figure 7. As conclusion can be drawn that consumers who visit a drugstore a few times a month, also spend the highest amount of money in drugstores a month. It is also remarkable to see that the largest amount of people who spend over €40 a month at drugstores, visit drugstores mostly once a month.

4.2.2. Consumer behavior toward drugstore promotions

The questions 10, 11 and 12 in the questionnaire covered variables concerning consumers’ intention to buy and consumer behavior towards promotional offers. It is proved that nearly 37% of the respondents only buy products determined beforehand. So, 63% of the respondents buy products in impulse regularly. By analyzing the characteristics of these respondents, it can be said that males buy far less in impulse at drugstores than females do (see figure 8).

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Besides this, it is also analyzed to what extent consumers use advertising leaflets to make in-store purchase decisions. It is remarkable to notice that the majority of the respondents do not check the advertising leaflet before entering the drugstore (figure 9) and neither use the store’s advertising leaflets to decide what to buy (figure 10).

4.3. Hypothesis testing

To get answers on the research question the following hypotheses were set up: Hypothesis 1: The level to what extent a consumer feels affected by the financial

crisis has a positive effect on consumer store switching. The higher the level of affection towards the financial crisis, the higher consumers’ store switching behaviour.

Figure 9. Advertising checks before entering a store Figure 10. Use of advertising leaflets

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Hypothesis 2: The type of promotion affects the relationship between to what extent a consumer feels affected by financial crisis and store switching.

Hypothesis 3: Promotions have a positive influence on store switching. The promotion buy-1-get-1-free will result in a higher level of store switching behaviour than the promotion 50% off.

To test the hypotheses, logistic regression is used. As mentioned before in this thesis logistic regression can be used to predict a dependent variable on the basis of continuous and/or a categorical independent. In this case store switching, and determines the effect size of the independent variables on the dependent.

First, the output shows that 140 cases have been accepted and that de dependent variable has been coded 0 and 1 (because this variable was code 0 and 1 in the data editor).

The output in table 2 prints the initial test for the model in which the coefficients for all the independent variables are 0. The finding of significance above indicates this null model should be rejected.

Table 2. Outcome when no variables have been entered to the model

After the prediction variables (type of promotion, affection by the financial crisis, income, gender, occupation, household size and buying behaviour) have been added to the model, the change in the amount of information explained by the model is significant (<0.002) This means that the use of the predictor variables significantly improves the ability to predict store switching behaviour. Finally, the classification table shows that 85.0% of cases can be correctly classified using the predictors. The outputs can be found in table 3 and 4.

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Table 4. Classification of cases

After showing the results regarding the fit of the model, the effects of the independent variables have to be discovered.

The next part will show the results which of the independent variables has significant influence on switching behaviour of consumers. In table 5 can be seen that not all the Wald statistics are significant (p>0.01), which means that only two variables significantly predict store switching behaviour of consumers (p<0.001), namely the frequency of visiting a drugstore a month and the consumer expenses a month in a drugstore.

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The values of exp ß for these two variables of buying behaviour, the indicator of the change in odds resulting from a unit change in the predictor, are respectively 28.733 and 47.263. For one unit increase in visiting drugstores, the log odds of store switching increase by 3.385. Besides that, for spending in a drugstore an increase by 3.865 was found. This indicates that if the percentage of these variables increases by one, then the odds of switching stores also increase (because exp ß is greater than 1). Which means that the likelihood consumers will switch stores is 3.3 times higher for people who frequently visit drugstores than people who do not visit a drugstore that often. This also counts for people who spend a lot in drugstores. The likelihood to switch stores is 3.8 times higher than people who do not spend that much.

