The present evolution on consumption goods market generates serious and complex issues to retail companies. Under the circumstances of serious competition, retail companies in Romania confront themselves with the need of finding solutions to different aspects regarding integration on the market, identifying solutions concerning competition issues, initializing and developing businesses or determining the profitability of every activity. More than this, having a relation with the market they act, retailers must know and follow permanently the needs and the requires on the market, phenomenon that implies marketing research, studies and analysis that allow a better understanding of the economic processes, and also social ones, cultural, demographical, and so on. These present realities (and even possible evolutions) that characterize the sector of retail have been the element that determined the initiation of the present scientific action. The retail company is the link within a value chain that comes in direct contact with the final consumer. Therefore, our intention is to determine the place, role and importance of marketing within the general policies of retail companies. Naturally, this generated the question: is distribution marketing a specialized domain that implies policies, strategies and specific techniques, or the assimilation of the classic concept is sufficient in solving marketing and management problems?marketing, retail, distribution marketing, retail companies’ marketing mix, marketing research in retail

Marius Balasescu

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
THE ASSIMILATION OF MARKETING CONCEPT BY 
RETAIL COMPANIES IN ROMANIA  
  
Lecturer PhD Marius BĂLĂŞESCU  
 Transilvania University of Brasov 
  
Abstract:  
The present evolution on consumption goods market generates serious and 
complex issues to retail companies. Under the circumstances of serious 
competition, retail companies in Romania confront themselves with the need 
of finding solutions to different aspects regarding integration on the market, 
identifying solutions concerning competition issues, initializing and 
developing businesses or determining the profitability of every activity.  More 
than this, having a relation with the market they act, retailers must know and 
follow permanently the needs and the requires on the market, phenomenon 
that implies marketing research, studies and analysis that allow a better 
understanding of the economic processes, and also social ones, cultural, 
demographical,  and so on. These present realities (and even possible 
evolutions) that characterize the sector of retail have been the element that 
determined the initiation of the present scientific action. The retail company is 
the link within a value chain that comes in direct contact with the final 
consumer. Therefore, our intention is to determine the place, role and 
importance of marketing within the general policies of retail companies. 
Naturally, this generated the question: is distribution marketing a specialized 
domain that implies policies, strategies and specific techniques, or the 
assimilation of the classic concept is sufficient in solving marketing and 
management problems?   
 
Key words: marketing, retail, distribution marketing, retail companies’ 
marketing mix, marketing research in retail  
 
Introduction 
One of the paradigms of the 
contemporary economic world consists 
in the fact that nowadays, it is much 
harder selling goods than products. In 
the present economy, competition 
between producers and suppliers, 
demand and offer, has a very tight 
relation. They develop with unsuspected 
rhythms, by new rules on the market, 
identified by the means of permanent 
and complex marketing research of 
potential buyers, producers or 
competitors, of market fluctuations, and 
so on. (Costea, C. E. and Săseanu, 
A.S., 2009, p.9)         
In this perspective, an adequate 
acknowledgement of economies, 
markets and goods, of the way they 
function, are influenced or controlled, is 
based on information and marketing 
research, on analysis specific to each 
type of activity as well as on 
understanding them.      
The realities of contemporary 
world show that a functional economy is 
a market economy on which marketing 
has powerfully entered, as philosophy 
that guides organizational activity, no 
matter its nature, as well as practical 
action, reflected in significant results 
and, sometimes, spectacular. (Lefter, 
C., Brătucu, G., et al, 2006, p.17) 
The fundamental feature of 
contemporary marketing is represented 
by its full opening in three major 
directions: towards consumers’ needs   90 
the needs of the organization and the 
ones of the society.  
Nowadays, no matter the nature of 
the activities or the features of the 
organizations, marketing is a way of 
entrepreneurial thinking. (Bruhn, M., 
1999, p.12) 
The concept of marketing in 
commerce, with its entire scientific 
arsenal, must represent an instrument 
of analyse and study of the phenomena 
and processes in economy. It must 
represent a way of emphasizing the 
means of increasing economic 
efficiency, the means of prediction and 
programming actions, organization and 
management of economic processes, 
so that the resources that the society 
possesses and also the resources of 
companies, can satisfy as well as 
possible the dynamic system of needs 
of consumption.   
The present work debates these 
issues, and has in view the way retail 
companies in Romania assimilate the 
concept of marketing and all of its 
aspects.   
 
