Retail points of contact on brand consideration: A study of the female fashion industry

Abstract

Brand touchpoints have a crucial role in enabling organizations to attain competitive advantage over the industry competitors as they are the means to performance perceptions, which further leads to adding value to customer experience and building eternal appreciations. The main objective of the present research is to determine and analyze the relationship of different fashion retail touchpoints and its impact on brand consideration in Bahrain as well as to determine brand consideration's relationship with different demographic characteristics. The proposed research model will examine the relationship between Brand consideration (the dependent variable) and five explanatory independent variables i.e. Corporate advertising, peer-to-peer conversation (WOM), in-store communications, traditional earned media and demographic variable. These touchpoints have proved to play a major role in shaping brand attitudes, specifically brand consideration. Quantitative research methodology is adopted for the study wherein the data is measured using self-administered. The respondents were selected through simple non- random sampling on a sample size of 170. The population targeted for the survey is all females who engage in purchase of fashion brands. The results of the study indicate that three touchpoints out of four have a significant relationship with brand consideration. This study will help in understanding the female fashion industry in Bahrain and allow marketers to benefit from identifying the essential touchpoints to be tapped, in order to gain optimum customer satisfaction and enhance the customer's shopping experience. Few practical guidelines are also provided which will help the marketers to manage their fashion retail touchpoints.