Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Waida Irani Mohd Fauzi
Waida Irani Mohd Fauzi
Waida Irani Mohd Fauzi
Nazlida Muhamad
College of Business Administration,
Academic College for Girls,
Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
A significant emerging trend among retail outlets in Malaysia is the adoption
of an Islamic base positioning. Gayatri (2010) concludes that Muslim
consumers prefer to deal with businesses that show interest in Islamic
religion and activities, and are concerned with finding barakah (i.e. blessing)
in their transactions. The aims of this study are twofold- to explore
Malaysian Muslim consumer’s’ expectations of an Islamic base retail store,
and their motive to patronage an Islamic base retail store. This study is an
exploratory study performed in the Northern region of Malaysia. A number
of seven customers had been interviewed base on a set of open-ended
questions. Respondents expect Islamic retail store to uphold Islamic and
religious values, offer variety of halal products and carry Muslim made
products. The prominent motive is to purchase products that are not only
halal but also toyyiban (wholesome), besides strong indications that they are
after greater confidence on halal status of products offered at the outlet as
well as the feel good factor of knowing that they are patronizing at Muslim-
owned outlets.
1. Introduction
“ Personally, knowing that a store is sensitive towards
Islamic values makes me more confidence to shop at the
store... no doubts on the halalness of products sold there...”
Respondent.
1
The excerpt from the transcript above manifests the gist of the motive for
this study. Store image and positioning that focus on Islamic appeals seems
to attract Muslim consumers to patronage a store.
Recently, Islamic base retail store is growth dramatically. Due to paradigm
change in consumer lifestyles towards religion concern, there is a steady
growth of Islamic base retail store in Malaysia. Various literatures had
discussed on the influences of religion on consumer behavior. Nonetheless,
few studies are done to explore what is the customer motives (Muslim) in
patronage Islamic base retail store. There are two objectives of this study; to
identify Muslim customer motives in patronizing Islamic base retail store
and to describe the Islamic base retail store.
2. Literature review
2.1. Retail industry in Malaysia
The retail market trend had rose up to 0.8% for the whole year in year 2009.
It showed a good impact of recovery from the economic downturn. In
addition to that, profit margins in the retail industry were up to 2.4% during
the first quarter, and it stated a positive growth in retail sales (Peterson &
Balasubramanian, 2002). The encouraging growth in retail industry, seem
likes, retail will continue to be prominent economic activity in the country.
Moreover some study had defined store loyalty or patronage behavior based
on revisit behavior of the customer (Dick & Basu, 1994). The definition is
consistent with (Bloemer & de Ruyter, 1998), which defined store loyalty as
the biased behavioral response expressed over time, by some decision
making unit with respect to one store out of a set stores, which is function of
psychological processes resulting in brand commitment .
There are many factors that influence patronage behavior of the customer.
One of the factors is store image and various researches had investigated the
influences of store image towards patronage behavior of the store.
2.2.1. Store image dimension
Store image research had been studied since 1980’s and several attempts
have been made to examined patronage behavior of the consumers towards a
store (Bellenger & Moschis, 1981; Hansen & Deutscher, 1977; Martineau,
1958; Mazursky & Jacoby, 1986; Monroe & Guiltinan, 1975; Schiffman,
Dash, & Dillon, 1977). Patronage behavior involved decision process that
related to where, how and what people shop (Moye,2000).The process start
with identifying patronage motives, which influenced by retailer’s attributes,
consumer characteristics and choice (Haynes ,1994). Moreover, the decision
process also is derived from customer perceptions and attitudes from
experiences, need and information towards a store (Moye,2000).
A number of store attributes have been identified in the literature as a reason
for store patronage. The classical works is by (Martineau, 1958) which
divided by two categories , functional and psychological. The functional
includes attributes such as location, assortment of product and store layout.
The psychological category is refer to the feeling generated by functional
elements of the store. In other study, (Fisk, 1961), determined six attributes
in store :location accessibility, merchandise suitability, value for price, sales
3
efforts and store service. In another study, a twelve factor scheme were
introduced by (Kunkel & Berry, 1968),which includes price of merchandise,
quality, assortment, fashion of merchandise, sales personnel, sales
promotion, advertising, store atmosphere, location accessibility, service, and
reputation factor. The additional attributes was identified in another study
such as quality and variety of merchandise, sales staff and store atmosphere.
