African Journal of Business and Economic Research

(AJBER) Volume 12, Issue 1, April 2017

Pp 141-161

Impact of Retail branding on Consumer Buyer

Behaviour: A case of Retail Outlets in Botswana
Chux Gervase Iwu*
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
chuxiwu@gmail.com

Olumide Olasimbo Jaiyeoba

Limkokwing University, Botswana

Sebopiwa Walter Thamage

Limkokwing University, Botswana

Frederick Opeda
Limkokwing University, Botswana

*Corresponding author

Abstract

This study set out to examine the impact of retail outlet brand on mall
personality, mall personality on product and service quality, product and service
quality on shopping value and shopping value on behavioural response, as well
as the overall consumer retail branding on purchase intensions in Botswana.
The study was quantitative in nature utilizing a mall intercept survey in
Gaborone and Francistown. Gaborone and Francistown were chosen because
of the large concentration of retail outlets in these two major commercial hubs.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted while a non-probability sampling
technique was adopted due to non-availability of sampling frame for customers
patronizing retail outlets in Botswana. Using the non-probability sampling
techniques, regression analysis and correlation analysis with the aid of SPSS, it
was discovered that the overall consumer retail brand with respect to retail
outlet, mall personality, and product and service quality, shopping value has an

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impact on consumer purchase intensions in Botswana. The results of this study

have far-reaching implications for research and practice. For instance, the
results provide additional evidence of the need for continued brand equity
research in emerging economies such as Botswana. The results also offer
empirical evidence of the essence of retail branding to companies and
consumers in Botswana. Retail branding is thus a significant predictor of a
positive consumer response hence consumer retail branding value proposition
is considered a significant approach for firms to facilitate growth in Botswana.

Keywords: Consumer retail Branding, mall personality, Product and Service Quality,
Shopping value, purchase intentions and Botswana.

Introduction

Retailing in Botswana is an unchartered territory therefore requiring an

understanding of the retail shopper choice behaviour so as to enable
retailers to segment their markets and target specific consumer groups
with strategies premeditated to meet their retail needs. Aside from this,
increasing competition from lifestyle centers, factory outlets, and food
chain stores has pushed many retail outlets to rely more on brands with
unique selling propositions. Basically, marketers and business
practitioners should recognize that consumer’s attitudes and beliefs,
preferences, needs and tastes towards certain products or services are
greatly affected by the perception, learning and motivation for retail
brand outlets. Based on the foregoing, this study explores the effects of
branding on consumer buyer behaviour among retail outlets in
Botswana. More specifically, the study intends to investigate the
complex interplay between retail brands, perceived mall personality,
shopping value, and consumer buyer behaviour or patronage intentions
in Botswana. Given the lacuna in academic literature about the nexus
between branding and consumer buyer behaviour in the Botswana retail
sector, this study serves as a valuable addition to marketing scholarship
and practice. In our view and drawing from available literature, the
contemporary focus for marketing management in an emerging economy
such as Botswana should the issue of brand equity.
When delimiting brand functions in a burgeoning economy such as
Botswana, focus is usually on the few, yet diverse studies which have
looked at the dimensionality of retail branding. Nonetheless, the few
studies available have failed to clearly distinguish between product and
service functions, as well as retail brand functions or metrics. Product

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functions are associations related to the physical or tangible attributes,

while retail brand functions are associations related mostly to intangible
metrics or images and how they resonate cognitively or emotionally with
target audience.
The present-day customer is dynamic in all ramifications - social,
economic, demographic and geographic proportions – offering new
challenges to retailers in several forms including how best to position the
traditional retail outlet to meet the tastes and demands of the dynamic
customer base. Prascad and Reddy (2007) therefore posit that different
store formats (such as convenience stores, discount stores, supermarkets
and hypermarkets) have blossomed because of the dynamic customer
base. Strong “brands are of enormous economic importance to
companies” (Fischer et al., 2010) essentially because of their ability to
attract loyal customers and thus promise future sales to the retail outlets.
Keller (1998) thus posit that such loyalty leads to higher brand equity and
lower price sensitivity and enables companies to charge a significant price
premium such that retail brand power implies higher valuation.
Specifically, although the process of buying necessarily involves a choice
among multiple retail brands, Kukar-Kinney et al. (2012) thus postulate
that research to date has not extensively examined the role of retail
brands in the purchase decisions of buyers, including to what extent and
how the retail brands influence the search process or patronage
intentions. Due to lack of research, especially in Botswana regarding the
role retail brands play in the purchase decisions, we conduct an
exploratory study to reveal the underlying thoughts and experiences of
buyers in Botswana.
Hence Keller (2003) posits that a brand with a high level of equity
performs various important functions including “sustained price
premiums, inelastic price sensitivity, high market shares, and successful
expansion into new categories, competitive cost structures and high
profitability”. Researchers therefore, argue that similar to a product
brand, a retail brand also possesses consumer-based retailer equity (Das et
al., 2012). Pappu and Quester (2008) thus contend that retailer equity is
an important indicator of retailer’s performance, most especially
considering that nowadays retailers face challenging business
environments. This therefore points to the need for a retailer to have a
thorough understanding of its brand equity so that it uses it strategically
to survive in an emerging economy such as Botswana, where retail sales
are low because of factors such as dwindling disposable income,

