Great LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CHENNAI

Impact of brand awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

An Empirical Study

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Table of Contents
Abstract...................................................................................................................3 I. Theory and Hypothesis..........................................................................................4 Introduction........................................................................................................4 Literature Review...............................................................................................6 Independent Variables.....................................................................................11 1. Shopping experience..............................................................................11 2. Customer friendliness/ Interaction of store personnel with customers.....12 3. Post- purchase services............................................................................13 4. Repeat Customer base..............................................................................13 Dependent Variable.........................................................................................14 Hypotheses......................................................................................................14 II. Method............................................................................................................15 Qualitative Research........................................................................................16 Quantitative Research......................................................................................17 Gouthem Karthik Palani FT12325 Data Analysis Techniques used.....................................................................18 III.

Swati Arora FT12367 Results.........................................................................................................19

References..........................................................................................................22 Appendix A: Questionnaire..................................................................................26 Appendix A: Questionnaire

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Abstract
Perception is defined as "the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to make a choice". A customer forms an image of a brand, in his mind, based on his/her first exposure to that brand. This is what defines the customer perception of the brand. In the last few years, consumer perception of quality, service and expectations has been undergoing a radical change. A retail store is defined as a large store organized into departments offering a variety of merchandise and selling items mostly through direct interaction with the customer. A consumers choice of a retail store is highly dependent on his/her perception of this retail store. To meet up to the expectations of consumers, retail stores are constantly evolving and moving from the traditional sales-centric approach to the modern customer-centric approach. The retail stores have started investing more into the look and feel of the stores to give the customer an everlasting experience and attract them back into the store. In this study, we measure the effectiveness of a retail store brand in terms of shopping experience, customer- friendliness, post-purchase service and loyal repeat customer base and how these factors affect the brand awareness of the retail store amongst its customers.

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Impact of brand awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

I. Theory and Hypothesis
Introduction
A retail store is defined as a large store organized into departments offering a variety of merchandise and selling items mostly through direct interaction with the customer. The trend of a retail store has been newly established and the retail stores are coming up with innovative ideas to increase the sales and create a loyal customer base. Shopping centres are another type of retail institutions which have also started evolving. A shopping centre consists of heterogeneous shops which are located at the same place such as the different kinds of shops present in a shopping mall. Whereas a retail store is a single store which sells multiple types of products that are used by a common man. A retail store gets all the required products, from different departments, under the same roof and the customer need not visit different shops and get it billed at different places. The success of any retail store is dependent on few factors that help in creating a brand image of the retail store amongst its current and possible customers. Till date, many studies have been performed to look into the store brand image attributes which a customer perceives. Going forward, some of the studies will be discussed along with their implications on the customer perception of the retail stores brand image.

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India For any retail store, the most critical decision is the location of the store. Some of the reasons which make location the most critical factor are (Piyush Kumar Sinha and Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, 2011): 1. It is generally one of the most important factors customers consider while choosing a store. 2. A bad location may cause a retailer to fail even if its strategic mix is excellent. On the other hand, a good location may help a retailer succeed even if its strategic mix is mediocre. 3. Store location is the least flexible element of a retailers strategy mix due to its fixed nature, the amount of investment, and the length of lease agreements. 4. A store inherits a lot of its characteristics from its location. For example, a store on a high street portrays a different identity compared to a similar store in a residential area. A study was conducted on consumers of retail stores in Ahmadabad, Gujrat to determine the key retail store attributes that determine the consumers perception. The researchers examined empirically how consumers perceptions towards stores get affected by product range, store layout, shopping convenience, promotional schemes, product pricing, customer service, employee behavior, and store ambience significantly influence the customers when they make purchase decisions in modern retail outlets. The final results of the research showed that usual shopping place and demographic variables have no significant or considerable association in shaping the consumer's perception. (Riteshkumar Dalwadi , Harishchandra Singh Rathod, Atul Patel, 2010). Today the retailing sector in India is in a highly competitive environment and it is necessary to measure the service quality in a retail setting to gain competitive advantage. The study on Retail Service Quality has identified the important retail service quality factors like: Policy 5

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India Availability Problem Solving Physical Aspects Value added services Store Merchandise Accessibility and Convenience.

The study reveals that there is a strong association between customer profile variables and their perception on Retail service quality (S.P.Thenmozhi, Dr.D.Dhanapal, 2010).

