30112011_Impact of Brand Awareness on the Choice of Retail Stores in India (2)

Impact of brand awareness on the choice of retail stores in IndiaAn Empirical Study

Great LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CHENNAI

Gouthem Karthik Palani – FT12325

Swati Arora – FT12367

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

Data Analysis Techniques used....................................................................................................18

III. Results.....................................................................................................................................19

References...........................................................................................................................................22

Appendix A: Questionnaire..................................................................................................................26

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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 consumer’s

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.

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

I. Theory and Hypothesis

IntroductionA 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 store’s brand image.

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.

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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 retailer’s 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 consumer’s 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

Availability

Problem Solving

Physical Aspects

Value added services

Store Merchandise

Accessibility and

Convenience.

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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 ReviewShopping 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-sense-

select.

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.

(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 consumer’s 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).

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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

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, value-

expressive, 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

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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 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 centre’s 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).

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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

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):

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Policy

Availability

Problem Solving

Physical Aspects

Value added services

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 customer-

centric 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

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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

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, Customer-

Based 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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Independent Variables

1. Shopping experienceThe 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

2. Customer friendliness/ Interaction of store personnel with customersThe 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

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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, Víctor J. Martín, Jesús 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

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

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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 baseThe 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 VariableBrand 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

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 store’s 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

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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.

HypothesesThe consumer’s 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 consumer’s 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

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

II. Method

The methodology used for the research:

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The below steps were followed:

1. A literature review was done to find out the factors that have an impact on the customer’s

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

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

target audience were the students who stay away from their family, housewives and

professionals. The link for the survey was mailed to the respondents and in some cases; the

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Literature Review

Focus Group Discussion

Identification of critical parmeters in consumer decision

Preparation of questionnaire

Data Collection

Check for data relevance - find out cronbach's alpha

Factor Analysis

Regression Analysis

Analysis of the results

Secondary Research

Qualitative Research

Descriptive Research

Data Analysis


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

Cronbach’s alpha for the data.The demographic factors were also analysed. Further

analysis was done by using Factor Analysis and Regression Analysis.

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 well-

known 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 program’s target audience

Learn about participants by observing their interaction

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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

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 Cronbach’s 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.

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Relaibility Test1 Factor

Analysis2 Regression Analysis3


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 chronbach’s 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

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.

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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:

Where = Intercept on the plane

and = Partial regression coefficients

when = Independent variables

III. Results

Data Analysis

Cronbach’s Alpha

Cronbach’s 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 respondent’s 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

Shopping Experience 1, 5, 7, 9

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Customer Friendliness 2, 3, 6, 8

Post-Purchase Service 4

Repeat Customer Base -

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:

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:

Y = b0 + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3

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Dependent Variable

Brand Awareness

Independent Variable

Shopping Experience

Customer Friendliness

Post-Purchase Service


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

22


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 ‘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

H01 True

H02 True

H03 False

H04 False

23

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 .343 .117 .094 .866

Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized

Coefficients Std Coefficient

t Sig.

95.0% Confidence Interval for B

B Std. Error Beta Lower Bound Upper Bound

1 (Constant) 3.833 .079 48.463 .000 3.677 3.990

Shopping

Experience

.342 .159 .188 2.151 .034 .027 .656

Customer

friendliness

.425 .159 .233 2.672 .009 .110 .739

Postpurchase .152 .079 .167 1.910 .059 -.006 .309

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


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:

Male63%

Female37%

Gender Ratio

24-3095%

31-361%

>424%

Age Group

< 4 Lakhs47%4-6

Lakhs33%

7-10 Lakhs11%

>10 Lakhs9%

Income

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

More

Big Bazaar

Spencer's Daily

Nilgiris

Food World

Other

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Most commonly visited retail stores

24


Once in 3 days

Once in a week

Once in 2-3 weeks

Once in a month

Once in 2 months

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Frquency of Retail Store visit

Completely dissatisfied

Somewhat dissatisfied

Neither satisfied or dissatisfied

Somewhat satisfied

Completely satisfied

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Satisafaction level with the store

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.

25


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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

Name *

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

>4

30


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

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)

31


Strongly Disagree

DisagreeNeither Agree Nor

DisagreeAgree

Strongly Agree

Stores are conveniently located

Store hours are convenient as per my

shopping needs

Store atmosphere and decor are appealing

A good selection of products was present

(Store) has the lowest prices in the area

Merchandise sold is of the highest quality

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)

32


Strongly Disagree

DisagreeNeither Agree Nor Disagree

AgreeStrongly Agree

This store has modern-looking 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 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

33


Strongly Disagree

DisagreeNeither Agree Nor Disagree

AgreeStrongly Agree

The behaviour of employees in this store instils confidence

in customers

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

This store offers a good loyalty program

This store provides free home delivery facility

12. Comparative Evaluation *

34


More Big BazaarSpencer's

DailyNilgiris 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?

offers the lowest everyday prices on household

essentials such as cleaning supplies, paper goods, and

health and beauty aids?

35


More Big BazaarSpencer's

DailyNilgiris FoodWorld

has the best cafeteria?

payment options- accepts all types of credit cards?

payment process is not time-consuming

has the best loyalty program?

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

Question 6)

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