Research Article
Attributes Influencing Wedding Studio Choice
Administration and Management College, King Mongkut�s Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang, Thailand
When a loving couple decides to get married, they often see their wedding ceremony as one of the most important days of their lives. They want the ceremony to be impeccable. In the process of arranging the ceremony, the couple has to decide on many activities: Finding an auspicious time for the wedding, selecting a gown, obtaining a wedding location, arranging invitation cards and souvenirs, etc. In addition, the bride and groom have to secure the use of several types of equipment for the ceremony. In the past, the organizer had to manage, procure, rent, or buy these from several places in order to meet these needs. Now a days, however, in order to save time and convenience, wedding couples often utilize a wedding arrangement service or wedding studio that provides a variety of services for their convenience.
Various attributes influence the wedding couple to select a particular wedding studio, including the studios expertise in taking pictures, good service from the salespeople, the attractiveness of the package and the studios reputation among others. Studios utilize marketing strategies to persuade customers to use their services rather than those of their competitors.
Bhattacharyya and Rahman (2004), Gorry and Westbrook (2011) and Napompech and Kuawiriyapan (2011) mentioned in their studies, if a business is to succeed, it must understand and fulfill its customers needs and desires. Understanding the way in which wedding couples select a wedding studio can provide wedding studio entrepreneurs with current market information to help them establish appropriate marketing strategies. This enables them to serve their customers needs which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. Happy customers are likely to become repeat customers and effective messengers for attaining prospects and enhancing profitability (Ha and Jang, 2013; Reichheld et al., 2000; Tam, 2011). Therefore, Thai wedding couples perception of the importance of studio selection attributes is a topic worthy of study. This study also investigates the relationship between wedding couples perception of wedding studio attributes and its associated impact across demographic characteristics of wedding couples, including age, education level, occupation and income and the couples spending at the wedding studio.
A wedding photograph service is a pictorial business that is based on a concept from Taiwan which provides indoor and outdoor photograph services for families, photograph services for important days such as commencement day and weddings and provides a modern fashion album arrangement service. The photograph studio service business was begun in Thailand around 1994. The service model has been developed into a new business-namely, the wedding photograph service or wedding studio. This service model not only provides photograph services for the wedding couple but also includes related services for arranging all aspects of the wedding ceremony, including wedding gowns, souvenirs, invitations and video or short cinema presentations showing how the couple fell in love. These services attract customers to use the wedding studio. These features make the business popular in Thailand, as confirmed by previous research (Napompech, 2012) which found that 97 out of the 99 brides-to-be that were surveyed had chosen to use a wedding studio. Although, wedding studios have been an important service for wedding couples, the specific attributes that influence wedding couples to choose one wedding studio over another have been addressed only in wedding magazines. However, prior research on the characteristics of retail shops in attracting customers could be adapted to identify the attributes that influence couples decision in selecting wedding studio.
Jegethesan et al. (2012) found that, in buying decisions, the brand is an important motivator. Brand is used to differentiate retail shops from their competitors (Collins-Dodd and Lindley, 2003), so that a famous wedding studio will have an advantage in creating awareness, intension and positive evaluation of the studio.
One way that retail stores become favorites is through the variety of products that they offer (Yip et al., 2012). As people often select among several options when purchasing certain products and services (Ha and Jang, 2013), it is important in retail management to allow customers to have a one-stop shopping experience so that they can get a large number of goods and services from a single business (Leszczyc et al., 2004). Consumers positive assessment of retailers product assortments bring about more purchases (Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2012). Stores that allow consumers to shop for multiple products end to outperform those that focus on single product outlets (Chaiyasoonthorn and Suksa-Ngiam, 2011). Also, providing a large assortment of products can help to diminish the perceived costs, such as the travel time and effort involved in each shopping trip and thereby alleviate the task of shopping (Pan and Zinkhan, 2006). Wedding studios that offer wide arrays of products and services tend to interest more customers. Therefore, wedding studios should offer many services: Rental/tailor-made services for wedding gowns, wedding gown delivery services and dressing arrangements on the ceremony day, advice from famous or experienced designers on the wedding gown, invitation cards and souvenirs, wedding venue arrangement services (e.g., venue decoration, light and sound); flower arrangement for the wedding ceremony, make-up and hairdressing services for bride and indoor and outdoor pre-wedding photograph services.
