Phd Annual Review Document John Murray /1. Branding By Design: A Study Of Consumer Interpretation Of Visual Stimuli And Retailer

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1 Phd Annual Review Document 2009 John Murray /1 Branding By Design: A Study Of Consumer Interpretation Of Visual Stimuli And Retailer Store Branding By Location Abstract This presentation marks the first annual review of progress made on the PhD work of John Murray. The stated research question essentially involves the development of a concept evaluation tool for the visual characterization of retail brands. The rationale for this work stems from a need to better appreciate the dynamic in developing retail as opposed to product brands and to appreciate the importance of location and design in the presentation of the retail brand. This project therefore draws from the literatures of design and location analysis and demands an understanding of how retailers can consistently project their desired personality, positioning and communications consistently throughout their real estate portfolio or store network. Retail brands are communicated via the design and presentation of the building. Retail brands are assessed each time a consumer steps foot on any premises and assessments of the brands therefore require an understanding of how multiple, accumulated customer experiences lead to favourable or unfavourable impressions of the brand. This project attempts to appreciate how the success of the retail brand owes much to the actual, personal, encompassing experiences

2 consumers have and the perhaps differing role and perceptions of the visual characterization of the brand to different consumer segments. This project will examine how different consumer segments respond to the design of stores and it intends to use design as a proxy for an important element of the investigation of the sensory or experiential engagements retailers have with their consumers. It is not intended to investigate the sensory-atmospheric dimensions of aural, olfactory and tactile and their role in underpinning brand and experiential expression. The main disciplines and theoretical areas this project will draw from include: image-branding (role of self-concept, interpreting consumer missions and defining formats), and branding by design-location (visual perception and environmental psychology; geo-demographics). It is expected that a mixed-methods approach will be used which will stress approaches to consumer interpretation of design in the qualitative stages and analysis of derived variables in the quantitative stages of the project. Keywords: brands, image, design, brand communications, architecture, sensory design, atmospherics, location, store ideation and concept alignment to brand and strategy, geodemographics, experiential retailing, visual sensation and perception, environmental psychology, clustering and spatial methods research Phd Objectives: 1. Develop visual research methods that discern consumer interpretations of both visual brand characteristics and physical store characteristics

3 2. Relate prior awareness of store experiences to simulated, potential experiences in investigation of awareness, recall and projection effectiveness 3. Interpret the role and contribution of the visual experience to the consumption of the entire experience 4. To determine the role of cognition and emotion in the consumption experience 5. Develop a method to discern whether specific consumer segments relate to defined utilitarian and hedonic elements of the offered visual experience differently 6. Discern whether geo-demographics can improve our understanding of whether consumers relate differently to the utilitarian and hedonic elements of the visual experience Interpreting Consumer Missions and Formats Little or no empirical research is available to aid retailers in developing methods to robustly assess the suitability of formats and brands to geo-demographic segments. Retail concept ideation work and network expansion plans invariably involve a host of decision including site selection, network optimization and improvements in consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Ensuring the appropriate price-value offer is available by each store location to encourage customers to spend more time shopping, to break down perceptions of in-store and cash-wrap times may meet utilitarian objectives. However, knowing other consumers may need something more memorable and significant may require the additional offerings of hedonic elements of technology, theatre & experience. The design context is established primarily by retailers interpretation of consumer missions and how these demand careful consideration of the mood