The prominent author of the topic of store image was (Lindquist, 1974). By
reviewing 19 articles, he synthesized the framework of the studies and
introduced a set of nine store attributes: merchandise, service, clientele,
physical facilities, promotion, accessibility, and store atmosphere,
institutional and post-transaction satisfaction. Other study by (Doyle &
Fenwick, 1974), proposed a five attributes that include product, price,
assortment, styling and location. Bearden (1977), developed seven attributes
as significantly to store patronage such as: price, quality of merchandise,
assortment, atmosphere, location, parking facility and friendly staff. (Kasulis
& Lusch, 1981), stated that stores projects a personality to consumer through
their design features, employees and merchandising strategy. The personality
of image is conveyed through functional characteristics of the stores such as
location, size, and store hours (objectives attributes) and subjective attributes
include attractiveness of store décor, friendliness of employees and level of
store service.
Merchandise
The dimension of the merchandise consist of considerations relative to
selection, quality, reputation, assortment and availability (Darden Barry &
William, 1994; Hansen & Deutscher, 1977; Kunkel & Berry, 1968).
Rationally, a larger assortment of the products will be better for the retail
store, however, for the grocery stores such as Islamic retail stores, most of
the shoppers prefer smaller or fewer grocery store assortments (Broniarczyk
and Hoyer,2001). The most important considerations is the availability to
offer households’ favorite’s brands because it will affect the store choice
criteria (Briesch, Chintagunta, & Fox, 2009).
Recently the suitable merchandise mix offer in the retail store will create
differentiation and positioning of their store (Semeijn, Van Riel, &
Ambrosini, 2004).Different background of the consumers characteristics will
5
have strong influence on patronage behavior (Pessemier, 1980). In
particular, different evaluation in merchandise selection may vary among
consumer regard to their beliefs of the religious rules and laws. For example,
for Muslim consumer they concern towards Muslim merchandise such as
Islamic branding before they decide to purchase a product. As stated by
(Alserhan, 2010), Islamic branding refer to several criteria such as listed
below:
Store atmosphere
Conducive atmosphere included store cleanliness, appealing of the store and
comfortable shopping in the store (Lindquist, 1974). This is important as it
will influenced customer emotion and may affect behavioral intention (Kim
& Moon, 2009).Retailer should place emphasis on this construct because it
plays positive outcome and strong customer relationship (Babin, Lee, Kim,
& Griffin, 2005). A convenience store will influence customer to stay longer
and will create an intention to revisit the store in the future. This is supported
by prior studies (Baker, Grewal, & Levy, 1992; Baker, Parasuraman,
Grewal, & Voss, 2002), that stress on the effect of store environment on
patronage behavior of the retail store. Most of the attributes that affect in
store atmosphere include music, scent, color, display, layout of the store and
many others. In particular, customer will choose retail store that have proper
and product display which make them easy to find whatever product they
search in the store without any assistance from the salesperson(Baker et al.,
2002).
Prior studies had discovered that sales personel services such as helpfulness,
friendliness of the salesperson will influence patronage behavior of the
6
religious people (McDaniel & Burnett, 1990). Moreover, personal
interaction is stated as the main influence to attract customer especially in
the small scale retail store. Customer will keep patronage a store which can
give them personal interaction and customized their need. It is become a
good strategy and a marketing tool to compete in a competitive environment.
Personal interaction can be divided into two sub dimension such as service
employee inspiring confidence and being courteous and helpful between
customer and salesperson (Dabholkar, Thorpe, & Rentz, 1996). The concept
is relate to religious concept of humaneness which identify by (Mort &
Hume, 2010) in evaluating Muslim consumer behavior.
Halal/haram product
Regardless, the several store attribute discuss in the previous literature,
recently, scholar had found that there are other unique dimension that is
related to Malaysia Muslim customer such as halal dimension. Previously
the halal dimension are suggested to measure service retailing such as bank
(Haron, Ahmad, & Planisek, 2005), and insurances company . But, recently,
the halal dimension is dominant to the other retail industry and the study
done by (N. K. Abu, 2004) had proved the importance of the halal dimension
in the retail sector . As for Muslim consumer, the most important things
when selecting the products is halal/haram as compared to the other factors.