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changing consumption patterns, ageing populations and saturation in

demand, as well as high number of unemployment. Therefore, building
retail brand equity is becoming increasingly important for retailers and
customers in order to maintain and improve performance as argued by
Pappu and Quester (2006).
In fact, Pappu and Quester (2006) and Feuer (2005) went further to
state that because of retailers’ acknowledgment of the impact of retail
branding, there is a continued focus on retail brand building, the
measurement and tracking of the equity associated with retail brands,
“which might enable retail managers to gauge consumer perceptions in
the market place” (Pappu and Quester, 2008). In our view, this also
provides the impetus for an investigation into the impact of retail
branding metrics on consumer buyer behaviour in Botswana. Das et al.
(2012) provide parallel support to the above assertion by postulating that
consumer’s attitudes and opinions towards retail stores vary across
culture. Hence they highlighted that the improved conceptual and
functional gains of retail store equity is compared to retail store image.
However, in the Botswana context, very little effort has been made to
investigate consumer-based retail brand equity; therefore, this gap
motivates us to conduct this study with the overarching aim of exploring
the impact of retail branding on buyer behaviour in the Botswana’s retail
sector.
Consequently, the study is likely to (1) assist stakeholders in the
industry to understand the retail equity of their brands; (2) enable
retailers to serve their customers better thereby ensuring the economic
and non-economic performance of their outlets; and (3) finally provides
some value to other stakeholders. With a rapidly growing Botswana’s
economy and an enormous youth population, the development of the
Botswana’s retail market is considered favourable now and in years to
come with significant contribution to the national gross domestic
product (GDP) and employment generation as Botswana’s economy
moves away from a mineral-led economy to services or knowledge-based
orientation. Thus, Botswana’s retail business climate exhibits huge
potentials to grow. Given the considerable impact of retail branding on
the competitive nature and patronage it delivers to retail stores, Ailawadi
and Keller (2004) are of the opinion that there is a profound need for a
multidimensional construct that focuses on the nexus between “retail
marketing mix with the aim of comparing specific attributes in terms of
their relevance in building a strong retail brand” which forms the basis

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for consumer-based retail brand equity. Thus the process of retail brand
equity formation over time through an examination of these store
attributes is an important strategic concern for retail branding literature.
Although most research studies have focused on store image and the
importance of store attributes in understanding the concept of store
choice and patronage behaviour (for e.g. Woodside and Tappery, 1992;
Singh and Bauerjee, 2004; Capenter and Moore, 2006) yet only few
research studies pertaining to a developing economy such as Botswana
have revealed the nomological web between retail branding, mall
personality, product and service quality and buyer behaviour or
behavioural response/intentions. The main objectives of this study are as
follows:

1. To investigate the impact of retail outlet brand on mall

personality.
2. To determine the effect of mall personality on product and
service quality in Botswana.
3. To investigate the impact of product and service quality on
shopping value of retail outlets in Botswana.
4. To determine the impact of shopping value on consumer
behaviour or purchase intentions of consumers in Botswana’s
retail outlets.

