Knowledge that Transforms

Retail store image is an alluring yet uncrystallized concept. Part of the problem stems from the difficulty encountered by some researchers in defining image. The result has been an avoidance of definition altogether or definitions based on a variety of assumptions about the internal psychological state. In this article, the authors present an alternative approach to the image concept in which the usual assumptions about the internal state are avoided. The procedures involved in the acquisition and maintenance of retail images are outlined and implications for practitioners and academicians are indicated.

According to this article, most techniques of market segmentation rely only on DESCRIPTIVE factors pertaining to purchasers and are not efficient predictors of future buyer behavior. The author proposes an approach whereby market segments are delineated first on the basis of factors with a CAUSAL relationship to future purchase behavior. The belief underlying this segmentation strategy is that the benefits which people are seeking in consuming a given product are the basic reasons for the existence of true market segments.

Which attitudes are related to purchasing decisions? In this article the authors argue that out of many possible attitudes only a few really relate to or “determine” buying behavior. These attitudes are defined in this article and methods of measuring them are discussed.