Other than that, JAKIM also have listed Islamic criteria regarding to certain
aspects that must be followed such as :
8
“O ye people! Eat what is on earth, lawful (halal) and good (tayyib)…
(Al-Baqarah, 2:168)
“O you who believe!Eat of the good things that we have provided to you,and
be grateful of god, if it is He ye worship. He hath only forbidden you dead
meat,and blood, and the flesh of swine and that on which any other name
hath been invoked besides that of god.”
(Al-Baqarah,2:172)
3. Research methodology
In order to investigate the Muslim customer motives in patronage Islamic
base retail store, seven respondents had been interviewed in one of the retail
outlet in northern region, Malaysia. Seven customers had been interviewed
to explore their patronage motives towards this kind of store.
The questions asked are: what are the main motives to visit that store? types
of product they buy, why they feel comfortable, what the other store
attributes that attract them to visit the particular store. The transcripts are
analyzed for key themes.
4. Context
9
The reported growing conservatism among Malaysian Muslims may have
driven retailers in Malaysia-involving large and mostly small and medium
businesses to develop Islamic base retail image outlets. Either settling with
the Islamic theme colors of green and white for store signboard, or adopting
an Arabic-like name or logo for their stores, these retailers seem determined
to lure the predominantly Malaysian-Muslim consumers market through
religious base positioning.
This study has been conducted in Kedah, a state in the northern region of
Malaysia where there is a significant growth in Islamic base retail outlets
and industry. An Islamic party governs the state which may implies that the
people are more religious-conscious. This may well extend to their product
choices and consumption that tends to be motivated by Islamic religion.
5. Finding
The sample described the Islamic base retail store as Muslim owned outlet,
staffs wearing Islamic proposed clothing (e.g. wearing kopiah or skullcap),
carry Muslim-made products and varied products that relate to Islamic
teachings and values. The prominent motive is to purchase products that are
not only halal but also toyyiban (wholesome). There are indications that
they have greater confidence on halal status of products offered at the outlet
as well as the feel good factor of knowing that they are patronizing at
Muslim-owned outlets.
12
Respondents in this study are together to suggest that Islamic base retail
store should have staffs, or the store image and layout for that matter- that
are compliance to Islamic values. In that case, Islamic base retail store
should prioritize polite staffs in decent clothing, and store ambience that
emphasize Islamic aesthetic values. Respondents also stressed on the
availability of wide assortments of Muslim made products.
As for now, Islamic base retail stores maybe the concern of Malaysian retails
cape but not others. It is also the concern of a market with multi religious
society where Muslim consumers and businesses dwell with followers of
other religions. This study explored possible unique perceptions, motives
and expectations from Malaysian Muslim respondents on Islamic base retails
tore outlets. Apparently, there are interesting perspectives that needs further
investigation to quantify the significant existence of unique Muslim
consumer’s’ expectations and hope in Islamic base retail store outlets.
References
Abu, N., & Roslin, R. (2008). Identifying Service Quality Dimensions By
Understanding Consumer Preferences In The Malaysian Grocery
Retail Sector. UniTAR e-Journal, 4(2), 57-67.
Abu, N. K. (2004). Service quality dimensions: a study on various sizes of
grocery retailers–a conceptual paper. Journal of Proceeding of IBBC
2004, 633-642.
Alhemoud. (2008). Shopping behavior of supermarket consumers in Kuwait.
Journal of Business & Economics Research, Vol 6(no 3).
Alserhan, B. (2010). On Islamic branding: brands as good deeds. Journal of
Islamic Marketing, 1(2), 101-106.
Arnold, S., Handelman, J., & Tigert, D. (1996). Organizational legitimacy
and retail store patronage. Journal of Business Research, 35(3), 229-
239.
Babin, B., Lee, Y., Kim, E., & Griffin, M. (2005). Modeling consumer
satisfaction and word-of-mouth: restaurant patronage in Korea.
Journal of Services Marketing, 19(3), 133-139.
Baker, J., Grewal, D., & Levy, M. (1992). An experimental approach to
making retail store environmental decisions. Journal of retailing, 68,
445-445.
Baker, J., Parasuraman, A., Grewal, D., & Voss, G. (2002). The influence of
multiple store environment cues on perceived merchandise value
and patronage intentions. Journal of Marketing, 66(2), 120-141.
