Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies: The Case of Ghana’s Supermarket Chains (Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies) 3031116607, 9783031116605

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
About the Authors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1: Introduction to Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies: Ghana’s Supermarket Chains
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Contemporary Marketing and Practice
1.3 Retail Marketing
1.4 Emerging Market Countries and their Characteristics
1.5 Background and Context: Supermarket Expansion into Developing Economies
1.6 The Country Ghana
1.7 Individual Chapter Synopses
References
2: Modern Retail Marketing and Supermarket Loyalty Cards Programme
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Retail Industry
2.3 Grocery Retailing in Emerging Market Countries
2.4 Contemporary Retail Marketing in Supermarkets
2.5 Contemporary Retail Marketing Mix for Supermarkets
2.6 Retail Communication and Promotion
2.7 Retail Advertising
2.8 Retail Promotion
2.9 Retail Loyalty Marketing
2.10 Marketing in Emerging Economies Countries’ Supermarkets
2.11 Relationship Marketing and Supermarket Loyalty Programmes
2.12 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
3: The TESCO Club Card Loyalty Programme: The Gold Standard
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Marketing in TESCO (UK)
3.3 Customer Relationship Management—The Case of Tesco (UK)
3.4 Club Card Data-Driven Loyalty Programme
3.5 Macro Environmental Catalyst for Tesco Loyalty Programme Success
3.6 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
4: The Ghanaian Supermarket Industry
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The History of Supermarkets in Ghana
4.3 Colonial Era 1930–1950s
United Africa Company (UAC)
G.B. Ollivant (GBO)
John Holt & Co
Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO)
Société Commerciale de l’Ouest African (SCOA)
Paterson and Zonchonis (PZ)
Trading Origins in the Nineteenth Century
Public Offering in the 1950s
International Growth in the 1990s
Company Perspectives
Personal Care Focus for the New Century
Principal Subsidiaries
Principal Competitors
Union Trading Company (UTC)
Global Trading Evolution
4.4 The Independence era 1957–1967
Nestlé Ghana Limited
Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC)
4.5 Post- Nkrumah era 1968–1973
4.6 The Post Diversification Era 2000–2020
4.7 Major Players in Supermarkets Chains in Ghana
Melcom Stores
Palace Supermarket
MaxMart Limited
SPAR Supermarket
Shoprite Ghana
Shop n Save
GAME
4.8 Marketing in Supermarket Chains in Ghana
Current Trends in Marketing Practice
Major Trends in Marketing Practice
Future Marketing Practice
4.9 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
5: The Current Supermarket Chains Marketing Infrastructure in Ghana
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Location and Shop Floor Space
5.3 Internet Infrastructure for Supermarket Chains Marketing
5.4 Traditional Media
5.5 Radio Stations
5.6 Television Stations
5.7 Advertising Infrastructure
5.8 Ghana’s Digital Addressing System
5.9 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
6: The Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing in Ghana
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Emerging Supermarket Consumers
6.3 Emerging Supermarket Infrastructure
6.4 Retailer Consolidation and Internationalisation
6.5 Emerging Store Technologies and Their Impact on Grocery Retailing
6.6 Intelligent Technologies in Retail Marketing
6.7 Trends in Multi-Channel Retailing
6.8 The Emergence of Online Grocery Shopping
6.9 Customer Loyalty Programmes
6.10 The Use of Digital Addressing System (The GhanaPost GPS Address)
6.11 Grocery Retail Marketing and The Question of Customer Data in Ghana
6.12 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
7: Value Capture and Beneficiary Stakeholders of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Commercial Value of Supermarket Card-Based Databases
7.3 Use of Supermarket Databases by Marketing Agencies
7.4 Research and Pedagogical Value of Supermarket Card-Based Databases
7.5 Potential Beneficiary Versus Struggling Stakeholders of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing
7.6 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
8: Challenges, Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Strategies for Success of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Competitive Dynamics in the Future Retail Supermarket Chains Environment
8.3 Retail Supermarkets Corporate Goals Versus Public Interest and Livelihood Implications
8.4 The Changing Consumer Buying Culture and Supermarket—Supplier Relationships
8.5 Developing Strategies for Success
8.6 Sustainability in Retailing
8.7 Chapter Concluding Statement
References
Index

Citation preview

PALGRAVE STUDIES OF MARKETING IN EMERGING ECONOMIES

Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies The Case of Ghana’s Supermarket Chains David Eshun Yawson · Fred A. Yamoah

Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies

Series Editors

Robert E Hinson Ghana Communication Technology University Accra, Ghana Ogechi Adeola Pan-Atlantic University Lagos Business School Lagos, Nigeria

This book series focuses on contemporary themes in marketing and marketing management research in emerging markets and developing economies. Books in the series cover the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey), CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa); EAGLE economies (those which are expected to lead growth in the next ten years, such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, and Turkey) and all other African countries (classified under developing countries), taking into consideration the demographic, socio-cultural and macro-economic factors influencing consumer choices in these markets. The series synthesizes key subject areas in marketing, discuss marketing issues, processes, procedures and strategies across communities, regions and continents, and also the way digital innovation is changing the business landscape in emerging economies. Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies presents a unique opportunity to examine and discuss marketing strategy and its implications in emerging economies, thereby filling a gap in current marketing literature. All chapter submissions to the series will undergo a double blind peer review and all book proposals will undergo a single blind peer review.

David Eshun Yawson • Fred A. Yamoah

Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies The Case of Ghana’s Supermarket Chains

David Eshun Yawson GIMPA Business School, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Accra, Ghana

Fred A. Yamoah Birkbeck College University of London London, UK

ISSN 2730-5554     ISSN 2730-5562 (electronic) Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies ISBN 978-3-031-11660-5    ISBN 978-3-031-11661-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: 2AYCEKE / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Marketing practice in most industries within emerging market countries is at a stage where total and formal acceptance and understanding of the marketing concept is at an embryonic stage in the evolutionary process1 since the adoption of the western model of marketing that has almost replaced the undocumented marketing practice that predates European disruption in African business and commerce. However, western marketing as it is known and taught has been changing in theory and practised globally due to the application of technology.2 Indeed, it is common knowledge that enormous opportunities have been created by the internet and network access and availability. Additionally, the new opportunities availed by the geographic positioning system (GPS) and radio  Blankson, C., & Coffie, S. (2019). Branding and positioning in base of the pyramid markets in Africa: Innovative approaches. Routledge Studies in Marketing, Routledge. Owusu-Frimpong, N. (2001). An evaluation of marketing practices in banks in Ghana. Journal of African Business, 2(3), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1300/J156v02n03_05. 2  Lilien, G. L., Rangaswamy, A., & de Bruyn, A. (2017). Principles of marketing engineering and analytics (3rd ed.). State College, PA: Decision Pro, Inc. Rahate, S. W., & Shaikh, M. Z. (2016). Geo-fencing Infrastructure: Location Based Service. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 3(11), 1095–1098. Finkenzeller, K. (2003). RFID handbook: Fundamentals and applications in contactless smart cards and identification (2nd ed.). John Wiley and Sons. Blattberg, R. C., Glazer, R., & Little, J. D. C. (Eds.). (1994). The Marketing Information Revolution. Harvard Business School Press. 1

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frequency identification (RFID) technologies driven by an increasing middle class, provide an environment in emerging market economies to move into the next generation of marketing.3 These changes are sparingly reflected in marketing education in emerging markets as innovation in practice increases.4 Due to the evolutionary stage of the retail markets in emerging market countries, including Ghana the retrospective view of the contemporary marketing area of loyalty card programmes in retail marketing is yet to be captured. As the retail markets and identifiable industry structures develop in emerging markets,5 there is the need to document the evolution, identify the industry structures, innovation in marketing via technology like loyalty card systems, and project the developments in competition, effects on society and regulation regimes anticipated. The customer loyalty card is important as it is a major tool that enables retailers to collect critical data for targeted marketing strategies and to compete.6 Thus, the essence of this book. This book seeks to underscore that the presence of supermarkets in emerging economies is at the dawn of a retail market marketing  McBrearty, R. (2011). RFID enables breakthrough shopping experiences. Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), White Paper. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.cisco.com/c/ dam/en_us/about/ac79/docs/innov/RFID_Loyalty_IBSG_0614.pdf Humby, C., Hunt, T., & Philips, T. (2007). Scoring points; How TESCO continues to win customer loyalty. (2nd ed.). Brown, S. (1997). Revolution at the checkout counter. Wertheim Publications in Industrial Relations. Harvard University Press. 4  Lilien, G. L., Rangaswamy, A., & de Bruyn, A. (2017). Principles of Marketing Engineering and Analytics (3rd ed.). State College, PA: Decision Pro, Inc. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing management (15th ed.). Prentice Hall. 5  World Bank. (2008). World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development (p. 126). World Bank. 6  Felgate, M., Fearne, A., & di Falco, S. (2011). Analysing the impact of supermarket promotions: A case study using Tesco clubcard data in the UK. Kent Business School, University of Kent Working Paper Series No.23. Plimmer G. (2010, August). Scoring points: How Tesco continues to win customer loyalty. Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management, 9, 377–378. https://doi.org/10.1057/rpm.2010.17 Humby, C., Hunt, T. & Philips, T. (2007). Scoring points; How TESCO continues to win customer loyalty. (2nd ed.). Turner, J. J., & Wilson, K. (2006). Grocery loyalty: Tesco Clubcard and its impact on loyalty. British Food Journal, 108(11), 958–996. Burt, S. L., & Sparks, L. (2003). Power and competition in the UK Retail Grocery Market. British Journal of Management, 14(3), 237–254. 3

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revolution. It also aims to highlight the steady availability of infrastructure and technology (for example, digital addressing systems among others), a nexus that demonstrates a new electronic capability for more data collection, pursuing micro and macro-marketing strategies, and engaging in new competitive positions. The book explains the evolution of this new era of marketing and the associated impact on all stakeholders, especially consumers, smaller retailers, suppliers and primary producers in the host market. The central plank of this book is to use Ghana as an emerging economy to bring to the fore these developments. Ghana is selected because the current state of its supermarket retail environment, particularly the use of loyalty cards in marketing, can be used as a benchmark for other emerging markets countries experiencing the same trend. It is also to be used as a learning resource to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills of undergraduates, postgraduates, and marketing practitioners. This book is therefore for consumers, marketing practitioners, academics and students who want to understand the big changes in their shopping lives and marketing environment for marketing planning and strategy. Particularly, the emerging commercial, pedagogical and research value and opportunities espoused by these marketing innovation applications in the emerging market countries. Of special interest is to bridge the gap in knowledge sources that approach head-on modern retail industry to elucidate the nuances of contemporary marketing based on the business of supermarket retailers. The knowledge on this important subject amply reflected in the case of Ghana as a typical emerging market is detailed and presented in this work is envisaged to provide a helpful resource for marketing management studies in higher education. It will also serve as a useful reference resource for marketing practitioners in English-speaking emerging markets in the West Africa sub-region (Example: Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia). Ghana as an emerging market case fits the attributes of an economy experiencing a gradual but steady rise in the expansion of retail supermarkets with its attendant changes in competitive forces and implications for stakeholders within and outside the retail industry. Ghana is one of the leading economies in sub-Saharan Africa classified as an emerging market country by the World Bank, has its economy developed from a

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third-world country to a middle-income country status in the last two decades.7 This transition and evolution of its economic status have impacted the country’s economic activities, industrial expansion and foreign direct investment.8 One of such emerging industries that play a prominent role in the economy of Ghana is the supermarket retail industry, which has been known to grow as per capita income rises.9 This book documents the evolution of the supermarket retail industry by identifying the following key themes, activities, and initiatives: (1) industry structures, innovation in marketing particularly on technology innovations of the loyalty card system, (2) projecting and forecasting the developments in competition, and (3) to discuss in detail the effects of the changing role of retail supermarkets on society and regulation regimes anticipated. It is worthwhile to indicate that the supermarket customer loyalty card is driven by the evolving technology of the digital card alongside other factors such as the emerging increasing middle class in most urban cities seeking high-quality products in convenient locations. Thus, the retail supermarket loyalty card in the process has emerged as an important tool that enables retailers to collect critical data for segmentation and customer insight, product and category analysis and market analysis for a targeted marketing strategy to compete. Relevant keywords covered in the book include Contemporary marketing, Retail marketing, Customer Loyalty; Emerging Markets; Supermarkets; Loyalty Card; Customer Insight, Inclusive Competitiveness, and Sustainability in retailing. Accra, Ghana London, UK 

David E. Yawson Fred A. Yamoah

 World Bank Group. (2019). Economy Profile of Ghana. Doing Business 2020. World Bank.  World Bank. (2010). Ghana’s infrastructure: A continental perspective. World Bank. https:// openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27760 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. 9  World Bank. (2008). World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank. 7 8

Contents

1 I ntroduction to Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies: Ghana’s Supermarket Chains  1 2 M  odern Retail Marketing and Supermarket Loyalty Cards Programme 45 3 T  he TESCO Club Card Loyalty Programme: The Gold Standard 77 4 The Ghanaian Supermarket Industry 89 5 T  he Current Supermarket Chains Marketing Infrastructure in Ghana129 6 The Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing in Ghana149 7 V  alue Capture and Beneficiary Stakeholders of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing177

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8 C  hallenges, Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Strategies for Success of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing205 I ndex229

About the Authors

David Eshun Yawson, PhD  is a Senior Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Business School. He has academic specializations in marketing and agribusiness with research interest in marketing research, entrepreneurial marketing and capacity building among others. Dr Yawson holds a PhD in Marketing (University of Kent, UK), MBA in Food and Agribusiness (Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, U.K.) and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Agricultural Mechanisation) (University of Ghana, Ghana). He also has Postgraduate Certificates in Social Research Methods and Higher Education from the University of Kent, UK. Dr Yawson held Dunnhumby Scholar position for Food Northwest (UK) / the University of Kent (UK) where he worked with Food North West (Regional Food Agency) (UK), BusinessLink North West (Regional Business Development Agency, UK) and Centre for Value Chain Research of the University of Kent (UK) providing marketing and consumer insight to agribusiness SMEs in the North West Region of UK. Dr Yawson has extensive management experience in industry managing donor funded projects for United States Agency for International Development, (USAID/Ghana); SNVGhana (Netherlands Development Organization); GTZ (German Development Cooperation); ITC and Trade Facilitation Office of Canada.) for Ghanaian Non-Traditional Exporters (NTEs) in Ghana. As, xi

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About the Authors

a multi-disciplinary academic, he is currently the course creator and coordinator of the Practitioners Forum Courses for the GIMPA Business School. Dr Yawson has published in internationally ranked journals of repute. These journals include Computers in Human Behavior, Heliyon, Higher Education Pedagogies, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning and International Review of Management and Marketing. Dr Yawson also serve as a reviewer for international journals such as British Food Journal, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, Thunderbird International Business Review, Education Inquiry and Waste Management Journal. Fred A. Yamoah, PhD is a Reader in Sustainability at Birkbeck— University of London, UK with over 15 years of academic research experience and expertise in Sustainability, Marketing and Agribusiness, Sustainable Supply Chains, Circularity, Business Ethics, Sustainable Consumption and Food Security. He has experience of developing successful funded research projects at national and international levels. Fred has since 2013 been a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA) and he teaches Sustainability in the Food and Beverage Industry (Postgraduate) and Sustainability and Stakeholder Marketing (Undergraduate) levels respectively. Fred also serves as the Academic Board Chair for the MSc Marketing Online Programme. He Chairs the UN’s Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) at Birkbeck—University of London; Joint Chair—Marketing Subject Development in Charge of Research and Research Committee Member at Birkbeck. He is also an External Examiner at four UK Universities and three International Institutions. He has previously served as a Sustainability Expert Panel Member for the British Council’s Newton Fund Grant Review Panel, Commonwealth Scholarship Academic Adviser and African Academy of Sciences Post-Doctoral Grants Reviewer. Fred is currently a topic Editor ‘Sustainable Food’ for MDPI Sustainability Journal and Sustainability Co-Editor for the Annual Review of Social Partnership. Fred is also the Sustainability Track Chair for Academy of African Business and Development (AABD). He has numerous sustainability, business ethics, circular economy and sustainable consumption and ethical ­marketing-­related research papers rated as internationally excellent and

  About the Authors 

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world leading. These include publications in world ranked journals such as the European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, International Marketing Review, Journal of Environmental Management, Environmental Management, The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, British Food Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Computers in Human Behaviour and Journal of Cleaner Production. Associate Prof. Yamoah has gained national and international reputation for curriculum development and enrichment with impactful published outputs in Q1 rated education and pedagogy-related Journals such as Heliyon and Computers in Human Behaviour. He has made three significant chapter contributions including: ‘Willingness to Reduce Food Choice in Favour of Sustainable Alternatives’ in The Role of Government and Consumer Behaviour. Perspectives on Consumer Behaviour: Theoretical Aspects and Practical Applications, Springer, Cham (2020); ‘Sustainability in supply and value chain management’, in Incorporating Sustainability in Management Education—An Interdisciplinary Approach, Palgrave Macmillan (2019) and ‘Effective Decision-Making and Problem-­Solving’, in Developing Skills for Business Leadership, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2014).

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Administrative map of Ghana. (Source GSS, 2021a, p. ii) Fig. 1.2 Distribution of urban to rural population by region. (Source GSS, 2021a, p. 28) Fig. 1.3 GDP per CAPITA (US$) Data from world bank national accounts data, and OECD national accounts data files Fig. 8.1 Three spheres of sustainability. (Source: Żak, 2015,p. 253)

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Types of marketing classified by marketing exchange dimensions5 Table 1.2 Types of marketing classified by managerial dimensions 6 Table 1.3 Excerpts on the pre ‘take-off’ and take-off and rapid spread of supermarkets in developing countries 12 Table 4.1 Characteristics of companies in the survey 122 Table 4.2 Variations in marketing types in the Top 6 supermarket chains in Ghana 123 Table 4.3 Ranking of major marketing trends occurring in the supermarket industry in Ghana by respondents 125 Table 4.4 Ranking of major changes in marketing occurring in the supermarket industry in Ghana by respondents 126 Table 5.1 Penetration rates (%) (teledensity) of communication services in Ghana 131 Table 5.2 Service providers in operation in Ghana 132 Table 5.3 Total subscriptions of internet and mobile telephone services132 Table 5.4 Voice, data and SMS traffic in Ghana 133 Table 5.5 Traditional media service providers in operation in Ghana 134 Table 5.6 Summary statistics of FM stations in Ghana by regions and classification (2021) 136 Table 5.7 List of authorised TV stations in Ghana as of 2021 139

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List of Tables

Table 7.1 Comparison of supermarket loyalty cards of major retailers in Ghana with the Tesco Clubcard Table 7.2 Sample research utilizing retail supermarket data for analysis Table 8.1 Developing and using sustainability indicators in the retailing industry

188 193 222

1 Introduction to Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies: Ghana’s Supermarket Chains

1.1 Introduction Marketing over the decades has evolved with the current contemporary environment requiring and demanding a contemporary approach to marketing practice and complimenting the multidisciplinary domain of theory. The evolving business environment, the raging information and technology revolutions, as well as the enabling global competition, poses new challenges to industries and businesses. In the contemporary environment, marketing literature has acknowledged major changes in marketing with the shift from the traditional focus on gaining customers to ways of retaining existing customers. There are other angles and persuasions within modern marketing that emanates from the hitherto perceived externalities that were viewed by the industry as unintended purposes of marketing—the unenviable unsustainability of modern marketing practice. This domain shift has been known as contemporary marketing and delineated as comprising ‘relationship marketing’ (Brodie

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_1

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et al., 1997; Coviello et al., 1997) and by extension sustainability marketing. Brings into focus the concepts of ‘transaction marketing’ or ‘conventional marketing’, ‘relationship marketing’ and ‘sustainability marketing’. Even though these phenomena have been perceived as global, in this book, we present these phenomena in contemporary retail marketing in the retail Supermarket Chains in an emerging economy brazing for competition and development.

1.2 Contemporary Marketing and Practice Marketing has evolved with its meaning first defined as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create an exchange, and satisfy individual and organisational objectives” (American Marketing Association (AMA), 1985) to the definition of “Managing profitable customer relationships” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013, p. 26). Thus, marketing has to be understood in the new sense of satisfying customer needs and defined as “the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013, p. 29). This led to Gronroos’s (1990) definition of the purpose of marketing in this context as “to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the partners involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfilment of promises”. This new paradigm in marketing has been referred to as relationship marketing by seminal extant literature (Aijo, 1996; Gummesson, 1995; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995; Gronroos, 1994; Houston et al. 1992; Christopher et al. 1991; Gronroos, 1990). Coviello et al. (1997) argue that the broad definition given to relationship marketing makes it incorporate everything from database management to personalised service, brand loyalty, internal marketing, personal/social relationships, loyalty programmes and strategic alliances for which Gummesson (1994) referred to it as an approach based on the concepts of relationships, networks and interactions and the term been used as a catch-all phrase.

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Coviello et al. (1997) therefore developed a classification of four distinct types of marketing for use in the contemporary marketing environment. These are Transactional Marketing, Database Marketing, Interaction Marketing and Network Marketing. Lindgreen et al. (2004) later added e-Marketing in their conceptualisation. This apart from clarifying the term “contemporary marketing”, also provided some structure in the use of the term and its relationships with other marketing. • Transactional Marketing: This involves a firm attracting and satisfying potential buyers by managing the elements in the marketing mix and also requires firms to create discrete economic transactions. However, these transactions can continue over time but could be treated in isolation in the context of a formal business process. At the managerial level transaction marketing involves four operational functions product development, pricing, promotion and distribution. • Database Marketing: This type of marketing is perceived to be a form of relational marketing and involves information and technologybased tools employed for marketing. The focus is still seen as being on the market transaction but involves economic and information exchange with the intention to retain customers over time. Thus, it is a tool or technique used by marketers to develop and manage longterm relationships (Coviello et al., 1997). • Interaction Marketing: This type of marketing involves face-to-face interaction in relationships of the firm with the customers. It occurs at the individual level where personal contacts are made, bargaining and information exchange are carried out, and individual relationships are established (Coviello et al., 1997, p. 513). Coviello et al. (1997, p. 514) argue that an “interaction-based relationship (in this context) is different from a simple long-term relationship in that: (i) it involves negotiation and therefore joint planning; (ii) the focus of the exchange is expanded to include continuous value creation for all parties involved; and (iii) it involves reciprocal rather than sequential interdependence” • Network Marketing: This type of marketing focus is on multiple networked relationships between firms and customers and is related to the network in marketing. These include direct relationships with custom-

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ers, distributors and suppliers making it a set of connected relationships. Thus, marketing becomes the creation and maintenance of the network. • e-Marketing: This type of marketing is also known as digital marketing, internet marketing online marketing or web marketing. In this type of marketing services or products are marketed through the use of the internet or emails. Lindgreen et al. (2004) sourcing from Coviello et al. (2001) and Coviello et al. (1997) summarised the types of the contemporary marketing types with the themes of transaction marketing and relationship marketing to illustrate the relationships by the marketing exchange in Table 1.1 and their managerial dimensions in Table 1.2. They posit that the importance of the scheme is that it does not place distinct boundaries between the types of marketing comprising contemporary marketing. This illustrates the dimensions of contemporary marketing delineated in the work.

1.3 Retail Marketing Retail marketing is not a new discipline, but it is a branch of marketing that has consistently evolved as a direct response to the changing trends within the macro and micro business environment. Out of the five wellknown macro-environmental factors—political, economic, social, legal and technological, the latter has become a critical driver behind the myriads of programmes, projects and activities undertaken by retailers to create awareness and promote patronage for their products and services. Indeed, marketing practice in most industries within emerging market countries is at a stage where total and formal acceptance and understanding of the western marketing concept is at an embryonic stage in the evolutionary process (Blankson & Coffie, 2019; Owusu-Frimpong, 2001). This has been the trend since the adoption of the western model of marketing that has almost replaced the undocumented marketing practice that predates European encounters and interaction with African

Economic transaction

Discrete (yet, perhaps over time)

Formal

Duration of exchange

Formality in exchange

Type: Interaction marketing

Information-­ Interpersonal generating dialogue relationships between a seller and between a buyer many identified and seller buyers Firm “to” Firm using technology Individuals “with” targeted to communicate with individuals (across segment or and among many organizations) individuals individuals (who may form groups) Personalised (yet Interactive (via Face-to-face, distant) technology) interpersonal (close, based on commitment, trust and co-operation) Discrete and over Continuous (but Continuous (ongoing time (occasional interactivity occurs in and mutually yet personalised) real-time) adaptive, may be short or long term) Formal (yet Formal (yet Formal and informal personalised via customized and/or (i,e. both at a technology) personalised via business and social interactive level). technology)

Information and economic transaction

Source: Lindgreen et al. (2004, p. 679)

Arms-length, impersonal

Type of contact

Nature of Firm “to” communication mass market.

Purpose of exchange

Type: Database marketing

Type: Transaction marketing Type: e-Marketing

Relational perspective

Transactional perspective

Table 1.1  Types of marketing classified by marketing exchange dimensions

Continuous (stable yet dynamic, may be short or long term) Formal and informal (i.e. both at a business and social level).

Impersonal— interpersonal (ranging from distant to close).

Firms “with” firms (involving individuals)

Connected relationships between firms

Type: Network marketing

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Customer attraction (to satisfy the customer at a profit)

Product or brand

Managerial focus

Product/brand and customers (in a targeted market)

Customer retention (to satisfy the customer, increase profit, and attain other objectives, such as increased loyalty, and decreased customer risk)

Type: Database marketing

Type: Transaction marketing

Managerial intent

Relational perspective

Transactional perspective

Managing IT-enabled relationships between the firm and many individuals

Creation of IT-enabled dialogue

Relationships between individuals

Interaction (to establish, develop, and facilitate a co-operative relationship for mutual benefit)

Type: Interaction Type: e-Marketing marketing

Table 1.2  Types of marketing classified by managerial dimensions

Co-ordination (interaction between sellers, buyers, and other parties across multiple firms for mutual benefit, resource exchange, market access etc.) Connected relationships between firms (in a network)

Type: Network marketing

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Source: Lindgreen et al. (2004, p. 680)

Functional marketers Specialist marketers (e.g. sales manager, (e.g. customer product service manager, development loyalty manager) manager).

Managerial level

Internal marketing assets (emphasizing communication, information, and technology capabilities)

Internal marketing assets (focusing on product/service, price, distribution, and promotion capabilities)

Type: Database marketing

Type: Transaction marketing

Managerial investment

Relational perspective

Transactional perspective Type: Network marketing

Internal External market External market operational assets (focusing assets (focusing assets (IT, on establishing on developing website, and developing the firm’s logistics); a relationship position in a functional with another network of systems individual) firms). integration. Marketing Employees and Senior manager specialists (with) managers (from technology across functions specialists, and levels in the senior firm) managers.

Type: Interaction Type: e-Marketing marketing

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business and commerce from the late fifteenth century. However, western marketing as is known and taught has been changing in theory and practice globally due to the application of technology (Lilien et al., 2017; Rahate & Shaikh, 2016; Finkenzeller, 2003; Blattberg et al., 1994). It is commonly known that enormous opportunities have been created by the internet and network access and availability. Additionally, the new opportunities availed by the geographic positioning system (GPS) and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies driven by an increasing middle class, provide an environment in emerging market economies to move into the next generation of marketing (McBrearty, 2011; Humby et al., 2007; Brown, 1997). An interesting and impactful innovation within supermarket retailing is the customer loyalty card which has served as an important tool that enables retailers to collect critical data for targeted marketing strategies and to compete in national and global markets (Felgate et al., 2011; Plimmer, 2010; Humby et al., 2007; Turner, & Wilson, 2006; Burt & Sparks, 2003). These changes are sparingly reflected in marketing education in emerging markets as innovation in practice increases (Lilien et al., 2017; Kotler and Keller, 2016). As the retail markets and identifiable industry structures develop in emerging markets (World Bank, 2008, p. 126), there is the need to document the evolution, identify the industry structures, innovation in marketing via technology like loyalty card systems, and project the developments in competition, effects on society and regulation regimes anticipated. Marketing over the decades has evolved with the current contemporary environment requiring and demanding a contemporary approach to marketing practice and complimenting the domain of theory. The rapidly changing business environment, the growing pull of information and technological developments and innovations, and the enabling business environment for global competition present a new challenge to global and local companies and the industries they operate within. In the modern business environment, marketing literature attests to the massive changes taking place and the novel dynamics it presents to marketing researchers and practitioners across the global business ecosystem. Integral to these changes is the realisation of the strategic shift of marketing focus

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from the traditional disposition to attract more customers over time to rather undertaking customer retention strategies that have taken hold over the past three decades. This domain shift has been recognised and referred to as contemporary marketing and delineated as comprising ‘relationship marketing’ (Brodie et al., 1997). Brings into focus the concepts of ‘transaction marketing’ or ‘conventional marketing’, ‘relationship marketing’ and the emerging area of ‘Sustainability Marketing’. Even though these phenomena have been perceived as global, in this book, we present these phenomena in contemporary retail marketing in the retail Supermarket Chains in an emerging economy brazing for competition and development.

1.4 Emerging Market Countries and their Characteristics The literature defines an “emerging economy” (or an emerging country or an emerging market) as a market that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not fully meet its standards (MSCI, 2014). In a nutshell, an emerging market economy (EME) is a nation with an economy with low to middle per capita income that is showing all the traits of moving towards becoming a developed one in the due course. Also, emerging market economies can be said to be transitioning from a closed market system to an open market system while developing economic reform programmes. Ghana is classified alongside other countries exhibiting similar economic attributes across the world, with notable examples in the same category such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Thailand. In SubSahara Africa, Ghana has emerged as a leading emerging economy. Countries in this category are characterised as having gradual integration with the Global Marketplace and with other members of the Global Emerging Market (GEM), an expanding middle class, improving standards of living, social stability, and tolerance, as well as an increase in cooperation with multilateral institutions (Kvint, 2009). Literature has it

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that these countries are experiencing rapid informationalization under conditions of limited or partial industrialization. These characteristics have a different impact on the opportunities and pressures for domestic firms to innovate and improve their competitive positions based on the unique demographic, sociocultural and socio-economic context. Supermarkets in emerging economies are at the dawn of a retail market marketing revolution. There is a steady progressive availability of infrastructure and technology (e.g., digital addressing systems etc), a nexus that demonstrates a new electronic capability for more data collection, pursuing micro and macro-marketing strategies, and engaging in new competitive positions. Therefore, the evolution of this new era of marketing and the associated impact on all stakeholders especially consumers is explained and explored for its value, benefits and challenges. Ghana is an emerging country whose supermarket retail environment has developed to a level that sets it up as an interesting case study to explore modern retail marketing dynamics in a developing economy. Of special interest is the use of loyalty cards in marketing, which can be used as a benchmark for other emerging markets countries experiencing the same trend.

1.5 Background and Context: Supermarket Expansion into Developing Economies Comparable to other technology-driven new products and services across the world the rise of supermarkets in developing countries has been phenomenal. The story about supermarkets’ rapid rise in developing economies has been recounted severally but the works of 1) Thomas Reardon, Spencer Henson and Julio Berdegue on “Proactive fast-tracking” diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade’ and 2) Thomas Reardon, Peter Timmer and Julio Berdegue on ‘The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets in Developing Countries: Induced Organizational, Institutional, and Technological Change in Agrifood Systems’ both provide lucid and interesting background information on the landmark phases of the rise and the key factors the spurred

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the expansion. Excerpts from these two important works are presented below for background and context to this part of the chapter in Table 1.3. Reardon et al. (2007) Classified the phases of spread into two—Pre‘take-off’ and Take-off and Rapid spread eras and provided a typology of the direction of the spread into spreading of supermarkets (1) over developing regions and countries, (2) over space and socioeconomic groups within a country and (3) over product markets by category. Reardon et al. (2007) further asserted that part of the reasons for the ‘Take-off and Rapid spread period of supermarkets in developing countries included the ‘demand-side factors’ such as the diffusion of refrigerators and cheap motorized vehicles, which they described as a key feature of post-import liberalization and domestic manufactures growth) and improved road and transport infrastructure with vehicles and transporters, all have collectively inured to better access to consumer segments receptive to the offering of supermarkets in terms of product variety and convenience of shopping. They further argued that the demand side factors mentioned earlier are relevant but not sufficient to explain the dramatic expansion of supermarkets into developing countries. Based on a critical review of the existing literature they cite the barrage of ‘retail foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries facilitated by a major policy change towards investment liberalization, mainly in the 1990s but in some countries in the early 2000s’ was a critical and significant driver behind the dramatic spread of supermarkets into developing regions of the world. The study further contends that retail foreign direct investment (FDI) into developing countries coupled with ‘push factors, including saturated retail markets and planning restrictions on retail locations as well as low margins in home countries, and pull factors including higher returns, relatively light competition and good prospects due to the demand-side factors noted earlier’ made developing countries super attractive for such investments (see, Reardon et al., 2007, p. 402). Regarding the spread of supermarkets over developing regions and countries, over space and socioeconomic groups within a country and product markets by category, cardinal statements recounted below were made to justify this assertion:

Take-off and rapid spread period of the spread of supermarkets

In terms of timing of the spread Reardon et al. (2007) Unlike and a sharp contrary to the predictions in the pre- ‘takeindicate that ‘some three decades after the birth of the off’ research work, ‘supermarket development abruptly and supermarket sector in Western Europe and the United spectacularly took off in the early to mid-­1990s’. Following States, supermarkets emerged in developing regions of and monitoring an exponential growth curve and diffusing in Latin America, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and in several waves of supermarket diffusion over developing many parts of Africa -North, East, South and West Africa). regions of the globe, the spread of supermarkets can best be Reardon et al. (2007) further pointed out that in the period described as dramatic and of exponential proportions over a from the 1950s to 1980s, the extant early research on the relatively short period. spread of supermarkets into developing countries To give clear meaning to the dramatic change observed in the including the works of Holton (1953), Galbraith and spread of supermarkets Reardon et al. (2007) draw on the Holton (1965), Goldman (1974). ‘concept of ‘punctuated equilibrium’, by citing Gould and Findlay et al., 1990) who studies and monitored the Eldredge who introduced the terminology into mainstream supermarket sector development and spread posited that studies on the phenomenon of evolutionary trends (Gould ‘the rise of supermarkets in developing countries was and Eldredge, 1977), and indicated that the ‘notion that there occurring at a very slow pace, and this revolved around are often long evolutionary equilibria, suddenly domestic chains in particular, and the expansion was also punctuated by sharp and extremely active periods of rapid limited to ‘small pockets of upper-income consumers in evolution, seems relevant large cities.’

Pre-‘take-off’ period of the spread of supermarkets

Table 1.3  Excerpts on the pre ‘take-off’ and take-off and rapid spread of supermarkets in developing countries

12  D. E. Yawson and F. A. Yamoah

To explain the proposition of the slow pace of the spread, here to describe the supermarket revolution in developing the studies referred to above indicated that ‘the little countries. growth that was observed was attributed to ‘demand According to Reardon et al. (2007, p. 401) ‘Coe (2004) describes sides’ factors such as rising incomes, urbanization, and the this ‘take-off’ as unprecedented in terms of ‘sheer rapidity’, rising opportunity costs of women’s time to shop.’ scale and development impact. Some business management/ Instructively, Goldman (1974) intimated that the marketing research literature sensed the early tremors of this ‘supermarket’s consumer ‘outreach’ was so limited retail earthquake in the mid-1990s, as noted in Alexander because all, but a small group of rich consumers just (1997). The recognition of these changes as a full-fledged found it too costly, relative to their meagre incomes, to ‘take-off’ did not occur until a spate of papers in the 2000s— pay supermarket prices, pay for transport, break daily such as Wrigley (2000) and Coe (2004) among economic shopping habits or buy in bulk and be unable to store geographers, Reardon and Berdegue´ (2002), Reardon et al. perishables without refrigerators.’ These identified (2003a) among agricultural economists and Dawson and Lee limitations of supermarkets were explained by Goldman (2004) among marketing researchers.’ according to Reardon et al. (2007) to promoters and They further state that ‘Post ‘take-off’ models of the diffusion academic researchers in the 1960s and 1970s that were of supermarkets, such as Wrigley (2000) and Reardon et al. described as ‘hopeful’—that the hopeful spread of (2003b) note that the demand-side determinants of supermarkets into developing countries will be a ‘means supermarket diffusion that were identified in the pre- ‘take-­ of increasing food market efficiency by lowering food off’ literature, such as urbanization and income growth, have prices to the urban poor.’ proceeded apace.’

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1. Spread of supermarkets over developing regions and countries Reardon et al. (2007, pp. 403–404): “The spread of supermarkets has and is taking place in three established waves. A fourth wave is also currently emerging. The ‘first wave’ countries experienced supermarket-sector take-off in the early to mid-1990s. These countries include much of South America and East Asia outside China (and Japan), Northern-Central Europe and the Baltics and South Africa. In these countries, the average share of supermarkets in food retail went from roughly only 10–20% in 1990 to 50–60% on average by the early 2000s. Compare that to the roughly 75–80% share of food retail that supermarkets had by 2005 in the United States and Western Europe, and one sees a process of convergence. Country-specific examples include frontrunners where the supermarket ‘take-off’ started in the early 1990s, as in Argentina with a 60% supermarket share of food retail in 2002, Brazil with 75% in 2002, Taiwan with 55% in 2003 and the Czech Republic with 55% in 2003. These first-wave countries saw supermarket diffusion in a single decade that took some five decades in the United States and the United Kingdom.” “There is a second set of countries perched at the ‘tail end’ of this first wave, with their supermarket ‘take-off’ in the mid-1990s. Examples include Costa Rica and Chile with circa 50% in 2001, South Korea with 50% in 2003, Philippines and Thailand with approximately 50% each in 2003, and South Africa with 55% in 2001.” “The second-wave countries include Mexico and much of Southeast Asia, Central America and Southern-Central Europe. In these areas, the share went from circa 5–10% in 1990 to 30–50% by the early 2000s, with the ‘take-off’ occurring in the mid to late 1990s. Specific examples include Mexico with a 56% share of supermarkets in total retail in 2003, Ecuador with 40% in 2003 (Alarcon, 2003), Colombia with a 47% share in 2003, Guatemala with a 36% share in 2002, Indonesia with a 30% share in 2001 and Bulgaria with a 25% share in 2003. The third-wave countries include countries where the supermarket revolution ‘takeoff’ started only in the late 1990s or early 2000s, reaching about 10–20% of national food retail sales by circa 2003–2004. These areas include parts of Africa, such as Kenya with 20% of urban retail sales, some countries in Central and South America, such as Nicaragua with a 20% share, Peru and Bolivia, and Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, China, India and Russia.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Henson, S., & Berdegué, J. (2007). ‘Proactive fast-tracking ’diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(4), 399–431.

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2. Spread of supermarkets over space and socioeconomic groups within a country and product markets by category Reardon et al. (2007, pp. 403–404): “The reasons for this spatial diffusion strategy associated with supermarket development in developing countries, as noted in interviews with chain managers are as follows. First, analogous to what foreign chains see as the attraction of expanding into developing countries in general, competition is relatively weak and profit rates are relatively high in rural towns relative to urban centres. Second, rural towns represent both their own demand base and draw in large numbers of countryside families who buy mostly processed foods and staples. and the South Africa case. This is doubtless facilitated further by substantial commuting of rural workers between the countryside and rural towns for daily work. [For example, half of rural nonfarm income comes from such commuting in rural Chile. Thirdly, in the retail ‘war’, chains are forced to occupy as much territory and as fast as possible to forestall the geographical penetration of their competitors; a ‘pied a` terre’ in a rural town, given fast rates of urbanization, can become a solid position in a small tertiary city a decade later. Fourthly, in many regions there are returning migrants seeking the kind of retail experience they had during their time in urban areas and thus there is demand-pull for rural retail investment. Finally, and which may appear odd to an urban reader, supermarkets and malls in small cities or towns can be major ‘tourist attractions’ where families spend the day or even weekend. “For example, one Argentine chain makes entertainment for rural families a major feature of its outlets in those areas. Moreover, as modern retail spreads, there tends to be format diversification to facilitate the spatial and consumer segment differentiation. For example, to penetrate the markets of inner cities and small towns where space is limited and product assortment can be narrower, chains use discount stores, convenience stores and small supermarkets. A typical example is shown in Mexico: Wal-mart and Soriana have recently been opening small format supermarkets in smaller towns. To penetrate suburbs and large cities where transportation is available, chains use large supermarket and hypermarket formats. Zoning regulations of course condition these choices; for example, Tesco has been opening small-­format ‘city centre’ stores in downtown Bangkok where it cannot open hypermarkets. Chains also open small, focused ‘hard discount’ stores and convenience formats to compete on price with traditional neighbourhood shops. A typical example is that of the southern Indian supermarket chain Trinethra, who in October 2006 opened a chain of Trinethra Quick Shop, selling the 3000 products (or more specifically shop keeping units— SKUs) that represent 70–80% of its supermarket sales. This format is larger (continued)

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(continued) than a convenience store in assortment, but smaller than a supermarket and can focus on inner-city settings where traditional shops dominate.” “Finally, controlling for the pattern of spatial diffusion, there are similar waves of diffusion over socioeconomic groups cum consumer segments. Obeying the same business logic as in spatial diffusion, supermarkets focus first on upper-­income consumer segments (national and expatriate). They then move into the middle class and finally into the markets of the urban poor. Note that the penetration rates beyond the initial core of a chain’s operation (notably large city upper-income segments) depend on several inter-related factors, namely: (i) the wave—the more advanced the general penetration, the broader the diffusion, (ii) the degree of procurement system modernization of the leading chains—hence cost reduction which can be passed on, while maintaining profits, into price reductions to win over poorer consumers and (iii) the product category—with broader diffusion in processed product retail, second in semi-processed and last in fresh products. Thus, for example, the typical small store of the Lianhua chain, operating in the small towns in the hinterland of Zhejiang in China (hence a first wave internal zone in a third wave country), carries cheap dry goods for poor consumers, but no produce, while a Carrefour hypermarket in Shanghai carries a full line of fresh products that would rival its stores in Paris.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Henson, S., & Berdegué, J. (2007). ‘Proactive fast-tracking ’diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(4), 399–431.

3. Spread of supermarkets over product markets by category Reardon et al. (2007, pp. 403–404)

“The average growth rates in supermarket retail sales reported earlier mask significant inter-product variation in market penetration. The first wave of product penetration is typically in processed foods (including canned, dry and packaged items such as rice, noodles and edible oils). This is due to the existence of significant economies of scale in procurement as well as direct relations with processed food manufacturers. Typical of many developing countries, in China supermarkets very quickly took over staples and packaged food retail in the top 60 cities in the late 1990s to early 2000s. This mirrored a similar evolution in Hong Kong in the 1980s and in Argentina in the 1980s and 1990s.” (continued)

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(continued) “The second wave is in semi-processed foods with extensive or minimal processing (such as dairy products) and minimal processing/packing (such as chicken, pork, beef and fruit). Supermarket chains again have advantages over traditional food retail stores and wet market operators due to economies of scale and relations with major processors and packers.” “The third (product market) wave is by far the slowest and the longest in being established in developing countries: supermarket dominance of vegetable markets, and in particular leafy vegetables. Historically, this was also the case in the United States, where supermarkets very slowly replaced fruit shops and green/wet markets (where consumers had traditionally done daily shopping) over the period 1920 to the 1960s. The same is true in France, where the supermarket share of retail food sales was 80% in 1997 but the share of fruit and vegetables sales was only 61%. However, supermarkets had only accounted for 35% of retail sales of fruit and vegetables in 1971; thus, their share nearly doubled in only three decades, a major shift in a country where it was assumed that modern retail would …never…penetrate the traditional, culturally cherished produce retail system. A rough rule of thumb emerging from empirical studies is that the share of supermarkets in fresh produce retail markets is lower than its share in overall food retail, and that this gap closes as the latter rises. For instance, the share of supermarkets in fresh produce retail in Guatemala is about 10% where their share in overall food retail is about 35%, hence the market penetration rate for produce is one-third of overall food market penetration. By contrast, the shares of overall retail food sales and fruit and vegetables are 56% and 25%, respectively in Mexico and 75% versus 50%, respectively in Brazil. Hence, at earlier stages of supermarket development, the freshness, convenience and lower cost of small produce shops and wet markets tend to dominate retail markets for fresh produce. However, this changes over time as supermarkets modernize vegetable procurement (see subsequently), imitate wet markets in marketing techniques and make gains in commodity vegetables. ……there is evidence from a large ACNielsen consumer survey in Asia that younger consumers are forsaking wet markets and ACNielsen posits that, in less than a generation, fresh produce buyers will be substantially more supermarket-oriented, which will accelerate effects of the ‘supermarket revolution’ on the horticultural sector.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Henson, S., & Berdegué, J. (2007). ‘Proactive fast-tracking ’diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: implications for market institutions and trade. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(4), 399–431.