Literature Review
Shopping is seen as an act of identifying a store and purchasing the required product. The shopping behaviour of the shopper differs according to the place where they are shopping and their involvement level with the act of shopping (Barry Berman and Joel Evans, 2003). Shopping is seen to be a function of the nature of the product, the degree of perceived risk inherent in the product class, and the level of knowledge or amount of information about alternatives. The shopping behaviour in the store has shown that the purchasing behaviour follows a consistent pattern of see-touch-senseselect. The different kinds of shopping behaviours have been classified into 3 categories, as below (A. Connolly and D.Firth, 1999): (a) Blinkered Mode In this mode, shoppers confidently and efficiently buy familiar brands. The shoppers are not interested in label reading or studying the attributes of the product. (b) Magpie Mode In this mode, the shopper can get distracted and attracted by different brands on display. This is evident in shoppers who are looking for a change.

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India (c) Browser Mode In this mode, the shopper is seen to behave more rationally, The shopper generally reads the back of the pack copy and compares prices, ingredients and seeks more information about the product attributes. Literature review suggests that consumers perceptions towards stores get affected by product range, store layout, shopping convenience, promotional schemes, product pricing, customer service, employee behaviour, and store ambience significantly influence the customers when they make purchase decisions in modern retail outlets (Dalwadi et al., 2010). This idea is supported by many studies and extends one more step by classifying the importance of these factors based on the environment in which they operate (Stephen J. Arnold, Sylvia Ma). Using a multi-attribute approach, meta- Analysis of retail store image studies (Jay D. Lindquist) was performed and a framework with 9 image categories, namely, was formed: Merchandise Service Clientele Physical Facilities Convenience Promotion Store atmosphere Institutional factors Post-transactional satisfaction

This has been supported by different studies with each trying to identify the major contributors. Price, Convenient hours and parking were the major reasons according to a research on discount stores (Dardis, Rachel; Sandler, Marie). A few empirical studies on the attributes state that customers

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India are willing to compromise on a low value for attribute1 if the trade-off is a high value for attribute2 which they value more (S R Sharma, Prakash Tiwari, Hemraj Verma, 2008). This study tests the relationship between attitude and retail store patronage behaviour within the theoretical framework of Functional theory of Attitudes as proposed by Katz (1960). From a retailer's perspective, the creation of positive consumer attitude is considered very crucial. The results of this study indicate that attitudes toward shopping are related to knowledge, ego-defensive, valueexpressive, and utilitarian functions (Korgaonkar, P. K.; Lund, Daulat; Price, Barbara.). The study on the attributes that influence customer's patronage/re-patronage towards value retailers states that gender difference and re-patronage intentions are also crucial factors (Chae Mi Lim, Youn-Kyung Kim, Soo-Hee Park, 2007). As if peddling their wares wasn't tough enough, retailers must now make the shopping experience memorable for ever-more demanding consumers by marketing the whole environment and customer's experience is increasingly becoming important. While the movement towards "experience shopping" may not be entirely new, more retailers are taking note. Also as part of any brand experience, the "emotional dimension" is something a lot of retailers are trying to improve. While the "rational dimension" involves simply buying something you need, the emotional side asks, "Who do I feel might serve my needs? Who understands me best? Who makes me feel good about my purchase or delights me in some way?" (Harris, Rebecca). Success of a product is dependent on familiarizing consumers with the unique experiences offered by a product rather than on the product's functional benefits. An important moderator of analogical persuasiveness is the subjective product experiences that enable the identification of base preferences, i.e. consumers liking for the comparison experience. Another important factor for understanding the role of emotional knowledge and experienced emotion in analogical thinking is

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India the emotional knowledge transfer perspective (Miranda R. Goode, Darren W. Dahl, and C. Page Moreau). Customers shopping experience can be measure through shopping centre branding. Measurement of shopping centre branding is done by the level of awareness and care, which customers display towards the branding efforts. It also attempts to find out how customers shopping experiences are affected by the shopping centres branding effort: elements which include store atmosphere, image, store layout, tenant mix etc. (Ahasanul Haque, Sabbir Rahman, 2009). Music has been found to play an important role in shaping the buying behaviour of customers in a retail store. Even though much research is not done on the affect of music on the behaviour of supermarket shoppers, but the findings till date have shown that the kind of music being played in a retail store impacts the buying behaviour of the customers. Studies have showed that stores that play slower music record more sales as compared to stores playing fast music. Also, another study conducted in a grocery store that played muzak recorded higher sales as compared to stores playing radio music, contemporary music or no music (Jeff Ware and Gerald L. Patrick, 1984). In another study it was found out that customers in stores that played slower music spent about 20% more time in travelling between two observational points. (Ronald E. Milliman, 1982). Researches have discussed how the consumers form an Overall Store Price Image (OSPI) of grocery stores and its importance. Most of the prior researches have been focused on consumer's price perceptions of individual products and not many researches have focused on consumer's price perception of the entire retail outlet. The OSPI of a store directly implies the kind of strategy it wants to follow, the store atmosphere and the kind of customers it wants to attract and build patronage (Kalpesh Kaushik Desai, Debabrata Talukdar, 2003). Shopping centre entertainment such as food courts, fashion shows is a strategic marketing tool which helps in increasing the consumer's shopping stay, increase the trading area and increase the 9

