Abstract: | Structural changes in the South African market environment have necessitated an evaluation of the appropriateness of traditional retailing strategy approaches. The nature and strategic implications of market changes and trends were analyzed and theoretical and empirical investigations into retailing strategy approaches and conceptual techniques were conducted. The findings of the research indicate that traditional retailing strategy approaches, i.e. the store attribute and store image approaches, are obsolete in view of 1) their predominant marketing instead of enterprise strategy orientation, and 2) the nature of the changing and more complex market environment, which requires explicit consideration of consumer and competitive and distributive structure forces in retailing strategy decision-making. A new approach to retailing strategy is proposed, termed enterprise positioning. It consists of two interrelated parts, i.e. store positioning and distributive structure positioning, which incorporate formal analyses of the market environment in order to decide upon the specific horizontal and vertical course (s) of action for the enterprise. This would lead to appropriate emphasis on the basic character, role and mission of the enterprise, in line with market realities and corporate strategy thinking. Ref., sum. (also in Afrikaans, French. German). |