The work of Thomas Reardon, Peter Timmer and Julio Berdegue on the rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries approached the subject of organisational, institutional and technological change in agrifood systems. It is poignant to note that these changes were described as

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‘induced’. The study precisely summarised the situation as follows: The food retail sector in developing regions has witnessed dramatic transformation recently and this has happened alongside extended “consolidation and multi-nationalization of the supermarket sector”. As a result of such an organisational change, the sector is experiencing intense competition, and this has intended fostered ‘changes in the organization of procurement systems of supermarket chains, toward centralized and regionalized systems, use of specialized/dedicated wholesalers and preferred supplier systems, and demanding, private quality standards’ (Reardon et al., 2004. p. 15). Another resultant feature of this phenomenon is the increasing rise of the use of contracts between supermarkets and agrifood producers in these regions to cover the provision of services and provision for risk management, as well as requirements for demanding quality and safety attributes, which require substantial investment in technological change and ‘upgrading’ at the producer level.’ The study covered supermarkets’ transforming procurement systems and identified ‘four pillars’ as key determinants of change in supermarket procurement systems that have driven the rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries. The four pillars covered were: (1) Toward centralization and regionalization of procurement, (2) Shift toward the use of specialized wholesalers and logistics firms, (3) Toward preferred supplier systems and (4) The rise of private standards. Excerpts on these four (4) pillars of key determinants of change in supermarket procurement systems that have driven the rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries are presented for context in the boxes below: The first pillar of change: Toward centralization and regionalization of procurement “There is a trend toward centralization of procurement (per chain). As the number of stores in each supermarket chain grows, there is a tendency to shift from a per-store procurement system to a distribution centre serving several stores in a given zone, district, country, or a given region (which may cover several countries). This is accompanied by fewer procurement officers and increased use of centralized warehouses. Additionally, increased levels of centralization may also occur in the procurement decision-making process and in the physical produce distribution processes. Centralization increases efficiency of procurement by reducing coordina(continued)

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(continued) tion and other transaction costs, although it may increase transport costs by extra movement of the actual products.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Timmer, C. P., & Berdegué, J. A. (2004). The rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries: induced organizational, institutional, and technological change in agrifood systems. eJADE: Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 1(853-2016-56108), 168–183. The second pillar of change: Shift toward use of specialized wholesalers and logistics firms “There is growing use of specialized/dedicated wholesalers. They are specialized in a product category and dedicated to the supermarket sector as their main clients. The changes in supplier logistics have moved supermarket chains toward new intermediaries, side-stepping or transforming the traditional wholesale system. The supermarkets are increasingly working with specialized wholesalers, dedicated to and capable of meeting their specific needs. These specialized wholesalers cut transaction and search costs and enforce private standards and contracts on behalf of the supermarkets. The emergence and operation of the specialized wholesalers has promoted convergence, in terms of players and product standards, between the export and the domestic food markets. Moreover, there is emerging evidence that when supermarket chains source imported produce, they tend to do so mainly via specialized importers. For example, hypermarkets in China tend to work with specialized importers/wholesalers of fruit, who in turn sell nearly half of their imported products to supermarket chains. Similarly, Hortifruti functions as the buying arm of most stores of the main supermarket chain in Central America, as does Freshmark for Shoprite in Africa.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Timmer, C. P., & Berdegué, J. A. (2004). The rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries: induced organizational, institutional, and technological change in agrifood systems. eJADE: Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 1(853-2016-56108), 168–183. Third pillar: Toward preferred supplier systems “Many supermarket chains are undertaking institutional innovation by establishing contracts with their suppliers—in particular via their dedicated, specialized wholesalers’ managing a preferred supplier system for them. This trend is similar to that in agroprocessing during the past decade. The contract is established when the retailer (via their wholesaler or directly) “lists” a supplier. That listing is an informal (usually) but effective contract4—in which delisting carries some cost, tangible or intangible. We have observed such contracts in all the regions under study. Contracts serve as incentives to the suppliers to stay with the buyer and over time make investments in assets (such as learning and equipment) specific to the retailer specifications regarding the products. The retailers are assured of on-time delivery and the delivery of products with desired quality attributes.” (continued)

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(continued) Excerpts from Reardon, T., Timmer, C. P., & Berdegué, J. A. (2004). The rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries: induced organizational, institutional, and technological change in agrifood systems. eJADE: Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 1(853-2016-56108), 168–183. The fourth pillar: The rise of private standards “While food retailing in these regions previously operated in the informal market, with little use of certifications and standards, the emerging trend indicates a rapid rise in the implementation of private standards in the supermarket sector (and other modern food industry sectors such as medium/large scale food manufactures and foodservice chains). The rise of private standards for quality and safety of food products, and the increasing importance of the enforcement of (otherwise virtually not enforced) public standards, is a crucial aspect of the imposition of product requirements in the procurement systems. In general, these standards function as instruments of coordination of supply chains by standardizing product requirements over suppliers, who may cover many regions or countries. Standards specify and harmonize the product and delivery attributes, thereby enhancing efficiency and lowering transaction costs. In turn, the implementation of these standards depends crucially on the establishment of the new procurement system organization noted in the three pillars.” Excerpts from Reardon, T., Timmer, C. P., & Berdegué, J. A. (2004). The rapid rise of supermarkets in developing countries: induced organizational, institutional, and technological change in agrifood systems. eJADE: Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, 1(853-2016-56108), 168–183.

1.6 The Country Ghana Ghana is an emerging market country that has its economy developing from a third world country to a lower-­middle-­income country (World Bank, 2019). This has made Ghana a leading emerging economy country in Sub- Saharan Africa. Ghana is an emerging market country located in West Africa, on the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by the republics of Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), Togo and Burkina Faso. It covers a geographic land area of 238,539 km2, with a current population estimated at 30.8 million (Five times that of the 1960 population) and a population growth rate of 2.1% with a mean population density of 129 persons/km2 (GSS, 2021a). The country is currently made up of 16 administrative regions with Accra

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as the capital situated in the Greater Accra Region on the coastal belt in the southern part of the country with a population of 5.46 million (See map in Fig. 1.1). Generally, 43.3% of the population live in rural areas

Fig. 1.1  Administrative map of Ghana. (Source GSS, 2021a, p. ii)

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D. E. Yawson and F. A. Yamoah % urban

% Rural

Ghana

56.7

Greater Accra

91.7

8.3

Ashanti

61.6

38.4

43.3

Bono

58.6

41.4

Central

57.9

42.1

Bono East

52.6

47.4

Western

51.6

48.4

Eastern

51.5

48.5

Ahafo

48.7

51.3

Northern

47.4

52.6

Volta

42.1

57.9

Oti

32.6

67.4

North East

32.6

67.4

Western North

29.8

70.2

Savannah

29.6

70.4

Upper West

26.4

73.6

Upper East

25.4

0.0

74.6 10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0 Percent

Fig. 1.2  Distribution of urban to rural population by region. (Source GSS, 2021a, p. 28)

and 56.7% in urban areas, respectively. These are further distributed regionally as the Ashanti region has a population of 5.44 million with the second largest city Kumasi. Ahafo—0.56 million; Bono—1.21 million; Bono East—1.20 million; Oti—0.75 million; Northern—2.31 million; Savannah—0.65 million; North East—0.66 million; Upper East—1.30 million; Upper West—0.90 million; Western—2.06 million; Central—2.86 million; Volta—1.66 million; Eastern—2.93 million and Western North—0.88 million (See Fig. 1.2). From the Ghana Population and Housing Census (GSS, 2021a), males constitute 49.3 per cent and females 50.7 per cent of the population indicating a sex ratio of 98 males to every 100 females. Also, in almost all the regions, the proportion of females is higher than males with the exception of the Western North Region. However, for lower age groups

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(0–4 years and 5–9 years) there are higher proportions of males than females (GSS, 2021b). In comparison, children under 15 years account for 35.3 per cent of the population while persons 65 years and older constitute 4.3 per cent. This reveals a lower top structured population and a dependency ratio of about 66. This implies that there are 66 persons in the dependent age bracket (children 0–14 years and the elderly 65+ years) for every 100 persons in the working-age bracket (15–64 years). With a national average of 4.3 per cent of 65 years and above. The proportions are higher in six regions than the national average: Volta (6.8%), Upper East (6.3%), Eastern (5.7%), Upper West (5.3%), Central (4.6%) and Bono (4.5%). Also, six out of 10 persons (60.4%—18,619,021) are 15–64 years. In six regions, the proportions are higher than the national average: Greater Accra (66.5%), Western (62.2%), Ashanti (61.4%), Bono (61.3%), Western North (60.8) and Eastern (60.6%). The proportion of children (0–14 years) in the rural areas (39.1%) is higher than in urban areas (32.4%) and Greater Accra (30.0%). The Greater Accra region has a proportion of children (0–14 years) in the rural areas of 36.6% to 29.4% in the urban areas. Generally, Ghana’s population age structure is transitioning from one dominated by children (0–14 years) to one dominated by young people (15–35 years). The proportion of children declined from 41.3 per cent in 2000 to 35.3 per cent in 2021, while that of young people increased from 34.6 per cent in 2000 to 38.2 per cent in 2021 (GSS, 2021b). The transitioning of the population from children to young people is evident in all regions and urban areas. In urban areas, Greater Accra depicts the most pronounced transition while in rural areas across all the regions, the transition is yet to occur (GSS, 2021b). Besides, the country has 8.37 million households, with about 1,702,160 households in the Greater Accra region (GSS, 2021a). The mean household size is 3.6 and the average household sizes higher than the national average are in the northern parts of the country. These regions are Bono East (4.1); Oti (4.2); Northern (5.2); Savannah (4.9); North East (6.0); Upper East (4.8) and Upper West (4.6). Generally, the rural household size of 4.0 is larger than the urban of 3.3 respectively. Also, the North East has the highest mean household size of 6.0, while

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Greater Accra (3.2) and Eastern (3.2) regions have the least (GSS, 2021a). Additionally, a higher proportion of households are headed by males (69.5%) than females (30.5%). The proportion of male-headed households is highest in rural savannah (83.6%) but lowest in rural coastal (61.9%). The proportion of female-headed households is higher in rural coastal (38.1%) than in all other localities, with the least (16.4%) in rural savannah. The proportion of households with at least one adult of each sex together and one or more children is 49.7 per cent. Also, 6.9 per cent of households contain one female adult living with one or more children compared to 0.8 per cent of their male adult counterparts. The percentage of households containing one male adult without children (13.7%) is much higher than the corresponding percentage of households containing one female adult without children (6.6%). The proportion of households without children but with one male adult (13.7%) is higher than those with one female adult (6.6%). Also, about one-fifth of the total households have children living with only their mother while about three per cent (2.7%) of the households have children living with only their father. The rural savannah zone (67.4%) has the highest proportion of households which have both parents present followed by rural forest (48.2%), other urban (39.3%) and Accra (39.2%) (GLSS7, 2019). About the workforce, the economically active population is 11.5 million which is 58.1 of persons above 15 years and older, of which 9.9 million are employed and 1.5 million are unemployed (GSS, 2021c). Also, for the segment of the population above 15 years and older, 50.3% are employed nationally, 50.2% living in urban areas are employed and 50.4% in rural areas are employed. For the unemployment statistics, 7.8% nationally are unemployed, 8.5% living in urban areas are unemployed and 7.0% living in rural areas are unemployed (GSS, 2021c). Also, nationally 41.9% are outside the labour force, and in the urban areas, 41.5% are outside the labour and 42.6% are in the rural areas outside the labour force (GSS, 2021c). In addition, 8.4%, of employed persons 15 years and older are professionals, of which four in five are in urban areas, and three in five are youth (15–35 years). Also, 32.0% of the employed population of 15 years and older are engaged in skilled agricultural, fisheries and forestry, 26.5% in services and sales and 16.1% in

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craft and related trades (GSS, 2021c). Also, 21.3% of the employed are engaged in the wholesale and retail trade sub-sector and only 11.9% in the manufacturing sub-­sector (GLSS7, 2019). In this evolution of “informationalization”, demographic, socio-cultural and socio-economic factors have an impact on the country’s economy and industries (World Bank, 2010). One of such industries is the supermarket retail industry, which has been known to grow as per capita income raises (World Bank, 2008). Ghana a lower-­middle-­income country, there has been a gradual increase in the GDP per capita income from 402.06 (USD) in 1980 to 2205.53 (USD) in 2020. This increase is in line with the general increase in GDP per capita in countries in Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE—26 countries, stretching from the Red Sea in the North to the Cape of Good Hope in the South), Africa Western and Central (AFW—22 countries, stretching from the westernmost point of Africa, across the equator, and partly along the Atlantic Ocean till the Republic of Congo in the South), Lower middle-income countries (LMC—lower-middle-income economies are those in which 2020 GNI per capita was between $1,046 and $4,095) and Least developed countries (UN Classification) as shown in Fig. 1.3.

USD ($)

GDP PER CAPITA (CURRENT US$) 12000.00 10000.00 8000.00 6000.00 4000.00 2000.00 0.00

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

YEAR Africa Eastern and Southern AFE

Africa Western and Central AFW

Ghana GHA

Least developed countries: UN classification LDC

Lower middle income LMC

Fig. 1.3  GDP per CAPITA (US$) Data from world bank national accounts data, and OECD national accounts data files

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1.7 Individual Chapter Synopses The book places emphasis on the nature of twenty-first century retail marketing and supermarket loyalty cards programme from global and emerging markets contexts; highlights a sample gold standard of loyalty card programme; elucidates today’s supermarket chains infrastructure; and projects into the future generation of retail marketing in emerging markets using the lenses of commercial, pedagogical and research value, competitive dynamics, and potential challenges. The book is an important addition to business and management scholarship and a learning resource to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills of undergraduates, postgraduates, marketing practitioners, consumers and academics. This chapter introduces the book by informing readers of the emerging generation of supermarket marketing in an emerging market country (Taylor, 2017; Cap Gemini, 2007; World Bank, 2008; Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003). Defining and delineating the area of study of the volume. The chapter does this by presenting an introduction to the retail industry and narrowing it down to the supermarket retail industry. The chapter ends by discussing the nuances of emerging market retailing (i.e., global supply chains, global sourcing and wholesale importation of products) (McBrearty, 2011; Humby et al., 2007; Amanor, 2009; Brown, 1997) and the forces of change and responses to these changes. Chapter 2 focuses on modern retail marketing and supermarket loyalty cards programme from emerging economy markets’ perspectives. It is an audacious novel attempt at a discourse on supermarket loyalty programmes in emerging market countries by first discussing marketing in retail markets (Goworek, & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013, pp. 529–556). This first stage is followed by a critical attempt to describe the distinctive attributes of marketing in supermarkets that makes them unique in the context of emerging markets (McBrearty, R. 2011; Mauri, 2003; Seth & Randall, 1999). The chapter then presents the nuances of the emerging markets that make them significant economies with a peculiar retail marketing environment that appears to attract supermarkets (Klemz et al., 2006; Wagner & Fillis, 2005). Afterwards, there is a section

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that engages supermarket loyalty programmes (Plimmer, 2010; Markey et al., 2007; Stone et al., 2004; Divett et al., 2003; Evans, 1999) and their role in marketing (Credrola & Memmo, 2010; Bird, 1991; Byrom, 2001). The final stage of the chapter focuses on a discussion on the role of supermarket loyalty cards in retail marking (Mauri, 2003; Cortinas et al., 2008; Wirtz et al., 2007; Tao & Yeh, 2003), especially in small businesses (Donnelly et al., 2012; Wagner & Fillis, 2005), as well as medium and large businesses (Humby et al., 2007; Liu, 2007; Wirtz et al., 2007). In summary Chap. 2 presents new knowledge and insight on the application of loyalty supermarket cards programmes in the context of emerging markets and their contextualisation. The next Chap. 3 presents and discusses a famous and successful loyalty card programme that is termed the gold standard—the TESCO Club Card. It is so themed by authors as a gold standard because it is employed as a relevant benchmark and a reference point and a template for loyalty programmes for the next generation supermarket retail marketing in emerging economies like Ghana. This chapter commences with a discussion on the TESCO Club card, a customer loyalty card of the leading UK supermarket retailer with a history of customer loyalty programmes from the 1940s (Burt et al., 2010; Seth & Randall, 1999). The current customer loyalty card was launched in 1995 (Plimmer, 2010) and has been re-launched in 2018 with contactless cards, with improvements in technology and rewards to partners (Gausden, 2019). The chapter further highlights the key attributes of this loyalty card programme inter alia: (a) it has the cutting-edge technology, making it one of the most used for customer insight (Berkhout, 2015; Humby et al., 2007), and (b) well researched as a strategic marketing competitive instrument (Anstead et al., 2008; Turner & Wilson, 2006; Humby et al., 2007) and (c) delivering the rewards to all stakeholders (Plimmer, 2010; Cacciolatti et al., 2009). For context, the chapter emphasises that the loyalty programme is operating in one of the world’s competitive supermarket environments (Burt et al., 2010; Harris & Ogbonna, 2001; Seth & Randall, 1999) and its success makes it a global standard (Berkhout, 2015; Humby et al., 2007). This chapter provides the reader with the future and ultimate features and applications of industry practice and the utility of a customer

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loyalty programme card. It further describes the marketing of the UK retailer, the customer loyalty programme, and the TESCO Club Card. Chapter 4 introduces the emerging economy market context—the Ghanaian retail supermarket industry. The chapter opens with a discussion on the Ghanaian retail supermarket industry. This serves the dual purpose of understanding the current state of the retail industry as well provide a background of the retail industry as a case study. The chapter then engages on the subject of marketing practices in the Ghanaian retail industry (Blankson & Omar, 2002). This section is followed by a detailed delineation of the antecedents and the major drivers of the evolution of the retail supermarket industry in Ghana (Taylor, 2017; Slater & Olson, 2002). The section further identifies and highlights the nature and core attributes of the major supermarket chains and other relevant actors within the emerging retail marketing sector. This scoping stage is subjected to an industry analysis using the Porters’ industry analysis (Grant, 1991; Porter, 1980) that is presented in annotated tables with commentary. The chapter furthermore provides a detailed discussion on the structural changes in the retail industry (Duke, 1992) to serve as a background for the next generation of marketing in the retail supermarket industry (Glazer, 1991). This stage of Chap. 4 also includes the classification and categorization of players/actors (primary and secondary) in the retail supermarket industry, with an additional nuance of supermarkets and operators classified as importers in developing and middle-income countries. The contemporary retail supermarket chain infrastructure is comprehensively covered in Chap. 5. The chapter discusses the current infrastructure for marketing in the emerging market country using Ghana as a case study. This critical discussion on Ghana’s retail supermarket chain infrastructure begins with the options and possibilities made available by the internet, with online shopping as an alternative to traditional shopping. After the coverage of the opportunities engendered via the availability and accessibility of the internet and other online facilities for online shopping and marketing, the chapter focuses attention on digital marketing and opportunities for online marketing (Barker et al., 2017; Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016; Hemann & Burbary, 2013). This

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discussion covers the scope and the expanded alternatives for marketing away from the traditional formats before online infrastructure for retail supermarkets. The authors provide relevant information on the commercial attractiveness of the availability of RFID based applications which are currently cheaper and accessible for retail supermarket chains (Finkenzeller, 2003) in emerging market countries. This section further highlights the general availability of internet networks and mobile phone applications (Kotler et al., 2017; Evans, 1999; Blattberg et al., 1994; Robins, 1993) and the potential of the newly introduced digital addressing systems for retail marketing in an emerging market. This chapter concludes by discussing the apparent and emerging possibilities of Ghana’s use of the digital addressing system in supermarkets for geofencing marketing (Statler, 2016) and customer segmentation (Wedel & Kamaura, 1999). The chapter will be partitioned into an introduction, the internet and its opportunities, traditional Media, and the GhanaPost Digital Address System. Chapter 6 also covers another important subject matter on the evolution of retail marketing in the emerging market under the heading of ‘The Next Generation of supermarket marketing’. This chapter seamlessly brings the retail marketing and the emerging infrastructure for marketing in Ghana together to serve as a foundational block for the discussion on the Next Generation of supermarket marketing. It presents the developments in consumer loyalty programmes, specifically the applications of the electronic contactless cards (Gausden, 2019; Felgate et al., 2011; Florin et al., 2007; Ziliani & Bellini, 2004b; Bryom et al., 2001). The chapter also broaches the emerging initiatives in developing and harvesting customer insights (Hemann & Burbary, 2013; Badgett & Stone, 2005; Boussofiane, 1996; Blattberg et al., 1994; Davies, 1998); the application of the GhanaPost GPS Addresses in supermarket marketing (Statler, 2016), ownership and regulation on customer data (Robertshaw & Marr, 2006; Nowak & Phelps, 1997) and ends with developing the knowledge discovery in supermarket customer databases (Gilchrist et al., 2012; Greenyer, 2006; Ziliani & Bellini, 2004a; Porter & Miller, 1995; Turner, 1991; Newman & Lockeman, 1975). The last section of the chapter covers an introduction, customer loyalty programme, customer

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insight, the use of a digital addressing system (the Ghanapost GPS Address) and retail digital marketing. This section addresses the question of customer data in Ghana and knowledge discovery in supermarket customer databases for competitive advantage. The next chapter—seven treats an important factor of relevance beyond the traditional profitability imperative of making a business case to include pedagogical and research value of supermarket card-based databases in Ghana. The first section of Chap. 7 highlights the potential value of the Next Generation of supermarket marketing from the triple angles of commercial, pedagogical and research value of supermarket card-based databases in Ghana. The authors present a narrative on the Tesco Club Card (UK example) and Melcom Supermarket Card (Ghana Case) databases to highlight their relative unique attributes, similarities, and differences between the two cases of developed versus emerging economy market data characteristics. Additionally, Chapter 7 presents the commercial, pedagogical and research value of supermarket cardbased databases that can be derived as the industry evolves and makes use of the technology and infrastructure available as a case study for emerging market countries. The chapter categorises supermarket card database uses into socio-demographic profiling of consumers, marketing agencies, the teaching of marketing and research in Higher Education Institutions. These utilities are illustrated with the literature of studies using supermarket data and the novelty of this will be in the application to the Ghanaian supermarket retail market, which is dearth and sparse in structured information on consumers. The authors took a cue from the line of enquiry followed by key studies such as Yamoah et al. (2014), Plimmer (2010), and Stone et al. (2007) to undertake socio-demographic profiling of consumers. The literature reflection covered includes socio-demographic profiling of consumers, drawing on Mark’s (1996) supermarket data classification of shoppers by their trip behaviour. The authors further draw on Gonzaleez-Benito et al. (2008) deployment of store-level data for latent segmentation of shoppers as well as Allaway’s et al. (2006) use of data to derive and explore the behaviour of consumer segments. Additional literature sources employed

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were Humby et al. (2007) to create multi-layered segments to derive consumer insight. Secondly, Chapter 7 presents the classification of the target group as studies or enquiries suitable for marketing agencies, as the application of the supermarket databases is employed in studies that provide market research and consultancy type of output for the supermarket or third parties. In the area of supermarket database deployment, Guadagni and Little (1983) in earlier studies calibrated the brand choice of shoppers based on supermarket data. This was advanced by Blattberg et al. (1994)’s work on marketing information. Their work delineated, developed, and shaped this area of study brings to the fore the importance of market information and supermarket data (scanner data). Some selected studies drawn on in this area are Fader and McAlister’s (1990) modelling of consumer response to promotions, Cotterill (1994)’s call for supermarket data as new opportunities for demand and competitive analysis, Bucklin and Gupta’s (1999) study on the commercial use of supermarket data, and Broniarczyk et al. (1998) on consumer perceptions on assortment offered in grocery category. Also, referred to and adapted for this section of Chap. 7 were Russell and Kumakura (1994) for using the data for understanding brand competition, Montgomery (1997) for creating micro-marketing pricing strategies, Van Heerde et al. (2000) in the estimation of pre and post promotion dips in supermarket retail marketing promotion. Furthermore, this section of Chap. 7 captured for application Berne’s et al. (2004) use of the data for brand choice analysis, Torrisi et al. (2006) to analyze table wine demand, Gilchrist et al. (2012) for knowledge discovery for competitive advantage and Yamoah et al. (2014) to identify who buys fairtrade products in the UK. Another section of this chapter presents the third category of relevant strands of studies, which is for teaching and research in Higher Education Institutions. Some of the studies overlap in the categories we have mentioned. Therefore, in addition to the studies in the previous category, earlier studies referred to in this category explored the use of supermarket data with Bucklin’s (1966) work on testing the propensities to shop in focus in this section of the chapter. The section also reflected on Capps’s (1989) use of the loyalty card data to estimate retail demand functions for

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meat products, followed by Bucklin and Lattin’s (1992) usage of the database in the modelling of product category competition among grocery retailers, Neslin et al. (1994) proposition for a research agenda for supermarket data, as well as Cotterill (1994) advocate for the use of supermarket data as new opportunities for demand and competitive strategy analysis. Additional literature references captured in the chapter are Mayhew and Winer (1992) who used supermarket data to analyse reference prices, Gupta et al. (1996) that explored the use of the supermarket data on inferences of brand choice, Stiving and Winer (1997) exploiting the use of the data for empirical analysis of price endings, and Sparks and Wagner (2003) for reiterating supermarket data as a research agenda. Another study reflected on in this chapter was Martinez—Ruiz et al. (2006) who employed the data to understand price promotions were also covered. Furthermore, references were made to the study of Cortinas et al. (2007) that used supermarket data for analysing price and discount sensitivity in the brand choice decision as well as Gauri et al. (2008) that employed the data in the analysis of price search insights and Donnelly et al. (2015) for using the data in exploring small business information use. There is also a final segment on potential winners and losers in the next generation of supermarket marketing as new (supermarkets) and existing stakeholders attempt to attain stability and maintain or acquire competitive positioning in the emerging retail market. This part discusses the fallouts from the evolution of the supermarket retail industry. As the players and stakeholders evolve to compete in the market, there will be a need for the application of technology in-store and in the supply chain management (Bourlakis & Weightman, 2004). The chapter highlights the point that competition is anticipated to increase (Burt & Sparks, 2003) and within the context of the fiercely competitive environment, the impact of promotions and customer loyalty may not increase (Purdie, 1996; Gupt, 1988). Furthermore, the authors’ emphasis in this chapter is to provide insights to highlight the viewpoint that industry players will also engage in a steep learning curve in competitive strategies in the emerging industry environment (Sinkula, 1994). Notable areas covered by the subsequent sections of Chap. 7 comprised the following: the need

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for new supplier development strategies (Wagner, 2006) and an improvement in supermarket retail industry regulation. The inclusion of local suppliers and smallholder producers into the supply chains of the industry (Amanor, 2009; World Bank, 2008) is also clearly highlighted. This is followed directly by a critical coverage of the general impact of the evolved competitive supermarket retail marketing on consumers and society. The chapter covers the systematically competitive impact on suppliers, independent retail outlets, manufacturers, small scale suppliers (Smallholder farmers) of groceries and importers (for emerging market countries). The final chapter presents a reflection on identified challenges, paradoxes and dilemmas of the Next Generation of Supermarkets marketing and possible remedies and strategies for success. Chapter 8 discusses the anticipated challenges due to the evolution of the industry. The whole chapter is devoted to critical analysis and discussion of emerging challenges paradoxes and dilemmas that the retail industry stakeholders are likely to contend with. This section is specifically focused on the future challenges that the development of the supermarket chains will have on the Ghanaian society as a case study for emerging market countries. The chapter coverage is structured as followed: (1) An exposition on competition in the supermarket chains market (Sparks, 2008; Burt & Sparks, 2003; Clarke et al., 2002; Slater & Olson, 2002; Hughes, 1999); (2) the changes envisaged in consumers buying culture and behaviour (Office of Fair Trade, 2005; Stone et al., 2004; Freidberg, 2003a, b); (3) possible regulation and policy interventions to manage the expanding scope and power of retail supermarkets in emerging market countries like Ghana (Competition Commission Report, 2000; Hughes, 2001; Wrigley, 1991); 4) local smallholder supplier engagement (Wrigley et al., 2009; World Bank, 2008; Reynolds, 2002) and (5) developing strategies for success (Fernie, 2004; Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003). The last section of Chap. 8 provides a summary and a concluding statement that encapsulates the evolution of retail marketing in emerging markets, driven mainly by an improved information technology infrastructure that has engendered a strong supermarket loyalty card programme prospect, with its attendant benefits and challenges.

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2 Modern Retail Marketing and Supermarket Loyalty Cards Programme

2.1 Introduction Retailing encompasses the business activities involved in selling goods and services to consumers for their personal, family, or household use (Berman & Evans, 2013, p.  4). The term ‘retailing’ is thought to be derived from the old French word ‘retailler’ which means ‘a piece of ’ or ‘to cut up’ (Brown, 1992). Gilbert (2003, p. 6) defined retailing as any business that directs its marketing efforts towards satisfying the final consumer based upon the organization of selling goods and services as a means of distribution. Retailing is the last stage in the distribution process. In addition, the retail structure is perceived as a macro concept and conceptualized as the complex of outlets through which goods and services move to the ultimate consumer. This positioning makes it an ever-changing and dynamic area of study, as consumer needs and lifestyles keep changing to produce a complex system and industry. Thus, modern retailing constitutes a complex system of retail distribution targeting a complex changing consumer with changing lifestyles, demography, and psycho-­social, economic and cultural characteristics.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_2

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2.2 The Retail Industry The global annual retailing sales are projected to be $ 23.6 trillion in 2018 and increase to $26.7 trillion by 2022 (Statista.com, 2020) and still growing. In Ghana, retail sales increased by 52.6 per cent (year-on-year) to GH¢131.41 million (USD 23.45 million) in 2020, from the GH¢86.10 million (USD 16.56 million) recorded in 2019. Also, retail sales went up cumulatively by 47.5 per cent over the first eleven months of 2020 to GH¢1021.63 million (USD 182.43 million) from GH¢692.68 million (USD million 133.2) during the same period in 2019 an increase largely attributed to an increase in household consumption (Bank of Ghana, 2021). The definition of retailing makes it part of every industry and sector. Therefore, there are retailing sectors in the automobile industry for motor vehicles and part dealers; electronics, appliances, furniture, home furnishing, building materials and hardware, and rentals in the building and real estate industry. In the services sector, retail banking in the banking and finance industry; and retailing in the telecommunications industry. In nondurable goods and services, retailing is seen in the food and beverages industry; health and personal care in the health sector; clothing and accessories in the fashion industry; retailing of sporting equipment and services in the sports industry; retailing of fuel in the energy industry; retailing of books and music in the education and leisure industries; and retailing of accommodation, food and drinks in the hospitality and tourism industries. These are just but a few to illustrate the transcending nature of retailing. The global Retailing Industry can be classified by sophistication in the United States, the United Kingdom, European, and Asia and varying degrees of sophistication in the Emerging Market Economies (Dobson et  al., 2003; Gilbert, 2003; Seth & Randall, 1999; Mason & Mayer, 1990). Based on sales of the top global retailers, United States retailers account for 47.7 per cent. Also, 43 of the top 100 global retailers are headquartered in the United States, 12 of the top 100 retailers in the United Kingdom (UK) and 9 each in France, Germany and Japan (Coughlan et al., 2013). There are several characteristics for classifying retailers which are the breadth and depth of their product lines, the

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amount of service they offer, how they are organised and the relative prices they charge among others (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Mason and Mayer (1990) present a typology of classification for retailing organisations to aid in analysing their impact on the economy. This classification consists of two main parts, the descriptive classifications and the strategic classifications. Under the descriptive classifications, retail facilities are categorised by: (a) type of ownership; (b) type of merchandise carried; (c) location; (d) size of the trade area and (e) Nonstore (direct). The “nonstore” (direct) category has now grown and is enabled by technology to include the online channels which are emerging as a major driving channel in the retail industry. The strategic classifications categories are: (a) margin/turnover; (b) Retail price / service strategy; (c) strategic group; and (d) gross margin merchandise type. This classification also relates to the strategic sophistication and that traditionally most of the indigenous retailing organisations in emerging countries have been based on location, retail price/ services strategy and type of merchandise carried. Multinational organisations are more sophisticated and operate with more sophisticated strategies including internationalisation. Also, under the type of ownership, retailing facilities have been sub-categorised into: (a) manufacturer-owned; (b) government-owned; (c) farmer-owned; (d) public utility-owned; and (e) consumer-owned. In most emerging countries, especially countries with long histories of colonisation, modern retailing is not new but a continuation of their pre-colonial retailing in new formats Ghana is included (Oteng-Ababio & Arthur, 2015). The pre-colonial retailing was generally manufacturer-owned organisation driven. However, after independence, most of the governments of the former colonies set up government-owned retailing organisations of which some have remained, and others have been taken over and restructured into other organisations. Ghana’s experience is discussed in detail in Chap. 4. The type of merchandise carried classification has been the more prominent differentiating factor from the pre-colonial era to the contemporary era. This can also be attributed to the visibility of merchandise to customers and in most emerging markets where the traditional markets remain the main markets for consumers most retailers focus and weave the merchandise type, they carry as part of their strategy (Blankson et al.,

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2018; Meng et al., 2014). Type of merchandise carried is a cardinal classification in retailing as this classification also carries with it two important concepts in retailing termed variety and assortment. Thus, in retailing the size, location and merchandising methods used are determined by the lines of merchandise they carry (Berman & Evans, 2013; Mason & Mayer, 1990). The term variety refers to the number of lines of merchandise carried and assortment refers to the choice of products offered within a line of products. These terms give rise to the classification of retailers with a high variety of lines of products referred to as “variety stores”. Also, retailers with a broad variety and deep assortment of products have been referred to as “department stores”. These stores carry merchandise lines usually, clothing, household goods, and home furnishings and each line are operated as a separate department managed by specialist merchandisers (Berman & Evans, 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Department stores are currently have been taken over by other larger store types and are facing more competition from more focused and flexible speciality stores, and more efficient discounters with lower prices. These classifications have been distinct in the postcolonial era of most emerging market countries including Ghana. In these classifications, retailers with short width of merchandise line (variety) and a high number of choices (assortment) are classified as “speciality stores”. They carry a narrow merchandise line such as apparel, sporting goods, furniture, flowers and books. Thus, a clothing store is categorised as a single-­line store, a men’s clothing store as a limited-line store and a men’s customer-shirt store as a superspeciality store (Berman & Evans, 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Also, those with large width of merchandise line (variety) and a low number of choices (assortment) are classified as “discount stores” (Cox & Brittain, 2004). They usually carry standard merchandise sold at lower prices with lower margins and higher volumes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). These classifications of the store though may have existed before pre-independence for most emerging countries are viewed as “foreign” and emerging store concepts in emerging markets including Ghana. Again, location is another important concept and classification in retailing as its nature and characteristics have very important implications for retailing (Cox & Brittain, 2004; Brown, 1993; Davies & Rogers, 1984). First, the number of location sites of a retailer is used as a

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classification of retail chains and non-chains or independents. This classification is important to this work as we seek to write about retail chains. In most emerging market countries, the concept of shopping centres as malls are now emerging. The concept of “high streets” is still prevalent, and with that, shops are located on selected streets to make a concentration of independent shops. The mall concept described major retail centres as retail trading areas with “anchor tenants”—which are primary customer-­attracting full department stores serving as an attractive force for the retailing area. Retailing malls are known to attract customers from larger areas (even over an hour’s drive) (Mason & Mayer, 1990). Secondly, the type of sites is another classification. Retailers could be classified by their outlet in the city centre, urban areas of the city, sub-urban, central business areas, regional capitals, metropolitan and districts. These locations can further be classified into planned and unplanned areas, communities, neighbourhoods and solo locations (Berman & Evans, 2013; Coughlan et  al., 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Retailing in most emerging countries especially Ghana is still dominated by small independent and convenience shops and their importance is greater in the periurban and smaller cities outside the capital. Most of them serve as the main outlets for processed food, household goods and FMCG (FastMoving Consumer Goods) for the catchment areas. The convenience stores category consists of relatively small stores located near residential areas carrying a limited line of fast-moving consumer goods at slightly higher prices. They usually open for long hours seven days a week (Berman & Evans, 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Also, some of these independent outlets serve as agents or distributors for manufacturers of FMCG (i.e., Uniliver Ghana, Nestle Ghana, etc), telecommunication companies’ data and mobile money services (i.e., MTN, AirtelTigo, Vodaphone, Glo) and other local importers and manufacturers. In addition to these categories of classification of store types, Kotler and Armstrong (2013) further provide more clarification on some popular major retailer store types: The Supermarket store type has become the most popular and frequently shopped type of retail store. This shop format is relatively large (with an average minimum store size of 10,000 square feet) have a low margin from usually low-cost merchandise lines and operates with high volumes (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Bennison

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et al., 1995). These store types have self-service to serve all the consumer’s needs for grocery and household products. This store type operated by retailers as chains have taken over the retail industry globally and have become an important format in the internationalisation of foreign retailers in emerging market countries (Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003; Reardon et al., 2003; Goldman, 2001). Retailers’ initial deployment of these store type outlets gave them competitive advantages (Cox & Brittain, 2004; Davies & Rogers, 1984) and made this store type the most important type and a category name. Thus, in most emerging markets most retail outlets are referred to as “Supermarkets”. This colloquial stems from the development of the chain stores concept and where the usually the first stores are set up and developed as supermarkets. Then other outlets even though are not the same store type are still termed “supermarkets” by customers. Furthermore, the Supermarket retail store type has been impacted by the important factors of location and size in retailing (Bennison et al., 1995) resulting in the development of “Superstores” and “Supercentres” (“Hypermarkets”) as emerging store types (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). Superstores are categorised as very large stores (usually more than 27,000 square feet) (Bennison et al., 1995) traditionally aimed at meeting consumers’ total needs for routinely purchased food and non-food products. Also, “Supercentres” are combined supermarket stores, discount stores and giant speciality stores that carry a very deep assortment in a particular category. These are emerging store types in most emerging economies as most countries revisit the era of department stores as introduced in the colonies and during the pre-independence eras. Thus, some studies perceive this emerging era as a “supermarket revolution” (Nickanor et al., 2021; Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003; Reardon & Gulati, 2008) whiles others perceive it as a continuity after a discontinuity (Oteng-Ababio & Arthur, 2015). In addition to these emerging store type concepts, the chain stores concept provides added advantages over independently-owned stores. These advantages include the increased aggregate size of operations of the retailers. Therefore, allowing them to buy in larger quantities at lower prices and gain promotional economies of scale (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013). It also follows that they can then hire specialists to work on

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specialised areas in their operations such as buying, merchandising, pricing, and inventory control using cutting-edge applications. Globally, most retailers operate as independents and the emerging countries are not excluded. This is a special characteristic of emerging market retailing. However, with the success of corporate retailers, more independent retailers are forming retail chains such as corporate chains, retailer cooperative chains, voluntary chains, merchandising conglomerates and franchise organisation chains. The literature (Berman & Evans, 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Cox & Brittain, 2004; Mason & Mayer, 1990) describes them as (1) Corporate chains—two or more outlets that come under one ownership and control. These are visible in all types of retailing and are very common in department stores, drug stores and food stores. It is also among speciality stores such as shoe stores and men’s and women’s clothing stores. (2) Retailer cooperative chains—these are chains formed by a group of independent retailers who set up central buying and promotions operations. (3) Voluntary chains—these are a wholesaler–sponsored groups of independent retailers engaged in group merchandising and buying. (4) Merchandising conglomerates—these are free-form corporations that deal in several diversified retailing lines all under one central ownership and management with whole or part integration of their distribution. (5) Franchise organisation chains—these are organisations with a contractual association between a franchisor (a wholesaler, service organisation or manufacturer) and franchisees (independent business people or organisations who buy the right to own and operate one or more entities in the franchise system). These are usually based on some unique product or service, a trading name, goodwill, patent, or method of doing business that the franchisor has developed. The multiplicity of store types and organisation approaches of emerging retailers provides different and interesting competitive organisations, especially for chains and making them important retail organisations for research. Also, for the traditional retailer in emerging market countries where data and information on retailing are sparse, these may pose unbridled competitive competing organisations and sparsely informed environment to compete. Therefore, with the emergence of supermarket retail chains that have started moving into suburban and peri-urban areas

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in addition to the capital and regional capitals the Ghanaian retailer would be experiencing a new competition. The “non-store” classification has evolved with the application of technology and sparked a revolution in the retail industry. This classification is categorised into catalogue retailers, vending machines, phone and media retailers, direct sellers and electronic shopping. In Ghana and most emerging countries catalogue retailing started with household items with relatively few companies in the national and regional capitals. However, this channel has been severely affected by the evolution of technology and most companies have moved online or had to abandon the use of the channel. In Ghana, the vending machine channel for drinks and groceries did not catch up with consumers. However, this channel has seen a boost in the vending machines for mineral water for offices, hospitals and clinics and other secluded public places, especially in the national capital. The phone and media retailers are still a small segment in the retailing industry. Early adopters who tried using this channel used telephone and television which with the liberalisation of the TV airwaves and the penetration of the internet and mobile telephone was expected to boost the segment. The direct sellers’ channel is dominated by traditional retailers led by hawking of traditional groceries and household goods. As direct sellers ‘ outlets, a few retailing companies exist in the national capital and regional capitals. They are mainly seen as marketing companies for small scale importing companies. Electronic shopping or retailing saw a boost in the early 1980s as technology began to affect the channel at an increasing rate of employment and deployment on a commercial scale (Gilbert, 2003). This category has therefore attained increasing importance in retailing with emerging new alternatives in this channel for retail organisations. This is a global trend and the emerging countries including Ghana increasingly witnessing a rapid deployment of technologies in all sectors of retailing (Beckers et al., 2021; Barker et al., 2017; Lilien et al., 2017; Rahate & Shaikh, 2016; McBrearty, 2011; Finkenzeller, 2003; Blattberg et al., 1994). In Ghana specifically, electronic shopping has seen vast development due to the application of technology especially the internet and mobile telephone. With the growth in internet and mobile telephone globally and in Ghana (NCA, 2020, 2021) online shopping is the new emerging channel for

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retailing. This is further enhanced with the development of payment systems especially the mobile payment system (Brown, 1997) and the interoperability of telecommunications to enhance commerce in Ghana. The growth in this channel is driven by lower costs of delivery, assurance of consumer convenience of access and wider reach in the distribution of products from the retailers’ perspective. Also, consumer time poverty, ability to have control over time and place of transaction, technology convergence allowing change to take place (internet of things) and the growing experience of the benefits of the emerging alternatives in the channels (Kotler & Keller, 2016; Gilbert, 2003) by the consumers are other drivers of the evolution in the category. The category is showing a rapid growth in the passive and interactive system’s channels. The passive systems are non-interactive one-way media. In this system, the retailers decide the channel content and timing of messages and therefore include channels such as shopping pages, community or audience on one–way television etc. Some retailing channels use electronic media to provide information about the products and demonstrate their added value uses. The interactive system which is seen more rapid growth in the past two decades are two-way interaction systems which include the internet, interactive HD television and other touch-screen systems (booths and kiosks i.e. airline booking system, automatic reorder systems). It is important to note that with the evolution of the internet to the “internet of things” more gadgets and appliances are being made interactive. Also, with the development of virtual payment systems, debit/credit cards and mobile money payments are used to pay for products and services on these systems. The evolution in the “non-store” category has driven the emergence of the addition retailer classification. This electronic commerce or e-commerce classification has three main categories of retailers: virtual, twochannel and multichannel retailers. Virtual retailers generally have no shops or stores or physical presence in “brick-and-mortar”. All the retail transactions are done through the internet, interactive television, or mobile phones. Global virtual retailers such as Amazon.com and Allibaba. com have used the channel to increase their area of distribution transcending national and international boundaries bringing a new perspective of retailer internationalisation through the internet. Thus, virtual

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retailing is growing in most emerging countries led largely by global retailers. Also, Two-channel retailers are established with “brick-and-­ mortar” stores in different locations but have also developed electronic retailing systems to different degrees of capabilities as aspects of their business. Most retailers are not establishing an internet presence as part of their business and this category has become the standard for retailing globally. This is also evident in most emerging market countries including Ghana. However, the emerging countries are at different levels of implementation and deployment as this level of adaptation relies on developments in the payment systems in the country. In Ghana, this development has been driven by the increasing penetration of the internet and mobile telephone in the country. Also, international deployment and local development of online payment systems have as seen in Chap. 4 become major enablers. The multi-channel retailing ensures retailers use multiple channels of stores, internet, mobile telephone, television, and catalogues to service their customers. Currently, in most emerging countries this category has become the aspiration of most retailers in the emerging markets including Ghana. Globally the e-commerce retailing market is made up of all three categories of retailers.

