Fashion Store Personality: Scale Development and Relation to Self-Congruity Theory

Abstract

Abstract Over five decades ago, Martineau (1958, p. 47) introduced the notion of store personality (SP), which he defined as “the way in which the store is defined in the shopper’s mind, partly by its functional qualities and partly by an aura of psychological attributes”. The strategic role of these symbolic, humanlike attributes that can be attributed to stores, has been empirically demonstrated, with respect to customer satisfaction and perceived retail differentiation (Chun & Davies, 2006), as well as with respect to store patronage and loyalty behavior (Sirgy & Samli, 1985; Zentes, Morschett, & Schramm-Klein, 2008). A potential and reasonable explanation of the power of associations with humanlike personality, can be found in the self-congruity theory. This theoretical framework argues that if retailers can position their stores in such a way that the store’s personality is congruent with that of target shoppers, they are likely to succeed in attracting and retaining these consumers (Bellenger, Stein...