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India revenue for the retail store. These entertainment gimmicks offer a great potential for retail stores to differentiate themselves. 4 dominant attributes in shopping centre are (Jason Sit, Bill Merrilees,Dawn Birch, 2003): Merchandising Accessibility Service Atmospherics

Today the retailing sector in India operates in a highly competitive environment and it is necessary to measure the service quality in a retail setting to gain competitive advantage. Researchers have hierarchically classified SERVQUAL into 5 dimensions (Thorpe Dabholkar, Rentz (1996)): Physical Aspects Reliability Personal Interactions Problem Solving and Policy

There are other researches which support this classification and have gone on to add a few more dimensions of their own. A present study has identified the important retail service quality factors like (S.P.Thenmozhi, Dr.D.Dhanapal, 2010): Policy Availability Problem Solving Physical Aspects Value added services

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India Store Merchandise Accessibility and Convenience

Another study states that the five dimensions of Service Quality are: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Sunayna Khurana, 2008). The analysis of a retail store based on the SERVQUAL dimensions is not always accurate and hence a GAP analysis has to be performed between customer Perception and Expectation to validate the relevance of service quality (Darshan Parikh, 2006). Product support is found to be a key source of revenues and means for competitive advantage in many industries. As per Goffins, after sales service is a pre-requisite for achieving customer satisfaction. Customer support is for activities to ensure that a product is available for trouble-free use to consumers over its useful life span (Keith Goffin, 2000). Today's retailers expect to support their products with in-depth information focused on category management. Information is the key to product sales. Retailers are beginning to focus on efficient consumer response (ECR) initiatives as a strategy for long-term profit potential (William Dusek, 1996). Finally, IBM reports the results from its recent next generation store customer research, the latest in an on-going series of research efforts examining retail customers attitudes towards the overall shopping experience and use of in-store technology. To successfully create a more customercentric in store environment, retailers must understand which technologies can offer value to customers, and under what circumstances (Tom Heckel, Gina Paglucia Morrison). Another study attempts to analyse arousal and satisfaction as behavioural drivers that influence buying behaviour of young consumers and measures the extent of satisfaction by purchases made. The discussions in this paper emphasize major factors that affect shopping arousal among young consumers are recreational facilities and location of the store, shopping behaviour, and store loyalty, which are

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India influenced by product attributes and services, brand value, perceived values, and price (S R Sharma et al., 2008). Brand Awareness is also found to be dependent on the above discussed factors. In a research done by Hoeffler and Keller, the possible benefits of having a strong brand were documented. These benefits were (Hoeffler and Keller 2003): Improved perceptions of product performance; Greater customer loyalty; Less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions and marketing crises; Larger margins; More elastic customer response to price decreases and inelastic customer response to price increases; Greater trade or intermediary cooperation and support; Increased marketing communication effectiveness; Additional licensing and brand extension opportunities.

Different types of marketing Communications help in building a brand and creating brand awareness. This was explained using a comprehensive, cohesive model of brand equity, CustomerBased Brand Equity (CBBE) model (Keller 2001, 2008). Customer-based brand equity is defined as the differential effect that consumer knowledge about a brand has on their response to marketing for that brand. The CBBE model emphasized the importance of understanding consumer brand knowledge structures. This brand resonance pyramid was reviewed as a way to track how marketing communications can create intense, active loyalty relationships and affect brand equity.

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Independent Variables
1. Shopping experience The retail stores have started targeting the emotional dimension of the customers by making shopping an experience rather than a chore activity. The retail stores have started believing in making the shopping experience a memorable one which the customer can take home, just like the products that they buy from the retail store (Harris, Rebecca, 2004). Keeping this in mind the retails stores have started engaging the latest technologies, which add value to customers, in their stores and make sure that the benefits of this technology are communicated to the customers (Tom Heckel, 2004). As if peddling their wares wasn't tough enough, retailers must now make the shopping experience memorable for ever-more demanding consumers. They market the whole environment and customer's experience is increasingly becoming just as important as what they take home in their car trunks. While the movement towards "experience shopping" may not be entirely new, more retailers are taking note. He also adds that as part of any brand experience, the "emotional dimension" is something a lot of retailers are trying to improve. While the "rational dimension" involves simply buying something you need, the emotional side asks, "Who do I feel might serve my needs? Who understands me best? Who makes me feel good about my purchase or delights me in some way? (Harris, Rebecca, 2004). Some of the measurable factors which help in determining the shopping experience of the customers are: a) Ambience/store arrangement/display b) Location (convenience)/easy parking c) Quality d) Product lines, Depth and Width