2.3 Grocery Retailing in Emerging Market Countries Globally food retailing plays a major role in retailing with the top 10 global retailers having a major business in selling food as part or all of their products. Grocery or food retailing is a major part of Supermarket retailing globally (Reardon & Gulati 2008; Regmi & Gehlhar, 2005). In emerging market countries there is a growing increase in the past few decades in retailing of mainly high-value foods whereas in most developed countries the increase is in consumer demand for variety, food safety and quality (Tandon et al., 2011; Regmi & Gehlhar, 2005). The growing middle class in most emerging market countries including Ghana (shown in the section on the country in Chap. 1) has been serving as a driver for the modern grocery retail developments. To meet

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the demand for high-value food in emerging countries, multinational food retailers and manufacturers are expanding their presence in developing countries with value-added and differentiated products. Modern food retailers in emerging market countries in meeting these demands are currently focused on growing preferences for non-price characteristics, such as dietary diversity, convenience in food shopping and preparation, and quality (Tandon et al., 2011). Tandon et al. (2011) argue that these strategies even as they are targeting consumer preferences at a local level and specific demands in each market are opposed to introducing supply chain efficiencies that may reduce real food prices over time. The paradox here is that even though modern grocery retailers may be investing to improve efficiencies in food supply chains and reduce food prices this is not yet visible as it should be more significant in an emerging market context, where lower-income consumers are and tend to be more price-sensitive or responsive to income and price changes. This is also important as food forms a large share of income and household expenditures in most emerging market countries’ economies (Deaton & Subramanian, 1996). The issue of lowering prices has been explained by Minten and Reardon (2008) as a long-term relative effect as modern grocery retailers initially focus on processed and high-quality products to compete with traditional retailers on price for processed and staple products over time, before introducing price competition in fresh products (fruit and vegetables etc.) Other factors not originating from price and pricing associated with increasing demand for grocery from modern grocery retailers in emerging market countries are the modern shop types which better address the desire for convenience due to the ongoing urbanisation in most countries and the changing consumer preference of the working population and emerging middle class (GSS, 2021b; World Bank, 2019; GLSS 7, 2019; Tandon et al., 2011, Gale & Hu, 2007). These emerging consumer segments are also known to place more value on food safety and quality factors not met by traditional retailers (Tandon et al., 2011; Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Reardon et al., 2003; Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003). Modern grocery retailing developments in most emerging countries have been found to first have the share of total expenditure on groceries closely related to the income levels in the economies. Undoubtedly, the penetration of modern grocery retailing is higher in countries with a

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higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Also, a study of the growth of modern retailing in emerging countries found growth to be related to the working-age population (Tandon et al., 2011). This confirms it as a driver for the food shopping and preparation convenience increasing the segment for modern grocery retailing. In addition, emerging market countries experiencing high growth in grocery retailing are also having higher growth in readymade and packaged foods. Some of these are selected food items from bakeries, dried processed foods, chilled processed foods, goods from a confectionery, canned goods, sweet and savoury snacks, meal replacement goods, noodles, pasta, ready meals, sauces and condiments, snack bars, soup, spreads, frozen processed foods, dairy products, ice cream, oils and fats, and baby food. That the high-­ value food retailing in modern supermarkets in most emerging countries has been driven by the rising purchasing power of consumers, quality and product diversity. However, it is important to note that this trend is not uniform across all emerging countries and that modern grocery retailing in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America is growing slower than in Asia and Eastern Europe. This has ensured that selected countries in South Asian and Sub-Saharan emerging market countries are lagging behind in modern grocery retailing development. Thus, there are nuances in the drivers of growth in the penetration of modern retailing across emerging market countries over the two decades. With the (re)emergence of modern grocery retailing in emerging economy countries comes to the associated capabilities to drive the supply chains by chain actors. As major grocery retailers enter emerging economy countries, smaller local actors will and may be required to play roles in the supply chain. Wagner and Fillis (2005) argued that these may require a different set of procedure and practises than those applied to larger international supplier contractors and contract as global sourcing has become an important feature of the grocery retailing industry. This is important as supplier development is driven by competitive and local political pressures (Wagner et al., 2002). In modern grocery retailing the supplier-retailer relationship has been fairly researched, and the literature evidence benefits of technical assistance and contractual arrangements for small local suppliers (Tandon et al., 2011; Minten et al., 2009; Hu et al.,

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2005; Birthal et al., 2005). However, other perspectives of the extant literature evidence no or smaller benefits to small local suppliers (Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Hernández et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2006; Dries et al., 2004). The literature on emerging economies mainly focuses on power asymmetry faced by small suppliers dealing with large modern retailers and argues that these outcomes in emerging economy countries mainly relate to imperfections in factor markets and contract enforcement regimes (Tandon et al., 2011).

2.4 Contemporary Retail Marketing in Supermarkets Modern retail marketing is generally based on the classic marketing mix from the four Ps of product, price, promotion and place, with place largely considered as the channel service (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). The argument of the sufficiency of the Four Ps has impacted the industry. However, the complexity of the industry allows for modifications based on the retail product or service. The argument made by Booms and Bitner (1981) was based on the fact that the four Ps marketing mix is more appropriate for manufacturing than for service companies and also not comprehensive enough. They, therefore, added the three more Ps of people, physical evidence, and process. Gilbert (2003) argued that the major difference is the intangibility of human behaviour, where quality and its control is of utmost importance. He further argued that there is enough room in the four Ps marketing mix for each of the additional three Ps and that the complexity of retailing does not relegate service product considerations as secondary. The retail literature (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Cox & Brittain, 2004; Gilbert, 2003) argues that whatever marketing mix approach is employed customers must be aware of the following to make a purchase: (a) an offer exists; (b) the best place to purchase the offer; (c) that what is on offer has value and competitively priced and; and (d) that the offer is likely to satisfy the need for which it is required.

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2.5 Contemporary Retail Marketing Mix for Supermarkets In retail marketing, the importance of the target market is paramount for any retail marketing mix strategy. The retail market is made up of actual and potential consumers. Thus, a well-specified target market will ensure the retailer has a superior understanding of the needs and characteristics of the target group, the main competitors in the market and the evolution of the needs of the consumers targeted. More importantly, the target market provides the focus for tailoring the retail marketing mix. This will also ensure that the highest expected outcome of demand from the customer is realised and ensure the consumer perceives the offer as superior to the retailing market competition. Thus, target marketing is cardinal to retail marketing because the different consumer groups dictate the employment of the marketing mix strategy. In addition, in retail marketing target markets are often classified using age, gender, income levels, socio-economic groups, geographic location, shopper type, purchase behaviour and attitudes, and benefits sought. This is to produce an outcome of higher value than any competing retail offer related to the cost to the consumer. The retail marketing literature (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Gilbert, 2003) posits that, therefore, the customer derives total value from the following: service value, store/product value, retail experience value, retail personnel value, image/ brand value and loyalty scheme value. Also, the customer derives the associated value at a cost based on the following: monetary cost of the product/service, time cost, energy, travel cost, retail experience cost and psychological risk cost. Therefore, retailing a product (i.e., anything that can be offered to a market that may satisfy a need or want) requires a combination of goods and services which includes the merchandise, the staff of the retailer and the storefront of the retailers. Thus, for the contemporary retail marketing mix to be successful, there is the need to devise a mix of carefully combining the following factors: service, merchandise, quality, features and benefits, brand name and store atmospherics. The retail literature argues that a retail operation’s ability to deliver service is measured by its’ five

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dimensions—tangibles (uniforms, fitting rooms, mirrors, toilets etc.); responsiveness (ability to react in a timely manner with industry knowledge and courtesy); reliability (ability to perform service accurately and dependably); assurance (deliver credibility for standardized service.); and empathy (provide a caring, individualized service performance.). Also, merchandise should be offered by a sorting process of assembling a range of services and goods with depth and carefully chosen width from selected approved suppliers. This will include decisions on which brands to include and whether to offer traditional or products deemed new by the market. The range of products and services to be offered must be chosen with the positioning of the retailer as an important determinant among others. The range is also linked to the financial expectations and general expectations of the target consumer market of which retailers are known to be positioned as upmarket, mid-market and economy positions. Important imperatives in selecting the range and brands such as national brands, own-brand, licensed merchandise and franchised products cannot be overemphasised. In addition, quality in the retail marketing mix involves deciding on standards and implementing a method of assurance on the performance level of facilities and staff. Quality can also be used as a way of differentiation in merchandising and positioning as a strategic option for the retailer. In the retail marketing mix, the retailer’s brand name is an important factor in the mix. The brand name is the initial impression for customers of the retailer. Branding is a communication tool that is signalled through printing on retailers’ packaging of own-label products. Then a brand name when communicated effectively and efficiently, especially when well-known and associated with satisfaction levels ensures an enhanced image and added value of the retailer and the products they offer. The retail literature links effective and efficient retail branding to enhanced store loyalty and customers’ affection for retailers’ products (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). The factors required to devise the contemporary retail mix would not be complete with the retailer store and store atmospherics. Gilbert (2003) states that the store is a product in its own right in retailing. The type of store layout in a specific location can either enhance or ruin the

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customer’s product decision. The general design of stores must be to facilitate the movement of people, optimise the display and presentation of merchandise and enhance the movement of customers. Customers’ movement in the store is further facilitated by the overall store layout including the design of displays, signage and aisles which also ensure optimising the use of the store floor area to resonate with the brand position of the retailer. Additionally, the retail literature, argues that an understanding of how customers shop for merchandise is an important factor in the way they are exhibited or displayed in the store. Also, store atmospherics have been found to be an important factor in customers’ purchase decisions, as store-induced effects on customers are a major determinant of approach or avoidance of customer behaviour and instore spending (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). Also, the literature further states that other social and psychological states impact customers’ retail purchases due to the time and place of their purchase (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). These factors however are known to work in combination in the complex environment of the store floor impacting retail purchases. These factors are: (a) physical and environmental features of the store—this includes the store location, visible components of the store and the atmosphere in the store; (b) the occasion—this includes the temporal nature in terms of the time of year, week or day and the season (Easter, Christmas, National Holidays, Other religious holidays). This will lead to different levels of traffic in the store and different levels of olfactory and visual changes; (c) objective for the store purchases affect the state of the emotional state of the customer—the emotional state of the customer differs based on expenditure, occasion and purpose of the shopping trip; (d) social surroundings—this includes the interaction and traffic in the store since they are found to affect shoppers’ judgements of characteristics and appearance. Crowding has been known to affect shopper’s behaviour in different ways including the selection of store, shopping time and rescheduling or even aborting the shopping trip.; and (e) predisposition of the individual shopper— including atmospherics (i.e. environmental appeal, design and mood) that affect the emotional response of the shoppers’ purchase behaviour (Wong & Lamb Jr., 1983).

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2.6 Retail Communication and Promotion The literature on retailing states that retailers communicate to potential and regular customers regularly through their products and services, store atmosphere and all promotional and advertising media (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). In retail marketing, retail promotion is the descriptive term for the mix of communication activities which retail companies carry out in order to influence the “publics” on whom their sales depend (Gilbert, 2003; p. 175). Thus, the retail promotion has the main objective to influence consumer perceptions, behaviour and attitudes to increase product purchases, store visits and ultimately store loyalty. Additionally, the “publics” and stakeholders to be communicated to or influenced include potential customers and current customers, suppliers, opinion formers, professional groups, local and traditional leaders and political office holders etc (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). The objectives of this promotional communication are considered to be monitored with the indicators as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Relevant, Targeted and Timed (SMARRTT) (Gilbert, 2003).

2.7 Retail Advertising Advertising in grocery retail generally consists of almost all the advertising media, channels, and formats in the advertising industry. The extant literature states that advertising includes any paid form of non-personal communication through all media about a product that has an identified sponsor (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). Thus, advertising is paid communication which is differentiated from public relations in which no payment is made for the communication. The media includes print, electronic (mobile telephone, Short Message Service (SMS) etc), internet, television, radio, outdoor (Billboards and outdoor displays) and indoor displays and internet. Advertising in Supermarket retailing is generally associated with mass communication and targets a broad

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number of receivers or target markets with the objective of creating awareness of products and the store, achieving sales targets, building the image of retailers and products and changing customer attitudes and purchasing behaviour. In the retail marketing mix, advertising affects targeted customers with a single message, and this is also known to have a two-step flow of communication. The first step of the two-step flow is when the communication is sent to opinion leaders (known in the social media advertising as influencers)—these are individuals whose actions, preferences, opinions, and attitudes influence others. The second step is the well-known concept in marketing, word-of-mouth communication or marketing as the opinion leaders influence their followers through personal conversation and other electronic channels about the store, product or brand being advertised. There are many different forms of advertising which consist of both verbal and non-verbal communication channels. Also, in Supermarket retailing marketing, there are different types of advertising some of which are: (a) product advertising—this is advertising to entice potential and current customers to the retailers’ outlet to consider specific offers of products and services (merchandise); (b) markdown event advertising—this type advertising it to create excitement about a special duration of lower-cost offers for genuine sale of products; (c) institutional advertising—this type of advertising is to sell the store, shopping arcade or mall as a preferred place for shopping; (e) Co-operative or joint advertising—this is a part of institutional advertising where other parties such as manufactures fund part of the advertising by suppling promotional and advertising material for advertising.; (f ) Window displays—this type of advertising employs the shop window as a location for advertising. Adverting in windows displays merchandise using indoor billboards, banners, and electronic boards. The shop window is used as a staging post to reach current and potential customers about the merchandise or store. Thus, making the grocery Supermarket outlets/stores a key component in the general Supermarket grocery marketing mix and an important element in the retailers marketing tools for in-store grocery Supermarket marketing.

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2.8 Retail Promotion Retail promotion has been known as sales promotion in Supermarket marketing. This generally involves any paid non-personal marketing communication activity other than advertising, which offers an incentive to induce a desired result from potential customers, trade intermediaries, or the salesforce (Gilbert, 2003). This is often used to support the overall advertising campaign of a retailer, as it serves in creating brand and product awareness (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). From the extant retail literature (Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003) we provide a summary of retail marketing sales promotions generally used by retailers as: 1. Point-of-sale (POS)—Retailer or manufacturer displays for the counter, floor, and windows to engender impulse purchases by in-store customers. 2. “Buy one, get one free” (BOGOF) or “two for the price of one”—Extra items of merchandise are added to the pack free of charge to increase sales. 3. Sweepstakes—Customers/shoppers are made to fill in simple application forms and draws are held for winners to be chosen by chance. 4. Contests—Skill games such as providing taglines, slogans, answering simple questions about the store, advert or brand competitions for prizes by shoppers are used to reinforce the brand or outlet. 5. Frequent shopper or loyalty schemes—Customers are rewarded with points or stamps for the total amount spent or repeat purchases of merchandise. 6. Coupons—Special discounts are advertised with a coupon being printed material of advert or merchandise labels as cut-outs or a fixed number required to be used to redeem part of store purchase. Other approaches utilize optically read coupon cards at checkout or product labels. 7. Prizes—Retailers offer prizes such as a piece of a set of home appliances, kitchenware, drinking glasses or part of a tea set, which is

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gained on the required threshold of purchases of selected or all merchandise. 8. Demonstrations—New products or services are shown in use, and what they can achieve with the benefits they give are demonstrated to potential and current customers. 9. Samples—Free samples of usually new or reformulated products, tastes, and smells are given away to customers. Customers are sometimes made to give quick feedback when used in-store. 10. Referral gifts—Presents or gifts are given to existing customers who introduce new customers. usually by direct sales retailers. 11. Branded giveaways—Items such as pens, calendars, shopping bags, etc. with the retailer’s logo are given to potential and current customers. 12. Premiums—Merchandise is given free of charge to encourage sales or at a substantial reduction of prices to attract customers to the stores. Self-liquidating premiums are when the customer contributes towards the cost. 13. Special events—“Red carpet” fashion shows autograph sessions with celebrities, art and craft exhibitions, topical local and traditional interest displays and school opening and holiday activities. Retail store openings are often linked to a special event.

2.9 Retail Loyalty Marketing An emerging Supermarket marketing approach is what is termed “loyalty marketing” (Cedrola & Memmo, 2010; Woolf, 2002). This term is conceptualized by Credrola and Memmo (2010, p. 206) as “a management process that aims to identify, maintain and increase the share of wallet of top customers as well as the lifetime value, through the management of a relationship approach typical of a loyalty programme” and defined as “a set of actions and operative marketing instruments with which a retail company manages relationships using loyalty cards as the main tool.” The extant literature argues that this has become an important tool for competitive differentiation in mature markets with highly competitive pressure (Cedrola & Memmo, 2010; Lugli & Pellegrini, 2005; Harris &

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Ogbonna, 2001). Thus, modern infrastructure has enabled this type of marketing to better understand customers and to use the information customers gathered to define more appropriate offers to customers. Although this type of marketing started in the 1980s in the airline industry it has expanded into the retail industry with Supermarket retailing leading the deployment and use (Ziliani & Bellini, 2004). This has also extended from the matured markets of the USA and UK into emerging markets of Asia and Africa with most global grocery retailers having millions of customers in the customer loyalty programme or schemes. Loyalty marketing has become a major part of grocery marketing and most local and international grocery retailers have adopted it as part of their marketing strategies (Gausden, 2019; Anstead et al., 2008; Florin et  al., 2007; Turner & Wilson, 2006). Cedrola and Memmo (2010) found that the collection of points on purchase by customers for discounts has a great appeal to customers and therefore an appropriate marketing tool for grocery marketers (Dekimpe, 2020). More details of this form of marketing can be found in Chaps. 3 and 7.

2.10 Marketing in Emerging Economies Countries’ Supermarkets Grocery Supermarket retailing in most emerging market countries has been encountering the entry of international and multinational grocery retailers which has been elucidated in the extant literature (Nickanor et  al., 2021; Tandon et  al., 2011; Dakora et  al., 2010; Reardon et  al., 2003; Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003). This is a wider phenomenon known as the internationalisation of retailing (Park & Sternquist, 2008; Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Dawson & Mukoyama, 2006; Reardon et al., 2003) and on meso-level globalisation of retailing which is carefully reviewed in the two volumes of Coe and Wrigley (2009). Dawson and Mukoyama (2006) argue that the internationalisation process is evidenced in the operation of the stores in foreign countries by international and multinational grocery retailers. However, the literature is sparse on the operation of the stores in foreign countries (Nickanor et al., 2021; Dakora et  al., 2010). We acknowledge that the operations as in the

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marketing literature include the marketing of the grocery retailers in foreign countries. This is also underlined by the emergence of the global consumer culture which is intertwined with marketing in grocery Supermarket marketing (Ger & Belk, 1996; Belk, 1988). Therefore, we further argue that grocery Supermarkets chains import the marketing strategies and techniques of their advertising and promotions into emerging market countries. Therefore, most of the marketing strategies, advertising and promotion tools and practices are available at different levels of utilisation and deployment by grocery Supermarket chains in emerging market countries including Ghana. This also presupposes there is a distinction in the marketing of traditional retailers, the local national retailers, and the international /multinational grocery retailers. It is important to note that the marketing process in emerging countries depends on the local marketing institutions and infrastructure. From the literature, local grocery Supermarket marketing in emerging market countries takes place in a broader environment largely affected by the economic, political, legal, social and ethnic factors. In most emerging economies such as Ghana, most of these factors were looking positive in the recent past and the countries were actively wooing foreign investors into the retailing sector to improve their foreign direct investments (FDIs). Also, political stability and ethnic cohesion in emerging market countries such as Ghana have made them preferred destinations for grocery supermarket investment. An example in Ghana is the investment in retailing floor space such as the malls and shopping centres. Details of these factors can be found in the section on the country Ghana in Chap. 1. Additionally, there is a general increase in the trend of development of marketing institutions and infrastructure driven by the current technology. Institutions and infrastructure for marketing research, communication, distribution, and consumerism are developed and rapidly evolving. The globalization of the internet and improvement in mobile telephone infrastructure has quickened the rate of these developments. Also, information and data on local marketing knowledge in business, education, and consumers’ marketing knowledge in the societies at large have improved to enhance the marketing in general and grocery retail supermarket marketing. Details of the current infrastructure for grocery retailing Supermarket chains marketing in Ghana can be found in Chap. 5.

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Usunier and Lee, however, argue that classical consumer marketing textbooks generally emphasize world markets and are often cross-border extensions of American marketing thought, blatantly ignoring people, languages and cultures and implicitly arguing in favour of uniformity (2005, p. xv). Therefore, grocery Supermarket marketing especially from international and multinational retailers must be more adaptive and respective to the local consumer knowledge and marketing practices. Even though cultures are known to intermingle through time and space (Usunier & Lee, 2005; Spears et al., 2001). In a study by Klemz et al. in South Africa (an emerging market Sub–Saharan African country), using the service quality model of marketing, small, local independently owned retailers focused on empathy to customers to influence wiliness to buy, whereas, in the large, traditionally white-owned national retailers jointly focus on assurance and responsiveness to influence willingness to buy, and spend very little effort on empathy (2006, p. 590). The study further made important disclosure on the effect of culture on service encounters in emerging market countries. They argue that in emerging market countries different business settings must address the single existing consumer culture creating challenges of whether the general underlying cultural theories employed in the marketing of grocery Supermarkets hold for all emerging market countries. This is important in grocery Supermarket marketing as culture is known to influence consumers’ perception of marketing activities (Usunier & Lee, 2005; Aaker & Williams, 1998). Also, the literature argues that there is a dismal treatment of diversity in global marketing and within that, the philosophy of the global product in retailing is characterized by a lack of consideration for meanings invested by consumers at the local level as the price is considered to be a universal concern and low-cost arguments make sense (Usunier & Lee, 2005). Also, the philosophy assumes that global consumers look for good quality products or low-cost products with standardisation from competing retailers. These approaches and mindsets from international and multinational grocery supermarket retailing organisations tend to obfuscate marketing in emerging market countries they enter and pose challenges for marketing at different levels of the local retailing industry. In addition, the global phenomenon of the application of technology to drive retailing is affecting supermarket marketing in emerging

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markets. This is driving marketing in emerging market countries to interaction marketing and employing all the available media of radio, TV, internet and mobile telephone to drive sales, brand and store awareness. Ghana’s case is well discussed in Chaps. 4 and 5. Also, the increasing trends of improving communication infrastructure are enabling the non-­ store retailing especially the online shopping channel. Marketing in grocery Supermarket retailing has followed the four main types of marketing: Transaction, Database, Interaction and Network marketing. (See Chap. 4 section of Current Trends in Marketing Practice). Also, the emergence of relationship marketing due to the increasingly competitive environment in the grocery retailing sector has sought to combine these traditional types of marketing in relationship marketing (Lindgreen et  al., 2004; Coviello et al., 1997) to build greater customer loyalty and retention; develop methods of creating longer-term relationships; and lead ultimately to increased sales and profit. This transition has been known as a paradigm shift in the general marketing literature (Gummesson, 1996; Gronroos, 1994a, 1994b; Kotler, 1991). Thus, the application of technology has driven the use of transaction, interaction and database marketing as relationship marketing ensuring all grocery retail Supermarket chains currently have a form of loyalty scheme that is used to identify frequent shoppers and buying patterns to reward customers with the intention to drive sales and increase customer spending (Coviello et al., 2001). The importance of loyalty programmes or schemes to retailing globally cannot be overemphasized and this is purported to be the new driver in grocery marketing. This will be discussed in the foregoing sections as programmes and tools for marketing which is emerging in emerging market Supermarket marketing.

2.11 Relationship Marketing and Supermarket Loyalty Programmes In simple terms, Relationship Marketing (RM) has been described as an approach to establishing, maintaining, and enhancing long-term associations with customers and other stakeholders (Zinkhan, 2002, p. 83). In this relationship, retailers undertake measures of customer retention as

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part of their retail marketing strategy. In the early stages of retailing at the small independent grocery shops level, shopkeepers were known to know customers and households personally having social interactions at the shop during purchases (Gilbert, 2003; Seth & Randall, 1999). A situation that still exists in many suburban and peri-urban areas in most emerging market countries. These small grocery shop shopkeepers use these relationships as a social and marketing tool by rewarding customers with discounts, gifts, and special services rewards during festive and religious occasions. These relationships could not be easily replicated in large urban cities and large grocery supermarket chains even though they form an important part of grocery retailing marketing approaches. As the industry developed national retailers in the UK and USA as reported by Gilbert (2003; p. 188), Co-op (Cooperatives Societies) in the UK stores started giving cash dividends schemes for the 12 million members who are regular shoppers and receive deliveries in the 1950s. Current multinational grocery retailer, TESCO introduced their scheme in 1963 with the Green Shield stamps as an incentive scheme Gilbert, 2003; Seth & Randall, 1999). This led to other retailers developing and using such schemes. Other retailers such as Sainsbury’s UK started piloting the schemes in their outlets, but it was TESCO that launched its first national Supermarket loyalty scheme, the Clubcard in 1995 (Seth & Randall, 1999). The scheme has been widely copied and implemented in various forms by international retailers and has become a major tool in grocery retail Supermarket marketing globally. Chapter 3 discusses the loyalty scheme as an international Gold standard. As a marketing tool, the Clubcard scheme built a customer base, made payments easier, allowed customer data to be stored and tracked to ensure they are rewarded for their purchases and form a community of advocates and partners for the retailer. In grocery Supermarket marketing this scheme currently has over 20 million Clubcard holders moving them from prospects on the relationship marketing ladder to customers, clients, supporters, advocates and partners (Payne et al., 1995). Javalgi and Moberg (1997) have earlier defined loyalty in these schemes as (a) related to the number of purchases and the frequency, and also consumer preferences and disposition towards retailers’ brands.

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As said earlier, it is now the main part of the grocery Supermarket marketing mix and all international retailers entering emerging market countries operate one or more of these schemes. The critical part is how they fare in these emerging market countries where the urbanisation is evolving, the working segment of the population is increasing and the middle class in the population is fast increasing. The grocery markets in most of the emerging market countries including Ghana are still predominantly dominated by independent retailers in the retail sector. However, the marketing institutions and infrastructure (internet, mobile telephone and electronic payment systems) are rapidly developing to support online grocery shopping and these schemes as tools for grocery marketing in the emerging market countries.

2.12 Chapter Concluding Statement This chapter delineates the area covered by the book by first defining retailing and the retail industry. The chapter then describes the classifications, components and formats/ channels of the retailing industry. Having then described the grocery Supermarket retailing with the nuances of the emerging market countries and Ghana as an example, the chapter then presents contemporary retail marketing in Supermarkets and elucidates on the retail marketing mix in the grocery Supermarkets chains. Grocery retailing communication and promotions were then presented, giving details on advertising and promotions with the nuances of emerging market countries. The chapter adds to the body of knowledge by looking at marketing in emerging market countries’ supermarkets from different perspectives and lenses. The chapter then discusses contemporary retail marketing as relationship marketing to introduce the role of supermarket loyalty programmes in grocery retail marketing at the end.

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3 The TESCO Club Card Loyalty Programme: The Gold Standard

3.1 Introduction Tesco is a public limited company of British origin. It was founded in 1919 and operates internationally as a grocery supermarket and a general merchandising retail group. A commentary by Bernard Marr & Co in August 2020 indicates that Tesco is the third-largest international retailer on the basis of comparative profits. This worldwide supermarket has over 6500 stores run and managed by more than 475,000 functional and management staff. Although Jack Cohen started his small grocery stall in London’s East End in 1919, it was after five years of running as a small shop that the Tesco brand was unveiled. This enviable current standing of Tesco makes it an important organisation for critical study. In relevance to this work, the international stature of its customer loyalty programme has made the programme a “Gold Standard” for retail customer loyalty programmes. It is important to note that the Tesco Clubcard was not the first loyalty scheme programme. But in February 1995, was the first national supermarket loyalty scheme (Seth & Randall, 1999). Before the launch in 1993, Sainsbury’s was using the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_3

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Saver Card loyalty scheme in selected stores, Safeway had been using the ABC customer reward card and Asda was trialling its Club Card in different versions in selected stores (Rafiq, 1997).

3.2 Marketing in TESCO (UK) The first three decades of Tesco’s operations were characterised by consolidation and expansion strategies. Implementing these strategies involved among other actions the purchase of a piece of land in Edmonton, North London to build a new headquarters and warehouse. Additionally, Tesco expanded its portfolio of shops with new stores opened in Burnt Oak and Edgware, both also in North London. These Tesco stores were at that embryonic stage known for selling the then very famous Tesco tea. A cursory observation of Tesco’s history through the lens of marketing strategy shows evidence of competitive strategy, branding, marketing growth strategy, market share expansion through takeovers and acquisitions, diversification, relationship marketing and repositioning strategy in practice at one stage or a combination of these marketing ethos undertaking over a period. In the early 1990s in particular, Tesco pursued a single-minded and winning strategy to move from the early strategies with the aim of improving demographics among shoppers, credible own-­ brand development and high-quality out-of-town superstores which altogether changed the face of the organisation (Seth & Randall, 1999). It is common knowledge that Tesco acquired close to six hundred stores from Williamson’s Harrow Irwins and Charles Phillips shops amongst others over the twenty-nine-year period between nineteen fifty-­ seven (1957) and nineteen sixty-six (1986). A year later, Tesco completed a hostile takeover of Hillard’s Supermarket chain which involved the purchase of 40 supermarkets in Northern-Eastern England. Tesco continued its strategic investments throughout the 1990s, with Holland-based S-Market in 1994. Also, Tesco took over William Low, a supermarket chain in Scotland in that same year. Expansion and internationalisation continue as part of the current strategy of Tesco supermarket. The diversification account of Tesco’s history also shows expansion in product

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portfolio from the famous Tesco Tea to stationery, books, clothing, electronics, petrol, software and internet, telecommunications and financial services. Assiduously pursuing a customer relationship marketing strategy through a club card customer loyalty programme appears to have been a perfect fit with Tesco’s repositioning marketing strategy. Repositioning the brand by shifting from mass low-cost retailing to targeting all social classes, that is, including other social groups whilst rewarding customer loyalty through Clubcard data provided Tesco with a massive competitive edge and leverage with the industry. In practice, ‘every little helps’ as all categories of customers were served through offering products across the spectrum—from “Tesco Value” range to the premium “Tesco Finest” range of products. A variety of marketing tactics and strategies has been implemented by Tesco for over a century of operation in the retail industry, but relationship marketing has received a lot of attention and mention by industry watchers and commentators. Effective management of customer relationships has been credited for the market expansion achieved nationally and internationally and the strength of Tesco’s brand behind the £62 billion revenue company. Better relationships with customers have been the backbone behind the high rate of customer retention that has driven sales growth, particularly within the past four decades.

3.3 Customer Relationship Management— The Case of Tesco (UK) Following these initial consolidations and expansion, Tesco made incursions into customer relationship management that culminated in the development of TESCO Club card (a customer loyalty card) programmes in the 1940s. In the annals of the British supermarket retail industry Tesco’s Club card, a customer loyalty card that is utilised for the customer loyalty programmes has been a key tool for customer relationship management for over twelve decades, beginning from the 1940s (Burt et al., 2010; Seth & Randall, 1999). However, Seth and Randall (1999) had argued that the earlier introduction of the card was envisaged to re-create

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the relationship that the local shop had with customers and that it was a way of saying thank you to customers but in the real sense it was not a loyalty card. It reimbursed customers for their shopping and that the customers who did best were not necessarily the most loyal but those who bought the most from Tesco. A practice viewed by some of their competitors as rewarding short-term and irrelevant inducements. However, with the use of evolving technology, the TESCO club card programme has been an innovative means to glean important personal and purchase behaviour information on customers, including what their customers buy, the frequency of purchase, the variety of products bought, and many other details. The Clubcard data is analysed by the shopper information company Dunnhumby which is owned by Tesco as a viable going concern. Indeed, Tesco club card data analytic strategic business Unit—Dunnhumby had over twenty metrics by 2014 that provided customer insights for marketing intelligence. In the first month of its launching, Tesco had 5 million card customers and penetration increased to 200,000 households (Seth & Randall, 1999) which ensured an increase of new customers to grow the business and generate more custom from existing customers and increase in loyalty. The programme enabled the generation of vital marketing intelligence based on actual behaviour data for Tesco group and their suppliers which have been a major source of relevant information for targeted marketing strategy for all customer segments, offering them the broad range of products from “Tesco Value” range to “Premium Tesco Finest” range. Notably, the success of Tesco’s customer relationship management popularised through the loyalty programme has been leveraged to introduce Tesco’s credit card and Tesco online portal (Tesco.com). The behaviour and spending patterns exhibited by Tesco customers using Tesco credit cards offer additional vital information on purchase behaviour and preferences generally. The JP Morgan Cazenove picked 10 areas in which Clubcard gave Tesco a competitive advantage: identifying customer trends; targeting communication; better promotions; basket building; defence against competitors; ranging, negotiating power; cross-selling; site selection and driving footfall to the store (Humby et al., 2007, p. 272). The Tesco online portal— www.tesco.com has also become an effective marketing communication channel utilized to build, maintain and retain customer relationships for future business growth and survival.

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3.4 Club Card Data-Driven Loyalty Programme The current customer loyalty programme is based on the club card data which was launched in February 1995 (Plimmer, 2010) and has been re-­ launched in 2018 with the introduction of contactless cards due to the improvement in technology to offer rewards to partners (Gausden, 2019). The Clubcard loyalty scheme was launched after trials in selected stores from 1993 to 1995. The new Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme, Clubcard Plus is a paid-for loyalty scheme. The new Clubcard has a subscription fee of £7.99 a month (Gausden, 2019) and shoppers receive 10 per cent off two big shops a month up to a maximum value of £200 each and ten per cent off selected Tesco brands in-store—potentially ‘saving’ customers £264.12 a year. This loyalty card programme has the cutting-edge technology, making it one of the most used for customer insight (Berkhout, 2015; Humby et al., 2007), well researched as a strategic marketing competitive instrument (Donnelly et al., 2015; Anstead et al., 2008; Turner & Wilson, 2006; Humby et al., 2007) and delivering the rewards to all stakeholders (Plimmer, 2010; Cacciolatti et al., 2009). The loyalty card data is currently sourced from an estimated 20 million supermarket shoppers in the UK (Tesco.com) which is approximately 80% of total Tesco sales and over 40% of UK households (Dunnhumby Ltd, 2011) and forms the Dunnhumby database. The database is considered to provide consumer insight into the UK market users since it contains the supermarket panel data of the largest UK retailer (Gausden, 2019; Felgate & Fearne, 2015; Plimmer, 2010; Humby et al., 2007); and combines the benefits of both the store-level scanner data and panel data (Felgate et al., 2012; Dunnhumby Ltd, 2011). In addition, the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme is a reward scheme that embeds multiple relationships beyond the simple Tesco and customer relationship. It goes further to integrate customer interaction across all stores (supermarkets, convenience) and online channels and engages with several corporate partners in relation to the earning and delivery of rewards (Dunnhumby Ltd, 2011; Humby et  al., 2007). Customers receive Clubcard points which are worth Clubcard vouchers and can be

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used in everyday shopping, holidays, Tesco specialist clubs and other money-saving promotions and offers. To subscribe, customers are required to provide personal information using application forms. Personal information required includes name, sex, address, telephone and email address. Also, subscribers have an option covering data protection which enables the applicant not to be contacted. Also, additional information on the household of the applicant via the option of providing information to tailor rewards is collected. Such pieces of information are on how many people make up the household, the date of birth and the ages of all the people in the household. Also, information on dietary needs is collected and an option to specify diets classified as vegetarian, teetotal, diabetic, kosher and halal. The information is sent to Tesco and the customer sent an electronic swipe card and two key fobs, all of which can be used at the point of sale to earn points on purchases made from a household. The Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme data is analysed by Dunnhumby into sales information segmented by geographical areas (regions and postcodes), lifestage, lifestyle, geo-demography (CAMEO), shop formats (example Extra, Supermarket, Metro, Express, online) and other Tesco affiliations (example Baby & Toddler, Food Club, Healthy Living Club) as defined by dunnhumby (Dunnhumby Ltd, 2011; Plimmer, 2010). The loyalty programme is operating in one of the world’s competitive supermarket environments (Burt et  al., 2010; Harris & Ogbonna, 2001; Seth & Randall, 1999) and its success makes it a global standard (Berkhout, 2015; Humby et  al., 2007). A former Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Sir Terry Leahy once remarked that: “We don’t spend a pound or dollar on a store without talking to our customers—They are the best management consultants.” Drawing from the above quote, it is obvious that the customer loyalty card programme has enabled Tesco to shift from being a company that thought it knew what its customers want, which is analogous to a trial-and-error strategy, to an organisation with marketing intelligence on actual customer preference for ‘perfect’ customer targeting.

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Gold standard statements: 1. “Tesco’s famous loyalty card—Clubcard remains the most successful customer retention strategy that significantly increases the profitability of Tesco’s business. In meeting customer needs, customizing service, ensuring low prices, better choices, constant flow of in-store promotions enables brands like Tesco to control and retain their customer base”.—Ivory Research (2018, p. 6). 2. “Today, Tesco operates one of the most successful loyalty programmes ever created. With over 16.5 million users the Clubcard scheme allows Tesco to collect detailed transaction information on two thirds of all shopping baskets processed at their tills. For the scheme to remain useful, it was critical that Tesco was able to turn its data into customer knowledge it could act on”.—Bernard Marr & Co (2020, p. 1). 3. “Tesco Clubcard builds relationships on additional dimensions, through: the option to collect Clubcard points through transactions with other retailers; the option to use reward points with a range of leisure and associated outlets, and, the e-loyalty element of the scheme accessible through the internet. This multidimensional approach to relationships builds a visible relationship web that is central to marketing communication and brand building associated with the Tesco brand. Both brand perceptions and experiences are built as customers make choices regarding the paths through which they will travel. The brand web operates at the three levels of experience, community, and customer data and knowledge”.—Rowley, J. (2005, p. 2). 4. “Tesco Stores Limited’s world leading Clubcard loyalty scheme has been successful for over ten years. Clubcard and the warehouse of data it generates are at the centre of Tesco’s retention strategy” …” This case demonstrates the enduring strategic advantage that can be gained from an innovative, well-managed loyalty scheme, incorporated across all customer-­ facing points in an organisation that has data warehousing at the heart of its business approach. Tesco has gained a significant competitive advantage by leveraging the vast quantity of data from Clubcard to gain great knowledge and insight about their customers”.—Boothby (2007, pp. 191 & 197).

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3.5 Macro Environmental Catalyst for Tesco Loyalty Programme Success Undoubtedly, Tesco’s customer loyalty programme has been extremely successful and still growing stronger. However, for every retail marketing strategy to thrive, it ought to be compatible with the macro-­environmental conditions prevailing within a given market. It is therefore important to focus some attention on some of the critical macro factors that created a congenial environment for Tesco loyalty Clubcard programme to thrive. Indeed, political/legal conditions in the UK (coupled with European Union policies and laws), and economic and environmental factors have all influenced the retail industry environment within which Tesco’s loyalty programme has operated and flourished. But more importantly, social/cultural and technological factors have played a critical role worth drawing on to help justify, conceptual, design and develop an emerging country supermarket loyalty card programme—the Ghana case. Firstly, the social/cultural trend toward one-stop shopping where bulk purchases of product varieties are purchased has grown due to a variety of social changes (GLA Economics, 2005). For Tesco, such a trend meant increasing the amount of food and non-food items available in their stores and broadening their access to actual behaviour data on the expanded customer base. Secondly, the technological macro factor that authors describe as ‘the silent driver’ has been a significant catalyst and a foundational infrastructure that has supported the loyalty card programme. Modern technology has enabled customer data collection at the point of sale, facilitated big data analytics and provided an effective means of communicating with customers on the loyalty programme in real-time. Among other technologies, Ivory Research (2005–2018) identified Tesco stores employ technologies such as Wireless devices, Intelligent scale, Electronic shelf labelling, Self-check-out machine, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Finch (2004) and Datamonitor Report (2003) also emphasised the massive improvement in Tesco’s distribution and stocking and merchandising activities because of adopting Electronic Point of Sale and scanners.

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3.6 Chapter Concluding Statement The chapter has demonstrated that Tesco has deployed different combinations of marketing tactics and strategies at various stages of the organisation’s development. Despite the salient roles played by the respective strategies in Tesco’s market development, growth and performance customer relationships management strategy, which was anchored on a customer loyalty programme has been by far the most influential among many. It has been acclaimed as one of the most powerful means to understand customer behaviour using the Clubcard data analytics. It is instructive to note that today’s leading retailers in emerging economies markets are adopting customer loyalty cards. There is therefore the potential for leading retailers in emerging economic markets such as Ghana to follow Tesco’s golden example to understand the customer behaviour based on actual customer purchase preferences and consumption patterns. The caveat however is the need for these emerging economies’ market players to adopt fully the tenets of relationship marketing management philosophy, having regard for taking a long-term view to reap the benefit of effective customer relationship management through meeting actual needs distilled from behaviour data and not presumed need of their customers. Secondly, a retailer in emerging economies markets seeking to leverage loyalty cards-based marketing strategy ought to appreciate the need to invest to build analytics capabilities and internal competencies that will enable them to convert customer data into marketing intelligence insights. Tesco has led the way and undoubtedly set a gold standard globally. It behoves prospective followers such as retail players in emerging economies markets to nurture a marketing culture that cherishes data-driven marketing decisions and tactics in order to stand the chance to reap the benefit of the loyalty card programme.

References Anstead, J., Samuel, J., & Crofton, A. (2008). dunnhumby—A retailer’s secret weapon. Citigroup Global Market, 60(60), 1–25. Berkhout, C. (2015). Retail marketing strategy: Delivering shopper delight. Kogan Page.

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Bernard Marr & Co in August 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2020, from https:// www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=1057 Boothby, K. (2007). Tesco Stores Limited: The IDM Business Performance Awards 2006, Silver Award Winner and Innovation Winner Campaign: Tesco Clubcard—Simpler and more rewarding. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(2), 191–197. Burt, S. L., Sparks, L., & Teller, C. (2010). Retailing in the United Kingdom—A synopsis. European Retail Research (ERR), 24(I), 173–194. Cacciolatti L., Donnelly, C., Fearne, A., Ihua, U., Yawson, D., Armstrong, G., & Simmons, G. (2009). Use of supermarket panel data amongst small and medium sized business in the food industry. Presented at Academy of Marketing Conference—Leeds, UK, June 2009. http://works.bepress.com/ geoff_simmons/28/ Datamonitor Report. (2003, July). SWOT Analysis Tesco PLC, pp. 1–30. Donnelly, C., Simmons, G., Armstrong, G., & Fearne, A. (2015). Digital loyalty card ‘big data’ and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary? International Small Business Journal, 33(4), 422–442. Dunnhumby Limited. (2011). Our Clients [online] Dunnhumy Limited. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from http://www.dunnhumby.com/uk/ our-­clients-­industry-­focus GLA Economics. (2005, October). Retail in London: Working Paper C— Grocery Retailing. Felgate, M., & Fearne, A. (2015). Analyzing the impact of supermarket promotions: A case study using Tesco Clubcard data in the UK. In The Sustainable Global Marketplace (pp. 471e475). Springer. Felgate, M., Fearne, A., Di Falco, S., & Garcia Martinez, M. (2012). Using supermarket loyalty card data to analyse the impact of promotions. The International Journal of Research in Marketing, 54(2), 221e240. Finch, P. (2004). Supply chain risk management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 9(2), 183–196. Gausden, G. (2019). Tesco unveils final details of its £96-a-year Clubcard Plus loyalty scheme: Shoppers can get it before Christmas, but it can’t be used online. THIS IS MONEY (29th October 2019). Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-­7625679/Tescos-­ new-­loyalty-­scheme-­Clubcard-­Plus-­set-­launch-­time-­Christmas.html Harris, L. C., & Ogbonna, E. (2001). Competitive advantage in the UK food retailing sector: Past, present and future. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 8, 157–173.

