Facility Attribute Analysis in Retail Chains of Australia

This assignment analyzes the capability of four retail chains in Australia to deliver service attributes such as staff service, service automation, availability of branded and generic products, economic pricing, and parking facility. The analysis is based on a quantitative survey of 10 customers and perpetual mapping. The research identifies service gaps and areas of improvement for gaining a competitive edge.

Facility Attribute Analysis in Retail
Chains of Australia

Executive summary:
This assignment is holding a brief research regarding to what extent the four chosen retail chain
Australian brands(Target Corporation and its rivals Kmart Australia, Myer, and Big w retail ) are
capable to deliver several identified service attributes to the customers as these identified
attributes(staff service, service automation, availability of branded products, availability of
generic products, Economic pricing, Parking facility) are important enough in increasing the
footfalls of the customers in the different stores. The quantitative analysis and the method of
online questionnaire have been used for capturing the respondents view. The tools of perpetual
mapping has been used for the identification of the possible service gap so that the chosen
organization can develop the skills with respect to the identified gap and can gain the
competitive edge (Fionda & Moore, 2009).
The method of quantitative analysis has been used where a survey questionnaire has been
distributed among the respondents and the survey has been done on a sample of 10 customer and
the sample member are being chosen following the technique of simple random sampling. The
key insight that has been derived from this research analysis is that the chosen organization
Target Corporation should work in improving the service automation and in supplying the
generic product as a service gap is present with respect to these attributes and filling up the
service gap will help the chosen organization to gain competitive advantage.

Table of Contents
Executive summary:........................................................................................................................2
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Method:............................................................................................................................................4
Analysis:..........................................................................................................................................4
Implication:....................................................................................................................................11
Limitation:.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference:......................................................................................................................................13
Appendix:......................................................................................................................................14

Introduction:
The research topic will help to analyse how the several chosen retail brand (that are departmental
store chains) and their competitors are efficiently offering the several service attributes that act as
an important factor for regulating the customer flow in the chosen brand.
This research has been undertaken in order to assess and compare the facility that are available in
the chosen organization of “Target Corporation” and the three other rival organizations of
Australia which are operating as departmental retail chain in Australia just like the chosen
organization “Target corporation” Australia. Target Corporation Australia is a mid-price
department store chain which has been owned by Wesfarmers. This company is one of the
Australia’s largest department store chains that are operating with 302 stores across Australia.
The other three rival corporations that are being used in this research are Kmart Australia, Myer,
and Big W Retail which are also the other departmental stores and operating in almost similar
fashion in Australia. The research is based on assessing the kind of service qualities and product
qualities that are available in organization “Target Corporation” and rival organizations.
The main objective of holding this research is to identify the followings:
 The efficiency of the chosen brand and their competitors regarding their capability of
delivering service with respect to the chosen service attributes.
 The scope of improvement by identifying the gap that has been present with respect to
the service attributes.
 To assess the service gap and the area of improvement in terms of perpetual map with
respect to the chosen brand.
The research is important as the finding of the research will deliver a proper support for the other
departmental store chain that is operating in similar fashion.
Method:
The method of quantitative analysis has been used for holding the research .In this quantitative
analysis the online survey has been done on 10 customers who are visiting the chosen
organization using the method of simple random sampling. So the sample of customers who are

coming to the store is having a size of ten and the details of the sample composition are available
in the questionnaire section (Kapferer, 2012).. The research is based on analysis of the several
chosen dimensions like staff service, automation, product branding & parking facility. The
online survey has been done by sending soft copy of the questionnaire to the email of the
randomly chosen organizations.
These six attributes or dimensions that are being used in the report are quality of staff service,
quality of service automation, availability of branded products, availability of Generic products,
and availability of economic pricing, availability of parking facility.
The competitor brands are being chosen on the basis of working pattern. That is the brands that
are operating in similar fashion as departmental store chain has been included here.
Analysis:
A set of 8 questions has been distributed to 10 randomly chosen customers who are young adults
and the response that has been collected from the filled up returned questionnaire has been
converted and recorded in quantitative format(Means, 2017). . For the purpose of research
analysis questions were being asked to the respondents regarding how they asses the chosen
organization Target corporation and its competitors namely Kmart Australia, Myer, and Big W
Retail with respect to six attributes that are considered as crucial in attracting the customers
towards the store.
These six attributes or dimensions that are being used in the report are quality of staff service,
quality of service automation, availability of branded products, availability of Generic products,
and availability of economic pricing, availability of parking facility (Aaker & Joachimsthaler,
2012).
Discussion of the survey responses:
Age group Percentage
Number in
each category Total
Less than 20 years 10% 1 10
20-30 years 40% 4 10
30-45 years 30% 3 10
Above 45 years 20% 2 10

