Going “back to basics”
when expanding internationally
The influence of marketing mix elements on brand equity when
taking a new apparel store concept into foreign markets.
Faculty of Economics and Business
Business Administration
Dominika Maninova
10437452
Amsterdam, 25 June 2015
Bachelor Thesis and Thesis Seminar Semester II, Block 3
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This document is written by Dominika Maninova who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
Abstract
As with the era of globalization, there is an increasing trend of operating one’s company on the international scale, rather than serving a single market. While the expansion may allow for great advantages in terms of economies of scale, scope, or increased turnovers, it can also devalue the company’s name, if not done properly. Therefore, this research considers the marketing mix elements, namely product, place, price, and promotion, and their impact on the apparel store’s brand equity in its home market, before taking the concept abroad. As the analysis revealed, it is indeed the products, store looks, and price levels that are regarded as important by customers, when developing brand equity. While the impact of promotion has not been supported in this study, the responses were clustered according to the respondents’ country of origin, so as to allow for differentiating strategies when taking the store concept to foreign markets. Also, even though the research was designed for specific purposes of a Dutch apparel store, while working there as an intern, the framework used in this study is to provide an inspiration for future studies as well, when measuring the impact of different factors on the brand equity.
Contents
Statement of originality ………... 2
Abstract ………... 3
1. Introduction …... 6
1.1 General problem introduction ………….………..6
1.2 Pop Cult concept introduction………6
2. Literature review 2.1 Strategies when going internationally ……….………..9
2.2 Marketing mix. .………..……….………..……….. 10
2.3 Branding and brand equity ………..……….12
2.4 Customer’s country of origin ………...13
3. Conceptual framework 3.1 Variables ……….………..………...14
3.2 Hypothesis and arguments for the relationships ……….………15
4. Methodology 4.1 Research design……….20
4.2 Sample and data collection ……….21
4.3 Measures and data analysis………..22
4.4 Validity, reliability, generalizability……….……….……22
5. Results 5.1 Descriptive statistics………..23
5.2 Findings from the customer survey………..….. 25
6. Discussion 6.1 Managers’ vs. customers’ perceptions……….34
6.2 Theoretical implications………..35
6.3 Managerial implications………..35
6.4 Limitations and suggestions for future research……….37
7. Conclusion……….37
Bibliography………...39
Appendix 1: Pop Cult concept………..44
Appendix 3: Customer survey ……….…47
Appendix 4: Interview questions ……….50
Appendix 5: Customer survey analysis and results tables ………50
I.
Introduction
General problem introduction
Over the past few decades, the number of companies taking their concept internationally has been generally increasing, making eventually many brands global and strategies international. While there exists different approaches for entering foreign markets, the key issue arising from internationalization is how to deal with a strategy for a brand that stretches across multiple societies and geographies. As a consequence, because the resources are committed and costs and risks are incurred, finding an optimum fit between brand concerning local circumstances and desire to obtain brand consistency across multiple markets requires the understanding of one’s internal and external influences on it (Van Gelder, 2003).
Whereas the consumers demand globally known brands and heterogeneous and unique products at the same time, the theory has also not been integrated on whether to transfer a company’s concept and brand abroad without major changes (Burt & Mavrommatis, 2006) or whether to adjust any of the strategy elements to local conditions (Swoboda, B., & Elsner, S., 2013; Goldman, A., 2001).
Also, as the number of factors influencing the introduction of a brand on the global market is rather large, creating strategies for international expansions may become a tricky process. Even famous retailers such as Marks & Spencer or JC Penney were not clear about their foreign market entry strategy and had to pull out from Canada and Chile, respectively, because of the misfit in brand perception of the companies themselves and foreign markets (Bianchi and Ostale, 2006). Though, Walter, Cleff, Fischer, and Sepulveda (2010) suggested that a company does not need to decide on the clear-cut between the two extremes of differentiation or
standardization as long as its “mixed” approach follows benefits from the core brand elements adapted to the local needs. Therefore, this paper follows the thought hidden in the following quote:
“The bigger a brand gets, the smaller it should act.” (Andy Spade, Co-founder Partners & Spade) Accordingly, when developing possible strategies for a brand aiming at expanding
mix approach and their impact on the brand success in the home market. While originally
developed already in the late 60’s by McCarthy (McCarthy, 1960), it is still often emphasized by many researchers since it allows to translate brand expression into actual products, with a
specific price, to be sold at specific outlets, to be promoted through specific communication activities, and to be supported by a specific service. Similarly, the analysis of the factors contributing to the success of a new apparel store called Pop Cult concentrates on the internal factors, specifically product, place, price, and promotion and their influence on the brand success. Hence, the research question is stated as follows: “What factors of marketing mix elements influence the brand success at the home market?” Due to the intentions of expanding the store concept abroad, this is to allow studying one’s own strengths and weaknesses before developing international strategies.
Yet to be pointed out, despite the fact that a local customer might have a certain image of a brand, it does not necessarily mean that a customer of another country has the same perception. And if this is the case, how should then be different customers’ brand images accounted for when developing expansion strategies (Walter, et al. 2010)? Consequently, because of a great variety of customers visiting Pop Cult stores and number of different options for expanding internationally, the first sub-question expects the relationship between customers’ perceptions of the marketing mix elements and their impact on the brand equity to be moderated by the type of the customers, meaning a customers’ country of origin. While this is to be accounted for by clustering customers into different groups, based on where they come from, it is also to provide managerial insights on how to leverage the brand success and insights gained from the home market on the international scale, when choosing which foreign countries to enter.
POP CULT introduction
With the first store opened in Amsterdam in April 2014, followed by opening another successfully operating location in June 2014, POP CULT is still considered as rather a new-to-the market concept. Not only in terms of its activity on new-to-the market, but especially in terms of new-to-the uniqueness of its product offer and a way of operating the whole concept. Despite not yet clear vision on whether to allow expansion through franchises or partnerships, or whether to solely follow the strategy of opening own stores, it is to be mentioned that the stores in the home
market – the Netherlands are all family-owned. With the two already mentioned stores situated on Kalverstraat and Damrak, the third Pop Cult store was “born” in May 2015 and the opening of the fourth location on Leidsestraat is planned during writing this research, expected as of 19th June 2015.
