Empirical Research On The Impact Of Location And Service On The Retail Brand Image

Developing and consolidating store image in the consumer’s psyche is undoubtedly an essential psychographic goal of decision makers from a retail enterprise. Regardless of the tools used to draw customers—assortment and particularly the unit’s own brands, assisted service or friendly and competent, attentive and carefully dressed personnel always eager to help customers, the selection of a proper location near the customer’s workplace or domicile or very close to other units—the retail enterprise must undertake sustained efforts to properly understand the consumer’s wishes and fancies. Moreover, the food or non-food retail enterprise will have to adapt itself to the customer’s ever-changing desires and, in the end, will have to take the necessary measures to make him/her return to the store, purchase again and develop retail brand associations. In order to attain this goal, the store will naturally seek to imprint a proper, strong, even unique image on the consumer’s mind. As the literature (Keller, 1993) highlights, in order for a consumer to form an opinion in time about a particular brand, s/he must first perceive the brand, get to know it and undergo positive experiences with it.The current research advances a model designed to emphasize the contribution made by a store’s location and assisted service to shaping the store image. After the model’s theoretical concepts are operationalised, the data are validated by means of the reliability analysis. Finally, pertinent interpretations are provided through the existing correlations between the identified dimensions.The empirical research was conducted on a sample of 1800 Romanian consumers and reveals, for the selected retail formats, notable differences between the two characteristics of the retail brands in terms of their significance and impact on the store image. Finally, the research outlines several managerial implications that are relevant in taking future decisions concerning the best course of action to be taken with the aid of these two elements of the retail marketing mix.