Literature Review

Brand equity is a fundamental concept in marketing both in research and

practice. Although vast studies have been conducted on this core
concept, yet literature on this concept is fragmented and often
inconclusive leading to the proposition of numerous definitions of brand
equity. Most of these definitions are based on the premise that the power
of brands lies in the minds of consumers (Leone, et.al, 2006). Simon and
Sullivan (1993) argue that there is a financial element in brand equity
which offers monetary value to the brand of a. Aaker (1991) and Keller
(1993) are regarded as the pioneers of consumer-based brand equity
research. While Aaker’s (1991) definition of brand equity suggests a set
of brand assets and liabilities (brand awareness, perceived quality, brand
associations, brand loyalty, and other proprietary assets) which are
associated to a brand, its name and symbol that “add to, or subtract from
the value provided by a product or service to a firm and or to that firm’s

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customers”, Keller (1993) on the other hand offers a different

perspective by defining it “in terms of brand awareness and the strength
favourability and uniqueness of brand associations that consumers hold
in memory”. Sinha and Banerjee (2004) thus contend that customers
demonstrate different characteristics and behaviours that influence their
store choice behaviour. Again, this is another reason why researchers
should invest in studies that assess the true drivers of shopping
behaviour in Botswana. After all, “strong brand retail equity allows the
firms to retain customers better, service their needs more effectively, and
increase profits” (Rajagopal, 2007). Rajagopal (2006), further adds “retail
brand equity can be increased by successfully implementing and
managing an ongoing relationship marketing effort by offering value to
the customer, and listening to their needs” and therefore “disregarding
the edge that the [retail] brand customer relationship offers in the market
place and not utilizing the benefits and goodwill that the relationship
creates will surely lead to failure in the long run”.

We thus hypothesize that:

H1: The retail outlet brand is significantly and positively related to mall
personality in Botswana.

Most researchers are of the view that brands react to messages which
encapsulate consumer behaviour. Baldinger and Robinson (1996) for
instance state that brand managers supplement their mass media
campaigns with better targeted messages using interactive methods to
build and maintain customer loyalty. Brand associations therefore
facilitate favourable differentiation and positioning of products and
services thereby enhancing the image of retail brands (Dean, 2004). Mall
shopping behaviour is best explained by the environmental psychology
paradigm (Donovan and Rossiter 1982; Mehrabian and Russel 1974) and
by the service (Bitner, 1992). According to Fiore and Kim (2007)
environmental psychology originally rests on the emotion-cognition
theory which in turn, leads to two contrary forms of behaviour namely
approach (the yearning to stay, explore and affiliate) and avoidance
(essentially the opposite of all the attributes of approach). According to
Baker et al (1992) how shoppers perceive a mall’s environment will
determine how they perceive the goods and services they are offered as
well as the quality of service that they receive. In essence, one is able to

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link a shopper’s characteristics (self-congruity) to the retail environment

(the store or the mall) so as to facilitate a valuable shopping experience
(Chebat et al, 2006). We thus hypothesize that:

H2: The mall personality is significantly and positively related to product and
service quality in Botswana.

According to Zeithaml (1988), perceived quality can be

conceptualized as the consumers’ global judgment of the brand or
product’s overall excellence or superiority. Aaker (1991) notes that
perceived quality affects consumer perceptions of a product or brand
attributes and brand purchase. Moreover, perceived quality has been
shown to significantly influence consumer intentions and propensity to
purchase private label products (Bao et al. 2011). According to Benstain
and Zorilla (2011), consumers tend to assess firms on the basis of their
broader corporate characteristics such as economic, legal, ethical and
social responsibilities toward their stakeholders and society (Purolut and
Srivastava (2001) are equally of the view that the retailer’s reputation is
linked to consumer perceptions of the image and quality of a retailer’s
products. Essentially, a positive corporate reputation will influence
consumer perceptions of merchandise quality directly (Bao et al, 2011).
According to Moye and Kingcade (2003) focusing attention on
shopping orientation is a good method to profile and understand
customers. Vijayasarathy (2003) adds that this method has been useful in
predicting customer patronage behaviour. Several other studies have also
established the nexus between shopping orientation and consumer
behaviour with respect to store choice and attributes (Gutman and Mills
1982; Lumplan, 1985, Shim and Kotsiopulos, 1993). In fact, as far back
as 1996, Zeithaml et al argued that successful marketing is justified by the
level of customer satisfaction, which leads to loyalty towards the retailer
and or brands (e.g. revisiting stores, repeating product purchases, and
word of mouth promotion to friends/buzz marketing). We thus
hypothesize:

H3: The product and service quality is significantly and positively related to
shopping value in Botswana.