It is generally accepted that price affects a customers buying decision (Thomas and Morwitz, 2004). Previous study has found that price is an important product attribute for customers (Desai and Talukdar, 2003) and one of the important attributes of a shop that attracts customers (Yip et al., 2012). Pricing strategy is a marketers attempt to encourage customers to consume products and services (Chan and Wong, 2006). Perceived price fairness is positively related to perceived customer value (Rondan-Cataluna and Martin-Ruiz, 2011). It is positively related to customer retention (Ranaweera and Neely, 2003) and it is able to increase profit and customer satisfaction (Bhattacharya and Friedman, 2001). If the customer has perceptions of price unfairness, then that may have a negative effect on satisfaction and consumer behavior (Bei and Chiao, 2001; Xia et al., 2004). Consumers have different demands, preferences and buying power which in turn affects their buying behavior and willingness to pay for goods and services at different prices (Kohli and Suri, 2011). If the wedding studio sets several prices that are appropriate to the quality of the goods and services, then they can motivate customer demand.
A good location also often leads to retail store success (Grewal et al., 2012). Yip et al. (2012) found that store location influences potential customers decision to use a service. Good store location can draw many customers in. If the customers are easily welcomed by the store, then that affects profitability and market share (Craig et al., 1984; Durvasula et al., 1992). Research has found that convenient location is an important store attribute (Severin et al., 2001; Stoel et al., 2004). Therefore, an easy-to-reach location would be one of the important factors in drawing customers into a wedding studio.
Pleasing store atmosphere increases purchase occurrence (Mattila and Wirtz, 2008; Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2012). Store atmospheric cues are recognized as important marketing keys that impact consumers buying decisions (Mattila and Wirtz, 2008). If a store has a pleasant atmosphere, then consumers will infer that their products are high-quality which in turn may cause more purchases (Baker et al., 2002).
Marketing promotion is a tool for encouraging customers to buy goods (Oliver and Shor, 2003; Honea and Dahl, 2005). Therefore, promotion programs such as advertising, premiums and discounts would persuade consumers to choose one wedding studio over another.
Grace and O'Cass (2004) has found that a stores provision of good service from employees has a positive relationship with customer satisfaction. Thus, favorable customer service plays a critical role in the success of a business (Duffy, 2003). Retailers rely on frontline staff to deliver in-store services to customers (Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2012). Because these salespersons act as an interface between the customers and the retailers, the service quality of these employees plays a vital part in customers assessment of the retailers service value (Brady and Cronin Jr., 2001; Baker et al., 2002; Darian et al., 2005). Therefore, salespersons are one of the essential factors leading to customer satisfaction (Osborn, 2000; Anselmsson, 2006; Homburg et al., 2009) and are a key attribute in retaining customers (Darian et al., 2001). The service quality of salespeople is an important retail selling strategy to help a retail store to meet customer need and differentiate themselves from their competitors in the retail service industry (Sum and Hui, 2009). When customers visit the studio for information in search of detail as to what the studio would offer them, competent salespeople provide more opportunities for potential customers to become actual customers of the wedding studio service.
Customers make decisions based on their own personal characteristics, including age, occupation and economic circumstances (Chaiyasoonthorn and Suksa-Ngiam, 2011). Previous study has confirmed this. For example, Prasad and Aryasri (2011) found that shoppers age, occupation, education and monthly household income have a significant association with retail format decisions. Khare (2011) showed that consumers age plays an important role in determining their attitude towards shopping in malls. Chaiyasoonthorn and Suksa-Ngiam (2011) found that personal income can be used to predict the amount of purchase of goods and services from modern retail stores. Also, Lau and Hui (2010) found that couples with a lower level of education were more concerned about the facilities and service provided by wedding banquet venues than couples with a higher level of education. Attributes that are perceived to play an important role in the choice of wedding studio may differ according to the demographics of the wedding couples. Some couples who have higher income may care more about the wedding studio having a professional wedding gown designer.
