Visual Merchandising : Visual Merchandising i livsmedelsbutiker med fokus på ekologiska livsmedel

Sammanfattning: An extensive number of previous studies have examined the consumption of organic foods from a consumer perspective, and previous studies that have examined Visual Merchandising have primarily focused on the fashion industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate how three physical grocery stores work with Visual Merchandising when displaying organic foods. Furthermore, the marketing strategies Visual Merchandising and the Marketing Mix were combined through a model illustrated in Figure 1. It was considered useful to combine these two marketing strategies as they complement and reinforce each other. The two theories have common characteristics and they therefore contribute to a comprehensive strategy that was considered valuable for the development of how organic foods are displayed in grocery stores. This multiple case study adopts a qualitative design to contribute to an in-depth understanding of the subject and the collected data. The data collection took place through semi-structured interviews with representatives from three different grocery stores in Sweden, who worked as sustainability managers or supermarket managers. The interviews were supplemented with structured observations in each store, where the departments investigated were fruit and vegetables, dairy, and colonial. The results showed that the stores studied have a beneficial display of organic food on regular shelf space, but rarely display organic food on special surfaces. Conclusions that can be drawn from the study are that the stores that were investigated worked with Visual Merchandising of organic foods to a certain extent, but that the conventional products were prioritized. The results of the study provide practical implications for grocery stores by reporting and clarifying how they work with display of organic foods, as well as how they can develop their work with Visual Merchandising desirably. The study's theoretical implications contribute to the revised theories in Figure 1. There a combination of Visual Merchandising and the Marketing Mix is proposed to examine the phenomenon from a new perspective. The study is written in Swedish.