Determination of Positioning Components in the Retail Market of Iran Market: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

Positioning is a marketing concept that outlines what a business should do to market its product or service to its customers. In positioning, the marketing department creates an image for the product based on its intended audience. This is created through the use of promotion, price, place and product. The purpose of this research was to determine the condition of positioning components in the retail market of Iran market. This research was mixed methods (qualitative & qualitative). For formulating the research theoretical model, by using academic sources, the papers, master and Ph.D thesis focusing on positioning of retail stores were considered in this section. In this regard, 16 domestic and 19 foreign studies were used as valid academic sources. Among 35 studies, only 25 studies were considered to provide benchmark table. In this research, data gathered through deep interviews with customers of selected public and private stores. Data analysis was done by using coding in MAXQDA software. Some quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS. V.16 software. Demographic characteristics of participants were such that approximately 20% of participants had diploma and associate degree, 48% had B.A and 32% had M.A and Ph.D. About 71% of participants were lower than 30 years old, 69% were 31 - 50 years old. 62% were married. Generally, from among three obtained variables, commodity (203), store (198) and personnel (47) have the highest importance for Iran’s retail store positioning, respectively.