Retail Store Perceptions and Consumer Purchase Decisions

Keller defined the perceptions of a store as reflected by associations with the store held in the customer memory. Primary associations with a specific store could be the store's atmosphere, customer service, or location, while secondary associations could be the attitudes towards a particular brand that the store carries, perceptions about the general area in which the store is physically located, or the beliefs about a generic store category or retailing in general. In order for marketing managers to build store equity, marketing managers would need to not only create favorable, unique, and strong primary associations with the store but also evaluate and create favorable, unique, and strong secondary associations with the store. Thus, the original conceptions essentially argued that store image is a developed from consumers' objective and subjective perceptions learned over time. Consumer response to marketing is defined as consumer perceptions, preferences, and behavior arising from marketing mix activity (e.g., brand choice). Customers may exhibit a relatively negative or relatively positive perception of any specific store subjectively classified under a broader schema of the generic, yet associated, store category. Hence this paper studies all such factors influencing the consumers' perception towards a retail store. The findings and suggestions of the study offered followed by the conclusion of the study