Conceptual and 
methodological approach 
Our scientific research 
emphasized the necessity of 
approaching distribution marketing as 
an individual specialization of 
marketing. In our opinion, distribution 
marketing can only be conceived as a 
process in each link of the distribution. 
In this matter, we have formulated a 
series of statements: 
1.  Having in view the fact that 
consumption goods distribution is the 
process between producer and final 
consumer, we have approached selling 
as a sequence of distribution produced 
between participants to a marketing 
channel.  
2. There are specific processes of 
selling between producer and 
intermediary, as well as between 
intermediary and final consumer. Under 
the context of this approach, our 
investigation had in view the specific 
selling process between retail and final 
consumer.  
Starting from this point of view we 
may develop the concept of marketing 
to the retail company oriented towards 
selling individual consumption goods.  
Concerning the marketing mix of 
the retail company, we may identify six 
fundamental elements that compose the 
mix:  
a. Marketing  decisions  regarding 
the location of the commercial unit.  
b. Marketing  decisions  regarding 
the unit (selling point) as image, 
atmosphere and ambience.  
c. Marketing decisions regarding 
the product policy. 
d. Marketing  decisions  regarding 
the price policy. 
e. Marketing  decisions  regarding 
the distribution policy. 
f. Marketing decisions regarding 
the promotional policy. 
 
Research on attitudes, 
opinions and behaviours of retail 
companies’ managers regarding 
the obtaining and using 
marketing information 
The quantitative marketing 
research referred to “Attitudes, opinions 
and behaviours of retail companies’ 
managers regarding the obtaining and 
using marketing information” and aimed 
determining the manner in which retail 
companies in Brasov know and use 
marketing concept and integrate it 
functionally to the level of management 
decisions.    
The research consisted in an 
enquiry (direct interview method) and 
was based on a questionnaire of 38 
questions. It was done between 
September 15
th and December 15
th 
2008.    
The population consisted in the 
total number of retail companies within 
Brasov county. Only marketing 
managers were questioned from the 
selected companies.  
The situation of retail companies in 
Brasov was at the time as follows:  91 
 
 
Table1 
Retail companies in Brasov in 2008 
         Total   4929 100% 
Active companies   3495 70,9% 
Inactive companies  1434 29,1% 
 
The research was done on active 
companies. These companies were 
71% of the total number of registered 
companies in Brasov.  
For establishing the sample we 
had in view a level of confidence of 95% 
and an admitted error of ± 5%. The 
resulted size of the sample was 384 
individuals. For establishing the sample 
we used the method of proportional 
multistage sampling, having under 
consideration two variables: the size 
and the form of commerce of 
companies. The validation of the 
sample was done in report to the size of 
the companies and the type of goods 
they transacted.  
The most important conclusion that 
came from analyzing the information is 
that, generally speaking, in retail 
companies in Brasov managers do not 
think and act yet in the spirit of a real 
marketing way. The conclusion is that in 
practice, most retail companies do not 
have a real marketing view, but they 
use, more or less, some instruments 
specific to marketing in order to achieve 
some objectives that are not related to 
marketing.   
A different significant conclusion 
that came from the results of the 
research shows that there is an obvious 
differentiation between small 
independent retail companies that act 
locally and national retail chains, or 
even international ones, under the 
aspect of assimilated marketing concept 
(marketing information used, promoting 
means, marketing activity, and so on).      
In order to understand correctly the 
results obtained and to achieve valid 
conclusions, the research included one 
way analysis as well as two way and 
multivariate analysis. We believe that 
the multi way analysis in the present 
marketing research offered a more 
profound approach of the analyzed 
phenomena.  
Further, we shall present the most 
important aspects that helped with the 
multivariate analysis.  
The depth of the analysis of retail 
companies’ behaviour on the basis of 
the role and importance of obtaining 
and using marketing information in 
order to create marketing policies, 
requires a general research by 
considering, simultaneously, a great 
number of relevant variants. In this 
matter we used the method of Main 
Parts Analysis (MPA), because its major 
force consists in giving simultaneous 
correlations between variables, allowing 
the examination of the phenomena as a 
whole. (Xavier Bry, 1995, p.30). 
In order to have a synthetic view of 
the above mentioned aspect we 
identified two main factors under the 
conditions of validating the correlation of 
the data and of the adequate character 
of the factors. We used specific tests 
such as Barlet test of specificity, that 
lead to the rejection of the zero 
hypotheses of non-correlation of the 
variables, as well as Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin 
measure of sampling adequacy that had 
a value (0.68) that significantly 
overcomes the minimum accepted level 
(0.50).  
Within these analyses there were 
taken under consideration six variables 
measured with the interval scale. These 
variables were: the importance of 
studying the consumer behaviour (5 
levels); the importance of conceiving an 
adequate marketing strategy (5 levels); 
the level of importance given to 
obtaining marketing information by the   92 
company (6 levels); the way suppliers 
are willing to offer marketing information 
(5 levels); the importance given to the 
use of intuition in taking marketing 
decisions (5 levels). 
The positioning of these variables 
in the plan of the two main factors is 
presented as follows: 
  
