It is All About the Perceived Consistency of the Retail Marketing Instruments When Creating a Strong Retail Brand

This article addresses how the perceived consistency of different retailer attributes affects customer-based retail brand equity when considering retailers as brands. It investigates the antecedents of a strong retail brand. A model is developed which includes the impact of central dimensions of the perception of retailer attributes and the effect of their perceived consistency on customer-based retail brand equity. The model is applied to five retail sectors (grocery, clothing, DIY, electronics, and furniture retailing) so that some generalizable conclusions can be drawn. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model, based on a sample of 3,000 consumers. The results show that, from the consumers’ perspective, the perceived consistency has a stronger effect on retail brand equity than each of the individual dimensions. Hence, this demonstrates that it is more important from the consumers’ perspective for a retailer to establish harmony and continuity between all aspects of its marketing than to attempt to achieve a particularly positive perception of a single instrument.