Regarding the description of the store concept itself (see Appendix 1), POP CULT offers life-style clothing and accessories for anyone who relates to the world of entertainment. Whether someone is more specifically concerned with games, comics, movies, icons, or just simply likes stylish products, POP CULT is definitely a place to be – the place when everyone finds
something interesting for him/herself. Besides offering a wide-range of brands and products, very unique environment and fun atmosphere makes visiting Pop Cult an unforgettable and delighting experience for anyone coming to the store. Also, the personnel is carefully chosen, well-trained, and heart-related, always ready to provide assistance to any of the customers, so as to leverage the entire store experience.
Following the rules developed in the original store concept, POP CULT sells solely branded and licensed products, with all of the items obtained from the head company (see Appendix 1a) called Head Company (nick name used solely for keeping the data confidential). As the product range stretches from apparel and headwear through accessories, such as wallets, belts, bags, or sunglasses, it excludes the sale of any games or toys themselves (see Appendix 1b). Even though the collection does not vary with the seasons (as usually in case with other retailers), it includes (a) basic, (b) special, and (c) periodical collection, with the new models arriving in the stores usually 2-3 times per week, depending on when exactly the new designs come out from the production.
Regarding the pricing strategies, the products are priced at the stable level, (see Appendix 1a) with no sale periods or discounts. The reason for choosing this strategy is the fact that the
concept of customer purchases is built upon rather an impulsive style of buying. This also partially relates to the choice of location – busy, high-traffic streets in the city center, mostly shopping areas with many tourists passing by. Though, it is to be noted that that the stable pricing policy does not discourage the national customer, it rather leverages the entire
experience. On the contrary to the belief that discounts increase sales volume, being aware of the fact that the product will not go on the sale or might not be available over a certain time period,
the customers feel even more special purchasing the product and do not hold on with the purchase.
In order to help POP CULT develop as appropriate international strategy as possible, this thesis paper will explain the possible elements for success by analyzing the performance of already three effectively-operating stores in Amsterdam. While the main proposition considers the marketing mix elements to have an impact on the store’s brand equity, this relation is
expected to be moderated by the type of customer, meaning their country of origin. Moreover, it is to be noted that the information gathered from the customers will be compared to the
perceptions of the store managers in order to access variety of different perspectives. Accordingly, the next part describes previously developed models and analysis different branding perspectives, following by reasoning the relationship between different variables argued in this research. Afterwards, the methodology section will provide information on how the research will be conducted and how the data will be analyzed. Finally, the results obtained from surveys and interviews will be explained, not missing out on providing theoretical and practical implications and accessing the opportunities for future research.
II.
Theoretical framework
Strategies for going internationally
According to Van Gelder (2003), the strategic planning for a brand starts with an understanding of an organization’s business strategy. As the brand is one of the most valuable intangible assets, the branding strategies have become marketing priority during the last decade, especially with the growing competition in global market and branding in retailing industry (Azad, Kasehchi, Asgari, and Bagheri, 2014). While different retailers use different approaches when entering foreign markets, ranging from internal development (e.g. H&M, Inditex), through franchises (e.g. River Island, Benetton), or acquisitions (e.g. BHS acquired by Retail
Acquisitions, Ltd.), their impact on the brand success varies for every single case. Therefore, researchers have become increasingly interested in what factors influence the managerial decision making when launching brand in a global market place (Yeniyurt, Townsend, & Taly,
2007), in order to minimize uncertainty and risks associated with possibly damaging brand image.
Yet, the literature has been rather inconclusive about the extent to which a retail format should be transferred without major changes or take local circumstances into account. While some of the papers suggest that brand standardization across markets can reap huge benefits in terms of economies of scale (Van Gelder, 2003; Burt & Mavrommatis, 2006), others argue that companies should focus on acquiring local experience before launching globally (Yeniyurt, et al., 2007; Manrodt & Vitasek, 2004). Though, Swoboda and Elsner (2013) proposed that
introducing the brand in foreign markets is not “a black or white” approach and that it is possible to transfer some elements while adapting others (see Figure 1). Similarly, this research is
concerned with studying the impact of marketing mix elements on the brand success at the home market in order to provide insights how the success of this concept can be leveraged when operating across multiple markets.
Marketing mix
The term marketing mix refers to the mixture of elements useful in pursuing a certain market response (Van Waterschoot and Bulte, 1992). It was originally developed by McCarthy and encompassed so-called 4 P’s, naming product, place, price, and promotion (McCarthy, 1960), to be later extended by the Borden (1965) to 12 P’s (including product planning, pricing, branding, channels of distribution, personnel selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding). Despite the original concept still being widely recognized and used in many studies to the present, this “holy quadruple of the marketing faith” (Kent, 1986, as mentioned in Gronroos, 1997) has also been subject to some extensions and adaptations over time. For instance, some papers stressed the importance of adding also the fifth factor, such as packaging (Nickels and Jonson, 1976), people-power (Judd, 2003), or public relations (Mindak and Fine, 1981), or using 7 P’s approach consisting of product, place, price, promotion, participants, process, and physical evidence (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995),
Moreover, Wigley and Chiang (2008) acknowledged that in order for the model to be fully applicable to a specific organization, it needs to take into account the nature of the industry and factors contingent to the activity of the business itself. Accordingly, the authors proposed that a more appropriate tool for fashion retailers should follow the marketing mix model developed by McGoldrick (2003), as it can be seen in Figure 2.
Yet, despite some criticisms of the marketing mix for its simplicity (Gronroos, 1997), the basic 4 P’s approach is still used in the theory and is to be used in this study as well, as it is argued to encompass all the important elements necessary for developing future marketing strategies (Lee, Ko, Tikkanen, Phan, Aieallo, Donvito, & Raithel, 2014).
Branding and brand equity
As defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA), “a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition”. Though, marketers often refer to a brand as more than that – defining a brand in terms of having actually created a certain amount of awareness, reputation, or prominence in the marketplace (Keller, 2003). Therefore, it is the task of brand management to get a complete overview of all elements of the brand expression and choosing which to use and emphasize in brand’s manifestations, when creating business strategy for a brand (Van Gelder, 2003). Accordingly, several perspectives from the theory are explained (Keller, 2003; Kotler & Keller, 1956), before their possible relationships with marketing mix elements are presented.
Brand equity – is the added value endowed to products and services. It is reflected in how consumers think, feel, and act with respect to the brand as well as the prices, market share, and profitability that the brand commands for the firm (Kotler and Keller, 1956). As it is rather consumers’ subjective evaluation of a brand, the main sources for brand equity are brand awareness and brand image.