As per the survey responses 70% of the respondents are falling within the age group of 20-45
years
Age group Percentage
Number in
each category Total
Male 40% 4 10
Female 50% 5 10
Others 10% 1 10
According to the survey responses 50% of the respondents are female and 40% of the
respondents are male.
Staff service
Brands
Percentag
e
Number in each
category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 30% 3 10
Kmart 25% 3 10
Myer 20% 2 10
Big W Retail 20% 2 10
None of the above 5% 1 10

Target
Corporatio
n
Kmart Myer Big W Retail None of the
above
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
30%
25%
20% 20%
5%
Staff service
staff service
According to the majority of the respondents (30%) the brand “Target Corporation” is best in
giving “staffing service” and another 25% of the respondents think that the brand “Kmart” is
best in offering staffing service(Aaker & McLoughlin, 2010).
Service automation
Brands Percentage
Number in
each category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 10% 1 10
Kmart 5% 1 10
Myer 13% 1 10
Big W Retail 7% 1 10
None of the above 65% 7 10

Target
Corporati
on
Kmart Myer Big W
Retail None of
the above
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
10% 5%
13%
7%
65%
Service automation
service automation
Only 13% of the respondents think that the brand “MYER” is capable to offer good “automated
service” to some extent and another 10% thinks that the brand “Target Corporation” s to some
extent competent with this respect(Aaker, 2012). Again majority or 65% of the respondents think
that good “automated service” is not available with any of the chosen brands
Branded Products
Brands percentage
number in
each category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 45% 5 10
Kmart 15% 2 10
Myer 20% 2 10
Big W Retail 18% 1.8 10
None of the above 2% 0.2 10

Target
Corporati
on
Kmart Myer Big W
Retail None of
the above
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
45%
15%
20% 18%
2%
Branded Products
Branded Products
According to the majority of the respondents (45%) the brand “Target Corporation” is best in
offering “Branded products” and another 20% of the respondents think that the brand “MYER”
is best in offering “Branded products”.
Generic products
Brands percentage
number in each
category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 10% 1 10
Kmart 15% 2 10
Myer 13% 1 10
Big W Retail 12% 1 10
None of the above 50% 5 10
Only 15% of the respondents think that the brand “KMART” is capable to offer good “Generic
products ” to some extent and another 13% think that the brand “MYER” s to some extent
competent with this respect. Again majority or 50% of the respondents think that large variety of
“Generic” is not available with any of the chosen brands(Holloway, 2017).

Target
Corporati
on
Kmart Myer Big W
Retail None of
the above
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
10%
15% 13% 12%
50%
Generic products
Generic products
Economic pricing
Brands percentage
number in each
category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 34% 3 10
Kmart 25% 3 10
Myer 20% 2 10
Big W Retail 20% 2 10
None of the above 1% 0 10
Target Corporation
Kmart
Myer
Big W Retail
None of the above
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
34%
25%
20%
20%
1%
Economic pricing
Economic pricing

34% of the respondents are thinking that the brand “Target Corporation” is best in offering
“Economic pricing”, and another 25% think that the brand “MYER” is best in offering
“Economic pricing”( Aaker, 2009).
Parking facility
Brands percentage
number in each
category
Tota
l
Target Corporation 25% 3 10
Kmart 30% 3 10
Myer 35% 4 10
Big W Retail 9% 1 10
None of the above 1% 0 10
Target Corporation
Kmart
Myer
Big W Retail
None of the above
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
25%
30%
35%
9%
1%
Parking facility
Parking facility
35% of the respondents are thinking that the brand “MYER” is best in offering “Parking facility”,
and another 30% think that the brand “KMART” is best in offering “Parking Facility”.
Perceptual Mapping

