RESEARCH OF CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN CHOOSING CHAIN STORES

Food market across European Union is dominated by chain stores and recently this trend can also be noticed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite existance of competition laws we are yet to figure out how to control power of big chain stores. According to research of British Competition Comission, any chain store which has more than eight per cent of the share on the food market also has enough power to have negative influence on market competition. Buying habits of consumers are one of the most important factors which can determine the image of chain store, both locally and globally. Undeterred by sovereign nature of modern consumers, marketers can still easily influence consumers’ behaviour. Marketers can influence consumers’ behaviour by adjusting elements of marketing mix to the counsumers’ needs. The success comes if there are needs or those needs are latent while manufacturer induces them product whom consumers need, whether consciously or subconsciously. Consumer behaviour is influenced by several correlated factors: personal, social and psychological. There fore, the aim of this research is to deteremine consumers’ preferences in choosing Mostar-based chain stores. This research is based on surveys which took place among people of Mostar and through the same survey, alongside consumers’ preferences in their choice of chain stores based in Mostar, we’ll try to find out key determinants which influence upon those decisions. Through this primary research we can notice that different factors influence different consumers in their choice of chain stores whereas the most important factor seems to be ‘close proximity to home’. Significance of this research is double-natured as it can serve to both marketers and managers in companies and chain stores that operate on high competition markets in order to stimulate consumers to buy more and thereby to raise sale and competitiveness. Furthermore, this research is equally important for economists (market research, sale, consumer behaviour) since gathered information enables them to gain better understand of preferences and determining factors in consumers’ choice of chain stores. At the end of this paper we pointed out restrictions as well as guidelines for future researches.