Hi, Dee:

Perhaps we can use a combined approach! If we look at the recent advances in information technologies (IT), we see that it has powered the merger of online and offline retail channels into one single platform. Modern consumers frequently switch between online and offline channels when they navigate through various stages of the decision journey, motivating multichannel sellers to develop omni-channel strategies that optimize their overall profit.

A recent research study (Gu, Z. & Tayi, 2017) examined consumers’ cross-channel search behavior of “pseudo-showrooming,” or the consumer behavior of inspecting one product at a seller’s physical store before buying a related but different product at the same seller’s online store, and investigated how such consumer behavior allows a multichannel seller to achieve better coordination between its online and offline arms through optimal product placement strategies.

The authors developed a stylized model in which a multi-channel firm offers a product line consisting of two horizontally differentiated products. Consumers are uncertain about the true value of either product. A consumer’s uncertainty regarding a particular product’s value is fully resolved after inspecting that product in person, and can also be partially resolved after inspecting the other related product. By selling only one product through the dual channel and the other product through the online channel exclusively, the firm induces consumer pseudo-showrooming for the online exclusive product.

The authors analysis shows that this product placement strategy generates a greater profit than selling both products through the dual channel, if the fit probability of individual products and consumers’ cost for returning a misfit product are both in the intermediate range. Moreover, the authors find that over a large parameter region, consumers also enjoy a greater total surplus under the firm’s product placement strategy that induces consumer pseudo-showrooming. Furthermore, the authors find that the firm garners the most benefit from inducing consumer pseudo-showrooming by selling the higher-quality product or the higher-demand product through the online channel exclusively. Collectively, the study offers a compelling demand-side justification of the commonly witnessed practice among multichannel sellers to offer products online exclusively when offline selling is feasible!

• Gu, Z. (., & Tayi, G. K. (2017). CONSUMER PSEUDO-SHOWROOMING AND OMNI-CHANNEL PLACEMENT STRATEGIES. MIS Quarterly, 41(2), 583-A40.

Hope this helps!

Kind Regards, Nadeem

I think the answer to the most appropriate approach lies in the research goals you want to work on.

For your theme I suggest, for example, to consider perspective of the positioning theory (Davies & Harré 1990; Harré and Gillet 1994; Harré and van Langenhove, 1998; Moghaddam et al. 2008; Moghaddam and Harré 2010; Harré and Moghaddam 2016), specific to discourse analysis in direct connection with similar concepts from marketing.

Best,

Nicolae-Sorin

I think it really depends on your research questions and research objectives. There is no "best methodology", but the most appropriate methodology. Studies of product placement strategy have adopted methods such as content analysis, discourse analysis, survey, interviews, and experimental approach, among others. They all have their pros and cons.