Operationalising assortment in the theory of marketing systems: an example from the Australian tourism marketing system for international visitors 1999-2001

Abstract

Although the term “assortment” is generally known in the retail and marketing literature as the overall collection of products and services provided by a retailer, its interpretations and definitions are diverse and narrow at the same time. The aim of this thesis is to conceptualize and measure assortments in the marketing system. This particular perspective provides a generalizable context for the application of the assortment concept, and at the same time opens a door for understanding the marketing systems through the lens of assortments. The second aim of the thesis, which is instrumental in achieving the first, is to identify and measure properties of acquired assortments. Acquired assortments are the main type of assortments that represent the demand side at the interface of exchange in the marketing system. Two groups, altogether five properties of acquired assortments have been identified in the thesis. The first group involves the concept of diversity and comprises of three components: variety, balance and disparity. The second group deals with two relational properties, association and sequence. To substantiate the proposed measures, using the International Visitor Survey data, the thesis examines destination assortments acquired by short-term international visitors in the tourism marketing system of Australia in a two-year period between 1999 and 2001. Besides the theoretical implications as described by the two aims, this study also provides some useful insights for members of the Australian tourism industry in understanding how international visitors respond to the destinations offered in the system according to their own characteristics and trip characteristics together with the influence of a big event, the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Finally, nature and inter-relationships of the measures are discussed. The results show that the proposed measures reflect inter-related but different aspects of the acquired assortment. In particular, empirical inter-relationships exist between measures at the same level of categorization as well as that between different levels of aggregation. The evidence supports the idea of internal consistency in the assortment and has implications for understanding and evaluating the functioning of the marketing system