The perpetual mapping has be done with respect to the availability of the attributes of “Service
Automation” and “Staff service” as these two attributes are the most important attributes for
pulling crowd to the store. From the mapping it is clear that majority of the respondents describe
that there is lack of proper automation service in the selected brands which helps the customers
to make systematic shopping with effective time savings. Not only that, the “service automation”
helps a store to reduce the day to day operational cost (Savage et al.,2014).
The second perpetual mapping has been done with respect to the availability of the attributes of
“branded products” and “Generic products” as these two attributes are also very important
attributes for pulling crowd to the store. The mapping reveals that around 50% of the respondents
are of opinion that in most of the store the generic c non branded variety of products is not
available (Keller, Parameswaran & Jacob, 2011).
Implication:
The majority of the respondents are female and falling within the age group of 20-45years .Thus
the retailers should target the middle aged female shoppers where most of which have the
capability to earn as target segment for selling their products. Most of the chosen brands re good
in offering staffing service or branded products .The brand “target corporation ” is better from

rest of the rivals in offering “economic pricing” to the customers, but the brand has to work for
improving the “parking facility ” offered to the customers(De & Hofstede, 2010).
The perpetual mapping reveals a striking fact that the chosen brand “target corporation” as well
as the rivals has to work for offering good “Service Automation” and “generic products”.
Therefore the research reveals that the chosen brand “target corporation” should work in the field
of “Service Automation” and “generic products” as it is the indentified attribute gap that must be
improved for attaining the required competitive edge (Fionda, & Moore, 2009).
The data information gathered is important and interesting as the analysis of data identifies the
fact the areas of service improvement.
Limitation:
The analysis has been done only on the basis of six attributes due shortage of time and budget
where there are also some other noticeable service attributes that works for pulling the customers
to the stores(Kotler, 2012).
The analysis is based on only the response of ten respondents within the time constraint as it is
difficult to gather voluntary responses from the customers.

Reference:
Aaker, D. A. (2009). Managing brand equity. simon and schuster.
Aaker, D. A. (2012). Building strong brands. Simon and Schuster.
Aaker, D. A., & Joachimsthaler, E. (2012). Brand leadership. Simon and Schuster.
Aaker, D. A., & McLoughlin, D. (2010). Strategic market management: global perspectives.
John Wiley & Sons.
De Mooij, M., & Hofstede, G. (2010). The Hofstede model: Applications to global branding and
advertising strategy and research. International Journal of Advertising, 29(1), 85-110.
Fionda, A. M., & Moore, C. M. (2009). The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand. Journal of
Brand Management, 16(5-6), 347-363.
Fionda, A. M., & Moore, C. M. (2009). The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand. Journal of
Brand Management, 16(5-6), 347-363
Holloway, S. (2017). Straight and Level: Practical Airline Economics: Practical Airline
Economics. Routledge.
Kapferer, J. N. (2012). The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic
thinking. Kogan page publishers.
Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G., & Jacob, I. (2011). Strategic brand management: Building,
measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.
Kotler, P. (2012). Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster.
Means, G. (2017). The modern corporation and private property. Routledge.
Savage, M., Barlow, J., Dickens, P., & Fielding, T. (2014). Property Bureaucracy & Culture:
Middle Class Formation in Contemporary Britain. Routledge.

Appendix:
Questionnaire:
Q1.Please identify the age group in which you are falling
a) Less than 20 years
b) 20-30 years
c) 30-45 years
d) Above 45 years
Q2.Please specify your gender
a) Male
b) Female
c) Others
Q3: When it comes to “staff service”, which of the following organization you most prefer
a) Target Corporation
b) Kmart
c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Q4: When it comes to “service automation”, which of the following organization you most prefer
a) Target Corporation
b) Kmart

c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Q5: When it comes to availability of “branded products”, which of the following organization
you most prefer
a) Target Corporation
b) Kmart
c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Q6: When it comes to availability of “Generic products”, which of the following organization
you most prefer
a) Target Corporation
b) Kmart
c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Q7: When it comes to availability of “Economic pricing”, which of the following organization
you most prefer
a) Target Corporation
b) Kmart
c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Q8: When it comes to availability of “Parking facility”, which of the following organization you
most prefer
a) Target Corporation

b) Kmart
c) Myer
d) Big W Retail
e) None of the above
Perpetual Mapping:
Attributes
staff
service
service
automation Total score
branded
product
s
Generic
product
s
Total
score
Brands
Target Corporation 30% 10% 40% 45% 10% 55%
Kmart 25% 5% 30% 15% 15% 30%
Myer 20% 13% 33% 20% 13% 33%
Big W Retail 20% 7% 27% 18% 12% 30%
None of the above
brand 5% 65% 70% 2% 50% 52%