 
Figure 1. The positioning of the retailers in the plan of the two factors by the 
way they were built 
 
In the perspective of the 
correlation of the two main factors, 
results: 
a.  Factor 1 can be defined as 
representing  The importance of 
obtaining marketing information. It 
represents 37.7% of the total variance. 
As it is shown, the variables highly 
correlated to Factor 1 are: the level of 
importance given to obtaining marketing 
information by the company; the 
importance given to owning a database; 
and the way suppliers are willing to offer 
marketing information. 
b. Factor 2 can be defined as The 
use of intuition in conceiving marketing 
strategies. It explains 20.4% of the total 
variance of the variables had in view. 
But, it is noticeable that a distinct aspect 
is the fact that, by their behaviour, 
retailers, generally, do not give a great 
importance to studying the consumers’ 
behaviour, as this variable is anti-
correlated to the intuition they appeal 
mostly, as we shall notice in many 
cases.   
The two factors, together explain 
58% of the total variance and so, they 
can be representative under the aspect 
of characterizing the way retailers act in 
order to obtain information needed to 
conceive their marketing actions.  
It is also noticeable that these 
retailers act in different ways. In this 
matter we shall analyze the companies 
by their position in the plan of the two 
factors, having under consideration, 
mainly, their size:    93 
 
Figure 2. The positioning of the companies in the plan of the two factors,  
by their size.     
 
We can notice that average and 
large companies are positioned in the 
quarters that show the following 
aspects: 
-  A relatively small number of 
companies of average and large size 
are correlated to the factor 1 that sets 
on main plan the importance of 
obtaining marketing information.  
-  A relatively small number of 
average companies are focused on 
using intuition in elaborating their 
marketing policies; to these companies 
we may add a relatively large number of 
small companies. 
- A relatively large number of 
companies, but also average 
companies, give a high importance to 
information about consumers. 
-  Most of the small companies 
give less importance to the necessity of 
obtaining marketing information and 
base their marketing policies on 
intuition.  
A subject of high interest 
approached within the quantitative 
marketing research was represented by 
the manner retail companies feel the 
effects of the present economic crisis as 
well as the evaluation of the importance 
given to marketing activities as means 
of overcoming the crisis. Most subjects, 
including managers of large retail 
companies, stated that the negative 
effects of the economic crisis will 
influence very much their activities. 
In our opinion, the approach of 
efficient methods by managers of retail 
companies in Romania, in order to 
overcome the effects of the economic 
crisis, do not imply importing the 
solutions tried by other Europeans, but 
adapting these solutions and even an 
innovation process. Even under 
economic crisis conditions, retail 
companies must allocate financial 
resources to marketing in order to allow 
the study and understanding of the 
modifications of buying and 
consumption behaviour during crisis, so 
that they can adapt to the changes. 
Many retailers noticed a decrease of 
sales, but, at the same time, an 
increase of the traffic in their selling 
units, as a modification of the buying 
behaviour. The consumer is now willing 
to spend more time and search more 
places in order to optimize the price-
quality report. In order to better 
understand what must be done retailers 
must invest in marketing actions and not 
reduce marketing budgets. Many   94 
retailers did not understand that 
nowadays we do not confront ourselves 
with a cost crisis (e.g. last year the price 
of oil barrel exceeded 150 USD, and 
nowadays it fluctuates roundabout 70 
USD), but a sales crisis, and therefore, 
they must invest more in activities 
specific to marketing. We can call this 
marketing a “crisis marketing” that must 
have important resources within 
companies and that must provide 
specisl solutions to special situations.       
 