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Humby, C., Hunt, T., & Philips, T. (2007). Scoring points; How TESCO continues to win customer loyalty (2nd ed.). Ivory Research (2018) Strategic Management of TESCO supermarket: PESTLE analysis, Porter’s % Forces analysis, Critical success factors, SWOT Analysis, VALUE CHAIN analysis, TESCO’S strategic options, Core Competences & Cultural, Ivory Research Online, January 2018, p.5 Web., Retrieved 15/11/2021 from http://www.ivoryresearch.com/samples/ economic-essayexample Plimmer, G. (2010, August). Scoring points: How Tesco continues to win customer loyalty. Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management, 9, 377–378. https:// doi.org/10.1057/rpm.2010.17 Rafiq, M. (1997). Developing customer loyalty: The saver card experience. In C. Hart, M. Kirkup, D. Preston, M. Rafiq, & P. Walley (Eds.), Cases in retailing: Operational perspectives. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Rowley, J. (2005). Building brand webs: Customer relationship management through the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management., 33(3), 194–206. Seth, A., & Randall, G. (1999). The Grocers: The rise and rise of the supermarket chains. Kogan Page Limited. Turner, J.  J., & Wilson, K. (2006). Grocery loyalty: Tesco Clubcard and its impact on loyalty. British Food Journal, 108(11), 958–996.

4 The Ghanaian Supermarket Industry

4.1 Introduction Ghana’s retail commerce sector is currently valued at US$24.4 billion, and it is projected to hit US$33.16 billion by 2024, according to the recent Global Retail Development Index (Ghana Investment Promotion Centre). In Africa, Ghana is ranked 1st and has been described as Africa’s new “bright spot” driven by increased foreign & public investment as well as urbanization of the population. Also, the country is ranked fourth as an abundance of small neighbourhood shops offering low-income consumers value-for-money goods still dominate the highly fragmented retail market. Furthermore, the retail sector analysts forecast retail spending to increase from $8 billion in 2015 to $11 billion by 2019, and this increase was predicted based on the expected expansion in the growth of the growing middle class in Ghana. In 2017, Taylor (2017) reported the retail industry in Ghana occupies the 28th position on the Global Retail Development Index and has broken into the top 30 countries with massive potential for thriving retail business in the world. The Ghanaian Supermarket industry has been in existence since the 1940s (colonial period) and had undergone an evolution as an industry © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_4

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with different structures, infrastructure and players in different economic periods in the life of the country Ghana. Murillo (2011) chronicles the history of foreign participation with the opening of Kingsway in Accra, on January 31, 1957 (five weeks before the Independence of Gold Coast to Ghana). This was the country’s largest department store, Kingsway Stores, which was owned and operated by the United Africa Company (UAC), a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever. Equipped with an elevator, a modern car park, and three floors of retail space, the new stateof-the-art Kingsway building would be the first of its kind in all of West Africa. Ironically, the retailing industry played a leading role in stoking the final flames of the independence struggle in Ghana, with companies associated with the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM) (formed in 1916) engaging in price-fixing and market-sharing agreements that restricted competition in the Gold Coast import-export with cascading effects on retailing and consumers responding with national boycotts of European products (Murillo, 2011; The Ghanaian, 1963). The industry has evolved with local and foreign participation, however, in 2013, the Ghanaian Government enacted the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act, 2013 (Act 865, Section 28) which limits such activities in the retail sector by setting minimum start-up capital for foreign-owned retailers at US$1 million. It is important to note that while several major international retail brands have met the requirement and are operating actively in Ghana with the emergence of shopping malls, most foreign retailers from neighbouring African countries are small scale and have failed to meet the required minimum (Ghana Investment Promotion Centre).

4.2 The History of Supermarkets in Ghana The history of Supermarkets in Ghana (formerly known as Gold Coast) dates back to pre-colonial times. Thus, it is important to understand the evolution and inter-reactions since Trentmann (2006) argues, that the consumer did not automatically or naturally emerge from the world of goods but rather consumers are products (and agents) of specific

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historical processes. Murillo (2011, p. 321) further argues that this perspective considers the importance of colonialism and struggles for national independence in constructing consumer societies in the twentieth century. Therefore, ensuring the moderated preferences, especially of the colony and the emerging developing country consumer. The literature posits that the Gold Coast case has important implications for studies of consumerism, many of which take for granted the category of “consumer” (Murillo, 2011; Trentmann, 2006). The history of Supermarkets and/or department stores can be categorised into the Colonial era (1930–1950s), the Independence era (1957–1967), and the Post-Nkrumah era (1968–1973).

4.3 Colonial Era 1930–1950s Even though some of the agents and merchants of trade between the people of Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the colonial masters date before this era, the agents and relationships began to concretised within this period and the vestiges of the institutions formed largely impacted the consumer society formed in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Also, this period saw the major impact of the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM) (formed in 1916) on Gold Coast consumers and the reduction of influence leading to its demise. In 1937, AWAM firms participated in a Merchandise Agreement, which limited competition in the retail sector by setting minimum prices, market-sharing agreements and commissions. This led to the “Accra Riots” with the boycotts of European products (Murillo, 2011; The Ghanaian, 1963). The leading merchants and retailers were mostly Europeans and those found participating in the practices included the UAC, G.B. Ollivant (GBO), G. Gottschalk and Company, John Holt & Co., Société Commerciale de l’Ouest African (SCOA), Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO), Paterson and Zonchonis (PZ), Union Trading Company (UTC), Commonwealth Trust Limited and Swiss African Trading Company. A historical narrative on each of the companies mentioned above is presented below:

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United Africa Company (UAC) The United Africa Company Ltd was a merchant company originally trading in the West African colonies of the British Empire, namely Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast), Gambia, Sierra Leone and, especially, Nigeria. Its predecessors had been trading in the region since the late eighteenth century. Until the early twentieth century, this trade consisted of the exchange of African agricultural produce, in particular palm oil, groundnuts and cocoa, for manufactured goods of every sort, especially textiles; metal goods, such as pots, cutlery and tools; and provisions, such as salt. It was this need to secure a supply of palm oil for the manufacture of his soap that led William Lever to buy the Niger Company Ltd in 1920. On 3 March 1929, the Niger Company merged with its rival, the African and Eastern Trade Corporation Ltd, to form The United Africa Company Ltd, and as a result Unilever, also created in that year, acquired a large, complex and practically autonomous subsidiary devoted to African trade. In 1960 the old companies of Bluerock Ltd were bought back by UAC from Unilever and formed into a new UAC holding company, UAC Holdings Ltd. In 1978 it acquired from UAC all the latter’s investments in Europe and elsewhere outside the United Kingdom not held by CWA Holdings Ltd. From the 1930s, and especially after the Second World War, this trade changed in response to African economic development. The emphasis shifted to the sale of sophisticated consumer goods and the equipment required for the industrial development intended to follow independence. There was also a shift from retail to wholesale, and to the local manufacture of those goods which had previously been imported. At the same time, the United Africa Company expanded to East Africa, the French-speaking African countries and the Middle East, and interests were also developed within Britain and France. This geographical expansion prompted the company to change its name to UAC International Ltd on 1 March 1973. Commonwealth West Africa remained central to the prosperity of UAC, however, and the Nigerian economic crisis of the early 1980s led eventually to the end of UAC, which was integrated into Africa, Middle East Group, a division within Unilever, in 1987.

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In the 1950s, the UAC grew increasingly interested in understanding what they termed the “African mind.” The company implemented new selling techniques, undertook large-scale marketing research projects, and even began testing advertising styles on their African employees. Imperial assumptions about race and social development dramatically influenced this process. Before this period, European companies considered African consumer desire imitative, naive, or even non-existent. (Murillo, 2011, p. 320). UAC had main operating companies which later became divisions, and each pursued a different type of business. These are Breweries, Building Materials, Consumer Products, Engineering, Food and Agriculture, Hardware, Medical, Mining, Motors, G B Ollivant, Palm Line, Textiles and Industrial Services, Timber, Trading, Traffic, Unamec, Unatrac, and Warehousing and Transport Services. From the 1950s, however, West African countries demanded that UAC operations be registered in the countries in which they operated and be given autonomy. This resulted in the creation of UAC of Nigeria Ltd, UAC of Ghana Ltd and UAC of Sierra Leone Ltd. (The History of United Africa Company, h t t p : / / u n i l e v e r -­a r c h i v e s . c o m / Re c o rd . a s p x ? s r c = C a l m Vi e w. Catalog&id=GB1752.UAC; Accessed 12/03/2022)

G.B. Ollivant (GBO) In 1858 Captain George Bent Ollivant set up the business later to be known as G B Ollivant and Company Ltd in New Cannon Street, Manchester, primarily to ship cotton goods to Africa and buy African produce for sale in Europe. A partnership under the name of G B Ollivant & Company was formed by his sons Alfred and Charles in 1894. This was converted into a limited liability company in 1900. Initially, Ollivants sold basic commodities: textiles, earthenware, iron sheets, beer, provisions, soap and beads. A ‘factory’ was established in Lagos (about 1880) and Freetown (1887). Branches were opened at Kano and Zaria in Nigeria in 1913, Jos in 1917, Kaduna in 1927, and Gusau and Maiduguri in 1928. In western Nigeria branches were opened at Badagry, Ilorin and Ibadan, and in places such as Epe and Ejirin which were used to ship

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palm oil and kernels, and to serve Ibadan and Ijebu with imported merchandise. In Eastern Nigeria under the Oil Rivers Protectorate, the lack of land communications led to the establishment of trading stations on river banks at Calabar, Opobo and Abonema. Later ‘line’ stations linked by railways were set up e.g., at Umuahia, Nsawam and Aba. By the 1950s the network numbered 58 branches in Nigeria, 23 branches in Ghana, 8 branches in Sierra Leone and 3 branches in the Congo. In 1916 a store was established at Lomé in Togoland. In 1919 stores were opened in Ivory Coast and Dahomey (later Benin). A branch was opened at Sokoto in 1919. In 1918 Ollivant bought the firm of A J Tangalakis, allowing further expansion in northern Nigeria and a footing in the Gold Coast (Ghana). A joint enterprise was formed with Bibby of Liverpool to operate in the Belgian Congo and French Equatorial Africa, in order to supply the raw material for soap. The company’s expansion took place in close consultation with the financial support of Elder Dempster, in the face of competition from the African Association and William Lever. The company was purchased by UAC in 1933 and reorganised. On 30 September 1933, it was incorporated as Ollivant’s (West Africa) but was almost immediately renamed G B Ollivant Ltd by a Special Resolution of 6 November in the same year. The Manchester headquarters moved to Lancaster House, Whitworth Street. Ollivants became part of UAC in 1937 but remained autonomous. By the 1940s Ollivants had become heir to the mainstream trading activities of UAC, developing a sophisticated organisation involved in local industries and specialist distribution and marketing facilities. In 1954 the Nigerian operation was converted into a locally registered company G B Ollivant (Nigeria) Ltd. Subsequently there was a rationalisation of G B Ollivant’s interests within the UAC group. It took over many responsibilities on the General Goods side whilst specialist activities such as Niger Radio and Technical Services and Design were incorporated in parallel interests elsewhere in the Group, as also was the Textiles interest which had been from the early days one of the main planks of the business. These changes were reflected in the activities of the Manchester office, which also obtained additional buying responsibilities for associated companies in the Middle East and the Francophone African countries. In 1973 the old trading company

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became G B Ollivant Division, providing support on an international scale for merchandise marketing services performed by associated Group companies in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, with the nationwide wholesale distribution. These national marketing services included the wholesale distribution of both imported and locally manufactured goods (toiletries and medicines, graphics, hardware, provisions, menswear, etc.). In addition, the later 1970s saw the development of accredited dealers in specialised types of merchandise. Service departments included Personnel, Accounts and Shipping/Data Processing. In 1979 the main elements in the Ollivant business were wholesaling and marketing of imported and locally manufactured general merchandise, office furniture and Beam office equipment, retail department stores and supermarkets, menswear shops, radio and electrical accessory outfits, and building materials. Ollivants were only amalgamated after the crisis of 1979–1980. G B Ollivant Division was dissolved on 30 September 1980. On 1 October 1980 UAC Manchester came into existence, incorporating Ollivant, Beam, Kingsway Stores, Industries, Foods and Insurance Agencies. UAC Manchester was dissolved in 1983 with the formation of the Consumer Products Division. (G.  B. Ollivant Division, https:// jhplc.com/aboutus/milestones. Accessed 12/03/2022; GB1752.UAC— The United Africa Company Ltd, 2—UAC Divisions and Subsidiary Companies, Retrieved March 12/03/2022 from http://unilever-­archives. c o m / R e c o r d . a s p x ? s r c = C a l m V i e w. C a t a l o g & i d = G B 1 7 5 2 . UAC%2F2%2F10)

John Holt & Co The John Holt & Co. history follows that of most European traders of that era and in the 1920s most European merchants established offices in one or more of the four West African colonies (Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia). John Holt & Co (Liverpool) Ltd., which was considered one of the three ‘giants’ of the West African trade in the interwar years. The story began in 1862 when John Holt, just under 21 years old, with £27 in his pocket, sailed from Liverpool to take up an appointment as a

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shop assistant in a grocery store in Fernando Po (now Equatorial Guinea). Five years later, he had bought out his employer and subsequently built up a produce trade with the Delta Ports. From its inception until its merger with Lonrho in 1969, Holt was a family-run business. Palm Oil, Palm Kernels, Rubber and Cocoa were exported to England. Imports included textiles from Lancashire and bicycles from Birmingham. In 1897, John Holt established his first venture in Lagos. Up to the Second World War, much of John Holt’s business was in the distribution and export of produce. A fleet of ships operated a fortnightly service from Liverpool to West Africa and the Company also had its own fleet of river craft. Apart from produce and merchandise, these river crafts also carried cash. Where banks did not exist, John Holt had strong rooms. Even after banks were established, many Nigerians preferred to deposit their cash with John Holt. John Holt & Company (Liverpool) Limited was incorporated in 1897. From the 1950s onwards, Holt experimented with new enterprises and introduced new divisions to its core business. In 1961 the company was incorporated in Nigeria as John Holt Limited. In 1950 it became a public liability company and in 1957 Holt bought Bartholomew (London) Ltd. and entered motor distribution and related engineering. It traded in Ghana as John Holts Bartholomew & Company. In 1960, Holt bought West African Drugs Co., a pharmacy chain, and sold its Southern African subsidiary in 1962 and Guinea Gulf Line to United Africa Company’s Palm Line. It became a public company and was quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in May 1974. The company’s Wine and Spirits business was sold in 1984, and Lonrho split up into Lonrho Africa (includes Holt) and Lonmin (all core mining activities) in 1996/1997. John Holt is no more operating in Ghana under the business name. It is currently a free-­ standing company based in Liverpool. The logo of John Holt consists of a brass manilla, previously used in some parts of Nigeria as currency and a five-point star, which signifies the Group’s enduring connection with Liverpool (UK). (John Holts & Co. https://jhplc.com/aboutus/milestones, Accessed 12/03/2022; Macmillan, 1920)

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Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO) Along with the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the British, the French began to establish themselves in coastal West Africa in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The primary interest was missionary work, exploration and trading in slaves, sugar, pepper, ivory, wax, and gold. Indeed, in the sixteenth century gold from West Africa—from Ghana in particular—accounted for one-tenth of the world’s gold reserves. However, from the late sixteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century it was the slave trade that saw a huge expansion. To satisfy the emerging plantation economies of the New World, the trading and transfer of African peoples became the principal economic activity of the Europeans in West Africa—first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the British and French, and of course some segments of the African population themselves who participated in the capture, transport and marketing of captives. French participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade was probably less significant than the activities of the Portuguese, Dutch and British. Trading by the French was focused on gum arabic, groundnuts (or peanuts) and other raw materials from the interior, particularly the Senegal River area and its hinterland. In Saint-Louis, Senegal established as a trading post in 1659, the French began what would eventually become their colonial project to assimilate West Africa as a part of France. By the late nineteenth century, when industrialisation and economic conditions in Europe came to influence the expansion of European interests in West Africa, a ‘scramble for Africa’ occurred. In February 1885, the Berlin Act was signed by the principal European powers looking for control and partition of the continent. The Act provided the guidelines by which each power then defined their territories and by the early twentieth century, the French held most of what would come to be their colonial territory in West Africa, including present-day Senegal, Mali (formerly French Sudan), Mauritania, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), Benin (formerly Dahomey), Guinea (formerly French Guinea), Ivory Coast and Niger.

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Meanwhile, Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO) was founded in Marseilles in 1887. In 1888 the Company opened its first African agency in Saint-Louis, and from 1888 to 1902 began to expand across Senegal, and into Guinea, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. This coincided with the creation of the federation of French West Africa in 1895 to consolidate French holdings. The federation was definitively constituted in 1904 and was ruled by a Governor-General with a residence in Saint-Louis (capital of the federation from 1895 until 1902, and capital of Senegal and Mauritania from 1902 until 1958) then in Dakar. After the Second World War, the process of decolonisation began in Africa and between 1955 and 1961 the headquarters of CFAO transferred from Marseilles to Paris and the Company mutated into a multinational service company and became a leader in the specialist distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. This coincided with constituent parts of the African federation becoming autonomous republics. CFAO then began to diversify its activities outside Africa and in the late 1950s, the CICA group (marketing Ford, Opel, Mercedes-Benz and Fiat automobiles in France) entered CFAO. In 1990, CFAO itself entered the Pinault group, today called Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. After the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994, CFAO was able to consolidate its position in Africa and acquired the activities of Société Commerciale de l’Ouest African) (SCOA) and Optorg, two large vehicle distributors with interests in, the former, Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar and Niger, and for the latter, Mali and Senegal. In 1996, CFAO became established in the health sector through the acquisition of Eurapharma which had been a subsidiary of SCOA. In Ghana, Compagnie Francaise de l’Afrique Occidentale de Ghana (CFAO Ghana) was founded in 1909 and by 1976 had divisions in General Import/Builders Suppliers, Qualitex, Motors, Technical, Electro-­ Mall, Multi-Stores (Ghana) Ltd and Ghana Motors Industries Ltd. Multi-Stores (Ghana) Limited was touted as the airconditioned up-­ market supermarket on the Accra High Street and well noted for its ‘service with a smile’. A distributor of most Modern- Ghana products, the best spot for a selection of delectable wines, and well known as the best in the country for its cold store with well-trimmed meat cuts, sausages,

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ham, bacon and meat pastes prepared by French-trained cooks from locally reared livestock. The company has undergone some reorganisation and refocusing on mainly the automobile and heavy machinery businesses in Ghana as Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) acquired a 97% stake in CFAO in 2012. By 1997 CFAO and SCOA had merged and expanded into Mauritius and Equatorial Guinea, and in 1999 Eurapharma became established in Kenya. In 2000 CFAO had developed its activities in Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, and more recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt and Malawi. Today the multinational CFAO has a strong position in motor distribution, pharmaceutical distribution, trading, telecommunications, networks, and office automation across Africa and in the French overseas departments and territories (Dom-­ Tom). In 2016 CFAO was delisted and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of TTC and in March 2017 CFAO took over all TTC assets in Africa. This expanded the Group’s scope to include new sectors such as energy, agribusiness and automotive production support. CFAO also obtained the distribution of the Toyota brand in 8 new East African countries. (CFAO Administrative/Biographical History. Retrieved March 12, 2022, from https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/80f0219d-­ 6254-­3d9c-­92c7-­bb52c99b28ee; Daily Graphic Issue 7872 February 6, 1976.)

Société Commerciale de l’Ouest African (SCOA) Societe Commerciale de l’Ouest Africain (SCOA) is one of the two great French trading companies in West Africa during the colonial era. The company like other companies of the time was formed from an amalgamation of smaller businesses operating in Africa in the nineteenth century. SCOA, backed by banks in Geneva and Lyon, entered African trade by buying the firm of Ryff et Roth in 1906. Initially, SCOA’s interests were centred on Senegambia, Guinee and Cote d’Ivoire, but, like CFAO, it too established branches in all the main commercial towns in West Africa (Hopkins, 1976). In Senegambia, it was concerned with opening factories along the Thies-Kayes railway line and spreading to

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neighbouring West African territories/countries (French Guinea), further along, the Ivorian and Dahomean railways, and especially in the British colonies (Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Nigeria). SCOA after the world war by then had one counter in Kumasi on the Gold Coast: 10 agencies and 24 factories across West Africa (Coquery-Vidrovitch, 1975). As a business, SCOA presented itself as a business that was both more modest and more dynamic, even with its relationship with industrial and financial circles from the banks of Lyon and Geneva. Coquery-Vidrovitch, (1975, p. 588) presented that the activities were representative of those of all overseas commercial firms: it was a rudimentary ‘trading economy’, close to looting, where manufactured products of mediocre quality were offered for immediate or everyday consumption (fabrics, alcohol, junk, etc.), at highly overvalued prices, against agricultural products collected during the milking season—(peanuts from Senegal almost monopolized by the CFAO, palm kernels from Dahomey and later from Nigeria, cocoa from the Gold Coast, rubber and above all wood from the Ivory Coast), paid at low prices to the producer. In Gold Coast (Ghana), SCOA showed a growing interest in the British territories as the trade economy was far ahead of the French territories especially with Gold Coast cocoa being the world’s leading exporter since 1911 (as they had not yet shown involvement in mining ore). In 1947, trading was first seriously hampered by the Accra (Gold Coast) riots and political agitation in the territories in 1949  in Cote d’Ivoire, Gold Coast and Nigeria. SCOA has been involved in projects and investments in Ghana with the notable ones being the SCOA Motors which imported Peugeot and other vehicles, parts and accessories for sale, and vehicle repairs and assembly plants. SCOA also engaged in household equipment and building materials sales and real estate. The company was also involved in agriculture in the Cocoa sector and later branched into other tree crop plantations such as the Jei River Farms (An investment taken over by Ashanti Gold Fields Corporation in the late 1990s). The company was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange as SCOA Gh Ltd and was officially delisted effective 28 April 1995 and went into liquidation in 1999. This is culled from:

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Hopkins, A. G. (1976). Imperial business in Africa. Part I: The Journal of African History, 17 (1), 29–48. Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. (1975). L’impact des Interets Coloniaux: S.C.O.A. et C.F.A.O. Dans L’Ouest Africain, 1910–1965. The Journal of African History, 16 (4), 595–621.

Paterson and Zonchonis (PZ) PZ Cussons Plc is a leading manufacturer and distributor of a variety of products, especially soaps and other personal care items, including shampoo, baby powder, and the like. These are marketed under PZ Cussons’s flagship Imperial Leather brand and others, including Original Source and Carex. The company also manufactures refrigerators and other white goods, including freezers and air conditioners; detergents and cleansers; feminine hygiene products; olive oil; packaging materials; and even pharmaceuticals. In 2003, PZ Cussons formed a joint venture with Ireland’s Glanbia to supply evaporated milk and milk powder in Nigeria. The company also acquired U.K. hair care brand Charles Worthington in 2005. Although based in Manchester, PZ Cussons has long been controlled by the founding Zochonis family, from Greece, and has carved a niche for itself by focusing on various markets in Africa, especially Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and East Africa. The company’s African operations continued to represent some 26 per cent of its annual sales. Europe, especially the United Kingdom, is the group’s largest market, at 43 per cent, while the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, accounts for 26 per cent of sales. In addition to its African manufacturing sites, the company operates manufacturing plants in Thailand, Poland, Australia, and Athens. In 2005, the company announced that it would shut down its U.K. soap producing facility by 2007. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the Zochonis family, which includes Chairman A.J.  Green, controls as much as 80 per cent of the company’s stock. The family also is highly active in the company’s operations, filling most of the group’s primary management positions around the world. In 2004, PZ Cussons posted revenues of £488 million ($935 million).

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Trading Origins in the Nineteenth Century Known as Paterson Zochonis until its name change in 2002, the company’s history reached all the way back to the late nineteenth century, when it was founded as a trading post, called West African Merchants, in Sierra Leone by two partners, George Paterson, originally from England, and George Zochonis, from Greece. Paterson and Zochonis started by shipping palm oil and other produce, such as palm kernels, cocoa, groundnuts, and seed cotton, as well as animal hides and skins, to the United Kingdom, and bringing back goods from England, such as cloth from Manchester. The business proved strong, and in 1884 Paterson and Zochonis incorporated the company as Paterson Zochonis (PZ). PZ gradually expanded its range of goods, establishing a degree of expertise in what was considered a difficult trading market. This expertise enabled the company to begin expanding into other African markets and, most important, into Nigeria. PZ set up its Nigerian subsidiary in Lagos in 1899. Like its Sierra Leone brand, the Nigerian subsidiary at first operated as a trading merchant. George Paterson died in 1934, leaving George Zochonis in control of the company. The Zochonis family was by then already highly involved in the company’s expansion, and a company tradition became the placing of members of the extended Zochonis family in key management positions. Indeed, by the beginning of the twenty-­ first century, the Zochonis family was said to represent about half of the group’s total payroll. PZ expanded into Ghana in 1934, setting up a trading office in Tema that year. Over its first 50 years, PZ grew from a simple trading house into a major wholesaler and retailer of general merchandise for the West African region. The company operated its shops—often simple stalls in local markets—selling a wide variety of goods. By the early 1950s, PZ’s zone of operations covered Liberia, French Guinea, Cameroon, and the Gold Coast.

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Public Offering in the 1950s Yet PZ’s interest began to turn toward manufacturing in the late 1940s. In 1948, the company purchased a small soap factory owned by PB Nicholls & Co in Nigeria. The company changed its subsidiary’s name to Alagbon Industries Ltd. in 1953. In that year, PZ itself went public, listing its shares on the London Stock Exchange as Paterson, Zochonis & Company. The rapid growth of the population in Africa, coupled with the development of a consumer market, encouraged PZ to begin seeking to expand its manufacturing operations in the late 1960s. The company turned to Ghana, launching a manufacturing facility there in 1969. White goods, including refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners, were among the company’s first products. In Nigeria, meanwhile, the company had expanded its soap production to include other personal care items. By 1973, the company had decided to launch the production of detergents and refrigerators in Nigeria as well. The year 1975 marked a major milestone in PZ’s history. In that year the company acquired Cussons Group Ltd. Based in Manchester, England, Cussons had originated in 1869 as a chemist’s shop founded by Thomas Cussons. By 1909, the business, now under Alex Cussons, had begun to specialize in detergents, acquiring a bleach mill in Salford. The company then entered the production of soap in 1920. Yet Cussons’s fortunes were assured in the 1930s when the company bought up perfumers Bayley’s of Bond Street. That purchase brought Cussons among other things; a popular fragrance known as Imperial Russian Leather. Bayley’s had created the fragrance in 1760, at the request of Russia’s Count Orloff, a member of the Tsarist court, who wanted a fragrance with a leathery scent. In addition to the distinctive fragrance, Cussons’s new soap featured novel packaging, as well as other features, such as a badge that remained visible to the end of the bar’s use. These features helped Imperial Leather become England’s bestselling bar soap brand, a position held into the next century. Cussons’s growing sales led it to complete a new acquisition, of Gerard Bros Ltd. in Nottingham, which became the focus of the company’s soap production in the United Kingdom.

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Imperial became Cussons’s flagship brand as the company established a strong export business, shipping to other parts of the British Empire, notably to Australia and New Zealand. The company also set up a subsidiary in Malaysia in order to market its brands, primarily through other distributors. In the 1960s, Cussons entered Africa, renting facilities to produce soaps and other toiletries and hair care products. PZ acquired the Preservene Soap Company, based in Richmond, Victoria in Australia in 1976. The purchase allowed Cussons to establish its own manufacturing business in that country and take over its marketing for Australia and New Zealand for the first time. The Australian business later expanded, adding a detergent factory in Dandenong, Victoria, in 1987.

International Growth in the 1990s In the meantime, PZ continued its expansion. In 1977, the company moved into a new direction through the acquisition of Minerva, a company founded in Athens in 1902 for the manufacture and marketing of olive oils, as well as margarine and cooking fats. That company had begun exporting to the North American, African, and Australian markets, as well as to the rest of Europe, in the 1950s. In 1957, Minerva expanded its production capacity with the construction of a new plant in Moschato, in Piraeus. Yet the personal care market held the most interest for the company. Through the 1980s, PZ made a number of expansion moves, adding to its production capacity as well as extending its reach into new markets. In 1983, for example, the company acquired a soap factory in Kenya. This was followed in 1986 by the acquisition of the Lervia Soap Factory in Thailand. The company’s Australian detergent plant launched production in 1987. The following year, PZ entered the Indonesian market as well through the acquisition of PT Jaya Makmur Raya, a manufacturer of soaps, toiletries, baby powder and other baby products. PZ’s interest shifted to the European market in the early 1990s, especially to the Eastern Europe bloc, newly emerging from decades of Soviet dominance. In 1990, PZ entered Poland, launching exports to that country. By 1993, the company decided to install its own production capacity

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in Poland, buying up the former state-owned soap plant Pollena Wroclaw. Two years later, PZ acquired a second state-owned company in Poland, Pollena Uroda.

Company Perspectives PZ Cussons currently manufactures and distributes over 30 brands across its global network of companies in Europe, Africa and Asia. The company’s international policy focused on specific geographical markets which demonstrated the growth potential. PZ Cussons developed relevant, high quality and innovative products through having developed a deep understanding of the needs and aspirations of local consumers. These are distributed via the first-class networks that have been established over our many years of global trading. PZ expanded its distribution operations in the second half of the 1990s, starting with the creation of PZ Cussons India in 1995. That subsidiary supplied soaps and talcs to the Indian, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi markets. In 1997, PZ established a new subsidiary for its Middle East distribution, in Dubai. Then, in 1988, PZ launched a dedicated marketing subsidiary in Malaysia, which then took over the company’s distribution needs for both Malaysia and Singapore. PZ also expanded its manufacturing base, transferring its olive oil production to a newly completed facility in Schimatari.

Personal Care Focus for the New Century Into the 2000s, PZ adopted a new strategy focusing more strongly on its personal care products operations. As part of that effort, the company changed its name to PZ Cussons in 2002 to underline its core business. PZ then began seeking new acquisition opportunities to boost its range of personal care brands. The first of these came in 2003 when the company paid more than £11 million to acquire the Original Source brand. That business had been started only in 1997 with an investment of just £45,000. PZ added to its personal care line with the purchase of hair care specialist Charles Worthington, for £25 million, in 2004. That acquisition

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not only gave the company an entry into the U.K. haircare market, but it also provided a foothold into the U.S. market. Difficulties in Russia led PZ to pull out of that country in 2005, representing an end to Imperial Leather’s reign of nearly 250 years there. In 2005, also, PZ completed the construction of a new production facility in Thailand. At the same time, the company announced that it intended to close its Nottingham, England plant and transfer that production to the Thai plant by 2007. PZ Cussons is expected to remain an important name in the international personal care market.

Principal Subsidiaries Minerva; PT PZ Cussons Indonesia; PZ Cussons Australia; PZ Cussons East Africa Ltd. (Nairobi); PZ Cussons Ghana Industries Limited; PZ Cussons India Private Limited; PZ Cussons Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.; PZ Cussons Middle East and South Asia FZE; PZ Cussons Poland; PZ Cussons Thailand; PZ Cussons UK; PZ Industries PLC (Nigeria); SIPCA S.A. (Cameroon).

Principal Competitors Doyin Group of Cos.; Madhvani Group; Lever Brothers Private Ltd.; DiverseyLever Marsavco Congo; Procter and Gamble S.A.  Proprietary Ltd.; Sinopec Jinling Co.; Unilever PLC; Colgate Palmolive Proprietary Ltd.; Procter and Gamble Co.; Johnson & Johnson. (PZ Cussons’ Retrieved March 12, 2022, from http://www.cussons.com; Retrieved March 12, 2022, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-­ and-­business-­magazines/pz-­cussons-­plc)

Union Trading Company (UTC) The company took its name [UTC International] in 1921, although its origins go back to 1859. The business was founded as a type of subsidiary of the ‘Basler Mission’, which was a mission established in British India

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and in what is today Ghana at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to spread the word of God. The mission’s founders were a small group of families that belonged to the great Protestant bourgeoisie of Basle and the central objective of the new company was to support the missionaries’ evangelical efforts. The distribution of profits among the shareholders was, therefore, limited, with the main part handed over to the Basler Mission and/or reinvested in the country. The company remained under the influence of its religious origins up until 1909 when the business was reorganised so that commercial logic superseded religious influence. It was, however, several decades before the religious aspect disappeared completely and is important to note that UTC is still controlled by the same founder families today. In Ghana, UTC quickly became both one of the main importers and distributors of manufactured products, and also exporters of local products (rubber and palm). More important still: cocoa farming, apparently introduced to the country by the Basle firm, expanded greatly from the end of the nineteenth century. By 1910 Ghana was the largest producer of cocoa in the world and a considerable proportion of it was exported by UTC. In India, the results were less spectacular. The company failed to make inroads into the trading business and its diversification into industrial activities—spinning and especially brick making- whilst thriving, were in no way as successful as the African undertakings. Indeed, in 1910 the volume of business in India is estimated to have been hardly more than a quarter of that in Ghana (loan prospectus issued by the Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft, 7 February 1912, Wirts chaftsarchiv Basle).

Global Trading Evolution The First World War delivered an extremely hard blow to the Basel company. Accused by the British colonial authorities of being favourable to Germany, all of its firms and property in Ghana and India were confiscated, and UTC was on the brink of bankruptcy. Whilst the company’s

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activities in India were never restored, it did recuperate a part of its possessions in Ghana thanks to the continual intervention of the Swiss government. This, in 1921, the company was once more active and, because the majority of the local staff had remained loyal to UTC, the company quickly returned to a successful business in Ghana. From this success, UTC went on to found subsidiaries in London, Hamburg and New York, and also became established in Nigeria. The last expansion was decisive, and the importation of manufactured goods to Nigeria grew considerably from the end of the Second World War. Moreover, the business literally “took off” from 1973 when the price of petroleum quadrupled, earning massively increased revenues for this large African country. Between 1973 and 1982 the yearly sales of UTC in Nigeria increased from 150 million in constant francs to 1.5 billion (Dokumentation-Erklärung von Bern, no. 5, 1986; Basler Zeitung, 23 March 1995). This windfall induced the Basel company to embark on an unrestrained policy of diversification: in production, retail trade, real estate and various kinds of services, etc. The outcome was that in 1985, the parent company controlled roughly eighty companies which carried out between the 40 different activities (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21 August 1996). It is also worth noting that in 1977 UTC bought the majority of shares in Jelmoli which was a large chain of stores in Switzerland. However, the middle of the 1980s brought a phase of stagnation and even a decline. Following the collapse of both the local currency and the petroleum revenues, the business broke down in Nigeria. UTC management encountered many difficulties in integrating several of their new activities, especially in the case of Jelmoli. A process or reorganisation was therefore undertaken at the beginning of the 1990s (…), as the sale of Jelmoli in 1996 demonstrates. In 1997 UTC International AG merged with BHG Handelsgesellschaft Basel GmbH, it’s parent company which counted in 1990 approximately 8,000 employees and reported sales of CHF 2.8 billion. The new group was transformed into a financial holding company with no operational activity. UTC International was removed from the registry of Swiss companies on 20 June 2003, just over 82 years after its incorporation.

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(Basler Mission Handlungs-Gesellschaft Retrieved March 12 2022 from https://www.stsa.swiss/know/basler-­mission-­handlungs-­gesells chaft-­utc-­international)

4.4 The Independence era 1957–1967 During this period foreign traders and retail merchants concretised their positions in the retail sector and prepared for the new birth of the country from Gold Coast to Ghana. As recalled Kingsway the largest Department Store in the country was opened in January 1957. Other manufacturers, traders and retailers such as Nestle Ghana Limited started trading in Ghana. On the Ghanaian front, the government established 40 state-owned corporations of which the Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) and Ghana Food Distribution Corporation were included (Werlin, 1973). The era saw the beginning of the implementation stages to improve the Ghanaian content in the retailing sector. Below are summaries of two of the notable retail organisations established.

Nestlé Ghana Limited Nestlé Ghana Limited started business in Ghana in 1957 under the trading name of Nestlé Products (Gh) Limited with the importation of Nestlé products such as milk and chocolates. In 1968, it was incorporated as Food Specialties (Gh) Limited to manufacture and market locally well known Nestlé brands. The company became Nestlé Ghana Limited in 1987. In 1971 the production of the IDEAL Milk and MILO started at the Tema Factory. The factory has since been further developed and now also produces CARNATION milk, CHOCOLIM, CHOCOMILO CEREVITA, CERELAC and NESCAFÉ 3 in 1. These products are not only produced for Ghana but also exported across West Africa. In 2003, Nestlé Ghana Ltd invested in a new warehouse, the Central Distribution Centre, located next to the factory in Tema. The company also runs sales offices with warehouses in Kumasi, Takoradi, Koforidua and Tamale. The Company has invested some 130 billion cedis in 2004 and 2005 to

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increase its production capacity, particularly in the area of cocoa-based beverages, and to construct modern and efficient distribution facilities next to the factory in Tema. Nestlé employs 283,000 people worldwide, of whom approximately half are in developing countries. In Ghana, the company employs 1,000 people. Currently, the company, Nestle Ghana Ltd Accra is 76% foreign-owned and 24% Government owned through National Investment Bank. The Company markets well-known brands such as IDEAL Full Cream Evaporated Milk, CARNATION Filled Milk, Carnation Tea Creamer, MILO, CHOCOMILO, CHOCOLIM, CEREVITA Porridges, CERELAC Maize/Milk and CERELAC Wheat/ Milk. Nestlé Ghana also imports and distributes brands such as NIDO Milk Powder, LACTOGEN Infant Formula, NAN Infant Formula, NESCAFE Soluble Coffee, and MAGGI Bouillon’s and Cold Sauces and under the brand MAGGI Bouillons, Seasoning Powders such as NKRAKRA PA and Cold Sauces like KETCHUP, AROME and MAYONNAISE. (Nestle Ghana Ltd, Retrieved March 13, 2022, from https://www.ide.go.jp/English/Data/Africa_file/Company/ghana04. html#anchor1)

Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) In 1962, the Government of Ghana bought out A.G. Leventis and the Commonwealth Trust to establish the State-owned Ghana National Trading Corporation. The objective of the Corporation was to act as the medium for the supply of merchandise to a countrywide network of Ghanaian-owned, co-operative retail stores. In December 1961, import licensing had been introduced. This, and the policy of insisting that Government departments buy only from the Ghana National Trading Corporation, has accelerated the transfer of business from the smaller to the larger importers and from the expatriate to the State-controlled organisation (De Freitas, 1963, p. 291). The Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) had the largest Supermarket Chain in the country with outlets all over the country. GNTC also had divisions for Departments Stores, Commercial Merchandising (Wholesaling), Electronics, Technical, Motors, Bakery,

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Agri-business, Heavy Equipment, Bottling etc. These divisions and their departments sold all the foreign brands in their area of operation and therefore competed with Multi-Stores of CFAO, Kingsway of UAC, UTC, Glamour and the High Street outlets. Their main head office and store in the heart of the capital Accra became the heart of the capital. Ghana National Trading Corporation was divested with other state-­ owned companies from 1993 to 1999 (Ghana Divestiture Implementation Committee). Due to the size of the corporation, it was unbundled into smaller units so that Ghanaian investors could have a better chance of competing in their acquisition. The GNTC Bottling went to Coca Cola Ghana, and Heavy Equipment was taken over by Komatsu and later to ISUZU. The Department Stores were broken into small assets and sold and therefore could not compete as a Supermarket chain.

4.5 Post- Nkrumah era 1968–1973 After the government of the late President Dr Nkrumah, the promotion of indigenous private enterprise became one of the objectives of the then governments. In 1968, the ruling government issued both a policy and decree on the Ghanaianization of business and in 1970 passed the Ghanaian Business (Promotion) Act, 1970. (Grayson, 1974). This resulted in the Ghanaianized of the overseas business representation and speeded up the Ghanaianization of small retail trade. The ruling government also bared Ghanaians who will allow themselves to be used as ‘frontmen’ by foreign business interests and the unauthorized amalgamation of “reserved enterprises”, i.e., two retail establishments merged, or one acquiring the other, so that the annual turnover rose above the non-­ restricted category (Grayson, 1974). Thus, all the large and medium-­ sized firms, whether European (C.F.A.O., Paterson Simons, Paterson Zochonis, Lennards, S.C.O.A., U.T.C., U.A.C., etc.), Lebanese (El Nasr, M.  Captan, S.D.  Karam, Assad Fakhry, Fattal Bros., Nassar, etc.) or Indian (K. Chellaram, T. Chandiram, Glamour, etc.) were not affected by either the Decree or the Act.ll (Grayson, 1974, p. 2) Most of these were leading trading and retail firms in the country.

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4.6 The Post Diversification Era 2000–2020 This era follows the period after the reforms in the State Enterprises Commission and two diversification of processes in 1989–1992 and 1993–1999 where 59 and 149 state enterprises were divested from government ownership. These companies and units were taken over by foreigners and Ghanaian but none of them developed into Supermarket retail chains. With the drive for privatization and a return to democracy and good economic indicators, the Supermarket retail sector has begun to flourish once again. Some of the foreign-owned companies in the Supermarket sector took the lead in establishing chains. Indigenous Ghanaians set up Supermarkets with outlets in the Ghanaian capital, Accra and a couple of regional capitals Kumasi, Takoradi and Cape Coast in the South and Sunyani and Tamale in the middle and northern part of the country. Indigenous firms like A- Life with roots from Kumasi and White Hall emerged but encountered challenges with financing and had to go into administration. Whereas, Glamour Stores reinvented itself into the Melcom Stores chain (Currently the largest local Supermarket chain, even though the owners are Indians who came to Ghana in the 1940s). Also, the emerging competition and economic climate made some of the ‘indigenous Indian and Lebanese retailing firms go into mergers and acquisitions and names like Chellarams and S.D Karam were lost. The competition in the Supermarket retail sector has begun to intensify with the arrival of new foreign retail chains such as Shoprite (An South African multinational chain) and Palace Supermarket. Then, came the second wave of supermarket chains with indigenous and foreign partnerships MaxMart, GAME (South African retail chain), Shop n Save and SPAR Supermarket. Since 2010, these Supermarket chains have emerged as the top Supermarket chains in Ghana.

