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Abstract
Purpose - The objective of the present research is to examine the relationship between consumers' satisfaction with a retailer and the equity they associate with the retail brand.
Design/methodology/approach - Retail brand equity is conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct comprising: retailer awareness, retailer associations, retailer perceived quality, and retailer loyalty. Then the associative network memory model is applied from cognitive psychology to the specific context of the relationships between customer satisfaction and consumer-based retailer equity. A survey was undertaken using a convenience sample of shopping mall consumers in an Australian state capital city. The questionnaire used to collect data included an experimental design such that two categories of retailers were included in the study: department stores and specialty stores, with three retailers representing each category. The relationship between consumer-based retailer equity and customer satisfaction was examined using multivariate analysis of variance.
Findings - Results indicate that retail brand equity varies with customer satisfaction. For department stores, each consumer-based retailer equity dimension varied according to customer satisfaction with the retailer. However, for specialty stores, only three of the consumer-based retailer equity dimensions, namely retailer awareness, retailer associations and retailer perceived quality, varied according to customer satisfaction level with the retailer.
Originality/value - The principal contribution of the present research is that it demonstrates empirically a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and an intangible asset such as retailer equity.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Customer satisfaction, Brands, Department stores, Customer loyalty, Australia
Paper type Research paper
Introduction and background
The notion that brands add value to products has been called brand equity. Based on the premise that branding and brand management principles can be applied to retail brands, albeit with certain variation (Ailawadi and Keller, 2004, p. 340), the concept of retailer equity, whereby the name of a retailer bestows value upon it, has recently attracted the attention of both marketing researchers (e.g. Arnett et al, 2003) and practitioners (e.g. Kramer, 1999; Thompson, 1998). Likewise, brand equity has been referred to as consumer-based brand equity (e.g. Pappu et al., 2005; Yoo and Donthu, 2001), from a consumer or marketing perspective, we refer to the equity consumers associate with a retail brand as consumer-based retailer equity. The objective of the present research is to examine the relationship between...