Brand knowledge – consists of all the thoughts, feelings, images, experiences, and beliefs associated with the brand. It contains brand awareness and brand image and is the key to creating brand equity. It represents everything a customer knows about a brand.
o Brand awareness – the strengths of a brand’s presence in consumer’s memory. It encompasses (a) brand recognition and (b) brand recall.
o Brand image – perception and beliefs of a brand by its consumers. It is reflected by
Brand personality – human characteristics which a consumer associates with the brand
Brand attitude – a consumer’s overall opinion toward a brand, whether it is positive or negative. When positive, it can result in trust and loyalty.
Customer-based equity – the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand.
Brand feelings – customers’ emotional responses and reactions with respect to the brand.
Brand resonance – the nature of the relationship that customers have with the brand and the extent to which customers feel that they are “in sync” with the brand.
As acknowledged by Goldman (2013), any marketing effort will be positively related to brand equity when it leads to a more favourable behavioural response of the product in offer. Therefore, before introducing the framework used in this study, another factor – customers’ country of origin – is to be explained, as it is expected to moderate the relationship between what Pop Cult offers in terms of its marketing mix elements and how successfully its brand is being perceived in its home market.
Customer’s country of origin
As both, marketing mix and brand equity are rather multidimensional concepts, there exist several factors that might influence the relationship between the two. For instance, some of the studies accessed that it could be the product’s country of origin (Baldauf, Cravens,
Diamantopoulos, and Zeugner-Roth, 2009; Chen, Tsai, Wu, and Li, 2011), an individual’s personality (O’Cass, 2004), or different buying behaviours (Sanchez, Vigaray, and Hota, 2012; Park, Kim, and Forney, 2006) that influence the customers’ perceptions of a product or a brand. However, because of a great variety of customers visiting Pop Cult stores and its intentions of expanding the concept on the international scale, the moderating factor taken into account in this case is to be the type of the customer, meaning a customer’s country of origin.
To my awareness, there have not yet been many studies conducted in this direction, despite the above stated valuable contributions. Yet to be pointed out, the concept of four cultural dimensions introduced by Hofstede (Hofstede, 1986) seems as a related concept and was indeed used for an inspiration, when taking into account differences between variety of countries and
their cultures. Moreover, similar to the previous research on either (a) clustering customers according to their shopping behaviours (Muller, Bodo, & Kroll, 2012) or (b) country clustering (Cavusgil, Kiyak, and Yeniyurt, 2005), respondents participating in this study will be divided into different groups, based on the country from which they come from.
As acknowledged by Goldman (2013), any marketing effort will be positively related to brand equity when it leads to a more favourable behavioural response of the product in offer. For that, the framework used in this paper when studying the impact of different marketing elements on brand success of Pop Cult is to be introduced next.
III. Conceptual framework
According to Van Gelder (2003), the marketing mix aims at translating the brand
expression into actual products or services, with a specific price, to be sold at specific outlets, to be promoted through specific communications activities and channels, and to be supported by a specific service. While each of the marketing mix elements is important to the success of an international retailer, some may be more important than others (Wigley and Chiang, 2003). Hence, in order to analyse which factors contribute to the brand success of Pop Cult stores in its home market, the basic 4 P’s approach is to be used in this study (see Appendix 2), as it has been generally argued to be representative enough to demonstrate the relationships between marketing efforts and the formation of brand equity (Yoo, Donthu, and Lee, 2000).
Accordingly, the hypothesis introduced in this section were developed in order to provide an answer to the main research question: “What elements of marketing mix contribute to the success of Pop Cult brand in its home market?” Whereas the proposed framework has been built upon advancing the concept from previous studies, this relationship is expected to be moderated by the type of the customer – a customer’s country of origin (see Figure 3), so as to obtain valuable insights for Pop Cult stores, before expanding internationally.
Figure 3: Research scheme
Products/tangible offer & brand equity
Since the product itself is what the customers encounter immediately when visiting the store and possibly initiating the purchase, it is the most important asset owned and offered by Pop Cult stores. Hence, whether the customers perceive Pop Cult products to be of a good quality and would prefer the store’s licensed merchandise over another, it is necessary to obtain insights into what the customers’ preferences are, regarding the Pop Cult’s tangible offer. Following the definition by Aaker (1996), perceived quality is conceptualized as an intangible overall feeling about a determinate brand that is usually based on underlying dimensions,
including characteristics to which the brand is attached, such as reliability and performance. This relates to the notion mentioned by Wigley, Moore, and Birtwistle (2005), saying “If the product is right everything else follows – the customers are happy, the retailers are happy and the company is happy”. That means having a product that is of a good quality and fashionable, a product that makes a customer feel special (Wigley, Moore, & Birtwistle, 2005). Accordingly, it is argued in this research that customers’ satisfaction with the products, brands, and licenses will positively influence their intentions to come back, and hence, the loyalty to the brand. Yet to be mentioned, as consumers do not always go through an elaborate decision-making process before purchasing (Olshavsky and Granbois, 1979), it is possible to build the concept on high customer
product involvement and unplanned purchase at the same time, making the customer-product contact and the first sight matter a lot.
Hypothesis 1: Positive customers’ perceptions of the product offer have a positive impact on brand equity.
Store experience/ intangible offer & brand equity
Despite the importance of the products’ nature and properties mentioned above, leveraging the entire store experience has been a great concern of many retailers over the past few decades, especially in fashion. As defined by Porral and Levy-Mangin (2015), the store image is the attitude derived from the evaluation of the main attributes of the store. Whereas some of the authors emphasize the impact of the arrangement of products on the shelves and product range on the brand performance (Quelch and Kenny, 1994; Law, Wong, & Yip, 2012; Mohan, Sivakumaran, & Sharma, 2013), others have put forward the importance of music (Garlin and Owen, 2006), sales personnel appearance (Sands, Oppewal, & Beverland, 2008), or even value for money (Calvo Porral & Levy-Mangin, 2015), when creating the store atmosphere. Besides, the attention has also been directed to the visual merchandising, which concentrates on store façade, windows, logos, colours, layout, or displays and maximizes the efficiency by creating an enjoyable shopping environment. Therefore, as it differentiates the brand, it may possibly increase sales by influencing consumers’ purchasing behaviour, making the retailer’s image an important basis for the store brand equity (Park, Jeon, Sullivan, 2015; Calvo Porral & Levy-Mangin, 2015). This is also a special attention for Pop Cult stores, especially when designing a new store looks (Appendix 1: Store characteristics).