None of the expected influencers in the model are significant. They all have a significant level above .05. It is not necessarily to conclude that the research was useless. It is possible that the study missed a real effect. Reasons for this can be the data can be too variable or the relatively small sample size. Because of this relatively small number of respondents there are also respectively few possible combinations of the values of the variables and, thus, the probability of obtaining by chance a combination of those values indicative of a strong relation is relatively high.Another cause can be the distribution between men (35.7%) and women (64.3%) and the high percentage (88%) of people below the 34 years old. It can be the case that women do not change their spending pattern and buying behaviour with regard to drug articles, but do change it with regard to other products in times of crisis. In addition to this it can also be the case younger people do not worry about their spending pattern, because they possibly do not have a family and home to care about yet. Another reason for the non significant relationship can also be that 70% of the respondents earn an average or above average salary which can result in the fact that these people do not feel affected by the financial crisis.

Being affected by the financial crisis does not have any significant impact on the odds of switching a store as result of a sales promotion.

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5. DISCUSSION

In this thesis, the influence of the financial crisis and type of sales promotion on consumers’ store switching behaviour is examined. This part consists of the interpretation and discussion of the results of the research data. As conclusion of the previous (result) part it can be said that as result of the analyses among the 140 respondents involved in this research, all the expectations regarding this research cannot be satisfied. In the next part the results will be compared with the existing theory as well as scrutinizing the possible reasons for these outcomes.

Prior research foresees that people with a higher economic level are usually less price conscious (Ailawadi, Gedenk & Neslin, 2001), they are less sensitive to price changes (Kim, Srinivasan & Wilcox, 1999), they make little effort to find a product’s best price and they use promotions less (Putrevu & Lord, 2001). Nevertheless, consumers with a lower economic level tend to be more price-sensitive, they thoroughly search for price information (Kim et al., 1999) and they are willing to make an additional effort to benefit from a promotion (Chen, Monroe & Lou, 1998). Despite these findings, additional analyses conducted consumers’ responses towards the financial crisis and this influence on store switching behaviour, thus indicating that the results of this study contradicts with these findings. In this research no evidence was found for the fact that consumers with a lower economic level are more price- sensitive. Therefore, it can be said that consumers do not substitute drugstores to find the best price for a product. Specifically, in conclusion can be said: a high level of affection by the financial crisis does not have influence on consumers’ store switching behaviour between drugstores. The only significant variables predicting store switching behaviour are “the frequency of visiting a drugstore a month” and “the consumers’ expenses a month in a drugstore”.

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Almost the same counts for the other significant variable. The more a consumer spends a month in drugstores, the earlier a consumer will go over to store switching. As mentioned before, the consumers who visit a drugstore frequently and also spend a lot in drugstores, probably want the best price and are hunting for deals more frequently. They probably do not visit these stores because they ‘need’ products, but because they ‘like’ to look and try (new) products.

The reason for this contradictory conclusion with the existing literature can possibly be declared by means off the compilation of the respondents in this research. Almost 88% of the respondents are younger than 34 years old. In addition to this, approximately 58% of the respondents has his/her own business or is working full time and do not feel affected by the financial crisis. Therefore, these two characteristics of the respondents can be a reason for the high amount of respondents who not feel affected by the financial crisis as well as the following influence on consumers’ store switching behaviour. To sum up, the expectation that a higher level of affection by the financial crisis will result in a store switching behaviour cannot be supported.

In literature also different statements have been made concerning the attractiveness of different sales promotions. It is strange to notice that the majority (63%) of the respondents buys products in impulse regularly and are not sensitive towards promotions, whereas Ernst & Young (2000) reported that 88% of impulse purchases were because shoppers found products that were ‘offered at good price (or) on sale’.

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of store traffic will be positive between stores as well, which means store switching. Comparison among respondents who received a 50% off promotion and a buy-1-get-1-free promotion showed that behaviour towards these different promotions does not have a different effect on store switching. However, the results of this research do not concur with the expectations and findings of the researchers in this field mentioned before. However, Gbadamosi (2008) stated that the majority of his respondents appeared to be strongly sensitive to buy-1-get-1-free as a promotional tool, but that low income consumers in relatively small households are cautious for this offer. This outcome can be a possible explanation for the fact that a buy-1-get-1-free promotion does not influence the relationship between the level a consumer feels affected by the financial crisis and store switching behaviour.