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India 2. Customer friendliness/ Interaction of store personnel with customers The retail store should be designed in a way that when a customer enters the store, he experiences a whole new world with the best people to help him shop. Customer service is believed to start from the points where customers come into contact with the business. This is where the role of the store salespeople plays a critical role along with the other factors which make the shopping experience a convenient and memorable one for the customer. The role of the retail salespeople is to help customers find what they are looking for and to try to interest them in buying the merchandise. The loyalty of a customer towards the retail store can also be measured by taking into account the amount of time the customer spends in the store which includes the time spent waiting in the billing queue, product quality and store atmosphere (Arturo Molina, Vctor J. Martn, Jess Santos, Evangelina Aranda, 2009). The promotional offers and discounts offered by the retail store also play an important role in attracting the customers towards the retail store. A Study looking at the socio-economic characteristics and shopping behavior of discount store customers was conducted in a small city in. The competitive potential of discount store was evaluated in terms of reasons for patronage and the share of total buying which regular customers did at this store. Comparative shopping was characteristic of these shoppers. Price was found to be a major reason and convenient hours and parking were observed to be other reasons (Rachel Dardis; Marie Sandler). a) Interaction with the salespersons b) Payment options c) Promotional offers, discounts and benefits for members d) Home delivery 3. Post- purchase services Once the customer makes a transaction and buys a product, the relationship of the customer with the store takes a new turn. The customer expects the store personnel to be there to help the 14

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India customer whenever the customer faces any problem with the product purchased from the retail store. Customer service plays a critical role and involves activities to ensure that a product is available for trouble-free use to consumers over its useful life span (Keith Goffin, 2000). It has been observed that shopping centre entertainment such as food courts, fashion shows is a strategic marketing tool which helps in increasing the consumer's shopping stay, increase the trading area and increase the revenue for the retail store. These entertainment gimmicks offer a great potential for shopping centre to differentiate themselves (Jason Sit et al., 2003). Retail stores have also started using similar ways to increase the customer base and in turn increase their product sales. Some of the major attributes that play a vital role here are: a) Service centre availability/reliability b) Warranty coverage/replacement c) Other services like restaurants and photo services which complete the shopping experience for the customers 4. Repeat Customer base The perception built in the mind of the customer after his first visit to the retail store, has a lot of impact in getting the customer back to the same retail store for his further purchases. Retail stores have introduced customer loyalty programs, which are structured and long-term marketing efforts to provide incentives to repeat customers who demonstrate loyal buying behavior. Successful programs are designed to motivate customers in a business's target market to return often, make frequent purchases, and avoid competitors. In retailing, these programs generally reward loyal customers with discounts, special offers, rebates, points, or prizes.

Dependent Variable
Brand Awareness is defined as a determinant of marketing effectiveness measured by the ability of a customer to recognize and/or recall a name, image or other mark associated with a 15

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India particular brand. Branding is the process which aids in creating brand awareness amongst customers. Branding is considered to be especially important in the retailing industry to influence customer perceptions and drive store choice and loyalty (Kusum L. Ailawadi, Kevin Lane Kelle, 2004). A major portion of the sales of retail stores comes from selling manufacturer brands, which are sold by their competitors as well. Hence building of the retail stores equity is a challenging task whose success comes with big rewards. Retailer brands are seen to be highly different from product brands, when it comes to applying branding principles. Retailer brands are more multi-sensory in nature than product brands and can rely on rich consumer experiences to impact their equity. Retailers also create their brand images in different ways, e.g., by attaching unique associations to the quality of their service, their product assortment and merchandising, pricing and credit policy and so on (Kusum L. Ailawadi, Kevin Lane Kelle, 2004). The above defined independent variables have been identified to measure how brand awareness of a retail store is dependent on these variables.

Hypotheses
The consumers perception of the attributes of store image affects their preference for the stores. A retail store has a set of attributes which consumers link to when they hear the word retail store. The stimuli pertaining to store attributes include merchandising, store atmosphere, in-store service, accessibility, reputation, promotion, facilities, post-transaction service, cultural differences and expectations (Lim et al., 2007). This preference would also be based on the consumers post-visit ranking of the stores. The hypothesis based on the above observations is as follows: H01: Brand Awareness of a retail store is dependent on the shopping experience H02: Brand Awareness of a retail store is dependent on interaction with the retail store personnel

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India H03: Brand Awareness of a retail store is dependent on the post-purchase services H04: Brand Awareness of a retail store is dependent on the repeat customer base