Therefore, similar to the framework developed by Johnson et al. (2015), the impact of the customers’ perceptions about the store experience on the brand image, and hence brand equity as well will be assessed in this study. Moreover, as suggested by Soars (2003) possible influences of music and the overall store atmosphere are to be acknowledged, too.
Hypothesis 2: Positive customers’ perceptions of the store experience have a positive impact on brand image, and hence, brand equity.
Location & brand equity
While location decisions are a primary consideration in customer’s store choice, most retailers traditionally rely on the intuition guided by the experience and “common sense” (Burnaz and Topcu, 2006), which also implies in the case of Pop Cult. According to the store concept (see Appendix 1), it is mostly (a) the big cities, (b) number one shopping streets, or (c) the busiest locations with high traffic, that are taken into consideration when choosing a new Pop Cult store location. Since those places usually have good accessibility and availability of
different facilities, some of the store success can be attributed to those factors as well, as also suggested by several authors (Burt, 2010; Johnson, et al., 2015).
From another perspective, Doherty (2000) argued that it does not need to be a specific location choice to have an impact on entry mode strategy, rather several other factors
contributing to the success of the chosen markets or locations may only develop over time. Though, despite the complexity of decision making when choosing an appropriate store location, Burnaz and Topcu (2006) pointed out that the location can be developed to a source of
sustainable competitive advantage, if chosen wisely. Accordingly, whether the current store locations are perceived as satisfactory by Pop Cult customers is also to be accessed in the following hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3: Positive customers’ perceptions of the store location have a positive impact on brand loyalty, and hence brand equity.
Price & brand equity
While the price is defined as the sum of the value that consumers have to exchange for the benefit of possessing or using a product or service, the price perception is related to consumer price reference, which is the subjective price level consumers use to evaluate prices observed in products (Calvo Porral & Levy-Mangin, 2015). Though, despite a widely held belief of many consumers that high price indicates the high quality, the research has been rather
inconsistent on whether price promotions impact positively on brand awareness (Huang and Sarigollu, 2012) or whether they are regarded as a signal of lower quality or outdated products
(Baldauf, Cravens, Diamantopoulos, Zeugner-Roth, 2009). Despite customers benefiting on the short-term, the benefit is not enduring and price deals usually perceived as incentives to increase sales have rather negative effect on brand equity (Angel and Manuel, 2005).
From another point of view, it has also been asserted that as price promotion generates product experience, brand awareness might be actually enhanced due to product usage
experience (Valette-Florence, Guizani, & Merunka, 2011). Accordingly, this study also suggests that it is not necessarily discounts or sales periods that positively impact on brand equity. Rather, customers perceiving the prices as adequate or reasonable is to determine their satisfaction with the brand, and hence, positively influence brand equity.
Hypothesis 4: Positive customers’ perceptions of the given price offers have positive impact on brand equity.
Promotion & brand equity
A common perception regarding the advertising is that creates and increases brand awareness by exposing brands to customers (Huang and Sarigollu, 2012; Angel and Manual, 2005). As it increases the brand’s likelihood of being included in consumers’ consideration, a positive relationship has also been found between increasing the advertising expenditure and brand association (Yoo et al., 2000). Similarly, retailers and fashion commentators also emphasized the need for fashion brand to have a clearly defined identity, generated through the images presented as a part of their advertising campaigns, when aiming at increasing sales and brand awareness.
On the other hand, Wigley and Chiang (2008) suggested that advertising is not necessarily critical to the success of an international fashion retailer, so long as its brand image is
sufficiently strong to not requite conventional advertising support. Therefore, it is the ability to stand out among many customer options that is becoming increasingly important (Foster, & McLelland, 2015), which is applies also in case of INDITEX, for instance. Since the company sees its stores environment and experience as the best advertising tool, it contrasts to H&M as it does not rely on advertisement or celebrity endorsement of its products (Morean, 2008).
While the present work measures brand awareness by asking customers “Have you ever heard of Pop Cult before?” their opinions about the impact of advertisement or use of social media are to be accessed as well. In order to do so, the following hypothesis is proposed.
Hypothesis 5: Positive customers’ perceptions of the promotion have a positive impact on brand equity.
Customer’s country of origin
What consumers wear and how they perceive a brand varies according to their thinking, values, and lifestyles (Damhorst et al., 1999, as mentioned in Sarabia-Sanchez, et al. 2012). Though, besides emphasizing the necessity of linking retail marketing mix strategies properly to the consumer psychographic aspects, researchers are devoting more attention to cultural
differences as well, especially when expanding their activities internationally. Whereas many studies assessed the impact of individual shopping behaviors (Park, et al. 2006), customer demographics (O’Cass, 2004), or product country-of-origin (Baldauf, et al. 2009) on the brand equity, this study follows the suggestion proposed by Yeniurt and Townsend (2007) and focuses on acquiring local experience while launching globally.
Therefore, while still developing the written document of Pop Cult stores concept, collecting survey responses from different customers over a month period of time is to allow for further clustering of the customers’ responses, based on their country of origin. The reason for this is to ease the development of strategies before expanding to other markets, taking cultural aspects into consideration, similarly to the suggestions proposed by Yeniurt and Townsend (2007).
Hypothesis 6: Customers’ perceptions of the brand success will be different, based on the country from which a customer comes from.
IV. Methodology
Research design
As indicated above, the objective of this study is to explore the relationship between marketing mix elements and brand success, in the home market of a new Dutch store concept, called Pop Cult. As this relationship is predicted to be moderated by the type of the customer, meaning a customer’s country of origin, it is also meant to provide valuable insights when developing strategies for foreign market entry. In order to do so, the method employed uses quantitative approach, specifically surveys as well as further triangulation of obtained data by executing semi-structured interviews with the store managers. Hence, combining deductive theoretical approach when designing the questionnaire with an inductive approach when comparing to the managers’ perceptions seems to be rather reasonable.
One of the reasons for choosing surveys as a study method is that it is relatively easy and inexpensive to develop, distribute and subsequently analyse (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). While one of the limitations could be that people are not willing to fill out the
questionnaire due to its length or availability of time, it is not expected to be an obstacle in this case as the respondents are customers usually interested and related to the products that Pop Cult offers. Moreover, it is also to be mentioned that the questionnaires are either (a)
self-administered in the store – placed next to the cash register, or (b) online – using the same set of questions administered through Qualtrics online survey software and advertised on Pop Cult Facebook page. Regarding the questions themselves, it was important that all of the variables necessary for this study are correctly assessed. For this, previous works by Swoboda and Elsner (2013), Esch, et al. (2006), Aaker (1996), Chandon (2003), and Keller (2003) were used for the inspiration and validation, when developing the framework studying the impact of marketing mix elements on brand success in Pop Cult case.
