The impact of discount policies in retaining customers and building long-term customer relationships in TK Maxx Carrickmines
Authors
Gopinath, Dinu
Issue Date
2009
Degree
MA of Business Administration (international)
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Abstract
Relationship marketing is perceived as a leading trend in marketing and modem day consumers have evolved into becoming increasingly promotion-literate. The knock on effect of this is a decrease in reliance on traditional and most frequently used methods for building customer relationships. In Ireland, the off price retail market is very wide and it has a good future too. A lot of competitors are in the market to attract the customers. The purpose of this research is to find out the impact of discount policies in building long term customer relationships and the possibility for a competitive advantage due to this, in the context of one of the leading off price retailer store in Ireland, TK Maxx. For studying the research area in detail TK Maxx's branch at Carrickmines in Dublin is selected. Three hypotheses were formulated in the initial stage of the research. Four objectives were set in order to answer the research question. Questionnaire for the survey method used in the research was designed based on the information from the secondary research. A total of 100 customers entering the store were interviewed by the researcher in order to collect the primary data. Convenience sampling was used due to the time constrains. In order to analyse the obtained data, SPSS has been used. Obtained data findings were cross tabulated in order to obtain necessary information for attaining the objectives and testing the hypothesis. Graphs and frequency tables are used for the presentations of the analysis. According to the analysis, based on the findings, researcher found that a discount policy can retain customers. But there is strong evidence that TK Maxx's discount policies alone can create a long term relationship. It is further argued by the researcher that, promotional policies are just only one aspect, in strengthening a relationship building strategy in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.