4 states consumer visit stores with, and their cognitive and emotional responses to combinations of utilitarian and hedonic elements. Ultimately, these reflect success in overcoming consumer stressors, in reaching desired expectations in experiential delivery and translate into higher satisfaction, loyalty and share of wallet success. The interpretation of consumer mission typically involves consideration across various retailer spaces including shopping centre, convenience store, supermarket, and hypermarket spaces. For larger retailers this typically demands an understanding of how the brand can be consistently presented at various spatial scales where each location needs to maximise awareness and recall objectives. Furthermore, it also requires the minimisation of possible consumer confusion when they interpret the visual characterisation of the brand when they visit these hosts of different facilities and formats. Shopping missions, motivations or trip linkages have been variously outlined using the following dimensions: task and pleasure; convenience and destination; impulse and comparison; distress; planned or unplanned regular purchase (Walters & Hanrahan 2000); physiological, social, symbolic, hedonic, cognitive and experiential needs ( Foxall & Goldsmith 1994): role-playing, diversions, self-gratification, learning about new trends, physical activity, sensory stimulation (Tauber 1972) Trip frequencies, origins and terminations; travel modes; time sequences; centres visited; goods sought; shops patronized; trip lengths and duration

5 The challenge of interpreting consumer trends and realizing this through store design demands skills and aptitudes on the part of retailers. Fragmentation and segmentation of consumer bases; desire for style, enjoyment, free-expression, self-gratification; the live for the moment need to stand-out capture some of the seemingly conflicting and juxtaposed messages that characterize hedonic behavior. The question of how retailers and developers who design shopping environments respond to conflicting consumer signals and develop adequate research processes to frame definitions of formats and store design are primary concerns in this project. Buildings evoke feelings. Pompeii (2008) describes churches, museums and art galleries as modern meeting places. Stores such as Prada describe themselves as meeting places of the cultural creatives. Many consumers, it would appear, are looking for new ways of expressing themselves, for new communication channels offering authenticity and where they can build relationships and be part of defined communities. The interpretation of the hedonic elements of the shopping experience and the response to store design then raises questions over how academics and practitioners alike can assess the general level of design and its ability to communicate with consumers. Few academic frameworks currently exist to point to how consumers go through these design and brand image formation steps. (Note: Mazursky & Jacoby (1986) empirically investigated consumer responses to the process of image formation) Brand Communications: The Role of Visual Perception & Location Analysis For retailers the brand consists of both the brand image of the products being sold and the brand presentation of the store itself. A brand is the product, corporate image, the positioning asserted

6 in various marketing campaigns and supported by product quality, customer service and overall business behavior (Rubinfeld & Hemingway (2005)). A retail brand comes down to the overall experience of the customer in the store where product quality or value is but one part of the offering. The brand can be permanently tarnished when there is poor performance on any of these dimensions or when there is weak imprinting, visibility or communications through store locations (Rubinfeld & Hemingway (2005)). Developing a design language or vocabulary is a primary concern to the ability to deliver authentic and high-touch environments. Seamlessly connecting design to brand by creating touchstones, consideration of materials, colour, shape and all the other design principles is key to differentiating and projecting the personality and identity of the brand. Translating corporate values through new ideation and concepts in new stores obviously presents problems over how well understood these aspects of the visual language are understood in the enterprise and what sets of desired brand associations are sought after by the retailer. Achieving multiple, hierarchical associations, consistent and unified design at a tactical level together with strategic brand definition is not well covered in the literature (Low & Lambe 2000). No strong conceptual framework has yet to be developed fore store environments (McGoldrick 2002). Owing undoubtedly to the multiplicity of environmental factors and stimuli typically present in any store ranging from point-of-purchase, colour, crowding, spaciousness etc. it is difficult to prove how an environment s ability to change consumer emotions also affects behaviours. Determining stimulus cause and behavior effect is difficult and most of the research in the field of environmental psychology tends to concentrate on singular rather than all