I. Method
The methodology used for the research:

Secondary Research

The below steps were followed: 1. A literature review was done to find out the factors that have an impact on Qualitative the customers
Research

perception regarding a retail store and helps the customer take a decision when he goes to a retail store to make a purchase. 2. Using the data collected above, a focus group discussion was conducted to come up with a list of parameters/attributes that have a direct impact on the customer and help him create Research a brand image. 3. Using this information a questionnaire was prepared to target adults who visit the retail stores to do their grocery shopping. A pilot survey was done to check for the reliability of the questionnaire. Once that was fine, the survey was circulated on a large scale. The
Data Analysis target audience were the students who stay away from their family, housewives and Descriptive

professionals. The link for the survey was mailed to the respondents and in some cases; the respondents were contacted through a phone call. In some cases, we had to follow-up to get the survey filled. 4. After collecting the data, the relevance of the data was checked to by finding out the Cronbachs alpha for the data.The demographic factors were also analysed. Further analysis was done by using Factor Analysis and Regression Analysis. 17

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research was used in the first stage of primary research. It consists of a set of research techniques, used in marketing in which data is obtained from a relatively small group of respondents and not analysed with inferential statistics. The sequence of information collection is not highly structured. This differentiates it from quantitative analysis for statistical significance. Since the techniques are unstructured, below mentioned were the broad areas we decided to touch upon during the discussion: What features do customers find to be the most attractive in a retail store? How important is the store ambience? Would customers prefer a not-so-known retail store which is next to their house over a wellknown retail store which is far away from their house? How important are the in-store restaurants and other shops important for a customer? How much do the promotional offers matter when deciding upon a retail store? Focus Group discussion was a helpful technique here to (Fern, E. F., 1982): Understand differences in perspectives Understand the factors that influence customer opinions and behaviour Capture opinions and perspectives of a programs target audience Learn about participants by observing their interaction

Quantitative Research
Quantitative Research is a research methodology that seeks to quantify the data and typically applies some form of statistical analysis. The objectives of this quantitative research were primarily to quantify the data gathered from various resources and then generalize the results from the sample to the population of interest. With the help of large number of representative responses and structured 18

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India data collection technique along with using statistical methods for analysis, we were able to justify our hypothesis. Quantitative research was used to determine the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent or outcome variable in a population. Quantitative research designs of descriptive (subjects usually measured once) type has been used because a descriptive study establishes associations between variables. The SPSS statistical package will be used for analysing the data collected from the questionnaires. To analyse the data collected we will be employing descriptive statistics. Independent variable in our case study is shopping experience, Customer friendliness/ Interaction of store personnel with customers, post-purchase service and repeat customer base. SPSS was used to get the statistical output and this data was further analysed. Data Analysis Techniques used

Before going ahead with the analysis of the data, it is important that the questionnaire is filled properly by the respondents. There are instances where the participants hurry through the questionnaire. In such situations the reliability of the questionnaire gets compromised and can adversely affect the values of Cronbachs alpha (Christian Montag, Dipl. Psych. and Martin Reuter, 2008). Hence, we tried to make sure that the survey was filled by the respondents when they were free and could think before answering. Any scale to be valid must be reliable and have practical utility. Reliability is defined as the degree to which measures are free from error and therefore yield consistent results (Peter, 1979). Reliability Test one way to check this. It is performed, on the quantitative data collected through primary research, by checking the chronbachs alpha of the sample data. Cronbach's alpha is an index of reliability associated with the variation accounted for by the true score of the "underlying 19

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India construct." Construct is the hypothetical variable that is being measured in this case the brand awareness of retail stores. This alpha value is also considered as an estimator of internal consistency of a multi-item scale (Robert A. Peterson, 1994). Alpha value greater than 0.6 is considered relevant to continue with the data collected for the study. Next we perform a Factor Analysis on our data. The basic idea behind factor analysis is quite simple. If two or more characteristics correlate, they may reflect a shared underlying trait. We could say then that, patterns of correlations reveal the trait dimensions that lie beneath the measured qualities. Once we collect the data, we calculate the correlations between every possible pair of variables. We then examine the eigenvalues, among other things, to decide on the number of factors the data should be reduced to. Eigen values are values corresponding to how much accuracy we would lose if we simplified the data by lumping it to a specific number of factors. Although the point of this analysis is to simplify the data, there is a cost to simplifying data. By simplifying data, we lose the details and therefore we lose accuracy. The smaller number of factors we reduce the data to, the more we simplify the data, but the more accuracy we lose. Eigen values, among other things, allow us to conduct a cost-benefit analysis regarding how much we should simplify the data. After determining the number of factors the data should be reduced to we reduce the large number of variables to a smaller set of higher-order variables that we call "factors". Factor rotation can also be done for the better classification, in case a clear demarcation is not available between the various variables relating to the different factors. This data was further used for Regression analysis to analyze the associative relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variables. Regression analysis looks at the nature and degree of association between variables and does not imply or assume any causality. Multiple regression analysis will be done as it analyzes the associative relationships between a single dependent variable and two or more independent variables. The general form of the multiple regression model is: 20