In most service industries, the physical environment is important as

well because consumers cannot directly experience services without

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forming an opinion of the environment in which exchanges occur (Vargo

and Lusch, 2004). Physical environment thus reflects company
understanding of consumer purchase environmental needs and
preferences in the purchase environment (Bitner, 1990; Lovelock, 1991).
Tsai (2001) thus postulates that companies strive to deliver physical
factors such as store facilities, design and quality of staff, as well as
employees that help underpin purchase and repeat custom. Based on
this, Baker (1987) and Bitner (1992) argue that marketers must
understand the vital role that physical environment (ambient conditions,
spatial layout and functionality and symbols) plays in providing physical
cues of service quality to customers as well as the provision of
informational cues for customers (Han and Ryu, 2009); Gardner and
Siomkos, 1986). We thus hypothesize that:

H4: The shopping value is significantly and positively related to purchase

intention of consumers in Botswana retail outlets.

Methodology

The study was quantitative in nature utilizing a mall intercept survey in

Gaborone and Francistown. The choice of Gaborone and Francistown
was based on the large concentration of retail outlets in these two major
commercial hubs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. A non-
probability sampling technique was adopted due to non-availability of
sampling frame for customers patronizing retail outlets in Botswana.
Convenience sampling technique was also adopted and a total of 200
questionnaires were distributed in Gaborone and Francistown. Zikmund
(2000) thus posits that large samples usually provide sufficient data for
making decisions. The survey questionnaire included the following scales:
Zboja and Voorhees (2006) scale items; d’Astons and Levesque’s (2003)
store personality scale (adapted for shopping mall), product and service
quality cognitive structure scale (adapted from Downs,1970); Babin et
al’s (1994) shopping value scale and patronage intentions derived from
Donovan and Rossiter (1982).
In order to assure the quality and credibility of a research study and
reduce the possibility of getting the answer wrong, the methodology
needs to possess the characteristics of reliability and validity (Saunders et
al., 2009). The scale items were tested for reliability (using Cronbach
Alpha) and validity (using Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO)) to determine the

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unidimensionality of the constructs. Specifically, reliability analysis was

conducted on all the multi item scales to check the internal consistency
of the scales and indicate how these scales are reliable for data collection
in Botswana. Kaiser-Meyer Olken (KMO) measures of sampling
adequacy and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity will be obtained for each of
the scale dimensions. KMO measures are used to predict if the data
factor well. KMO measures vary between 0 and 1.0 with the acceptable
cut off measure as 0.5. Bartlett’s test of sphericity is used to test
homogeneity of variances across the sample. Bartlett’s test of sphericity
must be less than 0.05 in order to be considered suitable. Both tests will
be used to explicate the psychometric competence of the factor structure
of the scale dimensions. In addition, the average variance extracted
(AVE) and composite reliability values were greater than 0.5 and 0.7
respectively, which guarantee the internal validity of the measurement
model in this study in Botswana.
Correlation analysis was undertaken to investigate the association
among the constructs in the adapted model. Regression analysis was also
carried out using SPSS to investigate the hypothesized relationship
amongst the constructs in this study. A five point Likert scale was
adopted for this study. Factor analysis was conducted to explicate the
psychometric nomenclature of the scale items in this study while factor
models were selected based on Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) measure of
sampling adequacy criteria which is a goodness of fit coefficient,
Bartlett’s test of sphericity, the Eigen values over 1 and amount of
variance explained by the model. Each model was estimated using the
principal component analysis as the extraction method. Multiple
regression analysis was used to test and establish relationships between
dependent and independent variables as well as the impact of individual
dimensions on the outcome variables. The stepwise method was used to
find out the specific dimensions that have an impact on the constructs as
well as eliminate dimensions which do have a bearing of the constructs.

Findings and Discussions

This study set out to examine the impact of retail outlet brand on mall
personality, mall personality on product and service quality, product and
service quality on shopping value and shopping value on behavioural
response, as well as the overall consumer retail branding on purchase
intensions in Botswana. As hypothesized and supported in the literature,