7 embracing stimulus-organism-response (SOR) variables models inspired by Mehrabian & Russell (1974). Stimulation Theory with its concentration on threshold, arousal perspective, environmental load or overstimulation and adaption is important to the study of how consumers form impressions of store environments. Environmental load assumes humans have a limited ability to process incoming information and are overloaded when they receive too much information. Optimal arousal via visual stimulus is of primary concern in this project. Understanding the source and how stimulation effects the individual is important to design professionals and Berlyne s (1971, 1974) collative properties propose one of the few models of how aesthetics elicit comparative or investigative responses which in turn cause perceptual conflict with other present or past stimuli (Kopec 2006). The work of Berlyne was to prove highly influential in framing the approaches of Mehrabian & Russell (1974), Donovan & Rossiter (1983), Donovan et al. (1994). The work of these authors and others such as Naser (1992) helped generate various information rate measures such as: mystery, complexity, coherence, density, size, variety, spaciousness and help in the investigation of how the roles of perception, cognition and memory relate to our understanding and cataloguing of the world around us. More recently, in 2008, a text on visual marketing, edited by Wedel & Pieters includes a number of contributions on how for instance space and structural elements can be investigated. Markin (1976:1) produced a paper on the Social-Psychological Significance of Store Space and although a short paper it does state how the

8 retail store is a bundle of cues, messages, and suggestions which communicate to shoppers. Retail store designers, planners, and merchandisers shape space, but that space in turn affects and shapes customer behavior. The retail store is not an exact parallel to a Skinner box, but it does create mood, activate intentions, and generally affect customer reactions. Other influential papers include Bitner s (1992) separate exploration two papers in the same year of servicescapes and the relationship between environmental prototypicality, affect and market share. Baker( 1992; 2002) examined how ambient, design and social cues influence respondents pleasure, arousal and willingness to buy. Baker (2002) found that design cues have a stronger and more pervasive influence on customer perceptions of the various store choice criteria than do store employee and music cues. Greenland and McGoldrick (2004) proposed an environment response model for examining the impact of retail settings upon cognitive, affective and conative consumer responses. Their survey data and a design audit revealed that more modern branches were more likely to induce favourable customer reactions than traditional branches. Store crowding and its influence on consumer behavior was similarly investigated by Bateson and Hui (1987; 1991) and Eroglu & Machleit (1990). Store stressor research includes the contributions of d Astous (2000), Aylott and Mitchell (1998). Unfortunately, due to the maximum word count of 2000 words for this extended abstract it is not possible to include a section on the role of reason and emotion or geo-demographics in explanation of the consumption experience.

9 Visual Methods Research and Challenges Facing This Project There is a more extensive literature on store image than store branding. Research on image has traditionally suffered from an overreliance on the use of semantic scales, multidimensional scaling and unstructured measurement techniques. These techniques do not generally attempt to capture the gestalt of store image. Measurement is often incomplete and focuses only on the individual parts of the image construct. It will be important to try and overcome this possible weakness in previous research. There is perhaps a limited relevance to some of the visual methods used for the purposes of this project. Compositional interpretation, content analysis, semiology, discourse analysis may not perhaps facilitate the kinds of brand associations research required. Some of the perhaps more relevant contributions include those of Aaker (1991) and the use of free association techniques, picture interpretation, store brand as a person. Similarly, Zaltman & Coulter (2003) developed the ZMET model to help surface the mental models that drive consumer thinking and behaviour and characterise these models in actionable ways using consumer metaphors. While there are relatively few papers available that use pictures, video, 3D and accompanied walkthrough as research instruments authors such as Baker (1992; 2002) used video in their research. There is an extensive literature available on location research and involves examination of various determinist, analogue, regression, and spatial-interaction-models. Geo-demographics is based on clustering methods and is an emerging research area. Although considered by some to have a credibility problem where it lacks focus on theory, model building and hypothesis testing it is felt geo-demographics offers the advantages of reflecting the influence of location on consumer expectation, aspiration and design interpretation in a way few other disciplines do.