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Where

= Intercept on the plane

and

= Partial regression coefficients

when

= Independent variables

I. Results
Data Analysis Cronbachs Alpha Cronbachs alpha for the collected data was found to be .738. The value of 0.738 is greater than 0.6 and proves that the questionnaire is reliable and we can proceed using this data for further analysis. Further analysis was done by using Factor Analysis and Regression Analysis. Factor Analysis The questionnaire was designed to capture the respondents perception on the independent variables. The questions were picked to identify the various dimensions of each factor and to narrow down to the most significant attributes. For the collected data set, factor analysis was performed and the factors were analysed. On analysis, it was discovered that the factors could not be clubbed properly and needed rotation. On applying Varimax rotation and running factor analysis, SPSS grouped them into 9 factors. We then tried to identify which variables the factors belong to. Independent Variable Factors

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India Shopping Experience Customer Friendliness Post-Purchase Service Repeat Customer Base 1, 5, 7, 9 2, 3, 6, 8 4 -

On analysis of the factors, it was found that none of the factors belonged to 4th independent variable Repeat Customer Base. We assume that this is not relevant in the context of determining brand awareness and hence this disproves the fourth hypothesis. For the other two independent variables, Shopping Experience and Customer Friendliness, a combination of factors have to be taken. In order to combine the factor scores into one variable, a mean of the respective factors was taken. For example, Shopping Experience = Average (Factor1, Factor5, Factor7, Factor9) Customer Friendliness = Average (Factor2, Factor3, Factor6, Factor8) By doing this, we have identified the following variables:

Dependent Variable Brand Awareness Independent Variable Shopping Experience Customer Friendliness Post-Purchase Service
Multiple Linear regression Multiple linear regression was performed for the dependent variable (Brand Awareness) against the independent variables (Shopping Experience, Customer Friendliness, Post-Purchase service, Repeat Customer Base). The regression equation is of the form: 22

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India Y = b0 + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 Where, b0 Intercept on the plane b1, b2, b3 partial regression coefficients X1 - Independent variable 1 (Shopping Experience) X2 Independent Variable 2 (Customer Friendliness) X3 Independent Variable 3 (Post Purchase Service) Note: Independent variable 4 (Repeat Customer Base) has not been included as part of the regression equation. This is because no significant factor was identified as belonging to Repeat Customer Base after factor analysis. Hence we assume that the variable has very minimal or no effect on the dependent variable (Brand Awareness) and do not include it in regression. Based on the same reasoning, we would also consider that Hypothesis 4 (H04) to be disproved.

Regression procedure was run on SPSS and on analysing the output, it was found that 11.7 % of variance in the dependent variable can be predicted by the independent variable. This conclusion was drawn from the R square value (Look model Summary table). R Square is the proportion of variance in the dependent variable which can be predicted from the independent variable. Adjusted R Square value explains the variance in the dependent variable simply due to chance. Standard Error Estimate is the standard deviation of the error term and is the square root of the mean square residual.

Model Summary

Model 1

R .343

R Square .117

Adjusted R Square .094

Std. Error of the Estimate .866

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India The coefficients table has to be analysed to determine the significance value of each independent variable. If the significance value is less than .05, then the variable is really significant in determining the dependent variable and proves the hypothesis drawn using it. From the coefficients table, we find that Shopping Experience and

Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients B 1 (Constant) Shopping Experience Customer friendliness Postpurchase a. .152 .079 .167 1.910 .059 -.006 .309 .425 .159 .233 2.672 .009 .110 .739 3.833 .342 Std. Error .079 .159 .188 Std Coefficient Beta t 48.463 2.151 Sig. .000 .034 95.0% Confidence Interval for B Lower Bound 3.677 .027 Upper Bound 3.990 .656

Dependent Variable: 9. What is your overall satisfaction level with the store

Customer Friendliness are significant and have a sigma value of less than .05. Post Purchase Service has a sigma value more than .05 and is not significant. Based on the significance value, the hypothesis can be proved true or wrong. The coefficients table also provides the values of b0, b1, b2 and b3 for solving the regression equation. Substituting the values in the regression equation, we get Y = 3.833 + (.342)*(X1) + (.425)*(X2) + (.152)*(X3)

Hypothesis Test Results

Hypothesis

Result

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India H01 H02 H03 H04 True True False False

Demographic Analysis Along with the regression analysis, demographic analysis was also performed to understand the diversity and sanctity of data. Also these help to draw valuable inferences that can be used to benefit the retail chains surveyed in the research and help them to improve their own brand awareness. The demographics statistics about the respondents are as follows:

The statistics related to the respondents visits to the retail stores are as below:

In most of the parameters, Big Bazaar was chosen to be the best among the lot. Out of the 120 respondents, 54 respondents prefer shopping at Big Bazaar as they found it convenient, cheap, customer friendly and had a lot of variety in its merchandise.