4.7 Major Players in Supermarkets Chains in Ghana The current major players in the Ghanaian Supermarket Chain sector are as follows:

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Melcom Stores Melcom Limited is part of a group of six companies which has a history from 1929. When Ghana was known as Gold Coast. The company started off as a retail partnership in 1946 as GLAMOUR store in the heart of the city of Accra, Ghana. The store opened three branches in succession. However, in 1948 the Christiansborg Crossroads Shooting occurred that ushered in Ghana’s quest for independence and resulted in the loss of law and order. The widespread looting caused the founders to lose everything and they became penniless overnight. In 1955 owners, who are from India, restarted their business operations as a garment factory and in 1979 started agribusiness operations as GLAMOUR poultry farm. In 1989 Melcom Limited was established which is now considered Ghana’s largest chain of retail stores (www.melcomonline.com). The company has captured an extensive retail market share with a network of 44 Melcom retail outlets and 3 Cash ‘n Carry stores spread all over Ghana (Melcom Limited), The company has the single largest shop in the nation (Melcom Plus in Kaneshie covering an area of over 130,000 square feet) (Culled from www. melcomgroup.com/melcomltd.php, Accessed March 13, 2022). Melcom Stores aim to be the preferred shopping destination for all Ghanaian customers, by offering quality products at affordable pricing. The chain of stores is known for offering the largest variety of goods under one roof (at last count over 25,000 items procured locally as well as from around the globe), Melcom has indeed become a household name in Ghana, where anything and everything required to furnish and run a home, school or business is readily available. By sourcing products from all over the world, Melcom offers shoppers a huge range of extremely affordable goods, leaving customers spoilt for choice. Also, with an increasing number of branches, Melcom goes the extra mile in giving additional benefits to its esteemed clientele with its various promotion schemes and loyalty super saver card. Melcom Stores operates a customer loyalty scheme with an electronic card known as the Melcom Super Saver Card. The customer loyalty scheme was launched on January 20, 2011, by Melcom Group in collaboration with Business & Finance Limited, United Bank for Africa (UBA)Ghana Limited and Entranzact (an online real payment system

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company). The Melcom Super Saver Card is positioned as a reward card and it offers customers a 5% discount on the entire purchase of GHS 150 (USD 20) and more when they shop in any Melcom store nationwide or on Melcom Online (the retailer’s online channel). Therefore, the more a customer purchases the more they are rewarded or saved. Melcom acknowledges that since they launched the Melcom Super Card they have realised an increase in their customer base loyal to their brand. Also, customers have been loyal to their brand even when they relocate to different areas in the cities and towns. In order to be part of the scheme, customers are required to visit a Melcom Stores outlet and collect an application form from the customer service desk, fill the form and make a payment of GHS 20 (USD 2.50). The Melcom Super Saver Card will be activated and issued to the customer in-store. Customers are required to provide their name, date of birth, address, email address, mobile phone number and a valid Identity card (Optional). As part of the retailer’s promotion of merchandise, cardholders enjoy special offers such as their “Market Day Wednesday” which is a promotion of merchandise every first and third Wednesday of the month. This promotion rewards the Super Saver Cardholder with a 10% discount on entire purchases of GHS 250 (USD 35). However, discounts with the Super Saver Card are not valid on promotional items or any special offers and a customer can only receive a discount offer when the Super Saver Card is available and presented at the point of sale (Checkout). The card cannot be used as a credit card or for store credits. From the Melcom website, “Melcom has partnered with top hotels, restaurants, gyms and spars etc to give customers the best deal outside Melcom with Super Saver Card. Example Highgate Hotel and Paloma Hotel. When a customer visits any of Melcom’s partners with the card he/she saves up to 33% instantly. (Culled from www.melcomgroup.com/melcomltd.php, Accessed March 13, 2022).

Palace Supermarket Palace Supermarket is a Ghanaian chain hypermarket owned by a Lebanese. The chain has five stores three hypermarkets and two supermarkets. Three hypermarkets are situated in Spintex Road (Main Branch), Tema, Community 25, Labone, Accra and a supermarket in Weija, Tetegu

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Junction is all in the capital, Accra. The other supermarket is situated at Dr Osei Tuffour Bypass in Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city in the Ashanti region. The chain has an online channel which was opened in 2020 (Culled from www.palacestores.com/beta, Accessed March 13, 2022). Palace Supermarket also operates a loyalty programme with an electronic card named the P-Club Loyalty Card. The loyalty card is a special discount card in that cardholders are given a 5% discount on their entire purchases with exception of the merchandise on special promotions. The discounts are automated and are earned on purchases in all Palace Group stores in the country. Customers become members of the loyalty scheme or the retailers’ reward system by applying for membership. Customers are required to go to the customer service desk of any of the Palace Supermarket outlets to apply. Customers will be given an application form where the application form requires the customers’ personal information. These are the name, telephone number and email address. Customers are then required to pay a registration fee of GHS 200 (USD 28). In the loyalty scheme, since the discount is on the entire purchase the more you buy the higher the reward or savings the customer makes. Also, purchases made by P-Club Cardholders collect points for their purchases and the more purchases the more points they collect. The points can be redeemed by customers on every purchase against the discount or points on the card. Other rewards include a movie card given to loyal cardholders to access movie houses that are partners of the loyalty scheme as part of the promotion. The P-Club card can be used on special promotions on merchandise. The P-Club cannot be used as a credit card and cannot be cumulated with another card. The card is the property of the Palace Supermarket Group and can be withdrawn at any time and the bearer should agree with the terms and conditions for the operation of the P-Club loyalty scheme (Culled from: www.palacestores.com/beta, Accessed March 13, 2022).

MaxMart Limited MaxMart Family Shopping Centre is a leading supermarket that deals in quality products from world-renowned manufacturers, ranging from food items including freshly baked products, household goods, electrical

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home appliances and a variety of items at the most affordable prices. MaxMart Limited is a subsidiary company of Kwatsons Ghana Limited, a 100% Ghanaian- owned wholesale company that deals in over 200 leading world-class brand names. MaxMart opened her first business operation to the general public on August 8th 2001, at 37 liberation road, opposite Golden Tulip Hotel, Accra. The dream of the mother company for setting up MaxMart was the need to fill the vacuum of a World-Class Standard facility of retail services in Ghana. Therefore, in 2003 the company adopted the trade name “MaxMart Family Shopping Centre” to consolidate its commitment to total excellent services to every member of the family. Their philosophy was “a promise of shopping excellence”. We, therefore, strive to always achieve excellence in everything we do. For this purpose, our products are sourced from reliable and properly guaranteed suppliers/manufacturers. MaxMart Family Shopping Centre has 4 main outlets: (1) 37 (Located opposite Golden Tulip Hotel) Accra; (2) East Legon (Located in the A&C Shopping Mall) near Christian Center; (3) Tema (Located in the Tema Central Mall) near the Oil Refinery; (4) Dzorwulu (Opposite Dzorwulu Junior High School). The company currently employ about 400 people, whose loyalty and dedication make it possible for us to provide you with the quality standards you so much deserve. MaxMart Family Shopping Centre represents Waitrose (A UK Supermarket Chain) and stocks their produce. A supermarket chain that champions British produce, treading lightly on the environment, supports responsible sourcing and treating people fairly, building long-term relationships with our farmers and suppliers, which help customers get the best possible food and drink to help them to live a healthier way (Culled from https://maxmartghana.com/, Accessed March 13, 2022). MaxMart positioned as a family Centre and a grocery Supermarket chain also runs a loyalty programme with two cards, the MaxMart Prestige Card and the MaxMart VIP card. Customers become members by applying for each card separately. Customers on the application are required to provide their name, telephone number and email address. Customers can become members of the MaxMart Prestige Card Club with a one-step registration and a payment of GHS 10 (USD 1.50).

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However, to qualify for a VIP Club Card customers are required to shop at any of the retailer’s outlets for the amount exceeding GHS 250 (USD 35). Customers will then be upgraded to VIP Club Card with a payment of GHS 20 (USD 2.50) as a registration fee. Customers using the MaxMart Prestige Card, on entire purchase of a minimum of GHS 70 (USD 10) on a day will be rewarded in-store by the retailer with a package of regular and or seasonal discounts determined by the retailer and partners of the loyalty scheme. The loyalty cards are the property of MaxMart Limited and can be withdrawn anytime if misused. Both cards cannot be used as credit cards and can be applied during special promotions. However, the cards cannot be cumulated with another card. Customers should agree to the terms and conditions of the retailer, MaxMart.

SPAR Supermarket In 2020, SPAR entered Ghana by taking over the 17 stores network of Citydia supermarket turning all of them into SPAR markets as a partnership with EcoDi (Economic Distribution Company Ghana), which launched the Citydia chain in the country in 2015 and was operational in 2016. From their website SPAR wants to enter the Ghanaian market, to focus on the Ghanaian people, highlighting its action on the elements of Value for money, Freshness and proximity (Culled from https://spar. com.gh/about-­us/, Accessed March 13, 2022). SPAR is an international group of independently owned and operated retailers and wholesalers who work together in partnership under the SPAR Brand to provide high quality, value for money shopping experience. SPAR founded in 1932 has extensive experience worldwide with a presence in 48 countries on four continents, with over 13,000 stores that serve more than 14.5 million consumers every day. In Africa, SPAR operates over 1,000 stores with the concept established based on wholesalers and retailers working in partnership to the benefit of all, including customers. The cornerstone of this partnership is a commitment to the open exchange of knowledge and information. Therefore, their taking over of Citydia Supermarkets is to strengthen the tents of Citydia which was

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founded in 1979 and listed on the Spanish stock exchange with just under 8000 stores across the world. It prides itself as Europe’s third-­ largest food sector franchiser. CITYDIA has the widest range of own brands selection such as Dia (Food groceries and Homecare), Bonte (Personal care), Baby Smile (Baby Care) and AS (Pet Care). In Ghana, the 17 stores are in four southern regions of Ghana with most of them in the capital Accra. In realising the need of Ghana shoppers to enjoy the best quality, proximity and price in retail stores, the founders of Citydia supermarkets with their global partners hope to bring world-class technology to drive the retailing capability and employment in Ghana. The Citydia Supermarkets had plans to open as many as 100 stores across Ghana in the coming years with some experience through the partnership with DIA GROUP.  In addition to the Citydia brands, national and other international known brands will be readily available. Anyone looking for a world-class supermarket experience in their neighbourhood, with 100% quality products and best prices (Culled from https://citydia.com.gh; https://www.linkedin.com/company/citydia-­supermarkets, Accessed March 13, 2022).

Shoprite Ghana Shoprite Ghana is a franchise of Shoprite Holdings Limited, a South African Supermarket Chain (Shoprite Checkers (Pty) Ltd) which opened its first stores in 1979 and currently has more than 2998 outlets in 15 countries across Africa and the Indian Oceans islands, employing over 147 000 people, the Group continues to seize new opportunities for growth and even greater success in years to come. The Group pride itself on the that 35 million people shop in their outlets every day. In 2009, the Group became South Africa’s largest grocery chain by market value and is added to the Merrill Lynch & Co. list of most preferred stocks. In Ghana, the first Shoprite Flagship store opened in Accra in 2007, after which they have opened 9 more stores across Accra, employing more than 600 people in the capital. In their commitment to supporting local enterprise, Shoprite has built relationships with leading Ghanaian

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suppliers, small businesses and farmers, securing a wide assortment of local brands. We’re driving the “Proudly Ghanaian” initiative. The shop has an online channel (Culled from https://www.shoprite.com.gh/, Accessed March 14, 2022). Shoprite’s made a promise of lower prices. This promise has formed the very foundation of their business and has helped them grow into Africa’s largest food retailer. Using their massive bulk buying power, they’re able to offer customers a world-class shopping experience on a variety of food products, household goods and small appliances at our lowest possible prices. At Shoprite, we are able to consistently offer customers savings on all your much-needed grocery items. And they also bring customers a range of quality products like their extramatured Steakhouse Classic Steaks, Wines from 10 of the world’s best wine-­producing countries, the finest Single Origin Roast Coffees, freshly baked breads and the freshest fruit and vegetables all year round (Culled from https://www.shoprite.com.gh/, Accessed March 14, 2022).

Shop n Save Shop n Save is a Ghanaian supermarket chain owned by a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin/Resident in Ghana. They currently have three branch stores, two in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. These are sited along the Spintex Road towards Sakumono and Madina. The other branch is situated at Apremedo in Takoradi the capital of the Western Region of Ghana. These stores cater for customers in their localities. The supermarket chain has a grocery section that sells everything by the case, or individually, and claims to have the cheapest prices in town. They offer a very good selection of the leading brands of packaged goods, have a limited selection of frozen goods, and a very large selection of wines which are very reasonably priced. Shop N Save hope to leave a lasting legacy by positioning itself to become the leading supermarket brand in the country. The chain has 90 per cent of its staff living in and around its area of operation, thus creating jobs in the area. Shop N Save prides itself to endeavour to go the extra mile to discover the needs of its clientele and to strive to satisfy them; to make an impact that mattered.

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GAME Game Stores is a subsidiary of the South African JSE listed company, Massmart Holdings. In 2011, Walmart acquired a majority stake in Massmart Holdings Limited, also known as The Group. Massmart is Africa’s third-largest distributor of consumer goods, the leading retailer of general merchandise, liquor and home improvement equipment and supplies, and the leading wholesaler of basic foods. Game’s plan is to put a smaller number of stores in several countries outside its home market of South Africa in a bid to create a larger international footprint. With Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya are targeted as strong markets for Game. Game has multiple stores in 11 African countries and is continually opening new stores across the continent. In Ghana, the discounter launched its first Game store in Ghana in 2007. Massmart now has four stores in Ghana—it’s first, in the modern Accra Mall, launched in 2007. Its second store launched in Kumasi City Mall, in Ghana’s second-largest city, in April 2017. Its third store, in West Hills Mall to the west of Accra, launched in September 2018 and has a floor space of 3,500 m2. Its latest store, in Achimota Mall (aka Achimota Retail Centre) in the north of Accra, opened in 2018. Massmart’s growth has been enabled by the emergence of new, premium malls in Ghana. Game is a promotionally driven discount retailer of predominantly general merchandise and non-­ perishable groceries for home, leisure and business use. Some Game Stores also stock a select range of fresh food, including fruit and vegetables, pre-packed meats and pre-baked goods (Sources include www. massmart.co.za, Accessed March 14, 2022).

4.8 Marketing in Supermarket Chains in Ghana Marketing practice in most industries within emerging market countries is in a stage where total and formal acceptance and understanding of the marketing concept is at an embryonic stage in the evolutionary process (Blankson & Coffie, 2019; Appiah-Adu & Singh, 2008; Owusu-­ Frimpong, 2001) since the adoption of the western model of marketing

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that has almost replaced the undocumented marketing practice that predates European disruption in African business and commerce. This has also left a legacy in marketing and consumerism in emerging markets, which has not been interrogated in emerging market literature of marketing or business history, especially in Ghana which started trading and retailing with European traders in the eighteenth century. To classify and enumerate the marketing practices of the Supermarkets in Ghana, we undertook a survey of the major supermarket retailers in Ghana. The study relied on the Coviello et al. (1997, p. 509) classification of marketing practice which was employed in the study of marketing practices towards a paradigm shift in marketing by Brodie et al. (1997). The classification scheme identified four distinct types of marketing Transactional Marketing, Database Marketing, Interaction Marketing and Network Marketing. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to collect data on participating firms’ demographic data, marketing practices, performance measures and type of technology used. Responding firms were also asked about their views of marketing, perceived changes to marketing practices, industry trends and the impact of technology on their organisation and industry. The questionnaire covered the twelve dimensions of marketing practice (Brodie et  al., 1997; Coviello et  al., 1997). The aim is to provide an understanding of contemporary marketing in the Ghanaian Supermarket by providing current and future practices and trends in marketing. The six main Supermarket chains are described under the section of major players in the Supermarket chains section and are Melcom, Shoprite, MaxMart, Palace, SPAR (Citydia) and Shop n Save (See section for details). The firms range in different sizes from less than 50 employees (17%) through up to 300 employees (33%) to over 1000 employees (33%) (See Table 4.1). Annual turnover range from Less than $10 million (50%) through up to $100 million (17%) to more than $100 million (33%). As expected these firms deal in consumer goods (FMCG); Fresh foods and Vegetables; Fish and Meat; Bakery; Office supplies and Equipment; Household goods (White goods—Fridges & Freezers etc); Furniture and Electricals (home appliances). The distribution of firms’ engagement in these categories is shown in Table 4.1. Also, their use of technology in their operations, the category of usage and the type of technology employed are presented in Table 4.1.

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Table 4.1  Characteristics of companies in the survey Percentage of respondents 1. Estimated number of employees: a. Less than 50 b. 50–100 c. 101–300 d. 301–500 e. 500–1000 f. Over 1000 2. Type of category goods stocked by the supermarket a. Consumer goods (FMCG) b. Fresh foods and Vegetable c. Fish and Meat d. Bakery e. Office supplies and Equipment f. Household goods (White good—Fridges & Freezers etc) g. Furniture h. Electricals 3. Classification of the use of technology by the supermarket chain. a. Low b. Average c. Advanced d. Very advanced 4. State the type of technologies employed by the supermarket chain. a. Cash registers b. Internet connectivity (Fibre broadband/VPN/ Others) c. Inventory software d. Supply Chain management software e. Accounting software f. Security equipment & software 5. What is the estimated annual turnover over? a. Less than $ 10 million b. $ 11–100 million c. Greater than $100 million

17% 0% 33% 17% 0% 33% 100%

100% 67% 67% 67% 33% 33% 17% 33%

0% 0% 50% 50% 100%

17% 33% 100% 17% 17% 17% 50% 17% 33% 100%

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Current Trends in Marketing Practice The four main types of marketing were found to exist to different degrees as measured in the survey. Transaction marketing is conceptualised as firms attracting and satisfying potential buyers by managing the elements in the marketing mix an approach that involves creating discrete economic transactions. In this type of marketing, buyers are kept passive in the relationship and the firms actively manage the exchange and communication with buyers. Firms are involved in four operational functions product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution to customers. Co-ordination with other functions in the firm is limited, and the planning horizon for this type of marketing is generally short term. Conviello et al. (1997) argue that for this type of marketing, activities are usually relegated to functional marketing areas, and managers focus on developing internal capabilities related to the 4Ps. It is important to note that consumer goods firms are known to indulge in this practice of transaction marketing (Gronroos, 1991). Therefore, as marketing evolves the marketing of Ghanaian Supermarket chains is still characterised by a high prevalence of transaction marketing as shown in Table 4.2. Database Marketing a form of Relational Marketing has been emerging in Ghanaian Supermarket Chains with the involvement of information and technology-based tools used by marketers (See Table 3.2). The literature posits that marketers engaging in this type of marketing rely on information technology, in the form of the emerging potentials of a database, the Internet and mobile phone technology to form a type of relationship, allowing firms to compete in a manner different from “mass marketing” (Brodie et al., 1997; Coviello et al., 1997). Also, Interaction Marketing which is face-to-face interaction within relationships is very Table 4.2  Variations in marketing types in the Top 6 supermarket chains in Ghana Prevalence in industry

Transaction marketing

Database marketing

Interaction marketing

Network marketing

Low Medium High Total

0% 0% 100% 100%

17% 17% 67% 100%

0% 0% 100% 100%

17% 17% 67% 100%

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highly prevalent in the sector (see Table 3.2). This form of marketing has been known to be an extension of the general cultural interaction of the Ghanaian consumer and is prevalent in the African markets and culture (Appiah-Adu & Singh, 2008; Blankson & Omar, 2002). It is a process involving individuals who initiate and handle complex personal interactions. The relationship is based on social exchange, involving trust, mutual orientation, dependence, satisfaction, commitment, and adaptation (Brodie et al., 1997; Coviello et al., 1997). The emergence of Network Marketing in the sector is captured in Table 4.2. This type of marketing occurs across organisations, where firms commit resources to develop positions in a network of relationships. It is accomplished through business and social transactions over time, as a result of developing and maintaining relationships. Network marketing is more strategic in orientation, as compared to Transaction and Database marketing. These developments evidence the emerging nature of marketing practice in the Ghanaian Supermarket chains sector as it evolves (Kumara et al., 2015; Ganesan et al., 2009).

Major Trends in Marketing Practice As marketing practice evolves in the Ghanaian Supermarket sector, we endeavoured to gain a perspective on the current major marketing trends (Blankson & Coffie, 2019). Data from our survey of the six top Supermarket chains which was analysed show the responses of the firms as presented in Table  4.3. Firms were asked to rank the occurrence of these trends in their daily practice in the sector. On the broad trends, “increased use of technology for advertising” and “communication” had the highest ranking from all the participating firms with ‘Clients rely on us” in the development of relationships. The market is becoming very competitive with “Increased competition, fight for share and more new “products” and “offerings” emerging with 100% of the companies ranking them as high. “Price wars (competing with others on price)” follow from focusing on their customers. This has also led to the emergence of “development of loyalty programmes”, “more direct marketing” and “Promotions on loyalty cards” all recording high occurrence from 83% of

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Table 4.3  Ranking of major marketing trends occurring in the supermarket industry in Ghana by respondents (a) Development of relationships with value-added services Technology and knowledge sharing: Partnerships Relationships with mass markets Co-operating to add value Clients rely on us (b) Customer focused on cost, price; price sensitive Retail margins eroding; Margin cuts to win accounts: Price wars (Competing with others on price) (c) Increased competition; fight for share; more new Products, offerings (d) Increased use of technology for advertising and Communication (e) Development of loyalty programmes; More direct marketing Promotions on the loyalty cards (f) Customers more knowledgeable, demanding

High

Medium Low

67%

33%

0%

83% 83% 50% 67% 100% 67% 50% 50% 83% 83% 100% 100% 100% 83% 83% 83% 83%

17% 17% 33% 33% 0% 33% 50% 50% 17% 0% 0% 0% 0% 17% 17% 17% 0%

0% 0% 17% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 17% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 17%

the top six Supermarket chains. Other important trends are building “partnerships”, “Technology and knowledge sharing” and “Customers more knowledgeable and demanding” also recording high occurrence from 83% of the firms as shown in Table 4.3.

Future Marketing Practice From the survey of the top six Supermarket chains, respondents were asked to rank major changes and suggest major changes in marketing practice that they expect from that to become triggers for future marketing practice trends (As shown in Table 4.4) (Mukherjee et al., 2014). The following trends were scored high on all the participating firms (100%): “Developing relational philosophy: development of one to one relationship; alliances; working with customers; drive to a personal level”; “Increased segmentation/niching; more segmentation; customer targeting; value-added to more important customers”; “Increased

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Table 4.4  Ranking of major changes in marketing occurring in the supermarket industry in Ghana by respondents (a) Changing resources/structure: more focused marketing resources and structure; changed structure, objectives; specific marketing person appointed (b) Developing relational philosophy: development of one to one relationships; alliances; working with customers; drive to a personal level (c) Increased segmentation/niching; more segmentation; customer targeting; value-added to more important customers (d) Changing market orientation: more focused on customers; customer-oriented (e) Increased measurability/accountability: increased reporting of sales and profit; more accountability in decision-making; more performance tracking; more planning (f) Increased use of technology: more technologically advanced; use of email; new information system; more proactive on innovation and technology.

High

Medium Low

67%

0%

33%

100% 0%

0%

100% 0%

0%

83%

0%

17%

100% 0%

0%

100% 0%

0%

measurability/accountability: increased reporting of sales and profit; more accountability in decision-making; more performance tracking; more planning.” and “Increased use of technology: more technologically advanced; use of email; new information system; more proactive on innovation and technology.” As market practise is evolving in the sector, firms are more focused on major short term trending triggers and therefore, “Changing market orientation: more focused on customers; customer-­ oriented” is still emerging with 83% of the firms ranking it as high. Also, long term triggers such as “Changing resources/structure: more focused marketing resources and structure; changed structure, objectives; specific marketing person appointed” were ranked as high by only 67% of the respondents. As an emerging country, these trends are important triggers for the development of the Supermarket chain retail sector and promising improvements in the future (Blankson & Coffie, 2019; Appiah-Adu & Singh, 2008).

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4.9 Chapter Concluding Statement This chapter introduces the Ghanaian Supermarket industry, giving the trade patterns and players pre-independence. This is to give the evolution of supermarket trading in the country from the Gold Coast era to the current era. The history of Supermarkets in Ghana shows the long relationships current Ghana has had with foreign trade partners which have shaped local consumerism and buyer behaviour which have perpetuated the craving and demand for foreign consumer goods in the Ghanaian Supermarket industry. The evolution of the industry which is tied to the socio-political development and economy of Ghana is also presented as periods of significant developments that directly impacted the supermarket retail chain industry. The emerging major players after the year 2000 have been presented and the current trends in marketing practice in the Supermarkets are presented from a survey of the top six Supermarket chains in the country. Also, major trends in marketing practice have been enumerated from the results of the survey and future marketing practice trends identified. These will lead us to the current infrastructure for Supermarkets Chains in Ghana for the current competition in the next chapter and enable the development of the next generation of Supermarket marketing in the proceeding chapters.

References Appiah-Adu, K., & Singh, S. (2008). The current marketing practices in Ghana. In Business practices in emerging and re-emerging markets. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230611016_8 Blankson, C., & Coffie, S. (2019). Branding and positioning in base of the pyramid markets in Africa: Innovative approaches (Routledge Studies in Marketing). Routledge. Blankson, C., & Omar, O.  E. (2002). Marketing practices of African and Caribbean small businesses in London, UK. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 5(2), 123–134.

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Brodie, R. J., Coviello, N. E., Brookes, R. W., & Little, V. (1997). Towards a paradigm shift in marketing? An examination of current marketing practices. Journal of Marketing Management, 13, 383–406. Coviello, N. E., Brodie, R. J., & Munro, H. J. (1997). Understanding contemporary marketing: Development of a classification scheme. Journal of Marketing Management, 13(6), 501–522. https://doi.org/10.108 0/0267257X.1997.9964490 De Freitas, G. (1963, October). Britain and Ghana’s economy. African Affairs, 62(249), 290–299. Ganesan, S., George, M., Jap, S., Palmatier, R. W., & Weitz, B. (2009). Supply chain management and retailer performance: Emerging trends, issues, and implications for research and practice. Journal of Retailing., 85(1), 84–94. Grayson, L.  E. (1974). The promotion of indigenous private enterprise in Ghana. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 9(1), 17. Gronroos, C. (1991). The marketing strategy continuum: Towards a marketing concept for the 1990s. Management Decision, 29(1), 7–13. Kumara, V., Sunderc, S., & Sharmac., A. (2015). Leveraging distribution to maximize firm performance in emerging markets. Journal of Retailing, 91(4), 627–643. Macmillan, A. (1920). The red book of West Africa (pp. 63–118). Frank Cass. Mukherjee, M., Cuthbertson, R., & Howard, E. (Eds.). (2014). Retailing in emerging markets: A policy and strategy perspective. Routledge. Murillo, B. (2011, June). “The devil we know”: Gold coast consumers, local employees, and the United Africa Company, 1940–1960. Enterprise & Society, 12(2), 317–355. Nii Kwabena Bonne III. (1963, December). The Boycott of 1948. The Ghanaian, 6(12), 10. Owusu-Frimpong, N. (2001). An evaluation of marketing practices in banks in Ghana. Journal of African Business, 2(3), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1300/ J156v02n03_05 Taylor, J. (2017). Retail foods Report. Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN), USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Trentmann, F. (2006). The modern genealogy of the consumer: Meanings, identities and political synapses. In J. Brewer & F. Trentmann (Eds.), Consuming cultures, global perspectives (pp. 19–69). Berg. Werlin, H. H. (1973, March). The consequences of corruption: The Ghanaian experience. Political Science Quarterly, 88(1), 71–85.

5 The Current Supermarket Chains Marketing Infrastructure in Ghana

5.1 Introduction This chapter seeks to discuss the current infrastructure for marketing in Ghana as a case for emerging market countries. The Ghanaian retail sector is currently valued at US$24.4  billion and it is projected to hit US$33.16 billion by 2024 making it a vibrant and expanding sector. The chapter begins with the infrastructure for location and floor space, available internet and mobile telephone infrastructure penetration and usage, and traditional media available infrastructure for radio and television services. Then, discusses advertising infrastructure looking at outdoor and indoor and the newspaper industry infrastructure. The chapter then concludes by discussing Ghana’s new digital addressing system and the digital marketing opportunities of “geofencing” marketing and customer segmentation for marketing intelligence and insight into Supermarket Chains’ marketing.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_5

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5.2 Location and Shop Floor Space The literature on retailing makes shop floor space and location very critical infrastructural requirements (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013). Most of the major Supermarket chain players have their own premises for their operations but as they expand more suitable locations with ample floor space are acquired by purchase which is capital intensive or rented which is more of a global industry norm. In addition, to the old style of operations of the Supermarket Chain operator looking for and creating an environment suitable for retailing, a new trend is emerging with the modernisation of these processes. The concept of mall retailing has emerged with the development of malls as centres for retailing in and out of Accra the capital of Ghana as documented by Taylor (2017). Currently, there are four main malls in Accra, the West Hills Mall with a floor space of 27,300 square meters on the Accra-Cape Coast highway which opened on October 30, 2014, and has Shoprite and Palace in addition to over 63 line shops. The aforementioned malls are followed by Accra Mall (22,900 square meters), Achimota Mall (13,000 square meters), A&C Square Mall (10,000 square meters) and the Oxford Street Mall (6230 square meters) in the order of the floor space they offer. The second-largest city which is also the regional capital of the Ashanti region also has the Kumasi City Mall with a floor space of 27,500 square meters. This trend is expected to continue with other regional capitals seeking malls as centres for retailing and socialisation to increase the national floor space or the gross leasable area for Supermarket retailing. Thus, more malls are set to open in the coming months as the Ghanaian economy recovers and more institutional investors with international funds focus on the retail industry.

5.3 Internet Infrastructure for Supermarket Chains Marketing As stated in Chap. 4, all the leading Supermarket Chains have websites and online channels of various degrees of sophistication to cater for the increasing size of the middle class’s preference for shopping and

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preparation convenience in addition to the brick-and-mortar formats. This, therefore, requires a growing demand for communication infrastructure. Currently, in Ghana, there are four main mobile service operators with the following voice subscription market shares at the end of 2021: MTN (56.53%); Vodafone (22.87%); AirtelTigo (18.48%) and Glo (2.12%) (NCA, 2021a). In 2021, the National Communications Authority in Ghana recorded penetration rates (i.e. the total number of mobile subscriptions per every 100 inhabitants in a geographical area) of the following subscriptions of 135.67% in mobile voice, 1.03% in fixed voice, 75.62% mobile data, 0.03% fixed data and 0.17% Broadband wireless access (NCA, 2021a) for its population of over 30 million. These were generally higher than in 2020 with the exception of mobile data subscriptions. From Table 5.1 there is a general increase in subscriptions to communication services to drive the demand for the supermarket chain industry’s online services. These levels of penetration rates of communication services have been supported by a growing infrastructure in the communications industry. In 2016 Ghana has six (6) Mobile network operators, two (2) Fixed network operators, and three (3) Broadband Wireless Access service providers. These service providers have increased to five (5) Broadband Wireless Access Service operators, three (3) Fixed network operators and decreased to four (4) Mobile network operators (Due to mergers and acquisitions) in 20,221. Table 5.2 shows the trend in service providers from 2016 to 2021. In addition, this infrastructure is supported by three (3) Tower infrastructure companies, five (5) international Submarine Cables and ten (10) Domestic Fibre operators as of 2017. Table 5.1  Penetration rates (%) (teledensity) of communication services in Ghana Penetration rate (%) Mobile Voice Subscription Fixed Voice Subscription Mobile Data Subscription Fixed Data Subscription Broadband Wireless Access

YEAR 2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

133.30 1.00 79.94 0.32 0.33

130.90 0.91 69.22 0.32 0.37

136.7 0.97 83.37 0.19 0.31

134.82 0.95 91.9 0.2 0.16

131.28 0.98 83.98 0.26 0.14

135.67 1.03 75.62 0.3 0.17

Source: Third Quarter Data from National Communication Authority (NCA, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021a)

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Table 5.2  Service providers in operation in Ghana Operator / Service Providers Mobile Network Operators Fixed Network Operators Broadband Wireless Access

Year 2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

6 2 3

6 2 3

5 2 3

4 3 5

4 3 5

4 3 5

Source: National Communication Authority Statistical Bulletins (NCA, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021a) Table 5.3  Total subscriptions of internet and mobile telephone services Subscriptions

Year 2016

Mobile Voice Subscription Fixed Voice Subscription Mobile Data Subscription Fixed Data Subscription Broadband Wireless Access

UNITS 2017

2018 40.05

2019 40.46

2020

37.23

37.44

254.00

286.00

283.0

19.33

22.86

24.4

27.58

25.81

23.29

Million

87.00

91.00

57.0

59.4

78.92

92.75

Thousand

102.00

94.00

91.0

49.36

52.6

53.04

Thousand

285.9

40.35

2021 41.78

299.96 317.17

Million Thousand

Source: National Communication Authority Statistical Bulletins (NCA, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021a)

With this growing communication infrastructure, consumers of Supermarket Chains can be reached through the online and mobile telephone channels and payments are made through the growing mobile payment systems. Online and mobile telephone areas have been growing steadily in the last decade with total subscriptions reaching 41.78 Million subscribers in 2021 from 37.23 Million subscribers in 2016. Fixed Voice subscription increased from 254.00 Thousand in 2016 to 317.17 Thousand in 2021. Mobile Data subscription has increased from 19.33 Million in 2016 to 23.29 Million in 2021 and Fixed Data Subscription from 87.00 Thousand in 2016 to 92.75  Million in 2021. Nominally, Broadband Wireless Access subscription has decreased from 102.00 Million in 2016 to 53.04 Million in 2021. These trends are presented in Table 5.3.

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To further elucidate this growing trend of online and mobile telephone access and usage, data from the National Communications Authority on traffic in these media channels for voice, data and SMS are steadily on the rise. Mobile Voice traffic for domestic usage increased from 12.78 Billion minutes in 2016 to 27.57 Billion minutes in 2021, an increase of 115.72%. Mobile data traffic increased from 20.51  Billion MB in 2016 to 249.01  Billion MB, an increase of 1114%. Even though Broadband Wireless Access subscription seems to be decreasing, traffic increased from 2.97  Billion MB in 2016 to 7.36  Billion MB in 2021, an increase of 147%. Incoming international traffic (Direct to Network only) has decreased from 144.20 Million minutes in 2016 to 55.16 Million minutes in 2021 a decrease of 161.42%. Short Message Service (SMS) usually used by Supermarkets to alert consumers and promote new product offerings generally increased from 455 Million counts to 547.43 Million counts in 2021, an increase of 20.31%. The trends are presented in Table 5.4. Thus, the general availability of internet networks and mobile phone applications set the marketing in Supermarkets in emerging economies like Table 5.4  Voice, data and SMS traffic in Ghana Traffic

Year 2016

Mobile Voice Traffic (Domestic) Fixed Voice Traffic Incoming International Traffic (Direct to Network Only) Outgoing International Traffic Mobile Data Traffic (MB) Broadband Wireless Access Data Traffic (MB) SMS Count

Units 2017

2018 2019

2020

12.78

16.17

17.4

20.8

25.23

48.80

14.50

12.0

15.79

9.09

144.20 116.50 100.0

61.02

54.31

2021 27.57 Billion minutes 8.87 Million minutes 55.16 Million minutes

178.20 141.80 151.0 128.32 116.24 113.05 Million minutes 20.51

39.74

65.9

2.97

3.92

1.4

455

456

89.86 199.5 4.11

0.626 700.6

6.13

249.01 Billion MB 7.36 Billion MB

483.27 547.43 Million

Source: National Communication Authority Statistical Bulletins (NCA, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021a)

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Table 5.5  Traditional media service providers in operation in Ghana Operator / Service Providers Television Stations FM Stations

Year 2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

35 354

53 367

65 370

96 380

102 446

111 488

Source: National Communication Authority Statistical Bulletins (NCA, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021a)

Ghana on the path of moving from traditional marketing into the new digital marketing era (Kotler et al., 2017; Barker et al., 2017; Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016; Evans, 1999; Blattberg et al., 1994; Robins, 1993).

5.4 Traditional Media Infrastructure for traditional media has not been left behind even though the younger generations have been known to gravitate toward the internet and the enormous opportunities it presents. This section will discuss the traditional media infrastructure in three sections: Radio, TV and Advertising boards. Generally, Radio and Television have seen an increase in the number of service providers and the deployment of cutting-edge infrastructure. The number of service providers for Television increased from 35 in 2016 to 111 in 2021, an increase of 217.14%. Also, the radio which has seen an industry shift in technology from Short Wave frequency (SW) to the Modular Frequency (FM) technology experienced an increase in the number of providers for FM radio stations from 354 in 2016 to 488 in 2021 posting an increase of 37.85%. Table 5.5 presents the trends in the number of service providers from 2016 to 2021. These are the authorised stations by the National Communications Authority and do not include unlicensed TV and Radio service providers on the internet.

5.5 Radio Stations For Radio stations, the figures in Table 5E are the total service providers in Ghana. To further shed more light on these numbers and make them relevant for Supermarket Chain's marketing, the radio stations are

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classified by purpose and by geographical (regional) location in Ghana. From the National Communications Authority, authorisation has been given to operators for the following radio stations (NCA, 2021b): (1) Public Radio Stations—Thirty-One (31) stations owned and operated by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC, The National Broadcasting Corporation); (2) Public (Foreign) Radio Stations- Five (5) stations established by Foreign Governments through diplomatic arrangements to rebroadcast/relay content from foreign countries e.g. BBC, RFI, VoA.; (3) Community Radio Stations—One Hundred and Fourteen (114) non-profit broadcasting service stations provided for a specific marginalised community by a radio or television station whose ownership and management are representative of the community for which the service is provided.; (4) Campus Radio Stations—Twenty-Four (24) stations operated within the ambit of educational institutions; and (5) Commercial Radio Stations—Five Hundred and Ten (510) stations that are privately owned and operated for-profit and controlled privately by independent commercial groups or individuals. A classification of radio stations by region in Ghana is shown in Table 5.6. Currently, the leading commercial FM radio stations are mainly located in the country’s capital. The stations and their owner companies are PeaceFM (Despite Music Production Ltd); Citi FM (Omni Media Company Limited); Joy FM (Multimedia Broadcasting Company Limited); Accra FM (Class Media Group); Asempa FM (Bell Communications Limited/ Multimedia Broadcasting Company Limited); and Sunny FM (Sky Broadcasting Company) in no chronological order. Also, each region of the country has a leading radio station usually based in the regional capital. Important media houses with ownership of a bouquet of media stations are Multimedia Broadcasting Company Limited, Despite Media Group, Media General, Class Media Group and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. Also, radio stations are further classified by geodemographic locations (NCA, 2021b). These are (1) Urban Type 1—stations located in major metropolitan assemblies e.g. Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi (Regional Capitals); (2) Urban Type 2—stations located in metropolitan cities that are not as economically viable as the large regional capital cities such as Tamale and Cape Coast, as well as the other regional capitals such as

3 3 1 2 2 3 1 2 3 31

51 11 13 34 32 45 14 83 24

684

2 1 2 0 2 2 2

5

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

1 0 0 0 0 0 3

Public Public (foreign)

114

9 4 5 9 11 4 3 8 0

14 6 4 1 13 13 10 37 4 7 20 17 37 10 70 21 510

24

78 47 24 11 38 34 55

2 0 0 3 2 1 0 2 0

4 2 0 0 3 1 4

489

27 8 3 22 18 37 9 56 17

79 40 26 8 39 38 62

Total no. In Community Campus Commercial operation

Source: National Communications Authority (NCA) (2021b)

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

99 56 30 12 56 50 74

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ashanti Bono Bono East Ahafo Central Eastern Greater Accra Northern Savannah North East Upper East Upper West Volta Oti Western Western North Total

Total no. Authorised

Name of No. regions

Table 5.6  Summary statistics of FM stations in Ghana by regions and classification (2021)

195

24 3 10 12 14 8 5 27 7

20 16 4 4 17 12 12

Total no. Not in operation

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Koforidua, Sekondi, Ho, Bolgatanga, Sunyani, and Wa.; (3) Sub-Urban Type 1—stations located in the capital of some municipal assemblies and some major towns, e.g. Tarkwa, Oda, Berekum etc.; (4) Sub-Urban Type 2—Stations locations that have moderate economic activity and moderate population, including some district capitals such as Bibiani, Sefwi Bekwai, Somanya etc.; and (5) Rural—The rest of the country. Therefore, radio media provides national coverage and is an important media channel for the Supermarket Chain in the country.

5.6 Television Stations For Television stations also, the figures in Table 5E are the total service providers in Ghana. The television industry services are classified by the technology employed as follows: Analogue Terrestrial Television; Digital Terrestrial Free-To-Air Television Programme Channel (Nationwide Coverage); Digital Terrestrial Free-To-Air Television Programme Channel (Regional Coverage); Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service and Frequency); Digital Terrestrial Radio Service on TV Multiplex; Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV Direct-To-Home Bouquet); Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-To-Air Direct-To-Home Bouquet); Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-To-Air Direct-To-Home Single Channel); Digital Cable Television; Television over Internet Protocol (Pay TV); Subscription Management Service for a Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV Direct-To-Home Bouquet); Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service only); Digital Terrestrial Television (Network only); Digital Terrestrial Television Additional Services (e.g.Teletext, etc.); and Digital Terrestrial Mobile Television Service (Stand-alone Authorisation). In Ghana, the Analogue Terrestrial Television Stations which are TV stations that are transmitted as analogue waveforms and received using common aerials on a TV set, are being migrated from analogue to digital to comply with the Geneva 2006 Agreement of the International Telecommunications Union. By the end of 2021, the National Communications Authority (NCA) has given authorisation to 140 service providers of which 111 TV stations are in operation (NCA, 2021a). The distribution of these TV stations by type of service is shown in

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Table 5.7. Therefore, the TV media channel provides national coverage and is an important cutting-edge media channel for the Supermarket Chain in the country.

5.7 Advertising Infrastructure The country Ghana has a vibrant advertising and marketing communication sector with a very visible professional association, the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG). The association has over 53 member organisations across the country. This industry association represents Ghana’s marketing communication interest to government and media owners to set operational standards for the industry in Ghana. The industry has invested in both indoor and outdoor advertising and marketing communication infrastructure from the traditional billboards to the cutting-edge electronic displays at selected vantage areas in the country. The advertising and marketing communications sector also leverages the infrastructure in the communications sector (i.e., internet, telephone, radio, television, print media etc) to provide services for their customers of which the Supermarket chains are important stakeholders. Also, the print media is a thriving industry with over fifty (50) newspapers led by key national newspapers (Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, The Mirror etc) and privately-owned newspapers (Daily Statesman, Daily Guide, Ghanaian Chronicle, Business and Financial Times etc). These newspapers are categorised into dailies, weeklies, bi-weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies with sectors such as General News, Financial, Entertainment and Leisure and Sports. Most of these newspapers are in the transition of adding online channels and providing advertising space and marketing communications on them. The national newspapers have national coverage with most of the others covering the capital Accra and reaching the regional capitals. This, therefore, provide the infrastructure for marketing communications and advertising for Supermarket chains in Ghana.

