Woolworths Vs Coles Branding

1. Introduction:

This study attempts to research and analyze both second hand literature as well as first hand observation. The report also plans to discuss the effects of retail image, personality and brand and their interrelations between the supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths in particular at the Westfield Kotara site.

2. Literature Review:

Dong-Mo Koo’s study “Interrelationships among Store Images, Store Satisfaction, and Store Loyalty among Korea Discount Retail Patrons” analyses the concept how various discount store characteristics and attitudes towards these stores alter consumers satisfaction and furthermore, how does customer satisfaction influence store loyalty. Koo’s study discusses: (1) The forming of attitudes and how it is influenced greatest through in-store services, atmosphere, employee service and merchandising. (2) Satisfaction is directly related to store value and atmosphere. (3) The overall store attitude induced has a strong correlation to consumer loyalty and satisfaction. (4) Store loyalty is impacted greatest through location, merchandising and after sales service.

The report is based on pervious studies which have developed an understanding on how physical characteristics such as store location influence attitudes. This study is differentiated from these in that it attempts to more explicitly identify the characteristics which develop the relationship between store image and the attitude towards that store. The study acknowledges that whilst many other studies have been conducted on store image and its impact on store loyalty and whether image directly influences satisfaction. This study develops an interrelationship between all store image, satisfaction and loyalty elements.

The results of the study show how store image affects attitude more directly through store atmosphere, service, merchandising and after sales service more so than location and convenience. This result supports previous studies such as Wilkie (1986) and Olson et al. (1982) on how attitude has a direct strong influence on store loyalty and reconfirms the suggested hypothesis that is a consumer holds a positive attitude towards the store, they are more likely to become loyal (Koo) but contradicts the study by Yoo and Macinnis (1998) which reports, only store location has a direct on the overall store attitudes (p.260).

Alain d’Astous and Melanie Levesque’s study, “A Scale for Measuring Store Personality”, establishes the need to conceptualize the idea that each store has its own unique personality and develops a method in which it could be measured to access its psychometric characteristics. Five dimensions were developed which are used in the analysis of this study of Coles vs. Woolworths. The dimensions are labeled sophistication, solidity, genuineness, enthusiasm and unpleasantness.

The study is loosely based on Pierre Martineau’s (1958) research in which “the store is defined in the shoppers mind, partly by its functional qualities and partly by an aura of physiological attributes.” This pervious study describes personality attributes through store layout, advertisement and sales staff. This aspect is directly related back to Koo’s (2003) study which uses these personality attributes to measure store attitudes and establishes a link between them and satisfaction and loyalty. This study gains its purpose and validity through recognizing the need for an independent assessment of store personality dimensions rather than store personalities being based on dimensions created for brands.

The study achieves its results by developing a successful personality scale for stores to assist with marketers’ analysis of consumers perceptions based on their emotional patterns. It is designed to assist rather than replace previous studies. The results of the scale allows for marketing to be conducted by measuring stores against one another and help marketers assess personality dimensions against store image, satisfaction and loyalty.

The journal article “Store Atmosphere and Purchase Behavior” expands on Donovan and Rossiter’s (1982) work. This study however, extends to analyzing the consumers psychological behaviors during the shopping period rather than before and after. This compliments Alain d’Astous and Melanie Levesque’s study in that the stores unique personality will have a direct impact on consumer’s psychological attributes and emotions relating to purchases and loyalty to the company. It also contains a direct link to Dong-Mo Koo’s study in which attitudes are created through in-store activities and have a direct correlation to consumer satisfaction and store loyalty. Alain d’Astous and Melanie Levesque’s study reviews the pleasantness of the store to be directly related to time and money spent by the consumer. In this study the research is conducted when consumers have already entered the store and measures the consumer’s emotional responses against their time and money spent.

The study’s main argument for this methodology is that emotions during the shopping experience will take precedence to emotions prior to entering the store and it is these emotions during the shopping experience that influence time and money spent in-store. The study suggests that d’Astous and Levesque’s model helps asses the stores personality, whilst this study presents and actual link between consumers emotions influencing consumer purchasing rather than attitudes and intentions.

3. Rankings for Image and Personality:

Each of the Coles and Woolworths supermarkets were graded against a pre-determined format similar to that used in Alain d’Astous and Melanie Levesque’s study, “A Scale for Measuring Store Personality”. Each dimension’s average was then calculated to receive the dimension’s average and was then raked against other aspects from the same retailer. This format allows marketers to analyze what areas of business a particular retailer is performing best at and areas for improvement.

Retail Image Coles Ranking Woolworths Ranking

Merchandise Quality 4 1 5 1

Merchandise Assortment 3.5 6 4.5 3

Brands 3.67 2 4.33 5

Location 3.67 2 4.67 2

Sales Personnel 2.25 9 3.75 9