This study aimed to elucidate customer satisfaction with specific drugstores and reveal successful marketing measures. We used a Bayesian hierarchical logit model that accounts for the heterogeneity of consumers. The proposed model incorporated the variable selection model proposed in the brand selection model of Gilbride, Allenby, and Brazell (2006). The variable selection model expresses structural heterogeneity of individual brand selection models. By incorporating the variable selection model into the logit model, we could express the structural heterogeneity of the satisfaction model for each customer in addition to the difference in reaction parameter values. Therefore, we were able to capture the factors that clearly affect satisfaction. We used questionnaire data about Vdrug and Genky, which are competing in Gifu. The questionnaire included items about convenience, product lineup, product quality, price, store atmosphere, clerk service, and satisfaction ranking. When a Bayesian hierarchical model is used in the marketing field, panel data are often used for estimating the model stably (Yamada and Sato, 2019). In this study, however, we applied cross-sectional data to the proposed model. Therefore, the results derived from the model estimation carry implications for retail practice.

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In electric vehicles, where there is a high degree of design freedom, there is a great deal of scope for research into unique, structurally stable and aesthetically pleasing forms. There are four types of design projects exploring new body forms, defined by two axes: whether to boldly reinterpret outstanding models from the past that symbolise the car company in question, or to seek new forms from scratch, and whether to take into account the future of the city or not. To avoid becoming a follower, car companies are required to constantly renew themselves in terms of form. However, as cars are a reflection of their own taste to show who they want to be in the future, the renewed form must have a long life. In other words, it is necessary to break away from the styling logic of frequent model changes. The design of the car is also related to the future of the city, and given that Italian cities are also stages for theatre, the small car of the future will be useful for staging improvised theatre spaces, like the carriages of fairyland. Further possibilities include small cars that change colour in response to the atmosphere of a city.

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