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the perception of the mall environment has a positive impact on the

product and service quality perception in Botswana. The retail outlet
brand was however not significantly and positively related to mall
personality in Botswana’s retail outlets as observed in this empirical
study. The mall personality was however found to be significantly and
positively related to product and service quality in Botswana’s retail
outlets, while the product and service quality metrics were found to be
significantly and positively related to shopping value in Botswana’s retail
outlets.
The shopping value metrics were found to be significantly and
positively related to purchase intentions in Botswana’s retail outlets. This
finding is consistent with the work of Spangenberg et al (2005) who
found out that there is a contextual congruency between the type of
scent and the type of music concurrently played in a simulated retail
environment. It could thus be argued in this empirical study that place
personality and shoppers’ personality traits interact with respect to
perception of quality, hedonic response and behavioural intent in
Botswana’s retail market. Table 1 shows the unstandardized model of the
Retail outlet brand (RB) and mall personality (MP) relationship (β=
0.312, t= 1.485). The Tolerance and Variance inflation factor (VIF)
levels of 1.000 also shows that the hypothesized relationship fulfills the
assumptions of know multicollinearity assumptions of multivariate
analysis. Hypothesis H1 is thus not supported in this study.

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Table 1: Impact of Retail Buying on Mall Personality

Coefficientsa
Model 95.0%
Unstandardized Standardized Confidence Collinearity
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Correlations Statistics
Std. Lower Upper Zero-
B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound order PartialPartTolerance VIF
1 (Constant) 21.354 3.828 5.578 .000 13.277 29.431
RB .312 .210 .339 1.485 .156 -.131 .755 .339 .339 .339 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: MP

Most studies on retail image are based on tangible and observable

functional attributes or on intangible and psychological features as
argued by Das (2012) and d’Astous and Levesques (2003). Feuer (2005)
and Hartman and Spiro (2005) concluded that the formal, expressive and
symbolic human qualities of retail environments communicate various
messages to consumers and that may influence their inferences about
merchandise, service quality and store image. Aaker (1997) thus
concluded that sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and
ruggedness are the personality traits uncovered for retail purchase
intentions. In table 2, the unstandardized coefficient (β=0.770, p<0.10)
also confirms that mall personality is significantly and positively related
to product and service quality (PSQ) among retail outlets in Botswana.
Hypothesis H2 is thus supported in this empirical study.

Table 2: Impact of Mall Personality on Product and Service Quality

Coefficientsa
Model 95.0%
Unstandardized Standardized Confidence Collinearity
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Correlations Statistics
Std. Lower Upper Zero-
B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound order PartialPartTolerance VIF
1 (Constant) 1.531 11.751 .130 .898 - 26.441
23.380
MP .770 .438 .402 1.758.098 -.159 1.699 .402 .402 .402 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: PSQ

Table 3 shows the unstandardized Coefficients (β=0.857, t=4.974).

The tolerance and variance inflation factor levels also demonstrate or
fulfills the assumptions of know multicollinearity of multivariate analysis.
Hypothesis H3 is thus supported in this study.

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Table 3: Impact of Product and Service Quality on Shopping Value

Coefficientsa
Model 95.0%
Unstandardized Standardized Confidence Collinearity
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Correlations Statistics
Std. Lower Upper Zero-
B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound order PartialPartTolerance VIF
1 (Constant) .598 3.883 .154 .880 -7.634 8.830
PSQ .857 .172 .779 4.974.000 .492 1.223 .779 .779 .779 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: SV

Research about shopping orientation has been useful in profiling and

understanding consumers (Moye and Kingcade, 2003) and has been
shown to be a reliable predictor of customer patronage behaviour in the
retail format. This study thus resonates with extant literature that
shopping orientation influences consumer behaviour in terms of
differences for information sources, store choice and store attributes.
Zeithaml et al (1006) concluded that customer satisfaction is a vital
outcome measure of marketing activity that leads to customer loyalty
towards the retailer and or brands. The hypothesized relationship
between shopping value (SV) and Consumer buyer behaviour (CBI) also
lend support to the nexus of relationship between shopping value and
consumer buyer behaviour in Botswana’s retail outlets as shown in Table
4 where the unstandardized Coefficients is (β= 0.256, t=2.328). The
tolerance and variance inflation factors also fulfill know multicollinearity
assumptions.