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Table 5.7  List of authorised TV stations in Ghana as of 2021 Type of Television Service Analogue Terrestrial Television Digital Terrestrial Free-To-Air Television Programme Channel (Nationwide Coverage) Digital Terrestrial Free-To-Air Television Programme Channel (Regional Coverage) Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service only) Digital Terrestrial Pay Television (Service and Frequency) Digital Terrestrial Television (Network only) Digital Terrestrial Radio Service on TV Multiplex Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV Direct-To-Home Bouquet) Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-To-Air Direct-To-Home Bouquet) Satellite Television Broadcasting (Free-To-Air Direct-To-Home Single Channel) Digital Terrestrial Television Additional Services (e.g. Teletext, etc.) Digital Terrestrial Mobile Television Service (Stand-alone Authorisation) Digital Cable Television Television over Internet Protocol (Pay TV) Subscription Management Service for a Satellite Television Broadcasting (Pay TV DirectTo-Home Bouquet) Total

Authorised TV Stations

No. of TV Stations in Operation

2 36

2 36

6

6

0

0

5

5

0

0

8

2

3

3

9

6

68

48

0

0

0

0

1 1

1 1

1

1

140

111

Source: National Communications Authority (NCA, 2021a)

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5.8 Ghana’s Digital Addressing System A new and important infrastructure to drive Supermarket retail marketing is Ghana’s Digital Addressing System (Kotler et al., 2017; Blattberg et  al., 1994). The need to locate and where to locate a retail outlet in retailing is a key factor in the success of a retail undertaking (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015). The importance of business location has led to the development of theories (Yıldız & Tüysüz, 2019; Levy & Weitz, 2009; Cox & Brittain, 2004) about the importance and how to determine the optimal location for retail outlets and products led by seminal works such as Pyle (1926) and Hutchinson (1940). Some of these theories are spatial interaction theory, central place theory and the principle of minimum differentiation; and bid rent theory (Reigadinha et  al., 2017; Brown, 1993). Retailing literature treats location as a cardinal requirement in retail management (Reigadinha et  al., 2017; Cox & Brittain, 2004; Bennison et  al., 1995; Davies & Rogers, 1984), with research at the national and regional levels (Karande & Lombard, 2005; Reimers & Clulow, 2004) and micro-level locations within planned shopping centres and unplanned shopping districts (Wood & Browne, 2007; Reimers & Clulow, 2004; Mejia & Benjamin, 2002; Brown, 1994) to minimize consumers’ shopping effort in Supermarkets Chains. The emergence of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools has provided modern and alternative sophisticated methodologies to research retail outlet locations (Birkin et al., 2002; Wang et al., 2014; Roig-Tierno et al., 2013; Önden et al., 2012; Robins, 1993). However, with the GIS tools search for the location of outlets, another perspective has arisen in marketing analytics with the emerging technologies to locate the consumer for digital marketing (Hemann & Burbary, 2013). This new and emerging perspective has made “location” a desired word and concept in retailing enabling the transition from the virtual world back into geolocation space. A part of this complexity has been researched by Formanek and Sokol (2022) by looking at the Geo-spatial and socio-demographic determinants of sales dynamics in brick-and-mortar retail stores. This study employs sales data and publicly available geo-located information (GIS) to evaluate store effects. This is a new emerging strand of research termed

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spatial interaction modelling (SIM) used to predict expenditure flows from customers in a geospatial area towards different retail stores (Hood et al., 2021; Beckers et al., 2021). Another area of application of Geographic Information System (GIS) tools is in the area of segmentation of consumers to provide market intelligence and market insight (Beckers et al., 2021; Hood et  al., 2020, 2021; Robins, 1993) especially in geodemographic systems such as the ACORN (A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods) (Wedel & Kamakura, 1999; Gunter & Furnham, 1992). The drawback to optimising the use of the concept of location in retailing in most emerging countries is the challenge with the geographical address infrastructure. What is compounding these challenges is the development of Email technology which has impacted by reducing mails in the postal system and making most National Postal Service Agencies lose consumers and Governments unwilling to increase support for these agencies. These agencies traditionally were one of the main stakeholders in the address infrastructure in most emerging countries. The other is the local government (Municipal, Metropolitan, and District assemblies). Therefore, the diminishing role and importance of these post agencies greatly affect the use and maintenance of the address infrastructure in most emerging countries as the national postal agencies are having challenges restricting themselves from the emerging courier services market now driven by the emerging online marketing. An addressing infrastructure which consists of a set of systems, facilities, databases and processes needed to identify locations of buildings, dwellings and general structures in a geographical location is considered an important critical infrastructure in any economy. Thus, its non-­ existence or poor functionality poses danger to security and loss of enormous economic value (i.e., collection of local taxes, property taxes, delivery of services and generally enabling commercial transactions etc). The Ghana Government through the National Postal Agency, GhanaPost, 2017 launched a Ghana Digital Addressing System known as the “GhanaPostGPS” for the country. This new addressing system is based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and divides the country into 5 metres by 5 metres square grids. Each grid is then coded with a unique address code to form the addressing system. This addressing system, therefore, produces unique digital addresses for any structure or location to the

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25 metres square unit level. The system has three sections with two hyphens joining them into one. The first two sections form the postcode and are made up of two letters, the first denoting the region and the second letter the district. A second section is a three-character number depicting the area code. The third section of the address is a four-­character number representing the unique address of the location. Thus, with a district-level map of Ghana with a well “geofenced” (location-­based services; which allows the detection of entering and leaving of specific small geographic areas to produce an event) district boundaries (Küpper et al., 2011), Supermarket Chains operate consumer loyalty cards using this digital addressing system can engage in “geofencing” mobile technologyenabled marketing (Zuva & Zuva, 2019; Statler, 2016). Also, the strength of this digital addressing system in Supermarket marketing lies in the profiling of customers, engaging in geodemographic analysis for a retail location and enhancing spatial interaction modelling (SIM) in retailing. For marketing purposes, especially in Supermarket Chains, valid consumer addresses can be used to deliver goods and services bought online as the online channel segment grows. Also, promotions of goods and services can be delivered to loyal or targeted consumers of the Supermarket Chains (Plimmer, 2010; Humby et  al., 2007; Seth & Randall, 1999). This is important as illustrated in Chaps. 2 and 3 with the importance of customer loyalty schemes in Supermarket marketing and promotions; and supermarket loyalty programme implementation (Worthington & Hallsworth, 1999; Evans, 1999; Neslin et al., 1994; Blattberg et al., 1994). In addition, the next level of use which is emerging in Supermarket marketing is to use addresses to demarcate their catchment area to understand the terrain and competition (Pal & Bennison, 1997).

5.9 Chapter Concluding Statement For an emerging economy, this chapter demonstrated the strides been made in the development of infrastructure in general and especially the infrastructure that has profound effects on driving marketing in the Supermarket retail industry. The developments on the internet and the growing trends in its subscription and usage present enormous options

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and possibilities for online advertising and the evolving online shopping with its associated consumer culture as an alternative to traditional shopping for Supermarket chains. The opportunities and path for further development of digital marketing and online marketing using the internet and the various services of the increasing service options of television provide new alternatives to the traditional marketing of Supermarkets. Also, the improving and increasing availability of internet networks and the mobile telephone penetration in the population provide opportunities for mobile phone application development and usage in leveraging mobile payment systems to enhance transactions in retailing and Supermarket retailing chains. Other opportunities such as the current availability of cheaper RFID based applications enhance commerce with the provision of contactless smart cards and identification to enhance Supermarket chain operations with cutting-edge payment systems and invention systems (Finkenzeller, 2003). The thriving traditional media has been discussed with the possibilities it offers for Supermarket advertising and marketing communications through outdoor and indoor advertising infrastructure availability, the newspaper industry and infrastructure and the leveraging of infrastructure in the communication industry such as the internet, mobile telephone, radio and emerging television services. The development of the Ghana Digital Addressing system will enhance commerce in Supermarket chains and provide a drive for the effective implementation of loyalty schemes since most of the leading Supermarket chains have started and operating loyalty card schemes for their customers. The addressing system when overlaid with socio-demographic data will open opportunities for a new generation of target marketing by Supermarket chains. This will be discussed in the next chapter.

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Hood, N., Urquhart, R., Newing, A., & Heppenstall, A. (2020). Sociodemographic and spatial disaggregation of e-commerce channel use in the grocery market in Great Britain. J. Retailing Consum. Serv., 55, 102076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102076 Humby, C., Hunt, T., & Philips, T. (2007). Scoring points; How TESCO continues to win customer loyalty (2nd ed.). Kogan Page London. Hutchinson, K. D. (1940). Traffic and trade correlations: A technique in store location. Journal of Marketing, 5(2), 137–142. Karande, K., & Lombard, J. R. (2005). Location strategies of broad-line retailers: An empirical investigation. Journal of Business Research, 58(5), 687–695. Kotler, P., Katarjaya, H., & Setiawan, I. (2017). Marketing 4.0: Moving from traditional to digital. Wiley & Sons. Küpper, A., Bareth, U., & Freese, B. (2011, October). Geofencing and background tracking–the next features in LBSs. In Proceedings of the 41th Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Informatik eV. Informatik (Vol. 10, pp. 4–7). Levy, M., & Weitz, B. (2009). Retailing Management (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill/ Irwin, New York. Mejia, L., & Benjamin, J. (2002). What do we know about the determinants of shopping center sales? Spatial vs. non-spatial factors. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 10(1), 1–26. National Communications Authority (NCA). (2017, July–September). Quarterly Statistical bulletin on communications in Ghana (Vol. 2(3), pp. 1–39). National Communications Authority (NCA). (2019, July–September). Quarterly statistical bulletin on communications in Ghana (Vol. 4(3), pp. 1–32). National Communications Authority (NCA). (2020, July–September). Quarterly statistical bulletin on communications in Ghana (Vol. 5(3), pp. 1–30). National Communications Authority (NCA). (2021a, July–September). Quarterly statistical bulletin on communications in Ghana (Vol. 6(3), pp. 1–23). National Communications Authority (NCA). (2021b). List of authorised VHF-FM radio stations in Ghana (Fourth Quarter, pp. 1–59). Neslin, S., Allenby, G., Ehrenberg, A., Hoch, S., Laurent, G., Leone, R., Little, J., Lodish, L., Shoemaker, R., & Wittink, D. (1994). A research agenda for making scanner data more useful to managers. Marketing Letters, 5(4), 395–412. Önden, I., Sen, C. G., & Sen, A. (2012). Integration of integer programming with GIS analyzing abilities for determining the convenience levels of retail

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6 The Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing in Ghana

6.1 Introduction Marketing in grocery retailing traditionally has been perceived generally as a short-term oriented set of activities concerning price promotions. However, contemporary marketing in Supermarkets generally is influenced by the combined effects of the evolving phenomena of the evolution in retailing and the complexities of the changing needs of the consumer (Solomon, 2018; Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Levy & Weitz, 2009). These evolving phenomena have made marketing in grocery Supermarket retailing a multi-faceted discipline of study. Globally, the major trends such (a) changing customer needs; (b) increasing interest in the shopping experience; (c) increasing interest in the merchandise (Tandon et  al., 2011; Regmi & Gehlhar, 2005); (d) emerging multi-channel retailing strategies’; (e) changing nature of competition within and between retailing formats (Tandon et  al., 2011; Krafft & Mantrala, 2006); (f ) retailer consolidation and internationalisation (Coe & Wrigley, 2009); (g) development and availability of technology such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) (Finkenzeller, 2003); (h) application of the evolution of computer devices © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_6

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and their applications in stores such as personal selling assistants (PSAs) (Kotler et al., 2017; Blattberg et al., 1994); (i) application of the mobile telephone technology (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016); and (j) the internet technology (Kotler et  al., 2017; Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016; Robins, 1994) have been identified in the literature as important factors and developments affecting grocery Supermarket retailing currently and in the future(Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Kotler & Armstrong, 2013; Cox & Brittain, 2004). In most emerging market countries including Ghana, in addition to these global trends, there are nuances and additional factors that are and would drive marketing in grocery Supermarkets retailing to create the next generation of Supermarket marketing. In Ghana, the broad trends that are and will dictate the next generation of Supermarket marketing are: • The emerging Supermarket consumers—are evidenced by the dynamics of the population and housing spatial development patterns as discussed in Chap. 1 (The Country Ghana). • The changing customer needs—this is evidenced by the structural and general increase in living standards driven by rapid urbanisation as shown in Chap. 1 (The Country Ghana). • Increasing interest in the shopping experience—this trend is evidenced by the (re)emergence of the grocery Supermarket retailing format after the downturn of the pre-independence shopping department stores experiences as shown in Chap. 4. • Retailer consolidation and internationalisation—this is evidenced by the (re)emergence of more multinational grocery retailers in the Ghanaian Grocery Supermarket chains retailing industry as presented in Chap. 4. • Changing nature of competition within and between retailing formats—this is evidenced by the competition between supermarkets and traditional grocery retail channels which are currently dominated by the traditional channels as shown in Chap. 2 (The Retail Industry). • The emerging retail store technologies—this is due to the relatively affordable and easier accessibility of technology in a more globalised world—Examples such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), in-­ store kiosk, and personal selling assistants (PSAs).

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• Application of the mobile telephone technology—this is evidenced by the increasing deployment of mobile telephone in grocery retailing through payments systems and deliveries as shown in Chap. 5. • Application of the internet—this is evidenced by the increasing application of the internet and internet technologies in Supermarket grocery retailing as shown in Chap. 5. Examples such websites, online shopping ‘store front’ and online advertising. • Increasing interest in the merchandise—this trend is evidenced by the increasing non-price characteristics of merchandise (dietary diversity, convenience in food shopping and preparation, and quality) as shown in Chap. 2 (Grocery Retailing in Emerging Market Countries). • Emerging multi-channel retailing strategies—this is evidenced by the rapid growth of the online shopping channel as shown in Chap. 2 (The Retail Industry). • Development of customer loyalty programmes and schemes—this is evidenced by all the major grocery Supermarket retail chains developing and or running a customer loyalty programme or scheme as presented in Chap. 4. • The increasing deployment of the digital addressing system in grocery retailing—is evidenced by the availability of the new Ghana Digital Addressing System which is discussed in Chap. 5. • The knowledge and customer insight discovery in grocery Supermarket customer databases—is evidenced by the knowledge and insight that can be derived from customer databases as discussed in Chap. 7. These trends and developments do not act in isolation but act in combination forming complex drivers to influence the next generation of grocery supermarket retail marketing. This chapter uses Ghana to illustrate the next generation of marketing in emerging market countries with the discussion of these trends and developments in the foregoing sections of the chapter.

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6.2 The Emerging Supermarket Consumers Ghana is a middle-lower country economy with a gradual increase in GDP per capita income from 1980 to 2020 (World Bank). This is an important driver of penetration of modern grocery retailing (Tandon et al., 2011; Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Reardon et al., 2003). Also, Ghana in 2021 had a population of 30.8 million which is five times its population in 1960 and a growth rate of 2.1% (GSS, 2021a). This population is distributed as 43.3% in rural areas and 56.7% in urban areas. In the sixteen administrative regions of the country, the urban to rural populations in the regional capital is 91.7 % to 8.3%. The top six urbanised regions after the capital are Ashanti 61.6%, Bono 58.6%, Central 57.9%, Bono East 52.6%, Western 51.6% and Eastern 51.5% (See section on The Country Ghana in Chap. 1). This shows a trend of two phenomena of increasing population and rapid urbanisation. These phenomena have been associated with the changing customer needs and time poverty causing the population to look for convenience in products and access for purchases. This is also known to drive both in-store and online grocery retailing. In addition, children under 15 years make up 35.3% of the population and persons 65 years and above constitute only 4.3% of the population leaving 60.4% as an adult vibrant population. This also shows a lower top structured population with a national dependency ratio of about 66 which is higher in some administrative regions with the population age structure transitioning from one dominated by children (0–14 years) to one dominated by young people (15–35 years) (GSS, 2021b). Also, for the segment of the population above 15 years and older, 50.3% are employed nationally, 50.2% living in urban areas are employed and 50.4% in rural areas are employed. Of the 15 years and older employed 8.4% are professionals and four in five are in urban areas. This dominant population segment is known to have the general consumer culture and is heavily influenced by the globalisation of cultures and the internet (Solomon, 2018). Tandon et al. (2011) posit that this segment is known to be the driver of non-price characteristics of grocery retail shopping, driving the demand for variety, quality, and convenience (readymade and packaged foods). This in turn drives the growth of modern grocery retailing in emerging markets growth related to the growing working-age population.

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6.3 Emerging Supermarket Infrastructure The literature in Chap. 4 chronicles the development of the shopping experience through Supermarkets/ Department stores in Ghana. The early supermarkets and department stores brought with them the socialization and social statutes associated with the shopping experience. These shopping experiences have been associated with developments in consumers’ preferences, requirements and tastes. It can be posited that the elderly (Above 50 years) in most emerging market countries including Ghana cherish that era and hold the shipping experiences as their higher levels of social experiences with shopping. In Ghana, most people belonging to that generation fondly romanticise their shopping at GB Ollivant (GBO), Kingsway Stores, Union Trading Company (UTC) and Multi-­ Stores (CFAO). This nostalgia ended with the closing down of the Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) in the early 1990s, after which a lot of small independent shopping outlets dominated the supermarket retailing sub-sector (See Chap. 4 for the History of the Ghanaian Supermarket Industry). The re-emergence of the supermarket shopping culture has been re-­ ignited with the development of shopping malls and centres in the country (See Chap. 4). In addition to increasing shopping floor space, these places create a space for socialising for families and friends, and places for social gatherings. This will rekindle the supermarket shopping experience as part of the next generation of Supermarkets, as these will be used as selling points by shopping centres with all the utilities and amenities. Also, the cardinal role played by store location in grocery Supermarket retailing makes the concentration of stores be viewed as a competitive advantage if the rents for floor spaces come within reasonable economic rates in the future. The locations of these retail malls and store concentrations will be key in the next generation of grocery supermarket in-store shopping marketing (Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Berman & Evans, 2013; Gilbert, 2003). In addition, these purpose-built shopping malls and outlets allow for the general design of stores to facilitate the movement of people, optimise the display and presentation of merchandise and enhance the movement of customers. Also, these purpose-built stores ensure the design of

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in-­store (brick-and-mortar) atmospherics for optimisation in their influence on in-store customers’ purchase decisions, as store-induced effects on customers have been found to be a major determinant of approach or avoidance of customer behaviour and in-store spending (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). In-store advertising and promotion are bound to increase due to increasing store floors, improving in-store atmospherics and increasing customer traffic, to reduce the cost of third-party advertising usually encountered by supermarkets. These are some of the factors from the environment and infrastructure predicted to influence the next generation of supermarket retail marketing.

6.4 Retailer Consolidation and Internationalisation Another important driver of grocery supermarket marketing is the re-­ emergence of international grocery supermarket retailers in the Ghanaian economy (See Chap. 4 on the Ghanaian Supermarket industry). Even though the Ghanaian economy has been liberalised, petty retailing is still reserved for only Ghanaians (See the introduction of Chap. 4 and Ghana Investment Promotions Centre (GIPC) Act 2013). However, this GIPC Act 2013 is being contested and challenged by petty traders from the West Africa sub-region as members of ECOWAS (Economic Commission of West African States) and therefore not foreigners. The grocery retailing sub-sector has also been linked to the political history of Ghana and there have been attempts in the past to “Ghanaianize” the retail sector post-Dr Nkrumah era 1968–1973 (See Chap. 4). However, the post-liberalisation era has once allowed and invited international and multinational grocery supermarket retailers to set up and trade in Ghana. Currently, the five top leading grocery retail chains in the top six chains are all foreign-owned by South African grocery retailers (See Chap. 4 under major players in the Supermarket Chains in Ghana). This is a process known in the literature as the “Africanisation” of South African retailing (Dakora et al., 2010; Reardon et al., 2003). The major players in the grocery retail supermarket industry are Shoprite

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(South African multinational chain), Melcom (Indian/Ghanaian), Palace Supermarket, MaxMart (Ghanaian / European Partners), GAME (South African retail chain), Shop n Save and SPAR Supermarket (Ghanaian/ European) (See Chap. 4 for details). Thus, crowding out the Ghanaian partnership component of grocery retailers. These international grocery retailers are known to drive their markets with the technology and its’ deployment, sophisticated supply chains, marketing, management, size presence and financial strength. Thus, their increasing presence in the grocery retailing industry will see more sophisticated marketing strategies, competition and consolidation. In the consolidation of retailers, Citydia which entered Ghana and set up 17 stores in urban and sub-urban areas in Ghana has been taken over by the European grocery supermarket chain SPAR in 2020 (See Chap. 4—SPAR Supermarket). They have touted bringing in more superior world-class technology to drive the grocery markets. These factors will increase the nature of the competition with the grocery supermarket retail chains and between formats of the chains. Also, this will change the nature of the competition with the traditional and petty retailing sub-sector (See Chap. 2 Section—Marketing in Emerging Markets Countries Supermarkets). Therefore, the next generation of supermarket marketing will see the full gamut of advertising and promotions used by retailers globally (see Chap. 2—section Retail Promotions for details) as point-of-sale displays, “Buy one, get one free” (BOGOF), sweepstakes, contest, frequent shopper/loyalty schemes, coupons (both print and soft copy (codes)), prizes and bonanzas, demonstrations, samples and in-store sampling, referral gifts, branded giveaways, premiums and special event (usually targeting festivals and religious holidays). Advertising will be mainly institutional and product advertising. The next generation of grocery supermarket retailer’s marketing will use all the available media channels as the competition with retailers and within formats intensify (See Chap. 5—The Current Supermarket chains marketing infrastructure). This will these media print, radio, television and billboards. Then will be led by the internet will all the bouquets of technologies—websites (both static and dynamic), global search engines advertising, and evolving technologies. The mobile telephone will play a major role in feedback, contest and reception of mobile money prizes.

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In the next generation of grocery supermarket marketing, issues of internationalisation of supply chains will emerge with the global grocery retailers serving as the governing actors of the supply chains. This will be quickly led to the issues of incorporating local sourcing of merchandise for the grocery supermarket chains and will reflect in marketing as ethical marketing such as Fairtrade etc (See Chaps. 7 and 8).

6.5 Emerging Store Technologies and Their Impact on Grocery Retailing With the growing number of international and multinational grocery retailers entering the Ghanaian grocery supermarket retailing sub-sector, there would be the introduction of the state-of-the-art store technologies which will impact and drive the next generation of marketing (Kotler et al., 2017; Goworek & McGoldrick, 2015; Krafft & Mantrala, 2006; Blattberg et al., 1994; Blattberg & Neslin, 1989). First, the introduction of the Personal Shopping Assistants (PSA) in upmarket shopping malls and centres in the face of retail competition would enhance the shopping experience and serve as an anchor for retailers to tout their cutting-edge grocery shopping in their marketing drive. The Personal Shopping Assistant (PSA) is generally a mobile device with a touch screen tablet personal computer with built-in wireless connectivity for mobility on the shop floor. This is to provide cost-effective personalized customer service for high-end customers. The PSA also integrates with UPC scanners and Wi-Fi technology to assist customers with locating merchandise, prices of merchandise and electronic payment of shopping using automatic checkout systems. Also, some of the PSAs are usually located at stations in the category sections on the shop floor but current ones can be fixed to the shopping cart or trolley to provide truly personalised customer services for customers. Secondly, the deployment of interactive kiosks which were the initial strategic deployment for personalised customer service in developed economies may be the initial adoption in Ghana. This will eventually serve as the first stage for the full-scale adoption of the PSAs. The interactive kiosk provides personalised information to the customer

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using a link to the retailer’s website or electronic shop front and is located at a fixed place in the store. Thirdly, the Universal Product Codes (UPC) scanners which are already deployed at the point of sale in all the major grocery supermarket retail chains and are now seen as a standard in retailing will have additional roles in customer data capture with its “scan as you go” feature. The technology deployed to save labour, in this current deployment serves customers time from long queues at the point of sale. The new function will play a key role in data capture for the retailer loyalty programmes and schemes in their marketing programmes. This will be in addition to the other functions of the UPC in retailing inventory for tracking, data capture, shelf audits and processing. Fourth, the introduction of the automated self-checkout system will be deployed to reduce the processes at the point of sale, shorten the time of processing sales and reduce the length of queues at the checkouts. Fifth, other technologies such as the intelligent weighing scales will be deployed to integrate with the automated checkout systems to weigh produce and determine the price for payment through the cash register or electronically using cards (debit, credit or contactless cards). Sixth, the automated checkout systems will be deployed starting in upmarket shopping stores and centres and gradually introduce in mid-market stores to shorten queues at the checkout sections, especially during festive and religious holidays when store traffic is at its highest. This is to provide customer service and make the store the preferred destination for festive and religious occasions shopping. Seventh, the relatively cheap and easily available electronic display will make digital displays more available as the preferred in-store advertising display on the shop floor. These are flat-screen displays that will be linked to local area networks (LAN) of the major grocery retailers. The use of these displays will enhance in-store retail marketing by targeting a relevant group of shoppers who are in the stores, short in-store merchandise promotions and enhance communication with targeted customers. Eight, the use of electronic price tags will eventually replace the traditional paper stickers as grocery retailers move toward ensuring environmental consciousness. This will in addition ensure retailers easily display prices and reduce labour on the shop floor. In the stores, grocery retailers can easily change prices for promotions of categories and ranges of merchandise.

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Ninth, the emergence of the deployment of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in grocery retailing will greatly impact the Ghanaian grocery supermarket retail sub-sector. RFID has been touted to revolutionize retailing as the Universal Product Code (UPC). The RFID is a system consisting of a reader and a transponder which can be connected to a computer network to transmit and process data from radio signals received from responses. The reader is attached to a product and communicates information received through the network. This technology which is already deployed in other sectors will further enhance the transportation records, inventory and automated checkout operations both in in-store and non-store retailing. This technology on the shop floor will enable consumers to trace the origin of the merchandise and therefore improve transparency in a country of origin and ethical trading and marketing operations, such as Fairtrade etc. In addition, the computerization of the tracking processes provides grocery retailers with the data and information required to measure and manage the shopping experience and processes.

6.6 Intelligent Technologies in Retail Marketing The emergence of international and multinational grocery retailers in the Ghanaian grocery supermarket sub-sector comes with knowledge and technology transfers. These technologies some of which are classified as intelligent technology or system will enable efficient and reliable options for data collection and analysis on consumers and the retail processes to enhance supermarket grocery retail marketing (Kim & Street, 2004; Casabayo et al., 2004; Blattberg et al., 1994). First, the application of the RFID technologies would be the dominant technology for tracking the entrance of grocery supermarket stores to measure customer traffic in and out of the outlets (Robins, 1994; Blattberg et al., 1994). The RFID technology will supersede the earlier technologies of infrared light beams, pressure-sensitive mats, video cameras mounted on the ceiling and other door-opening and closing mechanisms. The RFID technology

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deployment will provide hourly traffic counts at grocery retail outlets to serve as a subjective measure of sales potential and consumer demand. In addition, the literature posits that when these outputs of counts are combined with transaction data from networked point-of-sale (POS) systems, grocery retailers can measure purchase conversion rates, an important indicator of grocery store productivity (Krafft & Mantrala, 2006; Blattberg et al., 1994). Also, these conversion rates can be used for other applications such as evaluating sales force scheduling and store promotions (Lam et al., 2001). Secondly, the application of a combination of the RFID technology and other technologies (GPS, video-based customer tracking etc) can be used to track shoppers’ navigation through grocery supermarket retail brick-and-mortar outlets and responses to changes in the store environment (Krafft & Mantrala, 2006; Lam et al., 2001). Additionally, the next generation of supermarket marketing will draw more on data and information from PSAs (Personal Shopping Assistants, interactive kiosks and others to provide customers sensing insights on in-store customer traffic (providing a highly real-time simulation of the retail shopping environment.), customer behaviour and their responses to offers and promotions. Additionally, other intelligent systems will emerge in the next generation of supermarket marketing. These intelligent systems will include the applications of fuzzy logic, neural networks, soft computing, case-based reasoning and collaborative filtering (Dekimpe, 2020; Krafft & Mantrala, 2006; Decker, 2005). These will be applied in the areas of fuzzy market segmentation, fuzzy control-based quick response (QR) reorder schemes, fuzzy intelligent systems for targeted E-Tailing and Fuzzy logic–based prediction of customer churn. These will perform functions such as autonomously and instantaneously personalizing the display of advertisements to customers on viewer characteristics (Yager, 2000), predicting customer defect rates (Casabayo et al., 2004), quick response (QR) reorder schemes, predicting customer image about store price image (Krafft & Mantrala, 2006; Blattberg et al., 1994). These applications of intelligent systems will depend on and draw on the rapidly developing communications infrastructure in the country as discussed in Chap. 5.

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6.7 Trends in Multi-Channel Retailing Multi-channel retailing generally refers to all ways in which a retailer will contact the consumer or vice versa. This includes both store and non-­ store formats and channels. The drive towards multi-channel retailing globally will play a central role in the next generation of grocery supermarket retail marketing. Since grocery supermarket retailers will encounter an increasingly competitive and complex marketing environment. As consumers continually make new grocery purchase sources from the supermarket or traditional grocery retailers, and their choices are determined by diverse situations, occasions (personal, festive and religious) and their diverse needs. Thus, their selection of the source of purchase depends on individual decision-making patterns and makes socio-­ geodemographic determinants important imperatives for consumer segmentation and categorisation. The complexity of which the grocery retailers sought to use all the alternative retailing store formats to target as customers exhibit increasingly multi-optional needs structure and behaviour, will be dominated by the various adaptations of the internet and e-commerce grocery shopping channels. Since current consumers tend to have a wider spectrum of intentions to celebrate or experience shopping as an event. Also, consumers are known to make secure their purchases with the notion that they have made them of their own free will with independent decisions (Krafft & Mantrala, 2006). Krafft and Mantrala (2006) posit that In addition to these motives, and depending on the context, the consumer becomes a multichannel buyer: the impulse buyer, smart shopper, the good deal (only discount) buyer, the event buyer or the needs-only buyer. But since motives are the decisive point in consumer behaviour—dependent on the situation, intention or product—it is difficult to place such any consumer in a specific channel. (Krafft & Mantrala, 2006, p. 177)

Additionally, grocery retailers will be offering sales using more dispatchers/senders as they have started, and the credibility of these dispatchers/ senders will be key in this alternative. Thus, it will also offer opportunities for both local and foreign participation as companies like

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Bolt, Jumia and others crowd out the traditional courier/dispatchers including the national postal and courier company Ghana Post Company Limited. This development will spin-off smaller companies that will serve solely as distributors/ dispatchers/senders. This development will hasten the participation of international retailers with grocery retailing as part of their business to compete with the grocery retailer set up as brick-and-­ mortar grocery retail channels. Likewise, grocery retailers with stores can use dispatchers/ senders to extend the reach of the stores by sales through these channels. Convenience shopping will also remain strong and supermarket retail grocery outlets located in convenience shop formats and service stations will prove indispensable. This is because these smaller shop formats resonate with the consumer as the traditional independent convenience shop formats but is seen as having a broader range, variety and competitively priced grocery merchandise. Since consumers cherish fast and convenient shopping with non-price characteristics gaining maximum benefit with minimum effort. For grocery supermarkets retailer, such as the SPAR supermarket which has adopted convenience shop formats (See Chap. 4), the longer opening hours of convenience shop formats located in service stations offer the fast movement of merchandise and turnover for groceries such as drinks, snacks, pastries, bakery products etc. that are for daily use which requires short shopping time.

6.8 The Emergence of Online Grocery Shopping The emergence of online grocery retailing will continue to grow and evolve with the development and deployment of internet technologies. This is important because of the variety of benefits the online grocery retailing channel presents to an increasingly non-price characterised consumer segment (consumers seeking dietary diversity, convenience in food shopping and preparation, and quality) who are experiencing time poverty due to urbanisation (See Chap. 2, Grocery Retailing in Emerging Market Countries). Online grocery retailing offers a 24 hours a day and

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7 days a week shopping alternative. Therefore, the consumer would not have to waste time in  locating retailing stores (brick-and-mortar) even though the change from traditional grocery shopping to the online channel will be moderated by the age group, culture, merchandise and social characteristics of the shopper segment. As a plus for the online grocery channel, the internet is also known to provide a vast source of information on merchandise that will even surpass that of a specialist in in-store channels. In addition, online grocery shopping allows consumers to compare prices with competing grocery retailers nationally and in specified locations. These characteristics will intensify competition within retail formats and between grocery retailers as the information provided has a direct impact on supermarket grocery marketing. The increasing importance of the mobile telephone in grocery retailing will further evolve with technological advancement. Currently, the multi-­ function role of mobile telephony continues to impact retailing in general and grocery retailing as the market develops. As a communication tool, the improvement in infrastructure as discussed in Chap. 5 will enhance the reach of the mobile phone for voice usage in all the major regional capitals and smaller towns and cities over a greater part of the country. This enables calls and orders to be made and enquiries to be made without the customer having to be present in the stores as grocery retailers establish customer services lines. Again, the additional features of the mobile phone have first made it into a navigational tool and with internet-enabled becomes a GPS receiver making the locations of retail outlets to be known and for customers to give the GPS coordinates for deliveries of grocery merchandise to facilitate online shopping. Secondly, the mobile phone as an internet-enabled tool enables the communication but voice and visuals enable the display of grocery merchandise on electronic platforms such as grocery retailers’ social media handles (Facebook, Tiktok, Whatsapp, Instagram etc) and trading on them enhance marketing and the multi-channel drive. Thirdly, one of the critical developments in the mobile phone’ features to support electronic payment applications such as mobile money. This development has brought the traditional ATM into the pocket of the consumer and enabled non-cash transactions anywhere a mobile phone can operate.

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Additionally, with the emergence of online retailing online marketers have developed applications and systems to enable them to analyse consumers for marketing purposes (Tapp et al., 2014; Capizzi et al., 2004). This drive will increase grocery retail marketing. Online marketing requirements such as counting customers have evolved with sophisticated tracking systems on the internet. Also, detailed online platform usage including websites harvest current and potential customers’ usage behaviour as “clickstreams” to enable marketers to assess consumer and marketing (online advertisement and promotions) effects online, and consumers’ likelihood to purchase merchandise (Montgomery et al., 2004; Blattberg et al., 1994). Also, by using marketing analytics tools on such data marketers can have a good understanding of the digital media landscape and conduct audience, content and engagement analysis. Marketers can also have a good understanding of the digital influence and use both listening analysis concepts (Social media and mobile analytics inclusive) to inform marketing programmes of the grocery supermarket retailers (Dekimpe, 2020; Iacobucci et al., 2019; Arunachalam & Sharma, 2019; Wedel & Kannan, 2016; Tapp et al., 2014). These are some of the applications that will drive the next generation of grocery retailing in the country—Ghana.

6.9 Customer Loyalty Programmes As retailers engage in competition in an increasingly competitive environment across all the retail formats for market and customer spend, they will deploy all the marketing communication mix. As grocery marketing evolves towards more contemporary marketing and engaging in more relationship marketing, customer loyalty will be key. The literature argues that only retailers who have deployed a programme or scheme to explore the genuine structure for the loyalty of their customers could be said to have a protection against shoppers visiting other retail outlets at the least given opportunity. Since grocery retailers through loyalty programmes and schemes seek to create an emotional bond with their customers (moving customers on the marketing ladder from customers to clients,

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supporters, advocates and partners (Payne et  al., 1995) (See Chap. 2 Relationship Marketing and Super marker loyalty Programmes). The usage and importance of the Melcom Super Saver Card will continue its dominance of grocery supermarket retailing and grocery marketing as the truly national customer loyalty card scheme. Loyalty scheme cards such as the P-Club of Palace Supermarket and the two cards of MaxMart, the MaxMart Prestige Card and the MaxMart VIP Club Card will follow the Melcom Super Saver and only expand at the rate of the expansion of the respective retailers. The membership of the loyalty schemes has not been explicitly authenticated by estimates made by the percentage of the respective retailers’ customers. This needs to be undertaken by industry experts as these loyalty schemes will play critical roles in grocery retail marketing and strategies in the near future and the next generation of supermarket marketing (Ziliani & Bellini, 2004a, 2004b; Montgomery, 1997). Customer loyalty will be key as the supermarket grocery retailing sub-sector business environment increasingly becomes competitive and retailers start targeting the retailers’ “share of customer wallet” as customers are predicted to be increasingly shopping across retailers, a phenomenon expected from the emerging grocery supermarket retailing customers (Wirtz et al., 2007).

6.10 The Use of Digital Addressing System (The GhanaPost GPS Address) The Ghana Government through the National Postal Agency, GhanaPost, 2017 launched a Ghana Digital Addressing System known as the “GhanaPostGPS Address” for the country (see Chap. 5). The use and deployment of the new Digital Addressing System known as “The GhanaPost GPS Address” will be critical in the development and marketing (Ziliani & Bellini, 2004a, 2004b) of the next generation of grocery supermarket retailing (Kotler et al., 2017; Statler, 2016; Blattberg et al., 1994; Turner, 1991). The GhanaPost Address, a new addressing system is based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and divides the country into 5 metres by 5 metres square grids. Each grid is then coded with a

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unique address code to form the addressing system. This addressing system, therefore, produces unique digital addresses for any structure or location to the 25 metres square unit level. The addressing system has three sections with two hyphens joining them into one. The first two sections form the postcode and are made up of two letters, the first denoting the region and the second letter the district. The second section is a three-­ character number depicting the area code. The third section of the address is a four-character number representing the unique address of the location (See Chap. 5—Section on Ghana Digital Address System). The increasing use in the next generation of grocery supermarket retailing of the new addressing system will firstly, enable and facilitate the location analysis required in the retail planning for optimal location of grocery retail stores (brick-and-mortar) (Hood et al., 2021; Beckers et al., 2021) (See Chap. 5). Secondly, the new addressing system will enhance the delivery of grocery merchandise to facilitate online channel merchandising and dispatchers can easily locate customers shopping through the emerging online retailing channels (Beckers et al., 2021; Plimmer, 2010; Humby et al., 2007; Seth & Randall, 1999). Thirdly, the use of the digital addressing system will also improve the databases and information on customers of the customer loyalty programmes and schemes of the grocery retailers. Currently, the MaxMart loyalty cards (Prestige and VIP) and the P-Club loyalty scheme do not collect any information on customer location (i.e. residential or postal address). Therefore, these databases may be limited in providing customer insight into the geographic location of loyal customers making geographic segmentation and geodemographic analysis of customers impossible from their respective databases. These can impede deliveries to residents of loyal customers in cases of online deliveries and promotional delivers to loyal customers. They can argue that they collect telephone numbers which can be used for communication for follow up, customer surveys and customer service but the other enhanced geospatial analysis in customer segmentation analysis is not collected (Badgett & Stone, 2005; Bryom et al., 2001; Blattberg & Deighton, 1991). All the loyalty cards collect telephone numbers and email addresses of members which can be used in communication, but this will have to be enhanced in the next generation of supermarket marketing in the face of an emerging increasingly competitive environment.

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The Melcom Super Saver Card is the only one currently collecting customer address data. However, it is open and not specifically stated whether they require a postal address or residential address and therefore making it difficult to undertake spatial analysis with the data. See Chap. 7 for the value of these analyses to the competitive positioning of retail outlets and locations (Florin et al., 2007; Boussofiane, 1996; Blattberg et al., 1994). These are the new emerging and additional applications of the customer loyalty card schemes databases in the next generation of grocery supermarket marketing. In the next generation of supermarket marketing knowledge discovery of knowledge in supermarket customer databases for competitive advantage by grocery retailers will be key (Gilchrist et al., 2012; Hemann & Burbary, 2013; Greenyer, 2006). Thus, the more comprehensive the databases will enhance the location, shopper profiling analysis, customer segmentation, psychographics and geodemographic analysis such as the ACORN (A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods) (Wedel & Kamakura, 1999; Gunter & Furnham, 1992) to enable grocery supermarkets to compete in the emerging competitive environment due to trends in the grocery retailing sub-sector (See Chaps. 5 and 7).

6.11 Grocery Retail Marketing and The Question of Customer Data in Ghana As grocery retailers enhance their marketing with customer loyalty programmes and schemes, they collect data about their customers as loyalty scheme databases. These databases will grow as more retailers start operating loyalty schemes. These loyalty schemes begin by collecting the names, telephone numbers, email addresses and addresses of customers (See Chap. 2—Section on Major Retail Players). As more fields are added to the databases, they generally become strategic retail marketing tools for grocery retailers (See Chap. 7). These will include the addition of residential addresses, “GhanaPost” GPS addresses, customer national identification and some electronic payments credit card data. The customer

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identification can be in the form of a Ghana Card (National Identity Card), driver’s licence and other identification. These databases however contain information about customers which currently raises issues about their use, ownership, control and protection as they become strategic marketing databases. Ghana currently has a Data Protection Commission and a data protection law, both promulgated into action by the Data Protection Act, 2012(Act 843). The Data Protection Act defines personal data as data about an individual who can be identified either, (1) from the data, (2) from the data and other information in the possession of, or likely to come into the possession of the data controller. The Act does not make provision for “sensitive personal data”. However, “special personal data” is defined as personal data which relates to: (1) a child who is under parental control in accordance with the law, or (2) the religious or philosophical beliefs, ethnic origin, race, trade union membership, political opinions, health sexual life or criminal behaviour of an individual. The Data Protection Act 2012 (Act 843) allows a data controller who intends to process personal data to register with the Data Protection Commission and any controller not incorporated in Ghana must register as an external company. The Act requires an obligation for data controllers to appoint data protection officers. The collection and processing of data are regulated by the Act as: A person shall collect data directly from the data subject unless: • the data is contained in a public record • the data subject has deliberately made the data public • the data subject has consented to the collection of the information from another source • the collection of the data from another source is unlikely to prejudice a legitimate interest of the data subject • the collection of the data from another source is necessary for a number of expressly designated purposes (for example the detection or punishment of an offence or breach of law). • compliance would prejudice a lawful purpose for the collection • compliance is not reasonably practicable.

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A data controller must also ensure that the data subject is aware of: • • • • • • • • •

the nature of the data being collected the name and address of the person responsible for the collection the purpose for which the data is required for collection whether or not the supply of the data by the data subject is discretionary or mandatory the consequences of failure to provide the data the authorized requirement for the collection of the information or the requirement by law for its collection the recipient of the data the nature or category of the data the existence of the right of access to and the right to request rectification of the data collected before the collection.

Where collection is carried out by a third party on behalf of the data controller, the third party must ensure that the data subject has the information listed above. Also, there are no specific provisions in the Act on the transfer of personal data. However, the sale, purchase, knowing or reckless disclosure of personal data or information is prohibited. A person who knowingly or recklessly discloses personal data is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than 250 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than 2 years or to both. A person who sells or offers for sale personal data is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than 2500 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than five years or to both a fine and a term of imprisonment. A penalty unit is equivalent to GHS12 (approximately USD $4.00). A data controller is required to take steps to secure the integrity of personal data in the possession or control of a person through the adoption of appropriate, reasonable, technical and organisational measures to prevent: • loss of, damage to, or unauthorised destruction • unlawful access to or unauthorised processing of personal data. Also, the Act prohibits a data controller from using, obtaining, procuring or providing information related to a data subject for the purpose of direct

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marketing without the prior written consent of the data subject. However, there are no specific provisions that relate to electronic marketing specifically. As the customer loyalty databases become strategic for marketing there is more need to be properly classified, the boundaries of use, ownership, data transfers, control and protection have to be defined as the retail sub-­ sector evolves in the next generation of retailing. These raise issues that Nowak and Phelps (1997, p. 94) posit as “how far companies should be allowed to go in learning about or attempting to persuade consumers”. We also pose some issues that we project to arise in the next generation as (a) Can the databases be sold as a product?; (b) Is there a requirement to anonymise the database when transferring to a third party?; (c) Can these databases be transferred to third parties and what is the framework within which to operate?; and (d) Can these issues be left only to the grocery retailers as they bother on the privacy of customers?. In addressing issues of data collection and privacy, Turn (1985) advocated that data collectors or controllers should specify the rights of the individuals whose data is being collected, stored, processed, disseminated and the proposed use of the personal information collected. However, Nowak and Phelps (1997) argued that she did not specify the rights and that information collected passes through stages and each stage has privacy implications. This will remain a contentious issue as the rights of the customers in the loyalty scheme or programme has to be lanced with that of the retailer using it for marketing purposes. Nowak and Phelps (1997) further argue that the method of information collection varies from conspicuous to obtrusive and that customers are not aware of their data being collected for marketing purposes. They classified these methods into five categories: (1) Time/ Place of purchase; (2) Telephone Inquiry; (3) In response to advertising or promotion offers; (4) Surveys, Studies and questionnaires; and (5) Public/Proprietary Databases. For each category, the customer whose data is being collected would have full knowledge of the collection and use, knowledge of collection rather than use, and ignorance of collection and use. Some of the methods that usually require full knowledge of the collection and use of the customer for the category of time/ place of purchase are scanner data (POS collection), frequent buyer programmes, magazine subscriptions; catalogue purchase/orders and financial transactions. For the telephone inquiry category, screen and /or

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qualifying calls, and toll-free calls usually require full knowledge of collection and use. Responding to advertising or promotions using coupons, trial offers, “free” offers, premium offers, warranty cards and membership cards usually presume customers to have full knowledge of collection and use of information collected. However, some customers will know the collection but not the use. Categories such as surveys, studies and questionnaires usually require consent so is personal data in public proprietary databases (i.e., vehicle registration, drivers’ licence etc). For information use and privacy, data collected in loyalty schemes and programmes when sold or rented to third parties without the proper privacy protections would create challenges of little or no control over the data for dissemination or use to the retailer, and inappropriate advertising or promotions to the loyalty database customers. This, therefore, requires proper regulation and protection protocols as these databases will become strategic marketing tools in the next generation of supermarket marketing.

