Conceptualising strategic customer-facing responses to regulation: the UK food retailers

Abstract

While receiving extensive coverage across a wide range of industries, brand adaptation in the face of regulatory change has been largely under-researched in the field of retail marketing management. This paper seeks to fill this void by reviewing the strategic customer-facing responses of the leading UK food retailers to the tightening of retail landuse planning regulations; in doing so, this paper exposes a highly variable range of strategies that include store format adaptation, new format development, entry into new markets and more controversially the outright challenging of Government regulation. The findings underline that although regulatory intervention can serve to restrict continued expansion, it can also encourage customer-focused innovation where well established retail brands retain market focus but modify the shape of their ongoing growth.

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