Table 4: Impact of Shopping Value on Consumer Buying Intention

Coefficientsa
Model 95.0%
Unstandardized Standardized Confidence Collinearity
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Correlations Statistics
Std. Lower Upper Zero-
B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound order PartialPartTolerance VIF
1 (Constant) 7.451 2.203 3.382.003 2.822 12.081
SV .256 .110 .481 2.328.032 .025 .486 .481 .481 .481 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: CBI

Table 5 also depicts a significant relationship between retail outlets

branding and consumer buyer behaviour. Hence, hypotheses H2, H3, H4

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are supported in this study in Botswana. The unstandardized coefficient

(β=0.179, p<0.01) value also explicates the hypothesized relationship
between retail branding metrics and consumer buyer behaviour in
Botswana. Vargo and Lusch (2004) concluded that the physical
environment thus reflects company understanding of consumer purchase
environmental needs and preferences in the purchase environment. In
the retail brand literature, most especially in Botswana, there is acute
paucity of empirical literature which has focused on the relationships
between consumer based retail brand equity and consumer responses.
The present study proposes and tests a model to better understand these
relationships. This model has assessed how the underpinning dimensions
of retail brand equity contribute to this concept. The results indicate that
a causal order in the creation of retail brand equity exists in Botswana.
The concurrence between the models suggests that relationships among
the retail brand equity metrics and their effect of consumer purchase
intensions are similar with the position in extant literature.

Table 5: Impact of Consumer Retail Buying metrics on Buying

Intention
Coefficientsa
Model 95.0%
Unstandardized Standardized Confidence Collinearity
Coefficients Coefficients Interval for B Correlations Statistics
Std. Lower Upper Zero-
B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound order PartialPartTolerance VIF
1 (Constant) -2.797 3.658 -.765 .456 - 5.000
10.593
BRANDBOTS .179 .042 .738 4.237.001 .089 .269 .738 .738 .738 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: CBI

The correlation matrix in table 6 also explicates the level of association

between Consumer buyer behaviour (CBI) and retail outlet brand, mall
personality, Product and service quality and shopping value
(BRANDBOTS) in the Botswana context using Pearson correlation
values at the significant levels of 0.01 and 0.05 levels using 2 tailed tests.
As shown in table 6, CBI is not significantly associated with retail outlet
brand (r= 0.407); CBI is significantly associated with mall personality
(r= 0.665, p<0.01); CBI is significantly associated with product and
service quality (r=0.566, p< 0.05); and CBI is significantly associated
with the shopping values (r= 0.481, p<0.05).

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Table 6: Correlation Matrix showing association between retail

buying, mall personality, product and service quality, shopping
value and Consumer Buying intentions

CBI RB MP PSQ SV
CBI 1
RB .407ns 1
MP .665** .339 ns 1
PSQ .566* .313 ns .402 ns 1
SV .481* .032 ns .252 ns .779** 1
Note ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; * Correlation is
significant at the 0.05
level; ns Correlation is not significant

Conclusions and Implications

This study has analysed the impact of the various retail brand
antecedents on consumer buyer behaviour in Botswana. The overarching
objective was to investigate the impact retail brands with respect to mall
personality, product and service quality and shopping value on purchase
intensions of consumers. In closing, we offer a number of future
research directions. Firstly, we are firmly aware that this study has some
limitations including lack of generalizability. Also, considering the variety
of offerings of the different retail formats, the retail equity inferences can
vary. Therefore, a different retail format may serve as the focus of a
future study. Our view is that researchers may benefit from examining
the impact of different store attributes on different consumer-based retail
brand equity under different situational influences such as date, time, and
mood of shopping.
Consumer behaviour is a dynamic and, therefore, varies from one
customer segment to another. So, we suggest that one can investigate the
impacts of store attributes on consumer-based retail brand equity
dimensions across different characteristics such as male versus female,
young versus old, more experienced versus less experienced in shopping,
and deal prone versus non-deal prone customers. Perhaps, a future study
could consider a longitudinal study rather than a cross sectional
investigation. We believe this approach could offer another opportunity
to better understand consumer behaviour in the retail sector in
Botswana.

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The findings of this study have far-reaching implications for research