Lastly, despite a 4 week time frame available for executing questionnaires, this study is regarded to be rather cross-sectional, as it does not access the change or development of
customers’ preferences over time but focuses rather on their current perceptions of the Pop Cult brand.
Sample and data collection
Since the focus of this study is to access the perceptions and preferences of Pop Cult customers, the sample consists of all of the customers and visitors of Pop Cult stores, willing to fill out the questionnaire either in one of the three stores in Amsterdam or through online available survey link. As the customers’ country of origin is expected to moderate the
hypothesized relationship, it is important that there is dissimilarity between the respondents in terms of where they come from. Hence, in order to obtain larger and also more heterogeneous sample, Pop Cult sales personnel will also help when obtaining the survey responses by communicating the customers with the purpose of this study.
Measures and data analysis
With the main aim of this research to access what factors of marketing mix model influence the customers’ perceptions of brand equity, Table 3 summarizes the suggested relationships between variables that are used in this study as a conceptual framework.
Table 3: Overview of research variables
Moreover, demographics are also to be assessed as customer’s country of origin is expected to be a moderator of the suggested relationship between marketing mix elements and
brand equity. Besides, differences in terms of the respondents’ age, gender, price perceptions, or actual spending are also to be accessed when executing explaining the results or executing the cluster analysis.
Regarding the analysis of the interviews with the store managers, the recorded sessions are first to be written into a document. Afterwards, those transcripts will be coded in an
interpretative manner and compared to the insights obtained from the customer survey, when evaluating results for conclusions. Lastly, making use of memos is to reduce the chance of forgetting interesting insights as well as provide valuable input from the perspective of the observer. Yet to be noted, as the researcher’s own memos are argued to be a subject to bias, they are to be used to complement the research insights rather than suggest relationships.
Validity
Regarding the validity of the questionnaire, all three aspects - internal, content and construct validity are argued to be assessed well in this study, as some of the previously
developed questionnaires measuring brand equity or brand success were used for the inspiration when designing the questions (Esch, Langner, Schmitt, and Geus, 2006). Also, in case of the interviews, semi-structured approach is to be used as it allows the interviewees to not only respond to the given questions, but also provide their own valuable insights and opinions.
Reliability
As Saunder et al. (2009) pointed out, although the questionnaire may be valid, it must also be reliable, meaning it should product consistent findings at different time and under different conditions. This is also to be assessed well by having questionnaires distributed to the Pop Cult customers at three different store locations in Amsterdam, naming Kalverstraat, Damrak, and Rokin. While Sauders et al. (2009) also advised to test re-test, in order to increase the reliability, it is not intended to be done in this study because of the limited time frame and the overall nature of the study. Yet, it might happen to be the case on accident if some of the
customers fill out the questionnaire more than once when visiting other store locations or Pop Cult Facebook page. As this is not to be taken into consideration to a great extent, internal
consistency of the questionnaire itself will be calculated by using Cronbach’s alpha, which correlates the responses to each question in the questionnaire with those to other questions in the questionnaire.
Generalizability
Due to the nature of this (case) study, it can be noted that the results might not be generalizable to all other settings, as the research is being conducted within one retail company in the Netherlands. However, as already mentioned above, the sample consists of 3 different stores in Amsterdam, analysing the responses of customers from all over the world and
clustering them based on their country of origin. This is to be a positive point as the results might be applicable not only for the Pop Cult stores, but also providing useful insights for other retail companies when aiming at expanding their activities on the international scale. Of course, the specificity of the Pop Cult concept might also be different to the ways by which other retail stores in the Netherlands or other countries operate, yet, the framework suggested in this study may be easily applicable to other organizations in different industries as well.
V.
Results
In order to provide explanations for the results obtained in this research, the descriptive statistics will be discussed first, followed by assessing the correlations and testing the
propositions. Finally, the results obtained from cluster analysis are presented.
Descriptive statistics
The total sample of respondents numbered to 51 of which 20 questionnaires were filled out online and 31 in the stores. As already mentioned above, it was strived to obtain as diverse sample as possible, yet keeping all the data highly confidential. Regarding the distribution of different gender, there were about 60% male and almost 40% female respondents. Also, as it can be seen in Graph 1, the most widely represented age range was between 19 and 25 years,
from which the respondents come from, there does not seem a single specific country to
dominate. Yet to be pointed out, it is the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom that seem to be the most frequently represented (see Graph 2).
Graph 1: Age range of respondents
Graph 2: Customers’ country of origin
<18 years
19 - 25 years 26 - 35 years
36 - 50 years > 50 years
Age distribution of the respondents
<18 years 19 - 25 years 26 - 35 years 36 - 50 years > 50 years
UK Switzerland NL FR Mexico USA BEL Denmark Australia SVK CZ Suriname Brazil Poland South Africa Hungary RUS NorwayScotland IndonesiaIndia
GreeceSpainNew Zealnd
Place and brand equity
In order to investigate the customers’ perceptions of the store place and its impact on the brand equity, seven different questions were used for the analysis (see Appendix 3: Customer survey). While the majority of the respondents had not heard about the store before (78%), more than 88% do indeed intend to visit again the future (see Figure 4), which is a positive indicator for creation of brand loyalty as well the brand awareness (M=1.2264, SD=0.63976). Also, regarding the store location itself, the opinions seem to be rather positive since about 53% of the respondents perceive the location as very good, followed by 41% noting the location as “good” (see also Appendix 5a: Descriptive statistics – place perceptions).
Figure 5: Place and brand equity
,
Table 4: Place and brand equity – descriptive statistics
Have you ever visited of Pop Cult before?
Do you intend to visit Pop Cult again?
Have you ever heard of Pop Cult before?
What do you think about the location?
N (Valid) 53 53 45 51 Mean 1.5849 1.2264 1.7778 1.5686 SD 0.429745 0.63976 0.42044 0.72815 Variance 0.247 0.409 0.1777 0.530 10 22 47 35 31 0 0 0 6
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF POP CULT BEFORE?
HAVE YOU EVER VISITED POP CULT BEFORE?
DO YOU INTEND TO VISIT POP CULT AGAIN IN
FUTURE?