6.12 Chapter Concluding Statement The Chapter brings together issues, developments and trends that will characterise the next generation of supermarket marketing from different perspectives. The chapter introduces the topic and summaries the evolving phenomenon in global grocery retailing and presents the factors that will influence the Ghanaian grocery retailing sub-sector in the future. The chapter then proceeds to discuss the aforementioned phenomena in detail under sections of the emerging supermarket consumers; emerging supermarket infrastructure; retailer consolidation and internationalisation; emerging store technologies and their impact on grocery retailing; intelligent technologies in retail marketing; trends in multi-channel retailing; the emergence of online grocery shopping; customer loyalty programmes; the use of digital addressing system (The GhanaPost GPS Address); and the grocery retail marketing and the question of customer data in Ghana. The chapter establishes the relevant drivers of the next generation of grocery supermarket marketing, outlines how they are going to affect the sub-sector and presents the drivers of grocery retailing competition and

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how they impact marketing in the next generation of grocery supermarket marketing. The next section of the chapter then discussed the emerging strategic marketing aspects of the customer loyalty programmes and schemes. The chapter concludes by raising issues about the use of loyalty card databases the existing legal framework in Ghana and the issues that need to be considered in the next generation of grocery supermarket marketing.

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7 Value Capture and Beneficiary Stakeholders of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing

7.1 Introduction This chapter seeks to first provide readers with an understanding of the prospects of the commercial, pedagogical and research value of supermarket card-based databases in Ghana, drawing on examples across some developed economies of the world. Secondly, it identifies the likely beneficiary stakeholders (winners and losers) of the next generation of supermarket marketing and discusses the fallouts from the evolution of the supermarket retail industry in Ghana. Section one of this chapter thus categorises supermarket card database uses into socio-demographic profiling of consumers, marketing agencies, the teaching of marketing and research in Higher Education Institutions. The utilities are illustrated with the literature of studies using supermarket data and the novelty of this will be in the application to the Ghanaian supermarket retail market, which is dearth and sparse in structured information on consumers. These will include but are not limited to the following examples: Firstly, socio-demographic profiling of consumers. Mark (1996) used supermarket data to classify shoppers by their trip behaviour. Gonzaleez-Benito et  al. (2008) employed store-level data for latent segmentation of © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_7

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shoppers. Whilst Allaway et al. (2006) used the data to derive and explore the behaviour of consumer segments, and Humby et al. (2007) used it to create multi-layered segments to derive consumer insight. This line of enquiry was followed by these studies by Yamoah et al. (2014), Plimmer (2010), and Stone et al. (2007), all pointing to how commercial value is derived from supermarket card-based databases used in target marketing and effective marketing communication and promotions. Secondly, we underscore the commercial value of supermarket card-­ based databases within the arena of the potential and the reality of building thriving commercial entities that provide market information services based on adding value to such an important dataset. These business entities subsist either as Strategic Business Units (SBUS) or entirely independent limited liability companies to offer market research and consultancy type of output for the supermarket or third parties. To this end, we classify this group as studies or enquiries suitable for marketing agencies. Since the application of the supermarket databases is employed in studies that provide market research and consultancy type of output for the supermarket or third parties. In the area of supermarket database deployment, Guadagni and Little (1983) in earlier studies calibrated the brand choice of shoppers on supermarket data. This was advanced by Blattberg et al. (1994)’s work on marketing information. Their work delineated, developed and shaped the area of study bringing to the fore the importance of market information and supermarket data (scanner data). Some selected studies in this area are Fader and McAlister’s (1990) modelling of consumer response to promotions, Cotterill (1994)’s call for supermarket data as new opportunities for demand and competitive analysis, Bucklin and Gupta’s (1999) study on the commercial use of supermarket data, and Broniarczyk et al. (1998) on consumer perceptions on assortment offered in grocery category. Also, Russell and Kamakura (1994) for using the data for understanding brand competition, Montgomery (1997) for creating micro-marketing pricing strategies, and Van Heerde et al. (2000) in the estimation of pre and post promotion dips in supermarket retail marketing promotion. Furthermore, Berné et al. (2004) use the data for brand choice analysis, Torrisi et al. (2006) to analyze table wine demand, Gilchrist et al. (2012) for knowledge discovery for competitive advantage and Yamoah et  al. (2014) to identify who buys fairtrade products in the UK.

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Also, Wedel and Kannan (2016) the key applications for this data for commercial use have been applications in “(1) customer relationship management (CRM), with methods that help acquisition, retention, and satisfaction of customers to improve their lifetime value to the firm; (2) the marketing mix, with methods, models, and algorithms that support the allocation of resources to enhance the effectiveness of marketing effort; (3) personalization of the marketing mix to individual consumers, in which significant advances have been made as a result of the development of various approaches to capture customer heterogeneity; and (4) privacy and security, an area that is of increasing concern to firms and regulators.” (Wedel & Kannan, 2016, p. 97). The third category is for teaching and research in Higher Education Institutions. Some of the studies overlap in the categories we have mentioned. Therefore, in addition to the studies in the previous category, earlier studies in this category explored the use of supermarket data with Bucklin’s (1966) work on testing the propensities to shop. Capps Jr. (1989) used the data to estimate retail demand functions for meat products, Bucklin and Lattin (1992) followed up with the modelling of product category competition among grocery retailers, and Neslin et  al. (1994) propose a research agenda for supermarket data, as Cotterill (1994) advocated for the use of supermarket data as new opportunities for demand and competitive strategy analysis. Also, Mayhew and Winer (1992) used supermarket data to analyse reference prices, Gupta et  al. (1996) explored the use of the supermarket data on inferences of brand choice, and Stiving and Winer (1997) used the data for empirical analysis of price endings, Sparks and Wagner (2003) reiterated supermarket data as a research agenda, Martinez-Ruiz et  al. (2006) employ the data to understand price promotions. Furthermore, Cortinas et al. (2007) used supermarket data for analysing price and discount sensitivity in a brand choice decision, Gauri et al. (2008) employed the data in the analysis of price search insights and Donnelly et al. (2015) used it in exploring small business information use. This chapter will have sections on the use of supermarket databases by socio-demographic profiling of consumers, marketing agencies., and teaching and research of marketing at Higher Education Institutions. Part two of this chapter also discusses the resultant consequences (fallouts) from the evolution of the supermarket retail industry. As the players

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and stakeholders evolve to compete in the market there will be a need for the application of technology in-store and in the supply chain management (Bourlakis & Weightman, 2004). Also, competition is anticipated to increase (Burt & Sparks, 2003). In the fiercely competitive environment, the impact of promotions and customer loyalty may not increase (Purdie, 1996; Gupt, 1988). Industry players will also engage in a steep learning curve in competitive strategies in the emerging industry environment (Sinkula, 1994). There will be the need for new supplier development strategies (Wagner, 2006) and an improvement in supermarket retail industry regulation. The inclusion of local suppliers and smallholder producers into the supply chains of the industry (Amanor, 2009; World Bank, 2008) is another important factor. Then the general impact on consumers and society is also considered and addressed. The chapter will therefore have sections on the impact on suppliers, independent retail outlets, manufacturers, small scale suppliers (Smallholder farmers) of groceries and importers (For emerging market countries).

7.2 Commercial Value of Supermarket Card-Based Databases The commercial value dimension of supermarket card-based databases is well articulated in literature as well as retail industry practice. Indeed, Short and Todd (2017) indicates that exploiting commercial value from customer data is not a new idea and this can be achieved through data sale, trade, acquisition or indirectly via service leveraging customer data. Two notable pathways employed towards unearthing the commercial value of supermarket databases are (1) subjecting consumer data to social demographic profiling to facilitate target marking, communication and promotions and (2) processing and adding value to supermarket databases by marketing agencies to support corporate and strategic decision making of retail industry players. The use of supermarket consumers’ databases for social-demographic profiling promotes the manipulation of behavioural data to unearth latent commercial value through enabling evidence-based marketing

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planning. It is insightful to observe potential patterns in shopping trip behaviour to explore commercial value through target marketing. Indeed, aggregate partners emerged from a seemingly random grocery shopping trips data drawn from a consumer panel in the city of Cardiff (UK) based on the results from the work of (Mark, 1996). In sum, a point for commercial relevance is captured in the realisation that patterns of grocery shopping trips movement largely depend on access to a vehicle and the magnitude of purchase of the consumer. Thus, clear consumer segments were established for target marking, communication and promotion. Through shopping trip profiling based on the data on shopper movements, it became apparent that shopping trips are clearly differentiated on the bases of the means of travel and how it is bought rather than what products and services are bought on these grocery shopping trips. Similar usage of consumer/supermarket database for consumer profiling to draw out commercial value has been reported by seminal studies such as Allaway et  al., (2014) to produce distinct patronage segments using data from loyalty programme; Yamoah et al. (2014) to profile the fairtrade shopper to promote targeted marketing planning with supermarket loyalty card data from a panel of over 1.7 million shoppers; and Stone et al. (2007) that focussed on a blueprint towards the utilisation of data and marketing research and also to leverage essential consumer information assets and/or for investments. The consumer profiling by Allaway et al. (2014) indicated that behavioural factors can result in managerially relevant consumer segments that will respond effectively to targeted marketing strategies. This was achieved using numeric taxonomy including cluster and discriminant analyses to create suitable market structures and then term each segment. This process was based on 57,650 supermarket loyalty-card programme members of a key retailer with over 1000 outlets in the Southwestern metropolis in the USA. Another notable study is Yamoah et al. (2014) which explored the supermarket loyalty card from a panel of 1.7  million shoppers to highlight the commercial value of the database via an enhanced targeted marketing planning. The study provides insight into the commercial value (marketing potential) that consumer profiling based on loyalty-­ card-­ based shopper segmentation for objective identification of the fairtrade product buyer for effective communication and promotions.

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This was achieved through a statistical technique (paired sample t-test) to assess the extent of patronage of fairtrade products such as sugar, tea, chocolate, drinking chocolates, coffee and banana among life-stage and lifestyle consumer segments. This assessment was based on the supermarket consumer retail sales accrued to the respective segments over 24  months. Similarly, Stone et  al. (2007) had earlier provided a lucid understanding of the analytical framework for customer data to leverage essential consumer information as an asset and for investment. The study further outlined key recommendations that enable organisations to explore consumer insight to promote effective marketing and customer service strategies to gain commercial value from the consumer database. Montgomery (1997) further makes a succinate case for deriving commercial value from customer databases for retailers through the development of micro-marketing pricing strategies. To illustrate this the authors, therefore, culled from the abstract of his article and the presented his approach: Commercial Application Case 1: Culled from the abstract of Montgomery (1997) Creating micro-marketing pricing strategies using supermarket scanner data. Marketing Science. 16 (4): 315–337. Micro-marketing refers to the customization of marketing mix variables to the store-level. This paper shows how prices can be profitably customized at the store-level, rather than adopting a uniform pricing policy across all stores. Historically, there has been a trend by retailers to consolidate independent stores into large national and regional chains. This move toward consolidation has been driven by the economies of scale associated with these larger operations. However, some of these large chains have lost the adaptability of independent neighborhood stores. Micro-marketing represents an interest on the part of managers to combine the advantages of these large operations with the flexibility of independent neighborhood stores. A basis for these customized pricing strategies is the result of differences in interbrand competition across stores. These changes in interbrand competition are measured using weekly store-level scanner data at the product level. Obviously, this presents a huge estimation problem, since we wish to measure substitution between each product at a store-level. For a chain with 100 stores and 10 products in a category, we would need to estimate over 100,000 parameters.” “These estimated differences in price response are in turn used to set

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s­tore-­level prices. To simplify and focus the problem we limit our attention to everyday price changes (i.e. the prices of products that are not advertised). There are many marketing variables that can be adjusted at a store-level (e.g., promotions and product assortments); the reason we concentrate upon everyday pricing is driven by its importance in the marketing mix, that most profits are earned on products sold at their everyday price, and the amenability of everyday prices to store-level customizations. Our results indicate that micro-marketing pricing strategies would be profitable and could increase gross profit margins by 4 percent to 10 percent. When these gross profit gains are considered after administrative and operating costs are taken into account, they could increase operating profit margins by 33 percent to 83 percent. These gains come from encouraging consumers through everyday price changes to switch to more profitable bundles of products, and not through overall price changes at the chain-level. These results show that the information contained in the retailer’s store-level scanner data is an under-­ utilized resource. (p. 315)

Gupt (1988) demonstrated the commercial value of customer database by its use in the assessment of sales promotions for which we present the abstract of the study as a case: Commercial Application Case 2: Culled from the abstract of Gupta, S. (1988) Impact of Sales Promotions on When, What, and How Much to Buy. Journal of Marketing Research, Vol.XXV (November 1988), 342–355. The effectiveness of a sales promotion can be examined by decomposing the sales “bump” during the promotion period into sales increase due to brand switching, purchase time acceleration, and stockpiling. The author proposes a method for such a decomposition whereby brand soles are considered the result of consumer decisions about wheni, what, and how much to buy. The impact of marketing variables on these three consumer decisions is captured by an Erlang-2 interpurchase time model, a multinomial logit model of brand choice, and a cumulative logit model of purchase quantity. The models are estimated with IRI scanner panel data for regular ground coffee. The results indicate that more than 84% of the sales increase due to promotion comes from brand switching (a very small part of which may be switching between different sizes of the same brand). Purchase acceleration in time accounts for less than 14% of the sales increase, whereas stockpiling due to promotion is a negligible phenomenon accounting for less than 2% of the sales increase. (p. 342)

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In the commercial application Case 3 from Neslin, S., Allenby, G., Ehrenberg, A., Hoch., S., Laurent, G., Leone, R., Little, J., Lodish, L., Shoemaker, R., & Wittink, D. (1994): A Research Agenda for Making Scanner Data More Useful to Managers. Marketing Letters. 5 (4): 395–412. Neslin et al. (1994) presented a research agenda for making these customer databases more useful to managers. They posited that in a rapidly changing retail business environment driven by changing consumer lifestyles and manufacturers’ brand extension strategies have increased new merchandise ranging requiring more shelf and sales space. This phenomenon causes challenges to the traditional supermarket distribution system which is driven by mass merchandisers, logical extensions, micro marketing development and deployment, convenience outlets and price clubs increases emphasis on consumer and trade promotion of which customer insight from customer databases has been identified as potential support. They argue that for marketing, “retailers now have the ability, on a store basis, to determine how brands and product categories respond to merchandising activities. Panel data allow manufacturers increasingly to quantify brand switching, loyalty, and market segmentation.” (p. 396). To illustrate their propositions to encourage managerial impact they present three cases. Firstly, they presented a case that applies the Dirichlet model to develop a marketing plan for a new product. In this case, a U.S. packaged goods company was working on the marketing plan for a new brand of instant coffee. Using customer data from the point-of-sale (POS) / scanner data, their analysis model reflected a commonly observed the phenomenon “that brands hardly differ in their repeat-buying frequencies, other than for a double jeopardy effect, whereby high market share brands have high penetration and high purchase frequency, while low market share brands have low penetration and low purchase frequency” (pp.  397). The results show that “the brand’s marketing plan, calling for 1 per cent penetration and purchase frequency of twenty-four purchases per buyer, is out of step with the characteristics of existing brands. The results showed management that they needed to search for a different plan in order to meet their sales goals” (pp.  397–398). Secondly, they presented a case that applies the logit model to evaluating coupon promotions. The study investigated the use of a popular tool used in grocery retail promotions, the coupon, and try

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to address the managerial questions of whether the use of coupons in promotions generates enough incremental sales to be profitable and how couponing programmes can be designated to enhance their effectiveness. In their analysis, they applied the logit model which they argued that. “It provides a household-specific description of brand choice including the effects of the marketing environment. This enables the model to derive a sales baseline - in this case, the level of sales the brand would have achieved had the coupon not been distributed. Actual sales, which reflect the effect of the coupon program, can be compared to this baseline. The difference between actual and baseline sales is an estimate of incremental sales” (p, 398). They arrived at these conclusions of interest to grocery retail marketing managers: “A major generalization is that coupons with infinite expiration dates (the date at which the consumer can no longer redeem the coupon) generate fewer incremental sales per redemption than coupons with finite expiration dates. Stated differently, redemptions that take place in the weeks immediately following coupon distribution are more likely to generate incremental sales than redemptions in later weeks” (p. 398). Thirdly, they presented their third case which applied the logit model to simulate alternative marketing plans. In this case the managerial brief was “whether the base plan, including three coupon drops, should be abandoned in favour of a reallocation plan, with lower advertising but six coupon drops and additional consumer promotions. A key question was what would be the one-year sales impact of the alternative plans” (p. 399). In their analysis they argued that “the nested logit model seeks to describe how marketing mix elements influence both of these decisions. The model could therefore be used to simulate the level of sales that would occur under each of the marketing plans …,”(p. 399). The case arrived at a conclusion important for the management of the grocery retailers “The net result was that the reallocation plan generated 17 per cent additional sales compared to the base plan. An estimated 5.1 per cent decrease in sales due to decreased advertising was more than offset by a 22.5% increase in sales due to couponing, additional consumer promotions, and synergies among these activities. The final decision of which plan to adopt could now rest on additional strategic issues and cost considerations, but the key issue of sales impact was addressed by the model”. (p. 400). The Neslin et al. (1994) study then goes on to offer an extensive area of application of customer databases insight for commercial use for

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grocery retailers and grocery merchandise manufacturing companies under three broad fields of strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. These are based on the conditions of both manufacturers and retailers collaborating to develop the following: “Develop “win-win“ programs Retailer; Manage cooperative programs; Manage pay-for-performance promotions; Standardize information; Achieve “fair“ division of profits and Manage EDI/ECR systems”. (p. 403). For grocery merchandise manufacturers the information from the databases can be used in strategy formulation for the following (Nelsin et  al., p.  403): Manage organization decentralization; Define product categories; Compete with private-label; Stimulate primary demand; Allocate between advertising and promotion; Determine appropriate promotion frequency; Decide between EDLP (Every-Day-Low-Price) and high/low; Formulate chain-specific promotion policies, and Increase brand loyalty. For implementation grocery manufacturers can use information from the customer databases for the following; Monitor new products; Enhance salesperson effectiveness; Design salesperson incentives; Identify brand performance indices; Develop micromarketing programs; and Develop consumer profiles. For evaluation manufacturers can use the information from the databases for the following: Measure competitive reaction; Measure cross elasticities; Ensure data integrity; Develop response “yardsticks”; Measure the effectiveness of continuity programs; Measure the effectiveness of cross-­ couponing; Measure positioning and image effects; Measure effects of multiple promotions; Develop long-term baselines; Measure the effectiveness of new forms of couponing, and Measure advertising response. Retailers can use information from the customer databases in strategy formulation in the following ways: Compete with other forms of retailers; Formulate category strategies; Decide between EDLP (Every-Day-­ Low-Price) versus high/ low; Set margin plan; Define price zones strategy; Develop private label strategy and Increase store loyalty. For implementation retailers can use the information from the customer database for the following: Select items to carry; Select items to promote; Manage warehouse/store interface; Set promotion price; Set regular price, and Develop micromarketing programs. Retailers can also use information from the customer databases for evaluation for the following: Measure category elasticities; Measure category cross-elasticities; Measure promotion effect

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on profit; Measure effects of continuity programs; Measure effects of marketing mix on store choice; and Measure store image effects. The case presented here illustrates the importance of the customer loyalty databases in contemporary retail marketing. In Ghana, there is a new era of marketing in Ghana that has evolved by way of supermarket chain infrastructure development and online shopping—all of these made possible through internet connectivity. Thus, the stage is set for customer database accumulation that drives a potential commercial, pedagogical and research value of the next generation of supermarkets marketing supermarket card-based databases in Ghana. Therefore, the use of supermarket databases for social-­ demographic profiling of consumers as well as their use in the teaching and research of marketing at Higher Education Institutions in Ghana is an important process and practice that ought to engage the attention of Ghana’s retail supermarket industry stakeholders. We illustrate the potential commercial value of supermarket Card-based Databases by observing the relative unique attributes, similarities, and differences between two cases of developed versus emerging economy market data characteristics. Judging by the infrastructural differential between the two economies the commercial value that can potentially be gleaned by Tesco UK is relatively bigger compared to Melcom Super Saver Card (Ghana). Whiles the Melcom Super Saver Card system in Ghana requires a one-time registration fee that of Tesco UK in the main is free, except the Clubcard Plus requires a subscription fee of £7.99 a month for 10% off groceries in-­ store, twice a month, as well as 10% off F&F brand of clothing all the time. Additionally, the Ghanaian Clubcard system represented by the Melcom Supermarket Card system is limited in terms of the ease of rewarding customers in the absence of a reliable address postcode system. Unlike Tesco the UK can send reward coupons relatively easily by post, Melcom Supermarket can only reward customers exclusively in-store. The authors present a narrative on the Tesco Club Card (UK example) and Melcom Supermarket Card (Ghana Case) databases to highlight their relative unique attributes, similarities, and differences between the two cases of developed versus emerging economy market data characteristics (See Table 7.1).

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Table 7.1  Comparison of supermarket loyalty cards of major retailers in Ghana with the Tesco Clubcard Scheme

Operation

Reward

No. of Stores

Direct Mail

All Vouchers Customers fill out forms Points that stores are posted are to apply for to equivalent membership, no fees members to 1% on all are required for quarterly purchases membership. with the Customers earn points card which are redeemed with purchases. Discounts of Selected Vouchers Tesco Clubcard The scheme is a are posted 10% and up stores paid-for loyalty plus to to an scheme, customers (TESCO) members equivalent pay a subscription quarterly of GBP fee of GBP 7.99 a 264.12 a month, and shoppers year are rewarded with a 10% discount on two big purchases of up to GBP 200 each. Customers are also rewarded with 10% on TESCO brand in-store with a potential savings o GBP 264.12 a year. No mail Melcom super The customer fills out Discounts are All stores out, 5% and a form to apply for saver card discounts 10% on (Melcom stores, membership and are only entire pays a one-time Ghana) available purchases membership in-store application fee of USD 2.50. Offers 5% discount on entire purchase of USD 20 and above, holders enjoy 10% discount on entire purchase of USD 35 and above on special promotion Wednesdays. Not valid on promotional items or special offers

Tesco Clubcard (TESCO)

(continued)

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Table 7.1 (continued) Scheme

Operation

P-Club card (palace supermarket, Ghana)

The customer fills out Discount of 5% on a form to apply for purchases membership, pays a one-time registration fee of USD 28, a discount of 5% on the entire purchase, purchases also earn points which can be redeemed with more purchases, card can be used on special promotions in-store items, Discounts Customers apply by range from filling out forms for membership, and pay 5% and above a one-time payment of USD 1.50., customers enjoy a package of regular or seasonal discounts on purchases of USD 10 and above Discounts Customers are range from upgraded from 10% and prestige membership above into membership after purchases above USD 35, customers pay USD 2.50 as a one-time registration fee. Customers enjoy a package of regular or seasonal discounts

MaxMart prestige card (MaxMart ltd., Ghana)

MaxMart VIP card (MaxMart ltd., Ghana)

Reward

No. of Stores

Direct Mail

All stores

No mail out, discounts are only available in-store

All stores

No mail out, discounts are only available in-store

All stores

No mail out, discounts are only available in-store

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7.3 Use of Supermarket Databases by Marketing Agencies The marketing analytics market is vibrant and dominated by many major marketing agencies such as IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.Com Inc., SAS Institute Inc. among others globally. The marketing analytics market globally was valued at USD 2.13 billion in 2020 and is estimated to grow up to USD 4.68 billion by 2026 according to Mordor Intelligence (2022). Within the context of the retail industry, the use of generated supermarket data coupled with the recent introduction and adoption of cloud technology has considerably contributed to the growth of the marketing analytics market that is run by various marketing agencies. Global estimates of growth rates of the marketing analytics market indicate a low pace of growth in Africa and Latin America relative to developed economy counterparts. However, drawing on two potentially convergent trends in both the emerging and developed marketing analytic industry; (1) the supermarket industry in emerging markets such as Ghana is evolving (Taylor, 2017; Slater & Olson 2002) and (2) the evidence of ongoing strategy on the part of major players in the marketing analytics market mostly in the global north expanding across foreign countries (see, Sheth, 2021) presents the right ingredients for a paradigm shift to an active and competitive marketing analytics market is emerging economies. There are many examples of how marketing agencies have tapped into the commercial value of supermarket card-based databases to enhance customer relationship management and increase sales. Dunnhumby’s Clubcard loyalty system is an example of a successful programme that has elicited commercial value of retail supermarket shopper database in the marketing analytics industry (see, Nastasoiu and Vandenbosch (2019)). In fact, Tesco through its marketing analytic agency dunnhumby is accruing £53 million per year providing behavioural data and information on retail customers’ spending habits to notable retailers and key manufacturers such as Unilever, Nestle and Heinz, among others. (Poulter, 2011). An example of a shopper insight report (Fearne, 2012) indicates shopper behaviour, shopper segmentation according to lifestage, lifestyle and

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geographic regionals and basket analysis to explore cross-shopping and product categories covered by shoppers. The report also typically highlighted measures such as the share of sales for each product sub-group, year on year growth of sales by volume and value, the scope for attracting new buyers (penetration), purchase frequency and repeat purchases. It is common knowledge that loyalty cards given to customers to gain reward points are gradually becoming a feature in emerging economies such as Ghana. Such as emerging trend also points to a potential avenue for marketing agencies within and outside emerging markets to start on how they will be ready to explore soon the commercial value that will be ripped as retail supermarket database analytics become mainstreamed.

7.4 Research and Pedagogical Value of Supermarket Card-Based Databases The use of retail supermarket card-based databases in academic research and its role as a credible source of actual behavioural insight that enriches teaching has received attention within some higher education institutions in developed economies. This is a trend that emerging economies have the potential to replicate as their respective retail industries evolve to embrace the introduction of reward card systems that also capture shopper details and spending patterns. Thus, at the current rate of development of the retail marketing industry in emerging markets, there are prospects of gaining access to actual behavioural data for research and teaching purposes. It is worth noting that such a development has the potential to revitalise both research and teaching delivery in emerging economies like Ghana since these jurisdictions are characterised primarily by the scarcity of research data. Beyond the availability of data challenge, over-reliance on foreign sources of data has proven to be rather a disincentive to research and scholarship as the differences in developed versus developing countries are obvious and research insights do not for the most part address local issues or are limited in terms factoring relevant national peculiarities. It is common knowledge that behavioural data on the spending habits of foreign shoppers’ behaviour will not engage directly with the research and teaching imperatives of a typical

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emerging market. From a marketing orientation perspective, the emerging accumulation of retail supermarket data will promote suitable research and pedagogical adaptation to enhance research and teaching impact on emerging market issues instead of the prevailing standardization approach (relying on foreign sources of database) that has not incentivised research and pedagogical innovations in emerging markets like Ghana. The retail supermarket databases have been used as a credible rich source of data for analysis and contributed to research and pedagogy at higher education levels in the area of fairtrade marketing (Yamoah, 2014, 2019, Yamoah et al., 2014), food export marketing (Yamoah and Aidoo, 2014), fairtrade supply chain management (Yamoah, 2013), attitude— behaviour in sustainable consumption (Yamoah & Acquaye, 2019), food safety and shopper behaviour during the horsemeat scandal (Yamoah & Yawson, 2014), loyalty data for marketing planning in small business (Donnelly et  al., 2015), consumer information use in small businesses (Yawson, 2020), and big data and small business marketing (Donnelly et  al., 2015). This is presented in Table  7.2 with the selected Title, Author(s), Retail Supermarket Database Utilization and Contribution to Research and Pedagogy. It is important to recount that the typical results from the analysis of the retail supermarket database have been used in teaching for illustrations, case studies and in some cases raw data provided for students to analyse. A unique feature of such data usage is that insights emanating from the use of such data, descriptives in the form of bar charts, graphs etc. and statistical results and case study contents do not suffer from the demerits of claimed behaviour. There have been situations where regular undergraduate and postgraduate students have been provided with retail supermarket data to analyse and proffer strategy and policy prescriptions for the respective organisations whose customer data was used for the project. There have also been cases where presentations based on the analyses of such data are made to respective business leaders who serve as a panel member(s) alongside academics. These developments hold a great prospect for higher education institutions in terms of opportunities for gaining access to a credible rich database for research and teaching as the retail supermarket industry begins to grow and expand in emerging markets such as Ghana.

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Table 7.2  Sample research utilizing retail supermarket data for analysis

Title

Author(s)

Retail Supermarket Database Utilization

Contribution to Research and Pedagogy

Actual shopper data for The supermarket data analysis raised 52 weeks collected critical serious from 06 April 2009 to questions about the 04 April 2010 on development of the fairtrade spending habits was analysed for UK fairtrade market and opportunities specifically shopping for growth as the across fairtrade food evidence beneath product categories the headline figures shows that There was not much shopping across the fairtrade food product categories The relationship The supermarket data Howard-­ Data on the volume of between analysis completed food sales from a large Wilsher unhealthy food other data sources to supermarket chain, et al. establish an comprising 538 stores (2016) sales, socio-­ on food purchased from association between economic the sales percentage nine food categories deprivation and of unhealthy foods over 52-weeks for a childhood within a supermarket geographic analysis to weight status: and the prevalence Results of a link this store-­based of overweight and cross-sectional food sales data to obesity among study in England middle super output children in the areas (MSOAs) in locality England Unravelling the Supermarket retail data Confirmed Yamoah sustainable product on value and volume and attitude-­ purchase inhibitor of sustainable apple Acquaye behaviour gap and promoter sales, prices, varieties, (2019) paradox for typology that is and the number of sustainable food essential for stores selling them Consumption: sustainable food over 2 years for two Insight from the purchase behaviour consecutive years UK apple based on an actual market data sample size of 1.8 million was obtained from a large supermarket chain in the UK Fairtrade UK in Retrospect: From the Niche Genesis to the Revelatory Mainstreaming Marketing Strategy Era (Late 1950s— Late 2000s)

Yamoah (2019)

(continued)

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Table 7.2 (continued) Retail Supermarket Database Utilization

Title

Author(s)

Assessing supermarket food shopper reaction to Horsemeat scandal in the UK

Yamoah and Yawson (2014)

Retail supermarket loyalty card dataset on beef burger shoppers to assess the effect of the horsemeat scandal on retail sales value and volume alongside the rate of withdrawal of life-stage shopper segments from the affected products

Fairtrade consumers and “global south” producers supply chain management

Yamoah (2016)

Retail supermarket loyalty card data of over 1.7 million shoppers were analysed using paired-samples test analysis to objectively profile the fairtrade shoppers

Understanding consumer information use in small Businesses: The determinants and performance outcomes

Yawson (2020)

Contribution to Research and Pedagogy The analysis indicated a continuous weekly decline in retail sales value and volume for all life-stage segments over 6 weeks post the first horsemeat scandal detection and announcement

Established the huge marketing potential that segmentation based on actual behaviour brings to supply chain management by understanding the attributes of fairtrade shoppers and factors that drive shopper satisfaction and repeat purchase behaviour The study established Agri-food SMEs were use of consumer supplied with retail information is supermarket database dependent on the information through a Agri-food SMEs’ series of workshops for ability to implement 3 years and then the business surveyed to determine processes of consumer information consumer utilisation and information contribution to the application to a SME performance standard that meets outcome the expectation of decision-makers (continued)

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Table 7.2 (continued)

Title

Author(s)

Donnelly Digital loyalty et al. card ‘big data (2015) and small business marketing: Formal versus informal or complementary?

Retail Supermarket Database Utilization

Contribution to Research and Pedagogy

Small firms selected for Reported a complementary the study were given relationship access to digital loyalty between the card data to enable formalised nature of assessing the retail data and the relationships between informal nature of the formalised nature small business of digital retail market orientation supermarket data and the informal nature of small business market orientation over a period

7.5 Potential Beneficiary Versus Struggling Stakeholders of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing The narratives in Sects. 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 on the potential commercial, research and pedagogical value inherent in the emerging retail sector in emerging markets are not the entire story as the retail supermarket evolution presents both an opportunity and threats for various stakeholders in the industry. Undoubtedly, the history of retail supermarkets’ growth and development across the world indicates that they tend to create winners and losers as they dominate deregulated emerging markets. It is therefore important to pre-empt stakeholders in emerging markets to proactively prepare and position themselves for the massive paradigm shift driven by next-generation supermarket marketing. An obvious consequence is a drastic reduction in the market share of independent small retailers which intends to impact negatively on the livelihoods of local producers. The seminal critique on global food chains in relation to African smallholders and world bank governance by Amanor (2009) highlighted the

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oligopolistic tendencies of supermarkets to expand globally across different countries and consumer segments. Profoundly, Amanor (2009, p. 252) opined that ‘from a base in large cities, supermarkets initially spread to intermediate cities and towns, and later to small towns in rural areas—in response to market competition and saturation’. It is therefore not surprising to observe such a description is aptly reflected in how supermarket shopping malls developed in South Africa. According to Ligthelm (2008), retail supermarkets in South Africa emerged from the large cosmopolitan cities initially serving the up-market followed by the mid-market before targeting the urban low-market segment. Similar parallax can be drawn with the trend of retail supermarkets developing in Ghana. Such an emerging trend indicates global supermarkets are keeping to their model of domination that could stifle local retail players in Ghana in due course. Such a stick to the knitting approach is a pathway akin to the practical expression of path dependency theory (see, Ibrahim & Galt, 2011), which posits that establishments and their stakeholders are segments of institutions that form and direct their behaviour and actions via an entrenched path (Ibrahim & Galt, 2011). Indeed, Yamoah and Johnson (2020) asserted that the majority of the decisions related to economic actors and the governance structures are covert or overtly influenced by past decisions - commonly referred to as path dependence. Drawing from such antecedence of global retail supermarkets, it is most likely (in fact this is already reflected in Ghana) that retail food supermarkets are prominent in the processed foods category (canned, dry, and packaged food items), as stipulated by Amanor (2009) to leverage economies of scale in procurement in collaboration with external major processed-food manufacturers. Therefore, it is essential to appreciate the relative contribution of supermarkets and their impact on smaller local retailers, suppliers and producers in emerging markets such as Ghana. Beyond the macroeconomic contribution of the presence of supermarkets to national economies of emerging countries by way of corporate taxes and employment opportunities etc., one obvious winner (stakeholder) alongside supermarket investors is a local stakeholder with resources to develop requisite governance of supply chains. In addition, local farmers that are able to respond to the rigorous quality control, regulations, volume supplies, and timely delivery requirements of

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supermarkets are likely to succeed in the next generation of retail marketing. A typical example is what presently pertains in Sub-Saharan Africa regarding the participation of African producers working in collaboration with large aggregators in the production of fresh vegetables, pineapples, bananas, mangos and cut flowers (Gibbon & Ponte, 2005). Undoubtedly, the extension of supermarkets to emerging countries offers concrete market opportunities for host country suppliers and producers. However, the characteristic shortcomings of local players such as suppliers and producers (Reardon et al., 2004) relative to the expectations and requirements of emerging supermarkets virtually deny these local actors the opportunity to participate in the emerging retail marketing environment. The requirements to meet international quality standards and to supply fixed quantities of products at competitive prices throughout the year imposes unrealistic expectation on local suppliers and producers. Overall, the emerging next generation of retail supermarket marketing provides a dilemma and raises a higher stake on livelihood issues and the implication of welcoming supermarkets into large cities in emerging markets. This challenge emanates from the following resultant factors associated with supermarket operations, their corporate and marketing strategy, and procurement conditions: (1) eminent supply chain control due to power asymmetry that leads to distributive injustice from production condition imposition on farmers and suppliers and transfer of industry risks to potential local supplier chain actors, (2) general market capture strategies of supermarkets based on marketing multiple portfolios of products to maximize profit margins and sales volume that significantly limits the market space for local smaller retailers, (3) notoriously favouring global sourcing with information technology for products standardization and quality control, and (4) setting a higher market entry barrier for producers as a result of supermarket’s preference for product differentiation supported by sophisticated advertising to attract and maintain consumers; all to the detriment of local counterparts. In summary, the above-mentioned issues when at play concentrates power and allow supermarkets the latitude to be oligopolistic riding on the back of heightened competitiveness to dominate the market. With potential local stakeholder participation attenuated, a few large global retail supermarkets tend to dominate emerging national markets.

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7.6 Chapter Concluding Statement This chapter aimed at discussing the potential and prospects of unearthing the commercial, pedagogical and research value of supermarket card-­ based databases in Ghana drawing on examples across some developed economies of the world. Additionally, it sort to underline the unbalanced retail environment that characterises the entrance of supermarkets and how this fallout creates winners and losers in the retail market. It was established that indeed there is the inherent potential in retail supermarket databases to glean value in three forms  - commercial, research and pedagogical. The commercial value can be achieved through subjecting consumer data to social demographic profiling to facilitate target marking, communication and promotions and processing and adding value to supermarket databases by marketing agencies to support corporate and strategic decision making of retail industry players. Beyond proving an enabling environment to explore the three identifiable values, the emergence of supermarkets in emerging markets creates winners and losers that are represented by the entering foreign-based supermarkets and their local competitors and stakeholders like local retailers, suppliers, processors and primary producers respectively.

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Torrisi, F., Stefani, G., & Seghieri, C. (2006). Use of scanner data to analyze the table wine demand in the Italian major retailing trade. Agribusiness, 22(3), 391–403. Van Heerde, H. J., Leeflang, P. S. H., & Wittink, D. R. (2000). The estimation of pre- and Postpromotion dips with store-level scanner data. Journal of Marketing Research, XXXVII, 383–395. Wagner, S. M. (2006). Supplier development practices: An exploratory study. European Journal of Marketing., 40(5/6), 554–571. Wedel, M., & Kannan, P. K. (2016). Marketing analytics for data-rich environments. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 97–121. World Bank. (2008). World development report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank. Yawson, D.  E. (2020). Understanding Consumer Information Use in Small Businesses: The Determinants and Performance Outcomes. International Review of Management and Marketing, 10(5), 50–62. Yamoah, F. (2013). Linking Fairtrade Shopper Insights and Supply Chain Management Implications for Global South  Producers. In EE Obuah, E. E. (ed.), Integrating African Markets and Economies in a Changing Global Economy: Procs of the 14th Annual Conference of International Academy of African Business and Development. pp.  506–518, Int Academy of African Business and Development Conf. (IAABD) 2013, Accra, Ghana, 14/05/13. Yamoah, F.  A. (2014). An exploratory study of marketing factors influencing fairtrade food buying behaviour in the UK.  International Review of Management and Marketing, 4(1), 13–23. Yamoah, F.  A. (2016). Fairtrade consumers and “Global South” producers Supply Chain Management. African Journal of Business and Economic Research, 11(2), 35–52. Yamoah, F. A. (2019). Fairtrade UK in Retrospect: From the Niche Genesis to the Revelatory Mainstreaming Marketing Strategy Era (Late 1950s-Late 2000s). International Review of Management and Marketing, 9(4),110. Yamoah, F. A., Fearne, A., & Duffy, R. (2014). Exploring supermarket loyalty card analysis to identify who buys fairtrade. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/0959396 9.2014.890954 Yamoah, F. & Acquaye, A. (2019). Unravelling the attitude-behaviour gap paradox for sustainable food consumption: Insight from the UK apple market. Journal of cleaner production, 217, 172–184.

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8 Challenges, Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Strategies for Success of the Next Generation of Supermarkets Marketing

8.1 Introduction This chapter discusses the envisaged challenges, paradoxes and dilemmas associated with and emanating from the evolution of the retail supermarket industry in emerging markets using Ghana’s case as a reference point. It is important to note that the narrative in this chapter is an attempt to draw on the current state of change of the industry, coupled with the futuristic state termed the ‘next generation of supermarkets marketing’, to forecast how existing and future challenges, paradoxes and dilemmas related to the entry and mainstreaming of supermarkets in emerging markets can be embraced, regulated or retained. Section 8.1 of this chapter covers competition dynamics in the future retail supermarket chains’ market environment. This is followed by a discussion on the paradox embedded in embracing retail supermarkets versus the public interest factors such as the dwindling traditional retail industry and its larger implications for livelihoods in Sect. 8.2. The next Sect. 8.3 firstly focuses on a discussion on the progressive changing consumer buying culture as

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2_8

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well as the changing nature of retail supermarket–supplier relationships and local smallholder supplier engagement. The final part of this chapter Sect. 8.4 draws on the challenges discussed to make informed suggestions toward developing strategies for success and policy options to align emerging competitiveness and stakeholder inclusivity.

8.2 Competitive Dynamics in the Future Retail Supermarket Chains Environment Several studies have shown that the trajectory of the spread of modern retail supermarkets in emerging markets starts from the national capitals and regional cities and then quickly expands into urban and peri-urban towns (Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Reardon et al., 2007). This movement and growth serve as a major precursor to the growing competitive pressures within the retail supermarket chains environment in developing countries. In most cases, the prevailing retail marketing environmental factors undergo drastic changes. In particular, the retail food market suddenly gets segregated based on income level as some consumers within the proximal locality of newly opened food supermarkets will need to travel elsewhere to shop for household groceries. Conversely, other high-­ income earners travel to these new supermarkets that are mostly sited away from their regular local retail outlets for shopping. Another feature of the competitive pressures driven by the supermarket evolution is the overnight loss of customers (market share) of relatively smaller local retailers as such introductions are not managed at the level of the local councils or assemblies to alert local competitors of the eminent opening of a ‘bigger’ retailer—the supermarket. In the typical case of Ghana, these retail supermarkets are sited without any consultation with local retailers. As such, there is virtually no room for these smaller retailers to prepare and respond. It is worth noting that the presence of retail outlets of foreign supermarkets origins is rather generally perceived as a symbol of development. In light of this, competition concerns and considerations are not really viewed as an important alarming factor by the public. Smaller local retailers are left to deal with the drastic reduction of market

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share and in some acute cases livelihoods without any support. Another feature of the decreasing trend is that the market share decline takes place at different rates across different localities in the urban cities and product portfolios. It is also common knowledge that the processed and packaged foods local retailers tend to first lose market share to supermarkets that market these product categories in large quantities and are able to leverage economies of scale at both supplier and consumer levels. It is important to indicate that many emerging markets including Ghana do not have a statutory body such as the office of trading standards and competition commissions oversees and manage competitive pressures to ensure fairness for stakeholders including local smaller retailers and consumers. Reardon and Gulati (2008) provide an apt narrative on how the entire evolution of retail supermarkets in developing regions of the world including West Africa has been driven by the quest to consolidate their global competitive positions. This study further highlighted the way supermarkets have gained a competitive edge over traditional retailers in emerging markets through modernised effective procurement infrastructures as well as taken advantage of attractive domestic tax incentives. The strong competitive position that supermarkets gain in the relatively short term shifts the balance of power between suppliers, processors and primary producers like farmers in favour of supermarkets. This is mostly manifested through the provision of convenience and shopping ambience to customers, parking facilities, high-quality packaging, easy accessibility, and product variety on offer. Suppliers and other value chain actors suffer indirectly as their traditional retailers experienced a decline in market share and as such would require fewer quantities of their orders. The irony is that the shift of higher-income customers from relatively smaller retailers to supermarkets does not provide local suppliers with an alternate outlet as they are not configured to be able to meet the volumes and the specifications of supermarkets overnight. Normally, local suppliers are unable to switch and mostly lose out to established foreign suppliers. The opportunity for local suppliers is to scale up and compete based on proximity to the supermarkets, particularly in the fresh fruits and vegetable categories.