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

References

1. Chae Mi Lim, Youn-Kyung Kim, Soo-Hee Park (2007). Consumer perceptions toward retail attributes of value retailers: functions of gender and repatronage intention. In Journal of Consumer Behaviour (2007, Vol 6, No. 3, Page 269-282). Westburn Publishers Limited. 2. Harris and Rebecca (2004). The New Rules of Retail. In Marketing Magazine (7/26/20048/2/2004, Vol. 109, Issue 25). Rogers Publishing Limited. 3. Tom Heckel, Gina Paglucia Morrison (2004). IBM Finds that Shoppers around the World are Increasingly Open to New Shopping Experiences. European Retail Digest, Templeton College. 4. Arturo Molina, Vctor J. Martn, Jess Santos and Evangelina Aranda (2009). Consumer service and loyalty in Spanish grocery store retailing: an empirical study. International Journal of Consumer Studies 33 ((2009) 477485). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 5. Keith Goffin (2000, March). Design for Supportability: Essential Component of new product development. Research Technology Management, March 1, 2000. 6. S.P.Thenmozhi and Dr.D.Dhanapal (2010). Retail Service Quality - A Customer Perception Analysis. Global Management Review, Volume 4, Issue 2, Feb 2010 7. Riteshkumar Dalwadi , Harishchandra Singh Rathod & Atul Patel (2010, August). Key Retail Store Attributes Determining Consumers Perceptions: An Empirical Study of Consumers of

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India Retail Stores Located in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). SIES Journal of Management. April - August 2010, Vol.7(1): 20-34. 8. Jason Sit, Bill Merrilees, Dawn Birch (2003). Entertainment-seeking shopping centre patrons: the missing segments. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management; 2003, Vol. 31 Issue 2, p80. 9. Dardis, Rachel; Sandler, Marie. Shopping Behaviour of Discount Store Customers in a Small City. Journal of Retailing, Summer71, Vol. 47 Issue 2, p60, 14p. 10.Rachel Dardis, Marie Sandler. Shopping Behaviour of Discount Store Customers in a Small City. Journal of Retailing, Summer71, Vol. 47 Issue 2, p60, 14p. 11.Kusum L. Ailawadi,Kevin Lane Kelle (2004). Understanding Retail branding: Conceptual insights and research priorities. Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. 12.Kalpesh Kaushik Desai, Debabrata Talukdar (2003, October). Relationship between Product Groups' Price Perceptions, Shopper's Basket Size, and Grocery Store's Overall Store Price Image. State University of New York at Buffalo. Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 20(10): 903933 (October 2003). Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). 2003 Wiley Periodicals. 13.Ahasanul Haque, Sabbir Rahman (2009, December). Exploring Customers Shopping Experience through Shopping Center Branding in Malaysia. Journal of Management Research,Vol. 9, No. 3, December 2009, pp. 167-181. 14.Jay D. Lindquist. Meaning of Image. Journal of Retailing, Volume 50 Number 4 Winter 1974-1975. 15.Pratibha A.Dabholkar, Dayle I.Thorpe, Joseph O.Rentz. A Measure of Service Quality for Retail Stores: Scale Development and Validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Volume 24, No.1, pages 3-16.

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India 26.Ruth Campbell, December 2008. Guide to Focus Group Discussions. Produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. 27.Fern, E. F. (1982), The use of focus groups for idea generation: The effects of group size, acquaintanceship and moderator on response quantity and quality, Journal of Marketing Research, 19, 1-13. 28.Herman Aguinis, Ryan K. Gottfredson, 2010. Best-practice recommendations for estimating interaction effects using moderated multiple regression. Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 31, 776786 (2010), Published online 30 April 2010 in Wiley InterScience. 29.Petra Lietz, 2009. Research into questionnaire design. International Journal of Market Research Vol. 52 Issue 2. 30.Donald R. Lehmann, Kevin Lane Keller, John U. Farley, 2008. The Structure of SurveyBased Brand Metrics. Journal of International Marketing 2008, American Marketing Association Vol. 16, No. 4, 2008, pp. 2956. 31. J. Paul Peter, 1979. Reliability: A review of Psychometric Basics and recent marketing practices. Journal of Market Research, 16 Feb, p 6-17. 32.Robert A. Peterson, 1994. A meta-analysis of cronbach's coefficient alpha. Journal of Consumer Research; Sep94, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p381-391. 33.Christian Montag, Dipl. Psych. and Martin Reuter. Does Speed in Completing an Online Questionnaire Have an Influence on Its Reliability?.CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR, Volume 11, Number 6, 2008. 34.Elisabeth Deutskens, Ko De Ruyter, Martin Wetzels, Paul Oosterveld. Response Rate and Response Quality of Internet-Based Surveys: An Experimental Study. Marketing Letters 15:1, 2136, 2004, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India 35.Jeff Ware and Gerald L. Patrick, 1984. Gelsons Supermarkets: Efeect of MUZAK music on Purchasing behaviour of supermarket shoppers. MUZAK Research Report. 36.Ronald E. Milliman, 1982. Using Background Music to Affect the Behaviour of Supermarket Shoppers. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46, pp. 86-91. 37.Piyush Kumar Sinha and Dwarika Prasad Uniyal (2011). Managing Retailing. Oxford University Press. 38.Barry Berman and Joel Evans, 2003. Retail Management: A Strategic Approach. 9th Edn, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education. 39.A. Connolly and D. Firth, 1999. Visual Planning- the Power of Thinking Visually. Journal Of Brand Management, Vol 6, No. 5, pp. 161-73. 40.http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/webbooks/reg/chapter1/annotated1.htm 41.http://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/spss/testing/testing.pdf 42. http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/data.htm

