Do retail stores have personality?: An empirical investigation into the store personality of four indian retailers

In the last decade or so, marketing research has paid considerable attention towards the symbolic attributes which customers associate with their brands. Store personality is one of them. While the Brand personality scale proposed by Aaker (1997) in her well known article has been applied to many different products in different countries, the application in retailing was carried forward by Zentes, Morschett and Klein (2008) to test its applicability in retailing in Germany. However, in case of store personality, D'Astous and Levesque (2003) argued that the sources of inference for personality construction are likely to be different. Aaker (1997) mentioned that the Brand personality dimensions are inferred from attributes like logo, brand image, advertising, symbols and distribution channel. However, in case of store's personality, some attributes could have an overlapping situation (advertising, logo, and symbols) while some are unique to inferences drawn with respect to store's personality. The aim of this study was to test the applicability of the 'Store Personality Scale’ in context of Indian retailers. Based on the empirical investigation in India (Lucknow, n= 400), we found that the scale is applicable for the retail stores (although for further researches exploratory study should be conducted to have a better understanding of the constituents of the store personality) in India which may influence customer perception, customer satisfaction and may be customer loyalty as well which may be taken for further research. This research paper is based on primary data about the store personality of four Indian retailers. Indian retail sector is still in nascent stage and no attempt has been made to study the store personality of Indian retailers. The study may act as a guideline for Indian retailers to enhance and improve on the desired parameter.