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6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of the financial crisis on store switching behaviour of consumers between drugstores. In addition to this, answers on the following questions were gathered. First, are the financial crisis and type of sales promotion influencing consumer store switching behaviour? Second, do promotions (discount vs. free product) have influence on store switching behaviour? Third, is there evidence of any systematic relationship between the store's price format and type of shopper it attracts? Which means are some types of consumers more apt to prefer promotions?

Consumer groups were classified according to their level of attractiveness by the financial crisis as well as by the kind of promotion they received to give their statement about (a 50% off promotion or buy-1-get-free promotion). In order to acquire some differences between to what extent a consumer feels affected by the financial crisis and shows store switching behaviour, several analyses were conducted. These analyses were based on the results of an online questionnaire which were filled out by 140 respondents.

At first the respondents were divided into two groups to create a dichotomy in consumers’ attractiveness towards the financial crisis. One group consists of respondents who feel affected by the financial crisis; the other group consists of respondents who feel not affected by the financial crisis. After that, several statistical analyses were conducted to get an answer on the following research question: ‘What is the influence of the financial crisis and type of sales promotion on consumer store switching behaviour? And do sales promotions, 50%off or buy-1-get-1-free have any influence on the relationship between the financial crisis and store switching?’

After analyzing the results out of the analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn: Out of research appears that 37% of the respondents feel high affected by the financial crisis and 63% feels low affected. The percentage of respondents who shows store switching behaviour regularly is almost 83%.

To test the hypotheses a logistic regression was carried out to discover which variables exactly predict consumer store switching behaviour in times of financial crisis. Logistic regression was chosen because in this research the dependent was a dichotomy (nominal scale – switch/no switch) and the independents were of nominal (50% off/buy-1-get-1-free) and ordinal scale (level of affection by the financial crisis).

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lead to increased store switching behaviour of the consumer between drugstores. To investigate if consumers in times of financial downturn switch stores as result of a particular sales promotion, it is therefore tested if the presence of a certain type of sales promotion has influence on this relationship. It was expected that a buy-1-get-1-free promotion has more influence on this relationship than a 50% off promotion, because of the free product. This expectation has to be questioned, the buy-1-get-1-free promotion, as well as the 50% off promotion, does not have any contribution on the relationship between the variables. It is remarkable to see that 83% of the respondents will switch stores frequently. But the reason for this is not caused by a particular level of attractiveness towards the financial crisis or the presence of sales promotions.

In this research the ‘the frequency of visiting a drugstore a month’ and ‘the consumers’ expenses a month’ in a drugstore are the only factors influencing store switching behaviour of a consumer. The more a consumer visits a drugstore a month and the more this consumer spends a month, the higher the chance of switching stores. In addition to this it is stated that most females are very sensitive towards impulse buying and the majority of the respondents does not look at advertising leaflets before entering the store.

It can be a successful strategy for drugstores to develop a technique to also attract the consumers who not often visit a drugstores and only show up, if they ‘need’ something. This can be reached by trying to increase the awareness of the running promotions towards the customer by using advertising leaflets, especially towards females. This is also stated by Köksal & Özgül (2007) who declares that lost consumer interest due to reduced income, can be reacquired through promotion activities. By this means, companies can also attract floating customers to their stores, since consumers tend to change their preferences more frequently during crisis than other times.

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7. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

In this research two sales promotions were used, namely the 50% off promotion and the buy-1-get-1-free promotion. These promotions were chosen because these are the two mostly used techniques within Etos. Other promotional techniques could be included in future research to create a more abstract overview of the influence of sales promotions in general on store switching behaviour. In addition to this, other retail branches could be investigated as well. This research was limited by analyzing consumer buying behaviour in drugstores towards drug articles. Including other retail branches can give a more general indication of possible influences of the financial crisis and sales promotions on store switching behaviour.

Furthermore, one more limitation of this research is the limited reflection of the entire society. The respondents mainly exist of young people (students and starters). By focussing on a more diverse test group, conclusions can be generalised with more evidence. In addition to this it would be interesting to discover the store switching behaviour in more detail. A distinction can be made in ‘one time switch’ as result of promotions and a ‘permanent switch’ as result of promotions. By means of this it can be investigated if sales promotions also have influence on long term loyalty of a consumer.