and practice. Firstly, the results provide additional evidence of the need
for continued brand equity research in emerging economies such as
Botswana. Secondly, the lack of clarity regarding the number of
dimensions in extant literature has been addressed and at the same time
the relationship between retail branding and consumer purchase
intentions in Botswana has been determined. The results offer empirical
evidence of the essence of retail branding to companies and consumers
in Botswana. Retail branding is thus a significant predictor of a positive
consumer response hence consumer retail branding value proposition is
considered a significant approach for firms to facilitate growth in
Botswana. A mall’s physical design, atmospherics, and tenant mix thus
add value to the product and service offering through enhancing
consumers’ perception of quality and differentiation, which resonates
with likelihood of purchases and influence consumers’ purchase
intensions in Botswana’s retail sector. This suggests that the environment
of a shopping mall can offer significant shopping value by influencing
consumers to stay longer in the mall.
This study thus highlights the significance of the shopping Centre
image in the retail shopping process with respect to hedonic and
utilitarian attributes in the Botswana’s retail industry. Therefore, given
the acute paucity of published academic literature and empirical findings
in Botswana’s retail sector relating to the nomological web between retail
brand metrics and purchase intensions, this study provokes the need for
further studies on the subject pertaining to Botswana. A congruent mall
personality therefore supports the creation of value proposition,
perception of retail merchandise and service quality in Botswana. Retail
outlets developers must therefore not only recognize shopper’s
antecedents but also understand the response mechanism of the target
market. The retailers could therefore influence retail outlet brand
through normative persuasion and positive reinforcement, as well as
trained sales associates in Botswana’s retail outlets.
The emotional or hedonic shopping experience is triggered by
cognitive and affective perceptual process. Hence, managers must work
on the meaning of atmospherics rather than focusing on shopper’s
mood. By providing empirical considerations when using consumers’
ever-changing demographic and psychographic dimensions towards retail
choice decisions, this study adds to retail marketing literature. Basically,
consumer’s socio-economic, demographic and geographic characteristics

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play a role in the choice of retail formats in Botswana. This study also
offers important information to retailers in relation to mall personality,
product and service quality, shopping value and purchase intentions in
Botswana. Thus, understanding these nuances in respect of consumer
factors is a key to the development of a successful retail marketing
strategy.
The study also illustrates the importance of retail branding on
shoppers’ response or purchase behaviour. Hence mall developers most
especially in Botswana and other emerging economy retail sectors should
not only recognize shopper’s antecedents but also understand the
response mechanism. The limitation of the study may however be
centred around the reasoning that other antecedents responsible for
predicting intended consumer response in the retail industry are not
utilized in this study. Therefore, marketing managers can complement
the various metrics of retail branding and conduct a comparative analysis
due to globalization processes. There is a common argument that
effective advertising is pivotal to building a successful brand. This
suggests that to build and develop a brand requires much more strategic
thinking as brand tools not only convey the promise of value to
consumers but also ensures that the promise is kept. Flowing from this is
the necessity for future research to consider the increasingly complex
variety of factors which have a bearing on the linkages between brands
and customer relationships.
We affirm therefore that our findings are insightful especially for
marketers and advertisers because it offers opportunities for brand
communication values within specific contexts in order to successfully
attract consumers’ attention. The strength of retail brand awareness is
reflected by the ability to recognize the retailer under several conditions
including store recognition and store recall as posited by Keller (1993).
The retail awareness thus plays an important role in consumer decision
making process. Thus, it gives buyers reasons and justifications to
purchase brands. The retail perceived quality therefore has a significant
impact on consumer buying behaviour most especially in an emerging
economy such as Botswana. Das et al. (2012) thus posit that the
situational influences impact variance in consumer behaviour.
Future studies may also explore the factors that influence cross-
shopping and store-switching behaviour of customers. Corollary to this is
that we also did not consider factors which lead to repeat visits to retail
outlets. This could serve as another opportunity for future study; for an

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enlarged sample and possible generalization of results. The suggestions

for further studies are offered in the hope that such studies would further
our understanding of the comparative influence of retail brands on buyer
behaviour. We believe that future studies could embolden our
understanding of the link between retail brand metrics and the purchase
intensions of consumers in Botswana. The creation of retail brand equity
thus involves brand communication using appropriate media and
message strategies and tools and needs to be adjusted to reflect
impending retail brand life cycle and how it affects the buyer behaviour
in Botswana retail sector. Hence, as stated earlier, the issue of branding
and consumer behaviour pertaining to Botswana has not been
sufficiently treated in academic literature. Therefore, we believe that our
findings will contribute to the understanding of consumer buyer
behaviour in the retail sector in Botswana. Hence, retaining customer
allegiance to a particular retail format is a major task in Botswana. The
results thus emphasize the need for a customized approach to retail
marketing in Botswana retail sector. It is also suggested that mall
managers or developers must use advertising strategies which appeal to
customers in order to create “effective brand personalities in reference to
sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness”
(Aaker, 1997) in the context of hedonic and utilitarian perspectives in the
Botswana’s retail sector.

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