Place and brand equity
Though, as the main aim of the first hypothesis was to test the relationship between customers’ perceptions of the store place and its impact on the brand equity, the regression analysis was used, in order to provide more valuable insights. Accordingly, whether customers are satisfied with the choice of location was expected to have an impact on whether they intend to come back and visit the store again (see Appendix 5a). However, as the analysis revealed non-significant results, it might be concluded that whether the customers are satisfied with the location of the store or not does not increase the probability of their future visits (β=0.134,
p=0.348>0.05). Yet, as it will be explained further, it might be other marketing mix variables
that have a greater impact on creating brand equity, rather than the location itself.
Finally, as it is not only the customers’ perceptions of the store location but also the place and outside store’s characteristics that influence one’s relation to a brand, it was agreed with the store owners and managers to include also a question regarding the factors that influence people come inside the store. Accordingly, the respondents could have chosen from seven different factors that might have had influenced their decision. As it can be seen in Table 5, it is indeed the window displays that make customers come inside (46.25%), followed by the inner factor – curiosity of what is actually inside the store (33.75%). This provides valuable managerial implications, as it is not only the location, but also the visual merchandise that catch people’s attention and hence, provide an incentive to come inside the store. Lastly, it is to be noted here that as it was possible to circle more options for this question (with a maximum of 3), the number of responses obtained hence does not equal the number of respondents.
Table 5: Factors influencing a customer’s decision What factors influenced you to come inside the store?
Window display 37 46.25%
Specific product 12 15.00%
Curiosity 27 33.75%
I already knew what I wanted 0 0%
Family/friends recommendation 3 3.75%
Advertisement 0 0%
Social media 1 1.25%
Other 0 0%
Product/ tangible offer and brand equity
Regarding the customers’ opinions about the product offer its possible impact on brand equity, this relationship was found to be rather positive. Besides asking customers about their most favourite licences and those that they actually purchased (see Appendix 4: Customer survey), the respondents were also asked to indicate which licenses would they like to see in the stores in the future. While more than 77 % of the respondents contributed with their advice, the overall customer satisfaction with the current product offer was measured on a 5-point scale, with 45 % of the customers being “very satisfied” and 42 % being “satisfied” with the current store collection (M=1.6552, SD=0.85673).
More importantly, whether customers’ positive perceptions of the product offer impact positively to creating brand equity, the customers’ satisfaction with the products was measured via regression analysis. As the results showed, those respondents who are satisfied with the product offer also tend to regard products as an important part of the brand success (β=0.498, p=0.000<0.05).
From another point of view, in order to gain deeper insights on whether it is the products themselves or the licenses that contribute to the customers’ satisfaction with the tangible offer, another regression analysis was ran, measuring customers’ satisfaction with different brands and its impact on the brand equity. As the results did not reveal any significant impact of the
importance of different brands on customers’ product satisfaction (β=0.022, p=0.825>0.05), it could be concluded that it is mostly likely the products themselves rather than the brands that contribute to customers’ satisfaction with the brand, and hence contribute positively to the brand equity (see Appendix 5b).
Store image/ intangible offer (relate to brand image) and brand equity
Since the atmosphere and the store looks, such as displays and visual merchandise also contribute to the brand image, it was important to access the customers’ perceptions on this intangible element of marketing mix as well. Accordingly, while Table 6 shows the descriptive statistics for the customers’ evaluation of music and the store atmosphere, further statistics on the customers’ rankings of the (a) visual displays, (b) store experience, and (c) personnel helpfulness
and their impact on the stores’ name, and hence, brand equity can be found in Table 7 (see also Appendix 5c).
Besides, how Pop Cult stores are actually perceived in the customers’ eyes, the
respondents were given the opportunity to indicate how a Pop Cult would look like if it was a person. As the responses should indicate customers’ perceptions of the brand personality (Chandon, 2003), it is to be pointed out that despite the opportunity to skip this question, more than 80 % of the respondents contributed with their opinion, which indicates their positive perceptions of Pop Cult as a brand. While this is to provide useful input especially for the company itself, when further developing the brand image, some of the interesting responses are also reported in the Appendix (see Appendix 5c: Brand personality).
Yet importantly, whether customers’ perceptions of the store image have positive
influence on creating brand image, and therefore, brand equity, the regression analysis was used t test this relationship. Whether the respondents perceive Pop Cult name to fit its offer was chosen as a dependent variable for the analysis, with positive customers’ perceptions of visual displays, store experience, and sales personnel helpfulness to positively influence their perceptions of the store name. As the results revealed, it is the store experience (β=0.786, p=0.000<0.05) and sales personnel promptness (β =0.625, p=0.000<0.05) that were found to positively influence the store’s name, rather than visual displays alone.
Table 6: Customers’ perceptions of the store atmosphere
Music contributes to the store image
Atmosphere is relaxed Atmosphere is exciting
N (Valid) 44 47 43 Mean 1.4545 1.0426 1.0698 SD 0.66313 0.20403 1.0698 Variance 0.440 0.25777 0.066 Totally agree 63.64% 95.74% 90.70% Neutral 27.27% 4.26% 7% Don’t agree 9.09% 0.0% 0.0%
Table 7: Customers’ perceptions of the store image
Visual displays have an impact on Pop Cult’s name
Store experience has an impact on Pop Cult’s name
Sales personnel has as an impact on Pop Cult’s name N (Valid) 35 47 48 Mean 1.2286 1.1915 1.0625 SD 0.42504 0.39773 0.24462 Variance 0.182 0.158 0.060 Totally agree 77.14% 80.85% 93.75% Neutral 22.86% 19.15% 6.25% Don’t agree 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Price (relates to brand satisfaction) and brand equity
According to the previous research, how customers perceive price levels relates to their satisfaction with shopping as well as to their satisfaction with the brand itself. Therefore, the respondents were asked to indicate whether they consider prices at Pop Cult to be reasonable, While almost 73% of the respondents agreed with this statement, around 8% thought the
opposite (M=1.271, SD=0.574). Moreover, the actual amount spent per client was also assessed in order to control for the respondents possibly indicating their price perceptions falsely.
According to the results, this seemed to be a success. As most of the respondents perceived prices at the stores to be reasonable, also the amount spent the most often was not the lowest possible, yet between 21- 50 €, followed by the purchases amounting between and 51-100 € (see Graph 3). Also interesting to note here is the fact that average purchase per client in Pop Cult stores (accessed over a few months period) ranges from 23 € on Damrak to 30 € on Rokin and almost 40 € recently on Leidsestraat, which can serve as the further support for the results found.
