1. Low Price Guarantee: Creating Brand Trust in Retailing through Mass Communication
Euler Alves Brandão – Presenter
Cid Gonçalves Filho
Reynaldo Maia Muniz
Stetik Group
September 2013

2. INTRODUCTION
Brazilian retail market has a significant role in country’s economy; only three electronic goods retailers reached revenues of US$ 12,7 Bi in 2009.

3. INTRODUCTION Electronic Goods Retail Market in 2003: market share
Ricardo Eletro: 37 stores, 14th position in revenues ranking, US$ 60 Mi in sales

4. INTRODUCTION
Ricardo Eletro in 2012: US$ 2,0 Bi in sales, 4th. in revenues ranking, 285 stores.

5. INTRODUCTION
Electronic Goods Retailers are big investors in advertising

6. IMAGE STUDIES PERSPECTIVE
Image in this paper has the sense of “the idea a person has about something, that is a mind projection concerning objects, people, situations, etc.; it is, therefore, a subjective representation about something” (SALLES, 2004);
Perception is understood as “the set of psychological processes by which people recognize, organize, synthesize and provide meaning (the brain) to the sensations received from environmental stimuli (the sensory organs)” (STERNBERG, 2000).

7. IMAGE STUDIES PERSPECTIVE
ISOMORPHISM
Organizations are still becoming more homogeneous: once a field becomes well stablished, there is an inexorable push towards homogenization (DIMAGGIO & POWELL, 1983)

8. IMAGE STUDIES PERSPECTIVE
Image do not necessarily reflects a “truth”: they are based on a subjective perception of reality and can be originated from false assumptions;
Image is dealt in marketing under different perspectives, including:
Store image
Brand/Product image
Corporate/Marketing image

9. IMAGE STUDIES PERSPECTIVE
Image dimensions
Source: Grasseli and Souki (2007)
Functional
Dimension
Symbolic
Dimension
Image
Cognitive
Dimension
Emotional
Dimension

10. HYPOTHETICAL RESEARCH MODEL
Image has a positive influence on purchase intention (HOOLEY & COOK, 1984; LEVY, 1988)
Source: Authors
Purchase Intention
H1+
Trust
Retailer
Image
H2+
H3+
Word of Mouth Communi-cation
H4+
Perceived Value

11. METHODOLOGY PHASE 1 – Exploratory (qualitative)
48 detailed interviews
All Social/Economic classes (ABCD)
Results: outlined image dimensions, generating basis to create an image scale along with the review of previous studies
PHASE 2 – Survey (quantitative)
490 interviews
Results: image scale

12. DATA ANALYSIS

13. DATA ANALYSIS

14. EXPLICATIVE PHASE - MODEL

15. CONCLUSIONS
“Instrumental Aspects” (price and negotiation) have a bigger impact on retailer’s image – public is relatively objective in the choice;
Consumers need retailer’s endorsement assuring quality and availability of products;
“Store appearance and assistance” relevance shows how image and expectations of the interaction with salespeople and retailer’s experience affects the purchase decision;
Strong impacts of the image in behavioral intentions, specially in Purchase Intentions and Word-of-Mouth: these are high rates, leading to believe the scale elaborated has a reasonable nomologic validity, and its managerial use can be recommended.

16. CONCLUSIONS
The results of this work lead us to believe that, when choosing electronics retailers, the consumer makes an internal search in his/her memory, tracking back the Image he/she has of them, which was created by previous experiences, word-of-mouth and mass communication, among other elements. Eminently instrumental in his/her analysis, the consumer establishes an objective criterion of choice, but uses subjective perceptions from the retailers to decide, which in a way, makes an interesting contrast.
In what concerns the theory, it is believed that the development of an image scale for the retail industry would be a relevant contribution, and accordingly, this study can generate a base for future studies and its validation in a broader sense. On the other hand, the image model’s test involving behavioral intentions in the retail contributes towards the understanding of the explanation of consumer’s behavior in this field.

17. THANK YOU!