2014 How Saudi Arabia Consumer Perceives
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2014 University of Borås Migle Gaurilcikaite [email protected] Supervisor Jenny Balkow HOW SAUDI ARABIA CONSUMER PERCEIVES INTERNATIONAL BRANDS THROUGH SHOP WINDOW DISPLAYS? 1 2 Abstract Research on consumers’ attitude on shop window displays is still a sphere that lacks attention from researchers in the field of consumer behaviour. Moreover, one of the most upcoming research fields recently is Islamic marketing field. Thus, this work is focused on the research of Saudi Arabia consumers’ attitudes on international brands shop window displays. For this purpose the questionnaire was created and spread out in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There were 61 respondents who answered the questionnaire. Collected results were analysed using mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Analysis showed that international brands make adjustments of shop window displays in Saudi Arabia. To add more, and most important, local consumers are willing to have more internationalised shop window displays with less cultural adaptation. Keywords Consumer behaviour; visual merchandising; country of origin; window displays; Saudi Arabia; Islamic marketing; marketing; international brands. 3 Acknowledgement Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that. /George Carlin/ Thank you to all of those who asked “Why?”, to all who told “Why not?” and those who were bringing me down to earth. Special thank you is to Amer Kahmis who helped to make the first steps towards my small dream. 4 Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Keywords ................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................... 4 Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 5 List of tables .............................................................................................................................. 6 List of figures ............................................................................................................................ 6 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................ 7 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Islamic marketing ......................................................................................................... 8 1.2 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ..................................................................................... 8 1.3 Saudi and fashion ....................................................................................................... 10 1.4 Importance of window displays ................................................................................. 10 1.5 Country of origin ........................................................................................................ 11 1.6 Problematization and relevancy ................................................................................. 11 1.7 Purpose ....................................................................................................................... 12 1.8 Research questions ..................................................................................................... 12 1.9 Overview .................................................................................................................... 12 2. THEORETHICAL FOUNDATION ............................................................................. 14 2.1 Country of origin ........................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Influences on consumer’s opinion ............................................................................. 15 2.3 Globalization .............................................................................................................. 16 2.4 Visual merchandising ................................................................................................. 18 2.5 Interaction between theories ...................................................................................... 21 3. METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 22 3.1 Pre-test........................................................................................................................ 23 3.2 Theories for methodology .......................................................................................... 24 3.3 Questionnaire ............................................................................................................. 25 3.3.1 Closed questions ............................................................................................... 25 3.3.2 Open ended questions ....................................................................................... 26 3.3.3 Questions for questionnaire .............................................................................. 27 3.4 Data collection and sample ........................................................................................ 30 3.5 Validity and reliability ............................................................................................... 31 4. RESULTS ........................................................................................................................ 32 4.1 Consumers and window displays ............................................................................... 33 4.2 Consumers and country of origin ............................................................................... 39 4.3 Opinions on shop window displays ........................................................................... 41 5. DISCUSSIONS ............................................................................................................... 47 6. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................ 53 7. LIMITATIONS, FUTURE RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS ............................ 54 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 56 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 60 5 List of tables Table 1 Questions and their purpose ........................................................................................ 27 Table 2 Information about nationality of respondents ............................................................. 31 Table 3 Females and males responses on international and local WD .................................... 45 Table 4 Concluding ideas ......................................................................................................... 52 List of figures Figure 1 Map of Saudi Arabia .................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2 Type of window displays ........................................................................................... 20 Figure 3 Interaction between theories. Made by author ........................................................... 22 Figure 4 Key aspects of window displays ................................................................................ 25 Figure 5 Twitter post asking to fill in the questionnaire .......................................................... 30 Figure 6 Question #15 and #16 answers by gender ................................................................. 33 Figure 7 Question #1 males responses ..................................................................................... 33 Figure 8 Question #1 females responses .................................................................................. 34 Figure 9 Question #2 male and female responses .................................................................... 34 Figure 10 Question #7 females and males responses ............................................................... 35 Figure 11 Question #15 females’ responses ............................................................................. 35 Figure 12 Question #15 males’ responses ................................................................................ 36 Figure 13 Question #8 females and males responses ............................................................... 36 Figure 14 Question #9 total responses ..................................................................................... 37 Figure 15 Question #11 males and females responses ............................................................. 37 Figure 16 Question #3 males’ responses .................................................................................. 38 Figure 17 Question #3 females’ responses ............................................................................... 38 Figure 18Question #10 total responses .................................................................................... 39 6 Figure 19 Question #4 responses ............................................................................................