Bellenger, D., & Moschis, G. (1981). A socialization model of retail
patronage. Advances in consumer research, 9(1), 372–378.
13
Bloemer, J., & de Ruyter, K. (1998). On the relationship between store
image, store satisfaction and store loyalty. European Journal of
Marketing, 32(5/6), 499-513.
Briesch, R. A., Chintagunta, P. K., & Fox, E. J. (2009). How does
assortment affect grocery store choice? Journal of Marketing
Research, 46(2), 176-189.
Dabholkar, P., Thorpe, D., & Rentz, J. (1996). A measure of service quality
for retail stores: scale development and validation. Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, 24(1), 3-16.
Darden Barry, J., & William, R. (1994). Exploring the concept of affective
quality: expanding the concept of retail personality. Journal of
Business Research, 29(2), 101-109.
Dick, A., & Basu, K. (1994). Customer loyalty: toward an integrated
conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 22(2), 99.
Doyle, P., & Fenwick, I. (1974). How store image affects shopping habits in
grocery chains. Journal of Retailing, 50(4), 39-52.
Fisk, G. (1961). A conceptual model for studying customer image. Journal
of Retailing, 37(4), 1-8.
Hansen, R., & Deutscher, T. (1977). An empirical investigation of attribute
importance in retail store selection. Journal of Retailing, 53(4), 59-
72.
Haron, S., Ahmad, N., & Planisek, S. (2005). Bank patronage factors of
Muslim and non-Muslim customers. International Journal of Bank
Marketing, 12(1), 32-40.
Hopkins, C. D., & Alford, B. L. (2001). A NEW SEVEN-DIMENSIONAL
APPROACH TO MEASURING THE RETAIL IMAGE
CONSTRUCT. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 5(2), 105.
Kasulis, J., & Lusch, R. (1981). Validating the retail store image concept.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 9(4), 419.
Kim, W., & Moon, Y. (2009). Customers' cognitive, emotional, and
actionable response to the servicescape: A test of the moderating
effect of the restaurant type. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 28(1), 144-156.
Kocturk, T. (2002). Food rules in the Koran. Scandinavian Journal of Food
& Nutrition, 46(3), 137-139.
Kunkel, J., & Berry, L. (1968). A behavioral conception of retail image. The
Journal of Marketing, 32(4), 21-27.
Lindquist, J. (1974). Meaning of image. Journal of Retailing, 50(4), 29-38.
Martineau, P. (1958). The personality of the retail store. Harvard business
review, 36(1), 47-55.
Mazursky, D., & Jacoby, J. (1986). Exploring the development of store
images. Journal of Retailing, 62(2), 145-165.
14
McDaniel, S., & Burnett, J. (1990). Consumer religiosity and retail store
evaluative criteria. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
18(2), 101-112.
Monroe, K., & Guiltinan, J. (1975). A path-analytic exploration of retail
patronage influences. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(1), 19-28.
Mort, G., & Hume, M. (2010). Understanding Service Quality From The
Islamic Customer Perspective Gita Gayatri, Chris Chan, Australian
National University.
Osman, M. (1993). A conceptual model of retail image influences on loyalty
patronage behaviour. The International Review of Retail,
Distribution and Consumer Research, 3(2), 133-148.
Pessemier, E. (1980). Store image and positioning. Journal of Retailing,
56(1), 94-106.
Peterson, R., & Balasubramanian, S. (2002). Retailing in the 21st century:
reflections and prologue to research. Journal of Retailing, 78(1), 9-
16.
Schiffman, L. G., Dash, J. F., & Dillon, W. R. (1977). The Contribution of
Store-Image Characteristics to Store-Type Choice. Journal of
Retailing, 53(2), 3.
Semeijn, J., Van Riel, A. C. R., & Ambrosini, A. (2004). Consumer
evaluations of store brands: effects of store image and product
attributes. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 11(4), 247-
258.
Solgaard, H. S., & Hansen, T. (2003). A hierarchical Bayes model of choice
between supermarket formats. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 10(3), 169-180.
Westbrook, R. (1981). Sources of consumer satisfaction with retail outlets.
Journal of Retailing, 57(3), 68-85.
15