10 This project will investigate whether it is possible to overlay survey responses with existing geodemographic profiles sourced from GIS products. Phases of Research Project Phase 1: images elicitation using 3D, video or pictures of stores to generate design variables Phase 2: design variables used to develop upwards of 20 simulation models to see which sets of variables consumers choose and identify with. This may possibly involve some use of adapted conjoint analysis in a quantitative analysis or some form of qualitative use of focus group interpretations of output from phase one. Expert interviews with designers, architects, developers, retailers, real-estate or shopping centre managers could be conducted to validate the instrument. Phase 3: use variables and output from phase two to complete a cluster analysis, spatialinteraction model, structural-equations modeling, or geo-weighted regression possibly using geographic information systems. The location analysis of this phase of the research would possibly identify whether segments with design preferences exist. Phase 4: could involve home surveys to validate clusters and consumer perceptions of images Resources Required: consumer addresses, architectural specifications of buildings, 3D software, conjoint, SEM and geo-weighted software

11 References: Aaker, D. (1991) Managing Brand Equity, Free-Press, New-York. Aylott, R. & Mitchell, VW. (1998) An Exploratory Study of Grocery Store Stressors, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 26, Number 9. Baker, J. et al. (1992) An Experimental Approach to Making Store Environmental Decisions, Journal of Retailing, Volume 68, Number 4. Baker, J. (2002) The Influence of Multiple Store Environment Cues on Perceived Merchandise Value and Patronage Intentions, Journal of Marketing, Volume 66, April. Berlyne, D. (1971) Aesthetics and psychobiology, Appleton-Century-Crofts, United States Bitner, MJ. (1992) Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees, Journal of Marketing, Volume 56, April. Bitner, MJ. et al. (1992) Measuring the Prototypicality and Meaning of Retail Environments, Journal of Retailing, Volume 58, Number 2. Eroglu, S. & Machleit, K. (1990) Describing and Measuring Emotional Response to Shopping Experience, Journal of Business Research, Volume 49. d Astous, A. (2000), Irritating Aspects of the Shopping Environment, Journal Of Business Research, Volume 49. Donovan, R. & Rossiter, J. (1982), Store Atmosphere: an environmental psychology approach, Journal of Retailing, Volume 58, Number 1. Donovan, R. et al. (1994) Store Atmosphere and Purchasing Behavior, Journal of Retailing, Volume 70, Number 3. Greenland & McGoldrick (2004) Evaluating the design of retail financial service environments, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Volume 23, Number 2. Foxall, G. & Goldsmith, R. (1994) Consumer Psychology for Marketing, Routledge, London Kopec, D. (2006) Environmental Psychology for Design, Fairchild Publications, United States Low, G.S., Lamb, C.W. (2000), "The measurement and dimensionality of brand associations", Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 9 No.6 Markin, R. et al (1976) Social-Psychological Significance of Store Space, Journal of Retail, Volume 52, Number 1 Mazursky, D. & Jacoby, J. (1986) Exploring the Development of Store Images, Journal of Retailing, Volume 62, Number 2

12 McGoldrick, P. (2002) Retail Marketing, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Berkshire, UK Mehrabian, A., & Russell, J.A. (1974). An approach to environmental psychology. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press. Mehrabian, A., & Russell, J.A. (1974). A verbal measure of information rate for studies in environmental psychology. Environment and Behavior, 6, Mehrabian, A., & Russell, J.A. (1974). The basic emotional impact of environments. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 38, Naser, J, (1992) Environmental Aesthetics, Ohio State University Pompeii (2008) Commerce, Culture, Community (C3): Insights into creating transformational brand experiences, Conference Presentation, Euroshop Retail Design Conference, Dusseldorf, February Rubinfeld, A. & Hemingway, C. (2005) Built for Growth, Wharton School Publishing, United States Tauber, 1972 E.M. Tauber, Why do people shop?, Journal of Marketing, Volume 36, Number 4. Walters, D. & Hanrahan, J. (2000) Retail Strategy, MacMillan Publishers, London. Wedel, M. & Pieters, R. (2008) Visual Marketing: From Attention to Action, Lawrence Erlbaum, New York. Zaltman, G. & Coulter, R. (1995) How Customers Think, Journal of Advertising Research Zaltman, G. (2003) How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, Harvard Business School Press, New-York.