In addition to this, further research can be done in the field of long time switching behaviour of consumers. This research just focussed on the one-time switches of consumers as result of promotions. It would also be very interesting to know for retailers what they have to do to make the customer loyal and will ‘switch for always’.

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APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire

NB. The questions 18 till 24 are published twice in this questionnaire. Once with a 50% off discount and once with a buy-1-get-1-free discount. In the two different questionnaires which have been sent out, this was the only difference.

1.

Wat is uw leeftijd? minder dan 25 jaar 25-34 jaar 35-44 jaar 45-59 jaar 60-74 jaar 75 jaar en ouder 2. Wat is uw geslacht? man vrouw 3. Wat is uw beroep? werkloos student part time/anders

full time/ eigen onderneming gepensioneerd

4.

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HBO WO 5. Wat is uw inkomen? 1= beneden modaal 2= modaal 3= boven modaal 6.

Wat is de samenstelling van uw huishouden? 1= Thuiswonend bij ouder(s)/voogd 2= Alleenstaand

3= Alleenstaand met thuiswonend(e) kind(eren)

4= Partner

5= Partner met thuiswonend(e) kind(eren)

7.

Hoeveel thuiswonende kinderen heeft u? 1= Geen

2= 1 3= 2

4= 3 5= 4 of meer

De volgende vragen hebben betrekking op koopgedrag.

U dient aan te vinken in hoeverre deze stellingen op u van toepassing zijn.

Er is één antwoord mogelijk. Uw antwoord moet dus bestaan uit één van de volgende antwoord mogelijkheden. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

3= in mindere mate mee oneens 4= in mindere mate mee eens 5= eens

6= volledig mee eens 8.

Hoe vaak bezoekt u gemiddeld een drogist? 1= Vrijwel eens per week

2= Een aantal keer per maand

3= 1 keer per maand

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Hoeveel geeft u gemiddeld per maand uit aan drogisterij-artikelen voor uw huishouden? 1= Minder dan 10 euro

2= 10-20 euro 3= 21-30 euro

4= 31-40 euro 5= Meer dan 40 euro

10.

Voordat ik naar een drogist ga weet ik precies wat ik nodig heb en koop ik ook uitsluitend deze artikelen. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

3= in mindere mate mee oneens

4= in mindere mate mee eens 5= eens

Ik kijk voordat ik een drogist binnenloop altijd even de aanbiedingenfolder door. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

Ik gebruik de aanbiedingenfolder om een keuze te maken in wat ik koop. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

6= volledig mee eens De volgende vragen hebben betrekking op de financiele crisis.

U dient aan te vinken in hoeverre deze stellingen op u van toepassing zijn.

Er is één antwoord mogelijk. Uw antwoord moet dus bestaan uit één van de volgende antwoord mogelijkheden. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

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13.

Ik vind dat de algemene economische situatie in Nederland in de laatste 12 maanden slechter is geworden. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

6= volledig mee eens

14.

Ik denk dat in de komende 12 maanden de algemene economische situatie in Nederland verder zal verslechteren.

1= volledig mee oneens 2= oneens

In de laatste 12 maanden is de financiële situatie van mijn huishouden slechter geworden. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

Ik denk dat in de komende 12 maanden de financiële situatie van mijn huishouden verder zal verslechteren. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

Ik vind dat het nu voor consumenten een gunstige tijd is om grote aankopen, zoals meubelen, wasmachines, televisies en andere duurzame artikelen, te doen?

1= volledig mee oneens 2= oneens

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De volgende vragen bevatten stellingen met betrekking tot uw mening over 50% korting aanbiedingen (zie afbeelding hieronder).

Ook bij dit onderdeel is maar één antwoord mogelijk.

U moet dus één antwoord kiezen uit de volgende antwoordmogelijkheden: 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

18.

Ik koop graag een merk met een 50% korting aanbieding. 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens

19.

Als ik een product koop met een 50% korting, voelt dat als een goede "deal". 1= volledig mee oneens

2= oneens