Appendix A: Questionnaire

Impact of Brand Awareness in the choice of Retail Stores

The Survey tries to analyze the impact of customer's brand consciousness while selecting retail outlet to shop

Top of Form

Name *

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Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India 1. Gender *

Male Female 2. Age *

24-30 31-36 37-42 >42 3. Income *(For current students, please consider your last drawn salary)

< 4 Lakhs 4-6 Lakhs 7-10 Lakhs >10 Lakhs 4. Number of family members(inlcuding you)

5. Number of wage earners in the family *(inlcuding you)

1 2 3 4 31

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

>4

6. Which retail store brand amongst the following would you prefer to shop from *(most preferred)

More Big Bazaar Spencer's Daily Nilgiris Food World Other: 7. How familiar are you with the retail store *(answer selected for Question 6)

I have heard of the brand but know nothing about it I have heard of this brand, and know a little about it I have heard of this brand and know it quite well 8. How often do you visit this retail store *(answer selected for Question 6)

Once in 3 days Once in a week Once in 2-3 weeks Once in a month

32

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Once in 2 months 9. What is your overall satisfaction level with the store *(answer selected for Question 6)

Completely dissatisfied Somewhat dissatisfied Neither satisfied or dissatisfied Somewhat satisfied Completely satisfied

10. Please rate the following for the above selected/entered store *(answer selected for Question 6)
Strongly Disagree Stores are conveniently located Store hours are convenient as per my shopping needs Store atmosphere and decor are appealing Disagree Neither Agree Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

A good selection of products was present

(Store) has the lowest prices in the area

33

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Strongly Disagree Merchandise sold is of the highest quality

Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Merchandise displays are attractive This store has merchandise available when the customers want it This store provides plenty of convenient parking for customers

11. Store Evaluation *(answer selected for Question 6)

Strongly Disagree This store has modernlooking equipment and fixtures The physical facilities at this store are visually appealing Materials associated with this store's service (such as shopping bags, catalogs, or Disagree Neither Agree Nor Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

34

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Strongly Disagree statements) are visually appealing This store has clean, attractive, and convenient public areas (restrooms, fitting rooms). The store layout at this store makes it easy for customers to find what they need The store layout at this store makes it easy for customers to move around the store When this store promises to do something by a certain time, it will do so This store performs the service right the first time This store insists on error-free sales transactions and records Employees in this store have the knowledge to answer customers' questions The behaviour of employees in this store instils confidence in customers

Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

35

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

Strongly Disagree Customers feel safe in their payment transactions with this store Employees in this store give prompt service to customers Employees in this store are consistently courteous with customers Employees of this store treat customers courteously on the telephone post- purchase This store willingly handles returns and exchanges Employees of this store are able to handle customer complaints directly and immediately This store accepts most major credit cards

Disagree

Neither Agree Nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

This store offers a good loyalty program

This store provides free home delivery facility

12. Comparative Evaluation *

36

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

More

Big Bazaar

Spencer's Daily

Nilgiris

FoodWorld

consistently provides the best values for your money?

is most likely to have what you want in stock?

has the best advertised sales and specials?

has the best quality merchandise?

maintains the best everyday price for most merchandise?

has the lowest prices overall?

provides the least value for your money?

has the highest prices overall?

has the poorest quality merchandise?

has the most convenient store layout for shopping?

has the widest selection of national brand merchandise?

37

Impact of Brand Awareness on the choice of retail stores in India

More

Big Bazaar

Spencer's Daily

Nilgiris

FoodWorld

offers the lowest everyday prices on household essentials such as cleaning supplies, paper goods, and health and beauty aids?

has the best cafeteria?

payment options- accepts all types of credit cards?

payment process is not timeconsuming

has the best loyalty program?

13. Give 1 word from the top of ur mind that describes the store *(answer selected for Question 6)

Submit

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