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8.3 Retail Supermarkets Corporate Goals Versus Public Interest and Livelihood Implications Contrary to earlier predictions five decades ago about the unlikely mainstreaming of supermarkets in developing countries in a foreseeable future, Reardon et al. (2007) have reported widespread retail supermarket spread and transformation in emerging markets. Cardinal to this vast diffusion of supermarkets in emerging markets in the twenty-first century is the corporate goal of supermarkets to grow and strengthen their competitive positions globally. Indeed, Amanor (2009) criticised the World Bank’s analysis of the development of agribusiness in Africa in the World Development Report 2008 for ignoring the underlying research insight concerned with oligopolist tendencies of supermarket chains within the context of agribusiness. This position is amply supported by a statement by Reardon et al. (2007: 399): “To enable their rapid growth, supermarkets undertake ‘proactive fast-tracking strategies’ to alter the ‘enabling conditions’ of entry and growth. Besides the retail investments that have been extensively treated in recent literature, these proactive strategies focus on improving the ‘enabling conditions’ via (i) procurement system modernization and (ii) local supply chain development.” Reardon and Gulati (2008) attributed the rise of supermarkets in the emerging markets to urbanisation and increased up-market consumer segments in cities as well as the policy liberalisation of foreign direct investments in host countries. Furthermore, they opine that the ability of retail supermarkets to offer product varieties of higher quality at relatively lower prices spurs them on to capture a substantial consumer market share within a short period of their operations in emerging markets. Reardon et al. (2007) concluding on ‘proactive fast-­ tracking’ diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries’ show that supermarkets proactively change entry and growth conditions by enticing their home logistics and manufacturing partners to locate alongside and pursue sourcing processed products from national, regional and global networks. Setting such a highly competitive entry strategy undoubtedly has a direct and immediate impact on local stakeholders’ operations and livelihoods that is of public interest ultimately. A critical

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observation of such corporate goal reveals a pre-sustainability linear economic model that has been declared unsustainable for its failure to address environmental and social factors (Porter, 2017). The missing ingredient in the supermarket corporate vision is sustainability to factor the triad of profit-planet-people. Like earlier waves of foreign multinationals incursions into emerging markets of developing countries, the overriding corporate goal of retail supermarkets is primarily underpinned by the quest to improve global competitive positioning. It is obvious that retail supermarkets’ corporate goal for profitability does not capture immediate concerns for the planet and people. Such a disposition ought to be of public interest matter to national policy makers as it has livelihood implications in the medium to the long term for traditional retailers, suppliers, and producers, particularly rural primary producers of food. Critical matters arising from supermarkets expansion include the challenge of singly supplying large quantities to justify inclusion in the new chain or building an efficient and effective aggregators system that meets the new higher certification standards to stay competitive (Weatherspoon & Reardon, 2003). Obviously, local suppliers in Ghana’s case do not have the capacity and resources for a quick turnaround and that means supermarkets presently rely on imported supplies of processed and packaged foods. This point though anecdotal forms the basis to surmise that the emerging retail supermarket industry in Ghana currently does not include local producers and suppliers and it will take a conscious effort by way of national policy and institutional reform and support to redress such imbalance. In the case of Africa Weatherspoon & Reardon (2003, p. 352) made a prediction for Africa based on the Latin America experience, that will breed true to type in the case of Ghana—that supermarket expansion will lead to the quick sidelining of many small African farmers and manufacturers from supply lists to supermarkets unless there is a pragmatic government intervention to enable local stakeholders to meet these huge challenges to benefit from the emerging retail industry. Presently, in the context of sub-Saharan West Africa, there are no clear policies at the national or sub-regional levels to help traditional retailers, suppliers and producers meet, adopt and adapt, or withstand the rapidly changing retail environment driven by supermarket expansion (Porter, 2017).

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There is a critical need for the government and other stakeholders to regard supermarket expansion in emerging markets such as Ghana as a matter of urgent public interest issue and monitor carefully to support local stakeholders to manage the economic and social sustainability risks unravelling and negatively affecting the livelihoods of traditional retail actors.

8.4 The Changing Consumer Buying Culture and Supermarket—Supplier Relationships The benefits of supermarket expansion in emerging markets to the consumer have been a point of debate by researchers, retail practitioners and development agencies across the world (Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Porter, 2017; Rischke et al., 2015; Gómez & Ricketts, 2013). Whereas some studies support the view that supermarkets offer diverse processed products at relatively cheaper prices (Reardon & Gulati, 2008) another school of thought is that they primarily target up-market customers in the cities with a higher quality variety of products at a commensurately higher price (Schipmann & Qaim, 2011). There is also a suggestion of a potential benefit from supermarkets for relatively poor consumers because of gaining access to cheaper processed products (D’Haese & van Huylenbroeck, 2005). Considering the general trajectory of expansion of supermarkets in emerging markets from capital cities to regional capitals and then to other urban towns; a converging pricing strategy that may be at play is that supermarkets commence with premium pricing to capture the up-­ market segment and then target the mid and low markets with lower prices by exploiting economies of scale. One interesting consumer segment that has been tagged as a beneficiary of lower or cheaper prices from the supermarket is the urban poor consumer (Reardon & Gulati, 2008; Gómez & Ricketts, 2013). It is important to note that the urban poor in the global north could have significantly different attributes relative to the urban poor in West African countries like Ghana. Whereas the urban poor in the global north is a well-settled consumer segment with some

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regular meagre state support the urban poor in the global south (Ghana’s case) is the aggregate of the relatively youthful group in urban communities because of rural-urban migration without a regular source of income. Indeed, they can be described as a consumer segment in transition. Thus, the claim of rising supermarkets in emerging markets being of benefit to the urban poor due to lower prices ought to be considered with the unique attributes of this segment in emerging markets in mind. One implication is that reliance on such a segment may not be sustainable in the long term. Conversely, host country governments and other local stakeholders ought to be mindful of these assertions and take pragmatic steps to address rural-urban migration or support the provision of the much-needed jobs to this youthful segment to demystify the concept of rural poor being benefactors of lower product prices by supermarkets. Another notable point of discussion has been the nutritional implications due to the surge of supermarkets in emerging markets such as Ghana. A dietary transition towards more energy-dense highly processed food products has been highlighted as a major global challenge. Intriguingly, supermarkets have driven nutritional transition in the global north, Latin America and now firmly taking roots in the emerging countries in Africa such as Ghana. Curiously, the negative effects of such nutrient transitions have begun showing among the upper-class consumer segment households. These nutrient transitions are accompanied by changing consumer behaviour from unprocessed foods to the present alternative processed foods becoming readily available in emerging markets. This situation presents a huge challenge for emerging markets like Ghana which will need to confront the dual challenge of undernutrition and obesity that is associated with consuming highly processed foods and beverages fortified with fat, salt and sweeteners (see Popkin et al., 2012). The sad irony is that the growing middle class in the urban cities of emerging markets are the prime target for the expanding supermarkets. It is not surprising that supermarket purchase has been found to contribute to nutrition-related non-communicable diseases in urban Kenya (Rischke et al., 2015). The same study (Rischke et al., 2015) reported rising supermarkets are associated with the consumption of highly processed food and drive dietary changes that leads to nutrition transition with unhealthy consequences.

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Beyond driving nutrition transitions, the rise of supermarkets catalysis food value chain transformations in emerging markets and this phenomenon also have nutritional implications for consumers. It is common knowledge that the growing middle class in the emerging markets are turning to the expanding retail supermarkets that are offering a broader variety of processed and packaged food portfolios. These items include cereals, confectionaries, ready-to-eat meals, carbonated drinks, processed meats, dairy and fruits and vegetables (Gómez & Ricketts, 2013; Hawkes & Ruel, 2011). This trend is amply supported by a globally connected food value chain dominated by suppliers and manufacturers with the required resources and capacity to deliver the increasing volumes of products needed by the increasing demand for retail supermarket products. The presence of these foreign-based global suppliers operating in emerging markets by supplying rising supermarkets with the needed processed/ packaged products in large quantities is promoting a drastic change in the food value chains in emerging markets. Indeed, a cursory review of the value chain ecosystem shows the existence of two interacting food values chains (1) the modern food value chain with supermarkets and their foreign suppliers as the dominant actors and (2) the existing traditional food value chain that is under enormous pressure to adapt or relinquish the middle- and upper-class consumer segment to supermarkets. Despite the expanding supermarkets providing a varied source of processed and packaged and ready to eat products, Gómez and Ricketts (2013) established that the portfolio of food products that are the major sources of micronutrients for healthy living and wellbeing are still being obtained mostly through the traditional food value chain in emerging markets. This amplifies the call for health-related stakeholders in emerging markets to welcome supermarkets and fast-food chains to give urgent attention to nutrition transitions and food value chain transformations taking place in emerging markets due to the expansion of supermarkets as a matter of priority to secure health and wellbeing of the population. It may rhyme lyrically and appealing to declare that ‘obesity is a city problem across the cities dotted across the globe, but a further interrogation will indicate it is an unfolding health challenge in cities of many emerging markets including Ghana. Although the connection between the rise of supermarkets and obesity is yet to be empirically researched in

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emerging markets, it cannot be a sheer coincidence that the incidence of obesity which partly accounts for the rising cases of non-communicable diseases is becoming prevalent in the era of retail supermarkets expansion in emerging markets. Despite the lack of research on the direct connection or otherwise between the rise of supermarkets and urban obesity increase in emerging markets, precedent exists in the case of the United Kingdom. Howard-Wilsher et al. (2016) premised their work on the need to look beyond individual, family and social factors to understand the growing incidence of obesity in the United Kingdom. The study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity complemented existing studies on food environment on personal behaviour and the propensity to become overweight or obese. This study investigated the connection between weight status and annual sales of unhealthy foods sold in a supermarket chain. The findings of the study established an association between supermarket food sales and weight status. By inference, such results offer ample signal for emerging markets such as Ghana to carefully manage the rising trend of retail supermarkets not only from local competitors’ view but also from the health status implication of mainstreaming processed and packaged food that are characteristics of many supermarkets entering emerging markets. The unaccommodating nature of supermarkets to foster local supplier relationships is another challenge that requires some attention to enable local suppliers to participate in the next generation of retail marketing dominated by supermarkets. The battle lines of aggressive competition with powerful foreign suppliers are unequivocally drawn, and local suppliers ought to scale up without delay to have any chance of doing business with emerging supermarkets. Reardon & Gulati (2008: 2) was emphatic that supermarkets operate within a modernised procurement system and that suppliers are required to deliver high volumes of high-quality products consistently at a competitive cost. For this reason, emerging supermarkets per their corporate goals source from medium and large manufacturing and processing firms that mostly have an established presence and the requisite logistics in the global supply chain environment. In sum, small processing and manufacturing firms that operate in urban communities in emerging markets are not qualified to supply processed and packaged foods in the quantities

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and the standards required. Such a relationship can best be described as unaccommodating and this poses a challenge on three (3) fronts—(1) existing local urban manufacturers and processers are unable to take prompt advantage of the emerging retail supermarket supply-demand, (2) existing urban local retailers (existing customers of local suppliers) promptly lose market share to expanding supermarkets and hence reduce orders to local suppliers to avoid over-supply as an immediate response to the changing retail environment and (3) disadvantaged urban suppliers invariable pass on the loss of supermarket opportunity and declined orders from existing local retailers to their input suppliers such as farmer cooperatives and individual producers. It is relevant to highlight that the challenge to foster an accommodating relationship between supermarkets and their supply chain actors is not limited to emerging markets, but is a global problem. Developed retail markets like Britain with competition commission and fair-trading standards still grapple with the effects of supermarket-supplier relationship management problems. It is commonly reported that many supermarkets abuse their purchasing power over suppliers and growing concerns have been raised by disadvantaged stakeholders (Burch et al., 2013). Power asymmetry/imbalance resulting from the introduction of private/own-label brands and supermarkets’ control over shelf space has enabled supermarket retailers to demand more from suppliers (Burch et al., 2013). Such an aggressive competitive posture has exacerbated to the extent that it does sometimes engender a supplier culture that may lead to unethical decision making—the horsemeat scandal in Europe is a typical example (Madichie & Yamoah, 2017). For context, Burch et al. (2013) cited salient sources to show how widespread the abuse of retail supermarket power is of great concern globally. They referred to examples of media and stakeholder debates on retail supermarket power abuse and formal reactions to complaints by suppliers about power asymmetry and abuse of supermarket buying power in Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the UK), USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. This global picture raises the stakes for emerging markets experiencing retail supermarkets expansion but lacks legislation and oversight authorities such as an ombudsman, watchdog, or adjudicator, mandated to

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create standards and apply sanctions as well as receive perceived abuse complaints from suppliers for redress. It is common knowledge that supermarkets have always resisted attempts by governments to enact policies to monitor supermarket-supplier relations despite pressure from other relevant stakeholders.

8.5 Developing Strategies for Success The above discussions on the challenges, paradoxes and dilemmas of the next generation of supermarket marketing in emerging markets dovetail with the need to develop strategies for success and provide policy options to align emerging competitiveness with stakeholder inclusivity. Judging by the lack of baseline research on modern retail marketing competitive dynamics in emerging markets such as Ghana; this section draws on the work of Reardon and Gulati (2008) in International Food Policy Research Institute Policy Brief 2 and that of Louw et al. (2007) in Development Southern Africa publication for relevant extrapolations of their suggestions. A potentially swift strategy for success to align emerging competitiveness with stakeholder inclusivity is for governments to regulate the modern retail industry in the respective emerging markets such as Ghana. This appears to be the most suitable short-term step to manage the speed and scope of supermarket spread to ensure a controlled mainstreaming process. Regulation could be in the form of enacting legislation to monitor supermarket-supplier relations. Learning from other jurisdictions the appointment of an oversight authority like an ombudsman, watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), Competition Commission or Adjudicator—with the power to set standards and apply sanctions, is highly recommended. A clear path and institutional framework to ensure the existence of an independent body to manage retail industry disputes are also critical. It is also critical for policymakers in emerging markets to adopt a pro-traditional or pro-small retail policy. Indeed, such a policy has all the elements that could spur resistance from supermarkets, and they are likely to equate such a move to be akin to supporting state intervention and rent-seeking policies. It is important to highlight that many

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emerging markets in sub-Saharan Africa per the status quo encourage supermarkets expansion taking a one-sided view to modernize the retail environment, reduce prices of processed and packaged goods commerce, promote retail environment hygiene and refer to their rise as economic success—all to the detriment of local and traditional actors in the retail industry. Another policy option that is supported by Reardon and Gulati (2008) is for the government of the host country to promote competitiveness with inclusiveness. That is to encourage the controlled expansion of supermarkets by managing and facilitating the change to allow the development of traditional retailers alongside the emerging supermarkets. The focus on traditional retailers will be to enable them to modernise and compete. Part of the activities for an upgrade to modernise includes improving their physical infrastructure and provision of food safety, hygiene and business skills. There is also the need to modernise and upgrade wholesale markets’ infrastructure and marketing services for an effective and efficient traditional supply chain that will be able to meet the volumes of inputs and raw materials required by manufacturers and processes to supply the expanding supermarkets. An additional daunting but feasible strategy is for governments of host emerging markets like Ghana to support producers and farmers to scale up or aggregate around cooperatives or bigger aggregators to become competitive to do business directly with supermarkets. Reardon and Gulati (2008) identified that increased and timely government investments in upgrading physical infrastructures like better roads and trains, cold chains and effective market information services could be a step in the right direction to enable producers and farmers actively participate in the emerging retail marketing driven by the expansion of supermarkets. In an objective admonition, Weatherspoon and Reardon (2003, p. 347) recommended that for small producers to thrive with the rise of supermarkets in emerging markets there is a need to ‘expand their productive capacity, ensure consistent supply and quality, and strive to adhere to the supermarket and international grades and standards’. However factual this point is, it is practically not feasible for small producers to take such audacious steps without government and

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institutional support. It is also highly recommended to encourage joint action to engender equity and competitiveness by developing with the local authority to support niche markets to enable small-scale producers and SMEs to benefit from comparative advantages based on traditional know-how or novel environmental attributes (see Arthur & Yamoah, 2019). The seminal work of Arthur and Yamoah captured in the 2019 Journal of Environmental Management publication headed ‘Understanding the role of environmental quality attributes in food-related rural enterprise competitiveness’, offers a suitable model that stakeholders in emerging markets’ retail industry can adopt as a possible strategy for success for smaller producers within the supply chain. It is a typical success story that was intentionally fostered by governmental and local authorities to ensure the growth and survival of small-scale producers and SMEs facing intense competition from larger industry actors, within a demarcated niche market to benefit from comparative advantages based on traditional know-­ how or novel environmental attributes. As a background to this successful competitive story, three rural communities in Denmark faced intense competition from other large-scale producers and required urgent intervention to be able to survive and compete favourably. Excerpts from the publication about the three communities are provided as follows: (1) The island of Bornholm lies in the Baltic Sea, 32 km from Sweden, close to the southern Swedish coast, and about 160 km east of Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, with the unique natural landscape, very distinct from that of mainland Denmark. Bornholm is characterized by hills, waterfalls, dramatic rocks, rocky coastlines, rift valleys, sandy beaches, harbours, lakes, wildlife, and exotic botanical species; (2) The second community is Thisted Municipality, situated in the North Jutland Region in the far north-west part of Denmark and bounded to the west by the North Sea, and its southern and eastern boundaries are formed by the Limfjord. It is also Denmark’s leading ‘green’ municipality and noted for having all its electricity generated from renewable energy sources (3) Morsø Municipality is situated also in the north-west part of Denmark, borders very close to the eastern part of Thisted, and is approximately 390 km from Copenhagen.

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Compared with Thisted, Morsø is small in area, although it is the largest among all the islands on the Limfjord in Denmark (see Arthur & Yamoah, 2019 for detailed descriptions and attributes of these communities. The strategy for success that could serve as a model for stakeholders within emerging markets such as Ghana that is experiencing expansion in supermarkets, which is changing competitive dynamics to the detriment of small retailers and producers are outlined as follows: Recognising the intense competition within the food production and retail industry that sort to stifle their growth and survival to minimize small-market and location limitations, food-related rural enterprises with institutional support focussed on offering products with labels such as ‘quality’, ‘green’, or ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainability’ to justify premiums pricing for their products. This was initiated by the increasing environmental consciousness premium consumer segment. These small-scale producers and managers of food-related enterprises in rural Denmark found that engendering equity and competitiveness in serving a niche premium market will enable small-scale producers and SMEs to benefit from comparative advantages based on their unique environmental features. These enterprises adopted innovative green strategies supported by novel storytelling communications to increase their sales and profitability for growth and enhanced competitive position. This case study narrative above presents an exciting model that emerging market stakeholders can also adopt and adapt to promote competitiveness with inclusiveness in order to keep small producers and SMEs afloat in this era of supermarket expansion. An inference can be drawn from this case example that it is possible that smaller players within a competitive industry can be supported to develop unique attributes to enhance competitiveness, through niche premium market positions with well-differentiated offerings. Given the intense competition envisaged for the next generation of retail marketing in the emerging markets small producers and SMEs can be proactively supported to participate and survive if there is an understanding of stakeholder collaboration and partnerships.

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8.6 Sustainability in Retailing Sustainability in retailing is another strategic option that holds prospects for a win-win success for all stakeholders in the retail industry provided there is collaboration and trust. It is a viable alternative strategy to develop success because the scope and domain of sustainability surpass the tenets of resilience and longevity as it highlights the imperative of the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social concerns in organisational decision making. The three spheres of sustainability Fig. 8.1 is presented to show the broader elements that place sustainability beyond the scope of an individual organisation’s longevity and resilience. Indeed, longevity and resilience are an integral part of sustainability but the exclusive focus on profit maximization, cost-saving and economic growth present a rather diminished view of sustainability (see Amaeshi et al. (2019) for Incorporating sustainability in management education: An

Social-Environmental Environmental Justice Nature Resources Stewardship Locally & Globally

Environmental Natural resource use Environmental Management Pollution Prevention (air, water, land, waste)

Environmental-Economic Energy Efficiency Subsidies / Incentives for use of Natural Resources

Sustainability Social Standard of Living Education Community Equal Opportunity

Economic Profit Cost Saving Economic Growth Research & Development

Economic-Social Business Ethics Fair Trade Worker’s Rights

Fig. 8.1  Three spheres of sustainability. (Source: Żak, 2015,p. 253)

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interdisciplinary approach. The sustainability umbrella offers a wide-­ ranging element in addition to the longevity and resilience factors. These include but are not limited to environmental justice, natural resources stewardship, local and global orientation, environmental management to avoid air, water, land and waste pollution, pursuing energy efficiency, provision of subsidies and incentives for the use of natural resources, controlling and reducing carbon footprint where feasible through local sourcing, promoting better living standards of relevant stakeholders through support for education, community engagement and local retail actors collaboration (See Fig. 8.1). Sustainability in retailing commitment will be in tandem with the host country to promote competitiveness with inclusiveness discussed earlier in this section. Invariably, some of the elements of sustainability in retailing strategy will complement the controlled expansion of supermarkets by managing and facilitating the change to allow the development of traditional retailers alongside the supermarkets. The need for collaboration and trust to pursue sustainability in retailing is important because the considerations of the triad factors of profit, people and planet require a different corporate and management disposition to adapt and cooperate with relevant stakeholders. Such a disposition is a belief in the corporate objective that embraces other goals than profitability which is the primary goal of most organisations that operates the well know but an unsustainable linear economic model of value addition to meet customer needs profitably. In the context of the expanding supermarket involvement and operations in the retail marketing sector in emerging markets, the dominant corporate goal is for supermarkets to grow and consolidate their competitive positioning. Thus, the suggestion to adopt sustainability in retailing within the evolving emerging markets will require top management level approval and willingness to collaborate with other stakeholders to achieve such a bigger societal wellbeing strategy that requires a long-term orientation. In general, the retail industry is dynamic, and it has evolved to become a key driving force with purchasing power that makes them a dominant actor in many supply chains. Such a strong position of retail organisations such as supermarkets places them in a pole position to spearhead employing sustainability in retailing for success in emerging markets.

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Erol et al. (2009) affirmed the collective requirement of adopting sustainability in retailing and highlighted the need for a key actor with the requisite supply chain or industry gravitas to lead sustainable business enterprise development initiatives. Thus, the position and stature of expanding supermarkets in emerging markets such as Ghana make supermarkets the prime actors to initiate and drive sustainability in retailing. Drawing from a prescription by Ytterhus et al. (1999) on the retailing company’s control of both upstream and downstream actors and activities, supermarkets in the current context of emerging markets are well placed to commence sustainability in retailing initiatives to influence upstream activities by incorporating sustainability imperatives into supply policies and conversely manage downstream programmes via marketing and sales tactics. Although, limited research exists on the requisite steps to be followed to develop and employ sustainability indicators in retailing, Erol et al. (2009) develop a process for identification and usage of sustainability indicators in the retailing industry that is presented below in (Table 8.1). Having followed these steps and actions outlined above, Enrol et al. (2009, p. 65) found that the most appropriate indicators for environmental sustainability were ‘water consumption, energy consumption, product category selection and management and product and packaging recovery; social sustainability examples were ‘customer complaints, occupational health and safety, NGO–retailer partnerships, consumer health and safety, private brands, training and career and personnel turnover and layoffs; economical sustainability indicators found were innovation capabilities and research and development expenditures, the total payment made to employees, number of shareholders, total payments per share and total tax paid’. This process provides a framework that the emerging retail industry in emerging markets such as Ghana, possibly led by the dominant actor (expanding supermarket stakeholder) can take a cue from and adapt Erol et al. (2009) model to develop and use sustainability indicators in the retail industry to achieve a win-win success for industry actors and stakeholders. Another case example that can serve as a model that epitomises the incorporation of sustainability in retailing as a strategy for success is the

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Table 8.1  Developing and using sustainability indicators in the retailing industry Step

Action

Determining the Develop a guideline to obtain the most suitable suitable sustainability indicators for environmental, social and economic indicators in terms of sustainability in grocery retailing the three aspects Of sustainability in evaluating the sustainability performances of the retail industry and (or) companies Assessing the Constructing the indicator pools, developing a comparative weight criterion list, establishing a system of a weighting of placed on each the criteria and estimating the importance of the indicator pool criteria and the relationships. Average ratings of selected indicators taken for each retail company determined to rank the retail industry averages for the sustainability indicators concerning environmental, social and economic sustainability Generate the most The average values of the industry average for each suitable sustainability aspect are taken, and the most suitable indicators indicators are generated based on the cut-off point benchmark set. Source: Enrol et al. (2009, p. 65)

work of Zwart and Wertheim-Heck (2021) in a publication entitled ‘Retailing local food through supermarkets: Cases from Belgium and the Netherlands, in the Journal of Cleaner Production. As a background, this model hinges on the realisation that food systems globally are overly industrialised and concentrated and hence the rationale for (re)localization of food systems as a viable counterpart to the ‘globalized’ unsustainable food system. This model is further justified by the fact that retail supermarkets, particularly globalised retail organisations have gained a dominant unchallenged position and unparalleled purchasing power in the global food systems. Like the narratives in many sections of this chapter retail supermarkets have long taken over from product manufacturers and processes and they are the key actors in both the developed economies and emerging markets across the world. Zwart and Wertheim-Heck (2021) further

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opined that the corporate vision driving modern retailing is to gain and consolidate a competitive position with a bolted-on corporate social responsibility phase that reflects attempts to reduce waste, promote sustainable sourcing of ingredients and products were convenient and foster healthiness as part of their repertoire. This case example also points to some sustainability initiatives by some supermarkets to incorporate local products. However, high volume product requirements coupled with the centralized distribution infrastructures limit supermarkets’ accommodation of local products. This lack of smooth accommodation of local products by conventional supermarkets served as the basis to justify promoting both conventional and local retailing systems alongside each other to foster success for all stakeholders. This case example adopts a working definition of local food as having the following characteristics and attributes: Zwart and WertheimHeck (2021, p. 1) ‘food sourced from within certain geographical boundaries, such as the distance between producers and consumers or political or ecosystem boundaries. Because of shorter travel distances, local food is often considered to be more environmentally friendly than globally sourced products. Besides geographic proximity, local food is also associated with small-­scale traditional or organic production and shorter supply chains in which relationships between producers and consumers are stronger and more direct than in the globalized food system’. Salient points for recommendations from this case example from Belgium and the Netherlands are that local food retailing can thrive alongside modern retail supermarkets even though they are both underpinned by opposing principles. This case highly recommends the need to consider local and conventional global food retailing operating simultaneously, especially when it is cardinal to achieve food system transformations that will ensure the long-term sustainability for the future.

8.7 Chapter Concluding Statement This chapter addresses challenges, paradoxes and dilemmas connected with the evolution of the retail supermarket industry in emerging markets—the case of Ghana. The chapter composed of four sections started

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with a discussion on the nature of the emerging competition driven by expanding supermarkets and the dynamics of the prospective retail marketing environment. Section 8.2 provided a comprehensive discourse on retail supermarkets’ corporate goals and their public interest and citizens’ livelihood implications. The third section discussed the evolving consumer buying culture driven by supermarket distribution and offers. It was followed by a discussion of the supermarket-supplier relationships and suggested developing strategies for the success and inclusion of local retailers and other supply chain actors. The discussion has shown that there is increased competition in the retail marketing environment particularly the food marketing environment in the urban city areas of Ghana. This increase is manifested in the gradual loss of the upper market segment of traditional food retailers to supermarkets. Curiously, the speed and spread of supermarkets in Ghanaian urban and peri-urban areas are not subject to any competition regulatory control. Hence disadvantaged actors like smaller local retailers and suppliers do not have any statutory body to address competition disputes. The discussion further indicates that self-regulation by emerging supermarkets is not a viable option as supermarkets per their corporate goals, primarily seek to entrench their competitive positioning. The obvious livelihood implications of such a monopolistic posture are covered and the need for a public interest response to manage the evolving modern retail environment cannot be overemphasised. It has also emerged that the buying culture and behaviour of the urban consumers in Ghanaian cities patronising supermarkets are changing steadily. There is an anecdotal, growing trend toward highly processed and packaged breakfast cereals, drinks and ready-to-eat foods. The connection between the changing food choice and incidence of obesity and non-­communicable diseases are also amply highlighted. A strong case is also made in attesting to nutrition transition and food value chain transformation—though not empirically confirmed, in Ghana because of the rising presence of supermarkets. The chapter also emphasised an absence of supermarket—traditional suppliers’ relationship by drawing on the challenge of supermarket purchasing power abuse that is predominant globally. The need for regulation and support for local actors to upgrade to meet supermarket standards and certification requirements among other strategies for success

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are outlined. The potential for success in exploring sustainability in retailing including the consideration for local and conventional retailing options running simultaneously is also articulated. Overall, a narrative supported by empirical evidence for marketing in emerging market countries using Ghana as a case study clearly supports the view that the retail marketing environment in emerging markets has evolved. This unravelling evolution has been shown to be driven mainly by an improved information technology infrastructure. As a consequence, the introduction of information communication technologies in marketing has engendered a strong retail supermarket loyalty card programme prospect, applications such as electronic displays and internet and mobile technologies with their attendant benefits and challenges. The option to pursue inclusive competitiveness appears to be a laudable management option for all stakeholders provided there is a collective understanding of stakeholder collaboration and supply chain actors’ trust. This book, therefore, chronicles the historical antecedents, development and evolution of retail supermarket chains in emerging economies in general and Ghana in particular.

References Amaeshi, K., Muthuri, J. N., & Ogbechie, C. (Eds.). (2019). Incorporating sustainability in management education: An interdisciplinary approach. Springer. Amanor, K. S. (2009). Global food chains, African smallholders and World Bank governance. Journal of Agrarian Change, 9(2), 247–262. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1471-­0366.2009.00204.x Arthur, I. K., & Yamoah, F. A. (2019). Understanding the role of environmental quality attributes in food-related rural enterprise competitiveness. Journal of Environmental Management, 247, 152–160. Burch, D., Lawrence, G., & Hattersley, L. (2013). Watchdogs and ombudsmen: Monitoring the abuse of supermarket power. Agriculture and Human Values, 30(2), 259–270. D’Haese, M., & van Huylenbroeck, G. (2005). The rise of supermarkets and changing expenditure patterns of poor rural households case study in the Transkei area, South Africa. Food Policy, 30, 97–113.

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Erol, I., Cakar, N., Erel, D., & Sari, R. (2009). Sustainability in the Turkish retailing industry. Sustainable Development, 17(1), 49–67. Gómez, M. I., & Ricketts, K. D. (2013). Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications. Food Policy, 42, 139–150. Hawkes, C., & Ruel, M. T. (2011, February). Value chains for nutrition. Paper presented at Conference Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health. Howard-Wilsher, S., Harrison, F., Yamoah, F., Fearne, A., & Jones, A. (2016). The relationship between unhealthy food sales, socio-economic deprivation and childhood weight status: Results of a cross-sectional study in England. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13(1), 1–8. Louw, A., Vermeulen, H., Kirsten, J., & Madevu, H. (2007). Securing small farmer participation in supermarket supply chains in South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 24(4), 539–551. Madichie, N. O., & Yamoah, F. A. (2017). Revisiting the European horsemeat scandal: The role of power asymmetry in the food supply chain crisis. Thunderbird International Business Review, 59(6), 663–675. Popkin, B. M., Adair, L. S., & Ng, S. W. (2012). Global nutrition transition and the pandemic of obesity in developing countries. Nutrition Reviews, 70(1), 3–21. Porter, G. (2017). From periodic markets to supermarkets: What Hope for equitable and sustainable food Markets in Africa. Journal of sustainable development, 2(2), 2–8. Reardon, T., & Gulati, A. (2008). The supermarket revolution in developing countries: Policies for “competitiveness with inclusiveness” (No. 599–2016-40118). Reardon, T., Henson, S., & Berdegué, J. (2007). ‘Proactive fast-tracking’ diffusion of supermarkets in developing countries: Implications for market institutions and trade. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(4), 399–431. Rischke, R., Kimenju, S. C., Klasen, S., & Qaim, M. (2015). Supermarkets and food consumption patterns: The case of small towns in Kenya. Food Policy, 52, 9–21. Schipmann, C., & Qaim, M. (2011). Modern food retailers and traditional markets in developing countries: Comparing quality, prices, and competition strategies in Thailand. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 33(3), 345–362.

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Weatherspoon, D. D., & Reardon, T. (2003). The rise of supermarkets in Africa: Implications for agrifood systems and the rural poor: The rise of supermarkets in Africa. Development Policy Review, 21(3), 333–355. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-­7679.00214 Ytterhus, B. E., Arnestad, P., & Lothe, S. (1999). Environmental initiatives in the retailing sector: An analysis of supply chain pressures and partnerships. Eco-management and auditing. The Journal of Corporate Environmental Management, 6(4), 181–188. Żak, A. (2015). Triple bottom line concept in theory and practice. Social Responsibility of Organizations Directions of Changes, 387, 251–264. Zwart, T. A., & Wertheim-Heck, S. C. (2021). Retailing local food through supermarkets: Cases from Belgium and the Netherlands. Journal of Cleaner Production, 300, 126948.

Index

A

Accra, 20, 24, 90, 100, 111–116, 118–120, 130, 135, 138 Achimota Mall, 120, 130 AirtelTigo, 49, 131 A-Life, 112 Applications of the electronic contactless cards, 29 Ashanti region, 22, 115, 130 Association of West African Merchants (AWAM), 90, 91 B

Brand choice, 31, 32, 178, 179, 183, 185 Brand choice analysis, 31, 178 Brand choice decision, 32, 179

Brand competition, 31, 63, 178 Broadband, 131 Broadband wireless access, 131–133 C

Card-based databases, 30, 177, 178, 180–188, 190, 191, 198 Case study for emerging market countries, 30, 33 Challenges, 1, 8, 10, 33, 67, 112, 141, 170, 184, 191, 197, 205–225 Chandiram, T., 111 Chellaram, K., 111 Classification and categorization of players and actors, 28 Colonial era, 91–109 Commercial attractiveness, 29

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 D. E. Yawson, F. A. Yamoah, Contemporary Retail Marketing in Emerging Economies, Palgrave Studies of Marketing in Emerging Economies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11661-2

229

230 Index

Commercial use of supermarket data, 31, 178 Commercial value, 178, 180–188, 190, 191, 198 Commonwealth Trust Limited, 91 Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO), 91, 97–100, 111, 153 Competition commission, 33, 207, 214, 215 Competitive advantage, 30, 50, 80, 83, 153, 166 Competitive dynamics, 26, 206–207, 215, 218 Competitive environment, 32, 68, 163, 165, 166, 180 Competitive impact, 33 Competitive positioning, 32, 166, 209, 220, 224 Competitive strategies in the emerging industry environment, 32, 180 Competitive strategy analysis, 32, 179 Competitive supermarket environment, 27, 82 Competitive supermarket retail marketing, 33 Consumer insight, 31, 81, 182 Consumer perceptions, 31, 61, 178 Consumers, vii, 10, 11, 15–17, 26, 30, 31, 33, 45, 47, 90–93, 140, 142, 143, 149, 152, 159, 160, 163–164, 166–171, 178, 180, 181, 205, 207, 208, 210–215 Consumers behaviour, 154, 211 Consumers buying culture, 205, 210–215

Consumers buying culture and behaviour, 33 Contemporary marketing, vi–viii, 1–5, 9, 121, 149, 163 Contemporary retail supermarket chains infrastructure, 28 Customer data in Ghana, 30, 166–171 Customer insight, viii, 27, 29, 80, 81, 151, 165, 184 Customer loyalty card, vi, viii, 8, 27, 79, 82, 85, 164, 166 Customer segmentation, 29, 129, 165, 166 Cutting-edge technology, 27, 81 D

Database marketing, 3, 68, 121, 123, 124 Demand and competitive analysis, 31, 178 Developed economy market data characteristics, 177 Developed vs. emerging economy market data characteristics, 30, 187 Developing and harvesting customer insights, 29 Developing countries, 10–20, 55, 91, 110, 191, 206, 208, 209 Developing strategies for success, 33, 206, 215–218 Developments in consumer loyalty programmes, 29 Digital addressing systems, vii, 10, 29, 30, 129, 140–143, 151, 164–166, 170

 Index 

Digital marketing, 4, 28, 30, 129, 134, 140, 143 Drivers of the evolution of the retail supermarket industry, 28 E

Electronic contact less cards, 29 E-Marketing, 3, 4 Emerging economies, vi, vii, 1–33, 50, 56, 57, 65–68, 85, 133, 142, 187, 190, 191, 225 Emerging economy market context, 28 Emerging economy market data characteristics, 30, 187 Emerging economy markets, 26, 30 Emerging generation of supermarket marketing, 26 Emerging infrastructure for marketing, 29 Emerging initiatives, 29 Emerging market countries, v–vii, 4, 9–10, 20, 26, 28, 29, 33, 48–51, 54–57, 65–70, 120, 129, 150, 151, 180, 225 Emerging market retailing, 26, 51 Emerging markets, vi–viii, 8–10, 20, 26–29, 33, 47, 48, 50, 51, 54–57, 65, 67–68, 121, 152, 190–192, 195–198, 205–218, 220–223, 225 Emerging retail marketing sector, 28 Empirical analysis of price endings, 32, 179 Evolution of retail marketing, 29, 33 Evolution of the supermarket retail industry, 32, 177, 179

231

F

Fairtrade products, 31, 178, 181, 182 Features and applications of industry practice, 27 Fixed voice, 131, 132 Foundational block, 29 Future generation of retail marketing in emerging markets, 26 G

GAME, 112, 120, 155 Geofencing marketing, 29, 129 Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 140, 141 Ghana, vn1, vi, vii, 1–33, 46–49, 52, 84, 85, 89–91, 109–126, 129–143, 149–171, 177, 187–189, 205–207, 209–211 emerging economy, vii, 1–33, 66, 134, 191, 225 Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, 89, 90 Ghanaian retail supermarket industry, 28 Ghanaian society, 33 Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC), 109–111, 153 GhanaPost Digital Address System, 29 Ghana’s retail supermarket chains infrastructure, 28 Glamour, 111, 112 Glo (Ghana), 49, 131 Global and emerging markets, 26 Global markets, 8 Global sourcing, 26, 56, 197

232 Index

Global standard, 27, 82 Global supply chains, 26, 213 Gold standard of loyalty card programme, 26 Gottschalk, G. and Company, 91 Greater Accra region, 23 Grocery category, 31, 178

Knowledge discovery for competitive advantage, 31, 178 Knowledge discovery in supermarket customer databases, 29, 30 Kumasi, 22, 100, 109, 112, 115, 130, 135 L

I

Importers, 19, 33, 49, 107, 110, 180 Importers in developing and middleincome, 28 Improvement in technology, 81 Independence era, 91, 109–111 Independent retail outlets, 33, 180 Independent retailers, 51, 70 Industry analysis, 28 Information technology infrastructure, 33, 225 Interaction marketing, 3, 68, 121, 123 Internet, v, 4, 8, 28, 29, 52–54, 61, 66, 68, 70, 79, 83, 123, 129–134, 138, 142, 143, 150–152, 155, 160–163, 187, 225 Internet networks, 133, 143 J

John Holt & Co., 91, 95–96 K

Kingsway Department Store, 90, 95, 109, 153 Knowledge discovery, 166

Latent segmentation, 30, 177 Learning curve, 32, 180 Local suppliers, 33, 56, 57, 180, 197, 207, 209, 213, 214 Location, viii, 11, 47–50, 54, 58–60, 62, 129, 130, 135, 137, 140–142, 153, 162, 165, 166, 218 Loyalty card, vi–viii, 8, 10, 26, 27, 31, 33, 45–70, 77–85, 115, 117, 124, 142, 143, 164–166, 171, 181, 188–189, 191, 225 Loyalty marketing, 64–65 Loyalty scheme, 58, 63, 68, 69, 77, 81–83, 113, 115, 117, 142, 143, 155, 164–166, 169, 170 M

Manufactures, 11, 16, 20, 33, 49, 51, 55, 62, 63, 92, 101, 104, 105, 109, 115, 116, 180, 184, 186, 190, 196, 209, 212, 214, 216, 222 Market information and supermarket data, 31, 178 Marketing agency, 30, 31, 177–180, 190–191, 198 Marketing information, 31, 178

 Index 

Marketing practices in the Ghanaian retail industry, 28 Market research and consultancy, 31, 178 MaxMart Limited, 115–117 Melcom Stores, 113–114 Melcom Supermarket Card, 30, 187 Micro-marketing pricing strategies, 31, 178, 182, 183 Mobile data, 131, 133 Mobile phone, 53, 114, 123, 162 Mobile phone applications, 29, 133, 143 Mobile voice, 131, 133 Modelling of consumer response, 31, 178 Modelling of consumer response to promotions, 31, 178 Modelling of product category competition, 32, 179 Modern retail marketing, 10, 26, 45–70, 215 MTN (Ghana), 49, 131 Multi layered segments, 31 N

National Communications Authority (NCA), 52, 131, 133–135, 137 Nature and core attributes of supermarket chains, 28 Nature of twenty first century retail marketing, 26 Nestlé Ghana Limited, 109–110 Network marketing, 3, 68, 121, 124 New supplier development strategies, 33, 180

233

Next generation of supermarkets marketing, 29, 30, 32, 33, 127, 149–171, 177–198, 205–225 Next generation supermarket retail marketing, 27 O

Ollivant, G.B. (GBO), 91, 93–95, 153 Online infrastructure, 29 Online marketing, 4, 28, 141, 143, 163 Online shopping, 28, 52, 68, 143, 151, 162, 187 Ownership and regulation on customer data, 29 P

Palace Supermarket, 112, 114–115, 155, 164 Paradoxes, 33, 205–225 Paterson and Zonchonis (PZ), 91, 101–106 Pedagogical value, 191–192, 195 Porters’ industry analysis, 28 Potential challenges, 26 Potential value of the Next Generation of supermarkets marketing, 30 Power of retail supermarkets, 33 Pre and post promotion dips, 31, 178 Pre and post promotion dips in supermarket retail marketing promotion, 31, 178

234 Index

Price and discount sensitivity, 32, 179 Price promotions, 32, 57, 149, 179 R

Regulation and policy interventions, 33 Relationship marketing, 1, 2, 4, 9, 68–70, 78, 79, 85, 163, 164 Remedies and strategies for success, 33 Research in Higher Education Institutions, 30, 31, 177, 179 Research value, vii, 26, 30, 177, 187, 198 Retail advertising, 61–62 Retail communication, 61 Retail demand functions, 31, 179 Retail digital marketing, 30 Retail marketing environment, 26, 197, 206, 224, 225 Retail marketing mix, 58–60, 62, 70 Retail marking, 27 Retail promotion, 61, 63–64, 155, 184 Rewards, 27, 68, 69, 78, 81–83, 114, 115, 187, 191 RFID based applications, 29, 143 S

Scanner data, 31, 81, 169, 178, 182–184 Scoping stage, 28 Shop n Save, 112, 119, 121, 155 Shopping malls, 90, 153, 156, 196 Shoprite Ghana, 118–119

Small business information use, 32, 179 Smallholder farmers, 33, 180 Smallholder producers, 33, 180 Small scale suppliers, 33, 180 Société Commerciale de l’Ouest African (SCOA), 91, 98–101 Society, vi, viii, 8, 33, 66, 69, 91, 180 Socio-demographic profiling, 30, 177, 179 SPAR Supermarket, 112, 117–118, 155, 161 Stakeholders, vii, 10, 27, 32, 33, 61, 68, 81, 138, 141, 177–198, 206–212, 214, 215, 217–221, 223, 225 Store-level data, 30, 177 Strategic marketing competitive instrument, 27, 81 Structural changes in the retail industry, 28 Structured information on consumers, 30, 177 Sub-Saharan Africa, vii, 20, 67, 98, 197, 216 Supermarket chains infrastructure, 26 Supermarket data, 30–32, 177–181, 187, 190–195, 198 Supermarket database deployment, 31, 178 Supermarket loyalty cards, viii, 26, 27, 33, 45–70, 84, 181, 188–189, 225 Supermarket loyalty cards programme, 26, 45–70

 Index 

Supermarket marketing, 29, 30, 32, 62–64, 66–70, 127, 142, 150, 154–156, 159, 164–166, 170, 171, 177, 195, 197, 215 Supermarket retail industry, viii, 25, 26, 32, 33, 79, 142, 179, 180 Supermarket retail industry regulation, 180 Supplier engagement, 33, 206 Suppliers, vii, 4, 18–20, 33, 56, 57, 59, 61, 80, 116, 119, 180, 196–198, 206, 207, 209–215, 224 Supply chain management, 32, 180, 192 Swiss African Trading Company, 91

Traditional media, 29, 129, 134, 143 Traditional profitability, 30 Traditional shopping, 28, 143 Transaction marketing, 2–4, 9, 123 U

UK supermarket, 27, 116 Union Trading Company (UTC), 91, 106–109, 111, 153 United Africa Company (UAC), 90, 92–93, 95, 96 Utility of a customer loyalty programme card, 27 V

T

Teaching of marketing in Higher Education Institutions, 30, 31, 177, 179, 187 Television stations, 135, 137–139 TESCO Club Card, 27, 28, 30, 77–85, 187 Traditional formats, 29

235

Vodafone (Ghana), 131 W

West Hills Mall, 120, 130 Wholesale importation, 26 Winners and losers, 32, 177, 195, 198