Yet, in order to investigate whether customers’ price perceptions influence the brand equity, the regression analysis was used to investigate this hypothesis. According to the results revealed, those who perceive prices to be reasonable (and hence are satisfied with the brand) also tend to visit the store again, which relates to the brand loyalty and hence, brand equity
they are more inclined to come back and therefore develop a deeper relation with the store, which will positively impact on its brand equity (see Appendix 5: Price perceptions).
Graph 3: Spending of customers
Promotion (relates to brand identity) and brand equity
Despite the fact that none of the customers indicated advertisement or social media as one of the reasons that influenced their shopping visit in Pop Cult, the respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they think would different factors influence the success of the store in their home country. While it is also mentioned in the store concept that promotion is endorsed through the products and the store experience rather than advertisement, this notion has also been acknowledged previously by the theory (Wigley et al., 2005). Though, 62.7 % of the respondents thought that advertisement would have an impact on the store success in their home country (M=1.429, SD=0.646), with more than 78% regarding the social media as another important tool as well (M=1.204, SD=0.456). While Table 8 reports some of the results regarding the
respondents’ opinions about different factors influencing the store success abroad, the more elaborate statistics can be found in Appendix 5.
Moreover, in order to investigate whether promotion relates to brand equity, the
responses on the importance of advertisement and social media were analysed against the notion of whether the respondents have been aware of any of the Pop Cult stores before. As it was
Customer spending
found, advertisement does not necessarily impact positively on the store’s brand name, and hence brand awareness, rather it could be the other way around (β=-.0490, p=0.001<0.05). Also interestingly, social media were not found to increase customers awareness either, as no
significant support for his relationship was found (β=-.0204, p=0.179>0.05). Even though
several previous studies argued differently (Villarejo-Ramos and Sanchez-Franco, 2005; Buil, de Chernatony, & Martinez, 2013), it can be the case that it is indeed the products and the whole store experience that contribute to the brand equity more than the promotion elements, as also mentioned above (Wigley, et al. 2005).
Table 8: Factors influencing brand success in a customer’s home country
Products Brands Store/visual merchandise Personnel Advertise- ment Social media N (Valid) 49 49 51 44 49 49 Mean 1 1.3673 1.1373 1.1750 1.4286 1.2041 SD 0.0000 0.72726 0.40098 0.50064 0.64550 0.45550 Definitely important 90.3% 67.7% 80.6% 64.5% 64.5% 71% Maybe 0.0% 6.5% 6.5% 3.2% 16.1% 6.5% Not at all 0.0% 12.9% 3.2% 6.5% 6.5% 6.5%
Differences in the customers’ country of origin
Finally, since the main aim of the research was not only to provide insights into how different elements of marketing elements influence the brand equity, but also how this relation is to be moderated by the customers’ country of origin. Accordingly, the cluster analysis was conducted in order to distinguish the preferences of different respondents and hence, provide fruitful insights for the development of international strategies, before opening the stores abroad. In order to do so, customers’ responses were first clustered into 8 different groups, as shown in the Figure 6.
Figure 6: Customers’ clustered according to the country of origin
Regarding the differences between respondents, Tables 9 and 10 provide an overview of variety of opinions, in terms of the products, store location, price perception, or an impact of promotion on the brand success of Pop Cult. As the results showed, it is rather European customer that regard the choice of location as very good, compared to the customers from other continents. Though, it is to be pointed out that the majority of the respondents has an intention to visit the store again and is indeed very satisfied with the both, tangible and intangible store offer.
However, despite general agreement with the price levels, there are differences in customers’ spending, with most of it done by customers from other countries (such as India, Indonesia, America, etc.) and the least by the Dutch customers themselves, followed by the customer from eastern parts of Europe. Despite those facts providing some fruitful insights for the company, whether it is the distance of the store or whether customers from other continents actually tend to spend more may be interesting to explore further in future studies.
England+Scotland 20% BENELUX 28% French 9% North Europe 4% East Europe 17% Australia + New Zealand 5% America 6% Other 11%
COUNTRY CLUSTERS
Finally, almost all of the respondents reacted positively to opening a Pop Cult store in their home country, the opinions on the impact of promotion differ substantially. This seems to agree with the above mentioned theory contributions that while some of the concept elements can be transferred without any changes, others need to take the local conditions into account.
Table 9: Respondents’ country of origin clusters (Europe) UK +
SCOTLAND
BENELUX FRENCH NORTH EUROPE EAST EUROPE Location1 1.00 1.00 1.89 1.40 1.33 Future visit2 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 1.00 Products3 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Experience4 1.00 1.00 1.78 1.00 1.05 Prices5 2.50 3.00 1.00 1.57 2.00 Spending6 3.00 1.00 3.00 2.00 1.57 Store abroad7 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 Advertisement8 2.00 3.00 1.11 1.80 1.24 Social media9 2.00 2.50 1.11 1.60 1.00
Table 10: Respondents’ country of origin clusters (other continents) AUSTRALIA + NEW ZEALAND AMERICA OTHER Location 4 1.17 2.00 Future visit2 3.00 1.00 1.00 Products3 1.00 1.00 1.00 Experience4 1.00 1.00 2.00 Prices5 2.00 1.17 1.00 Spending6 2.00 3.33 5.00 Store abroad7 1.00 1.00 3.00 Advertisement8 2.00 1.00 1.00 Social media9 2.00 1.00 1.00
Footnotes:
1What do you think about the location of the store? (1=Very good 5=Hard to reach) 2Do you intend to visit Pop Cult again in future? (1=Yes, 2=No, 3=Maybe)
3Products have an impact on Pop Cult’s name (1=Totally agree 3=Don’t’ agree) 4Store experience has an impact on Pop Cult’s name (1=Totally agree 3=Don’t agree) 5Prices in Pop Cult are reasonable (1=Totally agree 3=Don’t agree)
6If you also made a purchase, how much did you spent? (1=<20€, 2=21-50€, 3=51-100€, 4=101-150€, 5+>150€) 7Would you like to see Pop Cult in your country? (1=Yes, 2=No)
8Advertisement would influence success abroad. (1=Totally agree 3= Don’t agree) 9Social media would influence success abroad (1=Totally agree 3=Don’t agree)
VI. Discussion
Managers’ vs. customers’ views
Even though the questionnaire did not aim at differentiating customers’ responses according to which store in Amsterdam they exactly visited, it is at this point when customers’ perceptions are to be briefly compared to those of the store managers (see Appendix 6: Interview with the store managers). First of all, regarding the general opinion about the Pop Cult stores and their success, both managers noted that the stores are rather prosperous, which also agrees with the customers’ satisfaction with the store offer or the intentions to visit any of the stores again.
