Evaluation of H&M’s Market Success
Analysis and Evaluation of H&M’s Market Success:
Does the Company Educate its Consumers or Does it Serve a Unique Market Segment?
ABSTRACT
In the current retailing market, Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) remains a unique phenomenon in part due to the observable difference in the behavior of the company’s customers. This study evaluates two theories attempting to explain the deviation in H&M customers’ behavior-patterns. The first theory suggests that the customers’ behavior is attitude-bound and learned-taught through the customer-company interaction. The second theory argues that H&M customers belong to a genuinely unique market segment. The researcher surveyed 160 shoppers at H&M and one of the department stores and used a grounded-theory approach to analyze the data. The results substantiated the first theory claiming that shopping behaviors were taught and learned. The study had an important practical value. However, its results were subject to l reliability and validity threats; thus, further research would be required to confirm the findings.
I. INTRODUCTION
The issues of consumer relationships have been the focus of marketing research inquiries for at least a century. In the last decade, with the discovery of organizational core competences, relationship knowledge experienced a new wave of research interest and was named among the leading “strategic powers” of an organization (Hamel & Prahalad 1994, pp. 3-5; Bergenhenegouwen et al. 1986, p. 29). Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) stands out in its respective market largely because of the company’s unique and innovative approach to serving its customers. Moreover, the company is frequently cited for its ability to create customer needs rather than address the existing market requests (Kumar 1997, p. 834).
As an intangible attribute of the company’s market activities, the company’s relationship knowledge is invisible to the observer; therefore, H&M customer relations cannot be analyzed directly (Petts 1997, p.
Does the Company Educate its Consumers or Does it Serve a Unique Market Segment?
ABSTRACT
In the current retailing market, Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) remains a unique phenomenon in part due to the observable difference in the behavior of the company’s customers. This study evaluates two theories attempting to explain the deviation in H&M customers’ behavior-patterns. The first theory suggests that the customers’ behavior is attitude-bound and learned-taught through the customer-company interaction. The second theory argues that H&M customers belong to a genuinely unique market segment. The researcher surveyed 160 shoppers at H&M and one of the department stores and used a grounded-theory approach to analyze the data. The results substantiated the first theory claiming that shopping behaviors were taught and learned. The study had an important practical value. However, its results were subject to l reliability and validity threats; thus, further research would be required to confirm the findings.
I. INTRODUCTION
The issues of consumer relationships have been the focus of marketing research inquiries for at least a century. In the last decade, with the discovery of organizational core competences, relationship knowledge experienced a new wave of research interest and was named among the leading “strategic powers” of an organization (Hamel & Prahalad 1994, pp. 3-5; Bergenhenegouwen et al. 1986, p. 29). Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) stands out in its respective market largely because of the company’s unique and innovative approach to serving its customers. Moreover, the company is frequently cited for its ability to create customer needs rather than address the existing market requests (Kumar 1997, p. 834).
As an intangible attribute of the company’s market activities, the company’s relationship knowledge is invisible to the observer; therefore, H&M customer relations cannot be analyzed directly (Petts 1997, p.