METHODOLOGY
Questionnaire design: Based on a thorough literature review, a self-administered questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire contained three sections. The first part included questions about participants demographics and wedding studio uses, such as how they found out about the wedding studio and which wedding studio services they used. The second part included 25 attributes which measured the perceptions of wedding couples toward the attractiveness of wedding studio attributes. A 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not very important) to 5 (very important), was used to rank the perceived importance of each wedding studio attribute. The third part included open-ended questions asking respondents to indicate what other services they expect wedding studios to provide and their problems with and reasons for choosing the wedding studio that they chose.
Data analysis: A frequency analysis was conducted to profile the respondents demographics and use of wedding studio characteristics. The respondents perceptions regarding the importance of the 25 wedding studio attributes were assessed by using the mean rating. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine whether the respondents perceived importance of wedding studio attributes varied by demographics and expenses spent at the wedding studio.
Respondents demographic and information about wedding studio use: Table 1 shows respondents demographics and wedding studio use profiles. Females constituted 64.8% while males accounted for the remaining 35.2%. Of the respondents, more than 86% had finished university or a higher degree. More than three-fourths (85.2%) of respondents fell between the ages of 21 and 35 years but the largest age group (36.5%) was between 26 and 30 years of age. More than half (52.5%) of all respondents were company employees. More than half (51.5%) had monthly incomes of THB$ 20,000-35,000.
In total, 35.8% wedding couples used seven services-photograph service, wedding gown rental or tailor-made service, wedding invitation card printing, souvenir procurement service, bride/groom hairdressing service on wedding day, bride make-up on wedding day and wedding VDO or short cinema presentation at the studio. A smaller proportion (22.0%) used four services-photograph service, wedding gown rental or tailor-made service, wedding invitation card printing and souvenir procurement service. The smallest proportion of wedding couples used only one service-namely, the photograph service (15.1%).
Samples obtained wedding studio information from the Internet more than any other source (37.7%), followed by information from friends/relatives, wedding fairs and wedding-related magazines, which accounted for 37.4, 16.7 and 8.2%, respectively. Most of the participants spent THB$ 20,001-30,000 on wedding studio services (42.2%), followed by less than THB$ 20,000 (33.0%).
Table 1: | Demographic and behavior profiles of respondents using wedding studios |
Approximately THB$ 33 = US$ 1 |
Perceived importance of wedding studio attributes: Table 2 lists the mean scores of importance for each of the 25 attributes associated with wedding studio attractiveness. Wedding studio attributes that received the highest perceived importance were convenience and speed of the service. The second highest ranking was shared by good service from store employees and provision of photograph files without having to buy all photos. The third highest ranking was the outdoor photograph service with the ability to select location, variety of gowns for pre-wedding photographs and suitable pricing.
Variations in perceptions of wedding studio attributes by demographic groups and expenses spent at wedding studio: Table 3 demonstrates the ANOVA test results of the relationship of studio attributes to demographic attributes and expenses at the wedding studio.
Table 2: | Mean rating on wedding studio attributes |
Table 3 shows 9 attributes that have significant differences in at least one demographic, including age, education level, occupation and monthly income.
The results indicate that a relationship exists between the respondents perceptions of wedding studio attributes and the demographics of age, education level and monthly income but not occupation. The under 25 age group rated the attribute Lower price than other studios (X1) higher than the other age groups over 25-years-old, whereas the 26-30 age group rated the attribute of Provision of a photo file without having to buy all photos (X2) and outdoor photograph service (X3) higher than the other age groups.
As far as education level was concerned, Table 3 also shows that the mean ratings given to five attributes varied significantly across respondents with different levels of education. These five attributes include providing a photograph file without having to buy all photos (X2), Studio popularity (X4), Bride make-up service on wedding day(X5), Bride hairdressing service (X6) and Advice from famous or experienced designer on the wedding gown (X7). Respondents with a high level of education gave these attributes a higher mean rating. This suggests that couples with a higher level of education were more concerned than those with a lower level of education.
