The demographics which the firm needs to collect will be the financial stability of the customers which have been living near the stores or the prospective sites. They need to have data on their employment and the type of employment. The annual salary figures along with the time of bonuses will help the firm to develop its offering strategies. The tastes and the preferences can be analyzed from the cultural mapping of the sites which will help the firm to understand the type of products which will attract the customers the most. The recent buys will help the store to understand the type of products and the price range which has been triggered the buys. This information will help to understand the various aspect of the consumer buying behavior (Tofanelli, 2012).
The geographic information required will be the location of the various public places which are near the sites they can be the universities and also the shopping plazas. The location advantage can be derived by setting up the store in a posh neighborhood which will help in the sales of the international brands. The location of nearby offices will also help in the sales. The network of roads need to be understood as more traffic will also mean the lack of parking spaces and thus the loss of customers who prefer international brands. The visibility of the store needs to be taken into consideration.
The competitive advantage which can be derived from the location can also be a deterrent to the sales due to the presence of competing stores or brand outlets. The location needs to be selected which has the competitors at some distance from the store. This will help in increasing the visibility of the store and also get more customers. The clustering of the competitors is also helpful as they can get more customers due to the increased probability of a buy. This will also result in the modification of the offerings by providing discounts and offers to get more sales. Clustering also helps in the identification of the bottlenecks which can be learnt from the study of the competitor strategies and used in the other stores. The high concentration of the retail stores at a site will, however, decrease the sales as the brand reputation and loyalty will come into play. As the firm deals with international branded and also other brands it can target both the middle class and upper class which will help in the increase in sales. The posh areas are the best target sites as the premium customers will seek to buy there and the middle income group will be attracted following the "Bandwagon" effect (It All Starts and Ends with Competitive Advantage, 2003).
The methods which the marketing executives can conduct their surveys will be through the use of various instruments which will help to reach the target markets.
The characteristics of the customers who visit both the Eddie Bauer store and also the competitor need to be understood from the preferences of the customers. This can be done by conducting face to face interactions which the store manager or the floor manager can conduct in a friendly way which will help in the gaining of insights. One of the ways can also be the feedback from which can be at times be cumbersome and irritating. The conducting of interviews over the internet through the sending of questionnaires can be one of the methods to understand. The better way to get insights about his competitor strategy will be to allow the customer to rate the products against their competitors. This can be done through consumer engagement which needs to be done by the use of social networking sites and also by communication with the employees who are responsible for conducting the store sales. The use of technology to understand the shared characteristics can be used to understand the taste of the customer by allowing them to modify the designs and to develop their own designs. This can be done on any day and need to be communicated to the customer. This will help them understand the needs of the customer and so design their products and layout of the store. The other market research study needs to be conducted will be the movement of the customer in the store which will help the firm to identify the hot and the cold spots which then will help in the modification of the visual merchandising of the store.
The best prospects will be to find sites which are located in posh areas and do not have many competitive stores nearby. The demographics which needed to be studied will be the employment level and their lifestyle preferences. The ethnicity and the nature of job will also help in the identification of the sites for locating their store.
The habits and the leisure type of the customers can be found out from the financial data ND the sites they have visited which are an indication of their online buying choices. The type of vehicles the drive will directly resemble their choice of the brands and lifestyle choices which will help in the development of the firm's marketing strategies. The online buying propensity will also help to understand the use of credit cards and also the effect of mobile and internet marketing on the consumer.
The zip finder will help to measure the buying propensity of the customers living in a certain area. The number and type of households will help in the understanding. The program also helps to get details on the salaries and the mortgage amounts which help to understand the financial credit score of the individual. The blocks having the better scores will be able to spend on the international brands and this will result in more sales. Thus the locations with higher employment level with the desired lifestyle can be located.
The use of the firm website needs to be done by the way of making applications and a software platform for online buy. This will be complimented with the use of television media which can make advertisements to target those customers who prefer exclusive products. The use of magazines can be done to showcase the products. The use of networking and social media can be used to provide the videos of their products and also how they make it. This will engage more customers. The targeting can also be done by mobile marketing which is one of the best ways to reach these customers as they have a high usage rate and also have internet access. The sharing of the new dresses in the social networking sites will also help to attract more customers.