Also, both parties seemed to agree on describing the stores as “fun”, or “awesome”, including the notions such as “I want it all”, especially when choosing several license
preferences or indicating the number of brands that customers actually purchased. Related to that are the price perceptions, which also turned out to be noted as fine or set at the adequate level, not only by the store managers but also, more importantly, perceived as reasonable by the customers themselves. Though, the views on the promotion of the stores differ slightly. As the managers acknowledged, since the advertisement has not yet been the part of the company’s marketing strategy, it might not be that essential for the store success, as it does not necessarily result in a greater turnover or brand awareness if not done properly. On the other hand, the results of the customers’ questionnaire revealed that people do indeed perceive advertisement or
using of social media to help raise the brand awareness, especially when entering foreign markets.
Finally, when asked about future directions or suggestions for the improvement, the managers suggested that there is a space for many new ideas to be implemented, especially in term of opening stores in other countries. Similarly, despite some customers noting that the store “is brilliant as it is”, many of the responses agreed on expanding into other locations, including extending the product or licenses range as well.
Theoretical implications
Even though the main aim of this study was to provide customer insights for a specific company, it is to be noted that it can also provide an inspiration for a framework that can be used by other retail companies or in other studies of similar character. As the questionnaire was based on the previous studies measuring brand equity, combined with the discussions with the
company owners and their needs, it also provides support for the existing theory and its possible extensions. For instance, companies aiming at developing the brand personality or brand image could ask questions, such as “what words come to your mind, if you hear …” or “how would the company look like if it was a person”.
Furthermore, it has been shown that the customers’ country of origin matters, hence supporting not only the concept of cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede, but also stressing the importance of taking into account different customer preferences or buying behaviours, based on the country from which they come from. While many of the previous studies concentrate on the buyers’ individual behaviour and personalities, when going shopping, this study suggests that for developing international strategies, it might be useful to look at the specific region or country buying preferences rather than the single individual.
Managerial implications
As already mentioned previously, this study was conducted due to the possibility of doing an internship in the retail company that was interested in the customer research in its home market, before expanding to other countries. Even though I had already been familiar with the
store concept and its way of working before, the questionnaire developed for the customer research enriched the perspective not only of the individual employees and store managers, but also the knowledge of the company as a whole. While it can ease the decision making process when improve the stores’ current offer according to customer preferences, the responses grouped by the customer’s country of origin are to help developing strategies for foreign market entry. Even though that was the main aim of this study, managers and store employees have also developed their understanding of the store concept, as they were also asked their opinion about the store and its possible future directions during interview sessions. Finally, besides preparing, executing, and analysing customers’ responses, one of the tasks during the internship was also to develop the store concept itself, as there had not been a single official document developed previously (see Appendix 1).
Regarding the implications of the results gained from the regression analysis, one of the interesting points is that it is not that much the location that matters, but rather the store looks that get people to come inside. Also, once a customer visits the store, it is most likely to be the products themselves that contribute to the success of the store rather than the brands themselves. On the positive side, no-sale policy mentioned in the store concept seems to work for the
customers as well, as the majority of the respondents denoted price levels as being reasonable. Similarly, as cheap products might be perceive to be of a lower quality, stable price levels and customers’ general agreement with the set amounts might provide another indication of the satisfaction with the brand and may also induce feelings of purchasing special, good quality merchandise, rather than easily and cheaply produced designed T-shirts. Finally, as it might not come as a surprise, introducing Pop Cult in foreign countries might be of a greater success if promoted through advertisement or social media, according to the customers’ responses. While this was not originally in the store concept, when raising awareness of the new stores, it is another option to be consider when developing strategies for going internationally.
Lastly, as the results were also shared with the head company that provides all of the merchandise for the Pop Cult stores, the managerial implications extend beyond the Pop Cult stores to another company and success of different products and licenses can be therefore compared from variety of perspectives.
Limitations and future research
Despite the above mentioned contributions of this study, there are a few areas to be mentioned as a subject for improvements, when conducting future research. Firstly, one of the drawbacks is that this research is rather firm- and market-specific, which is due to the case study nature of this paper. Though, it takes into account the insights of customers from different countries, which not only enriches the perspective when developing strategies for entering foreign markets but especially, provides sample that is representative of the problem in question. While the responses were collected from the customers of the three Pop Cult stores in
Amsterdam, the benefits could have been improved if compared either the success of the new store opened in Beirut or other stores of a similar character. Also, despite the special attention devoted to data collection process and obtaining data from rather diverse sample of respondents, the results might not be generalizable to all of the retailers operating internationally.
Regarding the measurement tools used, it could be argued that other elements of marketing mix might have been considered in the analysis. While the researchers are not
consistent on which factors are the most important in a specific case, adding for instance service, staff, customers, competitors, or political power and public opinion could have provided
different insights (Constantinides, 2006). Moreover, as the concept of brand equity is rather complex, some of the areas have not be research deeply, either due to the complexity itself, the time constraints or the nature of the study. For instance, Esch, et al. (2006) suggested that it is also brand recall, brand recognition, brand loyalty, brand trust, or brand attachment that contribute to the formation of brand equity and affect the current or future purchase.
Yet to be noted, this study provides valuable contributions for the current situation of Pop Cult stores and as the time advances, so can the future research on this topic.
VII. Conclusion
This study was concerned with identifying which elements of marketing mix impact positively on creating brand equity for an apparel store called Pop Cult. As it was found, it is mostly the customers’ satisfaction with products, store image, and price levels that contribute
positively to the stores’ brand. However, the location and promotion have not found support in this study, as the results did not show any significant impact.
Lastly, whether different customers perceive the importance of marketing mix elements differently was also accessed in the cluster analysis. While also in this case, there was a general agreement in terms of satisfaction with the stores’ tangible offer as well as the overall store experience, customers’ spending turned out to vary, with the highest amounts spend by the customers from different continents. It should also be mentioned that as almost all of the respondents would like to see Pop Cult stores in their country as well, there are differences on which promotion channels to use and how to develop strategies for the foreign market entry.
To sum up, this research provides fruitful insights into customers’ opinions not only for the Pop Cult stores, but also may serve as an inspiration for other retailers, when taking their concept internationally.
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