The necessity of assimilating 
marketing concept by retail 
companies in Romania  
The marketing research revealed 
the fact that most managers of small 
retail companies do not understand and 
use marketing functionally in taking 
management decisions.  
Managers of small retail 
companies must understand that using 
different parts of marketing, different 
instruments, techniques and means that 
most of the time are not correlated 
efficiently to other policies, is not 
sufficient. They must understand that 
marketing has the power of directing the 
entire managerial process of the retail 
company towards markets and their 
requirements.  
  In order to sustain the above 
statement, we intent to attract the 
attention on retail companies’ managers 
to the following aspects that will get 
other dimensions under the impulse of 
concept, techniques and instruments of 
marketing. ( Patriche,D., pp.116-129) 
•  The transformation of marketing 
in fundamental policy at the level of the 
retail company. Such an orientation has 
in view: the permanent study and 
objective analysis of the market and its 
evolution; the evaluation of the quality of 
products and their correspondence with 
their prices; the permanent modification 
of what does not correspond on the 
market, giving birth to new products and 
services, methods of serving and even 
to new methods of distribution.  
•  Making the step from a intuitive 
based management to a scientific 
based management. (Patriche, D., et al, 
2007, p. 62). Marketing has in view two 
simultaneous exigencies: using 
scientific methods in management – 
systematic gathering of information, 
statistic analysis and economic 
calculus, scientific methods of 
prediction, psychological motivations, 
decision theory, behaviour models, 
establishing new criteria of evaluation, 
and so on; the existence of personnel 
able to use such instruments, personnel 
that ought to posses basic theoretical 
knowledge and the experience 
regarding practical selling problems.   
•  Promoting the view according to 
which all must start from the market and 
from the interests of the consumer. The 
respective view obliges to using new 
methods of research and study.  
•  The acknowledgement of the 
marketing concept and the 
understanding of its principles, as well 
as the spirit state the top management 
must adopt. In real life these aspects 
will lose their theoretical and 
sophisticated character, keeping only 
the essential that will allow the 
generalization of marketing.  
•  The integration of the marketing 
function within the managerial functions 
and assuring a marketing education to 
the entire personnel of retail companies.  
 
Conclusions 
The marketing concept, both by its 
cognitive side as well as by its 
pragmatic side, must offer to retail 
companies’ real possibilities of knowing 
economic phenomena, their structure 
and dimensions, the way of 
understanding tendencies and their 
movement. It must allow a good 
identification of interests and their 
motivation, so that they can be able to 
solve problems they confront in such a 
given context.  
As a consequence, marketing in 
retail by the means of marketing 
research, must exceed common   95 
knowledge, it must become a 
systematic study, a profound one, able 
to identify the nature of phenomena, 
their intensity and their direction, so 
that, in the end, it can offer the 
possibility of efficient solution. At the 
same time, having in view the fact that 
marketing appeared as a necessity of 
solving problems regarding rational 
organization of the resources of 
companies, in order to provide a 
maximum satisfaction of the needs on 
the market, and that it approaches by its 
nature complex problems referring to 
main aspects of marketing policies, it 
can represent an important practical 
instrument of improving economic 
activity and an adequate mean in 
competition battle.  
The present work aimed proving 
that retail companies in order to be 
efficient and competitive must proceed 
to a functional integration of the concept 
of marketing in the managerial process 
of the activities within retail structures.  
 
 
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The assimilation of marketing concept by retail companies in Romania

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