Results in Table 3 shows that different occupation groups were not found to vary significantly on any attributes. With regard to monthly income, respondents who had income of THB$ 20,000 or lower were more concerned than the other income groups about the Provision of photograph file without having to buy all photos (X2) and Suitable pricing (X9). Respondents who had income higher than THB$ 50,000, however, were more concerned than the other age group about Studio popularity (X4), Advice from a famous or experienced designer on wedding gowns (X7) and outdoor photograph service with selection of location (X8).
With regard to wedding studio expenses, significant differences were also observed in the cases of studio popularity (X4), bride hairdressing service (X6) and advice from famous or experienced designer on wedding gown (X7). Respondents who spent in the least expense group of THB$ 10,001-20,000 at wedding studio were less sensitive to the three attributes mentioned than respondents who spent more.
Other opinions of wedding couples toward wedding studios: The open-ended question enabled weddings couple to write about their opinions or problems and offer suggestions about how to improve their wedding studio experience. In summary, wedding couples said that they selected a wedding studio for the following reasons. First, some said that the package price was so attractive and they valued the package that cost THB$ 3,990. This package included hair and make-up for bride and groom both in the morning and evening ceremony, bride and groom wedding clothes for the morning and evening ceremony, outdoor and indoor photograph services, two pre-wedding outfits for both groom and bride and thirty pictures. Second, they selected the wedding studio because the salesperson was very helpful.
One of the wedding couples that provided information stated that after they had searched for information on the Internet by visiting the studios website and seeing previous customers comments on the studios facebook page, they decided to visit two or three wedding studios to make their selection, however, when they visited the second shop, they decided to end their search because the salesperson was so nice, friendly, helpful and attentive.
Table 3: | Mean differences in perceptions of studio attributes by demographic characteristics and wedding studio spending |
*,**Significant at 5 and 1%, respectively, X1: Lower price than other studio, X2: Providing photograph file without having to buy all photos, X3: Outdoor photograph service, X4: Studio popularity, X5: Bride make-up service on wedding day, X6: Bride hairdressing service, X7: Advice from famous or experienced designer on wedding gown, X8: Outdoor photograph service with ability to select location and X9: Suitable pricing |
Third, they selected their wedding studio because they liked the photographers talent in shooting pictures. Some wedding couples saw examples of pictures on the website of the wedding studio while others saw wedding pictures of their friends.
Problems that they faced with wedding studios were as follows: There were not many wedding gowns, pre-wedding dresses, wedding souvenirs and invitations to select from; the professionals that did make-up and hair dressing for the wedding day were not the same ones that worked for them for the pre-wedding photos, they made the couple less beautiful than the ones used on the pre-wedding photo shoot and the wedding couples felt that they should be provided with a more complete one-stop service, such as a beauty package for the bride and a service that contacts restaurants or hotels for wedding couples.
Wedding studios in Thailand normally offer a package that includes either four or seven services. Most wedding couples used seven studio services while a smaller proportion used four. The 7-item package is more popular because it is the economical option, considering the price, however, some wedding couples bought the 4-item package because the bride wanted to hire a professional make-up artists and hairdresser outside of the wedding studio. Also, some brides want to hire a cheaper make-up artist and hairdresser than the studio offers.
Respondents obtained wedding studio information from the Internet more than any other source, followed by their friends and relatives. The results confirmed previous claims (Brown et al., 2007; Jepsen, 2007) that the Internet provides opportunities for customers to perform pre-purchase searches. Customers tend to collect product information (e.g., price) using the Internet but make purchases at brick-and-mortar stores (Balasubramanian et al., 2005; Van Baal and Dach, 2005; Verhoef et al., 2007). This strengthens the importance of positive electronic word of mouth since opinions posted by customers online are seen by many people and often stay on the Internet for a long time. Furthermore, they may be read by prospective buyers when searching the Internet for information on a particular product or service (Ward and Ostrom, 2002).
It was found that convenience, speed of the service and good service from store employees were perceived by wedding couples as the most important attributes of a wedding studio. This finding confirms previous findings (Sum and Hui, 2009) that the service quality of salespeople is an important retail selling strategy for meeting customer needs and differentiating from competitors in the retail service industry. This study also supports previous study findings that service quality raises customer satisfaction, retains customers, increases market share and improves profitability (Gonzalez and Brea, 2005; Gagnon and Roh, 2008; Wilkins et al., 2007).
Respondents felt that it was important to be provided with a photograph file without having to buy all photos because it was economical. Normally, the wedding package indicates that the wedding couples can have only 30 or 50 pictures depending on the package, however, numerous wedding studios take many pre-wedding photos, maybe 1,000 or more. Then, when the wedding couples see the photos, they often like some of them and end up wanting more than the number of pictures in their package. In this case, the wedding studio charges for each picture that respondents want and the couple has to pay extra for each picture at a price of 5-10 times the normal cost. Therefore, if the studio gives the wedding couples the photo files, then the customers can produce the photos at any shop and pay much less.
The ANOVA results indicated that wedding couples with lower monthly income tend to be more concerned about the price than those with higher monthly income because they care more about suitable pricing and getting the photo files without having to buy all of the photos. The higher-income group, however, tends to be more concerned about the popularity of the studio and the services that they will get from the studio. The ANOVA results of the relationship between spending expenses and studio attributes confirmed the findings, the group that spends the least in the wedding studio is the group that cares the least about the studios popularity and special facilities of a hairdressing service and famous wedding gown designer.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
Managers/entrepreneurs should train wedding studio salespersons to interact well with consumers. Salespersons should be friendly, helpful and responsive to consumers needs. They should take care of consumers nicely even if their visits do not result in a purchase. As mentioned in previous study (Reichheld et al., 2000; Tam, 2011; Ha and Jang, 2013), satisfied customers are more prone to become repeat customers and to serve as valuable messengers for reaching prospects and increasing profitability. In the case of wedding studios, they may not become repeat customers but they may provide positive word-of-mouth to other potential customers.
Since it is important to provide a photograph file without requiring consumers to buy all photos, wedding studio entrepreneurs should offer packages that include all photo files for their selection.
Since an outdoor photograph service with the ability to select location is important to wedding couples, wedding studios should provide alternative selections for outdoor locations, such as choosing from the following five locations: Beach, mountain, flower garden, palace, or resort.
Since wedding couples consider suitable pricing to be an important factor in their decision, the wedding studio should set prices that match the quality of the products. Then, customers can select the price and product that best meets their needs. For example, if customers are not satisfied with the regular invitation cards provided in a package, then they can receive other options by paying extra. The wedding studio entrepreneurs/managers can offer a plain package for the lower-income customer group, such as a package that allows the couple to have their outdoor pre-wedding photographs in one set location. Also, it can offer a luxurious package for the higher-income group, where couples can select between three locations for their outdoor pre-wedding photographs and have a famous designer for their wedding gown and a special make-up artist.
Since customers at the wedding studio get wedding studio information from the Internet, such as from the wedding studios website or facebook page, wedding studio entrepreneurs/managers should use their wedding studio facebook page to share information and interact with members of social networks in order to obtain information on consumers attitudes, comments and suggestions and thereby improve their products and services.
This study provides a foundation for research into the perceived importance of wedding studio attributes. The aim of this study was to identify the most important selection attributes of wedding studios. Among the 25 studio attributes identified, speed and convenience when receiving services from the studio were rated as the most important, followed by good service from store employees and the provision of a photograph file without being required to buy all photos. The relationship between demographic characteristics and respondent preferences was analyzed. The results revealed that respondents perceptions of wedding studio attributes were related to the demographic groups of age, educational level and monthly income as well as spending expenses in the wedding studio.
Financial support was received from Administration and Management College, KMITL, grant number 25560212013.